Fantasy and Dreams: 2016

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I wish for everyone a Christmas filled with joy, love, and peace of mind.

It's a busy world we live in with so many things to do and so little time filled with uncertainty and responsibilities. During this Christmas season, I hope we all take some quiet time for ourselves to reflect on the things that are really important and enjoy our family and friends.

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Pop Culture and Pop Beads

I am not a follower of fashion trends. They come and go and you end up with a closet full of 70's bellbottoms and leather vests with yard long fringe or 80's dresses and blouses with shoulder pads that made women look like the Incredible Hulk and guys with leisure suits made of some kind of permanent press material that was shiny that made men feel they were trussed up in plastic wrap.

And then back when the Earth's crust was still cooling, there were POP BEADS.

What? You don't remember what pop beads were? Well, let me educate you. Pop beads were round, plastic beads with a little knob on one side and a tiny hole on the other so that one bead could fit into the other until they could be popped together into a circle to make bracelets and necklaces.

Of course, back in the 50's no one thought about choking hazards for kids let alone fire retardant sleepwear which in recent times has been condemned for its cancer enhancing chemicals. So, for a short time, pop beads were quite the rage. After a short period of adoration, they became considered gauche and tasteless and lost their prestige.

This is the only picture I have of Mom in her fashionable attire with those charming pop beads around her neck. Shortly after this picture, Mom added her pop beads to my "dress-up bin" of castoff grownup clothes to wear for play.

So ends the tale of pop beads in cultural history.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Mercy Hospital's Christmas Competition 1980's

Charlotte in Gingerbread

Way back in the 1980’s when I worked in Coronary Care at Mercy Hospital before Carolinas Medical Center bought out the Sisters of Mercy, we used to have an annual contest for the unit that had the best Christmas display. (We were allowed to call it “Christmas”, not winter holiday or some such politically correct name.) The prize was usually free lunch brought to the unit for the nurses on all shifts to enjoy and a huge platter of Christmas cookies.

We decided to do something extraordinary for our display, something grand that would win that prize. I remembered the gingerbread houses my parents used to make. They were not only beautiful, but very yummy, too. They even brought a gingerbread house to my unit a couple times and I loved that they did that. So my coworkers and I decided to make gingerbread houses for our display. But we didn’t just want regular gingerbread houses, we wanted to make downtown Charlotte like a whole city of gingerbread buildings. (Actually, we made the base of the buildings from cardboard to prevent any catastrophic collapse.)

We worked and worked on that city until the entire unite smelled like vanilla icing and candy. While I was looking at some old pictures, I found a picture of our gingerbread city all decorated for Christmas. We won! We all got to share in the sandwiches and cookies and, of course, a mention in the hospital newsletter that made us all rather proud. It was also my way of honoring the memory of my parents who loved making gingerbread houses out of real gingerbread each year for Christmas. It’s one of my best memories of Mom and Pop. I still miss them.

Sarah J. McNeal

Author of paranormal, time travel and western romance

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Monday, October 31, 2016

THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES--MY CHILDHOOD FAVORITE

When I was around eleven years old, I read Sir Arthur Canon Doyle’s famous Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. As much as I have never been a dedicated mystery fan, Sherlock Holmes grabbed my attention and has never let go. As a kid, I wanted to be like Sherlock. I wore Pop’s old trench coat and with my green and white plastic bubble pipe and trusty magnifying glass, I roamed the house and yard searching for clues to some mysterious happening after another.

I was quite proud of the fact that I actually solved the mystery of The Hounds Of The Baskervilles before I finished reading it. Maybe it was the strange characters or just the intensity of how Doyle wrote those mysteries that made me love Sherlock, but I was all in.

I think I have watched every movie and TV series involving Sherlock Holmes and Watson, his faithful sidekick. And, lest we forget, the best villain ever, Moriarty, was penned into these stories—and I do love a good villain. Moriarty has to be the most devious, intelligent, and evil villain that ever existed. What would a detective as innovative as Sherlock Holmes do without his match to test his courage and intelligence?

