Er. Well, it’s my birthday. And my BFF’s birthday. That’s how we became BFFs almost… 30 [eep!] years ago. Or maybe not almost 30. Maybe it’s 23…

Regardless, a long time.

Plus that means you get free dinner at Lambert’s. Or you used to. Now they give you 9.99 off plus a free hubcap cinnamon roll.

Did get a LITTLE bit of writing done while I was there but they were super busy – one bus already there and two more waiting. I got in quickly since I was by myself, but didn’t hang out very long once I was done eating.

I *did* get my food thrown at me though ;).

I have one handwritten page from my second workplace of the day:

I need to transcribe it and get a couple of K in.

Yesterday’s totals:

Day 7: 3436
Total: 17577

Shiloh Jacobs is planning her wedding without family, without money, and without a clue—and trying to make a go of small-town Southern life. Until she stumbles on an unsolved case about a missing woman that makes her run in the opposite direction—right into the would-be killer’s web of plans. In the midst of sorting through her tragic past and strained relationships, Shiloh finds herself on the run from a madman—and hoping she can make it to her wedding alive.

 

 

I read the second book in this series, Like Sweet Potato Pie, a few months ago. One of the things I lamented at the time was my unfamiliarity with the characters from book one. That wasn’t an issue this time as I remembered them all from last time.

Ms. Spinola does a wonderful job of creating a cast of characters we can care about – and laugh with. While playing to stereotypes of Southern hicks, she also breaks those molds with characters who SEEM to be one way but in reality have many facets to their personalities and to their lives.

The mystery/suspense side of the book kept me guessing until the very end [and I’m usually pretty good and picking up on who the bad guy is – this person tickled my bad guy/gal radar but not enough for me to really focus it – like several others did].

Overall, I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to reading whatever Ms. Spinola has coming next.

Overall Rating: 7.75 out of 10 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ecopy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

So I have a character who is near and dear to my hero and heroine. And I’m having bad stuff happen to her – so they can deal with some of it together.

And I decided her appendix needed to burst.

So I emailed my friend Becki. Because her son’s appendix burst about 2.5 years ago. And she spent part of last night and tonight IMing with me walking me through her experience.

Of course, in the email, I forgot to mention it was FICTIONAL and she thought it was one of my kids… 😉

She also didn’t take extensive notes [/sigh/ What am I going to do with her?]. She promised to from now on, whenever interesting stuff happens, so that she can help me more later ;).

Love that girl!!! She was one of my first supporters.

In fact, it was while she was at the hospital with her son that I went to see her and she started my Facebook Fan Page [because I felt weird starting it myself]. Okay. I started it. But I used her computer ;). She was willing but didn’t know how. Then made me an admin. I think she may have been un-admin-ed at some point…

Anyway…

Day 6: 1120
Total: 14141

Today is going better. I’m at about 2250 so far and still going with the appendectomy stuff.

So… back to work :).

The winner of the September New Releases Clash is…

And thank you to all our participating authors:

• Catherine West, author of Hidden in the Heart
• Donn Taylor, author of Deadly Additive
• Jennifer A. Davids, author of Restored Heart
• Stephanie Grace Whitson, author of The Shadow on the Quilt

It was a tight race and everyone did great. Many, many of our readers commented they would like to read all of them!

About The Road To Mercy:

Tragedy, love, & secrets meet on a journey of faith.

Josh Harrison, a contemporary Christian singer, and his wife Bethany face a difficult decision that also tests their faith. A rupture in Beth’s carotid artery leaves her on the brink of death even as she’s pregnant with their first child. While Dr. Ben Abrams urges her to terminate the pregnancy to save her own life, she and Josh step out on faith and decide to carry the baby to full term.

During the next few months, Josh struggles with his faith, Beth hides a secret that may destroy their marriage. She also discovers a decades-old connection to Dr. Abrams that could change his life forever.

ENDORSEMENTS

… The Road to Mercy is a blessing wrapped up in a novel—a reminder of the kindness of God.

~ Rebecca St. James, Singer, author, actress

Exquisite!

~ Ane Mulligan, Novel Rocket

Kathy Harris weaves a tale that crosses generations while drawing readers into a dramatic story that has both heart and soul.

~ Ace Collins, author of The Yellow Packard and The Christmas Star

A terrific read beautifully trumpeting the exquisite worth of every human life.

~ Rusty Whitener, author of A Season Of Miracles, Christy Award Finalist

…captivating from the very beginning.

