Giveaway for MaryLu Tyndall's SURRENDER THE NIGHT

I'd like to welcome my very good friend, MaryLu Tyndall, to my blog this week.

Be sure to leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for her latest book, Surrender the Night. Another fabulous book by MaryLu. She never disappoints.

Surrender to Destiny in Baltimore

There’s nothing quite like being able to visit the place where my stories take place, even if it is over 200 years later. (My kingdom for a time machine!) So, of course I was thrilled to be able to spend some time in Baltimore last year researching my latest trilogy, Surrender to Destiny. Yet, even though much has changed in Baltimore since 1812, just being there gave me a “feel” for the city. Did you know every city has a definite spirit about it? I’ve been to enough places to notice that odd fact. Perhaps it’s spiritual, perhaps it’s simply the product of generations of people making their mark, but Baltimore has a unique feel to it—a spirit of courage, tenacity, and innovation. Listen to the remarks of American Captain Coggeshall regarding Baltimore: “The whole venom of the modern Goths seemed concentrated against the Baltimoreans, for no other reason but that they had too much spirit to submit to insult and tyrannical oppression.. . .In making these remarks in praise of Baltimore I do not mean to disparage the noble patriotism of many other cities of our glorious union; but I do mean to say that if the same spirit that fired the hearts and souls of the Baltimoreans had evinced itself throughout our entire country it would have saved every American heart much pain and mortification, and would, in my opinion, have shortened the war.”

Awesome, huh? So you can see why I fell in love with the city! Even if you aren’t familiar with the war’s history, you have by now surmised that Baltimore became a huge thorn in the side of the British. The city sent out more privateers than any other port and defended their city complete alone against an attack by the entire British fleet!

While I was there, I visited the home and museum of Mary Pickersgill, who made the enormous flag (30 by 42 foot ) that flew over Fort McHenry. I also spent a day at the Maryland Historical Museum where I saw the original paper upon which Francis Scott Key scribbled our National Anthem as he watched the British bomb Fort McHenry. Then my love of tall ships forced me to spend an entire afternoon on board The USS Constellation docked in the Harbor. Although this ship was not the original one that fought in the war, I had a blast exploring every inch, nook and cranny. I stayed far too long, apparently, since one of the crew asked me if I was ill because I’d been on board for so long!

Surrender to Destiny is a trilogy set in this wonderful city of Baltimore. Each book tells the story of a young lady who against her wishes, gets caught up in the middle of the war and in the process finds not only love, but a destiny that could change the course of the war and history forever. In the first book, Surrender the Heart, Marianne Denton follows her estranged fiancé, Noah, onto his merchant ship, gets trapped aboard, and ends up in the middle of the Atlantic. In an effort to force her fiancé to take her home, she ends up sabotaging his ship and getting them all caught by the British. Forced to join the Royal Navy, Marianne and Noah must face their darkest fears as they desperately try to find a way to escape and fulfill their destinies.

In my newest release, Surrender the Night, the hero, Lieutenant Alexander Reed, a British naval officer rescues the heroine, Rose McGuire, an American farm girl from a vicious attack by another British officer. He is shot in the process and Rose is forced to care for a man whose countrymen murdered her parents. Alex Reed is being aided and abetted by his enemy—albeit an innocent and attractive one. But he might be doing Rose more harm than good if his presence on her farm is discovered. As their love blooms, trouble looms. Will this couple survive another British invasion?

To order: http://www.amazon.com/Surrender-Night-Destiny-MaryLu-Tyndall/dp/1602601666/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299543123&sr=1-1

My website: http://www.marylutyndall.com

My blog: http://crossandcutlass.blogspot.com/

CONGRATULATIONS CARMAN! You won Amanda Stephan's The Price of Trust.

Be sure to leave your email address. Please check your junk mail on and the day after the drawing. I've had to redraw because of no responses. Subject box will have: winner of (book title). I'll email the winner and they'll have seven days to respond. If I don't hear back I'll draw another name. USA shipping only. Thanks so much and please stop back again! Drawing will be held Monday, April 11th. Offer void where prohibited. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants.

Giveaway for Ruth Axtell Morren's A GENTLEMAN'S HOMECOMING

Welcome Ruth Axtell Morren to my blog! I'm happy to have her here this week. Leave a comment and be entered to win Ruth's new release, A Gentleman's Homecoming.

Ruth Axtell Morren has published 12 romances with Steeple Hill/Love Inspired Books and has recently signed a contract with Revell for two regency romances. She was a Golden Heart finalist in 1994. Her second published book, Wild Rose, was a Booklist “Top Ten Christian Fiction” selection in 2005. She has been a member of ACFW and RWA for several years. She studied comparative literature at Smith College and has lived in both Europe and the U.S. Currently, she lives in Maine.

