WINTER'S CAPTIVE EXCERPT

Happy Friday, everyone.

Here we are on the eve of our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and I believe it's a holiday weekend in the States as well. I thought I would leave you with an excerpt of Winter's Captive to introduce the story to you, just in case anyone is looking for a good read over the holiday.

***

     Bobby and Gary were yelling at each other, probably about me. I knew it would be Gary who would come. And if he caught me, I wouldn’t make it back with him.

     Pounding feet sounded behind me. I glanced over my shoulder, almost tripping, but saw no one. My lungs gasped for air. Gary gained ground, the sounds of his obscenities getting closer. Get off the trail, now. My eyes searched for a place to hide. The pathway rose up a small incline. I flew over the top and down the other side, where the path veered off to the right. To the left, an old game trail barely visible meandered through the trees.

     I slowed and glanced around me. The near darkness provided deep shadows in the trees. A tangle of fallen trees and branches on my left looked like a good spot to hide in. Branches scratched my face and caught in my hair as I pulled myself over the decaying trunks. I tumbled face first into a hollow under a log, filling my mouth with dirt and leaves. The smell of musty, rotting debris turned my stomach.

***

Winter's Captive is available in paperback and e-book format. Here the links:

Amazon

Smashwords

Fountain Blue Publishing

Wishing everyone a great holiday weekend!

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES!

January 01, 2014

One year later, another year young. 

2013 was quite a year, full of many changes and decisions.  First off, I retired August 1st and I haven't looked back. Secondly, we sold our home, but are here for the winter at least before we set out on a new adventure on Vancouver Island. 

We love the ranchlands and the spirited people of the Cariboo and it will be hard to leave. However, we will have lots of great memories to take with us and facebook to keep us in touch. I'm looking forward to breaking new ground, making new friends and finding new fuel for future books.

My retirement gave me time to finish my sequel, Chasing Georgia. Yes...I said finish. I'm in the editing and rewrite stage and will be finished this month. I will keep you updated on the publishing date.

As for family, my dear mother at 91 years of age is still going strong. Although her Alzheimers is becoming more apparent, she still knows us all which is a blessing. One of my sisters had a major health crisis this year but is recovering and growing stronger each day. Two of my grandchildren are out of school, a fact I find so hard to believe.

Life is good and I try to live a day at a time, cherishing the fact that I am so lucky to live in a free society, in a country free from war, in a province full of natural beauty, in a home I can call my own with all the comforts and necessities I need.

My resolutions for 2014 include living a healthy lifestyle foremost, publishing my sequel, and writing book number three. 

My wish for everyone out there is for health, laughter, and love.

My challenge to all my writer friends, today is day one of a 365 page book. One page a day is all you need to write to complete that novel this year. 

Keep on keeping on writing!

Visit me HERE on facebook and "like" me!

CHRISTMAS BOOK GIVEAWAY

'Tis the season!

Looking for that perfect gift? Enter my contest to win a free copy of "Winter's Captive". All you have to do is click HERE to go to my Facebook Author page and click like. Send me a private Facebook message with your email. I will pick the two winners on Thursday and mail out on Friday, December 13th. Hey, it could be your lucky Friday.

This contest is open to Canada, USA, Australia, Great Britain only.

Good luck to you all.

2013

A new day, a new month, a new year.

Just checking in to wish all my readers a happy and prosperous new year.

My 2013 has started at a low point, so it can only get better LOL.  First off, we had a great Christmas Day at my sister's house in Vancouver area. My mom came from the care home and my sisters and family celebrated our get together, one we haven't had for a few years. We are so grateful to have had this day with Mom who was having a 'good' day. We will cherish the memory.

Then came the accident. As the household headed to bed, my husband turned at the top of a steep stairway to say his goodnights, and facing back to the stairs, took a step out into mid-air, missing the top step. Fourteen stairs later, he found himself at the bottom lying on a tiled floor. Three broken ribs in his back and a  punctured lung had him in the hospital for the rest of the holidays. My 'me time' to be spent finishing my sequel to "Winter's Captive" grew wings and flew away. My days were filled with hospital visits. But I am so grateful it wasn't worse.

The initial prognosis was that he would require surgery to repair his broken ribs and a tube in his lung, but he fooled everyone and started to heal on his own. New Year's Eve found me by his bedside watching  Mr. Bean. A quiet and light-hearted evening, although it hurt him to laugh.

We arrived home to find our sewer had froze. Our water pipes into the house are heated so no worries there. So while hubby laid in bed feeling useless, I dug out the snow, removed the skirting, and crawled under the house to place a heater under the house to thaw the pipe. I trudged out a few times to adjust the heat temp as the breaker kept blowing. Then realized I needed to use a different outlet.

By this time, my jeans were snow-covered and frozen solid. I felt like Georgia Charles, my heroine in Winter's Captive. I sucked it up and stopped whining. The pipe finally thawed and all is well in our home.

