Historical Romance
Date Published: October 3, 2017
Publisher: Belle Reve Press

Today, I am happy to bring you an excerpt of Dennis and Greer, a non-fiction love story in letters and journals between 2 college students during the Vietnam era. Buried in a trunk for fifty years, this long-forgotten tale encapsulates the horrors of war and the innocence of young love.

College students, Dennis and Greer, met and felt a spark just before moving to different states. Their witty correspondence through letters conjured a desire to meet again, but Dennis tried to keep his distance; duty is more important than love.

As the two embarked on their journey into adulthood and navigated their relationship against the backdrop of war, they were writing a love story that will span the test of time. Edited by Molly Gould, this nonfiction reads like fiction.

You can read the beautifully-written excerpt below.

Excerpt:

Excerpt 1:

I delight in the prospect of returning to school. I am OBSESSED with the idea of going to Vietnam to fight. What scholasticism! What patriotism! How alluring, friendly, and evil are the girls in this part of the country! I am, in short, a man besieged. Not the least of my assailants is the memory of being in your arms. How I wish I were there now! These are not missionary thoughts, however, and if I could rid myself of them in one fell blow, I would render a hundred such blows without hesitation. You are more faithful than I, pray for me.

Excerpt 2:
Dear Greer (poetic, huh?)
This letter is written upon wrinkled paper, which (as you are an English major), you will realize is symbolic of suffering and hardship. From having gotten to know me you will recall that I am never a whiner so I will let the paper rather than the ink bear what ill tidings are to be borne. You may well ask why I have devoted the introduction of this epistle to such trivia. As in conversation, I find it necessary to fill the air with something while I think of something worthwhile to say. While you write “redundant” over the second “something” in typical gung-ho English major fashion, I will try to find something worthy enough in content and syntax to place before your well-read, though brown, eyes.
Not having succeeded in that undertaking, I will, being forced, continue amid trivialities and redundancies. How are you? I am fine. (The latter is a comment rather than an answer.) My present residence is in Carlin, Nevada (as a glance at the envelope, also wrinkled, will verify—redundancies are tricky) and I receive my mail at P.O. Box 835. May I say that I had a very pointed reason for mentioning the fact?
Out of fear that you will say within someone’s hearing that this letter is much bubble bath, as indeed its first two paragraphs are, I will turn to serious considerations. I long to have the outpourings of your keen mind and kind heart splashed upon my untidy mind (see above) like cool water in the sweating face of a Nevada summer laborer. In other, less revealing words, my first order of business is to insist that you write me a letter. I will even, in consideration of your talent, pay you by the word in typical professional fashion.
I dedicated this summer to ridding myself of fecund thoughts and to the corralling of vagrant impulses, to secluded study and spiritual growth. I’ve had my preliminary interview and I will be leaving on my mission in September. I have departed into the desert to prepare for my calling, to live with the wild beasts and eat locusts and honey. Please realize that your letters will be a tremendous help to me. I think of you often.

Memory, hither come,
And tune your merry notes;
And, while upon the wind
Your music floats,

I’ll pour upon the stream
Where sighing lovers dream,
And fish for fancies as they pass
Within the watery glass.
-William Blake

Sincerely yours,
Dennis

ASU graduate, Molly Gould, lived in the wilderness for 28 days when she was 16 years old (she’s your go-to-girl in the zombie apocalypse). She now confines herself indoors with the AC full-blast in her sunny sate of AZ. Occasionally, she’ll brave the scorching heat with her husband and four children.

When Molly inherited a treasure of vintage journals and letters, she was swept away by the love story contained within those writings. She couldn’t keep Dennis and Greer to herself, so she began transcribing and Dennis and Greer was born.

Contact Information

Website: mollygould.com

Facebook: @gouldmolly

Twitter: @mollymgould

Blog: https://mollygould.com/blog/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mollygould/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17023721.Molly_Gould?from_search=true

The days are turning cooler and shorter, and many of us will be spending more time indoors. What better time to get your hands on some fine-quality books. I am pleased to inform you of an exciting giveaway taking place right now up until Monday Nov. 13. This is a Women’s Fiction event, so if you are a lover of Women’s fiction, you would want to take advantage of this opportunity.

