Just Like Family

Just Like Family

by Barbara Casey

 

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GENRE: Contemporary Romance

 

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BLURB:

 

All in one day, thirty-five-year-old Hallie Marsh learns that the man she loves, works for, and is living with has found someone else and that she no longer has a job or a place to live.  She is also involved in a car accident.  She retreats to her parents' home in the northern part of Florida to be consoled and to decide what to do with the rest of her life only to find out that her mother is planning to leave her father for another man.  Embittered, filled with anger, and wanting revenge, Hallie decides to take a year's sabbatical and write a novel that would reveal the unethical, if not illegal, real estate business practices of her former boss and lover.

 

Determined and focused, Hallie buys a house in the neighborhood where her two best friends and former co-workers live:  Carol Mathews and Gordon Sebastian Cooney.  It is through Gordon and Carol that Hallie comes to know four neighbors, one of whom is Carol's Vietnamese mother who carries a doll and talks into reflective surfaces.  These four neighbors--Cora, Suong, Charlie, and Vince--are all elderly, peculiar, and alone at this stage in their lives until Vince comes up with a plan:  The four of them will form an alliance, buy the old Braswell estate which is located just down the road, fix it up, and live in it almost like family.  Hallie is fascinated by these four people, and rather than write a tell-all book she begins writing about their alliance.  With this new focus and the friendship of Carol and Gordon, Hallie overcomes her feelings of rage, she is able to cope with her mother's sudden death, and she finds true love.

 

 

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EXCERPT

 

Hallie’s heart raced as she walked briskly past the other offices to the executive suite at the end of the corridor.  Since Jeff had sent word asking to see her, it must mean that he was finally finished with that project he had been working on day and night for the past several weeks and that he needed her as much as she needed him.  She knew his divorce had just been finalized, although he hadn’t told her yet.  She had called the courthouse downtown and found out on her own.  He was probably just waiting for the right time to tell her.  Over a romantic dinner at one of their favorite places.  Or maybe he would take her somewhere for the weekend.  He enjoyed surprising her.  And there was the awards banquet tonight.  He hadn’t mentioned that to her either, but naturally he would want her to go with him.  In real estate circles, it was the event of the year.  Even though it was supposed to be a secret, everyone knew that Jeff was getting the Salesman of the Year Award again.  So much to celebrate and what better way than to make love in his office now.

 

“Mr. Darnell is expecting you, Ms. Marsh.”

 

Hallie smiled at the secretary, hoping that her demeanor was that of a public relations director going into a meeting with the president of the company and not of a woman who was going to make love to her boss in his office at four o’clock in the afternoon.  “Thanks, Mary,” she said shifting her notebook in an exaggerated movement from one hand to the other, feeling slightly self-conscious.  She suppressed the urge to giggle, something she frequently did whenever she felt self-conscious, and walked past the secretary’s desk.  On the other side of the ornate double doors was Jeff’s office, a large multi-functional room that had both a southern and eastern exposure.

 

Jeff was standing with his back to her, looking out one of two mullioned, floor-to-ceiling windows, the one facing the intracoastal waterway.  Hallie quietly closed the door and locked it.  The desire she felt for him was tremendous and had somehow managed to gravitate to an area the size of a baseball between her naval and vulva.  Without saying anything she unbuttoned her navy blue coatdress, silently applauding the fact that she had decided to wear it today since it was so easy to take off.  Then she walked up behind him, slipped her arms around his waist, and pressed her body into his back.  “You can’t imagine how much I have missed you,” she whispered when he turned around.  She eagerly sought his lips as she loosened his tie and began unfastening the buttons on his shirt, completely forgetting the self-consciousness she had experienced moments earlier.  He did that to her.  Things she wouldn’t normally do under any other circumstances, she felt no inhibitions in doing with Jeff.

 

“Hallie, I need to tell you something.”  Jeff held her trembling hands in his but she continued with the buttons, stopping only when she reached the buckle on his belt.  She pulled his shirt loose from his trousers and opened it, exposing his bare chest.  Then she tenderly kissed his neck, working her way down his chest and stomach with her mouth and tongue.

 

“Hallie, please.  Stop.  We have to talk.”

