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Catherine Castle

~ Romance for the Ages

Catherine Castle

Tag Archives: Soul Mate Publishing

Cover Reveal for A Groom for Mama by Catherine Castle

14 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by Catherine Castle in books, Romance

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Book excerpt from A Groom for Mama, Catherine Castle, Cover reveal for A Groom for Mama, romantic comedy, Soul Mate Publishing, Sweet romance

 

Whoo Hoo! It’s the beginning of busy week for me. I’m revealing the cover for my sweet romantic comedy A Groom for Mama here and over at Sloane Taylor’s blog today and getting ready for my month-long promo tour for the book. Oh, and I just got my pre-order link for A Groom for Mama on Amazon.

Rather than give you the blurb, which you can read on Sloane’s blog or on Amazon (please click on the links to read the blurb), I’m going to tease you with a hook and an excerpt from one of the heroine Allison’s disastrous dates. Mama and Jack, the ex-boyfriend who’s been roped into finding his old girlfriend a husband through his dating service, are eavesdropping on the couple.

I hope you’ll be interested enough to hop on over Amazon and click on the pre-order link. Only 3 weeks and 3 days until the book can be delivered right to your Kindle!

 

A Groom for Mama

By Catherine Castle

Excerpt:

From their table at The Old Country Barn restaurant, Jack and Beverly spied on Allison and her date. It wasn’t his choice, but this whole dating fiasco hadn’t gone the way he wanted. Watching Allison flirt with Thurston Howell the Third had become uncomfortable. That’s what he’d nicknamed him. The idiot had shown up in a skipper’s hat, white slacks, deck shoes, and a royal blue blazer—an outfit straight from the set of the 60s television show Gilligan’s Island.

“Allison must feel underdressed,” Beverly whispered as she peered around her menu at her daughter seated three booths away. “I tried to get her to wear something snazzy. I just knew he’d come looking sharp.”

“How’d you know?”

“It’s a no-brainer. Anybody who says he likes long cruises on the family yacht is pretentious. Pretentious people show off. Honestly, who owns a yacht in Colorado? It’s a ski haven.”

In spite of himself, Jack cracked a smile.

Want to learn more about A Groom for Mama? Watch for my month-long blog tour information posted on this site beginning September 6.

 

About the Author:

Multi-award-winning author Catherine Castle has been writing all her life. Before beginning her career as a romance writer she worked part-time as a freelance writer. She has over 600 articles and photographs to her credit, under her real name, in the Christian and secular market. Besides writing, Catherine loves traveling with her husband, singing, and attending theatre. In the winter she loves to quilt and has a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) in her sewing case. In the summer her favorite place to be is in her garden. She’s passionate about gardening and even won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club.

Her debut inspiration romantic suspense, The Nun and the Narc, from Soul Mate Publishing was an ACFW Genesis Finalist, a 2014 EPIC finalist, and the winner of the 2014 Beverly Hills Book Award and the 2014 RONE Award. Her most recent release, A Groom for Mama, is a sweet romantic comedy from Soul Mate Publishing. Both books are available on Amazon.

 

Through A Writer’s Garden with Anne. B. Cole

23 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by Catherine Castle in A Writer's Garden, garden blog series, Through the Garden Gates

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Anne B. Cole, Author Catherine Castle's garden blog, modified raised beds, Soul Mate Publishing, Souls Entwined, Souls Estranged, Through a Writer's Garden, weed-free gardening

 

A Practically Weed-free Way to Garden

Anne B. Cole

Thank you, Catherine for inviting me back to A Writer’s Garden. Every gardener enjoys eating fresh produce straight from the backyard. With three teens and two jobs, people ask me how I find the time to grow a garden and keep the weeds out. Over twenty-five years of trial and many errors, I’ve found the easiest way to maintain a vegetable garden in my backyard.

picture 1

Planting the garden is easy…How do I keep the weeds out without hours of back breaking labor?

