I live on a farm. I grew up in the suburbs of D.C. and southern California then lived everywhere from Texas to the Carolinas. A few years ago, I moved with my three children to a slanted little house outside a tiny town in West Virginia. My family history here goes back over 200 years. After living in a 100-year-old farmhouse for two and a half years, we built a new farmhouse a few miles over the hill on our own farm on forty acres so remote you have to drive through three creeks in one direction or ford a river in the other to even get there.


This spring, we’re planting our first garden on our new farm and starting our first chicken flock. We’re planning miniature goats, a few cows, and a horse, too. Tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, blackberries and blueberries. And who knows what else. It’s all fun. I love my life.


I have a slight fixation with sheep.





I have a lot of pets, especially cats.





I also like to take pictures of outhouses.

I write books, too. You can find out more about my romance novels here. My books have been translated into dozens of languages and published all over the world.

I get excited about things like new farmgirl boots, thornless blackberries, and a perfect loaf of bread. I get especially excited about sheep. And outhouses.

Welcome to our journey into the simple, often vanishing, life of rural America in the country outside one tiny town in the Appalachian foothills as we find the true meaning of home–and life–outside the noise of suburban sprawl and suburban conveniences. I post daily in my farmhouse journal chronicling my photography, (sometimes silly, sometimes serious) stories, recipes, crafts, and sentimental thoughts on the history, people, life, and beauty of rural Appalachia. In my how-to pages, you’ll also find more detailed posts of our experiences and lessons learned in farming, cooking, simple living, and more. This blog has been featured in Living Appalachian and the Roane County Times Record.





Your company and your comments are appreciated. Feel free to email me using the contact link below, or drop a note in the blog.

Love,

Goodbye, city life….. If you’ve just moved to the country, or are still dreaming about it, here you’ll find fun and inspiring stories about rural living. And if you’ve lived in the country all your life, or have since moved away, feel free to laugh, and take a moment to enjoy the memories.

A few years ago, I moved to West Virginia, to a place where my ancestors go back two hundred years, with my three suburban children. Sometimes funny, sometimes sentimental, our experiences in the ordinary splendor of rural life always leave me awed. Here are a few of my favorite stories:

Read more stories every day on the farmhouse blog. Subscribe to my feed for all the latest updates, and please browse the other fun things available on Chickens in the Road while you’re here!

I wasn’t born in West Virginia, but I got here as soon as I could. Filled with preternaturally beautiful forests, wild rivers and streams, and majestic hills and mountains, there’s nothing like it. Here you’ll find places you’ll want to go, things you’ll want to do, and love for this wild, wonderful state.

A few of my favorite daytripping stories:

More features coming soon. This area of my site is currently under development. Subscribe to my feed for all the latest updates, and please browse the other fun things available on Chickens in the Road while you’re here!

There’s something almost magical about a barn, especially an old barn with its weathered wood, its history and its memories. But it’s not all romance–it’s hard work. Satisfying hard work. Here, I’ll be posting my stories and lessons learned as we build our own new “old” barn and populate our forty-acre farm with chickens and horses and goats, oh my! We’re starting this spring with our first flock of chickens.

Books
General
Barnyard in Your Backyard, by Gail Damerow

Chickens
Chickens in Your Backyard: A Beginner’s Guide, by Rick and Gail Luttmann
Living with Chickens: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Backyard Flock, by Jay Rossier
Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, by Gail Damerow

Goats
Storey’s Guide to Raising Dairy Goats, by Jerry Belanger

Resources
General
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Learn about and raise heirloom breeds.

Chickens
The World of Jenotopia
Links to information on predators, housing, supplies, and breed information, plus chicken web cams and chicken blogs!
Incubation of Poultry
Part of the University of Missouri Extension Service’s Small Flock series.
The ICYouSee Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart
An alphabetical list of more than 60 chicken breeds with comparative information.
Murray McMurry Hatchery
The world’s largest rare breed hatchery.

Goats
Fias Co Farm
Goat care, health, information, cheesemaking.
Hoegger Goat Supply
Online store for goat farmers.

New features posted regularly! Subscribe to my feed for all the latest updates, and please browse the other fun things available on Chickens in the Road while you’re here!

Whether you have forty acres or a pot on your back deck, country gardening is all about the simplicity of nature, the satisfaction of physical labor, and the soul-comforting pleasure of creating something beautiful out of seeds and dirt. Enjoy the ideas and tips here for your own earthly delights, and let me know how your garden grows!

Resources
Gurney’s Seed and Nursery

My favorite online garden center.
Seed Savers
A non-profit organization that saves and shares heirloom seeds.

New features added regularly. Subscribe to my feed for all the latest updates, and please browse the other fun things available on Chickens in the Road while you’re here!

Colors and textures, collections and trash-to-treasure, country style is anything you want it to be. It’s birdhouses and old washtubs, rustic lighting and rag rugs. It’s peaceful, calming, and everything that is feel-good about a home. Most importantly, it’s personal, and often home-made. Here you’ll find directions for simple, fun, hand-made primitive crafts and ideas for country style.

Books
Homemade Soap
Soapmaking for Fun & Profit, by Maria Nerius

Handmade Candles
Basic Candle Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started, by Eric Ebeling

New features added regularly. Subscribe to my feed for all the latest updates, and please browse the other fun things available on Chickens in the Road while you’re here!

I believe in real food. I cook to please–the ones I love, and myself. Recipes that are just challenging enough to be interesting, but easy enough for everyday. Recipes that taste fantastic, look beautiful as they’re served, and make my kitchen smell like heaven. I especially love to bake bread. There is nothing more real–or more miraculous–than making an incredible loaf of bread out of a few dry ingredients and water. Bread is, truly, the epitome of life in ordinary splendor. Pull up a chair at the farmhouse table for my favorite, secret breads, all sorts of other country recipes, and more!

New recipes added regularly. Subscribe to my feed for all the latest updates, and please browse the other fun things available on Chickens in the Road while you’re here!

