Premier Blog Sponsor: Top of Blog; All Pages

Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER:

I do not read every book/author I spotlight or book tour I host!
Readers, Please research and use wisdom before buying

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Showing posts with label scotland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scotland. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

#TuesdayTreasures #EggCerptExchange with Melanie Robertson-King!

Good Morning Friends,

It's time for another eggcerpt exchange and this one is with another brand new-to-me-our-blog author!

A native of eastern Ontario, during her pre-school years, Melanie lived in a winterized cottage on the shore of the St Lawrence River.

Growing up as an only child, Melanie was an avid reader, and remains so to this day. It was through this love of the written word that she knew that one day she would become a writer. When she wasn’t talking about her dream of becoming an author, she wrote stories and began honing her skills at an early age.
The Secret of Hillcrest House is her fourth book.

AUTHOR LINKS


So nice to meet you, Melanie! Now tell us a little more about your book The Secret of Hillcrest
House.....

Sometimes there’s more to a house than bricks and mortar.

Hillcrest House is one such place. Perched on a cliff in the picturesque town of Angel Falls, there is more to this Victorian mansion than meets the eye. When referring to the house, the locals use the word haunted on a regular basis. Strange visions appear in the windows, especially the second-floor ones over the side porch. Even stranger events take place within its four walls.

Rumour has it, the original owners, Asher and Maggie Hargrave, never left their beloved home. They claim the couple and their family are responsible for driving people away. Over the years, Hillcrest House has changed hands numerous times. No one stays long. Renovations begin then stop and the house is once more abandoned. The latest in this long line of owners is Jessica Maitland.

Will Jessica be the next one to succumb or will she unravel The Secret of Hillcrest House?

What people are saying about The Secret of Hillcrest House

Melanie Robertson-King's latest novel serves up a delightful blend of the supernatural and spicy romance, Lynn L. Clark, author of The Home Child, and Fire Whisperer & Circle of Souls: Two Novellas of the Supernatural, & The Accusers

Intrigue, dark buried secrets, hot romance and a neat twist in the tale make this riveting reading, Sheryl Browne, MA Creative Writing, Choc Lit Author
A fun read that keeps you guessing right up to the surprise ending, Dayna Leigh Cheser, Author of Janelle's Time, Moria's Time, Adelle's Time, & Logan's Time

Eggcerpt: 

“Keys. I’ll need them unless you want me to break in.”
Transfixed by the image, Jessica couldn’t look away. She extended her arm and dropped her ring holding her house and car keys into his hand.
“You stay here,” he ordered before sprinting to the front of the house.
The face appeared to be that of a young child. After a few minutes, the image faded. She blinked thinking it vanished because she’d stared at it for so long, but even that didn’t help.
Frightened by the disappearance, she dashed after the officer.
When she stepped through the door, the pungent smells of damp and stale assailed her nostrils. Out of habit, Jessica reached for the light switch. She discovered an old-fashioned push button one indicative of knob and tube wiring. That was another expense she wasn’t prepared for.
At one time, the dark wainscoting in the foyer shone. Now it was dull, dingy and covered with dust. The paint above it and on the ceiling had peeled and curled. Flakes littered the floor and stairs. She grabbed a loose piece of paint from the wall and gave it a tug. It pulled away with little resistance.
Two large rooms stood on either side of the main hall. Jessica entered the one to her left. Pocket doors, off their tracks, cut off part of the large doorway. Yellowed wall and ceiling paper hung from crazy angles. The plaster it once covered now exposed. Sheets covered the furniture. At one time, they had been white but now, layered with dust. Jessica thumped her hand down on the back of a sofa forcing a cloud of the grubby powder into the air. Choking, she scurried out and into the room across the corridor.
It, too, was in the same state but in here, boards didn’t cover the windows. Sun shone through grimy panes of glass, and dust particles floated in the air trapped by the beams of light.
The sound of footfalls on the stairs echoed through the house. Jessica turned. She gasped and clapped her hand over her mouth. On the back of a sheet-covered sofa, lay a pristine, long-stemmed red rose.
The officer stepped into the room, securing his truncheon to his belt. “I thought I told you to stay outside.”
She didn’t reply. Stood shaking and pointing at the flower. Tried to speak but no sound came out. The room started swimming in front of her eyes. Her mouth went dry. She felt cold and clammy.


Wow...sounds like a great novel! Thanks for sharing Melanie. Where can we get The Secret of Hillcrest House?


Wonderful. Again, thanks for doing the Eggcerpt Exchange with me. If you didn't get a chance to see, I was on Melanie's blog on March 2nd. Remember the exchange ends Easter so for more great books and authors, simply search FB, Twitter and/or Google using the hashtag #eggcerptexchange !!


