Monthly Archive for October, 2010

Haunted Disney World: Review of Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole

Published on October 26, 2010 in Amazon Bookstore. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

When I first heard about the short story collection Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole, Tales from Haunted Disney World, I had to read it. I love Disney World and firmly believe that it is the most magical place on earth. Where else can you go and have all your day-to-day stress disappear from your mind?

For those happy days, your most pressing problem becomes which ride should you go on first? Can you use your Big Thunder Mountain FASTPASS and still make it in time for the character parade down Main Street, U.S.A.? Which remembrance is better, the Mickey Mouse sweatshirt or the ears?

I’ve been to Disney theme parks many times, starting in fourth grade with my parents. Many years later, my husband and I got engaged at Epcot (on a bench near Norway after watching the fireworks.) After we got married, we visited Disneyland Paris on our honeymoon. Unfortunately, I ate a bad hamburger and spent the afternoon nauseated on a hill overlooking the castle. Let’s just say, my souvenir bag on the subway ride back to the hotel came in handy for more than just storing T-shirts. I was much healthier, thankfully, for our trip to Disneyland in California a couple years later.

I’ve always wanted to visit the Magic Kingdom at Halloween-time and see my favorite characters parading by in costumes. I’ve read that they even have a Halloween fireworks show where the Disney Villains go trick-or-treating in the sky. If you can’t make it to the Magic Kingdom for Halloween, then Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s new book is the next best thing.

Her truly imaginative book Skeletons in the Swimmin’ Hole, Tales from Haunted Disney World, features six chilling ghost stories set in Disney Parks. Among the treats in store for readers, a thief is haunted by her sticky-fingered past, a woman wants an angry spirit to stop torturing her, and a teenager demands her parents expel her wicked sibling. But, each will discover exorcism isn’t as easy as going to Disney World.

I usually prefer novels to short stories, however the premise of tales from Haunted Disney World intrigued me. Kristi Petersen Schoonover is a talented writer with a flowing, easy-to-read style. Her troubled characters and spooky storytelling captivated me and I read this book in a day and a half, always eager for when I could return to it. I found the references to Disney Parks in each story vivid and fun. Anyone who enjoys ghost stories will want to get a copy of this book, and this is must-reading for adult Disney Park fans.

I enjoyed all the stories, but if I had to choose, my favorites were All This Furniture and Nowhere to Sit, and Charlotte’s Family Tree. In the former, a wife goes nuts bidding on expensive Disney memorabilia such as a Small World boat, a monorail cabin, and cars from the Peoplemover. As the house turns more and more into a deserted amusement park, eerie things begin to happen. In Charlotte’s Family Tree, a mother must confront the ghosts of her past in the Swiss Family Treehouse.

Behind the haunting tales is the profound message that a person can escape from the world for a few days, but can never really escape himself. I can’t wait for more books in this delightful series. You can read more about the book and Kristi at http://haunteddisneytales.com/ and http://www.kristipetersenschoonover.com. Her book is available in paperback from retailers including Amazon under the imprint Admit One Literary Theme Park Press, and it is due out on Kindle and other electronic platforms in the next couple of months.

I’ve been all work and no play the last few weeks, but Kristi’s stories provided me with a welcome break, transporting me to a magical place far away from the daily stress. Just like Disney World itself.

25 Years Ago Today: Archaeology Mystery Author Mary Anna Evans

Published on October 24, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

I’d like to welcome Mary Anna Evans, author of the Faye Longchamp archaeological mysteries. The latest installment, Strangers, came out this month. Mary Anna has degrees in physics and engineering, but her heart is in the past.

Her novels have received recognitions including a spot on Voice of Young America’s (VOYA) list of “Adult Mysteries with Young Adult Appeal.” They have been on the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association’s bestseller list and have been designated Notable Books by Booksense and Indiebound. Mary Anna has won the Florida Historical Society’s Patrick D. Smith Florida Literature Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and a Florida Book Awards Bronze Medal. Her books have been nominated for ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year and for the SIBA Book Award. Mary Anna is also the author of the thriller Wounded Earth and several short stories.

