From the Aspen Gold competition: I enjoyed the mistaken identity first meet and the plot twists about the gaming world that kept you guessing about what Robbie had gotten himself into.
I loved the beginning. Just too fun.
From The Write Touch Readers’ Award: “What a phenomenal read. Well written characters. A love story you could believe in. The heroine healing the hero. This one deserves to win.”
I’m grateful for the readers who take the time to read, judge, and comment on my books.
Shape shifter of clone? Which has returned Rebecca Tierney’s husband’s body to her nine months after he was cremated? THE VISITOR searches an old Victorian house perched on the bluffs of Lake Superior for the key that will stop the dying among his kind. Rebecca Tierney has returned to her husband’s family home on the largest, deepest, coldest, and most unforgiving of the Great Lakes to dispose of his ashes.
But the old house holds more than memories of a love ended too soon and the promise of immortality. Its secrets can free Rebecca from her grief and teach a man of logic that love is worth more than eternal life…if only Rebecca can open her mind and THE VISITOR his heart.
Buy THE VISITOR in paperback or hard cover at
Or order from any book store
DIGITAL FORMAT coming in September
Wednesday night, Written Dreams Publishing sponsored an author signing at The Attic bookstore in Green Bay. First picture is of the attending authors. I’m front row center with the cover of my just released paranormal romance, THE VISITOR.
Written Dreams Publishing was represented by a diverse group of authors. Back row L to R: Lexi Jordan with her debut novel, a dystopian futuristic, RESURFACED. Evan Michael Martin, author of a series of Wiccan & Sorcery books. Katerine Nohr, author of courtroom mysteries. Nathan Huff with his soon to be released historical fantasy. Front row L to R: Mary Grace Murphy, author of culinary mystery DEATH NOSH. Myself, Barbara Raffin, with the cover of my just released paranormal, THE VISITOR, and Gail F. Meintzer with his memoirs, DETOURS: A Memoir of a Railroad Man.
WRITTEN DREAMS PUBLISHING is making its mark as a publishing house unafraid of putting out unusual stories of exceptional quality. Of notable interest, Lexi Jordan, back row left, is a mere sixteen. Look for her distopian futuristic, RESURFACED, this fall.
Picture two: L to R: Brittiany Koren, owner/editor of WRITTEN DREAMS PUBLISHING & me, Barbara Raffin
Picture three includes the Publisher Koren and her WD staff of interior designer, copy editor, and cover artist.
Pre-order THE VISITOR from Written Dream Publishing
http://writtendreams.com/store/…
Nine months after he’s been cremated, Rebecca Tierney’s husband shows up in her living room…naked.
I’m so excited to share the cover of my upcoming release, THE VISITOR. Watch for release information later this summer from me and/or my publisher, Written Dreams Publishing.
Shape shifter or clone? Which has returned Rebecca Tierney’s husband’s body to her nine months after he was cremated?
Rebecca has returned to her husband’s family home on the largest, deepest, coldest, and most unforgiving of the Great Lakes, Superior, to dispose of his ashes. But the old house holds more than memories of a love ended too soon. A Visitor searches the old Victorian house perched on the bluffs of a lake that never gives up its dead for the key that will stop the dying in his world.
The secrets of the house cloistered from the world by towering pines and iron rich bluffs in an isolated finger of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula can free Rebecca from her grief and teach a man of logic that love is worth more than eternal life…if only she will open her mind and he his heart.
Okay, it’s not new news. I posted about SAVING ANDI winning the Write Touch Readers’ Award when I was notified. I even posted a pic of my local Wisconsin Romance Writers of America group giving me a dozen red roses. But the celebration continued at the WisRWA conference May 19-20. Check out the beautiful plaque I got!
Since winning the Write Touch Readers Award with SAVING ANDI, I’ve been thinking maybe you’d like to know what prompted me to write this romantic suspense.
It started with Andi Johanson making an appearance in CRAVING A HERO. She’s the character who plows out Kelly’s family camp when Kelly and Dane get snowed in (don’t get me started on the bombshell that forced togetherness exposed) and later for their Valentine Day winter wedding.
Initially, Andi was a guy with a different that was going to make a walk on and never be heard from again. But this young woman living hand to mouth reached out from the back of my brain and I knew SHE was supposed to be driving that beat up old truck with the plow. When Andi let me see into her past–see what a hard childhood she’d had, I knew she had a story that needed to be told.
In my last blog post about SAVING ANDI, I mentioned Andi’s rough childhood. Cruel is a more appropriate adjective what with an alcoholic father who viewed women as little more than chattel to do his bidding and an older brother following in his path. Her mother’s premature death left Andi to take on the household duties and to mother her younger brother. Put them all in an isolated cabin on a wooded lake living hand to mouth because Dad couldn’t hold down a job and you have a recipe for everything from poaching to outright burglary.
This is the environment that shaped Andi, the only saving grace her need to protect her younger brother—to see him free of the harshness of their lives. Her mother had instilled at least that much integrity in her before she died.
But a drug addicted older brother, a protective young brother, and the law all came together to one fateful afternoon, shattering the one hope she had in life; that her baby brother could escape their wretched life. It left her with the burden of guilt and a big distaste for cops.
