Welcome Sharon Dunn!

Just a little about Sharon:

BIO
Sharon Dunn is an award winning romance and mystery author. Her Guardian is her third romantic suspense for Love Inspired. When she is not writing, Sharon divides her time between three kids, her husband of twenty four years, a very nervous border collie and three cats. You can read more about Sharon and her books at www.sharondunnbooks.net.


I'm so thrilled to have Sharon Dunn as my guest today! First Happy Fourth of July! I was supposed to post this on the 2nd, but due to family stuff, weekend stuff and life in general, it just didn't get done for which I apologize. However, I think it's very appropriate to post about about this book today. Today is about FREEDOM, our freedom, bought and paid for by American lives. Sharon's book is about a girl whose freedom was taken away from her at the age of 13 and she doesn't get it back until the age of 20. And yes, this freedom comes at a cost. So, I hope you enjoy reading about this book and will enter the contest to win this fantastic book!


Inspiration for the Story

The inspiration for Her Guardian came from a number of news stories about kidnappings, the Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart cases, along with a case in Europe where a woman was kept locked away in her father’s house for years and the neighbors never knew. I didn’t want to explore the grittier elements of those cases like the rape and having children by your abductor. What was interesting to me was how a whole chunk of someone’s life could be lost. My heroine Julia is held captive from the time she is 13 to age 20. She has missed out on all the “normal” growing up stuff that happens during those years: graduation, learning to driving, starting to date, first kiss, prom, having friends, going to college. I wanted to explore how someone comes to terms with that loss. How do you find hope and not give into bitterness? Julia’s bodyguard and the hero of the story Gavin helps her with that process in addition to keeping her save from the cult leader Elijah True. Gavin is Julia’s guardian not only for her physical safety but also for her heart, for her emotional well being.






















Thank you so much, Sharon, for sharing about Her Guardian. I can't wait to get my own copy!

All right, readers, if you want to enter, just leave a post and tell us about your feelings on FREEDOM. Freedom as a country, freedom in Christ, just freedom in general.

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL 4th of July!

God Bless!
Lynette

Welcome Margaret Daley

Happy Wednesday Book Lovers,


Today, I'm very honored to introduce my friend and fellow author, Margaret Daley.

Margaret Daley is an award winning, multi-published author in the romance genre. One of her romantic suspense books, Hearts on the Line, won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Book of the Year Contest. Recently she has won the Golden Quill Contest, FHL’s Inspirational Readers’ Choice Contest, Winter Rose Contest, Holt Medallion and the Barclay Gold Contest. She wrote for various secular publishers before the Lord led her to the Christian romance market. She currently writes inspirational romance and romantic suspense books for the Steeple Hill Love Inspired lines, romantic suspense for Abingdon Press and historical romance for Summerside Press. She has sold seventy-five books to date.
Margaret is currently the President for American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), an organization of over 2300 members. She was one of the founding members of the first ACFW local chapter, WIN in Oklahoma. She has taught numerous classes for online groups, ACFW and RWA chapters. She enjoys mentoring other authors.

Until she retired a few years ago, she was a teacher of students with special needs for twenty-seven years and volunteered with Special Olympics as a coach. She currently is on the Outreach committee at her church, working on several projects in her community as well as serving on her church’s vestry.

On a more personal note, she has been married for over forty years to Mike and has one son and four granddaughters. She treasures her time with her family and friends.

Margaret graciously agreed to answer a few questions about a couple of her books.

Questions for author interviews for Lynette’s blog

1. We read your bio and learned a little about you. Anything you want to share in addition to that? When I retired from teaching three years ago, I wasn’t sure how it would go. I thought I might get bored or not have enough to do. NOT. I have been busier now writing full-time than when I was teaching and writing.

2. You’ve been writing a long time. How many books do you have published now? I sold my seventy-fifth book last September to Summerside Press. That historical romance called From This Day Forward will be out this September.

3. I know you’ve written a book in the recent Love Inspired Suspense continuity series, Texas Ranger Justice. Was it difficult to write about an idea created by someone else?



My book, Trail of Lies, was the fourth book (out April 2011) in the series. This has been my seventh continuity series and each one is a challenge coordinating with five other awesome authors and writing a story that has loosely been plotted by Love Inspired Suspense. They give us the broad plot points we need to address in our story, but we have to come up with all the scenes in between and make it all work.



4. I know you did a lot of research for Trail of Lies, including visiting with a Texas Ranger. Do you always “go all out” with your research? I try to get my research as accurate as I can. Some books require more than others. I have interviewed some interesting people for a book.

5. What are you working on now or going to write next? I am working on Saving Grace, my second book in the Men of the Texas Rangers, a romantic suspense series for Abingdon Press. This book will be out next August 2012. The first in the series called Saving Hope will be out in February 2012.

6. What do you like to do for fun? Do something with my family, especially my granddaughters. I also love to go to lunch and a movie with a friend.

