This week I’m hosting Christine Lindsay with Veiled at Midnight (3 book series digital worldwide), Linda Wood Rondeau with A Father’s Prayer (digital worldwide), and Sharon Srock, Brandilyn Collins, Julie Carobini, Mary Demuth, Robin Patchen with Women of Heart, 5 author boxed set (5 copies if post receives 10 comments US only). If you want to enter the drawing for the book, please leave a comment on your post 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 13th) evening.
Interview with the heroine from The Quarryman’s Wife by Mary Demuth
1. Augusta, what do you put off doing because you dread it?
Killing chickens. I can’t stand doing it, and it’s so unfair that I have to after my husband died. Even my older boys are “chicken” to ring their necks. I don’t like the way they look at you right before, as if they have a poultry insight into the affairs of mankind, like they know you’re diabolical and you’re about to kill them. I don’t like feeling life drain from a creature. And all those feathers, land’s sakes. Sure, they make great pillows, but the effort expelled doesn’t make up for a satisfied night’s sleep, at least not in my mind.
2. What are you afraid of most in life?
Staying alone forever. Sure I have all these kids, so I rarely have a moment to stitch or think or write a few haggard lines of poetry, but when nighttime kidnaps my sleep, and the stars wink through that double hung window in the bedroom I used to share with Thomas, my heart aches. It physically hurts. Because I look over and touch the cool side of the bed, willing Thomas there, but he can’t oblige. He’s sleeping eternally under a heavy stone, and sometimes I feel like my heart’s like that stone.
3. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I would scrap my way back to the moment before the quarry dropped itself on Thomas and push him out of the way. He’d wild-eye me then, wondering if I’d become a lunatic, but he’d be blessedly alive with me right now, holding my hand. And we would have another story to tell about saved lives and crazy wives.
Interview with the heroine from That Dog Won’t Hunt by Brandilyn Collins
1. Jessica, what are you most afraid of in life?
At the moment it’s Christina Day, the young fiancée my little brother has brought to our annual summer family reunion. The girl he’s known a whole ten weeks—and now says he’s going to marry. She’ll be a part of this family. My family. And Ben barely knows her.
After the last girlfriend he brought home, he didn’t speak to me for four months. Which is ages in the Dearing family. He blamed me for his argument with the girl that ended in their breakup. Only later did he admit I was right. Still, that didn’t stop Ben from callin’ my cell last night. “Listen, Jess, you got to take it easy on Chris, okay? She really is shy, and I don’t want you grillin’ her with questions or makin’ your I-can-see-right-through-you comments.”
So I can read people well. Is that a bad thing?
Right now Ben’s introducing Christina to everybody. I’m standing back, watching. And it’s clear to me that girl would rather be cleaning toilets than be here. Something’s not right with her. Not at all.
I love my little brother fiercely. When he was bullied in first grade, I was there to protect him. When he had his first heartbreak over some girl at age eleven, I was the one to console. Not to mention all his other heartbreaks during high school. He was just too trusting. And he has such a big heart. But how to protect Ben from himself now that he’s an adult?
On the phone last night I told him, “I just don’t want you hurt.”
“No way.” I could hear the grin in his voice. “Not this time, Jess. This one’s perfect.”
Uh-huh.
2. What is most important to you?
Family. Isn’t that obvious enough from my answer to your first question?
3. Do you have a pet?
No, but my parents do. (We’re at their house right now for the reunion.) Lady Penelope, Penny for short. A Yorkie who’s convinced she came from royalty. Wears her hair in a little pink topknot on her head. Naturally the tag on her collar’s in the shape of a crown. Penny’s sweet, and we all love her. But she runs the house, and you’d better not forget it. And whatever you do, don’t laugh at her. She will stare you down like some miffed grand dame. Then she’ll stalk on stiff legs to the corner of the room, sit down and stick her nose in it. Message—I’d rather stare at this corner than be with the likes of you right now. After a minute of that she’ll slowly look back over her shoulder and give you the eye again. Takes a long time to get her back in your good graces.
I know it’s hard not to laugh at Penny when she howls. I mean, here’s this princess of a pooch, but play music, and she just can’t help herself. That little muzzle rises into the air, and a gritty rumble starts low in her throat, then spills out. “Aaaaooooooo …”
But really. Don’t laugh. Not if you want to pet her again that day. Or the next.
Interview with the heroine from Finding Amanda by Robin Patchen
1. Amanda, what are you afraid of most in life?
Getting what I deserve. For whatever reason, I was the only one spared in a car accident that killed five people, including my best friend and her entire family. I should have become a nurse or a doctor or a paramedic, something that made my survival worthwhile. But instead, I do the only thing I’ve ever been good at—I cook. Add to that the many selfish, stupid, sinful things I’ve done, and yeah, my biggest fear is getting what I deserve.
2. What do you want out of life?
I know what it’s like to live with shame and regret, and I so badly want to protect my daughters from that feeling. I want them to have charmed, worry-free lives. Oh, I know it’s a ridiculous thing to want, a want that can only leave me frustrated, but I want it, anyway.
3. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
To that moment in my psychiatrist’s office when I knew what he was suggesting. I would march out of the office and tell my mother, and then everything would be different. But on the other hand—everything would be different. Because of that moment, I went to college in Rhode Island, and that’s where I met Mark. And then we married and had our beautiful daughters. So maybe if I did that moment differently, I’d lose everything.
Interview with the heroine from Sweet Waters by Julie Carobini
1. Tara, what are you afraid of most in life?
I guess you could say that I’m not fond of becoming irrelevant. Although sometimes my sisters act like I already am …
2. Do you read?
Do I read? Wow. Loaded question. The answer, of course, is yes. I read daily. Only it’s not a book that keeps me up at night it’s—hold on a sec while I shut the door … still there? Good. Here’s the thing. I’m the oldest daughter, the responsible one in the family. Somebody has to be, right? Anyway, I have this one interest that, if anyone were to know just how addicted I’ve become, they would judge me. Especially my sister Mel. She’s always judging me. But that’s because she doesn’t understand. See, Eliza Carlton—she’s the star of a daytime drama called Quartz Place—well, she’s become a role model of sorts for me. Every night when the house is quiet I log on to the Internet and catch up on Eliza’s daily doings on the Quartz Place Digest. I don’t know what I’d do without her …
3. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
If I were to go back in time, I would move to the little town of Otter Bay, California. My sisters and I grew up there, although they were too young when we left to remember much of it. But I do. And living there was a fairy tale that I long to revisit. If we could go back, my father would be living and my mother—love her, but really?—she would be married to Dad and not to someone young enough to be my older brother, aka Derrick. I really should consider taking a trip out west, and soon.
Interview with the heroine from Callie by Sharon Srock
1. Callie, What do you want out of life?
To feel like a whole person again. The guilt is a constant weight on my heart and shoulders. I wish there were some way to move past it, But the knowledge that Sawyer would be alive if not for me…How do you get beyond that?
2. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
To that second in my office when Janette came to me for help. I’d do things so differently. I’d sit on my impulses and take time to pray. There are so many things I could do to help that didn’t include testifying. If I’d done that, taken my time, Sawyer would still be here.
3. What do you do for fun?
I spend time with my three best friends. Terri, Karla, and Pam. Bible studies, working at Valley View, shopping. All of those take my mind off my troubles for a bit. They encourage me.
