Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Mary Marvella and her THREE Christmas Tales!

Christmas Is In the Air

Bio
Matt's Christmas Angel A short story in THE ANTHOLOGY A STONE MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS https://www.amazon.com/Stone-Mountain-Christmas-Melba-Moon-ebook/dp/B00PL5L4SQ and a single short story  https://www.amazon.com/Matts-Christmas-Angel-Short-Story-ebook/dp/B018DZJQ2G     Heartwarming Romance 

Best friends fall in love while doing their Christmas good deeds. They've been doing their own version of the 12 days of Christmas since they were kids. Now they are adults and she's his Christmas Angel.  

 TEASER:



Sleep captured Gwen in its gentle arms and eased her into her fondest memory. She was three years old and playing in her sandbox, the one mama said had been hers once upon a time. A child she’d never seen walked up to her sandbox and stood, staring at her.
“You Gwen?” The boy's face puckered up in a frown.
Gwen nodded slowly. “Uh huh. Who are you?”
The boy looked bigger than she was and real skinny. His glasses made him look like an owl. He carried a pail and a shovel. He had light, short hair.
“Matthew Henry Simmons,” he said. He must be serious about the long name, because he wasn’t smiling.
“This is my sandbox. Wanna play?”
“Sure.” He still didn’t smile.
 Gwen grinned when she thought about his red plastic bucket and shovel. She remembered the gentleness of five-year old Matt. He had been her playmate ever since. That Christmas he had told her about the Twelve Days of Christmas song he’d learned in kindergarten. He’d also taught her to count to one hundred.


The Christmas Promise  

The Christmas Promise is a short story about a woman whose husband was abusive. She and her college-aged kids must face their first Christmas together since she charged their father with assault and had him arrested. What will Christmas have in store for them? 
 


Christmas's Best Bet, Humble Pie   

When Brock, a wealthy lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, loses a bet with his partners, he must take up the challenge to get a job in a Waffle House and work there after office hours in their law firm for a month. 

He has never worked so hard or learned so much about people. During that month he learns humility and caring and paying it forward

This novella has loads of southern flavor.


BIO.
I’m a story-holic.  Yep, I have loved to read since the first grade. I has been a storyteller for as long as I can remember.  The stories I made up for the other children and the details I  created the details for their “play like” or “let’s pretend” games. Sometimes the details were so real they scared me
 I taught language arts for 15 years, perfect for my BA in English.  My M.Ed in Counseling served me well during my years as a school counselor and as a teacher later.
Now I tutor, teach writers, and edit. My inner English teacher loves the editing part. My daughter doesn’t read my books (something about TMI.) I have a 43 year old daughter and I live north of Atlanta, Georgia.  I have published 6 novels, three, novellas and seven short stories.   
 

Monday, November 28, 2016

A Regency Yuletide by Becky Lower


Christmas Is In the Air






After a disappointing season in London, Sophie Davenport returns home without a marriage proposal. No sooner does she settle back into her country life than she learns her uncle has arranged for her to marry the local vicar’s son, a respectable and utterly forgettable man. He’s returning home immediately after the Christmas holiday and they will wed. She sets about making this last Christmas with just she and her mother memorable. 

Jeremy Wyatt hatches a plan to help his friend Thomas and his love, Emma, escape to Gretna Green and marry before her father comes after them. What he’s really doing is avoiding heading to his parents’ home, where he is the son who is always making the wrong choices. But their carriage becomes hopelessly mired in the mud from the incessant rains so Jeremy sets off to find shelter for them at the first house he comes to.

Sophie welcomes the wet and weary travelers, and her mother agrees to house them temporarily until they can free the carriage. Sophie forms a bond not only with Emma, but with Jeremy. However despite the sparks they ignite in each other, they have to maintain their separate paths.   
But love and mistletoe have a way of upsetting even the best-laid plans. 



Author Bio:
 Amazon best-selling author Becky Lower has traveled the country looking for great settings for her novels. She loves to write about two people finding each other and falling in love, amid the backdrop of a great setting, be it on a covered wagon headed west or in present day small town America.  Historical and contemporary romances are her specialty. Becky is a PAN member of RWA and is a member of the Historic and Contemporary RWA chapters. She has a degree in English and Journalism from Bowling Green State University, and lives in an eclectic college town in Ohio with her puppy-mill rescue dog, Mary. She loves to hear from her readers at beckylowerauthor@gmail.com. Visit her website at www.beckylowerauthor.com

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Christmas Kiss From The Sheriff by Kathryn Albright

Christmas Is In the Air




A Christmas to Remember! 

