Showing posts with label Chick-Lit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chick-Lit. Show all posts

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Marianne Clark of CEO’s Widow by @AuthorTinaGayle #GeezerLit, #Romance, #WomanHelpingWoman




I’d like to welcome Marianne Clark of CEO’s Widow by Tina Gayle.

RW:    What’s your story/back story? Why would someone come up with a story about you?

MC:    I’m what most would call a corporate wife. I was married to my husband for years and supported him and the role he played in the company where he worked. Then he was killed in a car wreck with the other executives of the company. I took on the job of bringing together the wives left behind and created a new support group/ family.

RW:    What problems do you have to face and overcome in your life?

MC:    I have not been willing to give love another chance since I lost my husband. But now that I’ve found out I may have breast cancer, I’m not sure I can give up the chance to be with the new man in my life.

RW:    Do you expect your hero to help or is he the problem?

MC:    Knox Turner is a wonderful man, but he suffered greatly when his first wife died of cancer, so I’m not sure it’d be fair of me to expect him to go through it with me. So yes, he is the problem...because I love him. But he still wants to help, too. How can I ask him to do that?

RW:    Where do you live?

MC:    Omaha, Nebraska

RW:    During what time-period does your story take place?

MC:    Some people might say it is going on right now.

RW:    How are you coping with the conflict in your life?

MC:    I’m taking it one day at a time and counting my blessings.

RW:    If money were not an object, where would you most like to live?

MC:    Omaha, Nebraska. This is where my family is, and I want to be close to them.

RW:    If you were stranded on a tropical island, who would it be with? You can choose any living, deceased or mythical figure.

MC:    Knox, because then I could have him all to myself without having to worry about his company commitments.

RW:    If you came with a warning label, what would it say?

MC:    Determined woman, Don’t stand in her way or you’ll get hurt.

RW:    Party life or quiet dinner for two?

MC:    Quiet dinner for two

Tina Gayle

Tina’s Reason for writing CEO’S Widow

Even the Threat of cancer causes stress. The days before a doctor gets the results of the test can seem like forever.

When I was in my teens, my mother found a lump in her breasts. The only way for them to tell if it was cancerous was to do a biopsy. Back in those days, a woman had to check into a hospital to have a biopsy done.

The days before the biopsy, I remember believing that those may be the last of my time with her. We grew very close during that time and remained close afterward.

When I decided to write CEO’s Widow, I remember the pain I suffered and tried to add that to the story. This book does not go into the technical aspects of the treatment. Instead, it is about the emotional pain the cancer causes.

CEO’s Widow

The Plot:

After surviving the grief of her husband’s death, Marianne Clark has built a new life with the help of the other Executive Wives. She plans to enjoy grandchildren and friends until her doctor tells her he found a lump in her breast. Her world turns upside down. She re-evaluates her priorities and decides to grab hold of life with both hands.

Knox Turner lost his first wife to cancer. He’s determined not to let Marianne face this challenge alone.

Can this couple face the trials ahead and build a future together?

Excerpt:

Tears leaked from the corners of Marianne’s eyes. She brushed them away with the back of her hand and stared out the front windshield of her car.

One sentence kept playing through her head. “We found an area on your left breast that might be a problem.”

Her doctor described other tests she’d have to take, which might also include a biopsy and possibly even surgery. With twenty-five-plus-years as an executive’s wife, she’d pushed aside her emotional response and had dealt with the problem logically.

She’d departed her doctor’s office in a blind stupor, reviewing every possible solution. Once she reached her car, she sat there for a few moments, her mind naturally turning to how to tell her family. Then, she recalled her decision to spend tonight with Knox and to go away with him for the weekend.

Pain sliced through her.

What should she say to him? Especially after the pain, he’d endured from losing Betty, his first wife to...

Damn.

Conversations she’d had with Knox when Betty was undergoing her intense chemotherapy ran through Marianne’s head. He’d appeared so strong. Yet, he’d sacrificed everything and sold his company so he’d have more time to spend with his wife.

Why give up everything if he hadn’t believed she’d recover?

Buy Links:

Available at Amazon | B&N | Apple | Kobo | Smashwords

Contact Tina At:


Sunday, January 20, 2013

Preditors & Editors Awards—Rock Crazy Cover Art Makes Top Ten!