You may ask why I bring up Sherlock Holmes today, well it IS Halloween, but more than that, I saw in the daily post titled “Today In History” that Sir Arthur Canon Doyle first published The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on October 31, 1892—Halloween! How great is that? Just in case you want to read it, here is the link: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-adventures-of-sherlock-holmes-published?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2016-1031-10312016&om_rid=4d63dea69e0614740ba4cf720055a484f1f9cb0e9a3c53cefd61b21aa7be8758&om_mid=104011034&kx_EmailCampaignID=7826&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2016-1031-10312016&kx_EmailRecipientID=4d63dea69e0614740ba4cf720055a484f1f9cb0e9a3c53cefd61b21aa7be8758

Sunday, September 11, 2016

NEVER FORGET!

Never Forget!

I was at work in the emergency department on 9/11/2001. When the first plane crashed into the tower, we were all dumbfounded and sad, but when the second plane hit the other tower, the chill of intentional horror hit us. Then the Pentagon took a hit from another plane followed by the plane in Pennsylvania thwarted from its suspected target of the White House by the brave passengers on board, we all knew the ugly truth. We experienced terrorism on a level never experienced before.

I called my niece and nephew just because I suddenly knew how important family was. The need to reach out to them was imperative in a world suddenly uncertain. We prepared as best we could at work for the possibility that Charlotte might be next. Who knew what would happen next. A torrent of emotions ran through the department from anger to weeping. No one smiled.

It was so odd and somewhat eerie to drive home with a clear blue sky above and not a single plane anywhere—not even a small Cessna. Nothing existed except this feeling of unbearable loss and mourning. When I reached home, I saw for the first time on TV the towers crumbling to the earth and the people posting pictures of their lost loved ones who were in the towers hoping against all odds they would be found alive.

In the weeks that followed, I felt I was living through one funeral after another. The sadness was overwhelming.

In the midst of all this turmoil, I adopted a kitten who had been hit by a car in front of the veterinary hospital. They saved her, fixed her injuries and had the kitten in the lobby. I took my dog, Kate, in for her shots and saw the black and white kitten crying in her cage. They named her Liberty. She was a beacon of light in a gloomy period of history. Liberty. Something innocent and sweet calling out to me. I took her home with me that day and she has brought me endless happiness ever since. I kept the name they gave her. I couldn’t think of another name that could possibly mean more to me than Liberty. My cat, my country, the ideal of our founding fathers. Liberty.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Secretly Paranormal

HOME FOR THE HEART

I started my writing career with paranormal and time travel stories. I always enjoyed putting down stories with imaginary landscapes, time periods that were “different”, and characters that had to battle evil and win the hand of the ones they loved.
When I wrote HARMONICA JOE’S RELUCTANT BRIDE, I made it a time travel story with no intention of creating a town named Hazard or writing about the Wilding family. And yet, that’s exactly what I ended up doing. I love these crazy W...ildings. But the one thing I have stayed with in most of these stories is a touch of paranormal in the form of Lakota wisdom and beliefs.
Banjo’s uncle, Teekonka Red Sky, first introduced in FOR LOVE OF BANJO, is a Lakota shaman. He possesses great insight into the human heart and has a gift for getting in touch with the ancestors to help him work for the better good on the Earthly plane. His son, Kyle, carries on this legacy. He may seem like an ordinary man running a gas station and repairing cars, but he also has his father’s Lakota gift.
In my new release, HOME FOR THE HEART, Kyle warns Lucy Thoroughgood about something dangerous. Here is what he says and how Lucy responds:
Excerpt: (the Lakota Premonition)
Kyle brought the truck to a stop as close to the front door as the driveway allowed, but before Lucy could open the door, Kyle clasped her arm. She turned to face him and noticed a faraway look in his dark eyes. “What is it, Kyle? Is something wrong?”
His face took on a grim expression when he spoke. “All I know is something dark is coming. Be careful, Lucy.”
Something in her chest clutched. Kyle had a special gift and his words were not to be ignored. “Is something bad going to happen?”
“I’m afraid so. I wish I knew what it was, but I don’t. I only know it’s evil.”
“You’re scaring me, Kyle.”
“I don’t mean to. Hank and I will keep an eye out. Tell your dad what I said.”
All my Wilding western romances can be found on Amazon—and for a bargain if you have Amazon Select. You can also find a list of my books on my Wildings Page:
http://prairierosepublications.com/…/special-…/the-wildings/