Just one more day to participate in AXP’s exciting women’s fiction giveaway where you can get as many as 20 books, including In the Wilderness, a suspenseful, psychological women’s fiction. And when you enter the giveaway you can get free and discounted books from the book fair. Coming Out of Egypt, book 1 of the Egypt trilogy, will be on sale for 99c. Get it now and stock up on your winter reading.

If you haven’t yet subscribed to this blog, you really need to do so now so you can receive updates and special giveaways. Just click on this link:

I’m not even sure if I spelled that word pantser correctly. After three or four attempts WordPress is still redlining it, so somebody, please correct me if you know what it should be. I tried dictionary.com and the closest I came to it was the word “depantsing,” which I’m sure you can guess means “to remove the trousers from, as a joke or punishment.” I do remember as a child hearing about boys being “depantsed” by teachers and then flogged, but I never witnessed it. Anyway, for you readers, “pantser” or “pantsing” is one of those strange, new words authors use and has nothing to do with removing someone’s pants either as a joke or for punishment.

So, what does it mean? It means something I’m guilty of – writing by the seat of my pants. Not making an outline -as I was taught in college – but just writing free-form, spontaneously. And I believe it worked quite well for my first four books. So why did I decide to change? With my latest WIP – I haven’t settled on a title yet- I find myself stalling at times, unlike when I wrote all the Egypt books and the words just poured out of me like a Florida rainstorm. It’s not that I have the dreaded writer’s block. It’s simply that I had abandoned the project for a time to work on other things, and when I picked it up again, I was lost.

Then it dawned on me that if I had plotted – made an outline – I would have simply taken up where I’d left off and would have saved myself a lot of time and a lot of angst trying to figure what to write next. So now I’ve decided to spend a little time outlining or timelining as another author called it instead of pantsing. If you are an author, you might want to use this idea for NANOWRIMO to help you complete your novel in one month.

However, there are some authors who believe in pantsing a novel and those who believe in outlining your novel I think both methods have merit. In the final analysis, I’ll use what works best for me depending on the project. Leave a comment below and let me know which method you prefer and why.

If you’ve read this far, I have an offer for you. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’m giving away these lovely bangles on my health blog, but since they may have meaning for some of you, I’ve decided to make the offer available to you as well. Simply sign up in the form below and I’ll choose two lovely ladies to send the bangles to FREE and postage paid.

Polio and Me, written by Ken Dalton, is a memoir that provides a view of the past, present, and future—the saga of one boy’s pain, fear, and loneliness—the long struggle to develop a vaccine and effective treatments—the world-wide goal to eradicate the polio virus, and in some twenty-first century cancer research trials, the polio virus eliminated cancerous tumors.

Ken Dalton was born in Los Angeles in 1938. In 1943 he contracted polio and spent the next eleven years of his childhood in and out of hospitals.

Fifty-nine years ago he married his childhood sweetheart and is a father of three, a grandfather of four, and the great-grandfather of nine.

After a thirty-eight year management career with Pacific Telephone Company, Ken retired to write golf and travel articles for Golf Digest, Golf Illustrated, Fairways and Greens, and Golf.com.

During two NBC-TV Celebrity Golf Tournaments at Lake Tahoe, he interviewed Olympic Decathlon Champion, Bruce Jenner when he was Bruce, not Caitlyn, the mischievous Chicago Bears quarterback, Jim McMahon, the iconic Vice-President Dan Quail, and NBC Today show anchor, Matt Lauer.

Ken has published six mystery novels. Polio and Me marks his initial foray into the world of non-fiction.

Presently, Ken is working on his seventh mystery, The Heretics Hymnal, and a comedy of manners novel, Casper Potts and the Ladies Casserole club.

