MORE BOOKS FOR YOU...

Have you been shopping in the crowds the past few days? I'm waiting until this coming week to venture forth. Maybe walking into stores won't be as hectic then as on Black Friday! Of course, I do most of my gift buying online. So much easier...I can shop in my jammies anytime day or night and the items come right to my door. No fuss, no craziness. Most important for me, no impulse buys! And keeping my spending under control keeps Mr. Claus kissing Mrs. Claus, always a good thing.

This is the last day of our Black Friday Weekend Mini-Blog Hop. Although some group members are not putting up a new post today, the giveaways continue. A free book, yay!

Saturday’s winners of a pdf of THE TEXAN’S IRISH BRIDE are Mitzi, Mary, and Calisa. Congratulations, ladies. I’ll email you with your free download.

Today, I’m giving away two copies of OUT OF THE BLUE, my paranormal (time travel and clairvoyance) romantic suspense. Just comment to be entered in the drawing. This is my husband’s favorite of my books. The heroine in OUT OF THE BLUE is an Irish woman from 1845 who’s accused of cursing the potato crops of her rural community, a place too isolated for the residents to realize the potato blight is nationwide. A troublemaker with a grudge against her family leads a mob who burn her cottage and try to capture her. She escapes, but there’s nowhere to run except for the cliff. As she leaps off, she prays to Saints Brigid and Brendan to deliver her...and they do...into our time.

In addition to suspense, the displacement of time travel, murder, and corruption, there's also humor. One of my favorite characters is the hero's mom, Blossom Hunter. She's sort of a throw-back to the hippies and met Brendan's father at a commune turned cooperative farm. Although the one Blossom lived on was in California, they're still around here in Texas. Another favorite character is Mildred, who helps Deirdre. Well, just read the book.

Possum Kingdom Lake
with a view of
Hell's Gate cliffs

OUT OF THE BLUE is set not far from where I live in North Central Texas. The lake--yes, Possum Kingdom Lake is a real place--is in a low mountain range known as the Palo Pinto Mountains. To anyone from Colorado, for example, they probably look like hills. To someone like me who grew up on the West Texas plains, they look like mountains. And they are a genuine mountain range, named by the Comanche for the brilliant colors of the small oak trees in fall. I love driving through these mountains/hills any time, but especially in spring and fall.


Possum


The lake was named because trappers used to catch possums for the fur trade. Apparently there were even more around then--and there are still plenty now. They are pretty pesky creatures but harmless. They can squeeze through the tiniest openings--like around our the seal at the bottom of our garage door. Woodcutters  cut cedar from the cedar brakes for fence posts and firewood, and still do. Some pioneers even built homes from the cedar.

Smokehouse left and cabin (room)
right. Photo from PAINTED POLE:
THE BELDINGS AND THEIR RANCHES
IN PALO PINTO COUNTY by
Barbara Belding Gibson

On a local history tour, my family visited the Belding-Gibson Ranch where, when Henry Belding settled on the land in 1859, he did so in an abandoned one-room cabin. The owners included the original cedar log cabin in their home. Yes, they incorporated the cabin of about eight by ten feet and made it into a bathroom. The smokehouse and cool room are also part of the home and the former dog run between them and the log cabin is now a rear entry. Very ingenious people are the Beldings and Gibsons.

Texas grassfire

I’m so glad they preserved the buildings and still use them. They were almost lost this spring and summer in the grassfires that swept through the area.

Comanche Indians

Possum Kingdom Lake is beautiful and is a popular sports area as well as being ringed with homes, condos, and rental units such as the imaginary one in which the hero's mom lives. Across the lake from the Boy Scout Camp is Hell’s Gate, a large cliff so called because trappers who stole from the Comanche were killed there. The trappers had taken the Comanches’ furs, then got the Comanche drunk and sneaked away with the furs and the payment for them. The head thief said “the Indians would see him at Hell’s gates before they got their furs back.” Famous last words--literally. Who would be stupid enough to cheat the Comanche in their own territory? Talk about too stupid to live!

But on to OUT OF THE BLUE.

Blurb:

Deirdre Dougherty after
she's adjusted to modern
life in Texas

A desperate flight from a dangerous man plunges Deirdre Dougherty off a cliff---and into the future. Swept through a time portal 165 years beyond the life she knew in rural 1845 Ireland, Deirdre plops into a lake in North Central Texas. The brooding man from her precognizant visions rescues her but demands answers she cannot supply. Deirdre knows only that he is in danger, and the source has a familiar vibe.

Brendan Hunter in
front of his townhouse
before the explosion.
Oh, but I shouldn't give
away the entire book.

Police Detective Brendan Hunter wants answers. Who shot him and killed his partner? Why? And why does Deirdre know details only he and his late partner knew? The beautiful psycho’s story has to be a colossal fabrication. He wants her gone before he becomes even more fascinated with her. Together they must solve the riddle of Deirdre’s displacement, battle a drug scandal, murders, and stay one step ahead of the enemy—without knowing friend from foe.

