Today we're welcoming author Dora Hiers to the blog on her tour with Goddess Fish Promotions for the Contemporary Inspirational Romantic Suspense series, The Marshals of Journey Creek. The series includes: Journey's Edge, Journey's End and Journey's Embrace.
Dora is giving away a $10 Pelican Book Group GC and EVERY stop, so comment today AND follow her tour (if you click on the banner over there on the left, it'll take you to a list of her tour stops)! The more you read and comment, the better your odds of winning. You could be introduced to a great new author AND win a GC! Thank you so much for stopping by!
Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?
I enjoy romances sprinkled with forgiveness and courage, of second chances and happy endings. I’m a firm believer that romance isn’t about the bedroom, so I write stories that I’m not embarrassed for my children or grandchildren to pick up and read. They won’t find graphic words or bedroom scenes.
They will meet characters dealing with real life issues such as single parenthood, domestic violence, weak self-images, emotional or physical abandonment, job-related dangers, and more. Characters who live out honor and courage. Characters who struggle with decisions and don’t always make the best choices. Characters who may have unsavory backgrounds, but choose to grow and move past the person they were.
You’ll laugh with my heroes and heroines, maybe cry with them, but just sit back and enjoy the ride because my books always end with a happily-ever-after.
What research is required?
Does moving count? lol. My books are contemporary, so I have the luxury of choosing from popular names for my characters, but I did have to nail down the setting. Originally, I planned to use north Georgia, our family’s favorite vacation destination, for the series, but I wanted to know more about the area than what I could glean over the internet. I wanted to live in, to experience, to belong to my setting. Well, we did move, not due to my writing, but for hubby’s job change. After moving to North Carolina and falling in love with the area, I changed the setting to Journey Creek, a fictional city northeast of Charlotte, to offer readers accurate details, a place to belong, or long to be.
For the actual stories, Journey’s End germinated from a newspaper article about a mobster, finally convicted for his crimes years later. Intrigued, I played the “what if” game until I came up with the premise, which ended up nothing like the original account. The internet is a fabulous research tool, and I used it. Hubby teases that he worries about the possibility of a couple men in suits showing up at the front door, especially since I finished the Marshals series and moved on to the CIA.
Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.
Renner Crossman from Journey’s Edge taught me about freedom and courage. Freedom to recognize that we’re not perfect, that it’s OK to mess up, and the freedom that comes from releasing our guilt. Courage to put the past behind you, to forgive and be forgiven, to move on, looking forward to the future. Renner recognized that he messed up, but he also demonstrated the courage and desire to make things right. He’s not the same guy he was ten years ago, but neither is his ex-fiancé, McKinley Frasier. And she can’t seem to resist the new and improved version…
Any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?
My creativity takes a drastic nosedive in the afternoons, so I write mostly in the mornings. I’m a routine kinda gal. You won’t find me huddled over my laptop at my favorite coffee shop.
Noise bothers me. I enjoy quiet while I write. No music or distractions, just the soft snores of my golden retriever and the chattering of the birds and the antics of squirrels outside my window. And I tend to go into near panic mode if I don’t have a drink next to me. My faves: coffee, iced tea, diet soda and hot chocolate in the winter.
Plotter or pantser?
I'm methodical to the point of dividing my shopping list by aisles in the grocery store. I eat the same thing for breakfast every morning and go to bed about the same time every night.
Which would you think I am, plotter or pantser? If you guessed plotter, you’d be wrong. I may have initial ideas for a character or a scene floating around in my head, but then I sit down at my laptop and let my fingers fly. My goal is to give birth to great characters and hook a reader into an opening scene, and let the story flow organically from there.
Look to your right – what’s sitting there?
A printer. A glass of iced tea. Pictures of my hubby and sons. (Hmmm…no pics of the grandkids yet. I shall have to remedy that.) My calendar. Notes for my current wip. A Mother’s Day vase that my youngest son created for me while in 3rd grade (he’s now a college senior). The itinerary for a European cruise we’re considering taking this fall with my parents. The registration form for the 2013 Book ‘Em North Carolina Book Fair. Books on craft. An award for Journey’s Edge. CD’s that I never listen to. (Why haven’t I moved them somewhere else?) Paperwork from my latest book signing.
Anything new coming up from you? What?
I’m excited about the upcoming release of the third book in my Marshals of Journey Creek series, Journey’s Embrace.
After an injury forces Deputy U.S. Marshal Sage Michaelson off duty, he heads to his hometown with two things on his mind: recuperating and reevaluating, but Sage can’t refuse his best friend’s plea to keep a protective eye on his little sister after someone ransacks her house. But Delaney’s not so little anymore—and definitely not the young “Dane” Sage remembers.
Flight Medic Delaney Hunt has loved Sage forever. But, he’s all about control and order while she embraces life and takes risks. As much as the idea appeals to her, she doesn’t need Sage looking over her shoulder. But when things go wrong and she finds herself hanging by her fingertips, who does she call to rescue her?
