I will be at the Fish and Farm Festival in Aurora Saturday, September 9th. Come by and visit if you’re in town and if you want, you can buy a book. Remy’s Dilemma, the final book in the Harrell Family Chronicles is available along with all of my backlist. Come on out and join the fun. Food vendors, crafters, musicians, games, tractor pull and more. I had so much fun last year. I can’t wait.
After the festival, books will be available at the Blue Crab in Aurora, The Next Chapter Books in New Bern, and as soon as I can get there, the Riverwalk Gallery in Washington. If you want a signed copy of any of my books, email me at suspenseshewrites@sherrilhollister.com, $16 per book in continental United States.
If you prefer ebooks, my Harrell Family Chronicles are on sale for $1.99 each, don’t miss your chance to get them for this low price. (Regular price $3.99 each)
Do you like Horror Movies?
Carnival of Darkness starts Friday, September 22nd at Raised in a Barn Farm, and continues through Saturday at the historic Turnage Theater where the Haunted Pamlico will be showing submissions to their Carnival of Darkness film competition. With hundreds of film entries from all around the world, live action entertainment, awards and attractions, the Carnival of Darkness starts the haunting season with a true carnival experience. If you love spooky and things that go bump in the night, you won’t want to miss this event!
In honor of my friends at Haunted Pamlico I’m giving away a free ticket to the Carnival of Darkness weekend to one lucky winner, a $25 value. To get your name in the drawing, all you have to do is post a review of any of my books and email me a link to the review(s). The review has to be current 2023. It can be on Amazon, Goodreads or Bookbub. Each review will get another chance to win.
The drawing will be Wednesday, September 20th. The winner’s name will be given and they will be able to pick up their ticket at the event. Good Luck!
Dr. Willow Rider has only ever wanted two things, to become a doctor and to have a home.
Willow should have fought harder, now it was too late. Her sons didn’t need a mother and her husband, well, her husband would be better off with some small-town girl who liked living on a farm. She should let him go. The thought ripped her heart out. Could she let John go?
When John proposes they start dating, Willow had planned to say no. She’d never been able to tell him no, that’s how they ended up with the boys. Even after nearly thirty years, John Harrell was still the sexiest man she’d ever met and the only one she wanted in her bed. But their marriage was more than just how good they were in bed, and that was so good, no, they needed to work on the real problems. So instead of saying no, Willow challenged him. John couldn’t resist a dare or a bet. She’d not meant to put divorce as a condition of the bet. She didn’t want a divorce, did she? But she couldn’t give in and let John win the bet. They needed to talk…but can she lose the bet and win his heart.
Willow wants to repair the relationships with her husband and sons. When someone from her past threatens her family, she doesn’t have time to waste.
Dr. Willow Rider may not be a good mother or wife, she is an awesome psychiatrist. It is time she takes her own advice. She must face the ghosts of her past to make way for the future. Will she mend or family or move on without them?
Rider Harrell has no intention of coming out just yet. He likes things just the way they are. He’s well thought of in the community, on his job and he loves being a volunteer firefighter. When his cousin dies, he becomes the target of his former aunt’s revenge. It’s not enough that she tells the world he’s gay but she makes everyone believe it was his fault Bobby died. When the town of Leeward and the volunteer fire department is targeted, everyone blames Rider. It soon becomes evident that the whole Harrell family is in jeopardy.
Thanks to my daughter-in-law, Brandi Lupton for finding a friend willing to share a photo with me for my upcoming cover! Thank you Linda and Lee Major, and Flame for allowing me to use your image!
Every time I think I have learned what it means to be an indie author I discover there is something else I didn’t know, didn’t do correctly or forgot. Of course it doesn’t help that I’m often publishing in the middle of the night because I have to go to work at my bill-paying-job the next day, or I have this amount of time to write or learn how to do something, let’s write. Too often I feel there are only a few hours in the day I can devote to being an author and I have to divide them into writing, editing, marketing, publishing, etc.
Being an indie author is much like any other small business owner. As the owner everything falls to you and until you make money you can’t afford to hire others to take up some of the slack. So, you juggle all of the jobs that have to be done and too often you find out the hard way what you don’t know. For me, it’s marketing. I don’t want to go around shouting buy my book, buy my book! But please, buy my book!
But how else do you market if you don’t shout out here’s the book buy it? I don’t know. I just want to write. I take classes both online and in person. I belong to several writers’ groups, and I study what I see others doing. But while money is a problem, it is also the limit of time. How best to spend my time as well as my dollars?
