#MFRWauthor BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Jeep Tour @gwolmsted

MFRW Author Gail Ward Olmsted released JEEP TOUR, a Contemporary Romance on April 10, 2014. 
Jackie Sullivan was drawn to the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona after a failed marriage and an out-of-the-blue job loss. But did she move cross country to chase a dream or a dreamy tour guide?

She had it all – the husband, the house, the job…but that’s in the past. A chance encounter with Rick, a sexy tour guide, gets her dreaming of a new life in Sedona. Jackie’s efforts to re-invent herself in the tight-knit desert community are, well … complicated. Sedona is terrific, but as the locals note, ‘it’s not for everyone.’

Does Rick want a relationship or just a friend with benefits? And in the case of her ex-husband..is it her imagination or is Rob even more amazing than ever? What happens when you hit a bump in the road?

Buckle Up- time for JEEP TOUR!

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REVIEWS
5.0 out of 5 stars "Mid-life fantasy fulfillment!" -Greta (Los Angeles), Amazon Verified Purchase

5.0 out of 5 stars "Who hasn't been tempted to run away and start all over?" -Betsy Bertuzzi, Amazon Verified Purchase

EXCERPT

12 Months Earlier “Need a hand?” Our tour guide looked down at me. I was the last one to board the brightly colored Jeep.
“Yes, thanks” I mumbled as he took my hand and helped me into the open back seat.
“You dropped this” he told me as he handed me my water bottle. Glistening with condensation, it slipped from my hand a second time and rolled under the Jeep.
“Sorry” I apologized when he bent down to retrieve it. When he stood upright, I really saw him for the first time. I gave a small gasp. God, he was gorgeous! Tall, built and tan, with a shock of blond streaked hair and dazzling green eyes.
 “It’s OK” he said. “I always end up crawling around under the Jeep for one thing or another”.  X- rated images of him crawling around on me flashed before my eyes, but I quickly dismissed them. I’m a middle-aged tourist, not some sex-starved guide groupie. But could I be both?  “Don’t be ridiculous” I told myself. Obviously, my lustful thoughts were not reciprocated. Mr. Hunk patted my hand rather absentmindedly, then swung himself into the driver’s seat.  He turned the key and the Jeep roared to life.
 “OK then, ladies….. before we set off today, I’d like to introduce myself, find out a little about you and go over a few ground rules. I’m Rick and I’ll be your tour guide.  Have any of you been on a tour of the desert before?” I looked over at the other two inhabitants of the Jeep, my colleagues Kate and Linda. Linda spoke for the three of us, since she was riding shotgun and since she was Linda.
“No, we haven’t. You’re our first, Rick,” she replied. Oh grief, was she flirting with him? We’ve been there before, me and Linda. She gets this southern-fried thing going on and although she’s never lived further south than Rhode Island, it somehow works for her. But it’s wrong on so many levels.
‘Not now, Linda,’ I begged silently.
“So Rick, is this really the best tour in all of Arizona?” she drawled.
 “Why yes, ma’am” Rick replied. “You ladies have come to the right place.” He beamed at Linda, who smiled back at him like they were sharing a secret. Leave it to Linda. She always spoke up first, always got noticed and always took center stage. Bitch.
“I’m Linda”, she said as she extended her hand to Rick.
“Well hello there! And who are your friends, Linda?” he responded, still grasping her hand.
 “That’s Kate and her camera and this is Jax” said Linda pointing to me.
“Hi Jack” said Rick shaking my hand, before turning to Kate.
“It’s Jax”, I said.
 “What?” said Rick turning back towards me.
“It’s Jax” I murmured, not Jack.”          
“Jax?” he questioned. Knowing I should just shut up, I found myself explaining how I had been named after former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. What can I say? My Irish American parents came of age in the 60’s, ok? But as a toddler, I lisped and referred to myself as Jackth and the name stuck.
“But you can call me Jackie”, I finished rather inanely.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gail Ward Olmsted is a professor in the School of Business & Information Technology at Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, MA.  She was the recipient of the 2011 Deliso Endowed Chair Award and was recently recognized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s Department of Higher Education as one of “29 Who Shine”.

Olmsted’s first visit to Sedona, AZ prompted her to start writing JEEP TOUR, her first novel. A few years later, her second visit provided the incentive to complete it. A return trip is being planned! A hopeless romantic, she is married to the love of her life, is mom to two young adults, and enjoys reading, music and travel.

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#MFRWauthor INTERVIEW: The Write & Long of It with @ActuallyAlethea

Meet MFRW Author Alethea Williams.
Alethea is here today to talk about her writing career and to share her latest release.

Tell us about yourself.
Western history has been the great interest of my adult life. I've lived in Wyoming, Colorado, and Oregon. Although an amateur historian, I am happiest researching different times and places in the historical West. And while staying true to history, I try not to let the facts overwhelm my stories. Story always comes first in my novels, and plot arises from the relationships between my characters. I'm always open to reader response to my writing.

How long have you been writing - have you always wanted to be a writer?
I have been writing about 22 years now.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I’m going to have one a Spur Award from Western Writers of America! Knock wood.

How many books have you written, how many have been published?
I’ve written 13, published 7 under two different pseudonyms.

After you've written your book and it's been published, do you ever buy it and/or read it?
I buy it, generally in PDF to send out for reviews. I’ve never read one after it was published.

Which comes first, the story, the characters, or the setting?
Usually the setting comes first. Then the characters walk on and start telling their stories. Sometimes it’s a fast telling and sometimes they reveal parts of it over a span of few months.