Mary Anna, you sound very busy and successful in the present. Tell us about 25 years ago?

MARY ANNA: Twenty-five years ago today, I was very, very pregnant with my first child, who was born on Halloween 1985. I had spent the first 7.5 months of this pregnancy going about my business as if nothing was happening. I’d taught a full load of community college math and science in the spring semester. In the summer semester, I’d taught Calculus I at night…which meant that I taught two four-hour classes a week.

Let me count the ways that this made me miserable. I was on my feet for four hours at a stretch, quite some feat for someone who started the pregnancy weighing a cool 108 and who eventually delivered an 8.5 pound baby. I’d never taught calculus before, so I had to prepare those four-hour classes. I wasn’t the best student when I took calculus myself, so I only really understood the subject later, when I used it in classes like thermodynamics and chemical kinetics. This meant that I had to work all the homework problems before I assigned them, in case I didn’t remember how. And I had to work all the example problems and record them in my notes in detail, so I wouldn’t fall on my face in class. And then I had to grade those tests and homework assignments. I think I probably made about two bucks an hour that summer.

As icing on the cake, summer night Calculus I classes are generally populated by people who don’t want to be there, largely business majors. I heard a lot of questions like, “How will we use this in real life?” I should have just said, “This is real life,” and pushed on, but I was 23 and earnest, so I answered them honestly. Amazingly enough, this didn’t make them want to be there any more.

As my due date approached, I started feeling strange, so I went to the doctor and learned that I was in danger of delivering the baby five weeks early. This prompted an order for bedrest and I dropped out of a world where I was expected to pretend I wasn’t pregnant and into a world where being pregnant was all there was. This is the world where I was living 25 years ago today.

In my novel Strangers, newly published this month by Poisoned Pen Press, my heroine Faye Longchamp is very, very pregnant. Coincidence? Well, I’m certain that I didn’t do this on purpose. Karma? Maybe.

I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book written from the point-of-view of a woman who is entering her ninth month of pregnancy. As a mother of three, it was an interesting exercise to imagine how advanced pregnancy would affect the things that Faye must do for her archaeological work and, in the end, to save her own life. Her efforts to keep working as if nothing is happening aren’t so different from my own long, hard slog through that summer school class. Except I wasn’t outside in the Florida heat, digging up old stuff.

For a time, I intended for Faye to be in the earliest stages of pregnancy in Strangers. She might have even been unaware of it until the final scene, when she realized why she’d been feeling so weird and redoubled her efforts to save herself from the bad guy, because now she had to protect herself and her baby.

But it just didn’t work. I tried to write it that way, but realized that the reader would be in on the secret as soon as I mentioned that Faye was feeling queasy or tired. Then Faye would be looking like an idiot for about 300 pages, while my readers were yelling, “Take a home pregnancy test, dummy!” I was rather proud of myself for making one of those home tests an important clue.

As I launched into a story about a woman on the verge of becoming a mother, I learned something very quickly. Being extremely pregnant is like having an elephant in the living room. You can’t ignore it, and neither can anybody else. It affects your ability to do your job. It affects your ability to even move through a crowded room or up a flight of stairs. And even when I wrote scenes from other characters’ points-of-view, well, they couldn’t ignore it, either, and it affected their behavior toward Faye. Joe, in particular, is on the brink of a nervous breakdown, because he’s so worried about her, and because she’s so unwilling to cooperate with his efforts to protect her.

I decided to just go with it. The key to writing realistic characters is having them behave like real people, and real people do notice when someone in her thirty-fifth week of pregnancy waddles by. When I was in that condition the third time, a stranger once said within my earshot, “She looks like she’s about to pop.” Gee, thanks.

As a part of Faye’s character arc, this pregnancy is very important. She admits as early as Artifacts, six years before the events in Strangers, that she wants a baby very much. In the meantime, we’ve watched her suffer some significant romantic travails, and her age is much on her mind. After writing six books about Faye, I found that I wanted her to have this baby almost as much as I would if she were a flesh-and-blood human woman who was suffering from the demands of her biological clock. I’m happy for her.

Last but not least, I think Joe is going to make a really cool father.