My secret? Modified raised beds.

picture 2

In April, my husband tills my 15’ by 50’ garden with a walk behind rototiller. I take a shovel and scoop shallow paths between three-foot beds. They can be bigger, but I like this size because I can easily reach across pick produce from one side. I simply dump the dirt from the path onto the bed. This raises the bed a few inches. Then I rake it smooth. The beds created are only about six inches higher than the paths. Excess rain drains to the paths so no veggies are flooded. As I mow the lawn, I place the grass clippings in the paths so I never need to weed them. This adds nutrients back into the soil as an added benefit.

picture 3

After planting, I quickly erect a temporary fence from stakes and three-foot chicken wire to prevent the rabbits from feasting on tender plants. The fence keeps most wildlife out. Humans are permitted to walk in the paths, but never on the beds. This keeps soil in the beds soft, loose, and easy to weed.

picture 4

Once all of the seeds and plants are in, I sit back and watch from my writing spot. Once a week, I hoe in between the plants to keep the weeds out. By July, the plants are big enough they shade new weeds out so I only need to hoe if I’m replanting late beans, onions, or carrots. Some plants grow so fast they cover not only their bed, but adjacent ones as well. The rabbits stay out and the veggies thrive.

picture 5

After we enjoy the yummy veggies, I remove the larger debris and cover the ground with leaves from the yard. Instead of raking, I mow the leaves, collecting them, and dumping them on the garden. They break down nicely over the winter in preparation for next year’s garden.

The raised beds weather a bit over the summer so by fall they aren’t as pronounced. When my husband tills again in the spring all the beds disappear and I start over. I have permanent strawberry and blueberry beds on the ends of the garden which are not tilled every year.

My family enjoys showing and sharing our garden with friends. Picking produce and eating it within minutes is a taste adventure like no other. Even my pickiest of teens will grab a green bean or snap pea from the garden and eat it raw.

If you have any questions about gardening with modified raised beds, leave a comment today or visit my website www.annebcole.com and click on the CONTACT tab. I’m happy to answer any questions.

Thanks, again, Catherine for hosting me here today on A Writer’s Garden.

Happy Gardening to All!

—Anne

 

About the Author:

anne b coleAnne B. Cole loves to read a wide variety of books. Her first book, Souls Entwined, is a time traveling adventure with supernatural spirits, pirates, and a touch of sweet romance. All this and more are combined to attract teens through octogenarians.

Anne lives in the Midwest with her husband and three teenage children. Her hobbies include running so she can indulge in her cravings for ice cream, donuts, and chocolate chip cookie dough. The first two books of The Souls Trilogy can be found on Amazon.

Souls Entwined

Souls Estranged

Look for the final book, Souls Endure to be released Fall 2016.

Drop by Anne’s website at www.annebcole.com and visit her blog for posts on writing, recipes, gardening, and preschool activities.

 

 

Wednesday Writers Welcomes Eris Field

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by Catherine Castle in Author interviews, books, Wednesday Writers

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

author interveiw with Eris Field, compulsive hoarding, Father Baker Boys, Soul Mate Publishing, Sweet romance, The Gift of Love

51uqgPHY1vL._AA160_Today I’m welcoming Eris Field to Wednesday Writers. Eris has an interview and an excerpt from her sweet romance book The Gift of Love. Eris, please begin by telling us a bit about The Gift of Love.

The Gift of Love is a story of faith, compassion, courage, and love. It is the story of two women, one young and one older, who love: Laurel who dreams of a home of her own with children as she works two jobs to provide for her step-sister whose compulsive hoarding is destroying her life and threatening Laurel’s and Aunt Emmie whose girlhood was limited by polio and who now dreams of the man who writes her beautiful letters in blue envelopes. It is also the story of Andrew, a reticent psychiatrist, who as a child fled from the battles of his parents and the contempt of his father to the sanctuary of his grandfather. It was his grandfather, an orphan sent to Father Baker’s Home for Children, who passed on to him Father Baker’s lessons of courage and compassion. Andrew practices these virtues but with a desk between him and the recipient. When faced with caring for an abandoned toddler, he is forced to ask Laurel for help. In giving that help, Laurel risks losing all she has dreamed of and her heart.

How did you come up with the concept for this book?

When I was a young pediatric nurse, I met an older doctor who told me that he was a Father Baker Boy. During the depression and its aftermath, his parents died leaving him an orphan with no one to claim him. He was put on a train with a tag on his coat that said Father Baker, Lackawanna, New York. He told me how Father Baker had given him his name and had always been there for him. Father Baker had sent him to college and medical school. His story remained with me and it formed the basis for The Gift of Love.