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Life in the South Without Air Conditioning

It’s so hot and humid right now that I find myself hanging out more and more in the comfort of my air conditioned house. I have so much gratitude for whoever it was who invented air conditioning.

When I was 5 years old, Pop transferred from a small weather station in Luthersburg, Pennsylvania to Charlotte, North Carolina. We landed at the airport on a hot summer day in Charlotte back in the days when you left the plane by walking down the movable stairs straight onto the hot tarmac. We had a lovely meal at a restaurant where my sister and I had broccoli for the first time and liked it. And then Pop took us to our new home he had rented for us on Mayfair Avenue—a house with no air conditioning, not even a window unit.

Pop was concerned about the heat since none of us were used to it. He wanted to keep the curtains closed in the heat of the day and had my sister and I take midday naps—not that either of us really wanted to take naps. At night, we kept the windows open. Yes, open windows at night back in those days when families didn’t feel threatened by home invasions, child kidnappers, and the like. Hard to imagine such freedom these days.

When the weather turned humid, I remember the discomfort of trying to sleep between damp sheets and wishing for a breeze to come through that window. Rain, even thunderstorms were welcome on most occasions because they brought with them a temporary relief. Of course, there were those times when rain just added to the humidity.

Pop did try to bring relief to us when he installed an industrial sized air conditioner which operated on the theory of evaporation. He hosed down the huge unit’s special padding every day and turned that thing on. It blew in cool air, but since it was operating on evaporation, it added to the humidity and misery. Also, it caused mold to grow on anything leather. So much for those expensive shoes and pocketbooks. So we went back to plan A with open windows and darkened rooms. Honestly, it was a greater relief to go out and play in the shade of the woods and splash around in the creek during the day.

When Mom and Pop bought a house, it was one with high ceilings and a hallway downstairs that helped move air through the house. This was the house where my sister and I grew up and we quickly acclimated to the lack of a central heating and cooling system. Because of Mom’s heart disease, Pop did get a window unit air conditioner for their bedroom to allow her some comfort. My parents were Yankee transplants having been born and raised in the mountainous north central Pennsylvania, and therefore, had a harder time adjusting to the heat.

Like most people these days I have central air. I try to be conservative by keeping the temperature at 76-78 degrees during the day and 74 at night. Ceiling fans make a huge difference in my tolerance to the heat. As long as I have those wonderful ceiling fans, I’m good. Still, there are times when I look back on those days and wonder how we survived the heat and humidity of summer. I have a heap of gratitude for that hard working air conditioner in my backyard.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Treasured Childhood Books

Junior Classics Children's Books

My parents entered me in the Junior Classics Book Club when I was about 11 years old. Every month I would get a new classic in the mail. I absolutely loved it.

Kidnapped

My all-time favorite book was Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. I read it 7 times. My hero was Allen Breck, the Scot who saved David Balfour from his slavery on a ship after his uncle had him kidnapped to keep David from claiming his inheritance.

Through this story I learned about the Scots and Scotland, and began my love for the bagpipes, great coats, and swords. Later, I had a great coat and changed the plastic buttons to silver ones like Allen Breck’s famous silver buttons he gave to David to show his kinsman in order to gain their trust and help the lad. I was completely mesmerized by this story.

I also loved the other classics I read in these Junior Classics collection like all of Louisa May Alcott’s stories, Tom Sawyer, Freckles (a wonderful story about an orphan who had lost his hand), and so many others I hold dear to my heart.

