Adventures in Amethyst Series Anthology (Books 1-4)


Book Description

Amethyst, WI is a small, peaceful town on a pristine lake with an active tourist season in summer. When the air turns chill, the area is transformed into a ghost town with only a handful of lifers who stay. Amethyst is bursting with mystery, romance, and jealousy all-year-round. ADVENTURES IN AMETHYST SERIES is a collection of the first 4 novellas in the series, including A Rose for Romeo (Book 1), Revenge in Amethyst (Book 2), Reckless Rose (Book 3), Christmas in Amethyst (Book 4). Book 1: A Rose for Romeo What happens when a nationally renowned sex therapist and author begins to abhor every aspect of her successful occupation? She falls in love, of course. Dr. Melina Rose is sick of sex and has spent her life avoiding intimacy in her personal life. After abandoning everything she's worked all her life for, she returns to her hometown only to discover that everything has changed--except her crush on her sister's old boyfriend Scott "Romeo" Romero. Book 2: Revenge in Amethyst After abandoning her career as a renowned sex therapist, Melina Rose has returned to her hometown and fallen in love with Scott Romero. Scott and Melina are ecstatically expecting a baby and planning their wedding. But someone driven by jealousy wants to see Melina's dream-life crash down. A former patient who'd revealed his disturbing fantasies only to Melina is prepared to do anything in order to keep his secrets safe. Book 3: Reckless Rose Even bad girls need love... When Reece Childs rolls back into Amethyst to stay, Lona Rose realizes her reckless crush on the older brother of a former beau is still waging hot and heavy. But how to prevent the rumors and mistakes of her past from ruining the start of something wonderful? Reece has just the plan to head off the rumor mill...and make this reckless rose his own forever. Book 4: Christmas in Amethyst Eager to make it up to her son's many disappointments in the past year, single mom Sheila Mason takes a shift at the restaurant she works on Christmas Day in order to buy Dev a puppy. When a creepy customer follows her on the deserted road from the restaurant to her home in Amethyst, her holidays go from bad to worse.




Adventures in Amethyst Series, Book 12: Unlucky in Love


Book Description

Unlucky in love and unable to count their blessings during the Thanksgiving holiday, Layla and Adam find themselves jilted at the same time by the person they assumed was their soulmate. Heartbroken, snowed in and forced to share the only available cabin in town, they have no choice but to re-evaluate everything they've ever wanted in life...and love.




Adventures in Amethyst A Trio of Holiday Romances


Book Description

(3 in 1 volume) including: Halloween: NEVER A BRIDE, Book 11: Once upon a time, Ben Johnson believed he had forever sewn up with Layla. But fairy tales rarely come true in reality. Long before her nephew was in a hunting accident and she blamed Ben for not preventing it, the two of them had broken up, citing irreconcilable differences. Layla hadn't wanted his family to know the truth. Following the accident, she walked out--for good, he assumed. Charlize Seagrave never fit in anywhere, drawn to danger, darkness, and drugs. For years, she was the guitarist and songwriter for a death-metal band and involved with the frontman who only encouraged her deadly addictions. In order to hide from Freyr, Charlize checked herself rehab. Later, clean--another first in her life--she attended her new friend's wedding and met Ben. Despite their instant connection, he was supposedly in a committed relationship and she had no interest whatsoever in commitment. If only Ben wasn't so unlike every other person she's ever known. If only she didn't feel like he alone understands and gets her. When Charlize returns to Amethyst at Halloween, Ben knows loneliness has nothing to do with his feelings for her. His attraction to her the last time she was in Amethyst wasn't something he was comfortable with, despite that he and Layla had broken up even before his family learned of the fact. But now Layla is implying she's had a change of heart. Ben wonders if this is all getting too complicated...or if the solution is as simple as a kiss. Thanksgiving: UNLUCKY IN LOVE, Book 12: Layla Dupriest's father was killed in a hunting accident when she was a child so, when the man who was once the love of her life, Benji Johnson, encourages her nephew to go hunting and he's hurt, she blames Ben. Months later, she can see she wasn't fair. Adam Schaefer has loved Tally Johnson, Benji's sister, since he was a teenager, but his love of flying and freedom surpassed anything that might clip his wings like a wife, monogamy, marriage, and settling down. The last thing he expected was for her to fall for his best friend--and to have that man's baby. Unlucky in love and unable to count their blessings during the Thanksgiving holiday, Layla and Adam find themselves jilted at the same time. Heartbroken, snowed in, and forced to share the only available cabin in town, they have no choice but to re-evaluate everything they've ever wanted in life...and love. Christmas: SHOTGUN WEDDING, Book 13: Trevor and Eden were married right out of high school. She'd believed she was pregnant, but that hadn't been her sole motivation. Wildly in love with Trevor Johnson, she'd worried he was becoming disenchanted with her, his attention consumed by the needy and seductive Delaney Foster who came to Amethyst every year with her family. In the years Eden and Trever have been married, she's never felt quite secure in the belief that he married her by choice, in love. During the Christmas season, plagued by unspoken guilt and doubts, she finds herself again competing with a soon-to-be divorced, distraught, and disgustingly gorgeous Delaney. Eden is obsessively aware she's no longer as young, thin, or sexy as she'd been before she had three sons. To top off her growing stress, Eden has discovered she and Trevor's oldest son and his girlfriend, in their senior year of high school, are sexually active. The last thing they need is another shotgun wedding and the potential that a marriage undertaken for the sake of a baby isn't necessarily one of choice or love.