Interesting. I’d never heard of Father Baker boys. Stories ripped from history are always interesting. What are you working on now? Do you have a release date for it?

My third novel, No Greater Love. is a cross-cultural contemporary romance. It has been accepted by Soul Mate Publishing and will be released in June 2015. It is the story of two people who know love only to lose it and then give everything they have to help one another survive while hanging onto the hope of reclaiming that love,

Congratulations on the new release. Now for some writing questions. Tell us about the genres you write in and a bit about your process.

In fiction, I write in different genres—inspirational, contemporary cross-cultural, and biographical romance. I don’t decide on a genre ahead of time. The characters begin to talk to me and I write the story. After the story emerges, it tends to fit in one of those three genres but not always precisely.

I tend to write in my head a long time before I sit down to my computer. Characters talk to me and I begin to know them—their dreams and disappointments. Sometimes they appear in specific settings as their problems pile up. When the pressure has increased to a certain point, I begin to write the scenes and the dialogue. I often go back and fill in the details that link scenes and chapters before I move forward. I think of it as weaving a tapestry.

Characters’ names are very important to me. I consider the character’s nationality, their position in the family (first-born daughter), their personality, and their age in selecting a name. I choose a name that fits them and also holds out the possibility of being more. Each name has to look right and sound right. I always check on the meaning of the name before I use it. I use several books on naming characters and also I collect interesting names from newspaper articles.

Now for some information about a writer’s reading habits. Are you a non-fiction reader?

In keeping with current events, I have been reading: Five Sisters: A Modern Novel of Kurdish Women by Kit Anderson, The Miracle of the Kurds by Stephen Mansfield, and Moscow Bound by Adrian Churchward.

I read non-fiction every day. Most of the reading is related to research for the novel I am working on but I also read Ottoman history and material about the wars our country has been involved in.

What about magazines, craft books and fiction?

The three writing craft books that I have found very helpful are:

  1. Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon
  2. The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass
  3. Writing the Heart of Your Story by C. S. Lakin

The fiction books that I go back to again and again.

The Kadin by Beatrice Small

Any of Betty Neels’ romances (They are comfort reading when the world is harsh)

Any contemporary romance that catches my attention by a great cover or the promise of a warm love story and interesting characters.

Magazines.

I don’t read many magazines but I do read The Writer’s Digest from cover to cover.

You have such an unusual name. Do you know what it means?My name, Eris, is the name of the goddess of war/discord. I don’t think it fits me. My grandfather who taught Latin and Greek named me. He also gave cousins historic names—Florence and Venice. I always considered myself fortunate not to have been named Rome or Naples.

LOL. We like to watch movies. Do you have a favorite movie?My most favorite movies are The Inn of the Sixth Happiness and The Last Samuri.

Tell the readers the most historic city you have ever visited.The most historic city that I have visited is the fascinating Istanbul in Turkey. It is a city that has known many conquerors and still spans two continents.

Thanks for visiting today, Eris. As you leave do you have a precept that has influenced your life?

All the children in the world are our children.

 Now for a peek at Eris’s book:

The Gift of Love

Laurel, a 26 year old slightly impulsive pediatric nurse who spent her early years in foster care, dreams of having a family of her own—six children, no men in the dream. Laurel doesn’t just dream, she has a plan –stop her step-sister’s compulsive hoarding, clear out the mountains of paper engulfing every room, and sell the old house that is pushing her toward bankruptcy. As a last resort, she raids her retirement fund to go to a conference on the newest treatments for compulsive hoarding.

Andrew, a 39 year old psychiatrist whose grandfather was an orphan –a Father Baker boy– is never impulsive. A reticent, somewhat austere man, he limits his interactions with people to his work. About to leave for the conference where he has agreed to fill in for a colleague, he suddenly finds himself the reluctant caretaker of a two and a half year old boy, Jamie.

Laurel views Andrew as arrogant, rude, but disturbingly attractive and Andrew views Laurel as a dangerous distraction to be avoided. When Jamie becomes ill, they are they are forced to work together but will they be able to put aside their protective armor and trust each other enough to accept the gift of love?

Excerpt from The Gift of Love

“Andrew! I caught you just in time!” A woman in her fifties with a scrupulously maintained body clad in a vivid blue silk suit shouted as she scrambled out of the taxi clutching an oversized purse under one arm and a toddler in the other. Swaying on three-inch heels, she hurried toward him.

