HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
MORE THAN A SOLDIER
by
Irene Onorato
Genre: Inspirational Romance
Pub
Date: 6/6/17
Author Guest Post
By Irene Onorato
Soldiers...
I can’t help but love them. My father, brother, husband, and son all served in the U.S. Army. When I first started writing, it seemed quite natural for the heroes in my stories to be active or former military men.
MORE THAN A SOLDIER, my latest novel, features a wounded hero who was the sole survivor in an RPG attack. Despite losing an eye and the hearing in one ear, Hank Fleming maintains a positive attitude and is determined to live his life to the fullest. Now medically discharged from the Army, Hank meets Cindy Giordano, his foster brother’s biological sister, and falls hard for her.
The road to happily-ever-after is paved with plenty of potholes. For Hank, latent PTSD manifests itself in terrible dreams that make him relive the day of the explosion and mourn the deaths of the men who were killed. And for Cindy, betrayal by a former fiancé keeps her heart locked up tightly. Hank hopes he is the key that will free Cindy and allow her to love again.
MORE THAN A SOLDIER is the second book in the Veteran’s Heart series. Though a stand-alone novel, characters from A SOLDIER FINDS HIS WAY are carried over and several new ones are introduced.
So, what was my inspiration for writing about a wounded warrior with PTSD? As a child my room was next to my parent’s bedroom. Dad worked nights and slept during the day. I would often hear him cry out in his sleep, reliving the horrors of WWII. For him, sleep opened a gateway to a forever war. Lodged in the vertebra in the back of his neck he carried an inoperable piece of shrapnel. While the headaches it initially caused had disappeared over the years, the protruding lump served as a reminder of the battles he’d fought and the men he’d served beside.
MORE THAN A SOLDIER cannot erase the ongoing trauma my father lived, but it serves as a reminder to me—and hopefully others—of the sacrifice of our military. And in some small way as a tribute to my dad and the hero he was.
There’s more than one way to be a
hero . . .
Former Special Forces soldier Hank
Fleming is living a safe, quiet life in upstate New York, but there
are days he isn’t sure he’s going to make it. The sole survivor
of a devastating grenade attack in Afghanistan, he is still scarred,
physically and emotionally. He hangs on to his faith and tries to
keep moving forward, waiting for the day that something—or
someone—can make him feel whole again.
Cindy Giordano is searching too—for
her biological family and a fresh start. When her journey to find her
brother, Edward, leads to Hank’s front door, she is instantly drawn
to Hank . . . and instantly wary. With her ex-fiancé’s betrayal
still fresh in her mind, friendship is about all she can muster.
When shadows from Cindy’s past
threaten, Hank’s protective instincts shift into high gear, and he
realizes everyone has their own battles to fight. But the road to
healing would be much sweeter with the right person by his side . . .
Irene Onorato was born and raised in
Bronx, New York. Her father, a first-generation American whose
parents were born in Italy, was an Army veteran who had served with
the 178th combat engineers during WWII. He told numerous stories of
battles, hardships, tragedies and triumphs. The glimpses he gave into
the hearts of many American warriors would later become the
inspiration for much of Irene’s writings.
In 1972, a few months after graduating
high school, Irene met James Onorato, a soldier who had just returned
from Vietnam. After dating two weeks, they married, raised three
children, and are still happily married today.
Irene and James, both radiation
protection technicians, retired from the nuclear power industry in
2014 and now reside in Louisiana. Readers can visit Irene’s website
at
www.ireneonorato.com, and find her on Facebook.
Follow
the tour HERE
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Chicken Scratch
The
Sisters, Texas Series Book 1
by
Becki Willis
Genre:
Cozy Mystery
Guest Post from the
Author, Becki Willis
Five years ago, my son was married along the Brazos River, at a rustic ranch venue that was once part of a cotton plantation. The simple blacktop road out front squiggles through the river bottom, weaving past old cotton gins, through white fields ripe with cotton, tracing the graceful bends of the Brazos, and crossing over the iron tracks of a railroad.