The Preditors & Editors Readers Polls are like the People’s Choice Awards of books.  Notice, I said books, not literature.  I don’t think there is a people’s award for literature.  Mark Twain once said, “The classics are books everyone wants to say they’ve read, but no one actually wants to read.”

That’s not what I want to write.  I don’t want kids a hundred years from now lamenting, “I’ve gotta read Weber this semester.”

“Aw, man, I had to read her last year.  Watch the holo and I’ll lend you my Cliff’s notes.”  Note to anyone who’s reading this while you’re still in school:  The movie version of The Grapes of Wrath stops about two-thirds of the way through the book.  I know it’s a tough read, but have tissue at the end.  I cried my eyes out.  It was even more powerful than Tom Joad’s soliloquy when he leaves the family.

I didn’t quite have the guts to nominate Rock Crazy itself.  I don’t know if people nominate their own books for the P&E awards.  It’s not like you pay a fee and send in your manuscript for this competition.  But I’ve always thought Delilah K. Stephans did an incredible job with my cover art and I was amazed none of the other MuseItUp authors had nominated her for their cover art this year, so I did.  Then I announced it on the Muse lists, Facebook and Twitter and kind of forgot about it.  So you can imagine my amazement when I opened the announcement from our Publisher, Lea Schizas, saying the cover art for Rock Crazy came in eighth!

So, congratulations, Delilah!  And thank you for such beautiful, award-winning cover art!

Length:  129 Pages
Price:  $5.50
Buy Link:  http://tinyurl.com/museituprockcrazy
 

Sunday, January 06, 2013

Six Sentence Sunday, Rock Crazy



“To the Moon!” Katie

Scott came home early one night a couple of months later.
“Hey, Babe, how’d you like to go to the Moon?”
Katie was suspicious. “Why?”
“I’m working an outage up there, and I thought you’d like to come along.”
“Is this some ploy to get me to have that surgery?” she asked.
 “I’ll be gone a full six months, and I don’t wanna leave you here alone. Not as volatile as you’ve been, lately.”
“So you want me to go up there so you can baby-sit me? I’m surprised you’re not telling me I have to move in with one of my brothers if I don’t go.”
Scott was silent.

Okay, that was more than six sentences.  I trimmed it as much as I could to get the point across.

Blurb: 

Katie McGowan is bi-polar, and she’s run the gamut of medications.  Everyone is telling her she should go to the Moon and have microchip surgery, but she’s afraid she’ll become an automaton.  In a last-ditch, tough love effort to force her to get the chip, her husband, Scott takes her to the Moon and divorces her when she decks him. Then she discovers she’s pregnant.  She can’t have the surgery or take her meds until after the baby’s born.

Scott is elated when he hears he’s going to be a father and naturally assumes Katie will take him back.  He always intended to take her back as soon she had the surgery.  He has no clue how badly he hurt her, how thoroughly he’s broken her trust—or that he may not get her back at all.


Length:  129 Pages
Price:  $5.50

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Admission--Six Sentences from Rock Crazy




Abandoned, pregnant, and bi-polar, Katie McGowan’s going crazy on that God-forsaken rock, the Moon!

Mommy, don’t kill me!  Don’t kill me!
“I won’t kill you.  I just want the pain to end.  I just wanna kill me!”
Don’t kill me, Mommy!
“Daddy’ll take care of you.  He’ll save you.”
Mommy, don’t kill me.  I’m here, Mommy!  Don’t hurt me!
“Be good for Daddy.  Tell him—Tell him I love him.”

Severely bi-polar, Katie is hallucinating and arguing with her unborn child about committing suicide.

Blurb:

Katie McGowan is bi-polar, and she’s run the gamut of medications.  Everyone is telling her she should go to the Moon and have microchip surgery, but she’s afraid she’ll become an automaton.  In a last-ditch, tough love effort to force her to get the chip, her husband, Scott takes her to the Moon and divorces her when she decks him. Then she discovers she’s pregnant.  She can’t have the surgery or take her meds until after the baby’s born.

Scott is elated when he hears he’s going to be a father and naturally assumes Katie will take him back.  He always intended to take her back as soon she had the surgery.  He has no clue how badly he hurt her, how thoroughly he’s broken her trust—or that he may not get her back at all.

Length:  129 Pages
Price:  $5.50