(And yes, I do know that they’re not real.)

Read more about Mary Anna’s books on her web site and blog.
Check out Strangers on Amazon!

25 Years Ago Today: “Negative Image” Author Vicki Delany

Published on October 21, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

I’d like to welcome my guest, Vicki Delany. Vicki writes everything from standalone novels of psychological suspense such as Scare the Light Away, to the Constable Molly Smith books, a traditional village/police procedural series set in the B.C. Interior, including Winter of Secrets and Negative Image, to a light-hearted historical series beginning with Gold Digger and Gold Fever, set in the raucous heyday of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Having taken early retirement from her job as a systems analyst in the high-pressure financial world, Vicki is settling down to the rural life in bucolic, Prince Edward County, Ontario where she rarely wears a watch.

Vicki’s character Eliza Winters, wife of Sergeant John Winters of the Trafalgar City Police, is answering the question “What were you doing 25 years ago?”

ELIZA: Twenty-five years ago, I went to a fashion industry party with my fiancé, the photographer Rudolph Steiner. As usual, there’d been lots of booze and lots of cocaine.

I had a meeting with my agent that afternoon. She told me I needed to be more friendly to the executive at the advertising agency. I didn’t want to be friendly to any of them anymore, and I didn’t want to keep taking the drugs that made it easier.

I had a fight with Rudy and went home. I found the lock on the front door smashed and called the police. The officer they sent was named John Winters. I showed him around the apartment, knowing he’d be impressed by the furniture, the art, the view. My ass. I turned to see that his head was down as he wrote in his notebook.

“Did you get all that?” I said.

“I think so.” He finished writing and only then looked at me. “You should call an emergency locksmith, Ma’am. I’ll wait until someone comes, if you like.”

I loved him, the handsome, passionate, dedicated, sexy policeman, who pushed all my erotic buttons and taught me that sex could be something more than the most boring part of a job interview. I loved him so much I stopped screwing for work. And, to my surprise, I kept getting work. I’d pretty much forgotten about that part of my life.

Today Rudy Steiner came to town.

Read more about Vicki and her characters on her web site and blog.

Also check out Negative Image on Amazon. The book is a traditional villiage/police procedural novel and is the fourth in the Constable Molly Smith series from Poisoned Pen Press. When his wife’s former fiancé is found dead of a single shot to the back of the head, Trafalgar police Sergeant John Winters is forced to make the most difficult decision of his life: loyalty to his job or to his wife. Meanwhile, tragedy strikes at the heart of Constable Molly Smith’s family.

Check out The Flag Keeper Interview and Enter E-Book Giveaway

Published on October 19, 2010 in General News. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , .

How does a mystery writer wind up writing a children’s picture book about flag etiquette? Well, four ingredients led to the creation of The Flag Keeper – undiagnosed hypothyroidism, a patriotic husband, a talented dad, and following up on an idea that excited me. You can get the full scoop on my close friend Darcia Helle’s fabulous blog A Word Please.

Darcia interviewed me about the story behind The Flag Keeper. We chatted about what flag etiquette is, the differences between writing adult books and children’s books, and about my family’s role in this book.

I’m also giving away a free ebook copy of my adult mystery novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today to one commenter on Darcia’s blog post. Leave a comment before midnight EST on Saturday, October 23 on this site: http://quietfurybooks.com/blog/2010/10/stacyjuba/. Hope to see you there!

25 Years Ago Today: Historical Mystery Author Leslie Wheeler

Published on October 17, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 16 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

I’d like to welcome Leslie Wheeler as my guest today. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Leslie for several years through Sisters in Crime. An award-winning author of biographies and books about American history, Leslie now writes the Miranda Lewis mystery series, which is set in the present at historic sites. Previous titles are Murder at Plimoth Plantation and Murder at Gettysburg. The third book, Murder at Spouters Point, was published in October 2010.

Leslie’s short stories have appeared in several anthologies of crime fiction published by Level Best Books. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, serving as Speakers Bureau Coordinator for the New England Chapter.

Leslie’s character, Miranda Lewis, is answering the question “What were you doing 25 years ago today?”

