A Nod to Fine Authors: Part Two

My last blog post looked at new authors I’ve discovered from reading e-books on my Kindle. I mentioned three, ending with the well-known author of PAY IT FORWARD, Catherine Ryan Hyde, who was new to me. I’d like to start with her again.

Catherine Ryan Hyde

As I mentioned before, I discovered Hyde when I read her book, WHEN YOU WERE OLDER. The day after losing his job and many of his coworkers in the collapse of the Twin Towers, Russell awakens to learn his mother has just passed on and he has inherited the care of his brain-injured brother, Ben. Although chronologically older, Ben is now much like a child and Russell must help him learn to live again. It’s both painfully raw and touchingly tender.

Having read (and thoroughly enjoyed) that first Hyde book, I picked up another. The title tells the story. SECOND-HAND HEART is indeed about a transplant and fans of RETURN TO ME will enjoy it, but it has some unexpected elements—and developments—that make it well worth reading. Most recently I read Hyde’s DON’T LET ME GO, a touching discussion of fear, courage, and the transformative power of a child. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Michaelene McElroy

When I saw the title, THE LAST SUPPER CATERING COMPANY, I wondered if I’d be comfortable with the story, but I downloaded it anyway. The fresh, appealing voice caught me within seconds and the quirky, I’ve-never-read-anything-like-it plot kept me fascinated. This is an odd book, but it’s a nice kind of odd. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Tracey Garvis-Graves
Ms. Graves debut novel, ON THE ISLAND, was a well-I-can-try-it experiment for me. Wow. I just recently reread the whole thing, start to finish—something I don’t do often since there are so many great books and so little time. This one swept me away.

Anna is 30 years old when the charter plane carrying her and 16-year-old T.J., the high school student she has been hired to teach over the summer, is downed in the Indian Ocean. They make it to a tiny, uninhabited island in the Indonesian archipelago as student and teacher. Three and a half years later, when helpers are rescuing survivors from the great tsunami of 2004, their relationship has changed. How did they survive on the island? And how will their tender new relationship survive when they return to the civilized world?

Don’t read this one if you’re squeamish, but if “painfully raw and touchingly tender” are your style, you’ll love it just as I did. Enjoy!

These are just a few of the many fine authors you can read on Kindle, Nook, I-Phones, computers and other mobile devices. If you are committed to paper-only reading, I'm sympathetic; there is nothing like turning the pages of a book. Yet these are inexpensive reads you can enjoy without getting a cramp in your forearm. Think about it, anyway.  :-)

Susan Aylworth is the author of 11 published novels now available for ebook readers. A 12th is scheduled for publication in June 2014. She lives in northern California with her husband of 43 years, a devoted old dog and two quirky cats. Her 22nd and 23rd grandchildren are expected next spring. She loves to hear from readers. Find her at www.susanaylworth.com (sign up for the newsletter too), susan.aylworth.author@gmail.com or @SusanAylworth.

A Nod to Fine Authors

One of the joys of being a hybrid author (both traditionally and digitally published) is the fun of finding other new-to-me great authors to read. Today I'm eager to share some I have found by shopping widely in the world of the digitally-published.

Melodie Ramone
Melodie's book, AFTER FOREVER ENDS, is one of the most memorable I've read in a very long time. The love story of Sylvia and Oliver, if it were a movie, would likely be rated PG-13 for language and adult content, but I've read two dozen books I can barely remember since discovering this book and I still recall large chunks of this story in great detail. It was touching, "real" (in the sense of well, most of it could probably happen), and made me both laugh and cry out loud.

June Kearns
AN ENGLISHWOMAN'S GUIDE TO THE COWBOY has just the right touch of tongue-in-cheek humor. It's a clean, wholesome romance tossing a Victorian maid who believes she can handle anything into a situation which she clearly cannot manage at all. Thank goodness, June has also given her heroine a cowboy who takes pity on her situation and quickly learns to appreciate her courage. I had such a good time with this book!

Catherine Ryan Hyde
The author of PAY IT FORWARD was already well-known to many readers, but I discovered her when I read WHEN YOU WERE OLDER. Since then I've read several of her books and every one was a treat. She takes on some difficult topics, but she deals with them in touching and realistic ways. Most sensitive readers will enjoy her work.