Hope you enjoyed today's post and that you'll join me each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight!

Until next time take care and God Bless.
PamT

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

#TuesdayTreasures Guest Post by Marie Treanor

Good Morning and Welcome!

Today's guest is no stranger to our blog. Marie has shared thoughts with us and had our spotlight on her. She returns to share something she treasures....



Like most people, I consider my real treasures in life to be my family and friends. However, for many reasons – not least of which is that one’s own children are never half so interesting to anyone else - I’ve decided to concentrate on inanimate treasure, although it is connected to family.

This is a part of the treasure I want to share with you: a tea set bought in Japan in 1917 by my great uncle for his mother, and passed on, eventually, to me via his sister, my grandmother, and then my father,

All the time I knew her, my grandmother lived in a one-bedroom tenement flat, a positive treasure trove of dusty antiques and old books. The front room, which was never used, was stuffed full of large, Edwardian furniture – a piano, velvet upholstered dining chairs, an oak table and a tall, wide bookcase with glass doors. I’ve often regretted that when my parents were clearing the house, I didn’t have a place of my own to house this stuff. However, on my appeal, they did keep some of the books. 

And other treasure discovered in the walk-in cupboard, which included my great grandmother’s jewelry and, of course, the Japanese tea set, which my Dad remembered from his childhood.

My parents had it valued once, and apparently because there are a lot of these tea sets around still, it isn’t worth much in monetary terms. But I hope you can see from the photograph one of the reasons I treasure this is its sheer beauty. Egg-shell china in gorgeous colours, elegantly painted. As well as the cups and saucers, there are tea plates, a tea pot, a water pot and a sugar bowl. I love just looking at it. But I also love the family connection. It was bought by a young man I never knew, a merchant seaman who survived World War I, only to die at the age of 25 in the flu epidemic of 1919.

I have a photograph of “Uncle Johnny” and one of my great grandmother who was, by all accounts, a strong yet fun woman who helped bring up my Dad. So, while the tea set wouldn’t be quite such a great treasure to me without the family connection, it strengthens and enhances that connection, seems to bring me closer to my Dad’s beloved granny and to the son she lost so tragically.

Thanks, Pamela, for letting me share my treasure!

********

 Marie Treanor lives in Scotland, in a chaotic house by the sea, together with her eccentric husband, three much too smart children and a small dog who rules them all. Most days, she avoids both housekeeping and evil day jobs by writing stories of paranormal romance and fantasy. 

Marie is the award winning author of over forty paranormal romances - Indie, New York and E-published.

You can find out more about Marie and her books on her website: www.MarieTreanor.com.

Subscribe to her New Release Mailing List: http://www.marietreanor.com/marie-treanor-newsletter.  


Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarieTreanor 


Find Marie's latest book, Ghost in the Rain at the following locations:


Hope you enjoyed today's post and that you'll join us each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God bless.
PamT



Thursday, September 1, 2016

#ThursdayThoughts Guest post by Marie Treanor!

Good Morning Friends and Welcome to the first Thursday Thoughts of September, 2016!

As I mentioned in Tuesday Treasures, I am on the road again, so there won't be a lot of chit chat today. Instead I'd like to welcome Marie Treanor back to our blog to share some thoughts with us.....

I love the Scottish summer – it’s my favourite day in the year

When Pamela invited me to blog about my Thursday thoughts, I didn’t have to rack my brains for very long before I came up with what most British people spend a large part of every day discussing, worrying about, complaining about or even making jokes about. The weather.

To those of you used to more extreme and even hazardous weather, our obsession must be rather puzzling. We don’t get ridiculously hot or cold weather. We don’t get hurricanes (although occasionally we do get gales with a few hurricane force gusts!) or tornadoes. And though certain areas do seem to be increasingly liable to flooding, in Scotland at least, we certainly don’t get droughts! We are, in fact, lucky in our climate, although few of us acknowledge it.

Several years ago, I used to meet a Canadian at the bus stop each morning. He was working in Scotland for a couple of years, and clearly he’d already caught our weather obsession. But what fascinated him most was that we could get all four seasons in a day. Or even in a morning. Which is why, of course, we obsess about it. Just because it’s sunny at 8 o’clock in the morning doesn’t mean we can leave the umbrella at home. And if it’s bucketing when we set out to the shops, it’s just as likely to be blinding sunshine by the time we bring the shopping back. You need a keen instinct to risk hanging out the washing if you’re not going to be at home all day, and deciding what to wear to suit the weather is definitely a lottery.

On the other hand, it’s never dull! And the grass is always green. :-)

So, I suppose that’s the background to GHOST IN THE RAIN, my Gothic mystery romance novella. If you’re going to haunt in the west of Scotland, you need to be prepared to do so in all weathers!