I remember when the remake of Little Woman came out with Wynonna Ryder as the central character, Jo. Oh gosh, even though I was a middle-aged woman, I couldn’t wait to see it. I thought they did a great job of capturing the original essence of that classic story.

I was introduced to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I wanted to become the famous detective and solve mysterious cases. I ran around the house and yard in Pop’s old trench coat with my magnifying glass and bubble pipe pretending to solve mysteries. What great fun I had.

I never hear my great-niece mention reading classic children’s books. The books she reads are new to me. Have classics fallen to the wayside? Did any of you with children encourage classic children’s stories, or are there “new classics” surfacing now? In any case, books filled my childhood with excitement and wonder and I’m so grateful I had those cherished books.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

My Friend Mr. Book Bag

I know some of you who are teachers are dreading the end of summer vacation and the beginning of the school year, but for me, it brings back childhood memories. Don’t get me wrong, I was not one of those kids who looked forward to it or had visions of creating that robot who would do my bidding and impress the teacher. I was a shy kid who felt overwhelmed by the idea of going to school where all those kids were and where the expectation that I would be the next Einstein loomed over my head like a dark shadow.

Skeeter was my best friend, and as long as she was in my class, I might actually make it through the first grade. Besides Skeeter, I had my protective book bag. Honest to Pete, I loved that thing. Not only was it good to put my Dick and Jane book in and my papers of accomplishment like the picture of the plumb I correctly colored purple, notwithstanding my wonderful array of school supplies, but it also contained my magical mementos. I had my ball and jacks, a deck of worn out Old Maid cards (kind of a chauvinistic game in today’s politically correct world I guess), and things that belonged to my parents so I could feel they were there to protect me. I kept a button from my mom’s dress and one of my dad’s ties. You can never be too safe.

Everything would have been okay except I carried that protective book bag with me everywhere I went. When I say everywhere, I mean exactly that—to the restroom, the cafeteria, and even to recess. My teacher thought my obsession with my book bag might be detrimental to my mental wellbeing and sent home a note to my parents asking them to discourage me from traveling constantly with my shield and friend Mr. Book Bag.

Now this may surprise some of you, but my parents were different—different in their beliefs about raising children and their philosophies about what children needed. My father sent back a note to my teacher in which he flatly refused to insist on me giving up my book bag. He told her I needed that book bag to feel secure and that he felt I would eventually stop dragging it around once I felt safe and comfortable in the class. I never felt as validated as I did that day when my dad stuck up for me.

Eventually, I did stop taking that book bag with me all over the place. After all, I had my best friend Skeet. What’s a book bag compared to a best friend? Naturally, a note went home about that, too, but that’s another story for another time. So, the lesson I learned about love and feeling loved is sometimes it’s not enough to hear the words “I love you”, sometimes you can only know how much a person loves you by their actions and how they support the unique person they know you to be.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Just Released: Memories of Maple Street: Pawprints on My Heart

Have you ever had a pet that left indelible pawprints—or hoofprints—on your heart? Pets we’ve rescued—that rescued us, as well—and animals that maybe weren’t so much “pets” as “acquaintances” who’ve taught us a thing or two…

The third edition of our successful series, Memories From Maple Street, U.S.A.—Pawprints On My Heart, is chock full of stories about special pets we’ve had. These tales evoke loving memories of days gone by when these animals played a huge part in our lives—either as pets we had as children, or as adults.

Wayfaring Stranger/ My contribution

Imagine my surprise when my mother picked me up at school and told me about the strange, furry creature who came to our house.

Anatole France once said, “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” This collection of true animal stories will serve to prove him right!

Includes authors Gayle M. Irwin, Ann Swann, Carol Huff, Sarah J. McNeal, Charlie Steel, C.J. Samuels, Jim Landwehr, Cher’ley Grogg, Beverly Wells, Gil McDonald, Meg Mims, Tina Holt, Tanya Hanson, Cheryl Pierson, and L.D.B. Taylor.

