By the Shore with My Muse by Karen Cino

MUSE MONDAY

Who doesn't love the beach, even if you're not a swimmer like myself? Just sitting in the sun on the sand and hearing the sounds of the water is excellent. Add to that reading a great beach novel! My guest today enjoys that all the time, plus she writes those great beach reads. Please welcome Karen Cino to Discover... for Muse Monday.

I live at the Jersey Shore, and I’ve been a beach lover my whole life. Walking every morning at the boardwalk is the perfect way to start my day. I’ve taken my love of the beach and have incorporated it into my women’s fiction romance and cozy mysteries. Yes, it’s tough during the winter months, but just knowing that the ocean is there every morning, I can’t help but create stories that take place at the shore all year long. If you enjoy reading beach themed books, then take a few minutes to check the other book in the Five Beach Road Series.

Living at the Shore

Blurb: 

     After moving into her grandmother’s summer house at the Jersey Shore to seek solace and new beginnings, Brooke’s tranquil life is disrupted by a past love and her new neighbors. Her newly found friendship with Flo and Jane assists in settling Brooke into her new surroundings. When she finds herself in the middle of her neighbors’ domestic disputes, it puts further strain on her relationship with Scott. Flo continues to come to terms with her past decisions about her daughter’s adoption, while maintaining a relationship with Jerry. A misunderstanding on Thanksgiving put her relationship to the test.
     Jane’s bakery is blooming and she’s settling in nicely in her relationship with Mark, however, she’s still battling old wounds from her deceased ex-husband, causing her to second guess moving forward with Mark.
     All three women are battling demons from the past, deterring them from making a commitment to their future relationship. Their friendship is a rich tapestry of interconnected stories about overcoming adversity through support systems found in their friendships. 

Excerpt: 

Brooke walked him down the spiral staircase to the door and waited for his car to disappear down the block before she walked into the kitchen. Scott O’Keffe had been her godsend. He was unlike any man she had known. She became instantly attracted to him the night she met him at the tiki bar and they had their first dance. By the end of the summer, their relationship had bloomed into something that Brooke never thought was possible for her.

The doorbell rang, interrupting her thoughts. As she walked down the spiral stairs again, she rolled her eyes. Brooke flung open the door and gasped. This can’t be happening. The last thing she expected to see was her ex-boyfriend, Eric, especially since she had put that part of her life to rest. Now, he stood at her front door, dressed in clothes she had given him. Her legs weakened, and she felt butterflies in her stomach. She knew it was essential to keep her cool and not let him break her down. She had no intentions of turning the clocks back in time. After all, she had come to grips with her emotions for Eric months ago.

“Brooke?” Eric waved papers in her face.

“Eric, what the hell are you doing here?”

“I did it. I asked her for a divorce.” He handed her a set of divorce papers. “It’s official. We can finally be together. I’m here to take you home.”

Brooke dropped her glance to look at the papers, flicking through them until she got to the last page with the seal. Why, after all these years, did he make the plunge to file for divorce? They had spoken about him leaving her years ago, but he never followed through. Seal or not, she wasn’t going back. Slowly, she raised her gaze back to Eric. “Congratulations on your divorce, but I am home,” Brooke said, blocking the door.

“Sweetheart, please, let me in so we can talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. We’re over. Nothing you say or do will change my mind. I have created a new life here and have no intention of changing my routine. It’s too late for us.”

“I’m so sorry I hurt you.” Eric slid his hands into his back pockets and leaned toward her. “Please, I did this for us.”

Brooke handed him back the papers. “This has no bearing on my decision. You strung me along for years. You didn’t do this for us, you did it for you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Eric asked, rolling the papers in his hand. “I thought this is what you wanted.”

“No, Eric. This was a decision you had to make on your own. All you’ve done was complain about your wife for years, and how you hated being there. You said that she was bipolar and wouldn’t be able to handle you leaving her. So, my guess is she was the one who initiated the divorce.”

“No, you’re wrong. I…I…I can’t live without you.”

