Has Diane M. Walker found her true love after two failed abusive marriages? Her personal journey within reflects the humor, illness, substance abuse, jail, depression, death, the demise of her career and her spiritual faith.
Through all of the trials and tribulations, Diane finds an inner strength that not only pulls her through but also finds unconditional love and forgiveness for her life partner and best friend, John.
She shares stories of her strength and how she was able to overcome some of the heart-wrenching and horrific experiences in her life.
(review request submitted by the author for an honest critique)
I can’t even fathom living through everything Diane’s endured. Below is a sneak peek of a few life-altering events in her life. I’m only going to list my top three picks and then discuss them. For more on her life, you’ll have to purchase the book.
Ok, here goes.
1.) Two abusive ex-husbands: No one wants to be the victim of an abusive relationship, yet alone two. One such relationship would break most people’s spirit. Two: It would difficult not to shut down and withdraw within thyself. To find the strength to get up in the morning is no easy feat but she does it. BRAVO!
2.) Death of two parents: I’ve lost two dads so I can relate to the pain and don’t wish that on anyone.
3.) Jail time: Diane and John’s legal trouble took it’s toll on their lives emotionally, physically and financially. Through it all, they stood by each other. They weren’t married, but it was hard to tell because they still honored the vows, “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part.”
Besides the doom of gloom, there were happy moments. One example springs to mind: the Christmas tree incident. John had the brilliant and funny idea of placing “tree” air freshener inside the artificial branches to create the illusion of a real tree.
That man really would do anything for his one true love.
To find out what else he’s done for her over the years, you’ll have to read the book.
Diane Walker is a Trenton NJ native. Having developed a love for literature at an early age, she began writing poetry and short stories.
After failed marriages and losing the love of her life through death, she chose to write her story at the age of 59.
Diane sincerely hopes her story empowers others to remain steadfast in their strength, belief in their Higher Power and know, no matter what the circumstances, they too can overcome obstacles and challenges in their life.
Her professional background is in Sales, Marketing and Residential Property Management.
Diane is presently single with one adult daughter and two granddaughters.
She now lives a basic and somewhat secluded life in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Annabelle Crouse is determined to reopen her great-grandmother’s boarded-up house–and her shunned life. Many years earlier, after an unexplained absence, Julianne was relegated to a separate home by a rigidly unforgiving husband, and the Crouse women have suffered the disgrace of her assumed guilt ever since. Despite her family’s strong disapproval, Annabelle is driven to pursue her mission through cobwebs and dust, finding the clues and the coded story left behind by her great-grandmother — Why did she go? And why did she return? Annabelle has to know. Only one person, a man she grew up with but never noticed, stands with Annabelle as she discovers the parallels between her story and her great-grandmother’s–two women, generations apart, experiencing what love truly is.
(review request submitted by the author for an honest critique)
When a reader starts a romance book, you expect a HEA (happily ever after). In Mine to Tell, more than one relationship ends with mended hearts. We even see the start of a budding romance.
For me, all the love brought a smile to my face. I mean, seriously, who doesn’t want everyone around them happy and their life full of joy.
In Mine to Tell, several people needed joy because they’ve lived too long in darkness. In this case the darkness I’m referring to is the shame of Great Grandma Julianne; the black sheep of the family.
As we play detective with Anna and Kyle, we discover GGM Julianne’s life was full of heartbreak. She lost so much but, in the end, her story brought others together.
For Anna, I wondered who Colleen would finally pair with her. She seemed to teeter on the answer herself.
I found myself pleased with her choice because Anna’s true love finally displayed the “love” she was silently aching for, needed, and richly deserved. But don’t we all.
As for the mystery portion of this story, there were times as Kyle and Anna were deciphering the clues and reading the letters, I thought ….”Get on with it already” and other times was like “Ooooo, and then what happened?”
It was the latter moments that had me flipping the pages because I had to know where GGM Julianne was those two weeks away from home.
I had most of the puzzle put together but the final couple pieces eluded me and when I had them…. I had closure. Like Anna. Like Kyle. Like so many others.
Colleen L. Donnelly has her roots in the rural Midwest of the US, but moved around and explored other cultures as an adult. Those other areas were fun and they were exciting, but…there’s no place like home, so she’s back in the Midwest.
Colleen works as a laboratory technician by day, but spends her evenings writing, poised in front of her laptop until she can’t think any more. Her story ideas come from observing people, pondering their dilemmas, and adding a twist of her own.
Other interests are/have been bicycling, antiquing, anything outdoors, furniture refinishing, and raising pets or small barnyard types of animals. Last thing in the world she would be caught doing – “vegging” in front of a television. She loves a good movie on occasion, but most of the time, the TV is off.
