WeWriWa - 3/29/15 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back for this week's eight sentence snippet from my forthcoming memoir, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods, where one woman's reliance on her eclectic wilderness background helps her navigate some of life's most unexpected curves from a war-torn marriage to children to an extreme cancer diagnosis. 

***

My breath caught in my throat. In all the wisdom of the Army, they’d hired a Muslim woman to treat combat soldiers who were having problems adjusting after returning from fighting Muslims?

“You,” she gesticulated at me roughly. “You wait in downstairs waiting room.”

Charlie’s knee was bouncing and his knuckles had gone white from gripping the sides of the metal chair. Ever nervous, any noise made him jump and a thin sheen of sweat veiled his forehead. “No, you don’t understand, she has to stay with me.”

She stared at us through sour, empty eyes and growled, “She wait outside. I call her in later.”

***

Thanks for stopping by! Check out other great authors at the WeWriWa blog :-)

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Sara Barnard's own Silver Line Editorial Service is now accepting manuscripts for editing.

 Check out their rates on the Silver Line page on this blog! 

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Author Christine Steendam

Welcome to the Wednesday edition of my blog, where I feature one spectacular author each week!

Are you an author who would like to be featured? Contact me at sarathreesuns@gmail.com for available dates.

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Hi Christine, thanks for stopping by today! I fell in love with your OCEAN series with the first book, Heart Like an Ocean. Can you tell us about your most recent release in this series? 

I guess I'll start with a little background on Betrayed by the Ocean. It is book 2 in the OCEAN series, sequel to Heart Like an Ocean. When I wrote Heart Like an Ocean, I intended it to be a standalone. It is the story of Senona Montez and in my mind, her story was done in that book. Even Brant Foxton had his happily-for-now. But after talking with a few readers and one of my editors , I came to realize there was more to Brant Foxton's story. So I began to explore it. That's how Betrayed by the Ocean came to be. 

Oooh, Brant Foxton. Now that is the name of a hero! What's his story? 

I realized that the person he ended up with in Book 1 wasn't the right person for him, he hadn't become to person he needed to be and Senona wasn't going to be the one to change him. So I began writing Book 2, Betrayed by the Ocean and was taken on a journey of discovery right along with Brant.

Most authors say that their newest releases are their favorite stories. Is that true with Betrayed by the Ocean? 

It is one of my favorite stories to date. Brant has a very special place in my heart, and the writing of Betrayed by the Ocean was a very organic process. I knew how it began, but I had no idea where it was going after that. But I am very happy with how it turned out.

Do we get to look forward to more installments in the OCEAN series in the future? 

I'm currently working on book 3, Embraced by the Ocean which centers around Johnny Marshall, but the rest of the characters in my Ocean series still play a role. Although I mostly wrap up Brant's story in Betrayed by the Ocean, you'll see a little bit more development for him in the last book. I think readers are going to be more than happy with where I leave everyone off.

We can't wait to check it out, Christine! No doubt you will leave your readers happy once again and, as always, wanting more. Where can we find out more about you and purchase your books?

Links to Christine's OCEAN books . . .

Amazon 

Kobo

B&N

iBooks

Smashwords 

Keep up with Christine by checking out these links below! 

Christine's Website: http://www.christinesteendam.com

Christine's Author Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorchristine.s

 Follow Christine on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chrissteen1991

WeWriWa - March 22 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back! Thanks for stopping by for this week's snippet from my newest work:

Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Last week, our heroine's husband made a big, drunken deal out of his leaving his 

family . . . again. 

Let's see what happens next.

The  first time my husband freaked out and called us quits was at our duty station in Italy when I was five months pregnant with our first child together. Drunk, he'd torn apart our luggage in an attempt to find the passports, belonging to my two young children and myself, so he could put us on "the first plane back to the States". Luckily, I'd hidden them well. Angered at his inability to find them, he swore through slurred words to pay child support for “that one,” as he called our unborn son, thrusting a finger at my slightly swollen belly. 

 He had been back from his 15-month tour in Afghanistan for a whopping six months before he "broke", an amazing feat considering most of his fellow airborne infantrymen he'd served with had broken long before; like the ever-smiling family man who attempted to strangle his pregnant wife in her sleep or the quiet soldier who had eaten Thanksgiving dinner with us before returning to the Army post and slashing his arms bloody and climbing into a tub filled with steaming water. 

When the liquor wore off, he begged forgiveness and swore to get help from Mental Health, in the off chance he did have the so-called PTSD affliction, as long as I would accompany him . . . and give him another chance. Not having it in my genes to be the Army wife who walked out on her sick husband, I agreed and sat proudly by his side as we waited for the psychiatrist to come in. 