These are just a few of the many great authors whose work is now available for reading on Kindle, Nook, I-Phones, computers and other mobile devices. If you are committed to paper-only reading, I'm sympathetic; there is nothing like turning the pages of a book. Yet these are inexpensive reads you can enjoy without getting a cramp in your forearm. Think about it, anyway.  :-)

Susan Aylworth is the author of 11 published novels now available for ebook readers. A 12th is scheduled for publication in June 2014. She lives in northern California with her husband of 43 years, a devoted old dog and two quirky cats. Her 22nd and 23rd grandchildren are expected next spring. She loves to hear from readers. Find her at www.susanaylworth.com (sign up for the newsletter too), susan.aylworth.author@gmail.com or @SusanAylworth.

Looking Forward with Hope (Creek)

An eighth book coming in the Rainbow Rock series (watch for DANNY'S GIRL), a second on the way for the Maggie Rising Case Files (title pending) and a life to maintain. You'd think I'd have plenty to do--and I do! Yet somehow in the middle of all this, my agent planted a seed which is growing into a whole new series. Sometime in 2014 it will bear its first fruit, a medical romance set in the fictional town of Hope Creek, California. Here's the town's story:

As the California Gold Rush drew to a close, a small party of miners found color in the Sierra foothills overlooking the Sacramento Valley. A few men filed claims on Last Hope Creek and were rewarded when they struck a rich vein. When even that played out, the Last Hope Mine closed, but the town surrounding it continued, driven largely by tourism in its four-block stretch of Old Town and visitors to the shored-up tunnel of Lost Hope Mine.

One other economic engine keeps the town alive: The Hope Creek Medical Center began in the late 19th century as a sanitarium for "consumption" victims, built around the area's small hot spring. It's now a large, modern special services hospital and regional trauma center. Most of the stories in this series will be centered at HCMC featuring its medical personnel. 

There's also a great, recurring character I'm already learning to love. A mysterious figure who appeared out of nowhere to open a "Beans and Brew" shop in Old Town, Madam Esmeralda sells coffee and tea, predicts the weather and presidential elections, and tells customers about their future love lives. As Hope Creek rumor has it, if Madam Esmeralda tells you about the coming thunderstorm or the next president, she'll be wrong, but if she predicts a romance in your future, you're already on your way down the aisle.

I'm looking forward to working with Caro and Sean, the orthopedic surgeon and trauma device sales rep who are the subjects of the first novel, and to an ongoing friendship with Madam Esmeralda. I'll share more about Hope Creek as the series develops. Stay tuned! 

Susan Aylworth is the author of 11 published novels now available for ebook readers. A 12th is scheduled for publication in June 2014. She lives in northern California with her husband of 43 years, a devoted old dog and two quirky cats. Her 22nd and 23rd grandchildren are expected next spring. She loves to hear from readers. Find her at www.susanaylworth.com (sign up for the newsletter too), susan.aylworth.author@gmail.com or @SusanAylworth.

Return to Rainbow Rock

It's been 18 years since RIDE THE RAINBOW HOME, the first book in the Rainbow Rock series, was published as a hardcover Avalon romance. My then-editor loved it and asked to see another with the same setting and some of the same characters. Five more hardback Avalon novels followed making a total of six in the Rainbow Rock series, the last one out in 1999.

One day last fall I felt the sudden urge to go back to my favorite fictional town to see what's been happening since I was last there. I remembered Marcie Carmody and what a spoiled, bratty teen she was when she first came to Rainbow Rock in Book #4, A LITTLE NIGHT RAINBOW. What if she had grown up and finished high school in Rainbow Rock and then returned, sadder but wiser, several years later?

Since "what it?" is the core of almost every fictional story, I knew I had something to work with and when Ryan Fields showed up in my imagination, I knew where Marcie's story was headed. It seemed only appropriate to call the new book RETURN TO RAINBOW ROCK since Marcie and I were both returning for the first time in years.

The seventh and newest book in the Rainbow Rock series, RETURN is now available. It's the first book in a whole new series all set in the same fictional town. Here is how it begins:

CHAPTER ONE

Late February

The sun was setting behind her, lighting the clouds ahead in delicate pastels that would have been beautiful on any other day. It was the kind of winter sunset tourists came to the desert to find, but Marcie Carmody only found it worrisome. “Dammit,” she muttered, slamming her hand against the steering wheel and pushing hard on the accelerator. It was bad enough to be crawling home broken and defeated. She didn’t want to have to call for rescue just because the lights on her old clunker had shorted out somewhere this side of San Bernardino.