Clear Springs’ new schoolteacher, Gemma Starling, feels as if she’s been given a fresh start. So long as no one discovers her dark secret—she once shot a man in self-defense! 

Sheriff Craig Parker has forsworn love, but delightful Miss Starling intrigues him. And when events at the school turn dangerous, Craig won’t let her face it alone. Gemma might just be the one woman he could ever love, but will the secret she’s hiding tear them apart or bring them together by Christmas?



Excerpt ~ Christmas Kiss from the Sheriff

“I’m new to the community by most counts, miss, but I gather that you’ve been here even less time than I have.” The sheriff studied her pert nose which she had notched up stubbornly in the air. “You don’t strike me as someone who grew up in the country. Can you tell me which way we are headed? North or west?”
She was quiet.
“This isn’t like a city where there are names for roads and easy-to-remember storefronts. It’s easy to get lost in these hills. One boulder starts to look like another. One tree the same thing. I can’t have you walking…or riding…all over the mountain. You’ll be lost within half an hour.”
You can’t have me walking…” she echoed, a trace of sarcasm in her voice.
Guess she didn’t care much for his interference. It couldn’t be helped. He wasn’t about to let her wander the mountains on her own. He walked another half a block with her in silence, hoping she was absorbing the truth of the matter.
Her steps finally slowed and then came to a stop. “What do you propose?” she asked, facing him.
“To go with you.”
“I don’t think…” She shook her head doubtfully. “That’s really not necessary.”
“Not. Necessary. Hmm. Then tell me which way you are facing now.”
She sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “I can’t.”
“Well, until you can, you need an escort. I’m offering.”
She frowned. “Sheriff…I doubt the etiquette of the situation allows for you to accompany me.”
So that’s what was bothering her. “It doesn’t allow for a woman to go alone either. Sometimes out here you have to be practical.”
She started walking toward Mrs. Birdwell’s again “Do all the other women here know their directions?”
“If they were raised in the country they do.”
“Day or night?”
“While the sun is up for the most part. There are a few who know the stars too.” He couldn’t imagine growing up without that knowledge. His father had impressed it on him by the time he was ten. “Just where are you from anyway?”
“Obviously not here,” she grumbled.
“So…?” He prompted.
She eyed him with a speculative look. The light through the saloon window danced in her eyes. “Guess.”
He hadn’t expected that. He raised his brows. A challenge. “Big city. North, I think.”
She smiled slightly.
“Your clothes are fancier than most. Your shoes wouldn’t last more’n a day on a hike.”
“My shoes?” She stopped and looked down at her feet. “When did you check my…? Humph.”
“San Francisco? No…” he answered himself. Not with the way she said certain words. “Back East somewhere.”
“I have a feeling not knowing the answer will trouble you immensely,” she said smugly.
“It may take me awhile, but I don’t back down from a challenge.”
They turned down the side road that led out of town. Widow Birdwell’s boardinghouse was the last house on the road. The light from her parlor blinked dimly through the rustling pines.
“May I ask you something, Sheriff? You’re a man…I mean that you understand boys a tad better than I would. Why would two boys old enough to know better, get into a fight? They should be setting an example for the younger children—not fighting.”
“I take it you don’t have brothers.”
“No. And I’ll admit that I was so intent on stopping the fisticuffs before more bloodshed occurred that I didn’t think to get the real reason for the fight out of them.”
He slanted a glance at her. “The best time to wrangle an answer out of them is while they are still fighting mad. Things tend to spill out from the gut.”
She sighed. “Then I’ve lost my chance.”
“Sounds like you did okay. You stopped the fight. No one died.”
She stepped up on Mrs. Birdwell’s stoop. “An interesting way to put it.”
He reached for the door handle. “Just out of curiosity… How did you make those boys stop fighting? Hard to believe they’d stop just because you told them to.”
Her lips twitched and then those dimples appeared again as her smile grew. “I threw a bucket of cold, dirty water over them.” She stepped inside. The parlor lantern lent a yellow glow to the right side of her face. “Good night, Sheriff.”
He tipped his hat even though she was already closing the door in his face. “Night, Miss Starling.”
The woman might have no idea about staying safe on the mountain but that smile of hers could sure pack a
wallop.


