Her Independent Spirit by Zena Abbott

Today Zina Abbott will share with you excerpt #7 and

A chance to win a copy of Her Independent Spirit by playing the Amazon Giveaway sweepstakes.

Catch all seven excerpts on participating blogs on Zina Abbott's website by CLICKING HERE.

Please join Zina Abbott on the Sweet/Clean Romance Facebook event
Monday, April 11th at noon/1:00/2:00/3:00p.m. or

Wednesday, April 13th at 3:00/4:00/5:00/6:00p.m.

by CLICKING HERE.

About the Book:

Beth Dodd has made a promise to help “Lulu”, a young prostitute at the Blue Feather, keep her baby if she decides to leave the whorehouse and become a respectable woman. But Beth hadn’t counted on the obstacles she and the new mother will face from society in the mining town of Lundy. From the obstinate landlady, Mrs. Ford, to her intractable German boss, Gus Herschel, Beth must fight for the woman she’s promised to help. But Beth Dodd never gives in, and she keeps her word with a stubbornness that Lundy folks are not accustomed to seeing from a woman.

Once Lulu, now known as the more respectable Louisa Parmley, starts working for Gus in his kitchen, she proves that Beth was right to take a chance on her. She has every intention of making a good life for her new daughter. But can she also hope to find happiness with Gus? And will Gus be able to accept her and baby Sophie Ann as his? Love was never in the cards for Gus, but Louisa dreams of happiness with the stoic man, and Beth is determined to bring them together through HER INDEPENDENT SPIRIT.

Excerpt

     Albert straightened and turned to Louisa. “You take care of yourself now, Miss Lulu. Even though you’re no longer at the Blue Feather, you can still count me as your friend. If anyone gives you any trouble, you get word to me and I’ll run them off for you.”

     Louisa glanced over at Mrs. Ford who stood only a few feet away. She did her best to ignore the woman’s crossed arms and her face screwed into a grimace. “Thank you, Albert. Your friendship has meant a lot to me. I-I hope I have no need to call on you to help me, but I appreciate your offer. Good-bye.”

     Albert nodded and turned to leave.

     “Mr. Albert,” Beth stopped him.

     Albert turned back to face her. “It’s just Albert, ma’am.”

     “Albert, she ain’t Lulu no more. She done left that kind of life behind. If you have call to speak to her again, it’s more fittin’ if you ask for Miss Parmley.”

     Albert stared at Beth for several seconds while he absorbed her words. Then he turned back to Louisa and nodded. “Good-bye, Miss Parmley.”

Photo: This is not a photo of Mrs. Mary Ford, the Irish immigrant widow who owned the Pioneer Boarding House in Lundy and also invested in the local mines. However, the clothing style is correct for 1884, and this is how Zina Abbott pictures her.

Zina Abbott is offering a copy of the book through Amazon Giveaway sweepstakes with a  one in fifty chance of winning. You may access Amazon Giveaway by CLICKING HERE and following the instructions.

About the Author:

Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. You may find the first two novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine and A Resurrected Heart, by clicking on the hyperlinks for the novel titles or by going to Zina Abbott’s Amazon Author Page by clicking HERE.

To learn about new releases and special offers, Zina Abbott invites you to sign up to receive her monthly NEWSLETTER. You may sign up by CLICKING HERE.

Zina Abbott Author Links:

Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Pinterest  |  Goodreads  |  Google+  |  Twitter 

Purchase links for Her Independent Heart:

Amazon  |   Smashwords  |  Kobo  |  iBooks

Please tweet this blog post:

Excerpt 7 & #AmazonGiveaway on Blog Blitz:

HER INDEPENDENT SPIRIT @ZinaAbbott

http://bit.ly/1Xe4hf9 #ESB1884

My Review for Her Independent Spirit.....

Her Independent Spirit centers around the lives of two women, Beth Todd and Louisa Parmley.  Beth, a fiercely independent woman as a plan for her life that she intends to make come true, with nobody’s help.