On one side of the railroad is a hundred-plus-year old ranch, registered with the State of Texas as a historical landmark. Several interesting-looking old buildings are clustered near the railroad, reminiscent of share croppers’ shacks.
On the other side of the tracks is an old train depot, even though the nearest town is miles away. There is also an active feed mill, with its industrial silos and bins, and an entire railroad at its disposal. The cars stop on site to load/unload their burdens.
Something about the railroad sparked an idea for a story, and I could only imagine how things might have been back in the day, when cotton was king and the rails offered the ultimate source of transportation. I imagined a cotton plantation along the river, so big and so important that the railroad came to them. Before long, I had the back-story for my series. Bertram Randolph was the undisputed cotton king of the Brazos Valley, but he was saddled with two spoilt, selfish, impossible-to-deal-with daughters who constantly feuded with one another. The only way to keep peace was to ultimately give each of them their own namesake town; Juliet’s town lay to the south of the tracks, Naomi’s town to the north. Any chance of the sisters reconciling was forever lost when they both fell in love with the same man. To Juliet, Darwin Blakely gave his name; to Naomi, he gave his child. And with Darwin’s untimely death, the rivalry between the two sisters – and their respective towns – exploded.
The Sisters, Texas Mystery Series is set in the modern-day communities of Naomi and Juliet, and revolves around the citizens (all two thousand of them!) determined to keep that rivalry alive and well.
The main character is Madison Reynolds, who finds herself widowed and penniless at the ripe age of thirty-nine. With her teenage twins in tow, she moves home to live with her eighty-year-old grandmother, the patriarch of Juliet. Granny Bert is a live-wire, full of home-grown wisdom, cantankerous charm, witty sayings, and undying devotion toward her family and her home. Genesis Baker, Maddy’s best friend since childhood, has recently moved back, as well, and now owns a popular café in Naomi.
With her support team firmly in place, Maddy tackles the challenges of starting over as a single mom. To make ends meet, she starts In a Pinch, but many of her clients seem to confuse her services for those of a private investigator. No case is too small, or too quirky, for her to turn down, and she soon finds herself embroiled in a variety of unique mysteries and dangerous situations. Good thing she has Chief of Police Brash deCordova looking out for her, as well as Firefighter Cutter Montgomery and, soon, a growing number of friends and supporters.
Please join us in The Sisters, where you’ll find real-life characters, mystery, and intrigue, tossed together with a touch of romance and a dose of laughter.
CHICKEN SCRATCH
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TYV10GY
WHEN THE STARS FALL
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012BGDBKG
STIPULATIONS AND COMPLICATIONS
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FV5F6M0
HOME AGAIN: STARTING OVER
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MSKT1K8
GENNY’S BALLAD
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y5DV38Q
Named
2016 Best Mystery Series by Texas Association of Authors.
When
Madison Reynolds finds herself widowed and penniless before forty,
she does the only thing she knows to do – she packs up her teenage
twins and moves back home with her eighty-year-old grandmother. Life
in The Sisters, Texas has not changed much since she’s been gone,
but at least her best friend Genesis is there to soften the
transition back into small-town life.
To
make ends meet, Madison opens In a Pinch Temporary Services.
Her first real client is Ronny Gleason, but when she shows up for the
first day of work at the Gleason Poultry Farm, Madison makes a
gruesome discovery. The dead body she finds belongs to Mr. Gleason.
When a local man is arrested for murder, Madison takes on the job of
proving his innocence. Even though she is not a private investigator,
both mothers are desperate: Lucy Ngyen to clear her son’s name, and
Madison to pay her bills. But as she begins asking questions around
town, her interference is not welcome.
With
a daughter determined to go back to Dallas, a son settling into small
town life, a feisty grandmother who knows all the town gossip, bill
collectors calling, and now someone trying to keep her silent,
Madison has no time for re-kindling her high school crush with police
chief Brash deCordova. She has her hands full just trying to stay
alive.
If
she survives her amateur investigation, Maddy has a decision to make.
