Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Deb Melanie and her Winter's Blog Tour stops by Penny's Tales




Winter Olympics

One of the things I love most about winter is the time when the Olympics come around. One of my favourite sports to watch is the ice skating, though I do like the speed skating too. Today, I thought I’d share a little trivia with you all and also ask, which winter sports are your favourite and why?

  • The youngest athlete to win a gold medal at the Winter Games was 15-year-old American figure skater Tara Lipinski in Nagano 1998.

  • Norway has won the most number of total medals at the Winter Games.

  • The first Winter Olympic female gold medalist was Herma Planck Szabo of Austria in the Figure Skating Event in 1924.

  • The first athlete ever to win five medals in one event was German luge great Georg Hackl.

  • The men's 2006 gold medal winner, Russian Yevgeny Plushenko, is the first skater in history to successfully land a quad-triple-triple jump combination in competition. Canadian Kevin Reynolds, 17, achieved the feat in 2008.

  • According to the National Sporting Goods Association, U.S. consumers spent $309 million on snowboarding equipment in 2008. That's more than hockey and football equipment combined ($249 million).

  • The oldest man to receive a Winter Olympics medal is 83-year-old Anders Haugen. The Norwegian-American actually received his ski jump bronze medal 50 years after he competed in 1924 when a scoring error was discovered in 1974.



    Blurb:
    Winter McAndrew is on the brink of divorcing her philandering husband, Philip, when he dies in a car crash. One year later and with unfinished business; Philip is still earth bound and interfering in his wife’s love life. Trying to make amends isn't always easy when you're dead. Not only has Winter fallen for her old crush, Jack Tobin, but he also happens to be Philip’s cousin. With more complications than a woman needs at Christmas, Winter tries to find peace at her holiday home in The Lake District. However, when she finds herself snowed in with Jack; ghosts, old and new cause quite a stir. Will Winter get her man, or will ghostly Philip put an end to all her festive fantasies?


    Excerpt:
    Did she hear them correctly? Did they really say…dead? Dead, as in door nail? Dead, as in never coming back?
    Turning her eyes away from the thick gold band on her wedding finger, Winter looked around the sterile white corridor; old magazines littered a nearby coffee table, a late night cleaner erratically distributed disinfectant onto the tiled floor with a well-worn mop; the stench felt overwhelming. Hushed voices spoke in the reception area, adding a stark contrast to the wailing of a distant siren. Despite the time, she felt surprised to see the hospital in such a hive of activity.
    The phone had woken her just after three; the journey to her destination taking well over an hour. Thick, falling, snow hampered each mile, drawing out her distress and sense of fear. A lack of information and worry about the unknown added to the already crushing sense of fear. After drinking two cups of weak coffee, she watched the morning sunrise through a nearby window, feeling the apprehension dawn upon a new chapter of her life.


    Author’s Twitter Page ; https://twitter.com/deborah_melanie



    About the author; Deborah Melanie writes romantic stories, is the wife of a retired semi-professional footballer and lives in the historical town of Northampton.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for letting me drop by and chat Penny :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Of course, Deb....Your post was great. I didn't know any of those things.
      I am hoping for much success for you with Winter's Spirit.

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  2. Deborah The olympic facts are really interesting. I enjoyed your article very much. Your book also looks very good.

    Cindy

    ReplyDelete