And here’s an excerpt:
The set up is that Deirdre warned Brendan not to be out after dark and he pooh-poohed her warning.

 Clouds scudded across the sliver of moon and created an inky night. A radio newscaster warned of a severe storm’s approach. The only downside about staying at the lake was the drive home. He had to admit he wouldn’t mind living at the lake permanently though. The peace it offered made the trip worthwhile.


Nights like this reminded him of the disadvantages. Winding roads, no center stripe, no streetlights. A stiff breeze tugged at the car. Brendan swerved around a fallen tree limb.


Thank goodness for halogen headlights.


As he passed a side road, a dark SUV the size of a small tank turned in behind him. He hadn’t known anyone lived up that road, but lots of new folks were moving in. Perhaps someone had built up on that hill. The other vehicle’s headlights grew closer.


He glanced in the rear view mirror again. “Damned fool. Get off my tail and go around.”


Finally, the SUV drew alongside him to pass. Instead of pulling ahead, it swerved into his front fender.


“What the hell?” Brendan blasted his car’s horn.


In answer, the SUV bumped him again, harder this time.


Thunder boomed overhead. Rain began to fall and the pavement turned slick as ice. He recalled Deirdre’s warning and Frank’s. This was it then, whoever drove the SUV intended to drive him off the road.


They approached a sharp curve. Brendan fought to defend his car against the larger vehicle’s attack. His mid-size sedan had no chance against the huge SUV. Metal screeched against metal. He lost control and his car plunged down the embankment and rolled.


When the car stopped, he hung suspended upside down. Deflated airbags dangled like spent balloons. Unfastening the seat belt, Brendan dropped to his overturned car’s headliner.


He touched the lump on his head and found sticky moisture. Blood. His head ached like a sonofabitch and he needed to sit down, but he didn’t dare delay inside the car. The strong odor of gasoline surrounded him and he feared an explosion.


He had to get out, and fast!


It hadn’t been road rage that sent the other vehicle into his. Was this wreck another warning or had someone intended his death? Either way, he had to escape.


All the doors were too damaged to open. Using his jacket as a buffer against the few shards remaining in the passenger door’s window, he slithered out the side away from the road in case anyone above watched. Keeping low, he raced behind a group of cedars.


While he looked toward the road, he crouched motionless and listened. After what must have been only seconds, a flash of lightning illuminated a shadowy figure standing where Brendan’s car had barreled off the pavement.


Someone checking to see I don’t make it out.


No sooner had the idea occurred to him than he heard the soft pop of a silenced gun. The ping of a bullet struck his car mere nanoseconds before the car exploded in flames. Above the roar of his burning sedan, a car door slammed and the SUV drove away.


Damn good thing he couldn’t get the door open in case the interior lights had still worked. He’d have been a spotlighted target. Easy pickings.


He’d faced down armed men. Taken hundreds of risks in the line of duty. But he’d never before been the objective of an unknown assassin—not unless he could prove the drive-by shooting of him and Larry was an assassination.


Sparks from the fire showered the area, igniting smaller fires in the undergrowth. With any luck, the storm would prevent the fire’s spread. Moving further away from the roaring blaze, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed 9-1-1. Then, he waited in the rain.

For another excerpt, scroll down to my November 18th blog post.

OUT OF THE BLUE received a 5 Siren Stone review from Nikki at Siren Reviews

“I always enjoy a good time travel story, and Out of the Blue is a beautifully written story.


The extraordinary characters, descriptive setting and fast paced action/suspense made this a delightful, enjoyable read. The in-depth POV from the hero and heroine gave me a great insight on their emotions. This is the type of book that pulls you in and you just don't want to end, but leaves you with satisfied smile after the last page is read. A perfect mixture of witty dialogue, sensual love scenes, and the happily-ever-after ending, Caroline Clemmons pens a timeless tale that I could re-read over and over again and never tire of it!”

And speaking of Christmas shopping, (hint, hint)OUT OF THE BLUE is available in print and e-download from The Wild Rose Press at www.thewildrosepress.com/caroline-clemmons-m-638.html and from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Digi-Books, and other online stores.

Our Black Friday Mini-Blog Hop participants are Isabel Roman, Nicole McCaffery, and Susan Macatee. Their links are below, and even though the links are hard to read, they do work. Nothing I've tried makes the links show up, so bear with me. Please visit each one of these remarkable authors and leave a comment for them. They have giveaways too. And check out the team blog of http://slipintosomethingvictorian.wordpress.com for tidbits of history and new releases from the members, with an occasional guest author. Yes, we write the Victorian era, but mostly in American settings.



Isabel Roman



Nicole McCaffrey

Susan Macatee

Thanks for stopping by!