Contact Information

Website: www.kendaltom.com

Facebook: KenDalton MysteryWriter

Purchase Links

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Polio-Me-Ken-Dalton-ebook/dp/B01M697TDW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503876702&sr=8-1&keywords=polio+and+me

Excerpt

Today, seventy-two years later, as a father of three, a grandfather, and great-grandfather, the idea that an ambulance team could walk into my doctor’s office and rip my son or daughter from my arms is an appalling notion. But this was 1943, decades ago, when polio epidemics killed and paralyzed an average of 12,000 children and adults each year.
I understand that having your child taken from your arms sounds draconian, but in Los Angeles, during the summer months of the annual polio epidemics, as many as one hundred patients a day were admitted to Los Angeles County Hospital. Once the patient’s illness was confirmed as polio, those patients were moved to the Communicable Disease Building where they would remain isolated until all possibility of passing on the polio virus to a non-infected person had ended.
And Los Angeles was not alone. Public health professionals throughout the country had learned to act swiftly because when it came to a polio pandemic, the end justified the means. So the abrupt actions of the Los Angeles ambulance crew may have seemed cruel, but the fear of polio, both real and exaggerated, caused even rational professionals to overreact. The moment any patient’s illness was thought to be polio, that patient would be rushed to an isolation facility where he or she would remain for weeks if not months.
One of the major reasons a diagnosis of polio was so frightening for my parents and the medical professionals alike, was that no one could predict the eventual outcome of a polio infection for an agonizingly long period of time. While I was in the Communicable Disease Building at the Los Angeles County Hospital, my parents struggled with a list of frightening questions without a way to learn the answers.
Would their son lose his ability to breathe and die in isolation?
Would their son spend the rest of his days living in an iron lung?
Would their son remain paralyzed?
Would their son recover some use of his limbs?
Looking back, those weeks apart were among the most traumatic days of my life. But during that summer of 1943, as the summers before, and the summers that followed, children with polio, and their parents, learned to endure.

In the spotlight this week is Web of Lies, a Romantic suspense thriller by J. G . Sumner. Web of Lies is on tour with RABT Book Tours from Oct. 16th – Oct. 27th.

J.G. is a Registered Nurse who went rogue. As good as she was at starting IV’s, she enjoys writing the down the stories in her head even more. Most of the time the characters won’t stop pestering her until she has them down on paper.  J.G. can often be found with a glass of red wine or prosecco in front of her computer. She has a very dry sense of humor, and should never be taken too seriously. She loves to hear from her fans, and even those who aren’t especially fond of her work.  J.G. writes romantic suspense/thrillers including: A Shot in the Dark, Into the Light, The Surrender Trilogy including Surrender, Shattered, and Saved, Web of Lies and Wrecked.

My perfect life is falling apart.  My wife is leaving me, and I’m fighting for our marriage, our kids—for her. Then she walks through the door, and everything changes. Beautiful, sweet Beth. She’s much too young, but I can’t stay away.  Despite our secrecy, someone knows. They’re using the information to destroy me. It’s not a matter of if my marriage will survive, or if I’ll be able to find happiness with my new love…it’s a matter surviving at all. I have to unravel this web of lies before it’s too late.

If you are a book lover, you love the idea of getting free and/or discounted books. So here’s a chance to grab dozens of high quality books in your favorite genres to jumpstart your reading weekend. You will also be supporting a number of independent Goodreads authors.

I will be offering Coming Out of Egypt, the first book in the Egypt series FREE on Friday only. So don’t miss out. If you have not yet got your hands on a copy of this suspenseful drama, now is the perfect time.

Here’s a little blurb about the story:

When Marva accidentally kills her father while trying to protect her younger sister June from him, she anticipates a new beginning far from “Egypt” where they once lived. But her new life is not what she envisioned. The strain of trying to elude the detective , cope with her rebellious younger sister while holding down her job in a man’s domain drives her to drink. When Cicely, her former teacher, intervenes and leads the girls to Christ, Marva finds some measure of peace, but her fate still hangs in the balance. Will she find the love and understanding she craves, or will she get the judgement she deserves?

After reading Coming Out of Egypt, you would naturally want to know what happens to Marva and June next. The second book, In the Wilderness, will be discounted to 99c. tomorrow. Here’s the blurb:

Tortured by guilt over her secret crime and unable to confide in anyone, Marva contemplates suicide. But before she can carry out her well-laid plans, a horrible accident leaves her groping in the wilderness of amnesia. She later emerges to find that she must now face trial for murder.

