What Does A NASCAR Driver, Army Ranger, and National Guardsman Have In Common? by Donna Michaels

Hello, it’s Donna Michaels, and as you can see, my head is full of heroes! Okay, my head is always full of heroes, but this is just one crazy instance where all three of these heroes’ books will be released inside of one month, and their commonality is probably not what you’d expect.

These releases all deal with veteran suicide.

A tough subject, but veteran suicide is real, and an epidemic, and part of life. A part I wish we could help, but maybe by acknowledging it and talking about it, we can help make some sort of a difference. They say knowledge is power. Let’s put that power to good use. My husband’s unit has had two suicides in the past four years, so it does hit home for me. I ate with these men and their families, and I’ll be honest with you, I’m still in shock. It’s taken me over a year since the last one, but I felt I was now at a place where I could include the subject in my stories.

Two of these releases are part of my Citizen Soldier Series. The heroes are both hurting over the suicide of a National Guardsman that has taken place in the background of the first five books. Greg was the cousin to one of the heroes, Matthew, and he was best friends with the other hero, Keiffer, who is also the one to find the body.

Let me introduce you to these men. First is my NASCAR driver, Matthew “Stone” Bennett, in WINE AND HOT SHOES. Before writing this story, I didn’t know that much about NASCAR, other than I knew one of the books in my Citizen Soldier Series would have a driver as a hero, since the series is set in the Poconos of PA and fairly close to the Pocono Raceway. One of the things I love most about this book is that it’s the heroine who is in the National Guard. 

While researching NASCAR and stock car racing, I discovered a few fun facts, including this one that helped me title the book:

Hot Shoe:  1. Driver who has the most past wins among active drivers at a particular track; is the quickest in qualifying, and is favored to win at that track.

WINE AND HOT SHOES
Citizen Solder Series/Book 6/Audrey

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N03MYQA/

This Thanksgiving, Sgt. Audrey McNeil Watson is thankful for wine. Lots and lots of wine. And her closet of hot shoes. Together, they help her deal with the return of her sexy ex-boyfriend, the now famous NASCAR Champion she left after 9/11 to join the National Guard and make a difference. Too bad he still manages to accelerate her pulse and drive her crazy.

Professional stock car racing driver, Matthew “Stone” Bennett returned home to meet with the Wyne brothers to discuss a recent encounter with their estranged brother Keiffer, to face the reality of his cousin’s suicide, and for the wedding of his buddy, Ethan Wyne.

Volunteering to draw the paparazzi away from the happy couple, he and Audrey agree to spend time together with purely platonic intentions. But he soon discovers their old flame never died, as well as old hurts and resentments. Matthew must face the pain of his past in order to sort out his future.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N03MYQA/

**I just want to note that all of my books, no matter what series they are in, are all written as standalones. You do not need to read any of the others to enjoy the stories.**

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Now on to Keiffer Wyne. This hero is by far my most talked about. I’ve been getting emails from readers for almost two years now. They want the poor guy to have his HEA, and I’m so thrilled to finally make that happen. HER TROUBLED COWBOY releases 12/13/16 and is up for pre-order now! Readers were introduced to his heroine, Caitlin, in book 4 of my Harland County Series, Her Forever Cowboy. She’s the sister to the heroine, and had a cameo—and a fling with Keiffer—in Book 2 of the Citizen Soldier Series, Wyne and Chocolate when Caitlin traveled with his sister to the Poconos for his sister’s wedding. Since then, his buddy has died, and Keiffer has been spiraling out of control. Now, in his story, everything is coming full circle.

Cover photo by Cover Me Photography with Jose Ruiz

Releasing 12/13/16
HER TROUBLED COWBOY
Harland County/Citizen Soldier Series Crossover
Book 9: Keiffer

Available for Pre-Order!