7. How can readers get in contact with you? http://www.margaretdaley.com is the address of my new website. I just got through redoing it and moving my blog to the website. Check it out and leave a comment on my guestbook for a chance to win a book in the monthly contest.

8. What is the book you have out in June? I have the second book in Guardians, Inc. Series for Love Inspired. It is called Protecting Her Own. The third will be out in September called Hidden in the Everglades.


Blurb for Protecting Her Own: Nothing short of her dad’s stroke could bring professional bodyguard Cara Madison back to Virginia. But her homecoming turns explosive with a pipe bomb package addressed to her father. Cara knows two things for sure. First, someone’s after either her father or her…or both. And second, this job is too big to handle on her own. Unexpected help comes from Virginia state police detective Connor Fitzgerald. Years ago she’d walked away from him…and love. Now, despite their unresolved feelings, they must join forces—and settle their scarred differences.

9. Any parting comments? Wise advice for pre-published authors? Keep writing and submitting your work. Don’t give up. Also don’t forget to read a lot in the area you want to write.


You are a very busy lady! Thank you so much for stopping by and spending some time with us.

Readers, if you would like to win a copy of Margaret's newest release, PROTECTING HER OWN, please leave a comment saying you want to be entered in the drawing. You might leave Margaret a little note, too. :)

God Bless and until we meet again...

June ACFW New Releases

A Vision of Lucy by Margaret Brownley -- Romance from Thomas Nelson. Trouble may follow Lucy wherever she goes, but with the help of God and the rugged, reclusive David Wolf, she'll never face adversity alone.

Behind the Badge by Susan Sleeman -- A Thriller/Suspense from Love Inspired Suspense. Can a rookie sheriff's deputy find a killer before the killer takes the lives of the people she loves?

Beyond All Measure by Dorothy Love -- General Fiction from Thomas Nelson. Unless she can let go of her fears and learn to trust again, Ada may lose the heart of a good man.

Broken Wings: A Novel by Carla Stewart -- General Fiction from Faith Words (Hachette). One woman clings to her memories. The other wants to erase hers. A story of an unlikely friendship birthed in providence and bathed in grace.

Forever After (A Hanover Falls Novel) by Deborah Raney -- General Fiction from Howard (Simon & Schuster). A series of arson fires at Hanover Falls rebuilt homeless shelter threatens its residents and casts new suspicions about the original fire.

Home Sweet Home by Kim Watters -- Romance from Love Inspired. Finding a home is all Abby dreamed about, until she discovers the man she falls in love with has a less permanent agenda.

Idaho Brides by Erica Vetsch -- Romance from Barbour. Experience the Wild West through the eyes of the three McConnell brothers who long to overcome their troubled childhood as drunkard’s sons.

Love Finds You in Amana, Iowa by Melanie Dobson -- Romance from Summerside Press. As the rest of the nation is embroiled in the Civil War, the Amana Colonies have remained at peace—until now.

Protecting Her Own by Margaret Daley -- Thriller/Suspense from Love Inspired Suspense. Protecting her own father when an assailant targets him, bodyguard Cara Madison with Connor Fitzgerald, an ex-boyfriend, searches for a would be killer while fighting her feelings toward Connor.

Purple Knot by Raquel Byrnes -- Romance from White Rose. With her faith shaken and her world cast in shadows, can Reyna trust the God she believes abandoned her?

Spring for Susannah by Catherine Richmond -- Romance from Thomas Nelson. How could a marriage possibly work when the couple has only exchanged a few letters?

The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck by Kathleen Y'Barbo -- Romance from Waterbrook/Multnomah (Random House). Unlikely romance is sometimes just an inconvenient marriage away

The Irresistible Earl by Regina Scott -- A Romance from Love Inspired Historical. If Chase Dearborn, the powerful Earl of Allyndale, found Meredee Price's family in Scarborough, surely he'd continue his quest to challenge Meredee's stepbrother to a duel. Meredee is determined to avoid the earl at all costs.

The Story in the Stars, Gateway to Gannah, Book 1 by Yvonne Anderson -- Fantasy from Risen Books. The inhabitants of the planet Gannah are known as bloodthirsty savages who once tried to conquer the galaxy. Now a plague has ravaged the planet and only one survivor remains.

The Sweetest Thing by Elizabeth Musser -- General Fiction from Bethany House. The Sweetest Thing is the story of two girls--opposites in every way--fighting for the same thing: survival amidst tumultuous change.

The Wedding Season: The Gentleman Takes a Bride by Louise M. Gouge -- Romance from Love Inspired Historical. Surely Elizabeth Moberly was born to be a nobleman's bride. She can't possibly be attracted to the untitled stranger who interrupts her cousin's wedding.

Under a Desert Sky by DiAnn Mills -- General Fiction from Summerside Press. A race from danger...straight into the arms of love.