MIRANDA: Twenty-five years ago today, I thought I was happy. Not deliriously happy, but that was okay. I was glad to be off the emotional roller coaster I’d been on my first years of college when I had a stormy affair with a campus radical, who dumped me for another woman when I wouldn’t drop out of school and devote myself to the revolution and him.

I rebounded straight into the arms of a man I’d known since grade school. Our parents were friends, and we lived in the same Southern California neighborhood. Simon was like an old shoe: familiar, comfortable, safe.

We married after graduation and moved to the East Coast, where Simon became an assistant professor at Harvard. He pursued our shared love of American history through teaching and publishing scholarly articles, while I did so by writing history textbooks for children. I lived vicariously through my work, and for a long time that was enough for me.

Little did I dream that twenty-five years later, the real world would catch up with me, and I’d get sucked into solving a series of murders. Or that, after my safe but passionless marriage ended, I’d plunge into another tempestuous love affair with a former activist and Native American, who couldn’t be more different than me.

Thank you Leslie – and Miranda! To read more about Leslie’s work, visit her web site and Facebook page.

Check out Murder at Spouters Point on Amazon. The grisly murder of a visiting yachtsman, allegedly by a local Indian, rocks a New England seacoast town and puts a serious strain on the relationship between a white woman and her Native American boyfriend.

Passing On ‘The One Lovely Blog Award’ to Deserving Blogs

Published on October 14, 2010 in General News. 14 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I was thrilled to receive The One Lovely Blog Award, passed onto me from Marian Allen, who blogs about fantasies, mysteries, comedies and recipes. As a recipient, I’m told that I can now pass the award on to 15 other bloggers.

So here are some terrific blogs that I’m passing the award onto, in no particular order:

1. Darcia Helle’s A Word Please
2. Sunny Frazier’s Murder Circle
3. West of Mars – Win A Book
4. Deanna Jewel’s “Deanna’s Tidbits”
5. Jenny Milchman’s Suspense Your Disbelief
6. Susan Whitfield’s Blog
7. Monica Brinkman’s Meaningful Writings
8. Susan Schreyer’s Things I Learned From My Horse
9. Writers Who Kill
10. KD Easley’s KD Blog
11. Susie Kline’s Motherhoot
12. The Writing Loft
13. Linda Faulkner’s Author Exchange Blog
14. Chris Redding Blog Spot
15. Mike Angley’s Blog

I hope you’ll stop in and visit these fantastic blogs, and that some of the bloggers will pass on the award to other deserving blogs. And speaking of awards, for those of you who have been following my Flag Keeper Book Launch, Alisha L. was the winner of the CSN Stores $50 gift card and Curtis T. was the winner of the patriotic teddy bear.

Thanks to everyone for entering, and I hope you’ll check out my new picture book The Flag Keeper, which teaches children about U.S. flag etiquette through a fun fiction story, flag facts and discussion questions. For a limited time, you can get the book for $5.99 by visiting
https://www.createspace.com/3475588 and typing 89QHJ9FV at checkout.

I’m working on another big online launch party bash for January 2011 to celebrate my upcoming reality show mystery novel Sink or Swim and the fun will include a gift certificate giveaway and a free ebook-and-book-giveaway-extravaganza thanks to my generous author friends.

Before that in November or early December, I’ll also be offering more giveaways including a chance to win free jewelry. So, if you enjoy giveaway contests, stay tuned! And in the meantime, stop by the above blogs to meet some talented writers.

25 Years Ago Today: ‘Swift Justice’ Author Laura DiSilverio

Published on October 12, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I’d like to welcome Laura DiSilverio, AKA Lieutenant Pink Shoes. You’ll have to read her post to find out what that means. Laura spent 20 years as an Air Force intelligence officer–serving as a squadron commander, with the National Reconnaissance Office, and at a fighter wing–before retiring to parenting and writing full-time. With the release of Swift Justice and a mall cop series in the works, the writing’s going great. The jury’s still out on the parenting-check back in, oh, 30 years. She resides in Colorado with her hubby, tweenage daughters and dog, and is currently working on the second Charlie Swift book.

