Welcome to Sheila Roberts book tour.
1.Sheila, what are you working on now?
I’m busy putting the finishing touches on this year’s
holiday novel, “The Lodge on Holly Road.” Christmas is my favorite holiday and
I love writing Christmas stories. This one is especially fun since it’s about a
Santa who’s lost his Christmas spirit.
2.What’s the hardest part of writing for
you? The easiest?
The hardest part of writing is working to meet
deadlines. That can be stressful. As for the easiest part, for me that is
starting a book. I love plunging in to that first chapter and introducing my
character to the world (and myself!)
3.Would you dare to tell us five things that no one
would know about you?
I’m a hypochondriac. I’m so good at thinking I’ve
got.... well, you name it. If I hear about it on Dr. Oz I’m sure I must have
it.
I reeeally want to go on DANCING WITH THE STARS.
Don’t you think they should have a writer on there?
I tend to be a worrier. That’s a bad habit though and
I’m trying to break it!
I’m cheap. I spent too many years pinching pennies.
Now it’s an ingrained habit!
I love the smell of gasoline. I know. How weird is
that?!
4.What's the best thing about being an author?
That would be a tie between getting to make up
stories and get paid for it and meeting readers. I feel blessed to have met so
many great people over the years through my writing.
5.What are your future plans for your writing?
I hope to keep doing it! I think I have a few more
Icicle Falls tales left in me.
Sheila, I love the five things you shared about you! Strangely enough, the smell of gasoline isn't unpleasant to me either. Now, let's have and excerpt and blurb from Sheila. By the way, your cover is beautiful.
BLURB:
Can
a book change your life? Yes, when it's Simplicity, Muriel Sterling's guide to
plain living. In fact, it inspires Jen Heath to leave her stressful,
overcommitted life in Seattle and move to Icicle Falls, where she rents a
lovely little cottage on Juniper Ridge. And where she can enjoy simple
pleasures—like joining the local book club—and complicated ones, like falling
in love with her sexy landlord, Garrett Armstrong.
Her
sister Toni is ready for a change, too. She has a teenage daughter who's
constantly texting her friends, a husband who's more involved with his computer
than he is with her, and a son who's consumed by video games. Toni wants her
family to grow closer—to return to a simpler way of life.
Other
women in town, like Stacy Thomas, are also inspired to unload their excess
stuff and some of the extra responsibilities they've taken on.
But
as they all discover, sometimes life simply happens. It doesn't always happen
simply!
Excerpt:
Sometimes we
get so used to the status quo that we forget we can change it.
Muriel
Sterling, author of Simplicity
Jen Heath
hurried along the downtown Seattle sidewalk, hunching her coat against a
freezing rain, her holiday to-do list dogging her every step, breathing down
her neck. Trees along the street twinkled with white lights and store windows
boasted displays of Santas, presents, and happy elves. A steel drum band had
set up in the Westlake Mall and was playing Jingle Bells. Bah, humbug, she
thought grumpily as she strode past them.
Anyone
peering inside her head would think she hated the holidays. She didn’t. She
loved them. She just didn’t love being so darned busy.
How had she
gotten stuck in charge of planning the office Christmas party? Oh, yeah, Patty
Unger, her supervisor, had volunteered her. Thanks, Patty. Not that Jen minded
planning a party. But having to plan one this year wasn’t fun. It was just one
more thing to add to a very long to-do list.
In addition
to her full time job, she sold Soft Glow Candles on the party plan – all so she
could whittle down what she owed on her credit cards, keep up her car payments,
and make the mortgage on her First Hill condo that she could barely afford. The
car she’d needed, but the condo? What had she been thinking when she bought it?
Oh, yeah. She hadn’t been thinking. She’d taken one look at the granite
countertops, the hardwood floors, and the view of the Seattle skyline out the
window and condo lust had come over her like a fever. By the time the fever
broke she was a homeowner. (Thanks to the bank and her parents.) And her charge
cards were maxed out. (Because, of course, she had to furnish the new condo.)
Now she was a stressed homeowner.
Who was never
home. She had three candle parties booked this week and two more on the
weekend. The following weekend she had another candle party on Saturday, and
then on Sunday a cookie exchange at her sister’s followed by the church choir
concert. Oh, she would be home later that evening, right along with the
eighteen other people she’d invited to her place for the post-concert party.
