Romantic Quote of the Day

“The truly romantic happens when you do something, often very little, that you would not do, or even think of doing, were you not genuinely in love with another. It is this reassurance that one is still loved that makes a romantic experience feel so comforting.”

Vince Mooney

 

A Heavenly Sign of Approval!

 

When I went to Seekerville first thing this morning, I was greeted by a brilliant cross of sunlight on the right side of the screen. What makes this unusual is that it has never happened before and it only lasted a few minutes before the earth moves and it was gone -- perhaps until next year. The in person cross was much brighter and impressive than this picture in which the top of the cross is hard to see. I know this is not a big deal but sometimes a small miracle is all a philosopher is going to get. 
 

 

BTW: I zipped over to Debby Giusti’s website to see if the cross would follow and, sure enough, the cross landed right on the “Writer’s Prayer” and stayed a minute or two and then it was gone.  

And so it goes.

 

Thoughts on Aging

 

“At a certain age everyone you meet looks like someone else you know or knew.”

Vince Mooney

“The Marshal Meets His Match” Delights with Surprise and Inspiration! -- 5 Stars!

 

 

Clari Dees Knocks it out of the

Park with this Debut Romance – 5 Stars!

 

The Fiesty Heroine is a Story in Herself!

 

The Marshal Meets His Match

Clari Dees

Love Inspired Historical

On sale date: Jan 1, 2013

 

“The Marshal Meets His Match” delighted me, surprised me and entertained me! It’s one of those inspired novels that makes you wonder, “Will the author ever write a book this good again?”

 

Let me tell you why I enjoyed this book so much. When I was teaching I would sometimes tell the writers in the class to make their copy delight the reader. Some students would always look at me like I was a baseball manager who just told a pinch hitter to hit a home run.

 

The difference, however, is important. The baseball player was going to try and hit a homerun whether he was told to or not. The writer most often is not going to try and delight the reader. Instead the writer is going to try and do the other one hundred and one things required to get the book published. As long as the reader keeps turning the pages, usually by the use of conflict, the editor is happy. So when you find a writer who delights the reader, as Clari Dees does, you have made a wonderful discovery.

 

It wasn't only the conflict that made me want to turn the pages of “The Marshal Meets His Match”.  I was turning pages to discover what the feisty, unpredictable and loveable heroine was going to do next.

 

Meri McIsaac, the heroine, is a genuine three-deminsional character. She  is not just a character you know a lot about. She's a character who, like a real human being, has the ability to surprise the reader at any moment. This unpredictability was one reason why I was turning pages as fast as I could. I wanted to see what Meri was going to do next.

Meri is not an easy person. She’s twenty-nine and single with no prospects of marriage. She’s not much interested in men either and she has scared most of the eligible men off long ago. No one really knows what to make of Meri.

From the book:

“Jonah’s hearty laugh thundered out. ‘She’s a handful, but I’ll take a strong, opinionated female over a silly, pampered flibbertigibbet any day of the week.’”

****

“A good sergeant never reveals his secrets, Captain. Besides, I have a hunch you’ll figure out how to handle her. Half the fun of courting my Sally was figuring out how to deal with her strong temperament.”

***

“Miss McIsaac had, by now, probably already arrived back in town, but his hands itched to give her a good shaking— the little scamp.”

***

“Meri imagined the look on the marshal’s face when he realized she was gone, and grinned.”

***

 

The writing is excellent. The author makes skillful use of physical proxies -- using body language to reveal a character’s inner states. This lets the reader ‘feel’ the story as it happens rather than just be told what is happening.

 

Yet what I like best is the author’s fresh style. It’s as if she went over each sentence and asked herself, ‘is this the ordinary way to write this or can I write it in a fresh or perhaps a witty way?”  If it was ordinary, she freshened it up. This freshness of expression was a major factor in my delight when reading  “The Marshal Meets HisMatch”. 

Talk about fresh! You won't encounter the word, "fibbertigibbet" in many books. By the way,  this word is appropriate for the time period. (And yes, I did research it.)

 

The examples from the book below show both excellent use of physical proxies and the author's original voice:

 

 

 

“Meri caught herself glancing up nervously every time the door rattled, but the longed-for sight of a particular star-toting individual did not appear.”

 

***

“The minutes dragged by as he gazed unseeingly at the tidy ranch yard, fingers drumming on the arm of the rocker.” 

 

**** 

 

“You gonna sit staring into space all day, or do you want to ride in with me?” Jonah laughed at his blink of surprise when he looked up to see the sergeant already mounted.” 

 

****

 

Heavenly Father, please heal Faither so we can return home and life can get back to normal... without that bossy marshal.

