Showing posts with label true love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label true love. Show all posts

Saturday, March 26, 2016

WeWriWa - March 27, 2016 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

On last week's installment of Weekend Writing Warriors, we were in the throes of the Emergency Room excitement in Vicenza, Italy when the life of an unborn baby hung in the balance. Welcome to this eight-sentence snippet. To get back to the other Weekend Writers, click here!  

A favorite Italian restaurant, Il Fauno's -- wonderful waitstaff, great food, and
an American toilet!! 
After a quick, burning shot to stop the contractions and a tub of progesterone capsules to insert nightly, we were released. These people who didn’t even speak my language had just saved the life of my unborn child. “What did the doctor say before he left,” I asked our nurse as she walked us to the front doors of the hospital.
The view from the villa where we lived
The view from the other side of the villa
Our Texan kitchen in Italy
Her lips tilted into a half-smile. “He said Americans and their modesty . . . do they not understand that there is no modesty in life and death?”
I locked eyes with my husband and blinked back unwelcome tears 

as I remembered my nurse's words. No modesty in life and death.

wish I had asked her if dignity followed the same rule.




Our chilly villa where I was on bed rest for four weeks following the ER incident. 


April 14th -- the rebirth date of my debut novel, A Heart on Hold. Cover reveal time!!! 



Saturday, May 23, 2015

WeWriWa - May 24, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back to this eight-sentence snippet from my forthcoming memoir, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods. I hope you're enjoying the ride so far! Without further ado, come back to the car with me where pregnant Sara is questioning her fresh-from-combat-husband's sanity after he has just been forced to spend three hours talking to a woman shrink, who happened to be Muslim, after a PTSD-induced freakout. 

Whatever had clouded Charlie's eyes passed almost as quickly as it had come, and he began to speak as I exhaled a shaky breath and weaved my fingers protectively about my pregnant belly. “The Muslim headshrinker, she asked me the same question a million ways and none if it was about what happened between us . . . she didn’t even let me talk about that.” Finally, his darting gaze fell on me and stayed there a moment before flitting off again to check the driver side mirror, rear view mirror, passenger side mirror, over the shoulder, out the window. Driver side mirror, rear view mirror, passenger side mirror, over the shoulder, out the window. “She just kept asking if I wanted to hurt myself or someone else. Kill myself or someone else. If I thought about combat, dreamed about combat.” A sudden tell-tale glaze of perspiration gave his face an otherworldly glow.

Thank you for stopping by!  Visit my other eight-sentence snippets by following the links below!
Sara's Amish Dreams where eight sentences from my forthcoming Amish fiction work, Old Amarillo, are shared each week. 
An Everlasting Heart where you can fall in love with Charlotte and Sanderson from the very beginning of my bestselling Civil War era debut novel, A Heart on Hold. 
Get back to the other eight-sentence offerings by awesome WeWriWa writers here!

Sunday, May 17, 2015

WeWriWa - 5/17/15 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back, y'all! Here we go . . .

“What did . . . mean,” I huffed, struggling to keep up, “when you said . . . honest like I told you to be?”
Luckily, we were coming up on the car and his stride slowed considerably. Without missing a beat he went to my side first and opened the door, as usual, and waited until I was situated before shutting it and getting in himself. His hands were trembling and his eyes darted from side to side, as though he was just waiting for someone to appear at the window. Something in his eyes gave me the impression he wanted something to appear, just so he could deal with it. Icy fingers of fear gripped my spine, leaving me with a sense of utter, terrifying helplessness in the passenger seat. What if he flipped and felt he had to deal with me?
Whatever had clouded his eyes passed almost as quickly as it had come, and he began to speak. “She asked me the same question a million ways, and none if it was about what happened between us . . . she didn’t even let me talk about that.” 

Thanks for stopping by and riding the storm out with me as we make our way through the first chapter of my forthcoming memoir, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods! Leave me a comment and tell me your thoughts, if you like :-) 

To get back to the other awesome WeWriWa authors, go here!  

Saturday, May 2, 2015

WeWriWa - May 3, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back to this week's eight sentence snippet from my forthcoming memoir from Missi Wanderin' in the Woods! Let's see how Charlie, the soldier who had just sought help for PTSD symptoms only to be escorted out of Mental Health by Military Police and told not to come back. 

“Just so long as we’re clear,” the smaller officer snorted as they turned to go.
            Charlie stiffened. “Excuse me?” Both MPs froze, their backs to us, as my husband with the dreamy dimples continued, his already loud voice now a bellow. “You two may be Military Police, but I am still your senior NCO, so turn around and stand at attention for God’s sake!”

Wind gone from their sails, the Private First Class and Corporal slowly turned. “I appreciate your doing your job, but you will conform to military standards when addressing your senior NCO. Is that clear?”