She meets new mother, Louisa Parmley, aka Lulu, a prostitute that worked at the Blue Feather. Louisa wants to keep her baby and leave the prostitution business forever.  Beth agrees to help, adding to her almost impossible list.

Work and places to live, especially with a newborn, are hard to find in the mining town of Lundy, CA.  It will take more than determination for Beth and Louisa to achieve the lives they are looking for.

I was asked to give an honest review of Her Independent Spirit and it is my pleasure to tell you how much I enjoyed this book.  Zina Abbott is a wonderful storyteller that makes you feel like you are right in the mix of things.  

This story is a great read and rich in history.  I gladly recommend this story and congratulate Ms. Abbott for a wonderful story.

SPOTLIGHT - The Wayfarer's Road by Janie Franz

The Bowdancer Saga continues in The Wayfarer’s Road. Healer Jan-nell, now a woman traveling alone with her precocious young daughter on the Wayfarer’s Road, meets a handsome wandering bard. But he is carrying his own secrets along with the priceless chance at hope for her and her child to belong. 

Excerpt

She clicked her tongue at him. “Did not your mother teach you manners?”

“Obviously, yours did not,” he answered.

The woman stepped back, freeing the sweating man. “My mother had little to do with my education.”

With the staff no longer the focus of his attention, Razlo’s eyes now were level with those of the curly-headed child that clung tightly to the woman. But those eyes were not the eyes of a fearful waif. They were knowing, aware, and held him in contempt. “Have a care raising that one,” the innkeeper mumbled.

The woman switched her staff to her left hand and caressed the little girl’s dark curls, causing the child to look up. The woman smiled down at her, then raised her green eyes to the innkeeper again. “A blanket for the straw, sir. Mira-nell will need protection from the damp.”

Razlo grunted as he struggled to stand, hauling the tray of pie scraps from the floor. Waddling into the kitchen, he muttered, “Unnatural” and “Bold, brazen whore.”

The woman picked up the cloak she had dropped in her encounter with Razlo and shook it into folds, drawing it again about her shoulders. The child pushed away from her slightly and protested. “You promised a bed this time.”

The woman stroked the child’s serious face. “It could not be helped. These civilized folk are more barbaric than the mountain farmers.”

“But it is not fair. To them, women are just―”

“I know,” the woman spoke sharply, and then softened her tone. “It could not be helped.”

“You could have made them change.”

The woman laughed. “Now how could I have done that, wee one? Do you expect me to battle the entire countryside? It is their custom. We do not live here. We are only staying the night.”

“You have not only courage, but good sense,” a man’s voice said at her ear. She turned her head to find a wiry man beside her, dressed in a full-sleeved muslin shirt, a green homespun tunic, matching leggings, and knee-length laced suede boots. An elaborately embroidered strap crossed his chest. From it hung a lute; its rich wood glowed like warm honey.

“And you, friend, must be well-loved here to antagonize the citizenry.”

The man’s thin mustache angled upward in twin arcs as he smiled impishly. “Songsmiths are tolerated. I am considered an addled idler.”

The woman laughed again. “We are well met, friend. I am called Jan-nell. Would that I were not so travel-weary, I would trade a verse or two with you. Perhaps tomorrow.”

Cocking his head to one side and causing his brown, wavy hair to cascade over his shoulder, the singer glanced over her petite body. “Perhaps later,” he suggested with a raised eyebrow.

“Perhaps tomorrow,” she said firmly, but with a wry smile. “There is a ban on whores in this hostelry, have you not heard?”

He laughed. “I am known as Khrin.”

Razlo panted up to them with one holey blanket and a lantern. He frowned at Khrin, but said to Jan-nell, “This way, woman.”

Drawing her cloak about Mira-nell once more, she followed the innkeeper out into the rain toward a small shelter in back of the inn. It hardly looked big enough to house a couple of milk cows much less travelers’ horses if the inn was full.