(This was the symptom of yet another fever - - new owner pride. She’d been
dying to show off the condo, and hosting a party had seemed like the perfect
way.) The day before she’d gone to see the gingerbread house display at the
Sheraton Hotel with her mother, her sister, and her niece Jordan. She’d been
pooped, but when she tried to wiggle out of going Toni had reminded her that
this was a tradition and, anyway, she needed to spend time with her family.
Guilt, it was the gift that kept giving. After that she’d visited her grandma,
who was complaining that she’d almost forgotten what her granddaughter looked
like. It seemed everyone in her family was giving guilt for Christmas this
year.
Tonight she
absolutely had to do laundry. But what she really wanted was to flop on the
couch and watch It’s a Wonderful Life. None of her friends understood what she
saw in that old movie but she’d been watching it with her family every year at
Christmas since she was a kid. Well, except for the last couple of years.
Between having her marriage fall apart and getting a divorce she’d been too
busy for a wonderful life.
Those days
were over now. No more fights about money. No more fights about how she
mismanaged her time or how impetuous and irresponsible she was. No more fights
about, well, you name it.
When they’d
first married Serge had loved her spontaneity, her joie de vivre. After a year he developed a vision problem
and saw only her flaws. They fought about everything from money to the amount
of time she spent with her friends. “I don’t know what we’re doing together,”
Serge had finally stormed one night, throwing up his hands.
Neither did
she. So Serge had moved out and moved on. She’d run into him at The Last Supper
Club six months after the divorce was final when she was trying to enjoy a
night out with the girls. He’d been with a skinny tattoo queen with maroon hair
and ear gauges. And he’d complained about how impulsive Jen was?
She’d wanted
to hit him and his new woman, too. Instead, she’d buried herself in the crowd
and danced until both her feet and her heart were numb. Good riddance, she’d told
herself, but later that night she’d cried herself to sleep.
Now it had
been a year since the big D and she was so over him and so moving on.
Now she was
in charge of her own destiny, her own life, and that was fine with her.
Except so far
this new life wasn’t exactly playing out as she’d envisioned it would. When a
girl barely had time to wash her bra she was in trouble. When was she supposed
to squeeze in things like dating? And if she didn’t even have time to date,
well, what was that going to do to her sex life?
She scowled.
Many of her friends were now having babies and she’d love to have one of her
own. She sure didn’t see a bassinette on her horizon though. At thirty-two were
her eggs giving up all hope of ever meeting a sperm?
Well, girls,
I don’t know what to tell you. You’re just going to have to hang in there
because right now I don’t have time to find a new man. Now, there was a
depressing thought.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Sheila
Roberts is married and has three children. She lives on a lake in the Pacific
Northwest. Her novels have appeared in Readers Digest Condensed books and have
been published in several languages. Her holiday perennial, On Strike for
Christmas, was made into a movie for the Lifetime Movie Network and her her
novel The Nine Lives of Christmas has been optioned for film. When she’s not
writing songs, hanging out with her girlfriends or trying to beat her husband
at tennis, she can be found writing about those things dear to women’s hearts:
family, friends, and chocolate.
Readers
can find me on:
http://www.sheilasplace.com
Facebook:
Author Sheila Roberts
Twitter:_Sheila_Roberts
Buy
link for Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Cottage-Juniper-Ridge-Icicle-Falls/dp/0778314545/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388790773&sr=8-1&keywords=The+cottage+on+juniper+ridge
Buy
link for B & N:
14545/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388790773&sr=8-1&keywords=The+cottage+on+juniper+ridge
Sheila will be awarding a $25 B & N gift card and an eCopy of The Cottage on Juniper Ridge to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour and comment often. You can find her schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/01/virtual-book-tour-cottage-on-juniper.html
Thank you for hosting
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for having me today!
ReplyDeleteI would love to see you on Dancing With The Stars. Yes they should have an author.
ReplyDeleteI am SUCH a hypocondriac! I tend to feel pretty energy zapped because of some kidney troubles I had in the past...so when I feel at all tired, my mind jumps to everything from Kidney stones to cancer! Sometimes I've just gotta calm down. lol!
ReplyDeleteandralynn7 AT gmail DOT com
I can fully relate to Jenn's dilemma of being over-exended and taxed to the max by obligations. I had a very high-powered career with the commensurate salary and all the window dressing to go along with it. However, I was working 70 hours a week and never got to enjoy a single thing my exorbitant salary purschased, The stress and the resulting migrainses almost killed me!
ReplyDeleteI too maoved away to the seashore, put on some cutoffs and flipflops and am now living a much happier life.
Broke and glad of it in Florida,
ilookfamous(at)yahoo(dot)com
Interesting facts
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com