Please help me welcome Beth Cornelison, multi-published author. I have known her for years, and she always has something interesting to say. She is a prize winning author with more books due out SOON! 

Good morning Beth 

Setting the Scene for TRUST IN ME 

Thank you, Pink Fuzzy Slippers ladies, for the opportunity to set the scene of my small town contemporary romance, TRUST IN ME. First a story, then I'll tell you how you can get TRUST IN ME for FREE!

The summer after I finished sixth grade, my family moved from Missouri to Augusta, Georgia. One of the benefits of this move was that we were now four hours away from my grandmother, who lived in Asheville, North Carolina, instead of sixteen hours. My mom took advantage of the chance to visit her aging mother as often as possible, meaning my sisters and I also made the trip. I loved the opportunity to visit with my grandmother, but just as I have cherished memories of the time at my grandmother's house, I remember well the drive through rural South Carolina to reach Asheville.

In particular, I remember driving through Clinton, South Carolina, a picturesque small town and home of Presbyterian College. Clinton became my model of small town life and beauty when story ideas and characters for TRUST IN ME started whispering in my mind.

The tall ancient oaks lined the streets with branches that ached over the road to create a shady tunnel of greenery. The old homes, both large and small, harkened to a bygone age. The railroad tracks we bumped over at the center of town and small businesses that lined the main street barber shops, hardware stores and drug stores were reminders of the days before superstores and malls ruled the retail landscape. Home owners' well-tended lawns blossomed in summertime with a rainbow of flowers and blooming shrubs. I can remember rolling down my window just to catch a whiff of the floral scents that perfumed the air.

In a residential area of Clinton, we'd pass the lovely campus of Presbyterian College with its stately Georgian style brick buildings and shady quads, and I began forming ideas of the sort of college campus I wanted to call home when I graduated high school.

Not far from town, along the country highways that cris-crossed the state, peach orchards and vegetable gardens yielded crops that were sold in the numerous roadside stands. I have never eaten a sweeter, more delicious peach than the ones grown in western South Carolina.  Large pastures with cows idly grazing, farm houses and mobile homes with dogs sleeping in the sun added to the slow-paced, nostalgic feeling of this beautiful small town.

Time passed, and I married and moved away from Georgia. My grandmother grew ill and needed to be placed in a nursing home closer to my mom, and I was no longer making that trip from Georgia to North Carolina via Clinton, South Carolina. Yet when I started writing TRUST IN ME, Clinton was burned in my brain as the idyllic setting for my small town romance.

My hero, Kevin, worked in a family owned hardware store like the ones that lined Clinton's main street. Heroine Claire dreamed of attending Harrison University, based on Presbyterian College, and she rented a room from an elderly lady who lived in one of the old homes with a bounty of sweet smelling flowers and dogwood trees blooming in the yard. Kevin lived in one of the mobile homes outside the town limits and even had a stray mutt who adopted him. I also had the owner of one of those roadside peach stands came to shop at Lowery's Hardware.

Although I changed the name of the town so that I could take some creative license, the inspiration for my small town of Grayson came from those summertime trips up and down the highways between Georgia and North Carolina, and my fond memories of Clinton, South Carolina.

Would you like to visit Grayson? Now is the perfect time, because for a limited time TRUST IN ME is available for $.99!

AMAZON -- http://amzn.to/t2XHkr

APPLE -- http://bit.ly/taWZAd

BARNES AND NOBLE -- http://bit.ly/vTCqv7

Beth Cornelison   bcornelison@comcast.net

TRUST IN ME- Amazon Kindle- http://amzn.to/t2XHkr

CHASING A DREAM- Now on Kindle! http://tinyurl.com/6snewon

SOLDIER’S PREGNANCY PROTOCOL- Black Ops Rescues Bk 1- June 2012

THE REUNION MISSION- Black Ops Rescues Bk 2- August 2012

COLTON’S RANCH REFUGE-  October 2012

www.bethcornelison.com

Ladies, Please ask Beth plenty of questions!  

Thanks, and happy reading, Beth C

Please welcome fabulous author Carmen Green. I've known Carmen forever. She has graciously agreed to be our guest today.

What was your first published book and to whom?
Now or Never –Kensington Publishing Corp 1995

What themes go through your books? I’m most known for the Crawford Family. I enjoy writing about families because I come from a big family and they’re very involved in my life. I derive a great amount of comfort in writing about what I know most. I also write about strong women characters who are single and meet men who ultimately convince them to commit to a relationship.

How did you write with kids and deadlines?
It was hard sometimes! I wrote in the car, doctor’s office and in bed. I became very versatile. Writing is a business that needs to be responded to. My children were a priority when they were small, but they’re grown now and I’m home alone now, so I write according to deadlines and other priorities. I have challenges, but I respond to them accordingly. I work writing as a business. I have work hours and I go to school full-time. I write all day long and all night too. When I’m not writing, I’m reading and when I’m not doing that, I’m sleep.


How many books have you published? I think 25.

Other jobs you've had? I don’t know. I’m a student now. I’m finishing my Master’s Degree in Creative Writing.

What do you love most about writing and do you not like? I love creating stories and people that don’t exist. I love that! I hate being in the house all the time. But I’m not a big fan of noise either so going into the world has its disadvantages. See, writers are quirky.


What are you writing now? I just told Mary I’m writing 4 book and you should see her eyes. She said what?? Yes, but they’re at different stages. One is for school, which is my thesis. The second is due in August, and that’s an internal deadline—meaning it’s not due to the publisher until November but I have another due in October so this one has to be done now. The third is October, and that’s in the synopsis/chapter breakdown phase, and the fourth is in the synopsis/three chapter phase ready to be developed.

What would you write if you could do write anything you wanted to write? My thesis novel. It’s about a woman with OCD(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).