With a numbing sense of foreboding, Andrew finished turning on the alarm and locking the front door. He would know that strident voice anywhere. Stacy, his father’s second wife, ex-second wife.

“Stacy,” he said curtly. The last time he had seen her was at his father’s funeral, the beautiful, grieving former wife. How angry his grandfather had been to see her there.

“You’ve got to take him.” She hurried up the walk, a toddler in her arms. “You owe it to your sister.”

Andrew stepped forward so that she could not move up the steps. “I don’t have a sister.” He motioned to the cab driver of the second cab that had pulled into the circular driveway and stopped behind the first cab to take his bag and laptop.

“Your half-sister,” she hissed at him and then changed to a more placating tone. “You probably don’t remember her. I moved on soon after she was born.”

“No, I never knew her.” He had not lived with his father after his marriage to Stacy. “What happened to your daughter?”

“My daughter? She was your father’s daughter, too,” she snapped. “She died of an overdose six months ago, and I have been stuck with him ever since.”

“Him? Your grandson, I presume,” Andrew said with chilling reproof. “Of course your daughter would want you to care for him.” He edged past her down the steps.

“You don’t get it!” Stacy was shaking with anger. “I don’t want him. I am leaving for Hawaii with friends this afternoon.” There was a hard edge to her voice. “If you don’t take him, I will put him in foster care. One way or the other, I am going to be on that cruise ship.”

Andrew had seen that look in her eyes before. During the time that she was married to his father, she had made sure that Andrew was always in a boarding school, an enrichment program, or a summer camp.

He eyed her with abhorrence. “You’d put your own grandson in foster care so that you could go on a cruise?” He closed his eyes and saw the stream of injured children he had treated in the emergency room when he was an intern. So many of them had been foster children. Without a word, he lifted the toddler from her and strode to his waiting taxi.

What could he do? There was no one he could leave the child with. Birdie and left early that morning and his secretary had taken a long weekend. The only thing he could think of was to take the toddler with him to Puerto Rico. Aunt Emmie would be meeting him there and she would help him find a solution. She had been there to help him all his life and she would know what to do.

Now that she had gained what she had come for, Stacy hurried back to her taxi calling over her shoulder, “He is two and his name’s Jamie, Jamie Young.” She tossed a small duffle bag toward Andrew’s waiting taxi driver and shouted out the window as her taxi pulled away, “He’s mute.”

 

The Gift of Love is available from: Amazon  and www.soulmatepublishing.com

 

ErisPerese08302014_no whiteAbout the Author:

Eris Field, a Clinical Specialist in Psychiatric Nursing, taught psychiatric nursing at the University at Buffalo for several years. She now enjoys writing novels in which the heroes are often fascinating psychiatrists and the heroines, awesome women.  Her first publications include a biographical novel, Legacy of Change: The Saga of a Turkish Family from Empire to Republic, that she co-authored with her late husband and a textbook, Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nursing. It was with great pleasure that she learned that her textbook was being used in China, Turkey, and Australia.

Her first novel, The Gift of Love, is set in Western New York and features a psychiatrist, the grandson of an orphan– a Father Baker boy, and a pediatric nurse. Reluctantly, they work together to help a mute child. Her second novel, Lattices of Love, is the story of a Turkish-American woman who kicks open the lattices of old harem rules and refuses to accept an arranged marriage.

Now, Eris lives in the ‘snow-belt’ region of New York and writes what she loves to read–contemporary, cross cultural romances. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Western New York Romance Writers group.  Her interests include supporting the Crossroads Springs Institute in Kenya for children orphaned by AIDS and visiting as many fascinating cities of the world as she can.

Contact: Eris Field Perese

eperese@aol.com

www.erisfield.com

 

Wednesday Writers Welcomes DeAnn Smallwood, author of One Shingle to Hang

13 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by Catherine Castle in books, Guest Authors, Wednesday Writers

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Author interviews, Book excerpts, DeAnn Smallwood, One Shingle to Hang, Soul Mate Publishing, Western Romances

OneShingletoHang_850HIGHToday I’m welcoming DeAnn Smallwood again with another of her western romances, entitled ONE SHINGLE TO HANG—a story of a strong woman in a man’s job in the wild west. What’s not to like about that?

