Tag: small town suspense

Posted in my books

Holiday Gifts 99-cent eBooks

Posted on by Sherri
Available At Amazon

https://books2read.com/u/4jaeBk

I wrote Chrome Pink when I was in a bit of dark place in my life, we’d just lost our home to fire. This book is about survival, hope and the love of friends, family and that one person who understands and accepts you…this is romance and life. We all know that person who makes bad choices but we don’t always know why. Learning the reasons someone deals with their pain in an unhealthy manner is often the beginning of understanding ourselves. Rae once made the mistake of trusting the wrong person and it nearly cost her life. Now, determined to be strong, she first has to trust herself before she can rely on others and allow herself to be vulnerable. She has a tough exterior but a soft heart. Chrome Pink is Free through all ebook retailers. Get your copy today.

https://books2read.com/u/brYpjA

Dana is glamourous and a bit dramatic, she loves the theater and being in the middle of things. She is the woman you call if you want something done. She juggles her own business with several part-time jobs, plus volunteers. She is based on several women I know who keep our small town moving. When Dana realizes her two missing pageant contestants are being forced into soliciting, she is determined to save them. Dana learns to accept herself, her family’s past and realizes she is more than enough. Any man would be lucky to have her and Jake agrees.

https://books2read.com/u/bzWOrq

Estranged after losing his leg in Afghanistan, Tar must make a few changes and sacrifices to win his family back. When their son Toby goes missing from a neighbor’s party, it threatens to tear them apart once again. Is their love strong enough to survive the loss of their son? Will they lose everything this time around? Jenna and Tar’s story came about after my son’s tour of Afghanistan. He and his wife helped me with this story and it was so nice to have that collaboration.

https://books2read.com/u/b68OqE

My attempt at a true romance complete with weddings, babies and the holidays but… I really like to kill people and blow things up! This is not your typical holiday romance, not unless you consider Die Hard a holiday romance.

https://books2read.com/u/3yEKXB

I finally gave into my dark side and really had fun with this. With the help of my youngest son and his wife, firefighters and first responders, I was able to flesh out this story and really heat things up. Tracy and Billy are on opposites sides of the arson, she’s a reporter and he’s a firefighter, what could go wrong? But a few things manage to go right…I do believe in happy endings even if I have to blow things up and kill people to make it happen.

Posted in backstory, inspiration, my books

My Community, My Inspiration

Posted on by Sherri

Many of you have already seen the Goodreads Giveaway, I’ve also set up a couple of ads for March and one for April, now I just have to wait and see what happens. Waiting isn’t easy for me.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Willow's Retreat by Sherri Lupton Hollister

Willow's Retreat

by Sherri Lupton Hollister

Giveaway ends March 09, 2022.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

I put my writing career on hold for so many years while I wrestled growing boys into independent men. Now, it’s my turn and it’s not as easy as I’d hoped. No one is banging down the doors to get to my books or to demand my autograph. Although I did have a fantastic audience today, I didn’t read my own stories, because they were second graders, and my books aren’t designed for young minds.

Today I joined other illustrious members of our community to go read at our local school for Read Across America. One of my good friends, Ms. Christy, the second-grade teacher, and my neighbor asked if I’d read to her class. She told them I was a famous author. Well, the famous part is stretching it, but everyone is famous in a small town. The children were wonderful and a boon to my flagging ego. They were delighted to learn their teacher was one of the inspirations for my character, Dana the heroine in White Gold. After reading Dr. Suess’ Daisy-Head Maysie and making paper flowers, the kids asked for my autograph and a couple wanted me to come back and read one of my books. I told them I had a short story I’d written for my grandchildren that I could bring. I think that’s what I’ll do.

https://books2read.com/u/brYpjA

What a marvelous treat. I was a little afraid, to tell the truth. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to read to young children, even my grandchildren, and I worried I wouldn’t be able to connect. It started out as a favor for a friend, a thing to do to support my community but it became more. Today made me realize how much this community and the people in it inspire me.

As I told her class, Christy along with my sister-in-law Denise and my good friend, Mary, all combined to help me create the character, Dana.

Dana Windley who later becomes mayor of Leeward, is a community leader. She is an entrepreneur, a small business owner, a volunteer for the school and her community. She also does charity work raising money for things like breast cancer and her local firefighters and paramedics squads. Dana would be the one you would see at the school reading to the children, planning events for the community and doing all in her power to support her town, her friends, and her family.

The Leeward Files and The Harrell Family Chronicles are about REAL people, living in a small town just like where I come from. The town of Leeward is struggling to rebuild after several devasting blows. My home has suffered hurricanes, the loss of businesses and our high school, it is a town that was dying but we are doing our best to revive it. Just like the characters in my stories, there are very real people working to see that the town of Aurora, not only survives, but once again thrives. These people, this town, this community of supporters are the inspiration for my stories and what keep me writing.

Posted in my books, promo

Saint John

Posted on by Sherri
https://books2read.com/u/mgEra7

John has sacrificed his own happiness to ensure the happiness of everyone else his whole life. As the oldest of the Harrell brothers, he believed it was his duty to protect his younger brothers. When Charlie came to him and told him his high school girl friend was pregnant, he left the farm he loved to join the military so Charlie would have a way to support his family. He never asked, he just did what he felt was best.

When he met Willow, he knew she was amazing. He was willing to accept her on whatever terms he could keep her. He knew she wasn’t the typical farmer’s wife, but he didn’t care, he loved her. When his father died, he didn’t ask her to come back to the farm with him. She had a chance to work at one of the most prestigious hospitals, he couldn’t take that from her. He never asked, he just did what he felt was best. He packed up their son, Walker and moved back to the farm to take care of his mother and brothers.

A farmer and a psychiatrist, can they find a place where they both belong?

