The Half Breed (Secret Fires) by Bobbi Smith (VNBtM, guest post, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

I have the pleasure of sharing a guest post by author Bobbi Smith. I FINALLY  added the pictures of the beautiful buildings that she supplied, thanks for your patience   (0;




And...here's Bobbi!

Hi Everybody! 

My blog question today is – What would be your dream place to visit and why?
 

I love to travel. My family went on a lot of driving vacations when I was a kid, and I fell in love with all of the U.S. From the Arizona desert to the snow-covered mountains to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, it’s all breathtaking and endlessly fascinating to me.  

The one thing that stayed with me from my childhood, though, was something I learned in French class during my freshman year of high school. We watched a filmstrip series about a girl named Margot and her uncle, and how they toured the chateaux on the Loire River in France. Wow! What magnificent architecture! I’d grown up living in flats in the city and always loved looking at big houses on lots of land. It was fun to imagine what it would be like to live in one. When I saw these castles, I was awestruck. I certainly would love to visit them, but I wouldn’t want to have to clean them!  J 

I came close to visiting “castles” when I toured the Southern plantations in Louisiana and Mississippi. I spent the night at Nottoway Plantation on the Mississippi River while I was researching my first book, Rapture’s Rage. What a wonderful experience. I got up early and went to walk the grounds. There was a heavy mist that morning, and that’s how I came up with the title The Mist and The Dream for my book. (Only later, after I’d sold the book, did I discover that the publisher has control of the title, and they changed it to Rapture’s Rage.) If you like beautiful mansions, check out Nottoway, Madewood and Oak Alley. 

Azay le Rideau 

Oak Alley Plantation

Nottoway Plantation

Chenonceau

Madewood Plantation

Chambord Castle in the Loire Valley

 

Blois

***************************

The Half Breed

(Secret Fires)

by Bobbi Smith

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE: Historical Romance

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

SECRET FIRES

In the midst of the vast, windswept Texas plains stands a ranch wrested from the wilderness with blood, sweat and tears. It is the shining legacy of Thomas McBride to his five living heirs. But along with the fertile acres and herds of cattle, each will inherit a history of scandal, lies and hidden desire that threatens to burn out of control.

THE HALF-BREED

Chase knows he has no legitimate claim to the Circle M. After all, his father made it painfully clear he wants nothing to do with his bastard son or the Comanche girl he once took to his bed. But Chase has his own reasons for answering Tom McBride's deathbed summons. He has a job to do as a Texas Ranger, and a woman to protect—a woman whose sweet innocence gives him new faith that love born in the darkest night can face the dawn of all his tomorrows.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT

When the raiding party passed out from the liquor they’d been drinking, their captive Faith made her escape on foot. Terror drove her on through the darkness. She had been running for hours when she finally saw the faint glow of a campfire in the distance

Faith moved stealthily onward.  She hoped it was a company of cavalrymen or ranch hands.

Her hopes were dashed as she surveyed the scene below.

Sitting before the low-burning campfire was a bare-chested warrior.  Faith did not recognize him as one of the raiding party, but there was no mistaking the aura of danger about him.  As she was watching, he looked up in her direction.  She remained still, barely breathing, until he looked away.  Her fear turned to fury as she slipped away.  She had to save herself.

Chase McBride knew someone was nearby.  He hadn’t survived this long by ignoring his instincts, and they were screaming a warning right now.  He was puzzled, for if someone was out to kill him, they would have taken a shot by now.  Continuing to act naturally, he stretched out on his bedroll, pretending to fall asleep.  With his gun in hand, he waited.

Faith believed the warrior hadn’t seen her.  She hoped to steal his horse before he could catch her.  

She returned to watch the campsite and was relieved to find the warrior asleep.  She felt a flicker of hope.   Slowly, cautiously, she made her way toward his horse.       

Amazon link

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

After working as a department manager for Famous-Barr, and briefly as a clerk at a bookstore, Bobbi Smith gave up on career security and began writing. She sold her first book to Zebra in 1982.

Since then, Bobbi has written over 40 books and 6 novellas. To date, there are more than five million of her novels in print. She has been awarded the prestigious Romantic Times Storyteller of the Year Award and two Career Achievement Awards. Her books have appeared on numerous bestseller lists.