Will Delaney ever be the woman Sage wants by his side? Can Sage learn to live by grace, recognizing that God is in control? Can they overcome their fears to embrace life together?
I couldn’t believe how sad I was to type the end on Journey’s Embrace, to close the Marshals series. I’d come to love Journey Creek and the characters who found a place to belong, to find love and their happily-ever-after.
But, it didn’t take me long to embrace Promise Lake, a fictional city in the mountains of North Carolina. I just submitted my first sweet novella in this series for consideration with White Rose Publishing. No danger. No suspense. Just a lot of heart-racing romance in When Truth Whispers. Want a peek?
After a humiliating breakup, best-selling romance author Teal Benning flees to Promise Lake to complete her current novel, minus paparazzi and flashing cameras. Suffering from writer's block and a broken heart, Teal accepts the offer of help from neighbor, Hunter Miciver. Hunter longs to be more than the friend who picks up the shattered pieces of Teal's heart. When Teal finds out his secret, will she see him for the man he is, a man of faith and devotion, a man who would cherish her for the rest of her days? Or will she lump him into the same category as all the other men in her life, including her father? Will Teal recognize when truth whispers her name?
Care to put in a good word for me?
Do you have a question for our readers?
Sure! I have a couple. Do you prefer reading an e-book or print book? Where is your favorite online source to buy books?
Thank you so much for inviting me to share with you today!
An auditor seeks protection for her daughter from an ex-fiancé after an irate client threatens. Does it add up to trouble or love?
A Routine Audit? Hardly.
Red flags—including some goon who's following her—raise McKinley Frasier's suspicions that numbers don't add up at the insurance firm. When someone tries to snatch McKinley's daughter from school, she turns to police officer and ex-fiance, Renner Crossman—the cop who walked out on her a month before their wedding. But Renner's not the same guy who broke her heart ten years ago. He calls himself a "new man." She trusts the new Renner with her daughter's safety...but what about her heart?
Tagline: A brutal murder...a devastated life rebuilt...where one journey ends, another begins.
Devastated after the brutal murder of her husband, Chelsea Hammond vows never to love another lawman. Intent on rebuilding her shattered life, she turns her focus to helping troubled teens. But when an angry father bent on retaliation, threatens her, Chelsea must turn to the one man she never thought to trust: Deputy U.S. Marshal Trey Colten.
Trey wants only to protect Chelsea, but she blames him for her husband’s death. Trey can relate. He blames himself, also. As danger lurks, Trey begs Chelsea to heed his warnings. He let down one Hammond. He won’t let down another—especially one who now holds his heart.
When Chelsea is snatched from her home, can she put aside her fear, and trust Trey with her life? Can she forgive him for destroying her past and let him help to rebuild her future?
Where one journey ends, another begins…
After an injury forces Deputy U.S. Marshal Sage Michaelson off duty, he heads to his hometown with two things on his mind: recuperating and reevaluating, but Sage can’t refuse his best friend’s plea to keep a protective eye on his little sister after someone ransacks her house. But Delaney’s not so little anymore—and definitely not the young “Dane” Sage remembers.
Flight Medic Delaney Hunt has loved Sage forever. But, he’s all about control and order while she embraces life and takes risks. As much as the idea appeals to her, she doesn’t need Sage looking over her shoulder. But when things go wrong and she finds herself hanging by her fingertips, who does she call to rescue her?
Will Delaney ever be the woman Sage wants by his side? Can Sage learn to live by grace, recognizing that God is in control? Can they overcome their fears to embrace life together?
Purchase Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_tc_2_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3ADora+Hiers&keywords=Dora+Hiers&ie=UTF8&qid=1333027958&sr=1-2-ent&field-contributor_id=B005FCDYB0
Pelican Book Group: http://www.pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/journey-s-edge-softcover
Autographed Copies: http://dorahiers.blogspot.com/
Readers can connect with Dora:
Website: www.dorahiers.com
Email: Dora@DoraHiers.com
Blog: http://dorahiers.blogspot.com/
Facebook: Dora Hiers Author
Twitter: @DoraHiers
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting me today and for featuring my Marshals of Journey Creek books so beautifully! I appreciate your hospitality.
Good morning, all!
It's great to have you here today -- your books sound fantastic!
DeleteThank you for hosting Dora today.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to find your books. I've read some Christian suspense by authors like Dee Hendersen, and really like the genre. Yours sound awesome!
ReplyDeleteRe: your question -- I read both, though I've really begun to prefer ebooks. I can read on my phone or my Nook or even my computer. But I love being able to have a library in my pocket.
I'm with you, M_Nark. I enjoy reading print books, but a kindle makes traveling so much easier. In the past, if we traveled for a week, I'd lug along 8 or 9 books. Didn't want to run out. Now, it's so convenient just to load up the kindle.
DeleteThanks for your kind words. I'm a Dee Henderson fan, too. Did you know she has a new book coming out in October?