Will she go back to her life in Dallas, or will she build a new life
here in The Sisters?
**99
on Amazon!**
CHICKEN SCRATCH Excerpt:
“You were trespassing on posted property.”
“I didn’t see the sign.”
“Did you happen to notice the fence?”
Madison chose not to comment. With a determined glint in her hazel eyes, she said, “I also overheard them talking about the boss, someone obviously higher up than Ronny Gleason. And I think you’re right. I think this is an organized gambling ring.”
“I’m so glad you approve of my theory. I suppose your years of watching Matlock and CSI qualify you to offer your glowing endorsement?”
With great effort, Madison resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him.
Brash continued. “Of course, the biggest problem I have with all of this is that you were witness to illegal activity, yet failed to call it in. By failing to report it, a smart Assistance District Attorney could argue your silence makes you an accessory to crime.”
Madison had a quick comeback, along with a charming smile. “A smart Chief of Police would recognize I have valuable information to share and would never dream of pressing charges.”
She knew he was having difficulty maintaining his stoic expression. His eyes glittered with appreciation, but his voice remained gruff. “You should have reported it, Maddy. We might could have caught them in the act.”
When The Stars Fall
The
Sisters, Texas Series Book 2
Madison
Reynolds is rebuilding her life, one obstacle at a time.
But
the building blocks aren’t standard issue: widowed at
thirty-nine…betrayed by her late husband…mother of teenaged
twins…finances in shambles…living with her eighty-year-old
grandmother…still attracted to her teenage crush Brash deCordova,
who just happens to be the Chief of Police in The Sisters…embroiled
in yet another murder mystery… How will she ever get all the blocks
assembled and stacked one upon another, in order to build a future
for herself and her children?
Madison’s
newest client at In a Pinch Temp Service is a
suspicious wife, up against a formidable foe—the lovely Caress
Ellingsworth, former soap opera queen. When the star is murdered and
Madison is eyewitness to the deed, she wonders if the shadowed person
she saw commit the crime might really be her client. Now Madison is
torn between uncovering the truth and keeping her client’s name off
the suspect list.
Caress
is not the only star in town these days. With a little help from
Granny Bert and Madison’s best friend Genesis, the popular
television show Home Again arrives, with some crazy notion about
remodeling the Big House for Maddy and her twins. The problem is,
Madison can’t afford to buy the house, much less pay to have it
renovated. No matter how tempting the offer—or how tempting the
show’s star, Nick Vilardi—Madison sees it as just another block
that will not fit.
Even
if she manages to stack the blocks in a semblance of order, even if
she climbs her way up and reaches for the sky, what happens when the
stars fall?
**FREE
on July 1-2 and July 14 **
Stipulations and Complications
The Sisters, Texas
Series Book 3
Life
comes with stipulations.
If you want to fit into last year’s
swimsuit, you can’t eat ice cream and a Gennydoodle cookie after
every meal.
If you want to go to Heaven, you can’t raise Hell on
Saturday night and show up in the church pew on Sunday morning,
hungover and reeking of cheap perfume.
And if you want your
hundred-year-old mansion completely updated and remodeled for free,
you have to sacrifice.
Stipulations, my child.
-Granny Bert Cessna
Now
that Madison Reynolds has agreed to be part of a reality-television
home remodeling show, she barely recognizes her own life. The show is
an instant success, bringing cameras and reporters right to her
doorstep, eager to chronicle her every move in the small Texas town.
With In
a Pinch Temporary Services hovering on the thin line between
prosperity and extinction, Madison takes on another quirky case, this
one concerning a property dispute. Complications turn a simple
mission into all-out danger, and once again Madison finds herself
embroiled in an intriguing mystery.
Between
her cantankerous grandmother, a moody teenage daughter, an
ever-starving son, townspeople eager to grab their fifteen minutes of
fame at her expense, and a mother-in-law appalled by her undignified
foray into the public eye, Madison had her hands full, long before
the skeleton was discovered. Now work is interrupted at the Big
House, ghost stories abound, more secret passages have been
unearthed, and someone is trying to scare her away from her new home.