Category Index Pages

1. The Farmhouse Table
   (Recipes and More)
2. Primitive Crafts & Country Style
3. The Country Garden
4. The Old Barn
   (Animals and Farming)
5. Wild, Wonderful West Virginia
6. Living the Country Dream

Welcome to the How to Do Stuff main index on Chickens in the Road! Click the category index pages above to find all sorts of fun, frugal, useful, and creative ideas for simple but splendid living, whether you live in the country or just want a bit of the country in your city or suburban home. Be sure to check out my daily farmhouse blog for all the latest and don’t forget to subscribe to my feed! Feel free to contact me with comments or questions either via posting in my blog or by email. Find out more about our farm here.

Enjoy!

Suzanne’s books have been published in over two dozen countries around the world!

[page_polls]

Welcome to my FAQs page! Here you’ll find a variety of questions from readers with answers from me.

Actually, I don’t have a good answer for some of the most popular questions that appear in my reader email, such as: Are there going to be any more “PAX League” books? (Wanna see more PAX books? Email me and let me know!) And–Are there going to be any more “Sword and the Ring” books? The truth is, I don’t know yet. Check my News page regularly and my daily farmhouse journal,Chickens in the Road, for the latest updates!

Now, for questions I can answer……

Q: If you weren’t an author, what would you be?
A: A cat.

Q: Do you have any input on what your covers look like and how do they come up with them?
A: I do have some input, but I don’t know how they really come up with them. Getting a good cover involves some ritualistic candle-lighting, chanting, dancing at midnight beneath a full moon….. (I’m just kidding. I think.)

Q: Can you tell me more about the international trips you’ve been on?
A: I love to daytrip and to travel, but I’ve only been on one international trip–to England in November 2006. You can see pictures and commentary from the trip by clicking here and here.

(Pictured right: Corfe Castle.)

Q: How has your career as a writer changed your life?
A: I’ve been a fulltime writer most of my adult life, so I’m not sure how to say it has changed my life. I’ve always been a writer and always wanted to be one. It’s the best job in the world!

Q: What are your most favorite and least favorite parts of being a writer?
A: Most favorite is definitely the freedom to work from home. Least favorite would probably be the lack of a regular income.

Q: I listened to one of your workshops on tape (or I heard about one of your workshops from a friend). Can you send me the handouts?
A:If you attended one of my workshops where I ran out of handouts, I’m always happy to mail a set of handouts later. Otherwise, unfortunately, I can’t send handouts either through the mail or through attachments. If you’re interested in taking one of my workshops (or hosting one for your organization), please check my Writers page for workshops I’m currently presenting (both on-location and online) and my News page sidebar for my upcoming schedule.

Q: Are those your cats pictured on your Bio page?
A:Yes, those are my cats. Pictured on my Bio page in the mailbox is Sugar, in the plastic is Spice, and sitting on my laptop is Buttercup.

(Pictured here, from left to right: Smoky, Spice, Purrsian.)

Q: Have any of your books been translated into other languages?
A: Yes, my books have been published all over the world and in numerous other languages. You can see some of my foreign bookcovers on my Extras page.

(Pictured: my daughter.)

Q: Is there anything in your writing you’d like to explore–different genre, specific situations, etc?
A:I’ve written short and long contemporaries, sexy books, romantic comedy, family and relationship stories, traditional romance, paranormal and romantic suspense, and even done a trilogy of medievals. I’ve explored quite a bit of the romance genre–but yes, there’s more! I’d love to try new things in the paranormal subgenre. Maybe a vampire book! I’d love to do more sexy contemporaries, and I’d really love to do some more historicals some day, more medievals, and I have a secret hankering to write a Viking book……

Q: Does your environment influence your creativity and writing?
A:Absolutely. I live in West Virginia now, and my latest series, Haven, is set in the rural West Virginia mountains where I live. I’m always inspired by my surroundings and have often set books where I have lived or have travelled. Several of the photographs on this page are from daytrips around wild, wonderful West Virginia.

I love digital photography and often post pictures on my blog as well as on my photoblog.

(Pictured here: The New River from Hawk’s Nest State Park.)

Q: How do you develop your characters for your stories–their personalities, names, backgrounds, etc? Do your books come from characters you develop or do your characters come from a plot line you are considering?
A:Usually, I come up with a story idea, then I work from there to develop the characters, developing the faults and strengths that will play best in the plot. I love naming characters, finding just the right name, and often use The Character Naming Sourcebook by Sherrilyn Kenyon as a resource.

Q: What is your all-time favorite book?
A:ONE?? Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, The Hobbit (and the Lord of the Ring series) by J.R.R. Tolkien, A Rose in Winter by Kathleen Woodiwiss…. I could go on and ON.

Q: Do you read other authors’ manuscripts before they are published?
A:I do critique with a few longtime friends. I don’t judge contests or critique for writers I don’t know.

(Pictured left: Glade Creek Grist Mill at Babcock State Park.)

Q: What book of yours would you most like to see made into a movie, and who would you want to play the hero and heroine?
A:I want them all made into movies! But, okay, if I must choose one…. The Beast Within. I’d want Meg Ryan to play Paige, and Josh Holloway to play Kieran. Wow, wouldn’t that be fun?

Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A:Nora Roberts gave a talk one time at RWA where she was asked this question and she said something along the lines of–if I told you where I get my ideas, you’d go there! I thought that was hilarious. My real answer: everywhere–research books, movies, documentaries, the news, life around me, etc. Ideas are everywhere! It’s writing the books that is so hard…..

Q: From all the books you’ve written, which one is your favorite?
A:Pick one?! That would be like choosing my favorite child. My favorite book is always the one that just came out!

Q: Did you take any writing courses before writing your first published book?
A:I have a degree in English, with a minor in history, from Texas Tech University, where my coursework included creative writing and journalism.

Q: How do you balance your time with family and being a writer? Do your kids cooperate or do things seem to go crazy at home when a deadline looms?
A:I try to schedule writing time during school hours. I have three children who are active and involved in various sports activities. Life is busy! Sometimes things go a little crazy around deadline time, yes. My children know how to make sandwiches if dinner is looking unlikely!

(Pictured: Son #2)

Q: What advice would you give to unpublished authors?
A:Write!! Read! Study the market! Join Romance Writers of America.