When she's not working on her novels, she is frequently a guest speaker for writer's groups. Bobbi is mother of two sons and resides in St. Charles, Missouri with her husband and three dogs.

You can follow Bobbi on Facebook

Bobbi has been awarded the prestigious “Storyteller of the Year” Award from Romantic Times Magazine (New York) and has attained positions on the New York Times Best Seller List, the USA Today Best Seller List, the Walden’s Best Seller List, B. Dalton’s List, and the Wal-Mart and K-Mart Best Seller Lists.

The foreign rights to Ms. Smith’s books have been sold to China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Russia and Sweden. Smith’s current publisher is Amazon. Bobbi has written two faith-based contemporary novels - Haven and Miracles  - using the pseudonym of Julie Marshall.

Copyright © 2018 Bobbi Smith.

Website

Facebook

Goodreads

*********************************

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway
The tour dates can be found here

Shadows of Damascus GFT

 Today I have the wonderful opportunity to have a guest post by the author of the New Adult romance book, Shadows of Damascus, Lilas Taha.  Congrats to her on her debut novel!

Advice for writers

by Lilas Taha

 
Writing fiction requires not just an active imagination, but a decent ability to tell a lie. Lie with conviction, with complete abandonment of the truth, and create a web to support the lie. That is how I see writing a fictional story. It has to be complete, in all its angles, worlds, twists and turns for it to resonate with a reader. And as a writer, you have to believe the lie yourself.

Other non-character damaging advice I would have to say is keep learning. If you can’t handle criticism well, then I suggest you work hard at bringing down your expectations of your work. No matter how good a writer you may be, there is always a way to make you better. And if someone was gracious enough to point it out to you, then that would be your chance to open up and accept. I’m not saying all criticism is valid, but I’ve come across excellent writers who get offended when someone shines a light on a weak point in their work. In the writing world, and specifically in the publishing world, there is very little room for ego. A writer can always reject or accept suggestions, but a writer who wastes time and energy defending his or her work to a critiquing eye is someone who will remain at a standstill.
 
Make it better, bring it home for the person who found it lacking in one area or another, and be grateful someone took the time to give you feedback. But above all, trust your instinct. Like anything else we do in life, we tend to have that nagging voice in our heads telling us when something just isn’t right. If it is a plot issue, and you feel like the strings are not knotted tight enough, someone will pick up on that. So do your research, tighten the knots yourself, and make the plot as airtight as possible. If that little voice in your head raises questions about a certain character’s behavior that isn’t consistent with the kind of person you created, fix it. Characters don’t have to be predictable and consistent. Real people are not. But if you took the time to paint a character in a meaningful way, then his or her behavior must match. Redo the scene that bothers you deep down, it will bother your reader too.

 

Blurb:
 
Bullet wounds, torture and oppression aren’t the only things that keep a man—or a woman—from being whole.

Debt. Honor. Pain. Solitude. These are things wounded war veteran Adam Wegener knows all about. Love—now, that he is not good at. Not when love equals a closed fist, burns, and suicide attempts. But Adam is one who keeps his word. He owes the man who saved his life in Iraq. And he doesn’t question the measure of the debt, even when it is in the form of an emotionally distant, beautiful woman.

Yasmeen agreed to become the wife of an American veteran so she could flee persecution in war-torn Syria. She counted on being in the United States for a short stay until she could return home. There was one thing she did not count on: wanting more.

Is it too late for Adam and Yasmeen?


Excerpt:
 

Hot cup of coffee in one hand, phone receiver cradled on shoulder, Adam dialed the phone number at eight thirty the following morning. A decent time. A woman’s soft voice greeted him.

“Good morning, ma’am. I’d like to talk to Mr. Pemssy?” He barely contained his excitement.

“Sorry?”

“My name is Adam Wegener,” he enunciated his words. “I want to speak to Mr. O. R. Pemssy.”

“Wrong number.”

Click.

“Damn it.” His excitement disintegrated like a popped balloon. He went back to the kitchen table and re-worked the letters again, only to end up with the same number. Frustrated, he crumbled the papers and threw them across the kitchen floor. To hell with this, he’d wasted enough time on this shit. If Fadi wanted something from him, he damned well better call him.