Buy Links: Kindle Paperback

Thursday, May 26, 2016

HOME FOR THE HEART, my new Wilding romance, Just Released

HOME FOR THE HEART, my new western romance in the Wildings series, is about love that just can’t seem to get off the ground and about a half Lakota boy who no longer believes he’s worthwhile.

Love doesn’t come easy…for some, it may never come at all.

Blurb:

Lucy Thoroughgood has gone and done it now—fallen in love with Hank Wilding, a man she’s known all her life. He’s content with friendship, but Lucy’s heart has flown the coop and she knows she’s in love with the determined bachelor. When she visits him with a proposition—to let the orphans she cares for learn to ride his horses during the summer—he surprises her with one of his own. She must accompany him to the dancing lessons he’s signed up for.

Secretly pleased, she hopes that perhaps this arrangement might lead to more than friendship. But Hank’s loved hard and lost, with his engagement to one of the popular town girls going south two years earlier. He’s sworn to never lose his heart to another—including Miss Lucy Thoroughgood.

A teenage orphan, Chayton, could be the key to thawing Hank’s heart—but danger follows the embittered boy. Will Hank be able to give Chayton the home he yearns for—or will the boy’s past bring only sorrow to those he cares for? When a Lakota premonition becomes reality, Lucy’s life hangs in the balance. Will Hank have the chance to let Lucy know how wrong he was?

Excerpt:

In the quiet of the barn filled with the smell of fresh hay, horse manure, and leather tack, Hank sensed rather than heard someone enter the building. Ah, the smell of sunshine and roses. Must be Lucille Thoroughgood. Without turning to look at her, he set the pitchfork against the wall of Lonesome’s stall. “What do you want, Lucy?” he grumbled as a greeting.

“Mr. Wilding, I have something I’d like to propose to you.” Her voice sounded tense. When he turned to face her, he saw those blue eyes dart away from his to peer at the straw on the floor. She promptly straightened her spine and must have forced herself to look him straight in the eye. Her starched manner made him want to mess with her.

“A proposal?” He moved closer to her…maybe too close. He felt something shift in his chest like a warning bell. “Well now, I haven’t ever had a lady propose to me before.” He joked, badly, just to get her goat. Generally, women were not to be trusted. He’d learned that lesson the hard way. But Lucy was his old friend since grade school. Even though she must have been born straight-laced and proper, she spoke her truth, plain and simple. Beneath that barbed wire exterior beat a heart of gold.

Lucy propped her fists on her hips and he thought she looked like a charming sugar bowl all ruffed up in her pink flowered dress and her sweet, straw hat that sat askew on her gleaming brown hair. She knitted those brows together and narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not proposing marriage to you, Mr. Wilding. I’m proposing a business deal…sort of.”

Buy Links:

Amazon:

Kindle

Paperback

Smashwords:

Home for the Heart

Thursday, May 12, 2016

HOME FOR THE HEART

Home For The Heart, a Wilding Western Romance is in its final edits and will be released very soon.
In this book, Banjo's son, Hank, opens his ranch for orphaned kids with physical and emotional challenges to heal with horse therapy. He's doing it because Lucille Thoroughgood, the social worker for the orphanage, made a bargain with him he could not refuse. Little does Hank know how his life will change.

HOME FOR THE HEART cover by Livia Washburn Reasoner

Logline:

Love doesn’t come easy…for some, it may never come at all.

Blurb:

Lucille Thoroughgood is a social worker for orphan children. She is known to the town’s folk as dependable, logical, determined, and…well, stubborn. But Lucille has a secret affection for the determined bachelor, Hank Wilding.

Hank Wilding loved hard and lost. He has sworn to never marry. After Lucille makes a bargain with him, he agrees to allow troubled and physically challenged children from the orphanage to ride his horses as equine therapy. One of the orphans is a half Lakota boy, Chayton, who reminds Hank of his own father’s painful childhood.

But danger follows in the shadows of the rejected, embittered teenager that may take the life of someone Hank and the town of Hazard holds dear.