In writing this new book, Willow’s Secrets many of you will be surprised that it is Book One of The Harrell Family Chronicles. This is because of one of those things I didn’t know. When I finished The Leeward Files series with Book Five Red Steel, I thought it could also serve as my Book One for The Harrell Family Chronicles, B-U-T it doesn’t show up that way and if I want new readers who may start at the new series, I need a new number one that would begin the series in such a way as to let readers know enough of what happened before but not bog them down. If they are interested enough they might want to go back and read the first series but if not, they could just wander through the new one. UGH! The things I do to myself.
If you have followed me for any length of time, you know I’m basically a pantser. I write by the seat of my pants, heck, I live by the seat of my pants. With six sons and my husband, no matter how many plans I make, I often have to adjust them. It was difficult at first and then it just became my normal.
About The Harrell Family Chronicles new book, Willow’s Retreat, I didn’t want to interfere with the stories that were already published but felt I needed an origin story. I looked to the older adults to give me what I needed to write book one. Willow’s retreat combines the loves and marriages of the three Harrell brothers who inherited the farm from their father: John, Charlie and Robert, told from the points of view of John, his wife Willow and their son, Rider.
Book Description
The farmer and the psychiatrist. Willow and John should have never met, much less fallen in love, but they did. Thirty years later their relationship is in limbo. When her nephew dies in a tragic fire, Dr. Willow Rider knows she has to repair her relationship with her husband and sons before it’s too late. She is a terrible mother and an awful wife but she’s an awesome therapist. Can she take her own advice and save her family?
Saint John, the oldest of the Harrell brothers has sacrificed everything to ensure his family’s happiness. Isn’t it time he grabs his own happiness? He is willing to do anything for a second chance with Willow, even take her crazy bet. But as he makes the same stupid mistakes, he pushes her farther away.
When a motorcycle club believes the only thing keeping them from gaining control of the local sex trafficking cartel is the Harrell family, they are their town come under attack.
Willow and John’s second chance at happiness may go up in flames as they find themselves at war with the Steel Marauders.
Cover Reveal August 1st
Events:
Cover Reveal Sunday, August 1st, 2021
Book Launch Tuesday, August 24th, 2021
Book Blog Tour Tuesday, August 24th – Thursday, August 26th, 2021
If you would like to be a part of the Blog Tour you can sign up here. (Just click on the link)
Janie Harrell wears clothes her grandmothers wouldn’t be found dead in and tries to hide the woman underneath. Years ago, she made a mistake, and she’s been making herself pay retribution ever since. Denying her feelings for Mike McKenzie, Janie pretends she doesn’t still want him but he’s not making it easy. When they both end up in the same hotel for business conferences, they can’t pass up this chance for a brief affair.
Their second chance is threatened when old secrets come back to ruin everything.
Blurb
Janie must battle her own demons of guilt, self-worth and sibling-rivalry, and learn that life isn’t about waiting for perfection it’s making the most of what you have today. Learning to take chances and believe in herself are some of Janie’s biggest obstacles. When she finally decides to take a risk, it backfires, and she suddenly risks losing everything. Mike McKenzie is fighting his own demons. He fears he might be losing his grip on reality. Overwhelmed by everything that has been happening in Leeward, Mike carries the burden on his shoulders alone. He is afraid to ask for help. He’s felt like a coward since he was a boy of seventeen and allowed Remy Harrell to warn him away from Janie. When the two of them end up together, he believes they can have their happy ending but too many secrets threaten to rip them apart, this time for good. When you are the middle child of seven, you often get lost in the shuffle, that’s Janie. Plain Janie. Smart Janie. She’s the good sister that never causes any trouble. Scared to go out on her own, she still lives at home with her parents. She has spent her life afraid to believe in herself. But Janie has a secret. The trouble with secrets is they don’t stay secret forever. Second Chance Romance, Secret Baby, Blackmail, Murder, Kidnapping, Family Drama and more
Roxy didn’t come home to fall in love. She came to betray her family. It’s the only way to save her friends.
Jorge’s first taste of freedom is Roxanne’s laughter. Discovering she is in danger he has no choice but risk it all to save her.
Will her betrayal doom them all?