~ Joe Bonsall, author and entertainer

ON SALE LINKS

http://www.amazon.com/Road-Mercy-Kathy-Harris/dp/1426741936/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330640867&sr=1-1

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-road-to-mercy-kathy-harris/1108857098

http://www.christianbook.com/the-road-to-mercy/kathy-harris/9781426741937/pd/741931?item_code=WW&netp_id=978817&event=ESRCG&view=details

What readers had to say:

*I saw several others which may also make it to my shelf as well! Thanks for the inspirational choices.

*The Road to Mercy looks fabulous! I can’t wait to read it.

*I am so thankful to these authors for following the path that the Lord has chosen for them.

*Just finished The Road to Mercy and was so deeply touched by it.

*I LOVED The Road to Mercy by Kathy Harris, but this was a difficult vote for me – I also love Donn Taylor’s writing and now I have to go get his book!

*My daughter’s name is Mercy so I am drawn to that title. The hook is very captivating and I usually don’t read contemporary. Great hooks from all of the writers. As a writer myself I know it is not an easy task.

*These all look sooo good!

*I love the variety of tiltles offered!

Kathy Harris is an author by way of a divine detour into the Nashville entertainment business. She graduated with a B.S. in Communications from Southern Illinois University and has spent the past two decades employed as a marketing director in the Nashville music industry.

An active member of American Christian Fiction Writers and the publicity officer for Middle Tennessee Christian Writers, Kathy lives near Nashville with her husband and their two Shiloh Shepherd dogs. Her fiction debut, The Road to Mercy, was released by Abingdon Press on September 1, 2012.

Kathy regularly interviews literary and music guests on her blog at www.DivineDetour.com. Her author site is www.kathyharrisbooks.com. You can find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KathyHarrisAuthor or Twitter @DivineDetour.

Yep. Picked the kids up at 330. Voted about 345. We live in a small-to-medium sized town [just under 15K]. A few years ago we annexed a tiny town [a few hundred] that retained it’s own mailing address/dot on the map. That’s where we vote. In that tiny town. At a fire station in the middle of nowhere.

There’s MAYBE 20 parking spots. Probably more like 15. [Okay. I Google Mapped it. There’s 21 plus 2 handicapped.]

I’ve NEVER EVER had to park in the ‘far’ side of the lot [12 spots right in front of the stations and the rest a bit further away]. But today I did. They had blocked off the area in front of the fire doors [never seen that before either].

Hubby left my house about 5:55 this morning since he HAS to vote before class. He was number 20 or so at 615am. I was number 879 at 345ish this afternoon. My next door neighbors voted about 30 minutes later and were 961/2.

In 2008, there were 1129 voters in my precinct [68% of registered voters].
In 2010, there were 804 voters in my precinct [45% of registered voters].

So higher numbers this round it seems, though our population has grown some too.

Anyway…

Yesterday, I ended up with 3564 words. Wrote some this afternoon while waiting to pick kids up from school. A few hundred. Hope to get some more in tonight while watching election results.

Day 5: 3564
Total: 13021

Oh. And I started a fire in my oven. Bought frozen pizzas for tonight. And the cheese one [which my kids prefer] slid off the thing into the bottom of the oven where it caught fire. Immediately turned off the oven which helped then managed to dig it out and salvage half of it… :p

When her brother is injured fighting in France, Meghan enlists her fellow Harvey Girl waitresses to sew a Red Cross signature quilt to raise money for wounded doughboys. Local horse breeder Caleb McBride longs to join the battle, but the army won’t take him. Because he has kept his shameful infirmity a secret, the townsfolk have labeled him a coward and war profiteer. When Meghan uncovers his malady, her poor opinion of Caleb unravels. Can this beautiful seamstress find a way to mend his heart?

The day before writing this review, I went to the mailbox and pulled out an ad booklet from a local Christian bookstore and a bunch of envelopes. The first couple were credit card offers [yeah, haven’t used one of those in about 10 years…] followed by EOBs from our insurance company. I thought “Man, I wish I could get something nice in the mail – books are nice, but a letter would be really cool, too.”

I flipped to the next envelope and, lo and behold, it was from Erica. Her first ever newsletter, complete with bookmarks for both this book and her four-in-one collection of novellas, Sagebrush Knights, due out early next month.

/big happy sigh/

Totally made my day.

I’d finished this book the day before the newsletter arrived and thoroughly enjoyed it [yes, that’s a phrase I use often when reviewing books – but I only offer to review books I expect to like].

Meghan is wonderfully stubborn and feisty and impetuous. This can get her into trouble more often than not [don’t those kind of traits get to all of us sometimes?] and she’s set to raise $1000 for the Red Cross to use to buy an ambulance.

