A Writer Afoot » A Writer Afoot

Three Reader Favorites now available!

Barbara Samuel — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:55:16 +0000

Three of my most beloved novels from my contemporary romance days are now available in ebook format.

The Last Chance Ranch

Amazon Kindle
Barnes and Noble Nook
Smashwords

A full length contemporary romance.

Weary and battered after a stint in prison for killing her abusive husband, Tanya has been dreaming of the day she could renew her relationship with the son she lost. Now cooking at a ranch for troubled boys, she takes the first, tentative steps toward her son…and to his adopted father, Ramon, a man so real and true he might be able to teach Tanya how to trust…and live…again.

Story behind the story:

There was a string of domestic violence cases in Colorado one year. One woman left behind notes to her young sons, and as a mother of young sons at the time, I couldn’t bear it. Another woman was gunned down at Taco Bell right across the street from the domestic violence shelter. Finally, one Easter morning, my street was closed at both ends while an army of police tried to track down the man trying to kill his wife across the street. She had escaped with her daughter out the back door, but my youngest was outside playing when it all happened. I’d finally had enough and decided to write about a woman and child who made it out.

This book won The Janet Dailey Award, a $10,000 cash prize awarded to a romance that best explores a social issue. It was also a RITA finalist, and remains a big reader favorite.

Jezebel’s Blues

Amazon Kindle
Barnes and Noble Nook
Smashwords

Jezebel’s Blues is a full length contemporary romantic novel.

When the Jezebel River overflows her banks and tries to swallow the small town of Gideon in East Texas, Celia Moon is alone and frightened in the farmhouse she inherited from her grandmother. When a mesmerizing and troubled drifter washed up on her porch, she has no choice but to take him in. As the river rises, the pair retreat to the attic to ride out the storm—and discover a compelling attraction.

The daughter of two artists who were besotted with each other, Celia has always felt the odd woman out. She yearns to find a place she can call her own, a family of her own, a life that has some stability and meaning. Her grandmother’s farmhouse in Gideon has always represented that.

Eric fled his grim childhood in Gideon to find a life as an acclaimed blues guitarist, but that life has been taken from him, too, and he’s back in Gideon with a chip on his shoulder that hides the vast, hunger he, too, feels to find his place, his home, his life. Waiting out the storm with sunny, optimistic Celia, he wonders if maybe there’s a place in Gideon for him after all, in the arms of a woman who might know more than she thinks about acceptance.

A novel as rich and deep as a river, Jezebel’s Blues is both a haunting love story and a tale of finding your way to accepting yourself.

Story behind the story

This is one of my personal favorites. It was my first RITA finalist, and the conference that year was in St. Louis, which was flooding that summer. Mainly, I just loved it, and it helped me explore ideas that would lead to In the Midnight Rain, and to another tale set loosely in the same town during WWII (more as I am able to say).

Breaking the Rules

Amazon Kindle
Barnes and Noble Nook
Smashwords

Mattie O’Neal was on the run. She’d stolen a car, cut off her hair, changed her name and was slinging hash in a small Arizona town. She thought she was safe – until Zeke Shephard walked through the door. His rugged, muscled body set every woman’s heart aflutter – but his probing questions made Mattie weak for another reason.

Still, when the bad guys caught up with her, it was Zeke who rescued Mattie and took her to his own retreat. Zeke who comforted her . . . protected her . . . and loved her. Although Zeke insisted he was just a guy for the moment, could Mattie persuade him to make that moment last a lifetime?

Story behind the story:
I have a weakness for road books. What happens when you disappear and start over–what can you find out about yourself, the world, and a great love? Zeke is a bad-boy with a broken heart, and Mattie is a woman who can heal and transform, both herself and her world.

In the Rain

Barbara Samuel — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:12:26 +0000

I’m warmly ensconced at an Italian restaurant in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. I came t0 town to hear Elizabeth Gilbert speak and do some focused work away from the distractions at home. But after three days of my own company, I had to get out of the hotel. It’s pouring rain, which means I am the only crazy person traipsing around. I have a borrowed umbrella in a singularly boring brown, and my Italia bag slung over my shoulder, which I bought at a market in Rome, the only place on the whole journey where I finally spoke and understood Italian. ANY Italian.

If you are like me, you are thinking Lee’s Summit is a backwater and you won’t find anything to your liking. I used to come through here on the train on the way to St Louis, pausing at a station that is, as a matter of fact, right across the street from where I now sit. In those days, I would see the Main Street with its hardware store and think …eh.

But this afternoon, in the rain, I have found a beautiful amber bracelet to celebrate the Girls In The Basement. I found it in a shop with fair trade goods run by a woman from southern California (the mosaic is in the sidewalk in front of her shop on Third Street). From a wine shop run by four women who must have been sisters with their matching platinum hair and robust figures, I purchased a local bottle of Pinot Noir (brewed right here!).

I really have not been afoot enough lately, and will have to work in some small trips somehow, despite my rather full schedule. Ambling around in the world restores and renews me as nothing else can.

Now I have had an exquisite meal of chicken canneloni. I am one of three customers at the restaurant, because it is obscenely early, and it really is pouring outside. The other two customers are a male couple with white hair, splitting a spaghetti plate. My coffee is here and I’m going to call a cab in a minute , but in the meantime, weve shared a meal. Thanks.

ciao bella

A photo credit

Barbara Samuel — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:47:05 +0000

Kind of fun: an online travel guide chose this photo to be included in their Guide to Scotland. Chuffed.

15 miles is so much longer than 13

Barbara Samuel — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:37:11 +0000

Long walk day. Almost five hours, including one small rest to eat an English muffin spread with Marmite and take off my socks for a few minutes. I am somehow so much more tired than I was last week–it seems impossible it was only two miles more than last week’s walk.

Discovery: eating on the trail doesn’t really agree with me. Only Gu and water. Maybe a little bit of banana. But a person can’t walk 8 hours or more without eating, so I’m going to have to figure it out. Marmite is a weird and disgusting substance, but I remembered that it tasted excellent to me at the top of Pikes Peak, so I tried it today. Weirdly, it tasted very good at hour #3.

It was still great. There is no feeling I like better than the salty, sweaty buzz at the end of a long, long walk or hike. Though really, it would be nice if I were suddenly rewarded with a 20-lb weight loss. Doesn’t that seem fair? Long hike, show the universe you are earnest and devoted, and voila! Instantly thinner!

Miles this week: 26 (not counting whatever I get in tomorrow) This is a lot more than last week. No wonder I’m tired. And there won’t BE any miles tomorrow, so there.

On the Ipod: Bel Canto for the first hour or so, then a switch to the classical playlist on my Ipod, which consists entirely of various Baroque strings and the odd waltz. Lots of Marin Marais today, and some music from the dashing and heartbreaking Joseph Boulogne, the Chevalier St. George, who is the person in history I remain most in love with. (You may recognize him in Gabriel St. Ives, yes?)

Snacks: 1 Gu, an orange, English muffin with Marmite, one banana.

The pitch: I have committed to raising $2500 by June. It isn’t a sponsorship, but direct donations to each walker’s tally. The money goes to helping provide screening and care for women who are under- or uninsured, a cause about which I am passionate. If you feel moved to donate, you can do so, here.

The disclaimer: We all have things we care about and no one can give to everything, in time or money.

xoxo,

Barbara