A year and a half with her baby brother dead and big brother in prison, Andi has given up on life–hope…until she finds Cole McCall, a man with a bullet hole in him and no memory. Prime for a dangerous liaison, she takes him in, nurses him back to health, and hides him from the authorities. Too bad whoever wants Cole dead are still tracking him.
Find SAVING ANDI at most online book sellers, including:
Having been a finalist in this prestigious competition in the past, I am thrilled to win with SAVING ANDI. This Romantic Suspense is the first of my new spin-off series, St. John Sibling: FRIENDS. That my Great Green Bay Area Wisconsin Romance Writers of America group would honor me with a beautiful bouquet of roses puts me over the moon. Big THANK YOU to my fellow writers for your thoughtfulness. Having a community of fellow writers to share the good times with is priceless. And thank you to all of you readers who judged SAVING ANDI in THE WRITE TOUCH READERS’ AWARD CONTEST and found it worthy.
For those of you who haven’t enjoyed reading SAVING ANDI yet, let me share a little about the story and its characters:
Cole McCall is shot, dives off a bluff, and hits his head. Now he has amnesia and can’t remember who wants him dead or why. He doesn’t even know which side of the law he operates on.
Fortunately for him, Andi Johanson finds him at the camp he’s broken into. Given her family history of being on the wrong side of the law, her distrust of lawmen, and a guilt she carries over her younger brother’s death, she takes Cole home rather than to a hospital and nurses him.
All that togetherness feeds their attraction to each other. But their love is jeopardized by his unknown past, her secrets, and the fact whoever wants Cole dead has tracked him to Andi’s cabin.
CHECK my FB author page for snippets about what inspired me to write this story and what shaped these characters.
VISIT MY WEB SITE to read excerpts from all my books and learn more about me. Dog lovers, there’s a surprise waiting there for you. But above all know this about me. I love to write romances that will make you laugh and cry.
BUY “SAVING ANDI” from most online stores including: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, D2D, and Apple iBooks
Okay, my vacation was a working one at the Writers’ Police Academy August 11th through the 14th in Green Bay, Wisconsin and it took me a week to recuperate from it. But it was a BLAST…in some cases literally.
photo courtesy of my new author pal Aya Walksfar
I didn’t get to try the bomb squad suit on, but I handled it and a few other pieces of equipment. My favorite was getting familiar with and shooting a Glock 17. Heavier than I expected but with the sweetest trigger action. The gun pictured is red to indicate it has no firing pin and cannot be fired. We learned how to hold and load this gun before we were given the fully operational version. Any of you who’ve watched the TV series Quantico saw the trainees carrying these guns. It’s been years since I last shot a gun, but I still got it! Wish I’d kept my target so I could prove how deadly I can be.
photo thanks to author Lee Golberg
Next year, I’ve got to try these.
photo compliments of Lee Lofland
And yes, I got inside that SWAT vehicle as well as the armored vehicle on the opening day of the confernece. Check out the size of the armored vehicle in the 2nd and 3rd pics. I couldn’t get into the driver’s seat as the first step was waist high on me. But, with the help of a few friendly strangers who are no longer strangers to me if for no other reason than they hoisted my butt up to that first step, I did manage to get into the cargo area in the back. Photos thanks to my writing pal Cindi LeRoy
Friday morning started with a mock crash scene, complete with police cars, ambulances, and fire truck with sirens and lights and a rescue copter. Picture provided by Melinda Leigh
I later learned how to poison a person with bacteria from my own cupboard or the woods out back. TIP: mushrooms are unreliable, even the known poisonous ones.
I finally found a use for geometry in self defense. It’s all about the angles. TIP: when fighting an attacker, fists to flesh, palms to bone. Meaning, don’t punch ’em in the face and risk injuring your knuckles. Use the heel of your palm against the jaw and cheekbones.
Saturday morning’s interactive session: a surprise a mock locked down because someone was going around the campus stabbing people. Below: injured being cared for by audience members with medical training.
Everything was easy to observe. Lee Lofland‘s shot from the top of the lecture hall gives a perspective of how big yet well designed the hall was. I’d point out where I was sitting, but I was out of frame way up in the far corner. Thought I was smart taking that second seat down from the handicap zone and avoiding all those stairs as I’d come in from the upper level doors. Ha! Joke was on me. More on that later.
Then S.W.A.T team burst into the room shouting, “Hands on your head!” It was so real I got an Adrenalin rush. Even though I’d already learned that the Glocks with the red slides like these guys were pointing at us meant the guns couldn’t fire, it’s no fun having a gun waved at you. Amazing how a handful of men could control a room of hundreds. Photo thanks to Mike Riegel
Once they had us all seated with our hands on our heads, they started clearing the room. Here’s “the more on that later part.” They started with my row. I wound up having to walk down all those steps with hands on my head, bad knees and all. I even got frisked. I have no doubt the officer frisking me could attest that I wasn’t wearing an underwire bra. Told you it was interactive.
For more information on this event or attending next year’s repeat in Green Bay, Wisconsin, click on any of the Writers’ Police Academy graphics or this link. See more photos on any of the author links credited to the pictures.
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