#WednesdayWordswithFriends welcomes April Jones @akejones

Good Morning!

Well it's going to be a busy, busy couple of months. My Heart Weeps blog tour started yesterday and will continue through Sept. 30th. I'm giving away prizes to 6 lucky people (1 per person) who follow the tour and comment on the blog posts. Yesterday I was on Gail Pallotta's blog. Tomorrow I'll be on Liz Flaherty's. Each day, I will update the URL on THIS PAGE to point to the actual post instead of the general blogs I visit, so even if you jump in and start following late, you can still catch up and enter the giveaway! 

I hope you'll follow and have fun learning more about Melena's journey, but enough about us!

Last month I introduced you to a brand new-to-me author. April Jones returns today to share some words of wisdom with us. Take it away, April.....

2020 has been a year that none of us could imagine in some many ways. Before I’ve had a chance to process the latest event, it seems three more have popped up. I work from home usually, but now that everyone is home with me, it seems that there is one thing that we all need (other than a break for our devices) and that is kindness. I’m not talking about the, “No, you go first,” in the grocery store line (though that is also an awesome way to show kindness). I mean self kindness. 

The kind that pipes in when you’ve reached the end of a crazy day. That little voice that says, “it’s okay, I’ll try again tomorrow.” 

Because the truth is that none of us have ever had a year like this one, and the punches seem to keep coming. So for today, even if it’s only for an hour, I hope that you will pat yourself on the back for trying no matter how flawed you feel. Take an extra breath before you respond to something that’s annoyed you. Spend a few minutes on your front porch looking at the trees. Write yourself a post-it with a quote that makes you smile and stick it to your bathroom mirror. 

Being human can be a beautifully exhausting thing, so be extra kind with yourself today dear friends. 

 

A Tennessee native, April currently lives in Michigan with her husband and three children. You can find her poems and short stories published in various literary magazines across the internet and in print. You can also check out her debut novel, The Curse Breaker. For more information visit her website thepathtostory.com

Find out more about April and connect with her on the following social media sites...

Facebook: Facebook.com/editorapril

Twitter: @akejones

Instagram: aprilkelleyjones

Website: thepathtostory.com

Get a copy of The Curse Breaker at Amazon in Print and for Kindle.

What wonderful advice, April and you are SO right. Kindness to others and ourselves is imperative, especially in these unprecedented times. Thanks for sharing!

Remember friends, you can enter into my monthly gift card giveaway simply by leaving a comment for April, Include your email address, please. Not everyone of you are in my contacts list and I need to be able to reach you!

Thanks for dropping by. Hope you'll do so each week for Saturday Spotlight and Wednesday Words with Friends.

Until next time, take care, God bless and be kind.

PamT

#SaturdaySpotlight is on Theresa Hall @TheresaLynnHall & Accidental Target!

 Good Morning Friends,

Life is in a whirlwind as usual. I'm gearing up for the release of My Heart Weeps on 8/18. The blog tour begins next week. You can find all of the dates, stops and prizes up for grabs HERE.

A new release is always exciting and the same goes for our guest today. Fellow PBG author, Theresa Lynn Hall has shared thoughts and treasures and has been in our spotlight before, but today she gives us a peek into her brand new Love Inspired Suspense novel, Accidental Target. Congratulations, Theresa and welcome!

On an icy road in the dead of night what she sees might get her killed.

Allison Moore can’t deny what she sees—a lifeless hand sticking out of a tarp in the back of a crashed pickup truck. Seconds later, she’s on the run with a murderer on her heels. Nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted…except police sergeant Jackson Archer. But with someone set on silencing her, can Jackson keep his promise of protection?

Excerpt: “These guys won’t stop till you’re dead.”

He regretted telling her but there was no denying the facts. Facts he had to keep to himself. The dead woman she’d seen was a DEA agent, and the man in the truck was a cartel member, a cold-blooded killer. Now that Allison could ID him, she had a hit on her.

“I won’t let anything happen to you, Allison. I promise.”

“Jackson, I’m terrified.”

Before he could reply, headlights closed in on them. An oncoming vehicle on their side of the highway. Jackson veered onto a side road and watched the car make a U-turn.

“Get down!”

He floored the accelerator but the vehicle followed them. A gunshot hit the car. Allison screamed.

He had to get her away. But this road led to a dead end—in more ways than one.

“Can you shoot?”

“No.” Her eyes widened with fear.

“Tomorrow I’ll show you how. For now, you’re getting the crash course.”

“What if we don’t make it till tomorrow?”

Theresa Hall is an award-winning author of Christian fiction whose stories include military, law enforcement, and first responder heroes. As a native Texan, she loves to write suspenseful stories that happen in small Texas towns with old fashioned Southern values. She’s also a first grade teacher who loves to cook, read a good suspense, and binge-watch episodes of Dateline and Discovery ID. She is a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America) and ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers). She actively promotes fellow Christian Fiction authors on her blog and can be found online at her Website, Facebook, Twitter @TheresaLynnHall, Pinterest and Instagram. Accidental Target can be purchased at Amazon, B&N, Harlequin.

This is so wonderful, Theresa, we certainly wish you the best of luck and God's blessings in this new phase of your writing career!

Hope you enjoyed today's guest friends and that you'll check back weekly for Wednesday Words with Friends and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.

PamT

#WednesdayWordswithFriends welcomes LoRee Peery @LoreePeery

Good Morning Friends and Welcome to the first Wednesday in August 2020!