Character Interview—Khrin

Job? I am a wandering bard, though my family would rather I settle down and build a house in my village next to theirs.

Level of schooling or self-taught? The road is my teacher. I learn songs everywhere and meet some of the most interesting people, especially that cloaked little firebrand with her quick-witted child.

Favorite food? I am quite fond of my mother’s bread. But I am beginning to enjoy found food along the Wayfarer’s Road. If only I had the hand to herb fish as this woman I found at the Wild Boar does.

Significant other? Do you mean a wife? Ho-ho. Not I. I am enjoying the wanderer’s life. My mother, though, thinks I have been alone far too long. Tis true many of my younger brothers and sisters are already wed with hearths crowed with young faces. But for me there is no one. Though this sweet child, Mira-nell, whose tongue and mind are far older than her wee bones, could cause me to hang up my traveling boots. And her mother has such alluring green eyes, even though she does not know how to use those beautiful gifts to charm me or any man.

Wealthy, poor, or somewhere in between? I am rich in song and wit but often my purse is light.

Buy Links:

https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/museitup/romance/fantasy-romance/the-wayfarer-s-road-detail

http://www.amazon.com/Wayfarers-Road-Bowdancer-Saga-Book-ebook/dp/B00JQNFQJM/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1456892437&sr=8-11&keywords=Janie+Franz

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wayfarers-road-janie-franz/1118924589?ean=2940045767378

https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/the-wayfarer-s-road-1

About Janie Franz

Janie Franz comes from a long line of Southern liars and storytellers. She told  other people’s stories as a freelance journalist for many years. With Texas wedding DJ, Bill Cox, she co-wrote The Ultimate Wedding Ceremony Book and The Ultimate Wedding Reception Book, and then self-published a writing manual, Freelance Writing: It’s a Business, Stupid!  She also published an online music publication, was an agent/publicist for a groove/funk band, a radio announcer, and a yoga/relaxation instructor.

Currently, she is writing her tweveth novel and a self-help book, Starting Over: Becoming a Woman of Power.

Links

https://authorjaniefranz.wordpress.com

https://janiefranz.wordpress.com

https://thebowdancersaga.wordpress.com

Everybody Reads YA Sunday - Ride of a Lifetime!

Ride of a Lifetime

Jim Abernathy is the new kid at Langdon Middle School - and a bully.  With the death of his mother, and his father having to work two jobs, Jim has been on his own for the last year.  In that year, Jim has become a bitter and brooding young man. A new job in Phoenix is just what Jim and his dad need for a new start. 

Miss Wickware, and all the students in her history class, get a dose of Jim’s surly attitude the second he walks through the door. Everyone holds their breaths when their teacher and Jim go nose to nose.  Miss Wickware wins the first round.

The class must draw historical subjects out of a box and present oral reports on whom or what they have drawn. Jim draws Sybil Ludington.  “Great, a woman” His words are dripping with sarcasm.  “Real exciting!”

Jim’s ideas about women in history take a whole new turn when he walks out of class and into the Eighteenth Century and the life of Sybil Ludington.

Excerpt

“These aren’t my clothes. Where are my clothes?” His voice grew louder with each word.

The girl stood and took a few steps back. Her eyes were wary but there was concern in her voice. “Please, you may have hurt yourself when you fainted. Maybe you shouldn’t be dancing around.”

“I’m not dancing around. What the heck is happening…?” He stopped talking and his head snapped back around to her. “Faint! I didn’t faint! Only sissies faint!”

http://www.amazon.com/Ride-Lifetime-Wickware-Sagas-ebook/dp/B00D91Z1JM

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ride-of-a-lifetime-penny-estelle/1115530815?ean=2940016766348

http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/our-authors/55-our-authors/authors-e/146-author-19

I write for all ages, from the early reader to adults.  My books range from pictures books for the little ones, to fantasy, time-travel adventures for ages 9 to 13. I also write adult stories, including a family drama and contemporary, paranormal and historical westerns romances, under P. A. Estelle.