Q:What kind of books do you read? Who are your favorite authors? What books are on your keeper shelf?
A:I read everything. Romantic comedies, romantic suspense, paranormal, historicals (all periods–but medieval is my fave), and I also love to read non-romantic suspense and mysteries, magazines, cereal boxes, anything! Name my favorite authors? Is that a trick question? (LOL) I have too many author friends to try to name all my favorites, but I do admit to being a huge Nora fan!

Q: Are you a cup half full or cup half empty person in your everyday life? Which cup do you see most often?
A:I like to keep a positive outlook! Life is good!

(Pictured: scenic West Virginia.)

Q: What do you think of self-publishing?
A:I really don’t know enough about self-publishing to give any advice on the subject.

Q: Do you have a writing good luck charm?
A:Yes, I do, and you can’t have it. It is a tightly-held secret I will take to my grave.

(Pictured: Son #1.)

Q: How did you become a writer and when did you know you wanted to be one?
A:I can remember wanting to be a writer when I was five. I discovered Harlequin Romances when I was 12 and decided then that I would write romance. After college, I worked as a journalist. I sold my first book when I was 28. I’ve always been a writer.

Q: Where do you get your hair done?
A: That, too, is a tightly-held secret.

Q: What is something about you that we would be surprised to know?
A:I’m shy.

Q: Are you planning to write any more paranormal books?
A: Yes! My latest Silhouette Romantic Suspense series, Haven, is about a small town in the West Virginia mountains–an earthquake releases positive ions that trigger paranormal activity…… Anything can happen in Haven. Watch my website and blog for information and updates about the books.

Thank you for visiting, and please come see me in my blog where I post my daily farmhouse journal. I’d love to have your company!

Suzanne is available for on-location and online workshops. Contact Suzanne for fees and scheduling information. A certified classroom teacher, multi-published author and popular presenter, Suzanne has led workshops and online classes on the business of writing for both local and national writers’ organizations as well as women’s groups.

Interested in attending one of Suzanne’s workshops? Visit the News page to see Suzanne’s schedule of upcoming classes in the sidebar.

12 Easy Steps to Breaking In
Tips and tactics for breaking in to a major publishing house–from thinking big and mapping your marketing plan to working with an editor pre-sale and keeping the sales coming post-break in. Topics include dreaming big, planning like a pro, working smart, developing hot ideas, balancing art and business, putting waiting time on your side, tapping into your inner promotional diva, and the all-important “secret” to selling. Everything the on-the-brink author needs to know about targeting and marketing your work in the competitive romance biz!

 

Blurbing 101
Learn to blurb with discipline, and practice until perfect! If you’ve ever wondered how to break down your complicated story into its most basic–and most marketable–elements, this workshop is for you. Any story, no matter the length and complexity, can be distilled to one marketable paragraph. We live in a sound bite culture. A blurb is your book’s sound bite. The class begins with a hook-and-blurb boot camp–basic information followed by more advanced material designed to help you understand the marketable elements in your own story and provide you with a blueprint to put them on the page. This is succeeded by a series of exercises, culminating with interactive blurbing and critiquing. (Critiquing is offered for online classes only. On-location classes include short in-workshop exercises and multiple examples of critique break-downs for attendees to use to practice on their own.) By the time this class is over, you will have 100 succinct and saleable words to pitch your story!

 

Color Me Blogging
Want to bring more traffic to your website by adding a blog? Or not quite ready for a website but want to start building your name and attracting an audience with a blog alone? This workshop explains how to launch a blog if you’ve never had one—or take your current blog to an all-new level. Presentation includes blog basics such as platforms and design, pros and cons of solo blogging and group blogging, blogging ethics and etiquette, and the all-important question of writing and content. Also included: tips for marketing and promoting on your blog, creating traffic-building interest, developing your unique blogging style, time management for blogging, setting your blogging boundaries, and beating bloggers’ block. This interactive class includes hands-on blogging with the instructor and your classmates as built-in support!

 

Deconstructing Emotion: The Art of Pouring Feelings onto the Page
From characterization and setting to conflict and pacing, it’s all about the emotion. What IS emotion? How do you identify just the right feeling for your character at just the right time? What are the words that evoke emotion? How do you weave them through your work with just the right balance? How can you imbue every aspect of your plot with the soul-stirring, sensational feeling that makes it a page-turner? Take your story from flat road going nowhere to roller-coaster ride of tension and passion with these concrete strategies for exploring and layering realistic emotion onto every page.

THIRD SIGHT:
PAX League Book 2
Silhouette Intimate Moments
November 2005
ISBN 0373274629
Order Now!

THIRD SIGHT
Silhouette Intimate Moments
November 2005

Book trivia:

High in the Andes there is a place both strange and unnatural. Lines, some perfectly straight, others in geometric shapes, are carved into the earth like an abandoned airfield. Peruvian natives tell tales of interstellar astronauts responsible for what are now known as the Nazca lines. This “ancient spaceport” is only one of numerous otherworldly mysteries and artifacts in the region that can easily lead the imagination to…..what if? What if there were ancient astronauts? What if they had at one point left Earth….and left behind their supernatural secrets?

What if some of those artifacts held the power to control natural forces on our planet? What if men bent on destruction were to seek out these artifacts to wield them for evil purposes?

What if someone found them and had no idea what was in their possession?

In THIRD SIGHT, anthropologist Nina Phillips finds such stones and what she hoped would make her career suddenly could mean her death, and the only man who can save her is the man who broke her heart. The PAX League saved Riley Tremaine’s life, but now he’s a walking, talking anti-terrorist tool with a deadly power to foresee the hand of evil before it strikes. And only the combination of Riley’s dark visions and Nina’s knowledge of the ancient codes she had no idea were real can stop a madman.

What if? It’s a fun game.

I hope you enjoy their story! For more information and bonus features, visit the PAX League.

THE BEAST WITHIN:
PAX League Book 1
Silhouette Intimate Moments
July 2005
ISBN 0373274475
Order Now!

