#TuesdayTreasure: Guest Post by Patricia Preston

Good Morning from sunny Panama City Beach, Florida!

We are here for my granddaughter's Platinum Dance National Competition. She won Gold in Solo yesterday and had Duet tomorrow then Team on Thursday.

Patricia Preston visited with us a little over a year ago, but today, she speaks of treasuring those long, summer days....

I truly treasure long summer days. I am day person and I love that we have longer days in the summer. It seems like I have more time in the summer, although I know I don’t. But I get much more done in the summer, especially when it doesn’t get dark until eight. I treasure going outside just before dark while it is warm and watching the lightning bugs in the woods behind my house.

Plus I love wearing shorts and sandals. I also treat myself to ice cream in summer. Besides shorts, sandals, and ice cream, I also usually have a yard sale. Over the years, I have had several yard sales. Most of the the time, the sales involved me and some friends or relatives who got together to have one. Despite the work involved, I always had a lot of fun when I had one and they inspired me to write a short funny story about a yard sale. Some of the things that happened in the story and some of the characters are actually based on the yard sales that I had and the people who showed up. If you’ve ever had a yard sale, I’m sure you’ll be familiar with the Early Birds, Tightwads, and Packrats featured in the short story.

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Thanks Patricia! I believe most of us agree long, summer days are certainly something to treasure. I know I MUCH prefer summer to winter!

Patricia Preston is a Southern writer who spends more time than she should in her writing cave. Must haves are a glass of iced sweet tea and music ranging from the Piano Guys to Two Steps from Hell, depending on what she’s writing. She writes fast-paced, funny, feel-good reads. Her other interests include photography, bargain hunting, movies. She’s a fangirl of Supernatural and the Walking Dead. She is repped by the Seymour Agency and currently working on a contemporary romance series for Kensington.

Available titles include Amazon best sellers, “The Yard Sale” and “Laid to Rest,” as well as historical romances: To Save a Lady and Almost an Outlaw. Coming in September and available for pre-order is the first book in the Love Heals All series from Kensington Books, One Week in Your Arms. Also available for pre-order is the second book in the series, Everything His Heart Desires.

Author Links:

Webpage

Facebook

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Goodreads

Hope you enjoyed today's treasure! Stay tuned weekly for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God Bless...

PamT

#SaturdaySpotlight: Cami Checketts and Running from the Cowboy

Hello and Welcome to Another Edition of Saturday Spotlight!

I have a family reunion today and leaving tomorrow for Panama City, FL for granddaughter's national dance competition (we'll be there a whole week!) so I don't have a lot of time to chit chat with you.

That said, it is with pleasure I welcome Cami Checketts back to our spotlight with her latest book, Running from the Cowboy. 

Frankly I don't know why anyone would actually run from (instead of toward) a cowboy...guess we'll have to read the book to find out! And, since this is a romance, I'm guessing she doesn't run too far LOL! Anyway...without much further ado, here's the book...

Missy Horman escaped an abusive marriage and returns to Snow Valley to help her father deal with her emotionally disturbed mother. Volunteering to teach a youth Sunday school class seems like a good way to get out of her comfort zone—until she ends up kissing Porter Wilson in front of a bunch of teenagers. Embarrassed, and secretly thrilled, by the kiss, she writes Porter off as a playboy. But, Missy wasn't the only one affected and Porter's new mission in life is to prove that there's more to him than flirting and world-tilting kisses. He wants to show her that a true cowboy knows how to treat a lady and, if Missy can't keep her wits about her, she might just let him.

Excerpt: 

Missy Horman darted into the back door of the stately church. She shouldn’t be so nervous about helping teach the youth Sunday School class. She’d been a teenager less than ten years ago. She should be able to relate to these young people and hopefully Pastor James was right and this would help her out of the funk she’d been in since her divorce. Her career as an online marital advice columnist was fulfilling, but she hungered for interaction with people outside of her family. Besides, getting away from her mother for an extra hour on Sunday morning was a huge bonus.

The confidence she felt when she walked out the door in her knee-length floral dress with wedge sandals giving her an extra inch of height and her blonde hair curled fled as she clung to the door handle. Pressing a hand to her stomach, she willed it to stop rolling.

Pasting on a smile, Missy forced herself to walk into the large room and immediately stuttered to a stop, digging her fingernails into her palms. Oh, no. Porter Wilson. He stood at the front of the class, talking with one of the teenage boys. No man had a right to look that good in Wranglers. With his wavy dark blond hair that hit the collar of his white shirt, those green eyes any woman would want to get lost in, and ruggedly tanned skin, he was like a poster man for Cowboys R Us. He could run the company singlehandedly and every woman would want stock in it.

She used to enjoy being around Porter, because he was a fun flirt and a cowboy, but those were two qualities she could not stomach now. Just looking at him with his tight black Wranglers and cowboy boots made her stomach fill up with butterflies. Ugh. She was done with men, but especially with flirtatious cowboy who were so much of a man they made her knees knock together.

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Sounds like my kind of story! Running from the Cowboy can be purchased at Amazon.

Cami Checketts is married and the proud mother of four future WWF champions. Sometimes between being a human horse, cleaning up magic potions, and driving boys to lacrosse practice, she gets the chance to write fiction. 

Cami graduated from Utah State University with a degree in Exercise Science. She and her family live in the beautiful Cache Valley of Northern Utah. During the two months of the year it isn't snowing, she enjoys swimming, hiking, biking, running, and water-skiing. 

A portion of the proceeds from Cami's books will be donated to Humanitarian Aid. 

Hope you enjoyed this week's spotlight.

Stay tuned next week for more Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and another Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God bless.

PamT