Get back to other Weekend Writing Warrior participants here

Saturday, April 18, 2015

WeWriWa - April 19, 2015 - Missi Wanderin' in the Woods

Welcome back to this week's eight sentence snippet from my forthcoming memoir, Missi Wanderin' in the Woods. Without further ado, let's jump right back into the mix and see what is going on in the Army clinic that drew the MPs on the run . . . and see why in the world I followed them inside. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The MPs stepped to the side, like something out of a movie, revealing my husband standing between them.
“Is this your wife?” one of the burly officers barked.
Charlie nodded and stepped beside me, but the Military Police officers just stared at us - unmoving. “Are we leaving?” I asked, feeling as though I’d walked into a group where the punchline of a joke had just been delivered.
Charlie just put one hand on the small of my back and began guiding me toward the door with the MPs following us closely.
I kept my voice at a whisper, acutely aware that all eyes in the clinic were fixed on us. “Charlie, what is going on?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To see my other blogs for this week, click here for my snippet from A Heart on Hold, my debut novel, and click here for a snippet from my forthcoming Amish novel, Old Amarillo

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Meet Author Ann Swann

Today, join me in welcoming the beautiful and talented author Ann Swann to the blog. Not only is Ann an amazing author, she is also a fantastic mother and grandmother! Yup, she is my mommy!



Welcome Ann (er, Mom!) Give us the run down on your newest release, Lilac Lane, your suspense follow up to bestseller Stutter Creek. 


Ella and son escaped her ex's drunken wrath once. Now he's out of jail. Can they survive another round?

        He shattered the old wooden door from the inside with one well-placed kick from his size twelve boot.
            The chair was still beneath the knob, but the entire top panel of the door had splintered. In the moonlight coming through the kitchen window, Ella could see his massive silhouette.
            With another kick, the whole door disintegrated. Shards of wood flew in all directions. The red kitchen chair went scooting across the floor until it hit a piece of debris and flipped over on its side.

Sounds like a good one -- as usual! Where can readers grab a copy? 



Barnes and Noble   http://bit.ly/WJt2H1

Smashwords   http://bit.ly/WJt8yf

http://www.5Princebooks.com


I hear you're working on a third installment in this series, Copper Lake. Care to share a bit?  

Here is a snippet from Work in Progress: COPPER LAKE ~ Book Three in the STUTTER CREEK series

            The bones were wet. The clay in the soil trapped the moisture as efficiently as a layer of mulch in a flowerbed. When Edgar held the femur up to the moonlight, he was thrilled to observe how fully the dirt and mold had settled into the cuts he’d made. It created an inky labyrinthine abstract on the once-white surface.   Ecclesiastes says there’s a time for everything.
            I think the time has come.
            He caressed the soil around the bones, and then he pulled on latex gloves and lifted the rest of them from their shallow bed. Time has come, he whispered. Time has come. He often repeated things to himself when his hands were engaged in pleasurable activities—and this was the most enjoyment he’d had in a long time.












Want More? Here's a little bit more about Ann . . . 

Bio
Ann lives in Texas with her husband and rescue pets. She loves libraries and book stores and owns two e-readers just for fun. Ann writes what she likes to read.

All For Love, a Contemporary Romance filled with heartache and hope, was Ann’s first novel for 5 Prince Publishing. It was an Amazon bestseller in Literary Fiction.

Her Romantic Suspense series begins with
Stutter Creek (Amazon bestseller), and continues with
Book Two, Lilac Lane, which one reviewer labeled “scared-the-pants-off-me.”
Book three, Copper Lake, will be out in 2015.

Ann’s Phantom book series centers around a couple of teenage ghost-hunters.
Stevie-girl and the Phantom Pilot,
Stevie-girl and The Phantom Student, and
Stevie-girl and The Phantom of Crybaby Bridge
All have been on Amazon’s bestseller lists for scary tales and ghost stories.

Ann also has short fiction in several anthologies. The most recent short story, Sleepaway Pounds, is included in the anthology, Seasonal, Sweet, and Suspenseful.

To find out more contact Ann at one of the ways listed below, or click on the STAY UPDATED button on her Amazon Author Page.
Amazon Author Page: http://tinyurl.com/6wl3oe2
Twitter: @ann_swann      

Saturday, March 21, 2015

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.





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!)






Saturday, June 21, 2014

The Saga of Indian Em'ly : The Apache and the Pale Face Soldiers (Book 1)

New release alert! My debut middle grade reader, book 1 of 4, titled The Saga of Indian Em'ly: The Apache and the Pale Face Soldiers has been released from Painted Pony Books.

More great news, it went bestseller just today! Yay! What a wonderful way to commemorate the historical significance of the real Indian Em'ly . . . the "squaw killed by mistake" outside Fort Davis, Texas in the late 1800's.


Here is the back matter: 

Wind That Knocks Down Lodges loves his Apache mother Shining Waters, his grandfather Chief Strawberry Moon, his baby sister Cactus Flower and the wildness of the desert canyonland they call home. He has even developed a rough-hewn trust for Cactus Flower’s father, the pale face soldier from the fort that their mother loves. In one night of gross misunderstanding and novice mistakes, Knocks Down and Cactus Flower’s innocent young world is broken and shaken before they find themselves locked in the soldier fort with the pale faces and their mother’s lifeless body. With no one to lean on but each other and the fragile balance between the Apache and the soldiers irreparably upset, Knocks Down and Cactus Flower must make their way as children of The People in the pale face world – pale faces who have now become the enemy.

Only .99 cents in kindle format!  Grab yours today! And stay tuned for The Saga of Indian Em'ly: On the Colorado Trail (book 2) coming in September 2014!

www.sarabarnardbooks.com