What she needs
is another session of Brash deCordova’s unique
‘river therapy’… not to mention the kiss that eludes them with
frustrating regularity.
What she gets
is another round of stipulations and complications.
Home Again: Starting Over
The
Sisters, Texas Series Book 4
Named
"Best Mystery Series of 2017" by Texas Association of
Authors
Things in The Sisters are heating up, and Madison
Reynolds is in the hot seat.
When a local woman dies in a most
unconventional way, In a Pinch takes on the quirky case and once
again, Maddy finds herself in the middle of a would-be murder
investigation. Even with the help of her grandmother and best friend
Genny, this case may be too hot to handle.
As summer
scorches its way across Texas, drama as thick as the August humidity
rolls through the twin towns of Juliet and Naomi. Granny Bert reveals
a secret that rocks Maddy’s foundation. A celebrity designer joins
the renovation crew at the Big House, bringing twice the chaos and
twice the fans. Madison’s estranged mother-in-law convinces the
twins to spend the summer with her in Dallas. As if all of that isn’t
enough to wreak havoc in Madison’s life, Barry Redmond continues to
propagate his ridiculous grudge against her.
Things really
start smoking when Cutter’s grandfather, rodeo legend Sticker
Pierce, returns to The Sisters and tries to rekindle a romance with
old flame Belle, aka Granny Bert. And Maddy’s latest brush with
death prompts Brash to finally make his move.
With
renovations almost complete and the love of a good man behind her,
Maddy is ready to tell the world: I’m home again, and starting
over.
Don’t miss Book Four in the award-winning The
Sisters, Texas Mystery Series.
**On
sale for .99 from July 1st-21st, then $1.99 until July
28th**
Genny's Ballad
The
Sisters, Texas Series Book 5
By
all accounts, everyone loves Genny.
So why does someone want
her dead?
There’s something
special about Genesis Baker, owner of The Sister’s popular New
Beginnings Café. With her dimpled smile and twinkling blue eyes,
Genny has practically the entire town eating from the palm of her
hand. But Genny is hiding a secret. Despite her sunny disposition and
golden touch, there is heartache in her past, and heartache, they
say, comes in threes.
Heartache Number One: An
unwelcomed customer shows up at New Beginnings.
Apparently, the restraining order against him has lapsed.
Heartache
Number Two: Genny’s arch nemesis from high school returns
to town. Twenty years has done nothing to mellow the bitter feud
between these two women.
Heartache Number Three: As
Genny finally acknowledges her feelings for a younger man—sexy
firefighter Cutter Montgomery—memories of her first love come back
to haunt her.
On top of it all, someone is stalking Genny,
determined to make her life miserable.
As it turns
out, being kidnapped is only the beginning of her troubles…
Great
as a stand-alone, but Book Five of the award winning The
Sisters, Texas Mystery Series, voted Best Mystery Series by
the Texas Association of Authors, two years in a row!
Becki Willis,
best known for her popular The Sisters, Texas Mystery Series
and Forgotten Boxes, always dreamed of being an author. In November
of '13, that dream became a reality. Since that time, she has
published eleven books, won first place honors for Best Mystery
Series, Best Suspense Fiction and Best Audio Book, and has introduced
her imaginary friends to readers around the world.
An
avid history buff, Becki likes to poke around in old places and learn
about the past. Other addictions include reading, writing, junking,
unraveling a good mystery, and coffee. She loves to travel, but
believes coming home to her family and her Texas ranch is the best
part of any trip. Becki is a member of the Association of Texas
Authors, the National Association of Professional Women, and the
Brazos Writers organization. She attended Texas A&M University
and majored in Journalism.
Becki Willis
is having a Christmas in July Sweestakes! Share your favorite
holiday tradition on Facebook and win Fire tablet, signed books, a
$25 Amazon gift card, ornament or ebooks!
More details can be found
HERE!
for exclusive excerpts!
