Special Guest: Grace Greene discusses winter time blues 01/31/2012

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Grace Greene has stopped by The Mustard Seed today to share with us about  winter blues and special Valentines and she's also doing a book giveaway. Hope you can grab a mug of hot chocolate and hang out with Grace.

Winter blue and Valentine red - I get the winter blues. I have several SAD lamps. I sit near windows to catch every ray of sunlight possible. Take extra vitamin D. I write books that take place during warmer weather and I plan trips to warmer places (most of which never happen), but thinking about sun and warmth often helps lighten the blues. One of the best things about winter is wearing sweaters. I LOVE sweaters.  And the holidays! We brighten our winter days by celebrating from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. Then, it’s time to return to work, school and routine, and the reality of short, dark, drab days creeps back.

Winter is a waiting time, especially for nature as it rests and recovers and readies for the new growth of spring. There are winter scenes in BEACH RENTAL. Yes, winter happens at the beach, too, but year-round beach dwellers will tell you it is a beautiful season, especially down at Emerald Isle, North Carolina. You won’t be swimming in the ocean, but there are many glorious days for walks on the beach. Winter can be a time of isolation and loneliness, but also for peace. For Juli, in BEACH RENTAL, it is a time for thought and healing - a waiting time - a time of recovery before the new growth of spring begins - as Juli transitions from grief to a new life.

With February on the horizon, winter has other goodies to offer, including Valentine's Day.  For BEACH RENTAL, this is especially pertinent because of the Carolina Chocolate Festival in Morehead City, North Carolina. The Carolina Chocolate Festival happens February 3-5 and raises money for charity. In BEACH RENTAL, there's a very sweet scene at the Festival, but I won’t give away any story spoilers here!

When we were kids, do you remember the valentines we made with our safety scissors and red construction paper? How we folded the paper, then carefully cut one half of the heart, unfolded the paper heart and wrote our name and the name of our sweetheart (or hoped-for sweetheart) on it? In my new release, KINCAID’S HOPE, Michael gave a red paper heart to Beth when they were children and she's been waiting to cash it in ever since. 

In the Book of Ecclesiastes, we are told that to everything there is a season. I guess that includes winter and, sometimes, the blues. Ecclesiastes 3 1:8 is also the theme of KINCAID'S HOPE. 

Grace, thanks for sharing with us!

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Let's meet Grace and learn more about her new release.

Grace writes fiction with romance, suspense and inspiration - always with a strong heroine at its heart. Her release, BEACH RENTAL, debuted in July 2011. Her second novel, KINCAID'S HOPE, has just been released (January 2012).

You can find Grace online here:

Grace's Website

Find Grace on Facebook                       

Find Grace on Twitter

Grace, can you tell us more about Kincaid's Hope?

Beth Kincaid left her hot temper and unhappy childhood behind and created a life in the city free from untidy emotionalism, but even a tidy life has danger, especially when it falls apart.

In the midst of her personal disasters, Beth is called back to her hometown of Preston, a small town in southwestern Virginia, to settle her guardian’s estate and runs smack into the mess she’d left behind a decade earlier: her alcoholic father and the long-ago sweetheart, Michael, and the poor opinion of almost everyone in town. As she sorts through her guardian’s possessions, Beth discovers that the woman who saved her and raised her had secrets, and the truths revealed begin to chip away at her self-imposed control.

Michael is warmly attentive and Stephen, her ex-fiancé, follows her to Preston to win her back, but it’s the man she doesn’t know who could end, forever, Beth’s chance to build a better, truer life.

Sounds very intriguing and I love the book cover! Grace, so glad you stopped by to hang out with us today.

If you'd like to enter to win a copy of Grace's book (print or eformat, winner's choice...print only if mailed within the US), you know what to do...please comment on today's blog post.

How do you deal with the winter blues? Are you excited about this coming Valentine's Day?  

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Winter Wonderland ~ Guest Author: CJ Clark 01/26/2012

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CJ Clark is a guest at The Mustard Seed today. She's here to share about her love of winter.

WINTER WONDERLAND

Frosted windowpanes. Snow coruscating trees, roofs, automobiles. Trash cans covered in snow like some kind of robotic snowmen. A pristine duvet in the front yard. Those are just a few of the things I treasure about winter.

I’m one of those freaky few that love winter! I love opening the door to that initial gust of blizzard, stepping out into the frigid cold that makes eyes water and nose tingle with frost. I love feeding the birds only to have the slightest breeze endow me with an angel’s dusting of snow from branches overhead.

Winter, for me, is a time of reflection and memories of a happy childhood: mama bundling me up and putting me in the box sled so she could go to the corner store for groceries; waiting for daddy to come home so we could go to the local skating rink after supper; waiting for Saturday to arrive so friends and playmates could join me in tobogganing the hills in the city park or making snow angels.

But winter brings another pleasure to me. It’s my cozy time. Time to make hot chocolate or hot cider and take my legal pad in my lap and write. Writing in longhand is sybaritic pleasure to me, although I’ll be the first to admit gratitude for computers. No more typo’s that have to be erased, carbon paper smears, etc. Winter provides more time for reflection and it is my most productive writing time. Once the trees start budding (which is early here in the Ozarks) and the first crocus pops its head through winter’s frozen terra, I start having spring fever.

Winter, with its crispness, revives and refreshes me like no other season. It’s a time for heightened awareness while driving and a slower pace of walking snow-covered icy roads. All that adrenaline shows in my novel pacing, while taking care not to fall shows in my more reticent characters. I can only dream of snow country now. 

I suppose this is why my books Wyoming Dreamer and Marry Me Under the Mistletoe (available through Amazon.com and CreateSpace.com) are both set in winter climes. But isn’t that what writers do? Live vicariously? 

CJ, thanks so much for stopping by to guest today and sharing with us about your love of winter. 

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CLICK Photo for book purchase links

Some random facts about CJ: 

1) I love goats! 
2) I’m short-5’2”. 
3) Once upon a time, I wanted to be a professional chef. 
4) Christmas is my favorite time of year. 5) Dogs and cats, cats and dogs: I’ve got two big dogs and I’m down to nine cats. And can I come back as a big cat in my next life?

C J Clark writes articles, poetry, short stories and novels. She has been most recently published in Good Old Days Magazine (July/Aug 2011) and won the 2010 Western Horizon Award from Wyoming Writers Inc. A member of several state writing/poetry organizations she also has numerous publication credits and awards. 

You can find CJ online here: 

Website & Blog: CJ Clark 
Find CJ Clark on Twitter
Find CJ Clark on Facebook

Hope you all can stay and chat with CJ for a bit. Do you share her love of winter or have a favorite winter memory you'd like to share? We'd love to hear from you.

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Guest Author ~ Tara Manderino 01/11/2012

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Author, Tara Manderino is here today at The Mustard Seed to answer the question: Have you ever written a book set in winter...and can you share a scene? She's also doing a giveaway for everyone, so hope you can stick around to chat.

Stirring Wishes is the one book I currently have set in winter. It pulls together a lot of my favorite elements: winter, holidays, romance and it’s a regency.

Americans have fruitcake and the British have plum pudding. Both still abound during the holiday season.  Stirring Wishes focuses on the old custom of Stir-Up Sunday in England, the ‘official’ day for making Plum Pudding. Families would come home from church the Sunday before Advent and make their Christmas Pudding.  Everyone in the family would give a stir to the pudding and make a secret wish. Always, the pudding is stirred from East to West in honor of the three wise men who visited the baby Jesus.

In Stirring Wishes, Elise is a typical Regency miss who lives in the country and is of genteel birth, but the family is seriously lacking in funds. Richard is an earl and is doing his best to be a recluse, much to his younger brother’s dismay. The last thing Richard wants, or needs (in his opinion) is people disturbing him. Earlier on in the story, there is a snippet when Elise’s brother arrives, that makes me smile. The earl, eating breakfast, has one interruption too many.

Since Stirring Wishes is a novella, it’s pretty tightly written. As such, it’s difficult for me to choose my favorite scene. I love when they are all in the earl’s kitchen, working on the puddings, as well as one later on when it appears some of the Stirring Wishes have come true.

While the name for Stir-up Sunday is believed to come from the typical opening prayer for church service on that day, children would often recite their own version.  The original from the 1549 Book of Common Prayer is Stir-up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Children used an abbreviated version that hit a bit closer to what they were interested in! Stir up, we beseech thee, the pudding in the pot; And when we get home we’ll eat the lot.  Harry, Elise’s younger brother, is no exception!

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Before we get to the interview, let's meet Tara...

Author Tara Manderino loves to create stories and situations for the people running around in her head. She first began writing in third grade when she realized she couldn't afford her reading habit.

She writes and is published in a variety of genres and finds that each one is her favorite at the time. Her books are available at a variety of online retailers.

Tara resides in her native town in southwestern Pennsylvania. When she’s not chasing Lydia, the boxer, she’s writing her own stories, or reading, Tara likes to bake, watch old movies, and do a variety of crafts

You can connect with Tara online here?
Tara's Website
Find Tara on Facebook
Find Tara on Twitter   

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Now on to the fun part...let's chat. Tara, list the top five random facts about yourself. 

1) I think popcorn is its own food group. 2) Every keyboard I own has crumbs. 3) I can’t watch a Jane Austen movie, or any British movie, without wanting a cup of tea. 4) I am definitely owned by my dog, but I don’t mind too much, except for when she thinks we’re Siamese twins. 5) I love to read.

Why do you like being an author?  

I love creating stories. It helps when the characters just manage to appear in my head and want OUT.  Much more comfortable for me that way, too.   

Can totally relate! Who’s your favorite author of classic literature? 

Jane Austen, but I seldom think of her as classic. I tend to think of her as a contemporary / pulp writer of her time.

My favorite is Jane Austen as well...good assessment of her work. What’s your favorite novel? 

This is so difficult! If I must choose one, I think it would be Ashes in the Wind by Kathleen Woodiwiss. The built in conflict of the Civil War era adds another layer to this wonderfully told story.

What was the happiest moment in your childhood? 

I’m not sure one moment stands out as the happiest. I had a pretty happy childhood and all of the great memories tend to run together in a colorful kaleidoscope, from spending time with the family, extended family, and playing tag or skating with friends. I grew up in a very working class neighborhood. At the time the high school was within a block of my house, there were several churches in the neighborhood and several corner stores. Every summer, I can still hear the sound of church bells ringing the hour, and the school band practicing their music an marches. 

Love your description of "memories running together in a colorful kaleidoscope." 

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Can you share with us about your latest release, Heart Quest?

With one week to find the stolen stone from the Heart of Egypt, Luke Hayden, one of the premiere agents of the 1874 US Secret Service, travels in disguise across the continent When he learns Maj Bentzer, a woman he’s loved in the past, plays a key role in the stone’s disappearance, he’s not sure he can trust his instincts.

Heart Quest is the second in the series President’s Orders, which follows the adventures of two Secret Service Agents and the women they love. The first book is False Notes.

Sounds like a very intriguing book and something I'd love to read. Where can readers find your book online?

Purchase Link for False Notes on Amazon
Purchase Link for False Notes on Smashwords

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Tara, thank you so much for guesting today and sharing with us about you and your books. I enjoyed chatting and getting to know you better. 

I understand you have a special giveaway for all of our readers today...

As a special thank you to your readers, Stirring Wishes can be downloaded: Download Stirring Wishes--for FREE here. The coupon code for the free check out is UX97H. The coupon is valid until February 1, 2012.

Thank you so much, Tara. I'm sure everyone really appreciates that gift! 
Hope you all can hang out and chat with Tara for a while.

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