1. For those who might not be familiar with you, would you be a dear and tell the readers a little about yourself? How did you get your start in the writing business?
(Brenda)I started my business in writing, about six years ago. However, I’ve been writing since childhood. I was always a bookworm and loved reading. I think it was my love of reading that lead to my writing my six book saga. I have always loved, storytelling and creative writing in college. One day after having a dream over and over again about two kids on a railroad track and how they meet. A story was born.
2. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, please share how you handle it.
(Brenda)I wish I could. With my Seasons Saga, I never had it, because the story was born in my dreams and I had the entire saga inside my mind. Now, that I’m writing my new book, I am indeed having some blocks. What I do is pretend to know what I’m going to write and just start writing. I think the most important thing is to write something every day, even if you don’t know where it’s going. Pretend you do.
3. Contrary to what some people envision about a romance writer’s life, it’s not all glitz and glam. Well not for the majority of us. With that bubble sadly busted, when you’re not writing, how do you spend your time?
(Brenda)Travel, playing with our two dogs, spending time with my parents and getting ready to take a long trip in our RV. I love to swim and workout. And because we eat naturally, that takes time to prepare the meals. My husband and I have a very peaceful life and we are looking forward to traveling in our motor home.
4. I know many writers, such as myself, keep their pastime/career a secret. Do those close to you know you write? If so, what are their thoughts?
(Brenda)My family has been wonderful. One of my cousins is a BETA reader, and my friends have been there, working as my street team. It’s been amazing at the support I have had around me. They know my ideas for books as soon as I get them.
5. Will you share with us your all-time favorite authors? If you’re like me, it’s a long list so give us your top ten.
(Brenda)
Louise May Alcott
J.R.R. Tolkien
Jack London
Marshall Saunders
RaeAnne Thayne (Kam: Good writer.)
Debbie Macomber (Kam: I ♥ her books.)
Susan Wiggs
Joyce Sterling Scarbrough
Robyn Carr. (Kam: She proudly displayed on my bookshelf, too.)
Nickolas Sparks
6. If you could choose one book to go to the big screen, yours or otherwise, which book would you choose and whom would you love to see cast in the parts?
(Brenda)I would love to see Seasons of Love and War go to the big screen. The main actor would be Thor Knai as Kaylob, who is wonderful and allows me to use his pictures for Kaylob, and Bella Thorne as Beth Ann.
Seasons Of Love And War Book One, is a historical family saga and epic love story. Childhood sweethearts Beth Ann Rose and Kaylob Shawn O’Brien just want to get married and pursue their dream careers, but the Vietnam War changes everything when Kaylob is drafted into the Army and declared dead. Beth Ann has a complete emotional melt down and starts to have visions of him in the jungles of Vietnam. Is he alive or has she completely lost her mind?
7. Would you care to tell us what you’re working on now? That is if it’s not top-secret information. If so, just whisper it in my ear. I swear it’ll go no further.
(Brenda)I’m working on a book called. Finding my Heart. It’s about a young lady who is a two time survivor of breast cancer and it’s come back for a third time. There is so much more to this story than cancer. It’s about love and how healing one’s heart can often heal one’s body. The main character is Starla Moon and she is finding her way in a town that she stumbled into. It’s a romance novel, but so much more. I just signed a contract with, Satin press for that one.
(Kam: Congrats!!)
8. Where can we find your stories, and is there a particular reading order?
(Brenda)Yes, you can find them at Amazon, Melange LLC, Barnes and Nobles and my website. The reading order.
(Kam: Click on the book titles to be redirected to Amazon)
10. Before we conclude this enlightening interview, do you have anything else you’d like to share? The stage is all yours.
(Brenda)Just remember if you are a writer. Never ever give up. It took me five years to get done with my Saga. Almost six. I had no idea how to write a book. So just hang in there and never be afraid to ask a friend or another writer to help you out. I love writing so much and the only regret I have is, I didn’t start sooner.
Kam:Brenda, you have given aspiring writers some great advice. If you have a dream, keep pursuing it until the dream becomes reality. Never stop reaching for the stars!!
Ladies and gents, I hope you enjoyed my interview with Brenda Ashworth Barry. If so, we want to hear from you. Say hi. Ask a question. Basically, don’t be shy. 🙂
1. For those who might not be familiar with you, would you be a dear and tell the readers a little about yourself? How did you get your start in the writing business?