Roxy is the bad sister, the one voted most likely to steal your boyfriend. Not to be confused with her smart sister or her ambitious sister…
She’s a lying, self-centered diva, she didn’t come for a family reunion or to fall in love, she came to betray her family…
It’s not like she could ask anyone for help. They wouldn’t believe her anyway. If she was going to save them, she would have to do this on her own. Would they ever forgive her? What did it matter, she probably wouldn’t live to see it anyway?
to get a glimpse of the bad sister, Roxy! I had a lot of fun writing a bad girl. Roxy is no one’s idea of a romantic hero. She was voted most likely to steal your boyfriend in high school. Roxanne Harrell doesn’t do anything that doesn’t benefit Roxanne until she meets the niece she didn’t know she even had. When her brother’s ex-fiance threatens sell her niece and friend to the highest bidder, has no choice but to do her bidding. Can she save her friends by betraying her family or will she end up destroying them all?
The Washington (NC) waterfront is mentioned often in both my book series. This is where the Pamlico and Tar Rivers meet.
On the new cover of White Gold, Dana is walking the waterfront after shopping with her sisters. It is where she strolls with Jake, agent sexy and where Rae Lynne walks with one of her dates before he is murdered.
When I was planning the cover for Roxy’s Betrayal I knew I wanted the waterfront and I found this photo I took while strolling the waterfront with my granddaughter. It is one of my favorites with the old warehouse and bridge.
In Roxy’s Betrayal I mention Bill’s Hot Dogs. Bill’s is a famous hot dog place here in Beaufort County but I have a confession to make. I had never eaten one of Bill’s dogs until after I married my husband. They are known for their white bean chili which is spicy and delicious.
excerpt from Roxy’s Betrayal
“So, is there any place you’d like to go before I take you home?”
“I thought your brother wanted you to take me straight home.”
“Remington likes to give orders, but he knows I won’t listen.” She gave him that 1000-watt smile. “So, what have you missed most while in lock-up?”
The buxom blonde wasn’t his normal type, not that he really had a type. Roxanne Harrell was definitely more than he would have asked for with her big personality, luscious figure and daring. She was tempting him more than was wise for someone in his position. He tamped down his desire. He wasn’t exactly a free man. What had he missed most since being locked up? “Sunshine,” he whispered.
“What’s that?”
“I’ve missed sunshine and fresh air.”
She turned down Water Street. Leaning across his lap, she rolled down his window. She turned her head and gave him a wink.
Heat pooled in his groin. He shoved his hands beneath his armpits to keep from holding her head to his lap. Sliding a little closer to the door, he put his head out the window like an old hound.
Slowing the truck, she cruised the waterfront. “Are you hungry? We could stop at Bill’s for a hotdog.”
Jorge licked his lips and nodded. He could smell the world-famous hot dogs from a block away, the peppery scent of the white chili tickled his nose and his mouth watered. He chuckled imagine himself as a dog with his tongue lulling out his mouth with his head hanging out the window.
She pulled into a parking lot and whipped the truck around cruising back to the town’s famous hot dog stand. “You want to go in or do you want me to order for us both?”
“Do you mind?” He was not up to dealing with people just yet.
“What do you want?”
“All the way.”
Giving him the once over she nodded. “Well of course, I should have known. How many, a dozen?”
He laughed. “I’m not quite man enough for a dozen but I’ll take half that.”
“Oh, I bet you could handle it.” She called in their order. “Do you want anything to drink, chips?”
He gave her his preferences and she made comments on all of them until he was ready to forget the food and find some place to sink his cock deep inside her. Shit! When was the last time a girl’s teasing comments had made him so freaking horny? Well, maybe when you haven’t had sex in forever it does something to your brain. He watched her walk down the sidewalk to the café. She had a heart-shaped ass, and long muscular legs that looked as if she could crush a man’s head between her thighs. Aw fuck, now the image of him dying between her thighs was forever imprinted on his brain. Remy should never have trusted a sex-starved jailbird to come within ten feet of his gorgeous sister. Jorge needed to remember she was his lawyer’s baby sister.
The smell of garlic, onions, spices and processed meat assaulted his senses. “Oh fuck me.”
“Gladly but why don’t we eat first. You’ll need your strength.”
Jorge stopped breathing.
She laughed. “Damn, I was just kidding but now I’m interested. How long has it been?”
“Unless you’re planning to do something about it, I suggest you stop baiting the bear or haven’t you learned yet, we bite.”
“Okay, I’ll quit teasing you but for the record, I was only half teasing.”
Roxy’s Betrayal is available for pre-order. The eBook goes live February 5th, it will be 99 cents through Sunday, February 7th then the price goes up! Don’t wait!
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