She’s a Harvey Girl – and I loved learning about them. I’d heard of them before but didn’t know near as much about them as I do now. Meghan’s boss is a hard-nosed woman who gives little room for error and seems to have it in for Meghan from the very beginning.

Caleb [and his sidekick, Joshua – loved that!] trains horses for the cavalry. He’s branded as a coward for failing to enlist in the military but still profiting off it with the horses. He has his reasons – great ones – for not enlisting and none have anything to do with being a coward*.

Erica does a wonderful job of pulling us into the world of Needles and the Harvey restaurants along the route. When the Spanish influenza hits Needles, they all pull together and begin to put aside their differences. Will they continue to do so as she tries to raise the money for the Red Cross? Or will long-held prejudices derail her efforts?

This is Erica’s second full length novel [the rest of her works are either Heartsong Presents or novellas] and I hope we get many more from her in the future.

Overall rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for this review.

*Ironically, in both this book and last week’s Sleigh Belles, the hero wants to enlist for WWI but can’t due to health issues.

Yesterday wasn’t nearly as productive as I’d hoped but it wasn’t a total loss either. Plus we took the kids to see the Shaolin Warriors last night and had lunch with friends [after rocking babies in the nursery ;)]. So all in all, a good day even without a huge word count.

Today is going much better as far as word count is concerned. And since I likely won’t post until fairly late tomorrow, I thought I’d get my PSA in today ;).

VOTE!!!!

It doesn’t matter so much [to me] WHO you vote for, but please vote. I mean, it does matter. But you and I can disagree on who to vote for and still be friends. So I’ll just ask you to make sure that you do vote.

Day 4: 819
Total: 9457

When her client and old college friend is murdered, P.I. Kat Justice knows the killer will come for her next. Her survival depends on finding her unknown enemy first…and working with homicide detective Mitch Elliot, her onetime crush. It’ll take all her professional skills to ignore the sparks between them, but Kat can’t allow the handsome cop to get close. She’s seen too many people she loves die, so she vows just to do her job without getting emotionally involved. Yet keeping her distance may not be the best way to protect her heart—or their lives.

This is my second Susan Sleeman book and I enjoyed it as much as the first :).

This is the second in the Justice Agency series and I’m guessing there will be three more [since there’s 5 siblings] and I look forward to the others.

Sleeman does an excellent job of keeping all of us on our toes. From the opening sequence until the resolution, she keeps us guessing. I’m usually pretty good at guessing twists and this one caught me by surprise. I love that.

Neither Kat nor Mitch were perfect. They both have things in their pasts that need to be worked through. They both know all the reasons why they should run far away from each other, but they don’t. Thank goodness. 😀

The romance aspect was well done and I hope to see Kat and Mitch in future installments of the Justice Agency series.

One thing I did miss in this one was the couple from book 1. They were mentioned but didn’t make an appearance. It wasn’t a deal breaker or anything for me, but I love seeing part of the HEA in other books in a series.

Overall Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Thanks to Susan for an influencer copy of the book in exchange for my review.

Yesterday was my best day so far :). 5272 in between everything else and only about a 3 hour dedicated writing block [in which my computer locked up :p].

Today, was church. We were in the nursery and then had lunch with friends. Fortunately, it only takes one thumb to type on my phone ;). Rocking a sleeping baby with a phone in one hand works. Not the whole time but some of it. And in the van. And while waiting for the friends to arrive for lunch. A total of about 750 words on my phone today. Emailed them to myself then pasted them into the document. Current total is nearly 9500. I’d love to pass 10K today.

But we’re getting ready to go to the Sholin Warriors [or something like that] with the kids and hubby’s work. I may get to write a bit more in the car or while waiting for it to start. Another 1K total would be better. 1500 more to hit 11K would rock :).

So yesterday:
Day 3: 5272
Total: 8638

Total by the end of day 4: TBD

Yay! Today was one of those “breakthrough” days!

Pepper and I had talked earlier this week about the hero’s name. We joked about one possibility, but I went with the nickname anyone – as it could be short for several names. Today, I figured out how that name – or, rather, the reasoning behind it – will be one of the keys to getting my hero and heroine together once and for all.

Plus my hero told me something completely unexpected today. But something completely wonderful that totally ties a bunch of other stuff together [yes, that’s vague – trust me ;)].

AND I’ve written a bunch of words – and I’m not done yet :D.

Day 2: 1703

Total: 3366

Back to work!