“I thought the same thing for the longest time. I’ve moved on and learned to live without you.”

“I don’t believe you. You’d repeatedly said how much you loved me and wanted to be with me. What changed?”

“I can ask you the same thing, Eric. Tell me the truth. Did you ask her for a divorce or is she divorcing you?”

Eric dropped his gaze down to the floor, shuffling his feet on the wooden porch, confusion written all over his face. Brooke took a deep breath. Eric was a mess. And as much as her heart went out to him, she still stood her ground.

“She did,” he whispered. “She told me she was tired of me being out all night and she had found my secret phone in the car’s glove compartment.”

BUY LINKS

AMAZON

DRAFT TO DIGITAL

Down at the Shore 

https://www.amazon.com/Down-Shore-Five-Beach-Road-ebook/dp/B09F6Z73FY/

Karen Cino is a multi-published author who has been writing since she was fourteen years old. She started her career by writing poetry, short stories and articles for her high school newspaper. While in college, she was one of the foundling member of WSIA radio station. Many years later, she worked as an investigator reporter at a local newspaper. Her daily walks down at the boardwalk are what gets her muse going. It clears her mind and helps her find realistic plot ideas and characters, boosting up her muse. Karen loves writing about local places that people can relate to. 

Karen loves the summer, loves the beach. Her previous books were written and take place in various places across Staten Island. When Karen relocated to the Jersey Shore back in 2015, she traded in the Staten Island Boardwalk for the New Jersey Shoreline. 

Currently, Karen is working on a Women’s Fiction as well as a Cozy Mystery series.

FIND KAREN HERE:

Website: https://karencino.com

Facebook: https://facebook.com/karencino

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/karencino

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ladymandolay

Newsletter: https://subscribepage.io/jGP7wi

In The Book, Female Friendship is the Best #girlpower #inspiration

In the current state of social distancing (although I much prefer we use the term physical distancing), we can still stay in touch in real time with social media, text, Skype, etc. Let's transport back in time and think of how our life would be impacted if we didn't have all of these immediate outreach abilities.

I'm old enough to remember when letter writing was the primary mode of communication. If it still was, we'd feel much more isolated, I suppose, but what fun it would be to go to the mailbox everyday and find more than junk mail.

The inspiration for Amanda in the Summer came from a letter in my mail. Actually, it wasn't a letter but a handmade invitation to a wedding. The one-page, 8x11 folded piece of paper resembled a peach-cloud in color, and as I pulled it from the envelope the words "Amanda in summer" came together because of the way the paper had been folded.

Those three words became my inspiration for my short novelette Amanda in the Summer. An image of a woman, sitting on a blanket on the beach, pregnant and writing a letter came to me so colorful and evoked such emotions, I knew there was a story.

Amanda in the Summer is about the friendship between women through three generations. The story is told entirely through the letters of the these women.

So...during this time of physical distancing, are you women keeping your connections going with your close female friends? How are you managing? Do you have longtime female friendships? Our bonds can be a powerful essence for our sanity.

A line of women, all named Amanda, stretches back for generations. Each with her hopes, her joys, her pain—each pouring out her heart in correspondence with a dear family friend who shares their lives, understands their loves, and joins in their sorrows.

But within the correspondence lies a secret. And as the youngest of the Amandas retraces the journey through the years—beginning in post-war America and following through to modern day—the letters reveal, layer by layer, the Amandas who came before her. Soon, the truths and lies hidden in the letters lead her down a path of self-discovery that forges a bond between her past and future.

AMAZON

iBOOKS ON iTUNES

BARNES AND NOBLE

Not Your Usual #Villain by Jean M. Grant #MotherNature

WICKED WEDNESDAY

Mother Nature can be a wicked lady. Even in her beauty, the volatile presence can make for a great villain. My guest today, Jean Grant, uses this fact to spin a great story. Tell us about it, Jean.