THE BEAST WITHIN
Silhouette Intimate Moments
July 2005

Book trivia:

THE BEAST WITHIN came to me as a cross between movies like Men in Black and X-Men and one of my favorite childhood cartoons, The Justice League. Combined with news events regarding terror attacks and warnings against the United States, I came up with the idea of a series of books about super-powered super agents working for a covert arm of the government—the PAX League. Then, of course, it had to be a romance—could they save the world and their hearts, too? THE BEAST WITHIN is the story of Kieran Holt, betrayed and on the run from the very agency that could save his life when he’s contaminated with a top secret, untested serum that turns him into a werewolf. What can bring this fugitive and accidental human experiment back to the world? Love, of course. When his abandoned wife Paige tracks him down, it’ll take both of them to regain his honor and his life…..if they don’t die in the process. There are plenty of helicopter crashes, car chases, gun fire, bombs, and werewolves standing in the way.

But if they make it, they might just save their marriage, the PAX League, and the world. The book begins on a remote barrier island off the coast of Georgia, and I loved researching the murky, moody, post-apocalyptic habitat then taking the two of them on a cross-country chase to break in to PAX headquarters to find the truth. I dug into the history of movies, legends, and books about werewolves, the psychology of shape-shifting, and the biology of canines then created my own werewolf. I had a lot of fun along the way and I hope you do, too, when you read the book.

Visit the PAX League here.

COLE DEMPSEY’S BACK IN TOWN
Silhouette Intimate Moments
April 2005

Book Trivia

The idea behind COLE DEMPSEY’S BACK IN TOWN came from a mix of news, old and new, and movies. At the time, the Elizabeth Smart case was being heavily reported in the media, along with the old news made new again of the unsolved Martha Moxley case as a Kennedy relative was being tried for her murder. I took the concept of something terrible happening to the heroine’s sister from the Elizabeth Smart case (referring to the younger sister who’d been in the room the night Elizabeth was kidnapped) and added the old unsolved crime of the Martha Moxley murder, a teenage girl who’d been found dead near her home years ago. What if the heroine’s sister had been murdered and the crime had never been solved? Maybe the wrong person was accused, but all these years later, the real killer is still walking the streets. And what if the hero’s father was the one accused and now the hero is back in the town that destroyed his family, determined to clear his father’s name? And maybe all those years ago he’d been in love with the sister of the murdered girl. How had all that tragedy years ago changed their lives and impacted their love for each other, and what was going to happen when they re-opened the case and got too close to the truth? One of my favorite movies is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, so I set this rich, juicy, old, unsolved crime in murky, moss-draped Louisiana—-a setting befitting so many secrets and lies and danger not to mention the sense of lost antebellum nobility. It also inspired the touches of voodoo and cross-dressing that appear in the book.

HER MAN TO REMEMBER
Silhouette Intimate Moments
October 2004

Book Trivia

The idea for HER MAN TO REMEMBER came from a story on a late-night unsolved mysteries cable TV show about a man who walks into an island bar and sees a woman who looks incredibly like the sister-in-law that had been presumed dead a year before—and discovers she has amnesia. I’m not sure if this story was actually true or not, but it got me thinking. What if a man walked into a bar and saw his wife, who had been presumed dead, only she doesn’t remember him? What happened to her? Why can’t she remember him and what will happen when she does? Is someone else after her, and does that someone else want her dead? These questions inspired the story of Roman Bradshaw, who walks into the Florida Keys bar where he spent his honeymoon and discovers his presumed-dead wife alive—only she doesn’t remember him. He sets out to seduce her all over again and uncover the truth of what happened to her, and he’s running out of time. If she doesn’t remember the past soon, she’ll die.

 

Silhouette Romantic Suspense

A HERO’S REDEMPTION: Haven Book 2 Silhouette Romantic Suspense October 2007 ISBN 0373275552 Read Description SECRETS RISING: Haven Book 1 Silhouette Romantic Suspense July 2007 ISBN 0373275447 Read Description

DEEP BLUE: PAX League Book 3 Silhouette Romantic Suspense February 2006 ISBN 0373274750 Read Description

THIRD SIGHT: PAX League Book 2 Silhouette Romantic Suspense November 2005 ISBN 0373274629 Read Description

THE BEAST WITHIN: PAX League Book 1 Silhouette Romantic Suspense July 2005 ISBN 0373274475 Read Description

COLE DEMPSEY’S BACK IN TOWN Silhouette Romantic Suspense April 2005 ISBN 0373274300 Read Description

HER MAN TO REMEMBER Silhouette Romantic Suspense October 2004 ISBN 0373273940 Read Description

Zebra Ballad Historicals

MY LADY KNIGHT Zebra Books December 2002 ISBN 0821768778 Read Description MY LADY RUNAWAY Zebra Books November 2001 ISBN 082176876X Read Description MY LADY IMPOSTER Zebra Books May 2001 ISBN 0821768751 Read Description

Silhouette Romance

THE BILLIONAIRE AND THE BASSINET Silhouette Romance August 1999 ISBN 037319384X Read Description THE BRIDE, THE TRUCKER AND THE GREAT ESCAPE Silhouette Romance January 1998 ISBN 0373192746 Read Description MAKE ROOM FOR MOMMY Silhouette Romance November 1996 ISBN 037319191X Read Description

Zebra Bouquet

IT ONLY TAKES A MOMENT Zebra Books April 2000 ISBN 0821765787 Read Description EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE Zebra Books December 1999 ISBN 0821764411 Read Description

Zebra Precious Gems

WEEKEND IN PARADISE Zebra Books July 2000 ISBN 0821769782 Read Description HER SECRET STRANGER Zebra Books October 1999 ISBN 0821761943 Read Description WEEKEND ENGAGEMENT Zebra Books November 1998 ISBN 0821765051 Read Description       THE HONEYMOON MAN Zebra Books October 1997 ISBN 0821758772 Read Description TROPICAL HEAT Zebra Books August 1997 ISBN 0821757725 Read Description MARRYING MARIAH Zebra Books January 1997 ISBN 0821757407 Read Description         OPERATION: BABY Zebra Books December 1996 ISBN 0821756923 Read Description

Bantam Loveswept

UNDENIABLE Bantam Loveswept July 1998 ISBN 0553446363 Read Description

Meteor Kismet

NEVER SAY GOODBYE Meteor Kismet Romance May 1993 ISBN 1565970659 Read Description

I love to hear from readers!
The quickest way to contact me is by dropping a note in my daily farmhouse journal, Chickens in the Road. (I’d love to have your company!) You can also visit my FAQs where you can read previous Q-and-A’s and possibly find the answer to your question already posted. Or, email me!