 

Hallie looked up into Jeff’s face, breathless and flushed with desire.  Curiously at that moment she remembered seeing somewhere in a magazine two similar photographs side by side, the caption under one of them reading, “What’s wrong with this picture?”

A Word With the Author

Did you always want to be an author?

I believe on some level I did. The first recognition I received as a “writer” was a poem I wrote in the second grade about the red poppys growing in Flanders Fields. When the short story I wrote at the age of 9 won an award, I pretty much knew I wanted to be a writer. I didn’t realize the extent or how great my passion for writing would be until I became an adult and my first book was published.

 

Tell us about the publication of your first book.

I was working at a small co-educational college in North Carolina as Director of Public Relations and Vice President of Development. In my spare time I edited the manuscripts of professors who were trying to get published. It didn’t take me long to realize I wanted to write my own book, and I knew exactly what it would be about. I had already seen how difficult it was to get published hearing about the rejection letters many of the professors received. So I gave myself one year to write my book—a middle grade novel—and find a publisher for it. Nine months later, I was offered a contract for my first book, Leilani Zan, and an option for my second book. My second book—Grandma Jock and Christabelle—was also a middle-grade novel, and after it was published something strange happened. My inner voice, the voice I would hear when writing, changed from a young person to an adult. That was when I started writing adult novels. When one of my publishers asked if I would consider writing a book-length nonfiction, I agreed to give it a try. Since that first nonfiction book—Assata Shakur: A 20^th Century Escaped Slave—I have written three more nonfiction books and over a dozen novels for adults and young adults.

 

Besides yourself, who is your favorite author in the genre you write in?

I don’t necessarily have favorite authors; rather, I have favorite books. For example, I loved Rosamunde Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers, and even though I enjoyed reading her other works, they didn’t capture me as much. The same for Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code. Even though I read his other books, they didn’t involve me as much as The DaVinci that was so rich in history and drama. 

 

What's the best part of being an author? The worst?

For me, the best part of being an author is the process: weaving together threads that will make up a story, creating the characters, and throwing in conflicts and drama that will result in strong emotions. When I am actually writing, I am totally involved. I honestly think the house could burn around me and I wouldn’t even notice. 

As far as the worst part of being an author, I am a very private person. Speaking in public, making personal appearances, and just “being out there” is difficult. I have always done it, but it isn’t especially easy for me. I would much rather be sitting at my computer in my office writing.

 

What are you working on now?

I was very fortunate that another publisher picked up three of my adult novels that were no longer in print. Now that they are republished, I have been busy marketing them. I have one new adult novel and two new young adult novels that will be released next year.

One writing project I have been working on for a few years now is a young adult mystery series: THE F.I.G. MYSTERIES. Five books in the series have been published: The Cadence of Gypsies, The Wish Rider, The Clock Flower, The Nightjar’s Promise, and The Seraphim’s Song. I will soon start writing book 6 in this series. I am thrilled to say that THE F.I.G. MYSTERIES has been optioned for a TV series or major film.

Elaine, I can’t thank you enough for your interest in my writing and for this wonderful interview. You have followed several of my books, and I appreciate it tremendously. I wish you and your bloggers my very best. 

~Barbara

You are very welcome. I've always enjoyed your work.

Elaine

 

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Barbara Casey is the author of several award-winning novels and book-length works of nonfiction for both adults and young adults, and numerous articles, poems, and short stories. Several of her books have been optioned for major films and television series. 

 

In addition to her own writing, Barbara is an editorial consultant and president of the Barbara Casey Agency. Established in 1995, she represents authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan. 

 

In 2018 Barbara received the prestigious Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and Top Professional Award for her extensive experience and notable accomplishments in the field of publishing and other areas. 

 

Barbara lives on a mountain in Georgia with three cats who adopted her: Homer, a Southern coon cat; Reese, a black cat; and Earl Gray, a gray cat and Reese’s best friend.

 

www.barbaracaseyauthor.com

www.barbaracaseyagency.com

https://www.amazon.com/Just-Like-Family-Barbara-Casey/dp/1645407608

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/just-like-family-barbara-casey/1103301294

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/11413987-just-like-family

 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION 

 

Barbara Casey will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway