Sharon Stanley: Interview and Giveaway

Knowing Sharon Stanley:

Although Sharon Stanley has been writing for years, it was only after her youngest son graduated high school that she got serious about it. 

She joined the SCBWI and began to write with an eye to publish children’s picture books. S

haron published her first print book, The Little Dog in the Middle of the Road last winter with Silver Tongue Press, and has several others under contract.  

She lives with 5 chickens, 4 dogs, 3 cats, 2 sons and one husband on a working farm in Virginia, where she endeavors to “live creatively…with cows.”  

She enjoys mixed media artwork and blogs about her creative and farm life at farmandfrufru.blogspot.com. 

You can read more on her website, www.sharonpstanley.com

Interview:

For people who haven’t heard of "The Little Dog In the Middle of The Road" , make a brief description.

My book is called The Little Dog in the Middle of the Road.  It’s about a little dog that becomes lost when he leaves home to look for his person who’s away on a trip.   He decides the only way to find her is to sit in the middle of the road and wait for her to return.  But it’s getting dark…

When did you decide to become a writer?

I really never decided to become a writer.  I’ve always written for my own enjoyment, and after my youngest son graduated high school three years ago, I decided to seek publication for some of my stories.

Do you have specific habits when writing?

I’m not sure I could say I have specific writing habits, but I only write when I have a story in mind.  I wish I could sit and write every day because I know that’s what “real” writers do to polish their craft, but it just doesn’t work for me.  It doesn’t feel right.  When a story comes to me, I mull it over until I have the basic plot, then I begin writing.  After I write it all out the first time, it goes on the back burner for a while and then I begin editing.

Early bird or night owl?

I’m a night owl.  Then I hate to get up in the morning.

Where do you get your inspiration?

I live on a farm and my inspiration usually comes from here.  Animals are the stars in my books and often tell their own stories…I just write them down for them.  Little Dog is based on a true story…he was found on our road just sitting in the middle of the road and I began to wonder why.

What do you do, besides writing?

Besides writing, I take care of my husband and our two (grown) boys and   our home.  Both our sons farm as well as my husband and I help out by       keeping the books and moving equipment from field to field during       harvest.  I also have art workshops on the farm from time to time.

Do you have any hobbies? 

I do have hobbies.  I make things.  I love paint, paper, fabric and any sort      art supplies.  I love collage and mixed media art, sewing, and re-inventing  things I find at thrift/antique stores.

Guilty pleasures? 

My guilty pleasures include reading decorating magazines, Jane Austen novels I’ve read a dozen times and dozing on the front porch in a lounge  chair, usually with a dog on my lap.

What are you reading right now? 

Right now I’m reading a memoir written by someone I know which is great fun because I know a lot of the people he has written about.

Name your favorite author and book:

Jane Austen is certainly one of my favorite authors and I love all her books, Emma being my very favorite.  Beatrix Potter is my favorite children’s author of all time because I love her detailed pictures as well as her stories.  Mem Fox is a wonderful children’s writer and Susan Meddaugh nails it everytime with her Martha books.

What's the craziest thing you've done?

I am not a crazy person;  Ditsy, yes, but not too crazy.  Perhaps the craziest thing I’ve done recently is to presume to think I might be able to write a story worthy of publication.

Biggest trouble as a writer?

 I think the biggest trouble I’ve faced as a writer is to become used to rejection as a fact of life.  It’s very hard to pour your life and soul into a story only to have it rejected.  I research each publisher before submitting and only submit when I think it will be a good fit, so it’s difficult not to take rejection personally.  That said, it does get easier the more you practice.

Favorite TV show?

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I love old shows like Andy Griffith.  I live with three men so we watch a lot of Duck Dynasty, Gold Rush and Alaska the Last Frontier.  I love English TV though and enjoy the Midsomer Murder series.

Favorite movie:

…Sense and Sensibility,  Love Actually, Bright Star.

Favorite food:

Ice cream is my favorite food.  It should be its own food group.  I could eat it three times a day…sometimes I do.