Copyright

All site content copyright © 2005-2008, Suzanne McMinn.
All rights reserved.

This Site is only for personal use. You may not distribute, exchange, modify, sell or transmit
anything you copy from this Site, including but not limited to any text, images, audio and video,
for any business, commercial or public purpose without permission.

Silhouette Romantic Suspense®, Silhouette Romance®, Silhouette Intimate Moments®, and Silhouette® are registered trademarks of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All cover art for the publisher, including special “flashes” and back cover copy, is copyrighted by Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. All rights are reserved by the publisher.

All book excerpts contained in this site are copyrighted by the author.

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A HERO’S REDEMPTION:
Haven Book 2
Silhouette Romantic Suspense
October 2007
ISBN 0373275552
Order Now!

A HERO’S REDEMPTION
Silhouette Romantic Suspense
October 2007

Book trivia:

A Hero’s Redemption was originally planned as the first book in the Haven series, but Silhouette wanted it to be published as a Christmas season book so Secrets Rising took first place in the series and the storylines were changed to fit that scheduling. Eventually, A Hero’s Redemption was not published at holiday time and the Christmas theme was downplayed accordingly. Christmas book or no Christmas book, A Hero’s Redemption is one of my all-time personal favorites. And that hero on the cover??? To die for!!

And what’s not to love about a snowbound story? Throw in a supernatural time shift, a secret identity, a swirling mystery, and a killer waiting to strike and you know you’re in Haven—where anything can happen, and probably will, since the earthquake that triggered a wave of paranormal activity rippling across the tiny town.

In A Hero’s Redemption, Christmas tree grower Calla Jones has enough on her hands with a blizzard bearing down when she discovers a barely conscious stranger on the road outside her farm. A stranger who can’t tell her his name. Her questions grow as she finds signs that his wrists were recently bound. Then the stranger tells her he knows she is in danger, but can’t tell her why….. She’d saved him from a frozen death, but Dane McGuire knows he’s been to Haven Christmas Tree Farm before—when he was framed for murder. Now he has a chance to rewrite the past, but only if he can find the truth in time to save Calla’s life.

Romantic, emotional, chilling and otherworldly…. Welcome back to Haven, WV.

SECRETS RISING:
Haven Book 1
Silhouette Romantic Suspense
July 2007
ISBN 0373275447
Order Now!

SECRETS RISING
Silhouette Romantic Suspense
July 2007

Book trivia:

Something supernatural this way comes….

As I developed the idea for my “Haven” series, I wanted to create a tiny town where an unusual event could trigger a wave of paranormal activity. What more fundamentally earth-shattering event is there than an earthquake? And what more perfect place could such a series be set but in the wild and preternaturally beautiful mountains of West Virginia? In Secrets Rising, Keely Schiffer wants nothing more than to start a new life in her old farmhouse, but her life and her home come crashing down over her head when an earthquake strikes. Add to that a mysterious skull in her rose garden and a strange gift-from-the-grave left behind by her dead husband, and she’s got enough trouble even without finding herself trapped with a possibly dangerous–and most certainly sexy–stranger, Jake Malloy. Secrets are most definitely rising, along with something shockingly supernatural, and when they witness the unbelievable together, Jake is the only man she can trust to help her find the truth….before it’s too late.

Romantic, emotional, chilling and otherworldly…. Welcome to Haven, WV.

DEEP BLUE:
PAX League Book 3
Silhouette Intimate Moments
February 2006
ISBN 0373274750
Order Now!

DEEP BLUE
Silhouette Intimate Moments
February 2006

Book trivia:

There is nothing more tantalizing and romantic than lost treasure. The so-called “treasure fleet” of Spanish galleons sailing the seas off the Americas left a trail of sunken gold that has inspired dreams and adventures for hundreds of years…..and got me thinking…. What if amid the pieces of eight, silver bars, and jeweled rings a secret lay that could blow up the eastern seaboard? And then I thought…… Who could possibly combat undersea terrorism but one hot and sexy merman from the PAX League? Join PAX super-agent Cade Brock and Sienna Parker, an unsuspecting former treasure hunter who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time to do the right thing, as they work to uncover an ancient threatening secret before it’s too late for the world….and their hearts.

I hope you have as much fun reading DEEP BLUE as I had writing it! Don’t forget to check out the PAX League site for more information and fun about the series!

See the Behind the Book Archives

Suzanne’s pictures and commentary from her trip to England. (Left, English sheep.)

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Suzanne’s farm.

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Notable on the Blog:
What Nobody Tells You About Living in a One-Hundred-Year-Old Farmhouse Before You Move In
The Slanted Little House
The Road Home
Driving Miss Georgia

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Suzanne’s Photoblog. (Right, Teddy-bear sunflower with bee.)

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Suzanne’s How to Do Stuff index: Country living, recipes, and fun.

1. The Farmhouse Table
   (Recipes and More)
2. Primitive Crafts & Country Style
3. The Country Garden
4. The Old Barn
   (Animals and Farming)
5. Wild, Wonderful West Virginia
6. Living the Country Dream

Out and About

See all of Suzanne’s pictures and commentary from the annual Romance Writers of America conference in Dallas! Pictured below, Suzanne at the RWA Literacy Booksigning (left), Suzanne with fan favorite Nora Roberts at the Harlequin party (right).

Suzanne’s Books Around the World

Suzanne’s books have been published in over two dozen countries around the world!

See more foreign editions

Win an autographed copy from Suzanne’s backlist!

Each month, the Book-of-the-Month will be awarded to one lucky recipient.
To sign up, email Suzanne with your name and snail mail address.
One winner per month. One entry per person per month.
June winner: Kristin from Florida!

And watch Suzanne’s daily farmhouse journal, Chickens in the Road, for surprise giveaways only in the blog!