 Written from a Christian perspective, In the Wilderness is not just about suicide. Like its prequel, Coming Out of Egypt, the dark matter covered in this book is offset by the exotic setting of Trinidad and Tobago, the one-sided romance between Marva and Jason – he loves her, she sees him only as a friend – crazy, giddy teenage love affairs and the transforming power of redemption.

My third offering for this Friday the 13th promo is my first book Women For All Seasons. This is a Christian non-fiction book based on women of the Bible and is also discounted to .99c. If you love Bible stories, you would want to add this book to your bookshelf.

Please spread the word to all your friends and come out and support us tomorrow for this great event.

I’m happy to announce that In the Wilderness, Book 2 of the Egypt trilogy, is on tour this week, starting today Oct. 2 until Friday Oct. 6. This is a virtual book tour that will make stops at other book blogs in order to garner exposure and reviews. This is a great opportunity for those of you who have not yet purchased the book to learn more about it and hear what others think. At the end of the tour, I will be giving away a signed copy of the first book, Coming Out of Egypt.

Don’t miss out.

You can follow the tour at the sites listed below where you’ll have a chance to participate in the giveaway.

On A Reading Bender – Oct. 2

The Indie Express   – Oct. 3

Texas Book Nook   – Oct. 4

Momma and Her Stories  – Oct 5

All Things Bookaholic – Oct 6

RABT Book Tours Reviews – wrap up

For those of you who still don’t know what In the Wilderness is all about, here’s a short blurb to whet your appetite:

In The Wilderness – Book 2

Tortured by guilt over killing her father, a crime for which she was never punished, Marva Garcia longs to confide in someone.  But who? Cicely, her former teacher-turned-surrogate – mother, is soon to marry the detective who suspects Marva of murdering her father, and she is too ashamed to confide in her friend Jason who has a romantic interest in her. The only person who knows what she did is her younger sister June whom she was trying to protect when the crime occurred. But June insists they keep quiet about it to avoid Marva being thrown into prison.

Certain that the police will one day arrest her, Marva sees suicide as her only option. But before she can carry out her carefully-laid plans, something terrible happens – something that uncovers her closely guarded secret and leaves her groping in the wilderness. Will Marva now be punished for her crime, or will she receive forgiveness and understanding?

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I’ve been writing about reasons to read Coming Out of Egypt, my first book in the Egypt series, and as promised last week, here’s another love scene between my protagonist, Marva, and her love interest, Jason.

She opened the door, stepped inside, and reached for the light switch. Jason closed the door behind him, and enfolded Marva in his arms. His lips came down on hers.

“I’ve been waiting all evening to do this.” He raised his head, but didn’t release her. “I love you, Moe,” and his mouth found hers again.

Robot-like, Marva returned his kisses. It felt nice being in his arms, but nothing more. Some part of her was out of reach, missing or frozen over.

Jason seemed to sense it. “What’s the matter, Moe?”

Not knowing what to say, she shook her head.

He held her a moment longer, kissed her cheek then released her. “Are you scared? I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do.”

She shook her head again, not looking at him.

She was dead inside, as surely as her father was dead.

After Jason left, Marva threw herself on the bed, wishing she could cry, but no tears came. The moon illuminated the thin curtains, giving them an almost metallic appearance. Droplets of light decorated the sheet at random intervals. Marva touched one of the droplets, marveling at the way the light instantly bathed her finger. She moved her hand to a bigger spot, and the same thing happened.

God. He was in control of everything. He was covering her with His light. He’d saved her from doing something she would have regretted later, and for that she was grateful. So why did she feel like some type of freak? Other girls would die for a guy like Jason, while she hardly felt anything for him, at least not in that way.

You might say this is not a real love scene because it seems one-sided. Jason is passionate about Marva, while her romantic feelings are in lockdown. What a contrast to the previous post with David and Cicely! While that one showed a strong love between the couple, this one showed struggle, conflict. Marva does love Jason, as much as her jagged emotions would allow, but she’s unable to express that love on account of the abuse she suffered from her father. And now that she has become a Christian, she thinks she has no business loving a man.

This is  one of my favorite scenes in the novel, and I hope it will be one of yours too.