 

The silent prayer evaporated before she finished, and the peace she’d tasted earlier was nowhere to be found. All the joy she normally experienced when riding her lovely palomino failed to materialize, and even the satisfaction at having outsmarted a certain lawman tasted stale.

 

***

 

 

Now about the hero:

 

"The loss of his parents had shown him he couldn’t control circumstances around him, only his response, but still, he’d tried to protect himself with a wall around his heart. Then Miss McIsaac had sailed a rangy black horse over his carefully fortified barriers as if they were no more substantial than a cobweb fence.”

 

 ***

 

If you look at the cover art on "The Marshal Meets His Match", it looks  placid and serene. Forget that! The story is exciting and full of surprises with one of the most memorable heroines you’ll meet all year!

 

 

 

“The Marshal Meets His Match” – One of the Year's Best Books from a Rising Star in the Romance World!

 

Highest Recommendation!

 

 

 

 

“Turning pages by writing conflict is good but delighting the reader is better and it sells more books.”

 

Vince Mooney

 

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

 

“To sell what you write, write what sells.”

Vince Mooney

“Topaz Treasure” is One of the Best Novella’s I’ve Ever Read! 5 Stars!

 

 

“Topaz Treasure” -- It’s Fresh, Interesting & Addictive!

 

 I loved, loved, loved it!

 

“Rainbow’s End”

Topaz Treasure by Valerie Comer

Author Facebook Page

Print Length: 352 pages

Publisher: Barbour Books (May 1, 2012)

 

This single novella is worth the price of the entire book which I intend to read because the theme is so interesting. However, I did not want to wait another minute to review “TopazTreasure”, so I here it is.

 

First I want to point out that all the novellas in “Rainbow’s End” are genuine ‘little novels’ with at least ten chapters. (They are not just long short stories.) This means that with each story you get a full helping of  'HEA enjoyment'. (HEA is the 'Happily Ever After' ending experience that many romance fans so highly prize.)  Each story is also environment-friendly. Each has many short chapters which speed the story forward with interesting events. The reading experience is excellent.

 

“Topaz Treasure”

 

This first story in the collection reads like the ‘perfect’ novella. The writing is masterful. The author shows the passage of time better and more smoothly than I’ve seen it done before. When the story unfolds it happens to you. You actually feel it.

 

Valerie Comer makes exquisite use of physical proxies which involves using body movements to reveal inner states – that is, what a character is feeling. The reader is not told, for example, that a character is worried but is instead made to actually feel that worry along with the character. This is ‘showing and not telling’ at its best. Indeed, this is the kind of writing  normally found only in very experienced authors who are at the high of their creative powers. “TopazTreasure” is a rare gem for a debut work.

 

Examples of feeling along with the characters:

 

“She pressed her finger against the few remaining crumbs then licked them off. With the last deep-brown fleck gone, she said good-bye to Kirk Kennedy. Like the confection, he’d been a tantalizing pleasure while he lasted. Her gaze drifted to the dessert case. She could get another piece of cake, but her relationships wouldn’t be mended by indulging in more calories.”

“The waitress reached for Lyssa’s plate, which was all but licked clean.”

 

***
“He nodded, and his whole body relaxed. ‘It’s true we’re not all called to be the mouth. I forget that sometimes’.”

 

***

 

There was nothing between them. No reason remained to push him away. She leaned back against him, reveling in his nearness.”

 

***

In addition to 'feeling' this story, there is a marvelous ‘stand up and cheer’ ending! While the ending follows naturally from the story action, it would not have worked without a well developed foundation. That foundation is evident in each chapter.

 

However, the writing is so masterfully crafted that right up to the end I would have thought this surprise ending would not have been possible. Yet right at the end all the past hints and foreshadowing come together to make the conclusion seem inevitable. I just love seeing the almost impossible made to look easy. I also greatly enjoy being surprised.

 

“Topaz Treasure” sets a high standard I didn’t know was possible to reach. I feel blessed to have read it. “Topaz Treasure” is an inspirational romance that can also serve as an inspiration to writers.

 

Additional insights:  The hero of "Topaz Treasure" is a humanities professor. As a former college professor, I felt a strong affinity towards him. As a brand new professor he taught some very strong anti-religious views which he is now not proud of doing.

 

The heroine is a substitute teacher who works in her church as a volunteer. The hero is spending the summer helping his brother open a communications store. The heroine is promoting a geocaching event to raise money for her church. She wants the professor to run an ad in the flyer to promote the church event.

 

As you might expect the conflicts in the story run deep and feel very real. This was not an easy path for the author to take but it was the path that lead to a truly remarkable story.  I now look forward to reading the other three novellas in "Rainbow's End."

 

“Topaz Treasure” –  5 Stars! Earns Highest Recommendation!