I have an interesting villain in Will Rise from Ashes. It’s not human. It’s not alien. It’s Mother Nature at her best: the Yellowstone Supervolcano. Though it can come off as fantastical, two giant magma chambers sit beneath Yellowstone National Park. It bubbles and hisses and erupts (ala geysers) daily. Will it unleash a grand eruption again? Yes. Tomorrow? Maybe not. Soon? Geologically speaking, yes.

Yellowstone is a scientist’s Disneyworld.

How about some cool facts about this sneaky villain?

1. Yellowstone National Park became the first National Park in 1872. Over 5 million people visit it annual.
2. Yellowstone is a hydrothermal wonderland with over 10,000 hydrothermal features: geysers, hot springs, mudpots, steam vents, and over 500 geysers. It is a very active volcano.
3. The park is the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, covering 2.2 million acres.
4. Yellowstone is a supervolcano. Two massive magma bodies bubble beneath the park.
5. There are over 20 supervolcanoes across the globe, Yellowstone being one of them.
6. Old Faithful has been very faithful, erupting approximately every 90 minutes.
7. Sadly, human trash and pollution has caused many of the vibrant hot pools to lose their color over the years. However, Yellowstone has created innovated programs to manage waste and human impact.
8. Yellowstone has had 3 [2 of them being “supervolcanic”] caldera-forming eruptions over the past 3 million years (2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago, respectively). The last eruption was 174,000 years ago, with 60 smaller ones since.
9. The VEI scale measures explosivity of volcanoes and runs from 0 to 8.
10. To date over 92 people have died in the park, mostly from falling into burning hot springs, off ledges, or tempting fate with a bison.

Where can you learn more? The USGS and Yellowstone National Park websites are great places to get accurate facts. Happy digging, my aspiring geologists!

Set in present day, Will Rise from Ashes takes a mother on a perilous journey across the country to find her missing son in the wake of the Yellowstone volcano’s eruption. Though the eruption is not supervolcanic in level, it is BIG, and unleashes ash, destruction, chaos, and death upon half of the USA, forever impacting the country and world. Young widow AJ Sinclair travels with her 9-year-old autistic/Asperger’s son as her co-pilot straight for ground zero. Along the way, her son and a stranger she meets show her a world that she's almost forgotten...that living is more than mere survival. The book (women’s fiction) is a story of heartache, healing, and hope…exploring grief, anxiety/depression, autism…and redemption.

Social Media links:

Website ~ Twitter  ~ Facebook ~  Goodreads ~ Bookbub ~ Amazon Author Page ~  The Wild Rose Press

Buy links:

Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ iTunes ~ Kobo ~ GooglePlay ~ soon to be on Audible (later 2019)

In The Book: When #Inspiration Strikes #girlpower

In the Book

One spring day, I received an invitation for Ben and Amanda for a summer wedding. The invitation was on a full sheet of paper, folded. Because of the folds, the first thing I saw was "Amanda in summer." I was instantly transported to another era. Holding a folded sheet of paper was reminiscent of an age of letter writing communication. That led me to a woman named Amanda, toes in the sand on a summer day. Inspiration hit. I wish I’d kept a detailed account of where my mind wandered. But I didn’t. The complexity of this brief novella tells the tale.

Three generations of women…and the secret that strengthens their love.

Imagine summertime, lazy days, lying on the beach watching the waves roll in and writing a letter to your best friend. Okay, this is probably totally foreign to some of you. Write a letter? Why not just call or text? In 1947, you wouldn’t have had that option. Writing a letter was an art, an intimate exchange and a satisfying pastime. The excitement of waiting for a reply and checking the mailbox every day was a treat.

Amanda in the Summer is told through that old-fashioned way of communicating. Three of my characters are named Amanda, mother, daughter and granddaughter, and through letters they write to Tilly, over the course of fifty-seven years, a story of love, pain, secrets and joy unfolds.

We never hear from Tilly, but through the words of the three Amandas we meet the woman who is the epitome of the forward-thinking female of her era. She’s a member of the beat generation of the forties and fifties and holds a secret that affects all three generations of Amandas. Although each generation has her own voice, the friendship and love remain constant. But then there’s that secret…

BUY LINKS: 

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