Get Coming Out of Egypt free in Kindle Unlimited or purchase it at http://authl.it/ B01FNJ5EIU

You can also sign up to follow my blog in the form below. Thanks for reading.

Greetings once again from sunny Florida! I’m thankful to God that we survived hurricane Irma. Some parts of my neighborhood still look like … well, like a storm hit it, but the crews are doing a great job clearing away fallen trees and branches and tidying the place up. Supermarkets have water again – YIPPEE! – and gas is flowing in the gas stations. My thoughts and prayers are with those in the Caribbean who are now under the gun from hurricane Maria. Please remember them in your prayers and help where you are able.

I promised to update you at least once a month on events in which I will be participating – book signings, giveaways, book reviews and the like. Well, in two days’ time from Sept. 21^st – Oct. 3^rd, I’m participating in an exciting group giveaway of women’s fiction books – Life Changing in the Face of Adversity – Women’s Fiction at its Best

Here’s the link for you to find out more about this exciting giveaway. https://www.instafreebie.com/gg/aWoOiHIiRh3jWYDPccjC   Instafreebie has organized this event and I know it’s going to be a smash. You can win a copy of my book Coming Out of Egypt as well as other stellar women’s fiction books.

Here’s a short blurb for Coming Out of Egypt:

When Marva accidentally kills her father while trying to protect her younger sister June from him, she anticipates a new beginning far from “Egypt” where they once lived. But her new life is not what she envisioned. The strain of trying to elude the police, cope with her rebellious younger sister while holding down her job in a man’s domain drives her to drink. When Cicely, her former teacher, intervenes and leads the girls to Christ, Marva finds some measure of peace, but she still has to be on her guard. Will she one day find the love and happiness she craves, or will she get the punishment she deserves?

Please share this information with your friends and ask them to share as well. Stay tuned for more updates. And please sign up for my newsletter if you haven’t done so yet.

In my last post, I wrote that Coming Out of Egypt, the first book in my Egypt series, has no graphic sexual content and no bloody, gory scenes. However, it does begin just after a murder has taken place. So, you say, no blood and sex, then why should I read it? Glad you asked.

Romance.

You like that, don’t you? Well, Coming Out of Egypt is full of romance. The sweet kind. The kind that makes you think of a knight in shining armor rushing to rescue a damsel in distress. No, not really. It’s not a historical romance, but it has enough passion and sexual tension between the characters to make your toes curl and keep you turning the pages. I am not the only author who likes reading and writing clean romance. I just came across this site  that lists some really good clean romances that I want to check out and you may want to as well.

Here’s an excerpt of a love scene from Coming Out of Egypt between two main characters, Cicely and David.

Love was heavenly.

Despite his busy schedule, he managed to squeeze in a day with them in Toco. They spent it swimming and snorkeling in the sparkling, cool waters of the north coast. When it was time for him to leave for the long drive back to the south, Cicely thought her heart would split with worry. The road was lonely, narrow and winding with steep precipices on either side. Was he sure he could manage alone? Did he have his firearm? Could he radio for help if necessary? He assured her he would be all right. He’d driven all by himself to come, he would be safe. Standing under a spreading almond tree, the wind whipping her hair, she made him promise he would break his journey by spending the night at his mother’s house.

He wrapped his arms around her. “I promise. I’ll call you as soon as I get to Mom’s house.”

“What time will you be there?”

He checked his watch. “Around seven-thirty.” He buried his face in her hair. “God, how I wish I could take you with me.”

She glanced toward the beach house. The others were getting ready for dinner. They wouldn’t miss her until they sat down to eat. But no, she was a grown woman. With an effort, she put a hand on his chest. “Just a couple more days.”

She watched him go, tears welling up in her eyes and running down her face, as salty as the ocean breeze that fanned her skin. He got into the car, started it and waved. She waved back and kept on waving until the little orange bug was out of sight. It was now six. An hour and a half of agony and two more days of loneliness until she returned home. Could there be pain in heaven?

This is love between a mature man and woman. Next time, I’ll show you another type of love – between a much younger couple – the protagonist and her love interest.

Leave a comment below, share this post with your friends and grab yourself a copy of the book free on Kindle Unlimited, or you can buy it on Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FNJ5EIU

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