ONE SHINGLE TO HANG

By DeAnn Smallwood

Accused of rustling and facing possible hanging, Drew needed a lawyer—one good man. He wasn’t prepared for L.M. Wentfield, a beautiful blonde with a sharp tongue and fiercely won independence.

Everyone knew Lil Wentfield would never marry. What man would want her? She was too old by society’s standards, too set in her ways, and too damned opinionated. Granted, she was a real beauty.

Lil’s parents were long-suffering. In fact, they were ashamed of their ugly duckling yet to turn into a swan. They made sure all their society friends, and Lil, knew of their disappointment. To compound this disappointment, Lil had done the unthinkable. She had pursued a career as an attorney, thereby cluttering her weak female mind with knowledge meant only for a man. Knowledge that could only result in insanity.

Lil purchases a run-down mansion in the small Colorado town of Chesterfield, and hangs her shingle advertising L.M. Wentfield, Attorney At Law.

One of Lil’s first clients was a grey-eyed cowboy that came looking for an attorney to keep him from the hang-man’s noose. Chesterfield had one attorney, L.M. Wentfield. This was an answer to Drew’s prayers. He needed a strong man to guide him through the legal snarls and possibilities of his looming demise at the hands of a liar and cheat. When he finds out that L.M. Wentfield was not a strong man, but a strong woman, he refuses her help.

Drew is drawn to this beautiful woman. But Lil feels she has nothing to offer him. She’d make a terrible ranch wife. Drew feels he isn’t worthy of Lil, knowing she comes from money and he doesn’t even have a house on his fledging ranch.

Will Drew’s pride stand in the way? And will Lil be able to tell Drew of her love in spite of her inabilities?

One Shingle to Hang Excerpt

Everyone knew Lil Wentfield would never marry. What man would want her? She was too old, too set in her ways, and too damned opinionated. Granted, she was a real beauty, if you could get past all the other flaws. Long blonde hair, equally long legs, sparkling blue eyes, flawless skin, with just a hint of a European ancestor in the coloring. And lips, well to call them kissable would be doing them an injustice.

But spinster she was, with her hair coiled into a tight knot at the nape of her neck, as tight as the expression habitually worn on her lovely face. Wire rimmed glasses perched on her small nose, obscured flashes of emotion in those beautiful eyes. Except when it came to outrage. Then her eyes snapped, her spine stiffened, her chin raised, and she peered disdainfully at the offender.

Lil was like a badger when it came to proving her point and winning an argument. Her mother liked to say Lil was born arguing. What her father liked to say was more colorful and filled with disappointment. His only child compounded being born female, by having a mind of her own. Once Lil made a decision, she planted her feet firmly on the chosen path, and didn’t step off until her goal was accomplished.

Men found her unnerving. Lil Wentfield wouldn’t be any man’s ‘little woman’, her place in the home, serving her husband, and mothering children. She was unsettling; not material necessary for being the calming homemaker and acquiescent wife needed to soothe and support a man as he went about his business.

***

A loud knock broke into her thoughts. “Come in,” she called out.

Nothing happened, then another knock. “Please, come in,” she called again.

Getting no response, Lil came around her desk and, with some irritation at the interruption, jerked open the door, nearly toppling the tall man who held the doorknob on the other side. He muttered something under his breath, and tried to regain his balance only to bump into Lil, throwing her off stride. She stumbled backwards and would have fallen if not for the man’s quick reaction. He grabbed Lil and, wrapping both arms around, pulled her to him. Then, in a parody of the two-step, he danced her to safety.

Lil felt herself falling, then rescued by two strong arms. Not only was she pulled up short, but she was wrapped tightly against a rock hard chest, her nose buried in the man’s damp shirt. A very pleasant smell greeted her nose. The scent of summer rain and witch hazel. She found the masculine odor intoxicating.

Neither moved. Then Lil raised her head and looked into a pair of dancing gray eyes. His arms never relaxed their grip; in fact, they seemed to tighten around her as his mouth twitched, then broke into a smile.

“Didn’t expect to end up with a beautiful woman in my arms. For a moment there, I expected to land on the rug, Ma’am. With you alongside me,” he added with a chuckle.

