Tag: women’s fiction

A sneak peek at Hard Lemonade with Darlene DeLuca

~ Jacquie Bosma ~ Leave a comment

Joining me at the blog today is author Darlene DeLuca. Darlene writes contemporary romance that feels real and women’s fiction that explores relationships – what brings people together or keeps them apart. Her intent is to bring to life interesting characters that readers can relate to in real-life situations that combine a little fun, plenty of drama, and big helpings of friendship, love, and self-discovery, and will leave readers either cheering or sighing with a satisfied smile as they turn the final page. The Kansas City author enjoys getting lost in a good story with a glass of tea, a bit of dark chocolate and a warm, sunny beach.

“It’s not really letting go of the past that is the problem. It is coming to terms with letting go of a possible future that will never be. That is the struggle. To let go of the past you must let go of the future and live in the present.” – Anonymous

Letting go of a dream, watching a dream die, knowing a dream is out of your control… What’s the answer? How do you know when to keep trying, when to change your goals? When to give up?

I explore these questions in my new women’s fiction novel, Hard Lemonade, releasing Oct. 1. Emily Sherridan and her new husband leave friends and family behind in Chicago to pursue their dreams in sunny Los Angeles. Eric writes screenplays and dreams of making blockbuster movies. Emily supports his dream and plans to finish her college education at prestigious USC then launch her career in marketing and consumer studies. 

They work hard. Emily throws all of her energy into school and work. Eric joins writing groups, networks within the industry, submits proposal after proposal to agents and studios. He’s building on the regional success he had in college. He won awards. The university theater department produced his plays. He and Emily arrive in L.A. full of hope and confidence.

But life happens—and it doesn’t follow their roadmap.

How they each respond to the changes and disappointments sets them on a bumpy course pitting hopes against reality.

Her husband fails. Her marriage fails. Does that make Emily Sherridan a failure?

With high hopes and rose-colored shades, Emily Sherridan leaves her family and friends to build a new life with her screenwriter husband in sunny Los Angeles. There, she learns that love conquers all…until the rent is overdue, the rejections pile up, or the test is positive.

As months, then years, go by and Eric’s career fails to launch, Emily is determined to hold everything together. But when he brings danger into their lives, it’s over. When the cops arrive at her doorstep, anguish mixes with anger. She wonders how low they can go—until one of the officers hands her the number to a women’s shelter.

Broke and broken, her dreams are dashed and her confidence is shaken. With Eric’s taunt about running home pounding in her ears, Emily pushes forward though she’s unsure of her direction. She cannot give up. Her daughter deserves more.

From rosy dreams to real-life roadblocks, Hard Lemonade is a compelling story of friends, family, and fierce sheroes.

Go here to get your own copy of Hard Lemonade ahead of its release on October 1st! Be sure to connect with Darlene on Instagram, Facebook, and her website.

Keep reading for an exclusive excerpt from this compelling novel before it comes out!

Continue reading “A sneak peek at Hard Lemonade with Darlene DeLuca” →

Liz Flaherty: Easy recipes that even you (yes, you!) can try

~ Jacquie Bosma ~ 1 Comment

Author Liz Flaherty is joining me at the blog today with some “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” recipes that even a non-chef like me can do! The hero of her latest novel, Shades of Green, is definitely more culinarily gifted. Whether you’re a culinary genius or a never-cooker, you’ll find something to enjoy here!

Liz Flaherty

Unlike me … way unlike me … Cari Newland, the heroine in Shades of Green, went to culinary school and specializes in desserts and soups. She actually cooks a lot more than that, butusing those two goes along with the recipes I’m sharing. My first thought when I considered doing a blog post about recipes was to find some handy Julia Child things I had tried. Only there weren’t any. While I don’t hate cooking and baking, I’ve been the chief cook and bottle-washer in our marriage for over 55 years—I’m really over it. I have a nice collection of cookbooks, some that were my grandmother’s, but most of the recipes I useare stolen and/or shockingly easy. Even their names, as you can see here, are … er … not particularly memorable.