CPR for Dead or Lifeless Fiction: A Writer's Guide to Deep and Multifaceted Development and Progression of Characters, Plots, and Relationships


Book Description

Characters: Do your characters have no obvious signs of life, nothing that gives them unique personality, perspective, and passion? Plots: Are plots and conflicts created spur of the moment with no set up, build up, curiosity, or tension? Relationships: Are your characters merely going through the motions with each other? All of these and more are signs of dead or lifeless stories. The three core elements of story--Characters, Plots, and Relationships (CPR)--need to be developed three dimensionally. To truly be living, characters aren't simply existing and going through the motions. They possess fully developed external and internal conflicts. They're interacting in dynamic, realistic, and believable relationships. They have multidimensional character attributes that give them both vitality and voice. Finally, they're engaged in what makes life worthwhile with definable goals and motivations. This resource teaches writers how to identify dead or lifeless characters, plots, and relationships; establish proper setup; plant the seeds early with in-depth sketches; and pinpoint weak areas in CPR development. The only one-stop, everything-you-need-to-know 9-1-1 for deep, multifaceted Character, Plot, and Relationship development!




2-in-1 Inspirational Romance Novellas


Book Description

The Amethyst Angel {Traditional Romance Novella}: Elena Lopez's father has decided to play matchmaker with his long-time friend and neighbor, Marta Delgado, when Marta's nephew comes to town. Elena has a secret though: She's always loved Marta's own son Pablo. An amethyst angel belonging to a dying boy reminds Elena that spending her life waiting for something to happen isn't living and that love must be shared. Can she take the risk of telling Pablo her feelings even if he doesn't share her love? A Home for Christmas {Inspirational Romance Novella}: All Christie Renata Zondervon has ever wanted is a family, especially at Christmas-time. Craig Stevens has dried her tears, held her hand, listened to her talk about her hopes and fears at any time of day or night. She's never looked at him romantically before...until he invites her to spend Christmas with his family. How does a painfully shy man reveal his heart without voicing the words that could lead to rejection? Craig has given himself twelve days to convince Christie he can be the man of her dreams. Now it's a countdown to win her heart or bust!




Home


Book Description

Peaceful Pilgrims Series is set in Karen Wiesner's fictional town of Peaceful, Wisconsin, a small community with old-fashioned values and friendly people you'll want to get to know and visit often. Small-town girl Ayodele "Della" Flynn lives in a city she abhors, where danger seems to be lurking around every corner. When her husband dies very unexpectedly, she's confronted with figuring out where her home is with her young son River and trying to come to terms with the loose ends her husband left their lives in.




