Please Welcome Annette Bower author of Moving On A Prairie Romance

Let's give a big welcome to guest author Annette Bower she has written Moving On A Prairie Romance.  

Annette will award a $25 GC to All Romance eBooks to one randomly drawn commenter, and a $10 Amazon GC to the host with the most comments (excluding Annette's and the host's).

Moving On: A Prairie Romance

by Annette Bower

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BLURB:

Anna is a mysterious woman that has just moved to Regina Beach. The residents of the small town know everyone’s business and they are very interested in discovering Anna’s secrets. Nick was a Sergeant in the Canadian Army, doing active duty until a horrific accident sent him home to recover. He helps Anna feel safe and comfortable in her new environment, just as he has always done for his men in strange, dangerous places. Meanwhile, he focuses on preparing for his future physical endurance test to prove that he is capable of returning to active duty.

Anna doesn’t talk about her past, and Nick doesn’t talk about his future therefore she is shocked to discover that his greatest wish is to return to active duty. She won’t love a man who may die on the job again. Intellectually, she knows that all life cycles end, but emotionally, she doesn’t know if she has the strength to support Nick.

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EXCERPT

Anna plowed through fallen leaves and broken twigs that were spread over the stone pathway leading to the stairs. The screened summer door sprung open but the solid weather door refused to budge. She twisted the key, jiggled the door knob and finally she turned sideways and bumped her hip against the stubborn paint- encrusted door. Banging against something and having it move felt wonderful. The momentary hip sting was an annoyance compared to the pain that she’d endured over the last year. Taking a deep breath she pushed the door open, inhaled stale air and watched dust motes floating on current of outside air.

The lawyer hadn’t known if Murray had spent any time here. Part of her wanted to look around and think of him as a carefree child, then a young man whole and alive, while the other part of her wanted a clean slate.    

Anna ran her hand over the white refrigerator and matching stove and trailed a finger in the dust on the country kitchen table and solid chairs. Through a large window was an expansive view of blue water. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth reminding her that she was thirsty. Anna turned the taps at the kitchen sink. They squeaked, but nothing came. All that water out there but none where she was going to live. She walked down a hallway and peered into rooms until she found the bathroom. The taps in the sink and tub repeated the noise and the toilet had green liquid in the bottom. She stomped her feet against the tiled floor. Damn. There were a few bottles of water in the car, but how would she use the other facilities? She didn’t know how to rough it; Murray was supposed to teach her how to camp in the wilds.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Annette Bower lives and writes in Regina, SK Canada. She is an author of many short stories published in anthologies and magazines in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. She explores women in families, women in communities and women at the beginning and end of love and their quest for love. She pursues the writing craft in workshops, conferences, Writing with Style, Banff Centre for the Arts, Victoria School of Writing, Sage Hill Writing Experience, the Surrey International Writing Conferences and the Romance Writing of America Conferences. 

When she isn’t writing she walks or bikes around the streets and parks in her neighborhood imagining complex worlds behind seemingly ordinary events.

Her first contemporary romance, Moving On A Prairie Romance is published by XoXo Publishing™ a division of Ninni Group Inc.

Website: http://www.annettebower.com/

Blog:   http://www.annettebower.com/blog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Annette-Bower-XOXO-Publishing-Author/378438088839629

 

Recommendations:

I have just been reading MOVING ON on my Kindle. It's lovely... -- a gentle, feel-good book with a nice variety of individualized characters and a positive over-all message. The familiar setting was a treat too. Congratulations! I would recommend it. - Mary Balogh: http://www.marybalogh.com/

 

“Moving On: A Prairie Romance” by Annette Bower In “Moving On: A Prairie Romance”, Annette Bower explores the redemptive power of affection. When we meet Nick and Anna, the characters at the centre of the novel, both are reeling from devastating personal tragedies, and both are fearful of making a connection that would open them to future pain. In the course of the novel, Nick and Anna slowly but surely learn to trust and to hope. Bower’s warm tale of the coming together of her two very likable protagonists is told with a keen eye and an understanding heart. This lake-side romance is perfect summer reading. ….Gail Bowen, author of the Joanne Kilbourn series.  http://www.gailbowen.com/

“Moving On-A Prairie Romance is a tale for everyone.

 

While readers of Romance will identify with Bower's characters who, having been hurt by loss, are  caught in the age-old fear of unending pain but bravely do more  than endure, this novel is for those who either have or wish to leave the bustle of city life for the peace of the country. Her people are so real, they almost leap off the page and you swear they live just down the road from you.  Read on and Move on with them.”  ~Byrna Barclay, Award-winning author of novels and short story collections~

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Interview

Good morning Christine. Thank you for hosting me today. I’m pleased to answer your questions.

1.What or who inspired you to start writing?