Where are you right now (LVR, DR, Bathroom) and what are you wearing? You have to tell the truth. I’m sitting at my desk in my home office which overlooks the front of my house, i.e., driveway and forest across the street. I’m wearing jeans, a turtleneck and pullover (dressed in layers in this chilly weather).

Describe physically your ideal hero? Dark—ie, dark-haired, regardless of color eyes. Slim, wiry build (muscular yet not bulky).

In your opinion what makes an ideal heroine? A woman who can see through the hero: that is to say, beyond all his bravado or charm and see the real him. And make him realize that is what he really wants, a woman who knows and accepts (and loves) the real him.

Writing is evolving. Would you say that the evolution of it is good? Absolutely, especially as one’s inner editor evolves.

If you could have written any piece of literature in history, be it books, speech, poetry, what piece would you want to say Written By Ruth Axtell Morren Probably Psalm 139: O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. ²Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. That opening gets me every time!

If you were writing a book about your life what would the title be? Total surrender???

What is your favorite material item that you own (examples: ipod, Gone with the Wind book, grandmother’s rocking chair)? Besides a Bible (and I don’t have a favorite one at this point), I don’t know…everything is pretty replaceable.

A GENTLEMAN'S HOMECOMING

It’s been six years since Luke Travis has seen his native England…and his son, Sam. But his hopes for a joyful reunion are shattered when he learns that Sam wants nothing to do with him. There’s one ray of hope—Luke’s former sister-in-law, Bobbie Gardner.

The kindhearted woman has been a mother to Sam for all these years, and she promised to help mend the breach between father and son. But can Luke trust another Gardner? His wife betrayed and abandoned him, and his father-in-law took his son away. Bobbie must prove to him that she is not her sister, or her father, but a woman who is all that Luke could wish for in a wife.

Congratulations Cindi! Winner of Love Finds You in Tombstone, AZ.

Be sure to leave your email address. Please check your junk mail on and the day after the drawing. I've had to redraw because of no responses. Subject box will have: winner of (book title). I'll email the winner and they'll have seven days to respond. If I don't hear back I'll draw another name. USA shipping only. Thanks so much and please stop back again! Drawing will be held Monday, April 4th. Offer void where prohibited. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants.

Giveaway for Amanda Stephan's THE PRICE OF TRUST

Welcome Amanda Stephan to my blog today! I'm glad to have you, Amanda. She will be giving away her book, The Price of Trust to one lucky winner. Be sure to leave a comment.

Author Bio:
Amanda Stephan is a stay at home, home schooling mother and author who loves to do many different things. Be it playing baseball with her family or church group, to canoeing down the river, to sewing and embroidering, she finds many things peak her interest. But her passion is writing. She currently lives in Columbia, TN, with her real-life hero husband, two children, three cats, one dog, and quite a few chickens!

Where are you right now (LVR, DR, Bathroom) and what are you wearing? You have to tell the truth. Right now, I’m in the schoolroom at my computer desk. (Yes, I’m having fun while the kids are doing school!) I’m wearing black pants, purple shirt, and a white sweater.

What is one of the most interesting things you’ve learned when researching a story? You’re going to think I’m sick, but here goes. It’s amazing what can kill a person ~ not going into details, but sometimes it’s the simplest things that can do it. No, I’m not planning on murdering someone, I’m actually doing research for a new book in the series I’m writing right now. J

Many writers will say they see stories all around them. Is there any place unusual you’ve found a story? I think the most unusual places I’ve seen a story come alive in my mind, was while we were at church. I was supposed to be listening to the preacher, and wham! Something he said struck my fancy, and a new story was born.

What is your favorite part of writing? WRITING! Seriously though, I like being in control of most of my characters destinies. I love the writing process, but especially when a character comes alive and pretty much announces his or her own story.

Did anyone inspire you to write or was this something you always wanted to do? I have always loved to write. It’s therapeutic, I suppose. But, my husband does inspire me to write as well. He’s the hero in every one of my stories. I love that man!

If you could be any character in any literary book who would you be and why? ELIZABETH BENNET! This woman is the epitome of beauty, wit, sarcasm, and romance. Who else can last for almost 200 years?!

What is something that very few people know about you? I can pinch HARD with my toes. My mother taught me how! J

What is your favorite material item that you own (examples: ipod, Gone with the Wind book, grandmother’s rocking chair) I’d have to say my favorite item would be my computer. I can survive without one, but honestly, it makes writing my books so much easier!

