This week Sandra Bricker, Bonnie Leon, Maggie Brendan, and Connie Stevens

» Posted on Aug 29, 2011 in Blog | Comments Off on This week Sandra Bricker, Bonnie Leon, Maggie Brendan, and Connie Stevens

Always the Wedding Planner Never the BrideCongratulations to Dorothy for winning Christa Allan’s The Edge of Grace, to Salena for winning Cerella Sechrist’s Love Finds You in Hershey, PA, and to Angela for winning Raquel Byrnes’ Purple Knot.

This week I’m hosting Sandra Bricker with Always the Wedding Planner Never the Bride, Bonnie Leon with Wings of Promise, Maggie Brendan with Deeply Devoted, and Connie Stevens with Scars of Mercy. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (September 4th) evening.

Bio for Sandra Bricker:

“I’m going to be a writer when I grow up!” Sandra D. Bricker declared these words to her father on a Sunday afternoon in Slidell, Louisiana. She was 5 years old, and was referring to being able to string her cursive letters together to write her full name for the first time, but the declaration proved somewhat prophetic.

By the time she reached high school and her first article was published in The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sandie knew writing was what she wanted to do. For more than a decade, Sandie lived in Los Angeles and, while writing in every spare moment, she studied screenwriting and worked as a personal assistant and publicist to some of daytime television’s hottest stars. When her mother became ill in Florida, she walked away from that segment of her life and moved cross-country to take on a new role: Caregiver.

“I guess most people would see my career as a publicist as a sort of dream job. But giving it up turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me!” she declares. “Not only was I given the gift of getting to know my mother as an adult woman before she passed away, but I was also afforded the blessing of being able to re-focus on writing novels in an effort to pursue my dream of a writing career.”

That career weaves a web that draws in every age of reader. Sandie’s interest in telling a story knows no boundaries. Three novels for middle readers carved out the beginning of the journey; then Avalon Books followed up with two hardbound romance novels in 2001: unWANTED: Husband (romantic comedy) and Change of Heart (romantic suspense). The response was tremendous, and Sandie was asked to pen a sequel to Change of Heart … and so Sins of the Past was released in December 2003. Next up was another romantic comedy; Wish I Weren’t Here was released in February 2005.

“I’m a Christian woman, first and foremost,” she says. “So the last couple of years has been a bit of a dream-come-true. Summerside Press chose me as one of two authors to launch their new Love Finds You line in October 2008 with Love Finds You in Snowball, Arkansas, a romantic comedy for the inspirational market. So the best of all worlds, as far as I’m concerned!”

More hilarity continued to follow from this award-winning author.

Love Finds You in Holiday, Florida (Fall 2009) and Love Finds You in Carmel, California (Fall 2010) for Summerside Press, and The Big 5-OH! (Spring 2010) and Always the Baker, Never the Bride (Fall 2010) for Abingdon Press.

Future books will include sequels, The Big 4-OH! and The Big 3-OH! for Abingdon Press.

After spending nearly 15 years dealing with her celebrity clients’ fans, Sandie finds it amusing that she is suddenly the one getting fan mail! “When people were actually buying my books at a recent signing, I found myself wanting to go around and invite them all to dinner or offer to bake them cookies. Hey! In fact … maybe I’ll do that very soon.”

Blurb for Always the Wedding Planner Never the Bride:

Thirty-six-year-old Emma Rae Travis has been baking specialty cakes and melt-in-your-mouth pastries at The Backstreet Bakery in historic Roswell, just outside of Atlanta, for the last six years. But here s the rub about her job as a baker … Emma is diabetic. When she tastes her creations, it can only be in the most minute portions. Emma is considered an artisan for the stunning crème brulee wedding cake that won her the Passionate Palette Award last year, but she s never even had one full slice of it. 
When Jackson Drake hears about this local baker who has won a prestigious award for her wedding cake artistry, he tells his assistant to be sure and include her in the pastry tastings scheduled at his new wedding destination hotel the following week. And for Jackson, that particular day has started out badly with two workmen trapped in a broken elevator and a delivery of several dozen 300-thread-count bed linens in the wrong size abandoned in the lobby. But when the arrogant baker he met a week prior in Roswell stumbles into the dining room with a platter of pastries and a bucketful of orders, he knows for certain: It s going to be a really rotten day. 

Can these two ill-suited players master the high-wire act and make a go of their new business venture? Or will they take each other crashing downward, without a net? And will the surprise wedding at The Tanglewood be theirs?

Wings of PromiseBio for Bonnie Leon:

Bonnie Leon is the author of eighteen novels, including the popular Touching the Clouds, Wings of Promise, the Sydney Cove series and the bestselling Journey of Eleven Moons.  She also stays busy speaking for women’s groups and teaching at writing seminars and conventions. Bonnie and her husband, Greg, live in Southern Oregon.  They have three grown children and five grandchildren.

Blurb for Wings of Promise:

Her spunk has always gotten her through tough times.

But does she have what it takes to go the distance?

Kate Evans may be a woman in a man’s profession, but as Alaskan bush pilots go, she’s one of the best. If only her personal life wasn’t so complicated. Torn between her affection for fellow pilot Mike Conlin and doctor Paul Anderson, Kate longs for clarity in her heart. But when a terrible tragedy occurs, her mind may be made up for her.

Deeply DevotedBio for Maggie Brendan:

Maggie Brendan is the author of No Place for a Lady, The Jewel of His Heart, and A Love of Her Own. A member of American Christian Writers, Romance Writers of American, Georgian Romance Writers, and the American Fiction Writers Association, Maggie lives in Georgia. Visit her at www.MaggieBrendan.com.

Blurb for Deeply Devoted:

She is staking her future on a man she’s never met. Can she learn to love him?

When Catharine Olsen leaves Holland for Wyoming as a mail-order bride, she brings some extra baggage with her: two sisters, her mother’s set of Blue Willow china, and a tragic past. As she steps off the train, Peter Andersen is glad to see that she is everything her letters showed her to be. But he is a bit perturbed by her unexpected companions. How will he support them all? And what other secrets might Catharine be keeping from him?

Filled with sweet romance and vivid characters, Deeply Devoted highlights a clash of cultures as a highborn European and a simple wheat farmer learn to love one another and trust God with the past—and the future.

“Maggie Brendan has done it again. As gentle as a prairie breeze and as delicate as the Blue Willow china for which the series is named, Deeply Devoted is a tender and haunting tale that stirs heart and soul deeply—well beyond the last page.”—Julie Lessman, author of the Daughters of Boston series and the Winds of Change series

Scars of MercyBio for Connie Stevens:

Connie lives in north Georgia with her husband of thirty-eight years, John. She and John are active in a variety of capacities in their church. One cantankerous kitty, misnamed Sweet Pea, allows them to live in her home. When Connie isn’t writing, she enjoys reading, sewing, browsing antique shops, collecting teddy bears, and gardening. Visit Connie’s website and blog at www.conniestevenswrites.com.

Blurb for Scars of Mercy:

Everett Behr turns away from people to hide his disfiguring scars. A budding friendship with Tillie O’Dell eases his loneliness, but asking her to endure the humiliation of being with someone like him is out of the question. Tillie sees past Everett’s scars to his heart. His courage and compassion make him a man of character, but how can she convince Everett his scars are beautiful to her?