The Book-of-the-Month rotation is as follows:
January: NEVER SAY GOODBYE
February: THIRD SIGHT
March: TROPICAL HEAT
April: THE BRIDE, THE TRUCKER AND THE GREAT ESCAPE
May: COLE DEMPSEY’S BACK IN TOWN
June: THE BEAST WITHIN
July: OPERATION: BABY
August: UNDENIABLE
September: MAKE ROOM FOR MOMMY
October: HER MAN TO REMEMBER
November: THE HONEYMOON MAN
December: MARRYING MARIAH

Good luck, and thanks for reading!

Coming soon: Watch for Protected in His Arms, the third book in the Haven series, coming in December 2008…. Marysia O’Hurley played at being psychic until the day she found out Haven’s earthquake and subsequent paranormal activity had changed her game into a gift. Now the last thing she wants is to use the power that allowed her to foresee the plane explosion that took her husband’s life. U.S. Marshal Gideon Brand is on the run and off the case when he comes looking for Mary. He’s determined to protect the beautiful woman who wants nothing to do with the investigation into the bombing… An investigation that is now pointing straight at a high-level federal agent. But the killer has a judge’s six-year-old granddaughter and it’s not only Gideon who needs Mary’s psychic skills to find the little girl within the seventy-two-hour timeframe but Mary who needs the hot, sexy federal lawman….because the killer is after her, too.

Romantic, emotional, chilling and otherworldly…. Welcome to Haven, WV.

Find out more about the Haven series here.

Wanna know more about my books? Visit my FAQs! And stop by my daily farmhouse journal, Chickens in the Road, for up-to-the-minute updates, surprise contests, country living, recipes, and fun. I’d love to see you there!

Love,
Suzanne

 

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A HERO’S REDEMPTION:
Haven Book 2
Silhouette Romantic Suspense
October 2007
ISBN 0373275552
Order Now!

A HERO’S REDEMPTION
Silhouette Romantic Suspense
October 2007

He was living on borrowed time…

Caught in a supernatural time shift, Dane McGuire was transported back to the week of Calla Jones’ death. He’d be falsely convicted of murder again if he couldn’t stop the past from repeating itself. But Dane didn’t count on his attraction for Calla. The owner of a Christmas tree farm, she’d sheltered him from a raging blizzard. Even the cold couldn’t stop the heat between them. Was this a second chance or a cruel joke played by their enemies? Calla and Dane had two days to discover the truth – and each other – or history would repeat itself, and Calla would die.

Haven: One small town can be otherworldly

Read an Excerpt

Haven Series

Also Available Now: SECRETS RISING, the first book in the Haven series.

Q: How are the “Haven” books connected? Do they have to be read in order?
A: The books are connected by the paranormal activity swirling around one tiny West Virginia town after an earthquake, combined with an electrical storm, unleashes positive ions into the atmosphere, triggering supernatural events. Each book is a stand-alone story, although some characters carry over from book to book.

SECRETS RISING: Haven Book 1, July 2007
A HERO’S REDEMPTION: Haven Book 2, October 2007

What’s coming next? More “Haven” books are in the works! Check for release announcements here and up-to-the-minute updates in Suzanne’s daily farmhouse journal, Chickens in the Road.

PAX League Series

Still available: Suzanne’s popular three-book Silhouette super agents series, "PAX League" — Paranormal Allied eXperts. (Check out the PAX League website!)

THE BEAST WITHIN: PAX Book 1, July 2005
THIRD SIGHT: PAX Book 2, November 2005
DEEP BLUE: PAX 3, February 2006

Also on sale now: November 2007 – The re-release of the PAX trilogy in a special ebook miniseries bundle!

Recent Releases

SECRETS RISING: Haven Book 1 Silhouette Romantic Suspense July 2007 ISBN 0373275447 Read Description DEEP BLUE: PAX League Book 3 Silhouette Intimate Moments February 2006 ISBN 0373274750 Read Description THIRD SIGHT: PAX League Book 2 Silhouette Intimate Moments November 2005 ISBN 0373274629 Read Description

See Suzanne’s Complete Backlist

Suzanne’s Complete Printable Booklist

An Excerpt from A HERO’S REDEMPTION

Prologue

Haven, WV

Lightning cracked, flaring into the dark vehicle, the heavy June night outside suddenly pressing down on the prison transport van, reaching inside, tightening the air. Still dressed in the suit he’d worn to the sentencing, Dane McGuire forgot that his wrists were bound by handcuffs linked to a metal restraining belt at his waist and tried to reach up, touch his face, feel the strange humming pressure filling his head.

In the matter of the State vs. Dane McGuire in the murder of Calla Jones, the jury finds the defendant, Dane McGuire, guilty.

The prison transport van took a sharp mountain turn in the night, bouncing Dane against the side of the vehicle. The chain connecting the shackles at his ankles rattled in the dark of the rear holding cage.

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

If only he hadn’t gone to Calla Jones’ farm. If only he’d arrived a few hours earlier, or later, or–

Lightning shot down again, and the humming turned into a stinging in his skin, all over. The van jerked from side to side and he hit the hard wall of the vehicle as he was thrown, first to one side, then the other. For a split second, he thought he was okay, he was in one piece, maybe just a pothole, then the back end of the van came up, tossing him like a ball, and the vehicle plowed end over end. Time suspended in some awful slow motion, turning, just turning, his body flying out of the seat belt. The last thing he knew was impact and his head striking something hard.

He opened his eyes to darkness, blinking in agonized waves of nausea. Cold, he was so cold. Freezing cold. He battled to move by instinct, to lift himself up, every motion dazed, painful.

The mountain road stretched out before him, empty but for a shimmering wave of some thick vapor that disappeared before his eyes, rushing away in an eerie whoosh that left nothing but silence. Dane’s heartbeat filled the void, heavy, stumbling.

The van, the guards—

There was nothing but eerie stillness. Stillness and….something soft and frozen falling on his face. He looked down, confused, seeing the snowy ditch he’d hit, seeing the shackles on his wrists and ankles….gone.

He felt himself fall back, hit the ditch again, and he wondered if he was already dead.