(Teesa) I am the oldest five children and the only girl. My last three brothers were born when I was 14, 16, and 17, so I became their built-in babysitter. I attended the University of Michigan in the pre-med program, but decided I was just not competitive enough to become a doctor. After a bad breakup, I failed to complete one class and forfeited my degree in Experimental Biology. However, I had a job waiting and did not return to college for 36 years. In the meantime, I married, adopted two children, worked in administrative and supervisory positions, and then lost my son to suicide when he was 24. The toll of the grief on my health was devastating. I lost my job in December 2009, and we soon lost our home and a vehicle to bankruptcy. (My husband has been totally disabled since 1999.) When Social Security granted me SSDI to deal with my health, I began to recover and returned to college. I graduated a year ago with a BS in Information Science, specializing in Web Development. However, along the way, I began editing for several independent authors and decided to pursue that instead of Web design. My business is called Indie Editing Services and you can find me on Facebook under that name and my website iswww.indieeditingservices.com.
I began writing during my teenage years to deal with the angst I was feeling. I wrote poetry and song lyrics, and composed stories to tell my younger brothers. When I overcame my grief over the loss of my son, I began a memoir on surviving suicide grief. I hope to publish that early next year. I have also participated in several anthologies, published those teen poems in a volume called Looking Back: Poems from the Adolescent Me, and just published my Thesaurus Erotica.
2. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, please share how you handle it.
(Teesa) Sometimes the words just flow. Other times, not so much. I have a novella on the back burner. I have written 5K of it, the beginning and the end. I’m stuck on the middle section and have decided to just let it sit, coming back to it now and again. I find that taking walks and reading other books often helps.
3. Contrary to what some people envision about a romance writer’s life, it’s not all glitz and glam. Well not for the majority of us. With that bubble sadly busted, when you’re not writing, how do you spend your time?
(Teesa) I have a full-time job as the customer service manager for a start-up software company. The best part is I get to work from home. I also run Indie Editing Services, editing other authors’ books. I enjoy my two dogs and they demand my attention throughout the day. When I can, I spend time with my 11-year-old grandson. He is the joy of my life. Then there’s laundry, grocery shopping, vacuuming, and dusting.
4. I know many writers, such as myself, keep their pastime/career a secret. Do those close to you know you write? If so, what are their thoughts?
(Teesa)I have a pen name to protect my family of birth from my secret career. However, my close family members and friends know that I write and they are highly encouraging of me. Some of my best support comes from other authors I have met on social media.
5. Will you share with us your all-time favorite authors? If you’re like me, it’s a long list so give us your top ten.
(Teesa) Thanks for limiting it to ten, or I could be here all day and night.
Edna Ferber, who wrote one of my all-time favorite books, Show Boat, which became America’s first musical!
Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind.
Andrew Greeley; I love his view of God as an adolescent girl in a huge crush with humanity.
Stephen King, especially Salem’s Lot and The Stand.
Anne McCaffery, all of her Dragonriders of Pern books and her Acorna books.
JD Robb’s In Death Series. The relationship between Eve Dallas and Rourke is HAWT!
Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series
Michael Connelly, especially his Harry Bosch books.
Jane Austen, who doesn’t love her books and she has inspired so many more writers of Victorian romance.
Mason Sabre, my good friend, who writes the most emotionally engaging paranormal stories I have ever read!
6. If you could choose one book to go to the big screen, yours or otherwise, which book would you choose and whom would you love to see cast in the parts?
(Teesa) Ooh, that’s a toughie because many of my faves have been turned into movies. I guess I would go with JD Robb’s Naked in Death starring Scarlett Pomer as Eve Dallas and Tom Ellis as Roarke.
7. Would you care to tell us what you’re working on now? That is if it’s not top-secret information. If so, just whisper it in my ear. I swear it’ll go no further.
(Teesa) It’s no secret at all. My current project is a memoir of surviving suicide grief called Who Am I Now? I’m also working on a novella about a family of serial killers and the cop who is hunting them. Then way back, I’m working on a full novel called Mementoes based on the song Lydia the Tattooed Lady.
8. Where can we find your stories, and is there a particular reading order?
(Teesa) In order of publication, but not reading order, I have Looking Back, Poems from My Adolescent Self (Kindle Purchase Link);
Demon Depression (essay) and Sunshine (poem) in This Beautiful Escape Vol. 1
Thesaurus Erotica, a reference book for authors of romance and erotica (Kindle Purchase Link); and finally A Samhein to Remember in Detours in Our Destination which will be published in August.
9. Would you please share how your present and future fans can contact you?
10. Before we conclude this enlightening interview, do you have anything else you’d like to share? The stage is all yours.
(Teesa) This has been a blast and I just want to give a shout out to all my fans and friends for supporting my dreams, especially Melissa Ann, Mason Sabre, Angela Peters, David S. Scott, Jennifer Cleary Roche, Kathy Ossian, Jan Jimenez, Carmen Meerschaert, my daughter Suzie and her partner Jess, and my hubs Gary, who has the patience of a saint. I love you, Babe!