Text Copyright © 2016 by Kathryn Albright
Cover Art Copyright 2016 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited
Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A.
All rights reserved.




Kathryn Albright writes sweet western historical romance. Her stories celebrate courage and hope with a dash of adventure. Kathryn’s stories have been finalists in the distinguished RWA Golden Heart®, the HOLT Medallion and the Colorado Award of Excellence, as well as several other industry awards. An enthusiast of country living, she resides with her family in the Midwest.
HARLEQUIN:  http://bit.ly/2e6sc3y
BARNES & NOBLE:  http://bit.ly/2dVVvaR



Monday, November 21, 2016

Under The Mistletoe by Sherry Ewing




Christmas Is In the Air




 
A new suitor seeks her hand. An old flame holds her heart. Which one will she meet under the kissing bough?
When Margaret Templeton is requested to act as hostess at Captain Sander Morledge’s Christmas party and possibly agree to marry him, she did not think she would see the man who once held her heart. Frederick Maddock, Viscount Beacham had never forgotten the young woman he had fallen in love with, and his feelings are evident when he sees her at a holiday gathering. In a swirl of Christmas miracles and joyous celebration, will the two finally put down their differences and once again fall in love?

A bit of a teaser: 
With Digby gone, Margaret took a seat by the fire, and Frederick sat opposite her. An awkward silence fell between them, broken only by the crackling and popping of the wood within the hearth. Conversation had never been stilted between them, but Margaret was clearly nervous because she kept peeking over her shoulder as if she were being watched. Frederick was unsure what he should say to calm her nerves.

“You have no need to fear me, Margaret,” Frederick whispered softly now that they were alone.

“I do not fear you, Freddy.”

He was pleased to hear his name as it passed her lips. “Then what is troubling you so?”

The eyes raised to his were filled with worry. “Why are you here?”

He watched her fidget with the fabric of her gown. “You know why. I was invited,” Frederick answered.

A sound escaped her, but it was hardly ladylike. “You could easily have made your excuses and refused.”

“I wanted to make sure you were safe,” he replied.

“How could I not be safe? Captain Morledge is practically my betrothed.”

Frederick ran his hand across his eyes. “I do not trust him. There are rumors—”

The laugh she gave was meant to be merry, but sounded forced. “Frederick, please tell me you have not taken to believing in town gossip. I would have thought you, above all people, were above such nonsense.”

He frowned. “Nonsense or not, I needed to see for myself that you are not in danger, even if I must watch over you myself.”

“It is hardly necessary.” Margaret’s attention once more flew to the entryway.

He reached over to take her hand.

She wrenched back with a silent and pleading look, and the briefest shake of her head. Leaning slightly forward, she confided, “Please do not, for it will not be wise. The servants watch my every move, and even now, it is reckless of me to be here alone with you.”

“You see! There is cause for concern. Why will you not let me help you?”

“Please, Freddy. This is my one chance to find some happiness. Do not ruin it for me.”

“We have discussed this before, Margaret. You know my offer still stands. I would wed you on the morrow if you would have me.”

“Shush, you fool. You know I cannot.”

“Yet you would enter into a marriage with a man you do not love.”

A heavy sigh left her lips. “I can learn to love him.”

“Now who is the fool?” he grumbled irritably.


Buy Links:

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/29nRrfB




Bio:

Sherry Ewing picked up her first historical romance when she was a teenager and has been hooked ever since. A bestselling author, she writes historical & time travel romances to awaken the soul one heart at a time. Always wanting to write a novel but busy raising her children, she finally took the plunge in 2008 and wrote her first Regency. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Beau Monde & the Bluestocking Belles. Sherry is currently working on her next novel and when not writing, she can be found in the San Francisco area at her day job as an Information Technology Specialist. You can learn more about Sherry and her published work at the following social media links:

Website & Books: http://www.SherryEwing.com
Bluestocking Belles: http://BluestockingBelles.net
Hearts Through Time: http://heartsthroughtime.com

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