Hungry and angry, he stabbed a slice of toast and smeared it with peanut butter. Tension building in the muscles of his arms, he wanted to throw or break something. Instead, he swallowed the sandwich and went outside to work. Climbing astride his rusty old tractor, he cranked the motor.

Rising heat squeezed sweat from his body like a sponge with no regard to his fragile mental state. His mind crunched numbers without end while he worked. Thoughts of the cool fridge full of icy drinks beckoned him for an early lunch. He abandoned his tractor in the middle of the field, and headed home, discarding his wet shirt on the way. He walked around the kitchen, stomping papers. It felt good and satisfying. As satisfying as the icy Coke he gulped down. Needing to put things in order, he collected the discarded papers. When he reached to crush the envelope, his eyes landed on the Turkish stamp. A surge of excitement gripped his stomach. One more thing he needed to try.

Logging onto his laptop, he searched Turkey’s city codes for area code 216. Istanbul on the Asian side. He searched for the country code, then the time difference. Eight hours ahead put it close to nine p.m. in Istanbul.

He dialed the sequence of international code numbers and held his breath while the same ringing tone played with his nerves.

“’Allo?” A man’s voice greeted.

“May I speak to Mr. Pemssy?”
“Yust a minute.” The man spoke with an unmistakable heavy accent.

Adam dropped in a chair and closed his eyes in anticipation.

“I see you got my letter,” a deep voice said.

“You’re the one who sent it? Who am I speaking to?” Eyes wide open now. Could it be Fadi? Damn it, he couldn’t remember his voice.

“You know who I am. I can’t use my real name. How is zat hib of yours? Giving you trouble?”

Fadi. Same annoying accent. “What the hell is going on?” He grit his teeth and tried to ignore the mispronunciations. “Couldn’t you have given me your phone number in the letter, or called me directly?”

“I didn’t know if you still lived at that address, and I didn’t want my number to fall in the wrong hands. You’re not listed. I knew you liked to count things. That was the best I could come up with.”

“I too tried to find you many times. What can I do for you, man? What do you need?” Was there a better way to say he hadn’t forgotten Fadi?

“I need a favor. But I can’t explain over the phone. Get on a plane and come here as soon as possible.”

“You want me to fly to Turkey? You serious?”

“You promised to help if I needed anything, and I do. Desperately.”

Adam coughed to steal a moment. What the hell? Fly over there? Could he even afford it? He’d like to help the guy, but this was insane.

“Can’t just drop everything and leave. I’ll do my best to help you from here if you tell me what you need. Nothing illegal, you should know this upfront.”

“I can’t tell you, and I can’t stay on the line for too long. A life is at stake. Are you in or out?”

Adam was torn. Torn and ashamed to admit he looked for a way out of the promise he’d given years earlier. “Your life?”

Fadi remained silent for a few seconds.

He heard an agonized exhale.

“You’re my only hope.”


AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Lilas Taha is a writer at heart, an electrical engineer by training, and an advocate for domestic abuse victims by choice. She was born in Kuwait to a Syrian mother and a Palestinian father, and immigrated to the U.S. as a result of the Gulf war in 1990. She earned a master’s degree in Human Factors Engineering from the University of Wisconsin- Madison. There, Lilas met her beloved husband and true friend, and moved with him to Sugar Land, Texas to establish a family. She is the proud mother of a daughter and a son. Instead of working in an industrial field, she applied herself to the field of social safety, working with victims of domestic violence.

Pursuing her true passion for creative writing, Lilas brings her professional interests, and her Middle Eastern background together in her debut fictional novel, Shadows of Damascus.

Website
Author Facebook Page
Book Facebook page
Blog 
Goodreads
Twitter: Follow @LilasTaha
LinkedIn
Email

Buy Links:

Amazon


Publisher 

*****************
GIVEAWAY

 One randomly chosen commenter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.  Please use the Rafflecopter and leave a comment about whether you are or would like to be a writer and what your biggest challenge is.




a Rafflecopter giveaway

Additional tour stops can be found at this link.