Thanks so much for joining us, Laura. You have a fascinating background and I’ll bet it has given you lots of material for your novels. What were you doing 25 years ago?

LAURA: Twenty-five years ago, I was a brand-new second lieutenant in the United States Air Force, fresh out of intelligence training, headed to my first assignment at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington D.C.

When I got my commission, I knew little about what being an intelligence officer entailed, but I thought it sounded sexy—high tech, James Bondish, glamorous. Being part of a DC-area headquarters agency was more about staff work—paper-pushing—than anything else. The excitement in my life came from clubbing with my best friend, a Navy officer, and playing competitive racquetball. I practically lived out of my Nissan Sentra, with uniforms, gym clothes and party gear heaped on the passenger seat.

To beat the D.C. traffic, I came to work BCOD—before the crack of dawn. I arrived one morning and slipped on what I thought were my black uniform pumps, pulled from the mobile closet that was my passenger seat. Half-way to my building, I glanced down and was horrified to see that I had donned pink shoes. Aagh!

I spun around, planning to dash back to my car and change my shoes before anyone noticed, and found myself facing a Marine brigadier general, the crustiest of military officers. I saluted smartly and kept going. He turned to the aide beside him and said, “Was that lieutenant wearing pink shoes?”

“Affirmative, General,” the aide replied.

“Thought so.”

I congratulated myself on having survived this encounter until I arrived in my office and found the aide, a buddy of one of my co-workers, had regaled my officemates with the story. I was ever after known as “Lieutenant Pink Shoes.”

You can find out more about Lieutenant Pink Shoes – oops, I mean Laura – on her web site.

Check out her book on Amazon. And hey, the pink book cover matches the pink shoes!

Charlotte “Charlie” Swift prefers working alone. That’s why after eight years as an Air Force investigator she became a PI rather than a cop. She lives alone, she works alone, and aside for the occasional flirtation with sexy cop Connor Montgomery or her hunky neighbor Father Dan, she likes it that way. Then her silent partner flees the country, leaving his wife Gigi with nothing but the house, the Hummer, and half-interest in Swift Investigations.

Charlie ends up with a heap of debt and Gigi who has decided to be a not-so-silent partner. This change comes about while Charlie is trying to find the mother of a baby abandoned on a client’s doorstep. While following leads, she sends Gigi out on crazy assignments, hoping that the pampered socialite will be driven to quit. But when the baby’s mother turns up dead, there’s a murderer on the loose, and Charlie will need all the help she can get.

Please feel free to leave some comments and questions for Laura below, and while you’re here, check out my previous post, which has details on a giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to CSN Stores to celebrate the launch of my new patriotic children’s picture book The Flag Keeper. Deadline is Oct. 13 at midnight.

Happy Columbus Day Weekend! Celebrating Patriotic Children’s Book Release With $50 CSN Stores Giveaway

Published on October 9, 2010 in Amazon Bookstore and General News. 166 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Columbus Day Weekend marks the online launch party of my patriotic children’s picture book The Flag Keeper! To celebrate, CSN Stores is generously offering a $50 gift certificate to one lucky winner to spend on anything from dinnerware, to dog beds, to suitcases and diaper bags. With over 200 online stores to choose from, the winner will definitely find something to spend the one-time-use CSN $50 gift certificate on!

If you’d like to submit your name for the drawing, then please post a comment and include your email address. You may blog about this giveaway to receive an extra entry – just remember to leave me another comment. Deadline to enter is Oct. 13 at midnight.

Also, if you purchase The Flag Keeper on Amazon or through the Flag Keeper e-store between now and Oct. 13, and email your receipt to stacy (at) stacyjuba.com, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a free red, white or blue patriotic teddy bear for a special child in your life. If you order multiple copies, you’ll receive an entry for each copy ordered.

Columbus Day Weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to celebrate the release of my brand new patriotic picture book The Flag Keeper.

Elizabeth may be a little bear, but she treats the American flag with big respect. Elizabeth wakes up the American flag in the morning and puts it to bed at night. She acts as her father’s “flag keeper,” helping him with his daily tasks of raising the flag and retiring it for the evening.

