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!
Tag Archives: St. John Sibling Series
WHERE DID I GET THE IDEA TO WRITE SAVING ANDI?
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:
SAVING ANDI WINS WRITE TOUCH READERS’ AWARD!
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
BTS eMag READERS CHOICE RESULTS
BTS Red Carpet Awards – Best Book of the Year – VOTE FOR ME PLEASE
PLEASE VOTE FOR FINDING HOME & TAMING TESS
Main Page http://btsemag.com/redcarpet/2014_ReadersChoice_Romance.html
You can vote once in every category. Form to vote is at the bottom of every page.
CATEGORY PAGES: …
Contemporary http://btsemag.com/redcarpet/2014_ReadersChoice_Contemp.html
Finding Home by Barbara Raffin
Romance http://btsemag.com/redcarpet/2014_ReadersChoice_Romance.html
Taming Tess by Barbara Raffin
CRAVING CHOCOLATE?
Are you CRAVING CHOCOLATE? How about a HERO as YUMMY AS CHOCOLATE?
Meet Dane St. John, Sexiest Action Hero of the Year and perfect fantasy tryst. The problem: there’s a lot more to Dane than a sexy actor, and Conservation Officer Kelly Jackson falls in love. The problem worsens when Dane heads off to film his next movie and Kelly discovers she’s pregnant. She can satisfy her craving for chocolate easy enough, but how does she satisfy her CRAVING for a HERO whose idea of having a family falls into the someday category? Find out in CRAVING A HERO: St. John Sibling Series, book 3.
Watch for the date of my LAUNCH PARTY full of PRIZES in the next few days!!
Meanwhile, here’s one of the prizes, quality chocolate Yooper Bars (U.P. bars. Think about it and you’ll get the Yooper connection). The bar displays a raised silhouette of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and is made by long-time chocolatiers Sayklley’s right here in the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Visit my BLOG SITE https://barbararaffin.com/ for additional prize pics or my WEB SITE https://barbararaffin.com/ to learn more about me and my books.
CRAVINGS
Are you CRAVING love? Are you CRAVING romance? How about CRAVING a HERO?
I got ALL THREE for you in my latest release CRAVING A HERO!
Watch for the date of my LAUNCH PARTY full of PRIZES in the next few days!!
Meanwhile, here’s a sample of one of the prizes. This door hanger is not only made here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where CRAVING A HERO is set, but is actually constructed from a book, a Readers Digest collection of novellas to be precise.
Visit my BLOG SITE https://barbararaffin.com/ for additional prize pics or my WEB SITE https://barbararaffin.com/ to learn more about me and my books.
NEW OCTOBER RELEASE
CRAVING A HERO isn’t quite ready for release, but it’ll be out before the end of the month and I am EXCITED! I’m so EXCITED, I’m holding a launch party full of GIVEAWAYS like the following.
Watch for MORE peeks at prizes in the coming days!
Watch for my posts on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/friends/requests/#!/barbara.raffin.3