Amazon | iTunes | B & N | Kobo

Some incidents from the past are not easily forgotten…

For over a year, former National Guardsman Keiffer Wyne left his past in Pennsylvania to start a new life, drifting from ranch to ranch across the southwest. Unrestricted, nomadic, unaccountable—he embraces the new lifestyle, until he’s called upon to watch over his sister Brandy during her husband’s absence. The problem? She’ll be there. The one woman capable of breaking through his barriers and making him feel.

Caitlin Ryan can’t believe who blew into Harland County looking dangerous, hotter, sexier than the time they shared an unforgettable weekend together. She knows he’s still dealing with the death of his buddy and his mind isn’t in a good place, but neither of them are strong enough to fight their undeniable attraction. Keiffer’s troubled and all wrong for her, counting down the days until he leaves. Too bad she never learned to shy away from trouble…

Releasing 12/13/16
Available for Pre-Order!

Amazon | iTunes | B & N | Kobo

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And last, but as they say, not least, is my upcoming release, IN A RANGER’S ARMS. I’m so excited to have my first release with Entangled Publications. This is Book One in The Men of At-Ease Ranch Series, focusing on former Army Ranger buddies who  opened a transition ranch for returning veterans when another of their buddies nearly died by his own hands the year before. Again, although the underlying message is serious, the books are lighthearted and humorous with a ton of heat.

I was honored to have Vonnie read an ARC and give me this wonderful book quote:

“A hot cowboy hero, a clever heroine, former Rangers, and a jealous cow form the cast of a romance so endearing, you’ll want to read it again and again.”

--Vonnie Davis, author of Black Eagle Ops Series

Releasing 11/28/16

IN A RANGER’S ARMS

The Men of At Ease Ranch/ Book 1/Stone

Available for Pre-Order
HERE

No amount of training could’ve prepared him for her.

Former Army Ranger Stone Mitchum doesn’t have time for sex. Since starting a company with his brother and two buddies, he’s had more important things on his mind. Like transitioning veterans back into society. But when his curvy new tenant falls into his arms—literally—his libido snaps to attention.

Jovy Larson has four weeks to prove she’s worthy of taking over the family business. Her challenge? Sell gluten-free, vegan food—in the middle of cattle country, Texas. It’s a tough task, but not half as tough as fighting her attraction to her sexy, surly landlord.  

Before she knows it, Jovy’s tangling sheets with the hot cowboy, stalked by a jealous cow, and strategizing ways to help Stone’s ranch. But by the time her lease runs out and the test is over, she’s faced with a new challenge…competing against Stone’s sense of duty to win his heart.

Pre-order IN A RANGER’S ARMS, releasing 11/28/16 
HERE

**I’m having a FACEBOOK BOOK RELEASE PARTY AND YOU'RE ALL INVITED! Nov. 28th...4 pm to 10:30 pm (Eastern) Guest authors, prizes, hot cowboys, hot military heroes and more! Here’s the link for the party:  https://www.facebook.com/events/200745263708766/?active_tab=discussion

I know veteran suicide is a tough subject, but I do appreciate you sticking around to the end of my post, and I hope you’ll check out these stories.

Thanks for reading,

~Donna

 Read more about Donna at www.DonnaMichaelsAuthor.com

Canning Stories: A Legacy of Canning Fruit by Rolynn Anderson

NATURE’S BOUNTY.  Notice the capital letters, showing reverence.  When my husband and I bought our 1993-built home on half an acre here on the Central Coast, the size of the one-story house, it’s California ranch style, and its half acre lot were big sellers, but the side-yard, filled with fruit trees tickled my fancy.  All the trees were puny, but the potential!  Two apricot, two plum, one each of orange, fig, peach, apple, and lemon.  The peach and lemon died and I added an Asian pear apple, a lime and a grapefruit.  Every year the orange, fig, and apple produce.  Not the apricot and plum.  But this year, the plum tree went absolutely wild.  I had enough plums to feed the multitudes.  I froze jam and dried plums, but I also froze fresh fruit for future cobblers and ice cream toppings.

So now you have the background.  The point is, I come from a long line of fruit canners.  Do you? 