What thing you wish you could stop doing?

I wish I could stop eating so much ice cream.

THANK YOU SHARON FOR SUCH A GREAT INTERVIEW!

And don't stop eating ice cream! It's delicious :D

A little dog ‘s person goes away for a few days. Not happy where he is 

staying, he goes into the middle of the road to look for his person. He finds 

a nice person to help him but it is not his person. He wants his person and 

knows that they have to come down the road to find him. So, he sits in the 

middle of the road and waits.

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Healed by a Heart: Top 10 List, giveaway and amazing poll

Discover the second installment in the Destiny in Deadwood Series. 

Read it as a part of a series or as a stand alone!

                                      

Release Date: May 2014  

Genre: Historical Romance. Western.      

All Liam Anderson wanted after the War Between the States, was a little peace. After seventeen years in the army, he’s tired of fighting and killing. Having lost his beloved wife to influenza, he’s tired of hurting. And seeing his baby brother framed for murder, he’s tired of injustice.

He left everything behind to help his brothers escape, packed up his children and possessions, and took them all to a gold claim in Deadwood. Miss Eleanor Smith is a thirty-two year-old spinster. She gave up her dream of a home and family a long time ago. Instead, she has spent her life traveling the world, ministering to the weak, the injured, the poor, and the forgotten, following her preacher father from one hell hole to another.

From what she’s seen of men and the world, she’s better off taking care of herself. And she gets along just fine, until she literally falls into Liam’s arms, gets in the middle of a fight that isn’t hers, and becomes a pawn for an enemy’s revenge.

Deadwood was supposed to be a fresh start for Liam Anderson and his younger brothers, but trouble followed him and his children. And when Eleanor disappears, only Liam can rescue her. The headstrong, independent woman awoke his dead passion, but refused to surrender to his touch. Can he convince her that merely surviving isn’t enough? Despite his sins, he's the only man who can save her, and she's the only woman strong enough to heal his broken heart.

PROLOGUE

April 1876St. Louis, Missouri Liam Anderson sat in front of a blazing fire, in his pajamas and robe, puffing on his pipe, reading, for the last time in this house. The place he’d called home for so many years. The kids were asleep upstairs. Sleep had eluded him and he’d risen to read until he got tired.

BAM! BAM! BAM!He looked up from the book he read and glanced at the mantel clock. One of the few things he hadn’t packed away. “What in the world? Who would be out in this weather at this hour?

”What the hell?” said Liam, when he opened the door to his two younger brothers. “Jake? Zach? What are you two doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”Zach growled from behind Jake. “Are you going to let us in or make us stand in this rain all night?”

“Come in. Zach put that gun away,” said Liam.

“Can’t until the kid here,” he poked Jake in the back with his gun, “is inside and we’ve talked to you.

”Jake, the youngest of his brothers, walked into the foyer of the house, followed closely by Zach. He stared down the hallway, packed with luggage and boxes down to the parlor, but didn’t question it. Didn’t even seem to notice that the house was packed up ready to move.

Both of them were haggard, completely worn out. Their coats were soaked through and they couldn’t have been comfortable. He’d never seen them looking so exhausted or…desperate.

“Sorry to do this to you, Liam. I know you’re leaving tomorrow,” said Zach as he holstered his gun and dripped water onto the foyer floor. He threw his had onto one of the steamer trunks. Jake followed suit.

It was times like these that the difference between his brothers was so striking. Zach with his nearly black hair and dark blue eyes. There was one in every generation with the coloring of their Gypsy great grandmother, Zach was theirs and their father had been the one in his generation. It was rare to have two gypsies in the same family, usual it was an uncle or aunt rather than a parent of the latest child with the coloring.

Jake with dark blond, overly long hair and light blue eyes most resembled their dear mother.

Liam was somewhere between the two, with light brown hair and gray eyes. His children were different as night and day, too. Ten year old David resembled Liam not only physically but mentally too. David always seemed to weigh his words before he spoke them. Whereas Hannah, the gypsy of her generation, said whatever came into her little head. She was only five, but even at her age, David had been as contemplative as he was now.