Marie Treanor lives in Scotland, in a chaotic house by the sea, together with her eccentric husband, three much too smart children and a small dog who rules them all. Most days, she avoids both housekeeping and evil day jobs by writing stories of paranormal romance and fantasy. 

Marie is the award winning author of over forty paranormal romances - Indie, New York and E-published.

You can find out more about Marie and her books on her website: www.MarieTreanor.com.

Subscribe to her New Release Mailing List: http://www.marietreanor.com/marie-treanor-newsletter.  


Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarieTreanor 


Find Marie's latest book, Ghost in the Rain at the following locations:



Well Friends, I hope you enjoyed today Thursday Thoughts and that you'll return each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT

Saturday, August 6, 2016

#SaturdaySpotlight is on Marie Treanor and Ghost in the Rain

Good Morning Friends and Happy Saturday!

I'm so honored you could join us as I bring to your attention another new-to-me/my blog-author.

Marie Treanor lives in Scotland, in a chaotic house by the sea, together with her eccentric husband, three much too smart children and a small dog who rules them all. Most days, she avoids both housekeeping and evil day jobs by writing stories of paranormal romance and fantasy.

Marie is the award winning author of over forty paranormal romances - Indie, New York and E-published.

You can find out more about Marie and her books on her website: www.MarieTreanor.com.

Subscribe to her New Release Mailing List: http://www.marietreanor.com/marie-treanor-newsletter.  


Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarieTreanor 


Now let's find out about Marie's book, Ghost in the Rain; A World of Gothic: Scotland  

A haunted Highland house, battered by storms and murder...

Notorious rocker Dan Stewart isn’t anything like Dr. Kate Yorke imagined. Arriving at his remote home in the Scottish Highlands to research some valuable letters - only to discover he’s forgotten their appointment - Kate soaks up the Gothic atmosphere of Invershiel House. But it’s the owner who truly fascinates her.

Reclusive and abrupt, Dan is haunted by the deaths of his fellow band members, especially his one time lover Islay Lamont, whose shade seems to flit around the grounds in the rain. But the ghost is not the only mystery Kate encounters. Light bulbs disappear around her – and only Dan knows she’s scared of the dark. Then she trips over a dead body which inexplicably vanishes.

It becomes a race against time to find the identity of the body and the killer. And to discover if she and Danny have any kind of future together. Or even at all...

A World of Gothic is a Gothic Mystery Romance Series by authors all over the world. For information on other titles, check out A World of Gothic Facebook page:

Excerpt: 
I had to acknowledge that my peace was churned up by his unexpected presence here. It wasn’t even an unpleasant feeling; in fact it felt rather…exciting. But it was disturbing.

I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes. I suspected Dan Stewart carried such disturbance wherever he went. If I thought about it, the whole house felt different now. As if its peace had gone too; as if it had sprung to life, eager, waiting.

Mocking my own silly fantasy, I stood abruptly and paced around the room, trying to recover my lost concentration. I suspected I was just tired and would work much faster and much better after a good night’s sleep.

I paused by the window to watch the storm. Although the thunder had stopped, the wind and rain were still blasting the trees and rattling the window. Close-up, I could feel the draught through my thick sweater. On impulse, I retrieved my phone from my bag and tried to capture the raging storm on its camera. But it looked too tame on the screen, not deep or dark enough, no real movement in those black clouds still scudding and swirling across the sky. I wished I could paint. For a moment, I even wished I could be part of it, to go outside in it again. There was nothing to stop me, except common sense.

I smiled to myself and lowered the phone, just as a movement in the garden below caught my eye. Someone was out in this. Someone not remotely dressed for it either. Through the darkness and the almost opaque mist of rain, I could make out only that it seemed to be a woman wearing only some kind of floating, white, wispy garment, more like the loungewear of wealthy women of past centuries than anything anyone would wear today for any purpose. The odd garment shimmered as the figure glided across the lawn, impossibly graceful.

On impulse, I raised my phone again and snapped.

Perhaps she moved too quickly. Nothing of her showed on the screen except an indistinct blur of light against blackness. Frowning, I looked again out of the window, but the woman had gone. Vanished.
****

Ooooh, been a long time since I read a good Gothic and this one sounds like a must read and such a beautiful cover! You can purchase Ghost in the Rain at the following locations.... 


Well I'm off to my Bayou Writers Group meeting. If you're in the Lake Charles vicinity, join us! I sure hope you enjoyed today's spotlight and that you'll visit each week and check out our Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Oh, and if you have a moment, please check out the poll here (right sidebar just below Bookbub icon) and help me decide how to get my FREE short story to newsletter subscribers~THANKS!

Until next time, take care and God Bless.
PamT