Are you in control of your characters or do they control you?
They are always in control. If I try to push them to hurry up already, the results aren’t pretty.

Have you experienced writer's block? If so, how did you work through it?
Writer’s block for me is the characters telling me their story needs to simmer for a while. Then I’ll think about the plot, sometimes dream about it, and let it stew beneath the surface until the problem I’ve having resolves and I can continue with the story.

Alethea Williams released Walls for the Wind, a Western Historical Romance

with Whiskey Creek Press LLC on April 1, 2014.

Can an angel survive Hell on Wheels? When Kit Calhoun leaves New York City with a train car full of foundlings from the Immigrant Children’s Home, she has no clue she might end up as adoptive mother to four of them in rip-roaring Cheyenne, Wyoming. Kit has spent her life in the Children’s Home and now she rides the Orphan Trains, distributing homeless children to the young nation’s farmers as fast as the rails are laid.

The first time handsome Patrick Kelley spies Kit in Julesburg, Colorado Territory, he wants her. But circumstances, and a spectral-looking demented gambler as well as Kit’s certainty no one in his right mind would want her cobbled-together family, conspire to keep them apart. As Patrick and Kit and her brood ride Hell on Wheels into their destiny, they’re all forced to leave behind everything they knew and forge new lives in the raw American West.

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ExcerptPanic bloomed, threatening to choke Kit as she gasped for breath. Where could she be, the small girl brought all the way out to the wilds of Wyoming from New York City? So certain she could make the best decisions for the little golden-haired girl, Kit had gone against her own upbringing as well as the stern advice of those older and wiser in order to make this journey west. Now here was her little family plunked down in the raw boomtown of Cheyenne, and she had lost not only her own direction but also the child entrusted to her care.
Where could Hannah be? Where?
The streets slimy with melting snow and horse manure, Kit struggled to keep her footing as she ran frantically up one and down another, screaming Hannah’s name. Unable to think where to look next, at last she stood helplessly wringing her hands. Tears made slow, cold tracks down her face.
A door opened behind her, and a voice full of concern said, “Kit. As luck would have it, I was just coming to look for you.”
And wouldn’t you know it? The voice of the very man who seemed to turn up at every instance of her bad luck. Indeed, he might be the root cause of her ill luck ever since she left New York City. And to think he had once promised to be her salvation, did Patrick Kelley of the dancing Irish green eyes.
But what were his true intentions as he took hold of her arm? To save her? Or to be her final ruination, as she suspected?
“Let me go.” She tried to wrench her arm away. “Hannah is missing. She’s lost. I must find her!”
“Ah, leannán, don’t take on so,” he said in a soft, cajoling voice. “Hannah is safe and sound. I have her.”
Kit’s bones suddenly felt soft, as if they had turned to mush, and her knees started to sag. Ah, God, and wasn’t her luck running true? Patrick Kelley, the very man! Of all the places in Cheyenne that Hannah might take refuge, of course it would turn out to be with saloon-keeper, and the means of the erosion of many a young woman’s morals, Patrick Kelley.

For more about Alethea, check out her Social Media Links

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#MFRWauthor BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Revenge, The Cowboy Way @PennysTales

MFRW Author Penny Estelle released Revenge, The Cowboy Way, a Mainstream Historical

Western, with Rooster & Pig on April 14, 2014.

When Brian Thornton is taken by surprise at gunpoint, while in the bed of a beautiful, wealthy woman, he swears his revenge.  But when he learns his humiliation was at the hands of a young woman and a boy, his vengeance knows no bounds.

Joanna Simmons is snatched out of her home and taken to Thornton's ship.  Against her will, she travels to Texas, and then by wagon train to Bastrop, Brian's home town.  Here she finds acceptance and friendship from the folks in town, right down to Brian’s sister, but the emotional war that wages between Brian and Joanna, keeps any kind of happiness at bay.

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REVIEWS
5 stars "A Constant Adventure" -Bobbie Brown
5 stars "Exciting and Brilliant Adventure" -Lisa Jean

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EXCERPT

Brian took a long drag off of his cigarette before flicking it in the fire. “You have quite a decision to make, Jo.” He got up and spread out his bedroll, then took hers and put it on top of his as a cover. “Before you start taking pot shots at me, you might think about what you’ll do out here by yourself.” He undid his holster and laid it down, then slowly shucked his pants and climbed between the two bedrolls. He stretched, putting his hands behind him to cradle his head, and shut his eyes.
“You said there were no Indians this far south.” She was fuming at his relaxed demeanor. He wasn’t showing any kind of fear at all.
He didn’t move. “Do you think Indians are the only danger out here? There are all kinds of men out here who would sell their souls to come across a woman like you, all alone and unprotected.”
She could feel her hopes floating away, like the smoke from the fire disappearing up into the night sky. She threw the derringer at him. “I really hate you.” Joanna sniffed. She took off her shoes and then the pants Andy had given her and climbed into their bedroll, turning her back to him.
He took the gun and lobbed it over next to his. “I want you to keep the derringer. Keep it on you at all times.” He gathered her tightly against his chest, and, to her surprise, that was all he did.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
P. A. Estelle
I’m Penny Estelle.  I was a school secretary for 21 years, retiring in 2009.  We moved to our retirement home in Kingman, AZ.  We live on 54 acres in a very rural area.  Actually we live “off the grid”, on solar and wind only.  A real adjustment for a city girl.  I love it.  Nothing like walking out your front door and hear coyotes howling and seeing a sky bursting with stars.  It is breathtaking!

I write for all ages – from the very young, to the “Young at Heart” older folks! From time travel adventures to family drama and romances.

Find out more about my books and myself at:
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