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
Hi, Beth. Welcome to the PFS. You know I've been a fan since we first met on-line and sharing oh no's over 24 and Jack Bauer.
I loved your post. It is funny how we drawn from our past when crafting stories.
My question, you write both romantic suspense and contemporary. Healing Luke is one book that has stayed on my keeper helf. Which genre is your true love and why?
I have Trust In Me download already and hope to read it soon.
Hi Autumn! I have to say romantic suspense is probably my first love. Action scenes are by far easier for me to write because I can see the scene unfold in my head. But every now and then a purely romance idea or conflict comes to me and I have to write it. So when I do have a straght romance story, you'll know it is a conflict and characters near and dear to me!
I miss Jack Bauer...don't you? He inspired my newest release with Harlequin, Soldier's Pregnancy Protocol. Be sure to check it out! :-)
I definitely miss Jack. I'm hooked on TOUCH now. Heck, anything with Keifer. BTW, my expected GD will be named Khloe. I'm so happy about that choice of name.
I'll definitely check out the new release. Congrats!
Hi Beth, I write contemporary, both medical and suspense. In my romantic suspense, I like to have a believable love story that develops alongside the suspense plot and because of it. Any advice on how to do that?
Hi Beth,
Enjoyed your blog, and you drew me in with your lovely description
of South Carolina. I write mostly women's fiction and contemporary romance, but I prefer to read suspense and would like to try my hand at that. One day!
Glad to see you here today at the PFS Beth!
I wish you the best of sales. I myself am hooked on North Carolina. The smoky mountains call to me!
Good luck with your latest book, sounds fantastic. Looking forward to a great read.
Hi Beth. You always have such informative posts. I learn something every time. In your book, The Prodigal Bride, Zoey was such an unusual character, especially for category romance. I don't want to give a spoilier, but I loved how you transformed a current problem in American society into something positive.
Hi all- sorry to be late getting back to you. Crazy day yesterday!
Mona-Best I can tell you in limited space is just to be sure as you set up the story that the suspense conflict and the romantic conflict are somehow related. In Soldier's Pregnancy Protocol, they are looking for the person who betrayed the hero and he's keeping her safe...all this involves lots of danger and stunts like skydiving and gun battles. The conflict for the heroine is that she lost her first husband in a rappelling accident and is afraid of getting involved with another adrenaline junkie. She wants a quiet life to raise her baby... so every time the danger cranks up in the external plot, it reinforces for her the reasons she can't be with Alec. See what I'm saying?
Mary- I love the Smoky Mts too!
Patrice, thanks for stopping by. Good luck with your writing!
Thanks for the nice words about Zoey! I loved her, even with all her issues!
Happy reading all!
Hi, Beth! Glad you could join the fuzzies. I love how you work your past experiences into a wonderful setting for your story. It makes it come alive for everyone. Thanks for the sweet offer on your book! Good luck with all your stories!@!
Beth,
I'm chiming in late, but wanted to extend a belated welcome to our Pink Fuzzies blog. Asheville is a beautiful town.