At the height of the plum season, I had to leave my house for a two-week family reunion.  I invited about twenty women to come pick plums while I was gone.  Takers out of twenty?  Eight.  Why?  The women who came before I left town and after, were canners.  They’d grown up in households where if you grew fruit, you canned it; if your neighbors had extra fruit, they shared and you canned theirs.  If the peaches or pears were cheap in the marketplace, you bought a bushel and canned the fruit.  If you heard someone had Santa Rosa plums, you came running.   I come from a family of canners.  Do you?

Before I left for my trip, some of women came over to my house to get the lay of the land.  Most of them were wide-eyed at the bounty, excited to tell me stories of making jam, preserves and cobblers with fresh fruit.  They left my house excited about their bags of fruit and anxious to tell me, when I returned, how they used the plums. 

Eight out of twenty women who pulled plums off my trees were canners.  I come from a long line of fruit canners.  Do you?

****

Fear Land is a finalist for a Rone Award, thanks to all of you who convinced the Rone judges take a last look at my novel.   

http://www.amazon.com/author/rolynnanderson

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=rolynn+anderson

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4990049.Rolynn_Anderson

En Garde! Password Protect Everything! A Real Life Suspense Story By Rolynn Anderson

I committed a horrible blunder the first week we traveled in Europe, and have learned many lessons because of it.  The upside? I’m thinking, if I write a suspense story about this experience, I won’t feel as stupid as I feel right now.

It starts with our 180+ mile-an-hour train ride from Paris to Aix En Provence, a lovely experience in our upstairs coach, watching the beautiful French countryside buzzing by.  The ride is so smooth, my husband and I are feeling quite pampered.  I take my computer out of my backpack and unzip it from its protective container, putting the case to my side.  I’ll do a little work as we speed across country. Two and a half hours later, we stop in Avignon.  We notice people get off the train quickly; others get on as quickly, and off we go.  The train barely gets up to speed when we arrive at Aix and everyone is wildly pulling luggage out and preparing to get off the train…it’s a frantic atmosphere that we catch on to, hurriedly putting our things together and edging to the stairs so we’re ready to get off.  The train goes to Marseille next; by the stern looks and impatient whistles from the conductors, their schedule is tight. 

So Steve and I gather our things and get off the train thinking about our next maneuver-catching a bus to Aix.  We get that figured out, bus to Aix, taxi to our new place, and settle in.  I realize I better power up my computer, so I pull it out of my backpack, to realize I’ve left the protective container on the train.  Worse, I mean MONUMENTALLY distressing, my external hard drive is zipped into that missing container.  EVERYTHING I’ve got on my computer is in my external hard drive.  Yes.  EVERY…DAMN…THING!

First, I go on line to determine out how to get my hard drive back.  TGV (the French bullet train) has an English, user-friendly site to claim my loss, and, amazingly, a drop-down category under lost electronics labeled “hard drives.”  No way to call TGV; e-mail is my only recourse.  Magic would have to be on my side to ever get this hard drive back (and I’d have to go to Marseille to get it).

But you’ve already figured out the biggest problem: All my files, my books, my personal stuff, including a file with a list of passwords, is readily available to anyone who plugs in my hard drive.  There wasn’t a way to password protect my hard drive and I did not protect my files individually.  Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.  After a couple of days here, I discover that MAC is well-loved by the French.  There’s a huge Mac store here, packed with people all hours of the day.  My external drive, nursed on a MAC, has a large audience in this country.  Now I’m nervous.  Really nervous.

Important: After you read the last sentence of this blog, go and password-protect your computer in case it’s stolen or lost (I’ve done that now), and give passwords to individual files you don’t want anyone to see (also done.)  You’ve already guessed that my husband and I have changed a couple dozen passwords by now.  I realize we’re supposed to switch out passwords often, but we hadn’t.  It’s done now.  Call that a positive.

I don’t want to think about what could happen to my books should those files get into the wrong hands.  My personal stuff?  To the blackmailer, I'll say everything I write is fiction.  In fact, because I research some of the darker subjects known to humankind, my files probably look like a sociopath’s!  (I’m saying this to make myself feel better?  Really?)

