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If you're looking for my book HARM'S WAY, then make sure to look for the Author's link on the left-hand side of the webpage.

Click the pull down arrow, and click on my name.

You'll go straight to my book.

Happy Reading.

PROMOS AND STUFF . . .

I started working on my blog only to discover that everything I wanted to write about seemed . . . boring.

Writers and boring should never be used in the same sentence.

But the plain fact is that I’ve spent the past week fluttering around the promo sites, learning the ins and outs of posting excerpts and book blurbs about my new release. In addition, I’ve caroused the reviewers’ sites. It’s all the business stuff that goes with the ‘fun’ writing stuff. Good things to learn, necessary information to know, but after five days my muse revolted. Only so much business before the creative side of my brain screamed for release.

Screaming brains might work in a Stephen King thriller, but it’s not pretty for a romance author.

So, to keep myself energized, I’ve dived into TRICKLE OF LIES.

I’ve decided I really like my heroine, lawyer, Kyra Malone. (Hey, don’t shoot her yet. This Austin-based lawyer is about helping the folks in a small west Texas town named Buckle Creek), which just happens, ironically enough, to be where she meets the hero, Sheriff Boston Donavan.

Well, actually Kyra meets Boston a little before they get to Buckle Creek. She sorta-kinda steals his car.

See, I told you Kyra was a different kind of lawyer.

Now, you might think that stealing a sheriff’s car would land Kyra in jail. Instead, she finds herself married to the tall Stetson-wearing law officer. Sounds like the makings for a true Texas happy ending, right? Except Sheriff Boston Donavan would rather be wrapped in barbed wire and dropped in a nest of rattlers, than be married.

Oh, and as for Kyra . . . marriage to an unwilling partner is only part of her problem. She came to Buckle Creek with the sole intention of righting a wrong, but there’s some powerful Austin folks who want her stopped—even if it means murder.

Oooh, I can’t wait to see what these two characters do next.

Happy writing!

Madness among us . . .

Like most of America, I’ve watched the news way too much today. The images of running policemen, SWAT team members, and a morbid line of ambulances have been laser-burned into our minds. In a year, five years, ten years, will you remember where you were today? What you were doing? Perhaps.

I can remember with clarity my exact location and activity when certain tragedies struck.

When the Challenger exploded I was sitting in a Chili’s restaurant. Watching the explosion on the restaurant’s television seemed surreal. I kept waiting for the break to commercial and an announcement that the movie would resume in 60 seconds. My mind refused to wrap around reality. The only logical explanation seemed to be that the images were Hollywood produced.

I remember watching as the first WTC tower fell. My husband had surprised me with an anniversary trip to Vancouver, British Columbia. It was the first time we had ever left our three children for an overnight trip. The harrowing ordeal to cross the border and travel over two thousand ‘driving’ miles to reach my children was nothing compared to that instant of shocked stupor when the building collapsed.

Following both events, media coverage pointed fingers, seeking someone or something to blame.

Again, today, that was the media’s plan.

Why?

Do we feel safer knowing who’s to blame? As though by finding guilty parties, there is control in our world?

As I waited in a grocery check-out line late this afternoon, I listened to the voices, the intercom, the bustle of hassled shoppers—all cadences of normalcy. For one instant, I pictured those desolate, grieving families and all they will suffer over the next days, months, and years. There is no normalcy for them—at least not for a very long time. And no amount of finger-pointing or blame-assigning will ease their grief.

As writers we should capture the emotions and images onto page, so that we shall never forget.

As religious folk (whatever religion we happen to be) we should drop to our knees and pray.

As mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, we should weep for their losses.

Then maybe, just maybe, instead of immense, immeasurable despair, those families will feel our collective support and know that a nation grieves with them. Maybe then, they will find the tiniest bit of solace.

I want you to have a different image of Virginia Tech.
I found this snapshot on the school’s website. This hauntingly poignant image illustrated to me that even in the midst of madness, there is beauty . . . there can be peace.

Hug someone you love. It is important. Everyday, it is important.

My book is released . . .

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

HARM’S WAY will be released tomorrow, April 13th, 2007 in the e-pub format. So for all of you who love to read at their computer, here’s your chance to get the first look at HARM’S WAY. A print version will be released on June 8th, 2007, so you can have your autographed copy as well.

Visit: The Wild Rose Press
Scroll down on the opening page and you will find my release. Click and follow the directions for download, and enjoy the read. Please feel free to post a review on The Wild Rose Press or here on my blog. Comments are always welcome.

Nathaniel Hawthorne quote

‘Easy reading is damned hard writing’ – Nathaniel Hawthorne
For writers everywhere, this is the perfect quote.

Each writer wants their work to be filled with fully-fleshed and compelling characters, complex and intricately woven plots, and a satisfying and worthy ending. But more than these technical aspects, the reader should share the characters’ joys and heartaches, experience exhilaration as the characters reach mountaintops and despair for the plunges into the valleys below. The reader should LIVE something new because of the words on the page.

Ernest Hemingway wrote, then rewrote the final page of The Old Man and The Sea thirty-eight times before he was satisfied. Why?

Because easy reading is damned hard writing.

What is your favorite easy read?

Copyright and Release Date

Harm’s Way
COPYRIGHT © 2007 by Sandra Ferguson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: info@thewildrosepress.com
Cover Art by Tamra Westberry
The Wild Rose Press
PO Box 706
Adams Basin, NY 14410-0706
Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

Publishing History
First Crimson Rose Edition, March 2007
PRINT ISBN 1-60154-047-7

Published in the United States of America

There it is . . . the COPYRIGHT page for my soon-to-be-released book.

I can’t quite describe the feeling of seeing my name listed behind the COPYRIGHT logo, except to say this all suddenly feels very real.

This is the accurate ISBN for HARM’S WAY, and with this number you can order a print copy from any Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon.com or Ingrams book store.

HARM’S WAY is not available yet. But if you’re visiting your local book retailers, feel free to ask anyway. If the book stores receive enough requests, they’ll order a stash for their shelves as soon as the print copies become available.

I’ve completed my Galleys (final corrections for type-setting and ultimate book release). With those last corrections in to the publisher, I’m hoping for an April e-pub release date, then a short 8 weeks later and the print version will be available.

I’m working toward an actual ‘book-signing’ date. Check back for details.