She passed Joseph City on her way to Holbrook, grateful for light traffic on I-40. “Can’t you make it twenty more minutes?” she grumbled aloud. With luck, the miles would run out before the last of the light.

That was when she spotted the highway patrol car sitting under a billboard for the Sagebrush Trading Post: “See our Jackelope! Cold Cherry Cider!” As she passed, she glanced down at her speedometer and groaned to realize she was going some fifteen miles per hour above the limit. She wasn’t at all surprised to see the trooper pull in behind her and light her up. She ran a hand through her unruly auburn curls.“Dammit twice!” She slowed and pulled to the shoulder. “This is not my day. Or my week, month or year, for that matter.”

 

 

I hope you'll want to return to Rainbow Rock right alongside Marcie and me and I hope you enjoy coming "home" as much as I have.

Susan Aylworth is the author of 11 published novels, ten of which are now available for ebook readers. The 11th will be available before the end of September and a 12th is under contract. She lives in northern California with her husband of 43 years, a devoted old dog and two quirky cats. Her 22nd grandchild is expected next spring. She loves to hear from readers at www.susanaylworth.com, susan.aylworth.author@gmail.com or @SusanAylworth.

Back from the Dead...

So I have to be honest: I didn't die. I just felt like it for a few weeks there. Blame it on heredity or misusing my good health when I was younger or whatever you like. The fact is I have weak, crumbly joints getting weaker by the day.

Last February I went to see the best knee doctor in the world (I hope!) for joint replacement surgery on my right knee. It was cake. I sailed through and was back to my normal exercise regimen within a month. That meant the left knee was going to be a cakewalk too, right?

Not so. It's now been six weeks and I probably have a couple more to go before I can even start rebuilding the old exercise regimen. Who knows why this one has been so much more difficult? If I complain about it to the surgeon or my physical therapist, the only answer I get is, "Every knee is different. Who knows why this one is tougher?"

It wasn't until today that I got up the energy to notice it's actually been a month since my last blog. My sincere apologies, folks. I may not be fully back in the saddle, but I'm calling myself 'back from the dead.' That makes for an interesting coincidence since one of the major characters in my newest story is literally back from the dead.

MAGGIE RISING has just recently gone live on Amazon, barnesandnoble.com, Smashwords, and a variety of other ebook platforms. Here are some of the rave reviews it has already received:

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Fresh ideas, believable paranormal plot, fun page turner August 26, 2013

By Pat

A great fun read, hard to put down. Maggie is believable as a mature-beyond-her-years high school senior who is trying to make tuition money as a psychic who doesn't believe in psychics. Until she starts getting visits from ghosts! When she tells the police what she knows, SHE gets arrested. What follows, and the different reactions of all the people around her, show a lot about human nature. In many ways the relationships are more important than the visits from the ghost. A fun and thoughtful read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing! August 25, 2013

By Heather Moore

I've enjoyed all of the Susan Aylworth's books I've read, and MAGGIE RISING is no exception. Maggie is a psychic, at least as much as anyone can be--she knows a few tricks. But when she's faced with real danger and a false murder accusation, she realizes she's much closer to the other side than she could have ever believed. The only problem is that it's pretty much impossible to tell the cops that a ghost has been talking to her. MAGGIE RISING is intriguing from the start, and I read it practically straight through (I did have to get some sleep at one point). Great characters, suspenseful plot, and Aylworth's talented writing makes for one fabulous read!

I'd love to see many more stars in Maggie's galaxy. In the meantime, the newest Rainbow Rock book is almost ready to go live . . . but more about that next week. Stay tuned: Like our former governor, I'll be back.  ;-)

Susan Aylworth is the author of 11 published novels, ten of which are now available for ebook readers. The 11th will be available before the end of September and a 12th is under contract. She lives in northern California with her husband of 43 years, a devoted old dog and two quirky cats. Her 22nd grandchild is expected next spring. She loves to hear from readers at www.susanaylworth.com, susan.aylworth.author@gmail.com or @SusanAylworth.