Chances are my external drive lies in a garbage dump outside the Marseille train station (where they clean the train cars).  I hope.

As I said, I plan to use this 'loss' plot in a book or short story soon.  Lemonade out of lemons, I say!

My goal is to write about trauma, not live it, so let's talk about my last novel.  You'll witness the many shades of anxiety in FEAR LAND.  My readers tell me the novel stretched their learning about anxiety and they’re anxious to have their friends read the book.

That makes me smile.  An engaging suspense story with a touch of paranormal to let your imagination run free, a high concept, and a chance to learn something new…that’s what reading is all about!

This is FEAR LAND:

Tally hates to hear rants from people’s brains.  What does she do when those mind-screams threaten

the man she loves?

****

Tally Rosella, an acclaimed psychiatrist who helps children fraught with anxiety, avoids adults because their brains rant at her.  But the chance to start a second child study and connect her findings to PTSD, sets her squarely among devious colleagues at a big California university.

Army Major Cole Messer, Tally’s new neighbor, won’t admit that trauma from combat tours in Afghanistan, destroyed his marriage and hampered his ability to lead.  As a teacher of college ROTC and single parent, he’s focused on enrolling his highly anxious son in Tally’s study and getting back to active duty.

Someone is dead set against Tally’s presence at the university, and blowback from her battles with co-workers put Cole and his son in jeopardy.  Watch what happens when people struggling with shades of anxiety collide with corrupt, revengeful foes.

FEAR LAND on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012JE75ES

Website: http://rolynnanderson.com

Suspense Novels that Teach by Rolynn Anderson

My sister once said that she loved reading novels that teach her something new, which nails the vision for my stories.  Since I’ve researched the heck out of the subject of my newest novel, I’m hoping I’ve saved a little time and effort for my reader.  I am an instructor at my core, so the idea of teaching never leaves me.  But the stories that I write are often new territory for me, so by the time I’ve written the novel, I’ve gained a wealth of knowledge I can’t wait to pass on.  With my filter systems on open throttle, even as I write my new story, I’m being bombarded with articles with information I crave…and use in my book.

Example: FEAR LAND.  I’d developed an hypothesis about ways to keep certain Army recruits from combat assignments if their psychological profiles indicated they’d be traumatized by battle.  I learned that not only was my theory oversimplified, but years of analysis by experts in the field had left the Armed Services stymied about how to sort the combat-ready from the combat-distressed.  Since the Civil War, this question has been at the forefront: Can we figure out ahead of time which soldiers (male and female) will be able to handle combat?

Recently we’ve seen research showing that some children are born with high anxiety.  In psychological parlance, they are called high reactives.  Should these children, grown up, be barred from combat?

These and other questions come up as my characters deal with the many shades of anxiety in FEAR LAND.  My readers tell me the novel stretched their learning about trauma and they’re recommending my book to friends who have suffered high-stress events in their lives. 

That makes me smile.  An engaging suspense story with a touch of paranormal to let your imagination run free, a high concept, and a chance to learn something new…that’s what reading is all about!

This is FEAR LAND:

Tally hates to hear rants from people’s brains.  What does she do when those mind-screams threaten

the man she loves?

****

Tally Rosella, an acclaimed psychiatrist who helps children fraught with anxiety, avoids adults because their brains rant at her.  But the chance to start a second child study and connect her findings to PTSD, sets her squarely among devious colleagues at a big California university.

Army Major Cole Messer, Tally’s new neighbor, won’t admit that trauma from combat tours in Afghanistan, destroyed his marriage and hampered his ability to lead.  As a teacher of college ROTC and single parent, he’s focused on enrolling his highly anxious son in Tally’s study and getting back to active duty.

Someone is dead set against Tally’s presence at the university, and blowback from her battles with co-workers put Cole and his son in jeopardy.  Watch what happens when people struggling with shades of anxiety collide with corrupt, revengeful foes.

FEAR LAND on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012JE75ES

My website: http://www.rolynnanderson.com