Chapter One

She’d never touched a dead body before and she didn’t want to start now.

Chuck was practically beside himself, the yellow lab dancing back and forth, barking madly. Do something, he was telling her. Look what I found for you. She jerked into action, half-ran, half-slid into the ditch, instinct overcoming shock. Ice blew sideways, stinging her cheeks.

She dropped to her knees where the stranger lay, still, utterly still. He wore dark slacks and a white button-down shirt and tie, no suit jacket or overcoat, ridiculous for this weather, and– She forced herself to reach out, turn him over. Oh, God. That was blood at the dark hairline of his temple. Frozen blood.

His lips were almost white in the scant light of the early storm-dark. The West Virginia mountains were in for the blizzard of all blizzards if forecasters were right, and she didn’t doubt it, not after the way temps had dropped sharply from noon on. She hoped she wouldn’t have to cancel the “choose-and-cut” for this weekend, the last for this year’s Haven Christmas Tree Farm season. She needed a good season, and the weather wasn’t helping. It hadn’t been a good year altogether, starting with an earthquake that had damaged her house and barn, costing her some serious money in repairs. Now she’d lost both her employees in the peak of her season and if that wasn’t enough, her past was rearing its ugly head again. Now this.

A sick lump filled her throat. She tore off a glove, pushed back her hood, reached for the man’s neck to find an artery, laid her cheek over his face-—was he breathing? She couldn’t feel a pulse, but her fingers were almost instantly numb. Wind blew. God, she couldn’t tell.

Chuck barked again, running circles around the man’s body. She lifted her head. Icy pellets pecked her face. No, that was snow now. And it was thickening quickly, a world of white suddenly spinning around her. She shivered even inside her thick parka, turning her gaze back to the man. There was ice on his lips, on his eyebrows, his hair. And that blood, frozen on his brow. What had happened to him? Had he fallen, or been attacked? And how the hell had he ended up here? It was miles down the mountain to town.

The man’s eyes opened and she screamed. Screamed and fell back, on her ass, hard. Chuck went nuts, barking and jumping.

“Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” She scrambled back to the man’s side. “You’re alive.” He was alive. Her heart slammed into her throat and it was all she could think for a full second, then– “Are you okay?” No, dammit, stupid question. He was so not okay, that was obvious. Who the hell was he and how had he gotten here were better questions, and suddenly she was scared of him. He was a stranger, a bloody stranger in a ditch on the side of the road in front of her property.

No. His mouth formed the word but he couldn’t get it out, or she couldn’t hear it over the hammering of her own pulse. No, he wasn’t okay, he was telling her, and God, he was gray, frozen. She couldn’t leave him here. She’d never turned her back on anything or anyone hurt, but–

“Can you get up? Can you walk?”

His eyes held her, glassy, bright in his ashen face. Blue, she thought, but she couldn’t be sure and the light was going fast. He just kept staring at her and she couldn’t have looked away if she’d tried. He didn’t try to say anything else. He had to be hypothermic, and he was hurt– And there was no place to take him but the house, where she lived alone, except for Chuck. Alone, just how she liked it.

And now– She’d call for help. Maybe someone could still get up the mountain.

Maybe.

She was lying to herself. She’d be lucky if the phones even worked now, and she knew damn well the roads from Haven would be impassable at this point.

“Come on,” she shouted, the wind whipping at her words. She wasn’t sure he could hear her, or understand her. She reached for his shoulders, pulling him to a sitting position. He felt heavy, muscular, but utterly helpless, and that should have made her feel better. He was weak—-what could he do to her? Nothing. But his condition just scared her more.

He could still die.

She grabbed his arm now. “Help me, dammit!” she yelled at him. Something inside him seemed to snap to understanding. He made it to his feet then instantly buckled at the knees. If he lost consciousness again– She grabbed him around the waist, holding him up. “You’ve got to walk. Please! I can’t do this alone!”

If he was an inch, he was six feet tall. She was five seven herself, but not near his weight, and just getting him out of the ditch almost did her in. He slipped, twice, and it was all she could do to keep them moving forward then up the winding drive, Chuck barking and bouncing alongside.

The lights from the front windows of her house came into view as they rounded the curve, and she could have collapsed herself in relief. Nearly there. She’d left her other glove behind in the ditch and her hand was nearly frozen from the exposure, and how much colder he was, she couldn’t imagine. He felt like a block of ice in her arms, a very solid, very tall block of ice.

One foot in front of the other. The front porch looked like a mountain all by itself. She could feel him struggling as he made the first step, and she was scared to death he was going to tumble backward and take her with him.

When they reached the door she let go of him with one hand to grab the knob, push it open. He weaved on his feet as if he was going to fall over right there and she threw her arm back around him.

“No! Not here!” She had to get him warmed up, and there was no time to lose.

In the light of the small front room, the man’s gaze connected, glassy and lost, but he kept his feet as if by sheer force of will. She kicked the door shut behind Chuck, who made a beeline for the kitchen and his food bowl. The first bedroom was hers and she didn’t think twice. If she didn’t get him to a bed, he’d end up on her floor, and she’d pretty much turned the second bedroom into an office, the bed in there piled with boxes of soaping supplies for her side business.

She maneuvered him around a small table, between an overstuffed chair and the couch, into the small hallway. Her room was dark, but there was enough light from the front room to see the bed.

A groan escaped him as he literally fell onto the bed. She reached for the lamp on the night table, then the phone.

Please, please, please–

“Dammit.” She slammed the phone down, useless as she’d known it would be, and looked back at the stranger in her house. The enormity of it all hit her.

There was a stranger in her bed, and if she didn’t do something, the right something, he could die. In her bed. Her knees were shaking, and not from the cold.

He was ashen, but even so, she realized with a shock that he was handsome, his jaw square, his cheeks planed, his nose straight. He was maybe in his mid-thirties. He looked half-dead now, but he appeared to be fit and athletic in general. Blood matted his temple and her pulse stumbled as she realized she wasn’t the only one shaking.

Get his core temperature up then she’d clean his wound, figure out what to do next. And she was going to have to get his clothes off. They were icy, and when they thawed, they’d be wet.