Will John continue to sacrifice his own happiness to give those he loves what he believes they need, or will he finally learn to ask?

I believe in happy endings, but some take longer to achieve.

It only took them thirty years to get it right.

https://books2read.com/u/mgEra7
Posted in my books, promo

Celebrating Father’s Day with My Books

Posted on by Sherri

This year I choose White Gold https://books2read.com/u/brYpjA and Roxy’s Betrayal https://books2read.com/u/boD5Na to feature for Father’s Day. The eBooks are only 99 cents through the end of June.

In White Gold, Dana Windley is reunited with a father she thought never wanted her. Sam has lived his life filled with guilt believing his baby girl and her mother had died in a car accident. Suddenly faced with a family she doesn’t know, Dana is overwhelmed by what she thought she knew and the truth of why sometimes it’s best not to be found.

A new business, a new family, her work on the town’s annual beauty pageant, Dana doesn’t have time to fall in love but fate and love wait for no one and she soon finds herself tiara over heels for SBI agent Jake Monroe.

When two of her beauty contestants go missing, Dana and her friends find themselves trying to stop a sex trafficking ring. They discover this might be part of Jake’s cold case and things really heat up in the town of Leeward.

A romantic suspense thriller set in the small town of Leeward, North Carolina

Roxy is the bad sister but even bad girls need a little loving. She’ll take hers anyway she can.

Her relationship with her father is what you’d expect from a spoiled prodigal daughter. She returned home to betray her family but it was the only way she knew to save them. Who would believe she was trying to be a hero? Roxy was no one’s idea of a hero but she was all they had. She just prayed she was woman enough for the job.

My daddy isn’t here any longer but his memory lives on in my sons, in my memories and in the stories I write. He wasn’t perfect, we often butted heads, probably because we were too much alike, but he is missed and he is still a part of our lives. Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there and to those who do the job of daddy, thank you for stepping up.

Posted in contest

Giveaway ~ Drawing October 25th

Posted on by Sherri

The Leeward Files Giveaway— Don’t forget to use the hashtag The Leeward Files #theleewardfiles in order to be added to the drawing. The drawing is Sunday, October 25th. You have to use the # in order to be a part of the drawing.

If you follow me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sjlhollisterwriter , Twitterhttps://twitter.com/Jeanelia1964 or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/suspenseshewrites/, you simply have to post a picture, meme or GIF with the hashtag #theleewardfiles to be included in the drawing.

Social media has no responsibility in this giveaway it is solely an author contest.

The Leeward Files Trilogy is a compilation of the first three books in the Leeward Files series: Chrome Pink, White Gold and Titanium Blue.

Leeward is the fictional small town in eastern North Carolina. The town appears idyllic but dark secrets lurk just beneath the surface. It is experiencing a bit of new growth as community development grants filter in and the town begins to rebuild. A new art gallery opens in the old, abandoned shopping mall, down town is flourishing with little shops, cafes and museums but everything is built on a house of cards and they will all come crashing down once the truth is revealed.

Chrome Pink is a suspense thriller with a little romance and women’s fiction. Rae Lynne Grimes, a rape survivor is accused of killing her dates and must prove her innocence but the only way to do that is put herself in the path of a killer. She has to learn to trust herself and believe she is worth loving. Logan Birdsong is the first man who has gotten past her defenses, but can she trust a man who works for her worst enemy?

Dana Windley, the diva in White Gold, is a vivacious woman who with a little more coffee and a few more sequins could probably take over the world. While organizing a local beauty pageant two of her contestants go missing. When she discovers them being forced to turn tricks at a local mall, Dana is determined to rescue them. With he help of North Carolina SBI agent Jake Monroe and her friends, Dana uncovers a sex trafficking ring. Clues lead them back to the cold case that brought Jake to town, and even more secrets. A multi-cultural romantic suspense.

Jenna and Tar Roberts are estranged and on the verge of divorce in Titanium Blue. This second chance romance suspense thriller brings former Marine, Tobias Anthony Roberts aka Tar back to his family. His leg wasn’t the only thing he lost due to the war in Afghanistan but losing his family was his own fault. Now, back in Leeward as a Police officer, Tar is determined to get his family back, but his second chance is threatened when their son, Toby goes missing. Is Tar once again to blame for ripping his family apart? Will they ever have their fairy tale life?

If you haven’t read the first three books of the Leeward Files series, you have missed how family isn’t always about blood, it’s the ones who are there to love and support you. For Rae Lynne, Dana and Jenna, these three best friends since middle school are closer than family.

The community of Leeward is much like the one I grew up in with less murders. Each year a beautiful young woman does events to promote breast cancer awareness as well as bring attention to other forms of cancer in the community. She celebrates the survivors and recently, she became a cancer survivor.

Each year we put on a fossil festival to bring more commerce and tourists to our community. Fundraisers such as the fossil festival beauty pageant are held to help pay for different attractions, games and rides. With our main source of revenue coming from the phosphate plant, our leading attraction the fossil museum, everything centers around fossil especially sharks’ teeth.

Another event is our annual 5K run to honor our veterans and our veteran’s breakfast.

Our community comes together to raise money for our school, our churches, people in need and things we believe in like finding a cure for cancer or supporting our veterans. This is small town America but like any other place on earth there is a dark side, drugs, alcohol abuse, sex trafficking, prejudice, bullying, rape and murder, and unfortunately a thousand other crimes and immoral behaviors. I use a lot of these bad things to and escalate them to make my stories more interesting but too often they are closer to the truth than we want to believe. But I prefer to focus on the good and show how the blue-collar worker can be the hero in the story, and how average people can have their happy ever after endings.

If you like suspense thrillers with a little romance, strong female characters, blue-collar heroes and heroines set in a small town, then come visit Leeward, who knows, you might like it.