I am not sure what or who inspired me to start writing. It could have been the books that I read. The first books I remember other than “See Dick and Jane” were the Boxcar Children books by Gertrude Chandler Warner. She wrote about four orphan children who ran away so that they could stay together as a family.

I know that I felt a kinship to those children. I often thought that I may have been adopted because I would find a tiny scar on my hand or foot and imagined that I received the scar during an adventure.

Books have always been important to me and so has my imagination, writing flowed from there. I do know that I felt as if I could write a Harlequin romance because I read so many of them. I know that I started writing romance stories but didn’t finish because of course it is a great deal harder than it appears. I needed to learn the craft of writing.

2.How did you come up with ideas for your books?

I always start with a core story. My core story for Moving On-A Prairie Romance was a wounded heroine because Anna’s true love died just before her wedding. And then I think of an issue. My issue for Moving On-A Prairie Romance was something like “what kind of woman will love a soldier with one missing limb?” Because of course so many of our service men were returning injured from Afghanistan, I wanted hope for them. Nick’s wound was physical as well as emotional.

  

3.    What components are necessary for the genre of this novel?

For my writing, I wanted a sympathetic heroine, a hero she could trust, become friends with and probably love. The initial conflict for Anna was her secret because she needed to move away from mourning the life she would no longer have, but Nick recognized that she had suffered and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to become involved with someone who reminded him of the suffering he had witnessed during peace making.

4.What expertise did you bring to your writing?

I have been a rehabilitation nurse and I have worked with amputees. I was familiar with some of the procedures that Nick would go through, however, I researched the modern approach to prosthetics.  Over the years, I researched the loss of a spouse as my mother-in-law was widowed very young as was her sister. I wanted to understand how they may have felt. I am also very familiar with the setting of Moving On-A Prairie Romance as my family lived in the small resort town of Regina Beach for many years.

5.What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?

I am a determined Taurus. I keep working on something until I get it right.

6.As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

Because I have had a great experience with publishing Moving On-A Prairie Romance by XoXo Publishing ™ I want to continue publishing contemporary romance novels. However, I do appreciate the challenge of writing post card stories. I may continue with short, short stories as well.

7.If you could be one of the characters from any of your books, who would it be and why?

I would probably be Margaret Lamb in Moving On-A Prairie Romance. She is a caring but inquisitive member of the community. I am known for asking many questions. Recently on a cruise, I found one of our table companions very interesting. I began to ask questions. My husband apologized on my behalf. However, I didn’t let him get away with that, but I did tone down my questions. It made me realize that I need to take care sometimes.

8.Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?

I belong to a writing group, the Bees. We bring our work to our monthly meetings for critiquing. I find it helps my writing because other people can see the holes, the missing details, the missing transition lines. I also learn from critiquing other writers’ work.

9.When did you first decide to submit your work?

I submitted two manuscripts to Avalon publishing after different RWA conferences. Both full manuscripts were requested but not accepted for publication.

10.          Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?

I was ready. I wanted to have my stories out in the public domain.

In 2011, I bid on the opportunity to submit to two different publishers through the Brenda Novak On line Auction to cure Diabetes. I won the opportunity to submit to XoXo Publishing ™ and Soul Mate Publishing. XoXo Publishing ™ accepted Moving On-A Prairie Romance from that bid and published in December 2011. I submitted the first fifty pages to Soul Mate Publishing in the fall of 2011. The editor “got” my story. I had tears in my eyes that day. After Moving On-A Prairie Romance was at the publishers for the necessary things before publication, I revised my second manuscript as the editor had suggest. I sent the manuscript to Soul Mate this spring and they have just accepted it. Of course there is much work between acceptance and publishing. I do not have a publishing date yet.

11.         What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)

I have come to believe that the worst advice I received with regard to writing was to save my rejection slips. When I thought about it, it was really a pile of negativity.  The rejection letters were the very thing that slowed my progress because it took me a long time to know that there were many reasons a work is rejected. Some rejection meant that perhaps the piece wasn’t quite ready, or perhaps it wasn’t the right market, or perhaps it didn’t meet the theme of the particular anthology or magazine. It did not mean that I was not a writer.

12.         Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I just start writing. I wish I could outline, it might save time and perhaps one day I will.

13.         Do you have any hobbies and does the knowledge you've gained from these carry over into your characters or the plot of your books?

I love to walk around any community I am in. I love to see the people, sit in coffee shops, visit Good Will shops or any little corner store. I feel it tells me more about a community and human nature than I can ever learn from the Chamber of Commerce advertisement.

Thank you, Christine for hosting me today and asking such interesting questions. I am always amazed when I realize how my past experiences and knowledge enhanced my novel Moving On-A Prairie Romance. 

Annette will award a $25 GC to All Romance eBooks to one randomly drawn commenter, and a $10 Amazon GC to the host with the most comments (excluding Annette's and the host's).

Don't forget to comment! :)