A Perfect Match


Book Description

Peaceful Pilgrims Series is set in Karen Wiesner's fictional town of Peaceful, Wisconsin, a small community with old-fashioned values and friendly people you'll want to get to know and visit often. At nearly 40, Dante Robinson has never been in a relationship that wasn't more than a one-night stand. His nephew, a college student, living in the upstairs apartment of his garage reveals that, on a lark, he and his friend started an online dating company, Perfect Match. Dante insists he shut it down...until the kid offers to hook him up with a "naughty librarian". Lena Young has worked two jobs since she was in high school. She's 30 and raises the daughter of her abusive older brother, a truck driver, as if she's her own. When her friend convinced her to sign up for Perfect Match, she couldn't get herself to go through it...until Dante responds to her profile. Developing a major crush on her brother's best friend hadn't been difficult when Lena was a sheltered girl, but Dante hasn't been back to their house in 16 years. After she agrees to meet him without telling him who she is, she discovers he only invited her over to his house to get laid. She's mortified but, when an equally humiliated Dante comes to the truck stop diner she works on the weekends and apologizes, begging her to forgive him, she can't turn him away. Wanting to tell him to hit the road, she instead finds herself believing him, championing his determination to become a better man...convinced that, with him, she could have one thing in her life that brings her the kind of joy she's always dreamed of but has never considered possible.




Briar's Patch


Book Description

As a teenager, Roman "Bud" Marasek was shy and withdrawn, a farmer's kid who grew up to be a farmer himself. The first girl he loved was Briar Sankey, a popular girl with big, beautiful eyes and a wild clothing and makeup style. It took him years to work up the courage to ask her out, and their date was the best night of his life. But, when she never answered his calls after that and started dating the star athlete, he'd realized he'd only been wishing for the moon. Years passed, Bud fell in love with Evette, had a daughter, and his wife died unexpectedly. Raising Harper hasn't been easy alone, but at forty-seven he feels completely unprepared for being both father and mother to a moody teenage daughter with too many boyfriends and life-and-death meltdowns. He turns to Briar for help. Briar is running her mother's restaurant, has finally toned down her style, and, unbelievably, has never married and seems content to be alone. Looks are deceiving... Briar had spent her life confident she had all the time in the world to make a life for herself and any choice she wanted. At forty-seven, she no longer has the same choices. With both of her parents gone, she's the only one left to run the restaurant, her mother's legacy to the small town of Amethyst and what she considers her "patch" in the big, wide world. Additionally, the few eligible men in the area don't interest her. Letting slip an unintended faux pas, a friend of both Briar and Bud reveals to Briar that Bud has had a thirty year crush on her. Suddenly his reason for coming by the cafe nearly every day of his life takes on startling meaning. In truth, she'd barely noticed him most of the time. When he asks her for help with Harper, she can't refuse. And suddenly she's seeing Bud in a whole new light...and falling in love with the sweet, shy man who's been there all along.




Hidden


Book Description

Sometimes what you don't know can hurt you... Following a troubled childhood, Sybilla Nygard marries her much older entrepreneur partner, Tobias Ocampo. They've been inseparable since they started Offbeat Enterprises together. Their publishing house produces a book series focused on unusual homes. After suffering memory loss about his past, Tobias inherits an elaborate, isolated estate at the top of Bloodmoon Mountain in Bloodmoon Cove. The reports and rumors swirling about the house, suggesting death and secrets hide within, make it all the more appealing to Syl as their next Offbeat Homes project. But her biggest motivation is discovering more about Tobias's beginnings. Although Syl and Tobias don't relish spending winter trapped in isolation, they bring along their closest family and friends to keep them company while they search out the mysteries of Howling Halls. The nightmare Syl has been having as long as she can remember returns. The voice of a ghost urges, Find me, leading her to hidden spaces and the skeletons of a family desperate to escape its demons...all while monstrous things are waking up hungry.




Writing Blurbs That Sizzle--And Sell!


Book Description

Make your book fly off the shelves! Every author knows what a back cover blurb is, but crafting an effectively good one is no easy task. Many writers outright dislike writing them or dread the process because so much is at stake if the blurb fails to engage. A sizzling back cover blurb needs to convince readers they absolutely have to read the story inside the pages…or they'll set the book down without ever opening it. Additionally, a powerful series blurb can sell not just one book but all of them in that set! High-concept blurbs are necessary in every author's marketing to provide intriguing "sound bites" that sell books and series'. Writing Blurbs That Sizzle--And Sell! is the definitive guide on how to craft back cover, series, and high-concept blurbs.