I was a school secretary for 21 years.  My husband and I moved to our retirement home in Kingman, AZ, on very rural 54 acres, living on solar and wind only.  

More about my books can be found in the following links:

www.pennystales.com

www.pennyestelle.blogspot.com

http://www.amazon.com/Penny-Estelle/e/B006S62XBY

https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=146&Itemid=82

www.facebook.com/pennystales

www.pinterest.com/pennyestelle

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5820078.Penny_Estelle - Goodreads

http://www.twitter.com/pennystales

Spotlight - J. J. DiBenedetto and his new book Finders Keepers

   

1,400 miles. 3 countries 2 men she can't trust. What could go wrong?     

            

 FINDERS KEEPERS is the first book in the new Jane Barnaby Adventures series:

It should have been a simple job. All archaeology student Jane Barnaby had to do was pick up a box her professor needed and deliver it to him at his dig site, along with his new car. Yes, his office was in Oxfordshire, and his dig site was in Spain, a trip of 1,400 miles across three countries and two bodies of water. Still, it should have been simple. And it was, until Jane discovered she picked up the wrong box by mistake. Not the one with boring pottery samples, but instead the one with priceless ancient Egyptian artifacts. The one that a team of international art thieves is after. Now she’s chasing – and being chased by – the thieves. And she’s picked up a pair of passengers who claim they can help her outwit them, get her professor’s pottery back and return the artifacts to their rightful owner. If only she could figure out which one of them is working with the thieves and which one she can trust in this high-stakes game of finders keepers.

It's available everywhere eBooks are sold: Amazon (Kindle or Paperback) Smashwords Barnes & Noble (Nook or Paperback) Apple iBookstore Kobo

    

 About the author J.J. (James) Dibenedetto's fans would swear he's got a sixth sense when it comes to seeing into the minds of others and often wonder if his stories could possibly be fiction. He enjoys suspending disbelief with suspenseful paranormal tales that are a perfect blend of reality meets fantasy. His popular Dream Series continues to delight readers with each and every exciting installment. Born in Yonkers, New York, he currently resides in Arlington Virginia with his beautiful wife and a cat he is sure has taken full advantage of its nine lives. When it comes to the cat, he often wonders, but then again it might just be his imagination. You can follow him at his website, on Facebook and on Twitter. And you can find all his books (including the complete Dream Series) on Amazon and on audiobook at Audible.com   Here's an excerpt from Finders Keepers:

The thieves simply made a mistake. Whether Tom had put his box in the wrong room, or whether the thieves had gotten their wires crossed, who knew? She’d had trouble reading Professor Welldon’s writing; she hadn’t been sure if she was meant to go to Room 16 or Room 18 herself. It hadn’t mattered because the thieves had already gotten there and made the choice for her. “When they finally got where they were going, they opened it up, and you can imagine their surprise.” Jane noted the vagueness there; she assumed Alex knew exactly where that was and, for whatever reason, didn’t want to say. She didn’t challenge him; she kept up her happy façade instead, and he went on. “They knew they couldn’t go back and steal the right box, but they had the label on your pottery, they knew where it was supposed to go.” “They’re headed to Mallorca!” Jane couldn’t help herself; the words just poured out. “They’re going to wait there until I show up and try to trade, the pottery for the artifacts!” She knew she’d said too much. Alex’s eyes lit up, just for an instant, when she mentioned Mallorca. That was something, obviously, he hadn’t known. But he caught himself almost immediately, and so did she. She wondered if he knew that she knew he was putting on an act. She wondered if he knew that she knew that he knew she was, too. And she wondered if she had any aspirin in her purse, because that train of thought was giving her a headache.

 

Last, but not least, to celebrate the launch of FINDERS KEEPERS, I'm giving away a signed paperback copy of either this new book, or any one of my Dream Series novels (winner's choice). For your chance to win, just click HERE to enter!)