When accidents like this happen at this stage of our lives and at our ages, it makes one reflect on just what we are doing, where we are heading, and think that maybe it's time to make the changes we have been talking about for awhile.

So my husband and I are heading into 2013 with a renewed, grateful spirit, determined to make the changes we think are for the best in our lives.

On a personal note, I WILL finish the sequel and get it published. Time to put some thought into novel number three.

To everyone out there, make 2013 your year to do the things you want to do and if you write, keep on keeping on writing.

"WINTER'S CAPTIVE" SEQUEL

Writing is such an elusive activity that is so tied to your emotions. One can feel empty and a failure or fulfilled and ecstatic at the accomplishment. Last month my creative pool was dried up, tapped out, painfully non-existant. This month the muse found me again. Well...I'M BACK!


Reading the above paragraph sounds like a description for manic depression or bipolarism, which I don't suffer from to my knowledge. But writing can feel like that at times. And I certainly hope I don't sound like I'm demeaning those who suffer with the any of these conditions. I can walk away and forget my writing for a while and gain a new perspective, whereas diagnosed sufferers have to deal with their symptoms on a day to day basis. They have my utmost empathy and respect.


My sequel to Winter's Captive, tentatively called Finding Georgia is coming to fruition. The story is in two parts. One more chapter and part one is complete. Two more chapters in part two with a little flushing out, and the book is complete. At least this book only took a little over a year and half to write, as opposed to the first one that took me nine years LOL.


I do believe the sequel will be the end of Georgia's journey. As much as I love Georgia Charles, who is my alter-ego and I hope the alter-ego of many women out there,  I'm ready to move on to a completely new heroine, a new story with new twists and empowerment of a different kind.


Just for those who are in the nieghbourhood, I have a signing at Cole's Bookstore in Vernon, BC on Saturday, Augst 11th, Noon-3:00 p.m.  Love to see you there.


Have a great week and those who write, keep on keeping on writing.


http://www.junebourgoauthor.com/

WHY DO I WRITE?

I came across this blog recently and I just love this lady's honesty and gutsy posts. Her latest post WHY DO I WRITE?  got me to thinking about that myself. Her link is at the bottom of this post so you can read it for yourself.

In the past when asked this question I have always answered that I feel compelled to write. It has a life of its own. And while this may be true of most of us writers, I've come to believe this is a pat answer that sounds a bit pretentious. So let's give this a little depth.

On the creative side, I've always loved to write, even back in elementary school writing story assignments. Living other people's lives, creating the outcome of their situations, to making them bad or good. This is the fun side of writing. The research into topics I know nothing about to add to the story line...this is fun for me.

Then there is the emotional side. This is a little more complex. For me, my writing has become a healer. The characters I write about contain a part of me and working their problems out in ink helps heal my own.

My writing also gives me a voice through my characters. I've grown from a very shy child and young adult to a person who can walk up to strangers and introduce myself and carry on a conversation. I can stand up and sing, give a reading from my book and talk about myself and my writing-all in front of an audience.

But ask me to sit in a group discussion and have a voice that is heard, stand up in a debate and take control? Cannot do. Writing is where I find my voice, where I'm most comfortable, and where  I'm most likely to influence anyone.

That brings me to another reason why I write. Do I want to influence people?  I do want to share my experiences in my life with other women and hope that through my character's experiences they can relate to their plight and learn something about themselves. This is why I wrote Winter's Captive, to express what I learned about myself and share the lessons learned through my main character, Georgia Charles. The story is fictitious, but her pain, angst, and lessons learned are all mine. But I also want to entertain. Was I successful?

So far, the feedback received about the book has been very positive but an interesting thing has happened. I thought I was writing a book about women, for women and paying forward through my own experiences. However, my book is being labelled as an adventure, a suspenseful thriller, you won't want to put down.

Huh?  Surprise! Somewhere along the way, the story has taken on a life of its own and men are reading the book and enjoying it. Am I pleased? You bet. A 93-year-old Australian lady has read the book three times and totally relates to the main characters plight and yet, men are reading it and being entertained.

Writing also has another side to it. It can be painful. When you don't have the muse, are having trouble developing a character's voice, or can't seem to pull it all together, frustration can creep in. I like to think that that is positive stress. It forces the writer to try harder and write stronger.

Here is the link to: Are we there yet? the site that inspired me to write this post. If you are a writer, what makes you write?

Just a little housekeeping here,  I previously wrote a post about doing the A to Z's of writing a novel. I have rethought this because in doing my research on it, I ran into trouble finding definitions for all the alphabet characters pertaining to writing. Instead I will add posts on the elements of writing a novel without any cutsie alphabet order.

Meanwhile, keep on keeping on writing.


                         www.junebourgoauthor.com