Life's been a little crazy since I returned from Troy, AL. My dad had to have surgery and is recovering from a blister on his foot so I've been driving back and forth to his house since Friday. Everything is looking good and he's feeling better every day but your prayers are coveted and appreciated!

Our guest today is no stranger to our blog. She has shared treasures and thoughts with us, been in our spotlight and been a previous Wednesday Words with Friends guest, but before we turn the blog over to LoRee I'd like to announce July's winner of an Amazon gift card.....

Sarah Taylor!

Congratulations, Sarah....Enjoy your gift card and Thank You for supporting our guests.

Now, take it away LoRee.....

I’ve always been captivated by old barns. They catch my eye any time I’m driving through the country, the same as windmills. Rarely are they next to one another any longer. Years ago, my brother lived on an acreage that he cleaned up and flipped. The first time I drove on the place, I fell in love with the barn. I’d never been in one that could be entered on different levels. The door that faced the house opened into the loft where hay was stored. A trapdoor and ladder led to the lower level, entered from the corral, where the animals were kept.

Bingo, an old dream came to mind. One I had years before I started writing. In the dream, I walked up the stairs of an old farm house and opened a door. On the other side of the door was a farmstead of the late 1800s.

Now what did I know about that time in history other than the westerns I’d read and watched? I’d never read a time travel other than The Time Machine. Of course I’d seen the movie Back to the Future. I bought Diana Gabaldon’s tome, Outlander (and loved it except for the violence). But I was intrigued. So I started praying about a time travel story where the heroine falls through a barn trapdoor and wakes up to the cowboy of her dreams.  Since my brother’s acreage was in Washington County, Nebraska, that’s where I set the story. The heroine Amanda is an event planner who lives in Omaha.

I’m excited for readers to experience a take-away escape while reading my story, one of faith and hope. Time travel is a popular genre that crosses generations of readers. This year of 2020 has put us Americans, and the world, through troubled times. There’s nothing good on the news due to the virus and politics. Beta readers and early reviewers have mentioned Cowboy Just in Time is a different kind of story, thus entertaining.

Faith always plays into my stories because my belief in God is what my life is all about. Amanda is strong in her beliefs and attends a Bible-teaching church in twenty-first century Omaha. Gavin saw God through nature but had next to no Bible teaching. Trust is a big aspect of faith. The bottom line, how could their love be strong enough to span the ages? After all, Mandy simply disappeared into thin air a couple times. But nothing is impossible with God.

My challenge for this story came while writing the historical aspect. I really didn’t have trouble identifying with the time, probably because I grew up on an outdated homesteaded farm that didn’t have plumbing until the mid-1950s. Historical references should be accurate because readers are savvy, so I may have gone a little overboard on cowboy lingo. But I also needed to research telephones in the country, the first “talkies,” and Chicago of that day.

I hope this story connects with contemporary Christian women. Readers seek to find hope from a messy world, and time travel is a genre for the curious, no matter our age. Lovers of time travel, especially romantics from late teens to mature adults who like clean happily-ever-after stories, should have the satisfaction that God is not restricted by human ideas, or our views of time.

Blurb:

When event planner Amanda Totten falls through a barn trapdoor and finds herself in the arms of an 1890’s cowboy, she scrambles to find a way back to the future. She has a life and obligations—her fledgling business and her mother’s financial needs. But the less stressful lifestyle, and her deepening love for Gavin Medley, is calling to her heart and she is torn between past and future.

Has God given her a chance at love?

Gavin Medley has been working for years to regain his family homestead. As ranch foreman, he has nothing but a dream of a place and family of his own. But his love for Amanda is making him think that having his own ranch isn’t as important as having someone to love for the rest of his life.

Amanda returns to the future, and Gavin is shattered. He tries to go forward in time, but fails. Believing it's God’s will, Gavin resigns himself to living without the love of his life.

But love transcends time, and Amanda and Gavin need each other. Can Amanda return to her cowboy?

Thank you, Pam, for hosting me today.

You're very welcome, LoRee! It is a pleasure to have you back. I LOVE old barns too so your post really rang a bell with me as I'm sure it does with more of us here. Good luck and God's blessings with Cowboy Just in Time!

Nebraska country girl LoRee Peery writes fiction that hopefully appeals to adult readers who enjoy stories written from a Christian perspective, focusing on the romance. These include novels and novellas for women and men in the Contemporary, Romance, Historical, Time Travel, and Mystery/Suspense categories. She writes of redeeming grace with a sense of place. Her Frivolities Series and the book based on her father’s unsolved homicide, Touches of Time, are available on Amazon. She is who she is by the grace of God: Christian, country girl, wife, mother, grandmother and great-, sister, friend, and author. Connect with LoRee through these links: www.loreepeery.com

https://twitter.com/LoreePeery

https://www.facebook.com/LoReePeery

Find her publications at Pelican http://tinyurl.com/kwz9enk

And Amazon https://www.amazon.com/LoRee-Peery/e/B004UAGL2W/ref

Get your copy of Cowboy Just in Time at Pelican Book Group, Amazon and B&N.

Hope you enjoyed today's post, friends and that you'll come back each week for Wednesday Words with Friends and Saturday Spotlight. Meanwhile, check out all of LoRee's past visits HERE.

Until next time, take care and God bless.

PamT

OH! In case you haven't noticed ... NN Light's Book Heaven is having a Binge-Worthy-Book Fest featuring 50 authors (myself included), 68 books and a HUGE giveaway! Check out my sidebar for details.