Cake

  • 1 boxed cake mix, flavor of your choice, 15½ ounces or thereabouts
  • 12 ounces of carbonated soda (I use diet), whatever flavor seems to go with the cake mix

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Empty the mix into a large bowl and add the soda. Using a whisk, whisk it until it’s well combined. A couple of minutes at the most. Pour into a greased 9 X 13-inch baking pan or dish and bake for somewhere between 33 and 37 minutes, testing it for doneness with a toothpick. 

I have read where others added an egg to this recipe, too, for protein, added richness, and structural binding. I have not done this, but if I remember next time, I will.

Allow the cake to cool pretty well to make it easy to cut. Ice as usual. I use sugar-free whipped topping instead to make it sort of diet. So far, my favorite has been German chocolate cake with Cherry Coke Zero, but I’m going to try lemon with Diet Sprite soon!

Soup

  • 1 can Progresso Southwest-Style Black Bean Soup
  • 5-ounce can chicken breast in water
  • A small can or a cup of frozen corn (optional)

Heat over low heat until it’s heated through. Sprinkle shredded cheese over it if you like (I do.) Makes two good-size servings. You can also add some cooked rice or pasta for bulk and flavor. 

 

Thanks for being here today, and thanks to Jacquie for having me! I hope you’ll visit Harper Loch. When I wrote Pieces of Blue, Maggie’s story, it was with the intent of it being a single title. However Ellie, from Patches of Red, and Cari had other ideas! I loved writing their stories and I hope you like reading them.

You can learn more about Liz’s books here:

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0dKnw8fA

D2D: https://books2read.com/u/3RRAgL

The Woman’s Journey

~ Jacquie Bosma ~ 7 Comments

My guest blogger today is Liz Flaherty. Liz has spent the past several years enjoying not working a day job, making terrible crafts, and writing stories in which the people aren’t young, brilliant, or even beautiful. She’s decided (and has to re-decide most every day) that the definition of success is having a good time. Along with her husband of lo, these many years, kids, grands, friends, and the occasional cat, she’s doing just that. She’d love to hear from you at lizkflaherty@gmail.com or please come and see her at http://lizflaherty.net.

I’m not sure when I first heard the term women’s fiction. I don’t recall whose I read first or even if I liked it. The words Woman’s Journey has been around most of the time I’ve been writing romance, and I always thought that’s what we should do with romance and women’s fiction—just make them into one huge glorious genre known as The Woman’s Journey. 

The idea hasn’t caught on. 

But I’ve read women’s fiction since long before it became an accepted category all its own. As a teenager, I read Elisabeth Ogilvie’s Bennett’s Island series and fell in love with Maine. I read CurtissAnn Matlock, Robyn Carr, Cheryl Reavis, Kathleen Gilles Seidel from their very first category romances on, and relished the extra something that was in their voices. While I love the relationship that grows between the heroine and hero, I also enjoy the ones between girlfriends, between sisters, between work friends who are there for each other. From the very beginning, while these authors’ books were under romance’s extensive umbrella, they were writing women’s fiction. Not just them, I should add, but they were the ones whose voices I can still hear. Still feel.

More than the formula in genre fiction, it’s the story that’s most important. The journey. How you feel when you finish reading. To a lesser degree, as a writer, how I feel when I finish writing is important, too. 

After having a two-word start that wouldn’t get off my mind and stay there and a trip back a skinny, curvy road to a small lake I’d never known existed, heroine Maggie North invited me on her journey. It took her a while, and writing it took me a while, but … gosh, I loved Maggie. And Sam. And her adoptive parents. And Pastor Cari Newland. Oh, and Maggie’s friend Ellie and the dachshund named Chloe, too. 

Pieces of Blue has some romance, a setting I never wanted to leave, and, most of all, it has friends and family and community. Their dialogue was so much fun to write. The house—the Burl—is a character unto itself. 

How did I feel when I finished writing it? Oh, I felt good. Happy with how Maggie found herself. Sorry it was over and slapping back thoughts that maybe it wasn’t over…maybe there was another story at Harper Loch. Or two.

We’ll see. In the meantime, it’s a story from the “huge glorious genre” I mentioned above. I hope you like it.

Liz’s latest release, Pieces of Blue, is now available.

Liz’s latest release, Pieces of Blue, the first in a series.