He loosened his grip and gently pushed her away from the warmth and safety of his chest. Lil stepped back, feeling as though she’d just had something precious taken from her. She realized her hands still gripped his arms. Like a hot potato, she dropped them and turned away from the man’s disturbing presence. Like a fox heading for her den, Lil scurried behind her desk and gratefully lowered her trembling body onto the waiting chair.

With the desk between them, she was once again in charge. “May I help you?” she asked coolly, hoping the tremble in her voice went unnoticed. “I called come in not once but twice.”

“Sorry, Ma’am. Guess I didn’t hear you. I was just fixing to open the door when you did just that. Are you okay?”

“Yes.” Lil answered with no desire to elaborate. “I—I appreciate you catching me. Now,” she hurried away from that topic, “to repeat myself, how may I help you?”

He smiled, as if knowing her thoughts. Walking over to the desk, he removed his hat and stood with it in his hands. “I apologize for dripping on your floor, but it’s raining like hel—, uh, like heck out there.”

Lil tried not to look at how the ends of his eyes crinkled when he smiled. She focused instead on his hair, black and shiny with rain drops glistening on the wavy strands not covered by his hat. She didn’t realize she was staring at him until he shifted from foot to foot.

“Ma’am?”

“Yes,” Lil answered, pulling herself back to reality.

“What I’m here for is to see L.M. Wentfield, Attorney At Law.” He pointed at the window, in the direction of the sign.

Lil nodded. “Yes,” she said again. At this rate, he’d think she only had a one word vocabulary.

The man tilted his head to one side. “Could you direct me to L. M. Wentfield, Ma’am?”

“Of course I can. How may I help you?”

Two small furrows appeared between the man’s eyes. He peered closer at her. Perhaps he needed to try another approach.

“Ma’am, could I speak with your husband?”

“There is no husband,” Lil said with a hint of asperity.

“Oh,” he nodded as if finally understanding the problem. “I beg your pardon. I guess the person I need to see would be your father.”

“What for?” Now the furrows were between Lil’s eyes.

“Well, because I’m looking for him.”

“You’re looking for my father? Are you in need of a banker?”

“No. Not at all.” The smile was gone and those long lashed gray eyes of his had lost their twinkle. “A banker? Now why would you think I’d need a banker?”

“I didn’t think that, sir. You said it.”

“I did?” He shook his head and took a step back. He’d been thrown from horses and had his brain addled, but nothing compared to what this lovely young woman was doing to him.

“You did.”

“I guess I don’t rightly recall that. But,” he offered a weak smile, “I do remember asking to see your father.”

“Yes?” Lil let the word hang in the air. What was the matter with him?

His hands nervously fingered the brim of his wet hat. “I would like to see L.M. Wentfield, Attorney. If L.M. Wentfield isn’t your husband, and it appears he isn’t your father either, then who is he?”

“Me.” Lil sucked in her cheeks, delighted with the look on his face. Now it was all coming clear. Standing before her was a gorgeous specimen of man. Alas, it seemed he was also a specimen of man that had a preconceived notion of a woman’s role. And judging from the look on his face, it apparently wasn’t sitting behind a desk, attorney at large.

“You? You are L.M. Wentfield, Attorney At Law?”

“I am.”

Amazon Buy link

If you’d like to read about another of DeAnn’s western romances, click here to see an earlier post and excerpt.

IMG_0056 (4x6)(3)Bio: I live in Colorado with my husband and my two Yorkie kid dogs: Stormy, four pounds, and Eli, six pounds. I’m a native of Colorado, but I’ve lived several years in Wyoming and Montana. My historical romances are: Montana Star, Sapphire Blue, Unconquerable Callie, and Wyoming Heather. Tears In The Wind is a contemporary romance. I have just contracted for another historical romance, One Shingle To Hang, that should be published fall of 2014. Then I changed genres from my beloved romances and wrote, under the pen name of D. M. Woods, my first suspense/thriller: Death Crosses The Finish Line. The second book in this ‘death’ series, Death Is A Habit, came out January 8th 2014. I am currently working on the third book of this series, Death Walks C Dock. Truly, I mean it when I say my greatest pleasure next to writing is having my books read and enjoyed. There are many more stories just waiting to be written.