Wow, Teesa Mee, you have gave me and our lovely visitors plenty of ideas of what to read next. Now the real questions is…. What shall we buy first? Decisions, decisions……..
Before you, my sweet guests, run off to Amazon please take a moment to say howdy to Teesa. Ask her a question. We’d love to hear your thoughts on her responses and the books discussed today.
When Heather O’Donnell’s younger sister is murdered, and homicide detectives fail to uncover a suspect, she abandons competitive swimming and moves to New Jersey. She stakes out her sister’s former employer, a mob-run waste disposal company. But it’s the sudden appearance of another investigator, a ruggedly handsome man, that sets off all her alarms—and more than a few pheromones. Before she’ll act on the attraction, Heather needs to unravel his true connection to her sister’s case.
It’s his last chance to redeem himself…no personal distractions allowed.
After three disastrous missions in a row, SBW shifter and field ops agent Grus Garret returns to New Jersey determined to solve the murder of Lorelei, a shifter gunned down with her whistle-blower. Grus’s gut tells him the mob boss is responsible for both deaths. But after a shocking encounter with the beautiful stranger, Grus questions his gut. Especially when it urges him to grab the human woman and hold on forever.
When the mob boss decides it’s personal and sends his hit man to eliminate Heather and Grus, they’ll need to use their unique connection to save each other.
(review request submitted by the author for an honest critique)
If you haven’t read any other book in the Shore Shifter series, don’t worry, you won’t get lost picking up book 5 in the series. However, I do encourage you to read the others because they are that good. CJ is that good.
Like the other stories in the Shore Shifter series, Toxic Tide contains plenty of action and a bit of hanky panky, too.
In this case, the hanky panky was between a tough ass human (Heather) and a dolphin shifter (Grus). An unlikely couple who shouldn’t have found love with each other but did. And, they did so while solving the murders of two people close to them.
During their investigation, they encountered many obstacles: a hitman, the mob, FBI, ATF, faced an abduction, suffered battle wounds and much more. However, everything they encountered/endured was worth it in the end because they each found the closure they desperately needed. Due to their determination to see justice served, they aided the pod and Heather’s parents in finally achieving closure, too.
Trust me, you want to buy this book. It’s worth every damn penny spent.
On a final note: AMAZING cover. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Probably my favorite one yet.
Alrighty folks, let’s get to the main event. WHO WANTS TO WIN A MEGA, FABULOUS PRIZE PACKAGE?
Prizes included: An SBW drink container w top and straw, a SIGNED COPY of Toxic Tide, a TT book mark, a fancy TT keychain, plus trinkets: little plastic dolphin key chains, temp. dolphin tattoo, dolphin stickers.
Contest open to anyone — anywhere!!
To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment below before THURSDAY (midnight, central time).
FRIDAY morning, I will post the winner’s name and attempt to message you. Please follow the comment thread or come back on FRIDAY to see if you are the lucky recipient of this amazing prize package.
Good luck!!!
CJ Matthew grew up in an Air Force family traveling and living all over the US and around the world. It proved to be the perfect experience for gathering ideas and material for future books. And for meeting real life heroes and heroines in uniforms and flight-suits. She spent her high school and university years in California, which inspired her love of marine life, and the Pacific Ocean.
Toxic Tide is the fifth book, so far, in her paranormal romantic suspense series: Dolphin Shore Shifters. The series features a pod of dolphins living in the Santa Barbara channel off the coast of California, who are capable of shifting to human form. While posing as real humans, the dolphins work, through their oceanic conservation corporation, Save Blue Water, to protect their oceans at any cost.
CJ’s next series, The Paladin Group, launched with Deadly Reboot. The books are in the romantic suspense genre, set in a small southern town, and starring wounded air force veterans, men and women warriors turned civilian attorneys and investigators determined to continue their rescue work.
The third series, titled The Colonel’s Daughters, is a quintet with each book featuring one of the five sister’s story. Born in different countries around the world, when each of the daughters happens to return to her country of birth, she’s meets her true love and is forced to confront her destiny. Book 1, A Major Seduction is the oldest sister Kari’s book and takes place at an air force wedding in Tokyo.
A member of Romance Writers of America (RWA), Georgia Romance Writers (GRW), and Kiss of Death, CJ lives and writes near a lake in the woods northeast of Atlanta. When she isn’t writing or reading romances, CJ spends time with her two grown children, their spouses, a brilliant grandson and a feisty cat named Max.
Schedule permitting, CJ loves to travel, to discover new favorite places and to meet new friends in both the US and around the world.