She soaks up the etiquette facts that Dad teaches her, including don’t leave the flag out in the dark without a spotlight. When Dad leaves for a business trip, it frustrates Elizabeth that their flag will be stuck in a boring garage. Every flag she sees reminds her of her job as flag keeper, and Elizabeth grows determined to make her father proud.

Written by myself and illustrated by Larry Drumtra, this book is designed to educate children about U.S. flag etiquette through an educational fiction story. It includes discussion questions, flag facts, and an activity. Check out The Flag Keeper web site and Facebook page.

It can be purchased on Amazon,
which I’m happy to report just discounted the book to $8.63 this week, a $3.36 savings off the cover price. I’m not sure how long that discount will last as Amazon prices tend to bounce around a bit, so
alternatively, you can use this special coupon code: HB8C68KK to purchase it for $8.63 in The Flag Keeper online store. Remember to e-mail your receipt by Oct. 13 to enter the teddy bear drawing. Here are some endorsements that the book received:

“The Flag Keeper is unique in its approach to younger children…complex issues such as patriotism, personal responsibility, honor and faithfulness are presented easily, graphically and with a sweetness and gentleness that belies the weight of these issues. I would encourage all true patriots with children to purchase a copy to start their “little patriots” off on the right foot.” Steve Van Buskirk, Director of Programs, VFW National Headquarters

“A wonderful story about Elizabeth, who through life’s day-to-day adventures learns how to care for and display the flag. An excellent read!” Mike Buss, Deputy Director, Americanism, American Legion National Headquarters

Please help get the word out about this little book by sharing it on Facebook, Twitter and emailing the web site link to any friends who might be interested in a patriotic children’s book. Don’t forget to post a comment below (with your e-mail address) so that you can be entered in the drawing for the CSN Stores giveaway!

Thank you to the following sites for promoting my giveaway: West of Mars – Win A Book, CashNet Sweepstakes, www.contestbeat.com, www.online-sweepstakes.com, and www.contestguide.com. And thank you to CSN Stores for making this giveaway possible!

25 Years Ago Today: Author Cherish D’Angelo Survives a Killer Tsunami

Published on October 8, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 26 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I’d like to welcome my guest Cherish D’Angelo, who is offering a free ebook to EVERY reader who posts in the comments, plus a chance to win a Kobo ereader.

When romance author Cherish D’Angelo is not busy relaxing in her hot tub, sipping champagne, eating chocolate-covered strawberries or plotting romantic suspense with scintillating sensuality, she is ruthlessly killing people off in her thrillers as bestselling Canadian suspense author, Cheryl Kaye Tardif. Here is what Cherish, AKA Cheryl, was doing 25 years ago.

CHERISH: About twenty-five years ago, I was busy trying to outrun a “killer tsunami”. But before I get to that, here’s a bit of background. My life as Cherish D’Angelo hadn’t started yet. Instead, as Cheryl Kaye, I had moved into an apartment with my boyfriend Marc, who was in the Canadian Armed Forces. I was the base hair salon owner in Masset, Queen Charlotte Islands, BC.

I first noticed Marc a year before that, when he brought a new Private (who’d just moved there) to my salon―Cheryl’s Scissor Trix. Ironically, I ended up dating the other guy. Months later, I saw Marc at a Junior Ranks dance and ended up talking to him. After a few weeks, we started dating and a year later, we decided to move in together.

I remember making a lot of fancy dinners for Marc. That was back when I used to spend copious amounts of time researching recipes and preparing gourmet dinners and desserts. Oh the things we do to impress a man! I don’t quite cook like that anymore.

The tsunami (tidal wave) occurred one night about twenty-five years ago. I was making dinner for Marc and another new Private. I even remember the dessert I made―huckleberry cream pie. I had no idea that before dinner was served we’d be fighting for our lives, desperate to escape a horrific natural disaster, the kind nightmares and made-for-television movies are made of. With my vivid imagination, that tsunami was going to be the end of civilization itself. (Thank you, Stephen King!)