Contact DeAnn at:

facebook

website link

 

Book Release Today — The Nun and the Narc

24 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by Catherine Castle in Blog, Catherine Castle author, Romance

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

ACFW Genesis finalist, Amazon e-book release, Catherine Castle, Inspirational romance book, New Book Release, Soul Mate Publishing, The Nun and the Narc

TheNunAndTheNarc2_850

It’s finally here! My book The Nun and the Narc is now available as an e-book on Amazon. For a peek at the book, to download a sample, or to buy the book, click here.

Last night about 11:30 p.m. I fired up my Kindle to see if the book had been added yet, and there it was. I got so excited my blood pressure rose 12 points and my heartbeat jumped to a rate I haven’t seen since I started my blood pressure medicine. LOL. It’s still a little elevated today.

This book has been a long time coming since it took 2nd place in the Dixie Contest in 2003 and was a finalist in the 2009  American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis Contest. When I entered the first couple of chapters in the Dixie Contest, I had a feeling it would place and that the editor would ask to see the rest of the book, so I hurried up and finished it in a matter of months. It did, and she did, but nothing came of that in spite of wonderful praise from the editor. In 2009, when I finaled in the Genesis contest, I didn’t realize what a big deal it was to be a finalist. I’d been entering contests for a while and had placed in several and I thought of it as one more contest. However, when the MC of the awards ceremony said, “Watch for these names, because these are your future authors,” my stomach hit the floor. I realized she was talking about me!

I never forgot that feeling of being called out as a future published author, and, now, I’ve finally made it. Thanks to everyone who has had a part in this book’s success! I hope all my future readers enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed the ride to publication.

If you’d like to know more about how this book became The Nun and the Narc, check out my guest blog at Word Sharpeners.

Those Pesky Words

12 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Catherine Castle in Blog, Catherine Castle author, romance author

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

book revisions, First round book edits, repetitive words in your book, Soul Mate Publishing, The Nun and the Narc

pen

photo from Public Domain Pictures
Anna Langova photographer

The first round of editing has begun on The Nun and the Narc, being released the spring of 2013 from Soul Mate Publishing. Over all, I’ve have been pleased with the editorial comments. Really,  who wouldn’t like to hear an editor say, “Your dialogue and characters leap off the pages,” and “I can see this as a movie.”? I grinned ear-to-ear when I read that! In spite of the glowing remarks, there were some things that needed addressing. No big surprise there as this is my first published book, and you always learn something new whenever a fresh set of eyes looks at your work.

For me, the most annoying one was finding out I have a list of favorite words that I used over and over … and missed fixing.

And here I thought I’d taken care of that pesky problem of repetitive words.

Some of the repetitive words appear in close proximity, but most of the overused words discovered by the editor are pages apart. However, when I did a Word search to find them it became a bit daunting to think I’d missed this problem soooo many times in the manuscript.

Here are a few of the words I discovered I love the most:

Push

Pull

Lean

Look

Up

I’ll not embarrass myself by publicly listing every word I used over and over (notice the purposeful repetition here ☺). Let’s just say I was a bit shocked, considering the number of times I, and my critique partners, went over the manuscripts. I even read this entire book aloud  Given the frequency with which I used these, and other words, I’m pinning the list to the front of my computer desk for quick reference.

I must admit, having discovered this problem and correcting it, I find my book reads much better. I guess the axiom is true: no matter how much you’ve revised your book, there is always room for improvement.

Armed with this new knowledge, you can guess what I’ll be doing before the “final” versions of my other manuscripts are submitted for publication.

Have you checked your manuscripts for your favorite words? What are they?

Guest blogging today at SMP Author Site

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Catherine Castle in Blog, books, Catherine Castle author, writing

≈ Comments Off on Guest blogging today at SMP Author Site

Tags

guest blogging, SMP Author blog, Soul Mate Publishing, The Nun and the Narc

Today I’m posting at the Soul Mate Author Group  as one of their new authors. In case you haven’t heard, my first book The Nun and the Narc will be released from Soul Mate Publishing this spring. I’m just beginning the first round of revisions, which you’ll hear more about in future blogs. I hope you’ll come join me today at the SMP Author blog. I’d love to see you there. I’ll be back here next week.

What’s In Your Idea File?