TO BE RELEASED SOON

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Celebrate Life on Earth

For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Easter! and have a wonderful Passover to those of the Jewish faith. For all of you of any faith or belief, I want to wish you a beautiful and lovely Spring here on Mother Earth and a very happy life. In spite of the terrible events in our world, we can all cling to hope and smile at each sunrise.

This is my wisteria now in full bloom. It smells positively delicious.

Friday, March 04, 2016

Life On Planet Earth

With all the turmoil reported in the news about contentious debates, random shootings on the streets, in the malls and schools, threats of nuclear missiles targeting the United States from North Korea, and a world in chaos, I need to find some peace and get centered again. I don’t want to fall into this negative vortex of mounting upheaval and despair.

So, I have been going to my Pinterest Cave to regain my calm and search for wisdom. I found this quote from the Native American, Chief Seattle:

“All things share the same breath, the beast, the tree, the man. The air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.”

This quote helps to remind me that all living things are connected. We need to take care of one another and protect all other living things because we are interdependent. What happens to one thing will affect the others. Mother Earth isn’t just a planet flying around in space. It is our home and it is unique because it contains something precious—life.

And that is the end of my sermon. I hope you all have a peaceful, loving day. Oh. One more thing. Spring is on the way. Just sayin’…

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Tangling Up Characters In A Series

Many of you may know when I wrote Harmonica Joe’s Reluctant Bride, I had no idea it would be the first book in The Wilding Series. Once I wrote the sequel to Harmonica Joe, For Love of Banjo, one of my all-time favorite characters got his own story. More than that, I realized I couldn’t let go of these characters. Since that time I’ve written more stories about the ever growing Wilding clan. It’s fun bringing back my favorite characters in new stories, but there is a down side to writing a series. How the heck can I keep up with who married who, who had what kids, what year were these kids born, and what color were their eyes and hair, and what characteristics held them apart from the rest?

These details are nothing to sneeze at. If Banjo has brown eyes in one story and blue in another, you can pretty much predict, a reader is going to catch it. It wouldn’t be a good thing to make such a mistake because believability is only part of what might be at stake. Such a discrepancy might tell the reader that I don’t really care about my characters—even worse, that I have lost my integrity as a writer. So no mistakes. Everybody has to have their own eye and hair color and be parented by the same parents they had in the last story when they first appeared.

My Wildings Notebook and Family Tree

You may wonder how I keep track of all my crazy Wildings? Well, for one thing, I keep a notebook in which I write all the details about the characters, including secondary characters. You never know when you might have to take one of those secondary characters and make them a lead hero or heroine. Lucille Thoroughgood was once a secondary character in Unexpected Blessings, and her mother, Penelope Thoroughgood, was only mentioned in For Love of Banjo. Penelope ended up with her own story in When Love Comes Knocking. Just to keep straight who is married to whom and how, or if, someone is related, I created my own version of a family tree. I learned quickly that I am not good at making a family tree look coherent, so my version is a bit different from those beautiful family trees done by genealogy experts. No matter. Mine works for me.

To check out all my Wildings books, click on The Wildings

For those of you who write a series, what are your methods for keeping up with your characters? When you read books in a series, have you ever caught a mistake regarding a character? If you did, what did you think of the author? Were you forgiving, or did you stop reading that authors books?

Saturday, January 23, 2016

LOVE, COME TO ME

THE VIOLIN is included in a 5 novel boxed set titled LOVE COME TO ME and it's available for only 99 cents. I'm not kidding--only 99 cents. Here's a bit about the boxed set...
LOVE, COME TO ME is a wonderful collection of love stories from different time periods that is sure to make you long to read each one to the very end without interruption. Each story is heart wrenching in its own way, guaranteed to have you falling in love with the characters and the stories of their lives. Take a look!

KISSING COUSINS—DIANA TOBIN

Augusta Thompson has lost everything—her parents, her husband, her home…and now, her only child. If she can share her grandmother’s old home with handsome Olympic contender Charles “Web” Webster for one year, she will inherit it.

