Posts Tagged ‘PTSD’

Guest Blogging at Fresh Fiction–WIN!!!

Thursday, August 15th, 2013

We’re kicking Three Days on Mimosa Lane fun off big time beginning Monday–with my blog tour, where you can win great prizes at every stop and one commenter will take home a KINDLE PAPERWHITE ;o)

Amazon TDoML Cover

To prime the pump, I’m giving away a $5 Amazon gift certificate and an eBook of Three Days over at Fresh Fiction.

TODAY ONLY.

Just read the post, learn a little more about the book, and comment for your chance to win.

Don’t miss the fun ;o)

“Real” Family… Real sacrifice. What’s that about?

Wednesday, August 14th, 2013

What wouldn’t you sacrifice for the ones you love? What makes family real? Small communities are so beautiful and picturesque…but what’s going on under the surface?

stick-family

When I create and explore character, current events inspire me and challenge them. Seemingly insurmountable obstacles must be tackled, for the families in my books to be happy and succeed. And isn’t that pretty much a slice of every day life for the rest of us, too? We learn what life and family and love are really about, when we’re faced with the very real possibility of losing everything.

We see who and what we really are, by how we respond to life’s unpredictable curves and twists.

I love flawed families. I write happily-ever-after, but I do it as realistically as possible–which means I hold my characters feet to the fire a bit more than the average writer. My heroine in Three Days on Mimosa Lane, Sam Perry, and her husband Brian have fought their way back from an unimaginable tragedy–Sam witnessed 9/11 first-hand, as a preschool teacher in one of the many schools at the base of the World Trade Center Complex. She’s still wounded by her experience, but she’s still fighting for the life she wants, the way the rest of us must get up each day and struggle to make that day mean more than the last. Her struggles and her determination to overcome them are inspiring. Her marriage seems strong, if strained, and she’d do anything to become the kind of mother her children deserve. Anything?, I find myself asking…

How far is Sam really willing to go? As she and Brian face the truth about what their next step together needs to be, will they step up or back away?

Are any of us really ready to win the freedom we’ve always wanted–when it will mean putting everything we’ve thought we needed on the line? Are we ready to see what loving ourselves and our families with all of our hearts can really look and feel like?

family heart image

Freedom from past loss and mistakes and fear. Freedom from being chained to confusion and protecting ourselves and failing even when we’re “succeeding.” Freedom from what we are, despite ourselves, so we can claim what we were always meant to be. What would that freedom feel and look and be like? (more…)