26 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by Catherine Castle in Blog, Catherine Castle author, writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

books, Idea, Soul Mate Publishing, The Nun and the Narc, writing inspiration

It’s been a while since I looked in my idea file to see what’s there, mostly because have been concentrating on getting the finished books published. Since my first book The Nun and the Narc is scheduled to come out this spring from Soul Mate Publishing, I need to figure out what my next writing project will be. I need something to pitch to the editor in order to keep the books in the production pipeline.

The question I’ve been dealing with is should I go with something that’s partially written, or try something brand new? In view of my question, I thought it might be a good time to check out all the story starter ideas I’ve filed away.  I also thought I might find some new blog material in the files. After writing two blogs a week for a year, the creative well can get a little dry. So, I pulled out my idea files and rifled through the snippets of paper I found there.

Here are some of the things in the files.

  • Several news clippings about the Buffalo Soldiers.
  • A news article about a swastika, the size of a football field, cut into a corn field in New Jersey.
  • A news article about the Mudd family trying to clear their name over the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
  • A list of 52 dumb facts, including one about a monkey that was tried and convicted of smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana
  • An article about a frontier madam
  • An email about Regency slang
  • A list of words to create Shakespearean insults
  • A list of Russian prison tattoos and their meanings
  • A chart of the relative humidity and heat index
  • An article about the order of birth and what it says about you
  • A list of the names of God found in the New International Version of the Bible
  • Several articles about abolition, Freedom Train and slavery
  • An article about Gypsy persecution
  • An article about a prison for American Indian captives
  • Several articles about American Indians
  • A couple of articles about the Orphan Train
  • Clues to reading body language
  • An article about club drugs
  • An article about space germs
  • A mock-up of a children’s book based on a poem I wrote
  • Meeting notes from a Day of Mayhem, Murder and Poisons workshop
  • Several beginnings of short stories, long forgotten about
  • New  lyrics I’d written to the ABC song, rearranged as a Happy Birthday song
  • An article about drugs on the Indian reservations
  • Several articles about old west gunslingers
  • An article about Sister Alice, executive director of St. Vincent’s Senior Citizen Nutrition Program.
  • An article about Chicago World Fair
  • An article about the Oregon Trail
  • Several articles about Indian attacks
  • Email about church hymns
  • Arabic fairy tales
  • An article about wildfire fighting

Hmm.  This is one odd list of ideas with very little in common. After spending several hours looking through the papers, I’m not any surer which direction I should go. I do see that I need to reorganize the files since I have some areas that have multiple news clippings.

The one thing the list does confirm, however, is that a lot of things pique my curiosity … and that’s not a bad thing for a writer.

What’s in your idea file? Are you working on anything gleaned from that file?

My Baby Has a New Home

29 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by Catherine Castle in Blog, Catherine Castle author

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

book contract, Inspirational romance, My Baby has a new home, Soul Mate Publishing, The Nun and the Narc

You may wonder what a publishing logo is doing  my blog post today. It’s to announce that I have a book contract! My inspirational novel The Nun and the Narc  has a new home. No more will it languish  in the desk drawer.

 The Nun and the Narc has been picked up by Soul Mate Publishing. I got the news just before Thanksgiving while I was sitting in the eye doctor’s office waiting for a check on the laser surgery I had the week before. Through my grossly dilated eyes I spotted an email on my Catherine Castle account. When I opened it I found the offer from editor Debbie Gilbert at Soul Mate. I whooped and announced to the strangers sitting in the waiting room with me that I was going to be a published author. After they got over being startled, they were suitably impressed, at least I think they were. It’s hard to see faces clearly when your pupils are the size of a shooter marble. The doctor called me in right then and as I headed for the exam room door I unceremoniously blurted out, “I’m going to be a published author!” He was impressed, even though he doesn’t read romance. LOL. I held the news about the offer back until the contract negotiations were through and the contract was signed, sealed and delivered. Talk about a hard job keeping one’s mouth shut!

I’m really excited that my “baby” has found a home and am looking forward to the publishing process. Now I need to get to work on some new stuff!

Oh, and by the way, the same day I got the contract offer, my husband and I also received one for the book we’ve co-authored. We had twice as much to be thankful for this November!

I’ll be blogging about the whole process. I hope you’ll stop back and experience it with me.

Have you received THE CALL? Where were you when it happened?

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