As time goes by, Web realizes Augusta’s heart and soul have been wounded by her ex-husband. Can Web’s love for Augusta heal her broken heart and allow them a future together? Will the conditions of the inheritance prove to be a help or hindrance for these KISSING COUSINS?

SHATTERED VOWS—LINDA LAROQUE

Annie and Stuart Rayburn’s lives are idyllic until their baby dies of SIDS, and Annie falls into a deep depression. In a moment of weakness, Stuart turns to another woman.

When the “other woman” is killed in a car crash, Stu learns his night of infidelity produced a baby girl—and he now has custody. He begs Annie’s forgiveness but Annie must face her demons and make her decisions. Can she forgive Stu and love the innocent child? Or will she divorce him and move on without the only man she’s likely to love?

WHO IS ELIZABETH?—PATTI BOECKMAN

Pit a feisty, she-cat against a reluctant interloper and watch the sparks fly.

When Elizabeth McDaniel's reclusive, sheltered existence on her grandfather's farm is invaded by Derek Huston, she cannot imagine the result of his intrusion into her life. Derek is soon enchanted with the lovely, spit-fire redhead.

A budding romance, the flowering of Elizabeth's musical talents, and Derek's acceptance into the family follows their first clash of wills. But Derek has a hidden agenda that, when revealed, turns Elizabeth's world upside down.

Is there any hope that Derek can regain her confidence and her love?

FAMILY SECRETS—ZINA ABBOTT

Jennie Howell has a secret, including being thought of as a loyal wife to her husband serving in Afghanistan, a husband who has demanded a divorce.

When Jennie begins to explore her genealogy, family members make it clear they won’t be a part of it—from Grandpa Mike, who wants the biggest mistake he ever made to remain hidden in the past—to family members Jennie never knew existed.

Is Jennie willing and emotionally strong enough to learn what her family has kept hidden?

THE VIOLIN—SARAH MCNEAL

Genevieve Beaumont is haunted by dreams of a drowning man and her helplessness to save him. When she buys a violin at an estate sale, her life is changed forever. The pictures inside the case are of the man in her dreams, and the news clippings detail his death.

She travels to the small town where he died 90 years earlier, and steps through the threshold of time. It's 1927 all over again, and she has only days to prevent John's death—if she's able. THE VIOLIN has brought Genevieve into the past, and now she must make the decision of a lifetime. Will she return to her life in the future, or stay in the past with John? No matter what she decides, she must find a way to keep the dream of his death from becoming a reality...

FIRE STAR PRESS is proud to offer this wonderful boxed set, chock full of a variety of authors and stories that we know you are going to love. And the price? Hold onto your hat! You’ll be getting FIVE FULL LENGTH NOVELS for only .99! That’s right—this wonderful boxed set is one we know you’re going to enjoy, and the fantastic price is only one of the reasons why you’ll be glad you snapped up LOVE COME TO ME!

BUY LINK:
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Come-To-M…/…/ref=as_sl_pc_ss_til…

Here is an excerpt from

THE VIOLIN (time travel/paranormal novel)

by Sarah J. McNeal

Can the heart live inside a violin case? Can a message reach across time?

Excerpt:

"My name is Genevieve Beaumont. I was just standing at the window and now…I'm here." She lifted a shaky hand to her brow. "My head is pounding."

"You bumped your head when you fainted. Is that a French name?" He lifted a quizzical brow and smiled.

She lifted her eyes and got a good, close-up look at him then. Her heart almost stopped beating in her chest. She sucked in a deep breath. What was happening to her? How could any of this be possible? The man holding the cool cloth to her head was the man in the pictures she found in the violin case!

She would not have guessed he had auburn hair, or that his eyes were such a vivid, bottle green. He wore a collarless, khaki shirt with the sleeves rolled up and suspenders instead of a belt held up his tan, canvas trousers. Oh, but he was handsome—so much more than his pictures ever allowed. She didn't have time to admire the young man's good looks because her mind swirled round and round with the unfathomable implications of her situation.