It started with a phone call from my dad. He was a Master Warrant Officer on the base. He called to tell us that a tsunami was on its way to the island. Ever since I was a young child on that island, I’d grown up with stories about the “killer tsunami” that everyone expected would one day hit the coast of BC and cover the Queen Charlotte Islands and Vancouver Island, along with the earthquakes that threatened to break all the islands into little bitty pieces.

I’d already survived hundreds of earthquakes, but this tsunami was different. They were evacuating the town. Marc, his friend and I piled into our car and drove to the highest point―Garbage Hill, of all names―along with most of the town and the neighboring Indian village. Traffic was a mess. We crawled up a hill that was really laughable. If the killer tsunami was on its way, we’d be swept away like ants. Marc, showing his usual quick thinking, grabbed the ribs and other food. The pie was left in the oven. It wasn’t edible afterward.

We stood on Garbage Hill and waited. It seemed like we were there for hours and hours waiting for that wave to hit. And then it did. We didn’t see it. We didn’t feel it. Later, the alarm was called off and everyone headed down the hill and back to town. We found out the water had risen. Maybe an inch.

And this is how I survived the “killer tsunami” about twenty-five years ago.

Now I’m an author. Stephen King and tsunamis still give me nightmares. Then again, so do some of the novels I’ve written and plan to write. Who knows? Maybe one day Cheryl Kaye Tardif will write a suspense thriller about a killer tsunami terrorizing a small island town. If I add a beautiful heroine and a muscle-ripped hero, then Cherish D’Angelo could turn it into a romantic suspense. I won’t tell you what they do with that huckleberry cream pie…

Check out Lancelot’s Lady on Amazon. A Bahamas holiday from dying billionaire JT Lance, a man with a dark secret, leads palliative nurse Rhianna McLeod to Jonathan, a man with his own troubled past, and Rhianna finds herself drawn to the handsome recluse, while unbeknownst to her, someone with a horrific plan is hunting her down. Lancelot’s Lady is available in ebook edition at KoboBooks, Amazon’s Kindle Store, Smashwords and other ebook retailers. Help Cherish to celebrate by picking up a copy today and “Cherish the romance…”

You can learn more about Lancelot’s Lady and Cherish D’Angelo (aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif) at http://www.cherishdangelo.com and http://www.cherylktardif.blogspot.com. Follow Cherish through October 10 on her Cherish the Romance Virtual Book Tour and win prizes.

Now for today’s giveaway. What was your one main goal or dream twenty-five years ago? Leave a comment here, with email address, to be entered into the prize draws. Anyone who leaves a comment (any comment, not just answering the question) and their email address is guaranteed to receive at least one free ebook just for doing so. Plus you’ll be entered to win a Kobo ereader. Prizes will be awarded after Oct. 10 and by Oct. 31.

Columbus Day Special: Giveaways Coming Up Friday and Saturday

Published on October 7, 2010 in General News. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Ir’s almost Columbus Day and I’ll have some special holiday giveaways for my blog readers this weekend.

On Friday, author Cherish D’Angelo , aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif, will share a 25 Years post as part of her Cherish the Romance Virtual Book Tour. Everyone who leaves a comment and their email address in response to her post will receive a free ebook, and will be entered into a drawing for a Kobo ereader.

On Saturday, to celebrate the online launch party of my patriotic children’s picture book The Flag Keeper, CSN Stores is generously offering a $50 gift certificate to one lucky winner to spend on anything from dinnerware, to dog beds, to sofas and suitcases. With over 200 online stores to choose from, the winner will definitely find something to spend the one-time-use CSN $50 gift certificate on. All you’ll have to do is leave a comment to that post sometime over the weekend, and you’ll be entered into the drawing.

Also, if you purchase The Flag Keeper on Amazon or through the Flag Keeper e-store between now and Oct. 13, and email your receipt to stacy (at) stacyjuba.com, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a free red, white or blue patriotic teddy bear for a special child in your life. If you order multiple copies, you’ll receive an entry for each copy ordered. I was very pleased that Amazon just discounted the book to $8.63, a savings of $3.36 off the cover price.

Be sure to visit the blog this weekend and leave your comments, and celebrate Columbus Day weekend in style!

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