Thank you Debbie, for inviting me here today! It’s been fun!

Carly Richards is on the run. For the last two years, she's skipped from town to town, ducking her dangerous and well-informed ex-fiance every few weeks, never settling anywhere for long. With the death of her parents, Carly's vulnerability made her trust a man with an attractive facade, now that same man tracked her across the country, always nipping at her heels, preventing her from reaching out to anyone other than her God. Now she's in Montana, and surely that is far enough away from Texas and her abusive past that she can rest. But her emotional scars are reluctant to heal, and Carly resists the friendliness of those in the small town she lights upon, especially handsome farmer Joe Baird. Without a car and money, though, she has little choice but to dig in and begin building back up her savings so she can run once more. Caught in the circumstances, the kind people around her begin to creep into her softening heart. God is at work, and she has to trust him to not only take care of her, but care for the people she is learning to love. Carly must learn the Price of Trust.

Congratulations Amy! Winner of A Suitor for Jenny.

Be sure to leave your email address. Please check your junk mail on and the day after the drawing. I've had to redraw because of no responses. Subject box will have: winner of (book title). I'll email the winner and they'll have seven days to respond. If I don't hear back I'll draw another name. USA shipping only. Thanks so much and please stop back again! Drawing will be held Monday, March 28th. Offer void where prohibited. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants.

ASK A QUESTION to be entered in a Giveaway for Miralee Ferrell's LOVE FINDS YOU IN TOMBSTONE, ARIZONA

ASK A QUESTION

Welcome Miralee Ferrell. Today Miralee is doing a question and answer forum. Ask a question to be entered into a drawing for her new book Love Finds You in Tombstone Arizona.

I'm reading Love Finds You in Tombstone, Arizona, now. Miralee starts the book off with a bang...literally. And it continues to keep you intrigued and turning the pages. She does a beautiful job developing the characters and exploring their flaws. The setting and descriptions are done with such expertise you feel like you are there in Tombstone. I know because we just recently visited the town. If you're looking for a great book to read be sure to pick this one up. You won't want to miss it!

Miralee serves as president of the Portland, Oregon, chapter of American Christian Fiction Writers and belongs to a number of writer’s groups. She also speaks at women’s groups, libraries, and churches about her writing journey. When she started writing fiction Miralee believed that she’d always stay with women’s contemporary, but has since branched out to historical romance. Exploring family and marriage issues, The Other Daughter follows a family of four who receive a shock in the form of a 13-year-old girl who lands on their doorstep, claiming to be the daughter of the husband/father of the family—a girl they didn’t know existed. Finding Jeena features a secondary character from the first book and explores socioeconomic issues through a single woman’s sudden job-loss and ensuing struggle for survival.

Her third historical romance with Summerside Press in their Love Finds You series, is set in Tombstone, Arizona, and released Feb. 1st. All the Love Finds You books are stand-alone novels, and take place in a real town in America. Miralee’s first two are set in 1877, Love Finds You in Last Chance, CA, and 1902, Love Finds You in Bridal Veil, Oregon. Her next release is in Aug., this year, with Love Finds You in Sundance, WY.

Miralee and her husband Allen have been married 36 yrs. They live on 11 acres in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge in southern Washington State, where they love to garden, play with their dogs, take walks, and go sailing. Miralee also rides her horse on the wooded trails near their home with her grown daughter who lives nearby.

Love and second chances aren’t easy to come by in a town named Tombstone. When Christy Grey receives an urgent summons to Tombstone, Arizona, she reluctantly leaves her new life in California. The trip goes from bad to worse when three masked men hold up Christy’s stage. She finally arrives in
Tombstone to find her mother ill and her brother trapped in a life of gambling. Desperate for money to support her family, will Christy bow to pressure from the local saloon owners and return to the life she thought she’d given up for good?

Nevada Keene has problems of his own. He’s been dodging bullets for years and wants nothing more than to settle down and get married. But he’s on the run from outlaws bent on revenge, and the one woman who captures his interest recognizes him from the stagecoach holdup. Will Christy turn Nevada in to the authorities, or will the outlaws on his trail catch him first?



CONGRATULATIONS SAMANTHA ON WINNING-WHEN ALL MY DREAMS COME TRUE!


Be sure to leave your email address. Please check your junk mail on and the day after the drawing. I've had to redraw because of no responses. Subject box will have: winner of (book title). I'll email the winner and they'll have seven days to respond. If I don't hear back I'll draw another name. USA shipping only. Thanks so much and please stop back again! Drawing will be held Monday, March 21st. Offer void where prohibited. Odds of winning vary due to the number of entrants.