He looked so disoriented, she didn’t think he was going to be a lot of help.

Her head reeled just a little. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d touched a man, let alone a naked man, and that he was helpless as a kitten didn’t make her feel better. Panic didn’t have to be rational, and neither did marrow-deep fears.

She tore off her parka, dropped it on the floor and approached the bed, sat gingerly on the edge of it. He looked huge, filling up her bed. She reached for his hand. God, it was so cold. She pressed it between both of hers, rubbing in what warmth she could. “Hey.” To whatever extent he could help, cooperate, she’d need it.

His eyes opened, blinked. Blue. They really were blue. Searing blue. Her stomach jumped.

She let go of his hand, the awkwardness and strange intimacy rearing that ugly, irrational panic again. She spoke quickly.

“I can’t get help right now. The phone’s out. I need you to stay awake if you can. I need to get you out of these wet clothes.” She reached for his tie, unknotted it. It was a safe place to start. “Maybe tomorrow morning the phones will be working, or I can drive you down the mountain.” In truth, either possibility was slim, but she kept talking, hoping it would give him something to focus on, keep him awake. “I hope there isn’t someone worrying about you tonight.”

Surely he had a family, maybe even a wife. He was clean cut, good-looking, nice clothes. Without thinking, her gaze fell to his hands. No ring.

“Are you from Haven?” she asked. She pulled and the tie slid out from around his neck without him having to move.

“Haven?”

His voice was slurred, a little raspy. Familiar in a way she couldn’t quite place.

“Haven. You know where you are, right? You’re in Haven, West Virginia. Actually we’re a little outside Haven here. This is Haven Christmas Tree Farm.”

He was watching her with that startlingly lost look again. She reached for the buttons on his shirt and suddenly, sharply, he moved one hand and gripped hers. Stared, just stared at her with such intensity she felt her pulse bang.

She swallowed hard. “Come on. You’ve got to get out of these clothes,” she said, trying to pull her hand away. In an effort to distract him, she asked him another question. “How did you get here?”

“Accident. I–” He squeezed his eyes shut as if he were in pain.

“Accident where? I didn’t see a car.”

He still hadn’t let go of her hand and his cold grip was shockingly strong.

“Come on,” she said again.

His blue gaze blinked and she finally extricated her hand. She moved off the bed, needing that beat of distance. She yanked at the electric blanket cord that was tangled underneath it, hit the highest setting then got back to the bed, to him. She took the buttons of his shirt from the top down, quickly.

Outside, wind howled and the windows were completely dark now. The phones were already out—-how much longer before she lost electricity? She had a generator, but it was dicey at best, old and in need of replacement.

She was midway down his shirt when he reached for the buttons as if trying to help, but she could see right away that his frozen fingers weren’t going to cooperate on such a detailed task. She finished the job for him then slipped her arm around him.

He felt hard, solid, and so heavy. He managed to lean up for a second, just long enough for her to pull the shirt off one arm then he sank back with a groan, closing his eyes again.

She gently tugged the shirt out from under his back. His chest and shoulders, naked in the spill of golden lamplight, were broad and muscular and she realized she was staring at him. She pulled the sleeve down and off the other arm and saw the marks on his wrists.

Sometime, very recently, he’d been bound.

“Oh, my God,” she cried softly. “What happened to you?”

Everything hurt, especially opening his eyes. Dane McGuire’s vision swam, but slowly, in increments, he tried once again to focus on the woman leaning over him. She lifted his hand, touching his wrist. There were bruised marks circling it.

“What happened to you?” she repeated.

Her hair was thick, like a dark cloud, falling around her slender face. Light from the lamp behind her framed her like a halo of fire.

He could hear wind moaning, the creaking of the house in the storm.

That’s why he was so cold. He’d been out there, in the storm. She’d brought him up to the house, gotten him inside. She’d saved his life.

He’d been in an accident. He remembered slashing pain, the force as his body made impact, then– Her. He remembered her….

“Who….?” he whispered roughly. His tongue felt thick, unfamiliar even as his still-swimming vision registered recognition. He remembered her.

“Calla,” she said.

Jones. Calla Jones.

“Jones,” she finished

His mind reeled. It wasn’t possible. She couldn’t be Calla Jones.

“Can you tell me yours?” she asked.

He stared at her for a beat that seemed to last forever. Pain streaked through his temples and he drew a sharp breath. The agony of his ribs almost had him blacking out.

“Don’t try to talk anymore,” she said sharply. He felt her fingers brush the skin at his waistband. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to ask you anything, not now.”

He struggled to stay conscious, to focus on her, this woman who couldn’t be real, couldn’t be who she said she was. She was a dream, a fantasy. Her eyes were brown, the softest shade of brown he’d ever seen. And she was pretty. So pretty.

She was pretty and she was taking his pants off.

His clothes were wet. That was it. She was just trying to make him warm. He tried to help again, reached for the button of the pants. His stiff fingers shook and wouldn’t bend right. He felt her warm fingers brushing his away. Her long cloud-hair swished across his cold, bare stomach as she leaned over him, then slid away as she moved down the bed, pulled on his shoes.

He felt like a baby. He forced himself up and black spots popped across his vision.

“Just let me do it,” she entreated. He heard her soft voice from far away, but he could feel her right there, her soothing touch as she pulled off his clothes. Then she was back. “Come on, you have to get under the covers.” She reached for him, rolled him to the side, then back as she moved the covers, tucked them around him now.

He’d never been so cold in his life, bone-deep cold even as he could feel the heat of the electric blanket against his skin. For a dream, this one was awfully painful. Inside, deep inside, he was freezing. He drifted, his eyes too heavy…. She came and went, and he was barely aware of her then he felt her hands, gently, at his temples and something stinging–

Pure pain ricocheted through his head and his eyes burst open. He moved and more agony seared his chest.

“God, don’t move. I think your ribs are bruised or broken. I don’t know. I’m trying to be careful, but this is a bad cut.”

He fell back, sucking painful air into his lungs. His limbs felt like jelly. He didn’t think he could move again if his life depended on it. It hurt too much.

“Just be still,” she said sternly