He smiled thinking of his children. They were his joy. His reason for living. He closed his eyes and grounded himself in the present and answered Jake.“Yes. At first light. Now, tell me what’s going on and why you brought Jake here at gun point.”

“Only way I could get him to come,” growled Zach.

“And?” Liam said, exasperated. “Don’t make me beat the story out of you word by word, little brother. Just tell me the problem.”

Liam pointed at the two chairs in front of the fire and then went to the fireplace and stoked the banked coals back to a roaring blaze. He really didn’t need this now, not when he was leaving in the morning. Not when he was so close to putting the old, hurtful memories behind him.

Cynthia Woolf is the author of six historical western romance books and one short story with more books on the way. She was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in the mountains west of Golden. She spent her early years running wild around the mountain side with her friends.

Their closest neighbor was one quarter of a mile away, so her little brother was her playmate and her best friend. That fierce friendship lasted until his death in 2006.

Cynthia was and is an avid reader. Her mother was a librarian and brought new books home each week. This is where young Cynthia first got the storytelling bug. She wrote her first story at the age of ten. A romance about a little boy she liked at the time.

Cynthia loves writing and reading romance. Her first western romance Tame A Wild Heart, was inspired by the story her mother told her of meeting Cynthia’s father on a ranch in Creede, Colorado. Although Tame A Wild Heart takes place in Creede that is the only similarity between the stories. Her father was a cowboy not a bounty hunter and her mother was a nursemaid (called a nanny now) not the ranch owner.

Cynthia credits her wonderfully supportive husband Jim and the great friends she's made at CRW for saving her sanity and allowing her to explore her creativity.

TITLES AVAILABLE

    

HEALED BY A HEART

REDEEMED BY A REBEL

CAPITAL BRIDE

HEIRESS BRIDE

FIERY BRIDE

TAME A WILD HEART

TAME A WILD WIND

TAME A WILD BRIDE

TAME A SUMMER HEART

WEBSITE – www.cynthiawoolf.com

Prize: $50 VISA GC

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Amazing contest!

Do you want to be part of Cynthia Woolf's next book?

Cynthia has so many ideas! Help her decide between one of these settings.

And guess what? If you win, you will get a signed ARC of the book to read it before anyone else and you also will be named on the aknowledgements. Great way to be remembered! ;)

What are you waiting for? Take a look!

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GUEST POST:

Ten weird things about me (in no particular order)

• I like smashed bananas and peanut butter in a bowl with a little sugar
• I collect purses
• I have a pen fetish. I’ve never met a pen I didn’t want.
• I love make up and have lots of it, but hardly ever wear it.
• I’m obsessed with my book sales figures and check them all the time
• I’ve worked as a janitor
• I dressed as a pioneer woman for a railroad museum when I was fifteen
• I used to do ironing for ten cents a piece
• I started working when I was fourteen for the City of Golden, Colorado in their tourist booth, giving directions to tourist’s that stopped.
• My first babysitting job was when I was ten and the child was a two week old baby. Talk about scared.

The Little Dog in the Middle of the Road: Excerpt and Giveaway

Discover an amazing story for your kids:

A little dog ‘s person goes away for a few days. Not happy where he is 

staying, he goes into the middle of the road to look for his person. He finds 

a nice person to help him but it is not his person. He wants his person and 

knows that they have to come down the road to find him. So, he sits in the middle of the road and waits.

Although Sharon Stanley has been writing for years, it was only after her youngest son graduated high school that she got serious about it. 

She joined the SCBWI and began to write with an eye to publish children’s picture books. S

haron published her first print book, The Little Dog in the Middle of the Road last winter with Silver Tongue Press, and has several others under contract.  

She lives with 5 chickens, 4 dogs, 3 cats, 2 sons and one husband on a working farm in Virginia, where she endeavors to “live creatively…with cows.”  

She enjoys mixed media artwork and blogs about her creative and farm life at farmandfrufru.blogspot.com. 

You can read more on her website, www.sharonpstanley.com

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