This week I’m hosting Ann Gabhart with Scent of Lilacs, Margaret Daley with Scorned Justice, Dora Hiers with Journey’s Embrace, Roseanna White with Ring of Secrets and Patrick E. Craig with A Quilt for Jenna. 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 (March 10th) evening.
Interview with the hero of Journey’s Embrace by Dora Hiers:
1. Sage Michaelson, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
Not much to tell. I’m thirty-years-old and a Deputy U.S. Marshal on medical leave while I recover from emergency spleen surgery. Folks say I’m a dead ringer for Ben Affleck, and their eyes light up when they find out I was raised in an orphanage. Not sure what’s so fascinating about a thirteen-year-old boy who lost his entire family, but Quiver Full is where I met Steven and his sister, Dane, er, Delaney.
2. What do you do for fun?
Most Friday and Saturday nights I’m hanging out in safe houses, guarding criminals. Not your idea of fun? Yeah, I hear you. Truthfully, I haven’t made much time for fun the last few years, and my ex-girlfriend made that painfully clear when she broke up. But that’s all part of the job. Who’d have thought that trailing after Dane would bring the sunshine and laughter back into my life?
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Flying.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Love. How can I commit my heart when the people I love end up dead?
5. What do you want out of life?
A home. And not just an ordinary house, but a home made up of a normal family with two or three kids instead of the twenty-five, give or take, at the orphanage. A porch or a deck, where I could laze around on Saturday mornings, lingering over coffee with a wife who longs to spend her forever with me, who doesn’t mind my long hours. But that image floats just out of reach, like a vaporous haze hovering over a lake on a cool morning.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
At the moment, it’s keeping Delaney safe from the guy who ransacked her house and then attacked her. When Steven texted me to keep an eye on her while he honeymooned, I chucked the hospital gown and headed to Journey Creek. We’re practically brother and sister. How could I say no?
I hadn’t seen Dane in a few years, so it kinda threw me to see her waltzing away from the reception in a silky turquoise gown, the kind of dress that forces a man to take a second look. Steven sure wouldn’t appreciate the thoughts that flitted through my head. I’d feel much better if she wore her customary basketball shorts or work scrubs. Then I wouldn’t notice how she transformed from the Dane into beautiful, vivacious Delaney, a woman who embraces passion and life with enthusiasm.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to ditch the doctor. All this ibuprofen seems to be messing with my head. It’s going to be a long couple of weeks.
7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I read so much for work that I don’t read much at home. Just the newspaper. Yeah, I still read the paper version. Delaney was quick to make fun, but I caught her pulling out a section to read.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Lately it seems all I do is protect criminals. That’s starting to get old, especially after my recent work injury. I’m thinking it’s time for a career move, but we’ll see.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
I would love to have a dog, but with my odd and extended work hours, it wouldn’t be fair to get one now.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
You know how to hurt a guy, don’t you? I’d appreciate a couple do-overs in life. Like the day my family was killed in a car accident. I’d gotten in trouble at school for not following the rules, and as punishment, I was left behind to stay with Granny. I still carry the teacher’s note in my wallet.
And then the day in the airplane when Granny looked at me with panic—or was it fear?—in her eyes before her head drooped to her chest. Thirteen years old, and I couldn’t even call for help. She died before the pilot could land the plane. I haven’t stepped on a plane since that day.