The door creaked open revealing not the white-haired Viet Nam vet with all the answers like in the movies, but instead a short, unsmiling Middle Eastern woman sporting glasses . . . and a Muslim hijab.

Thank you for stopping by this week! Be sure to stop by next Sunday morning for another snippet from 

Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Missi Wanderin' in the Woods is my forthcoming memoir and perhaps the hardest story I've written to date. This is the story of one woman's reliance on her eclectic wilderness background to face epic struggles, from war-ravaged marriages to life-threatening baby deliveries to a teaching career to cancer, that just may shatter her life -- if she lets them.

Click here for more awesome Weekend Writing Warriors.

Book One of my
Everlasting Heart series,
written when
my husband was on his final
deployment to Afghanistan.
This saga continues through
a four-book series!

Rebekah's Quilt is
my debut Amish fiction
work.
Just .99 cents
this month!
Look for more from these
characters coming soon
in a new series!

Head on over to my website to check out more of  my titles featuring strong female heroines, like my debut novel and book one of the Everlasting Heart series A Heart on Hold, where Charlotte Adamsland must journey north through the war-ravaged United States in search of her husband Confederate Captain Sanderson Redding . . . or his remains, or my first ever Amish novella, Rebekah's Quilt, where timid Rebekah must face a heartbreaking truth that no other Amish girl in Gasthof Village could ever understand and one that just may cost her a future with her handsome beau, Joseph Graber. 

(Rebekah's Quilt is just .99 cents this month!)

Visit Sara Barnard Books today!

WeWriWa - March 15 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome Weekend Writing Warriors and Guests! 

Enjoy this eight-sentence excerpt from my newest work: 

Missi Wanderin' in the Woods. 

***

I slid my white gold wedding ring, the one we’d picked out together after only two weeks of dating, off my finger and sucked in a breath, trying not to let the hurricane of familiar emotions drown me yet again. 

Across the house, my husband of five years threw everything that was outright his into various bags and suitcases, taking care to fling the pictures of us and our life together onto the ground. Like trash.

“There’s no going back,” he bellowed as he stormed into the kitchen where we'd sought refuge, his words slurred by the drink, “this is for real. We're finished!”

Up until then, I had been futilely attempting to shield his leaving from our two youngest children, sugar sweet and ever-grinning boys aged two and four, but as he carried on, the baby began picking up random toys and shoes. “Don’t yell at Mama,” he shouted, his own little words garbled by the speech impediment that afflicts three quarters of my children, before hurling what he could grab at his daddy, who up until then had been the center of his protected little universe. 

My oldest babies, ten and eight, retreated to the dark corners of the kitchen to watch this all-too-familiar scene, always brought on by combat anniversaries and alcohol, play out yet again.

***

Thank you for stopping by and checking out these eight sentences from my forthcoming memoir, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods, the story of one woman's reliance on her eclectic wilderness background to face front-country struggles ranging from a war-ravaged marriage to cancer.

Need a cheap read? Rebekah's Quilt is on sale for just 99 cents this month!

Sara Barnard's Author Website

Check out more excerpts from other amazing 

Weekend Writing Warriors 

here!

See you next Sunday for more from 

Missi Wanderin' in the Woods!

Spring Break, Cancer Stuff, and A Book Sale

Thanks for stopping by at this, the tail end of Spring Break (or beginning of Spring Break, depending on where you are). Around here, we kept it interesting as a family of six (and sometimes seven) usually do.

I started off the break a few days early, getting a sub for my 6th grade classroom the Wednesday prior so I could have a couple of procedures done in the O.R. Pretty heavy stuff, but now I'll be the better for it and there was no indication that any cancer had crept anywhere else in my bod. Yay! However, I did have an issue waking up from anesthesia . . . suppose I just needed a bit of extra sleep :-) 

The Saturday after surgery, the family packed me into the car and we sojourned across the Lone Star State to my every-three-month checkup in Houston at MD Anderson. We tried to make it a mini-vacation, with stops in San Antonio and Galveston (despite the rain and fog) to dip our toes in the ocean. We found lots of dead jellyfish and some awesome seashells to bring home. 

At the appointment, it was determined all is well and I'm not due back for another three months -- double yay! No more surgery slated in my future (thankfully) and my oncologist maintains that everything cancerous was most likely removed in the first surgery (way back a year ago!) and the spots he was concerned with are posing no immediate threat. Works for me! 

On a lighter note, I just learned that my Amish romance novel, Rebekah's Quilt, is on sale this month for just .99 cents! I hope you'll pick up your copy today!

Come back Sunday and check out a sneak peak from my newest work, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods!