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Embers of Hope, Flickers of Passion

by Kristen James

Embers of Hope, Flickers of Passion

A story about balancing motherhood, friendship and romance…

Savanna dreaded telling her family and friends about her failed marriage so much that she hid it while living in another state. But she can’t stay away when her best friend Cassie loses her husband, who dies on duty as a firefighter. Savanna quickly returns home to help, longing to find herself again and make a home for her daughter. She meets Mike’s best friend, Jason, the man who talked him into staying with the department just before the fatal fire. He’s also the man who once saved Savanna’s life. Though hurting herself, something deep inside her won’t let her walk away. Jason needs her but she’s off limits on so many levels. She’s falling for this sexy firefighter but he confuses her to no end. Savanna’s a single mom with secrets, and she could lose her best friend over him.

Review from Melissa from There For You:
I am a woman. If you cut me, do I not bleed? If you offer me chocolate, do I not take it? If you offer me romance, do I not read it?! Of course I do, I am woman. Let me introduce you to my newest weakness. Romance novels by author Kristen James. I met Kristen via an interview I recently did on her (Interview) and decided to try her book. Boy is the woman, and reader, in me happy I did! Embers of Hope, Flickers of Passion is a well written love story, reminiscent of the movie Backdraft, in the fact that the main character, Jason, is a firefighter and his best friend, Mike, is killed in a fire.

The central characters of the story are Savanna, her best friend Cassie, Cassie’s husband Mike and Mike’s best friend Jason. The story starts off with Savanna moving herself, and her infant daughter Aubrey, or Bobby Boo as she is affectionately called, to Texas to help her best friend, Cassie, recover from the very recent death of her husband Mike. Mike is a firefighter who is killed in the line of duty. Mike’s best friend, Jason, is held accountable by himself and Cassie, even though he was not involved in the accident. Savanna quickly realizes that Jason is the firefighter who saved her life a few years before.

Being the mother hen that she is, Savanna soon decides that she not only needs to repair Cassie but also Jason, thus throwing herself in the middle of the two since Cassie blames him. The reader soon realizes that Savanna needs some saving herself as the last 2 or so years of her life with her ex-husband Eric have been horrible. After hearing parts of Savanna’s story, and an intense internal feeling of need, Jason also feels the need to help Savanna.

A beautifully woven plot, Embers of Hope, Flickers of Passion, will have you crying with Cassie, cheering for Jason, and praying Eric does not return to distinguish the flames that are spreading between Jason and Savanna. A romance novel that any woman with a history of being burned by love, and has hopes to rekindle the flame, can enjoy. Next up, More Than Memories, in the Kristen James romance novels.

I hope today you get your daily helping of romance and chocolate! Enjoy your day :)) -Melissa

A room without books is like a body without a soul. -Cicero

How to Be a Full Time Writer – now available!

by Kristen James

How To Be A Full Time Writer and Editor

 Through Ghostwriting, Freelance Writing, Editing, Co-Writing and Your Writing

Do you love your job? You should! If you don’t, I’d love to help you create a job you love.

I created my own job through a mix of publishing and editing, and then I began ghostwriting. This allowed me to set my own hours, choose my projects, and work from home while dropping the daily commute. I share the sites I used, provide resources, and give tips for finding work, bidding, winning projects, avoiding problem clients and projects, and earning more money.  These tips include actual, winning bids and things to watch out for. You can use some or all of the methods that have worked for me to create a job perfectly suited to your interests and passions.

This is a great way to earn extra income, offset a crisis after job loss, or earn a living. For me, being a “full time” writer means earning full time pay, and not necessarily working eight hours a day.

In How to Be A Full Time Writer, I share:

  • My story
  • Ways to make money online related to writing, editing and publishing
  • How to get started and create a winning profile
  • What not to do
  • Tips to win more projects
  • Red Flags – time to walk away
  • How to price your bids
  • How to make money through your own writing
  • Secrets to selling more ebooks

Whether you’re completely new to online freelancing or already working, this book will jump start your projects and save you time and headaches from problem projects and clients. This 70 page guide cuts the fluff to give you easy to use information, tips and links.

Sample or purchase here.

Coming Soon – In The Land of Huckleberries and Wokas

by Kristen James

In The Land of Huckleberries and Wokas, a Native American adventure novella, was expanded from a short story that placed 32nd out of 12,000 plus entries in Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition. (Wokas are pond lily seeds from the Klamath marshes.)

The stories weren’t just stores, after all. Snow Bird had listened all through her childhood to scary tales of braves raiding camps and taking slaves, but she had never truly feared such a thing happening. When others told her these stories, her father patted her head and smiled, reassuring her that the elders used stories to keep the children close to camp.

Yet now she sat with her hands bound in front of her while her captors drank from the river. They had rushed into camp and attacked those around the dinner fire. With knives tied to their wrists and clubs to swing, they had hit and stunned the adults in a confusing blink of the eye.

Snow Bird is taken far from her home and people, but she refuses to give up hope. She is surprised by someone who wants to help her, and surprised by her own bravery and strength.

***

I started thinking about this short story and had to the tell the rest of it. It’s similar to my Native American novel The River People, but set in eastern Oregon in the Klamath Basin.

I’ll keep you updated and post a link when it’s available on Kindle.

“The Look” – A Romance Mini

by Kristen James

(First appeared on Books-n-Kisses)

The pouring rain outside made it feel more like late evening than six in the morning. Annalisa stared out into it, her back to the office door. Sounds banged and clicked in from the busy shop outside as she tried to jumpstart herself.

The sound of the door swinging open did it. The outside noise jumped in volume, then dimmed again as it slammed shut. She spun around.

“We don’t need some change agent coming in here. We can handle this ourselves!” A very fit man with a long sleeve shirt and jeans threw a stack of papers onto her desk. Some slid across it and hung over the edge on her side. Spotting her, he stood mid gesture and blank faced, watching her push the papers back into a somewhat neat stack.

The day went from bleak to super charged in 2.3 seconds, and not because he’d burst into the office. This guy needed to be in a clothing ad, maybe for outdoor gear. He had a movie star, Brad Pitt type face, and she imagined running her hand along his jaw, checking for stubble.

She sat and leaned back in her chair. “What kind of ideas do you have?”

“Who are you?”

“Looks like I’m the person you’re looking for. Mr. Rici brought me in to see how we can improve the processes out there.” She glanced down at his papers to keep her eyes away from his tall and lean figure, the piercing blue eyes set in a firm face. Soon she realized he had thoughtfully written out several process improvement ideas with calculations on how much time each would save.

Sometime during her scanning, he asked, “Do you have a name?”

She finally looked up and realized he’d sat down and had been watching her for several minutes. Evaluating her. Memorizing her. His face had softened considerably and now he stared at her in wonder. She’d been about to compliment his ideas but got caught up in gazing back at him.

Oh, yeah, her name.

“I’m Annalisa Gildhart, and you?”

“Dan.” He extended his hand in a polite gesture that threw her. His shake was firm but not too hard…and they didn’t break the physical contact right away. He nodded toward the papers. “You know, people aren’t expecting you to listen to our ideas.”

She smiled, thankful for his honesty. “I’m here to help, believe it or not, and that means working with you to keep this place running. These are great ideas, Dan.”

A slow smile spread across his face, and the flirtatious tilt to it made her think he’d reacted more to her smile than her words. Still, he looked much more at ease.

It was her that was tingling inside.

Dan leaned back and studied her. Change always made people nervous, but he almost looked like he’d be willing to drop the old us-against-you routine. Oh, she hoped he’d keep that attitude and prevent a hotbed of tension. Everyone would have to work together or this place would be closing within three months.

“So you might be around a while?” The smile lifted even more on one side.

“Yeah.” She was local too, but kept her answer short.

They were smiling across the desk at each other when someone else rapped on the door and cracked it. “Mrs. Gildhart, you’re on. Everyone’s gathered for the morning meeting.”

She pulled in a deep breath as she rose, then grabbed the papers. She’d like to show them she was on their side and wanted their ideas.

Dan gave her a reassuring smile. “This revamp is starting to look much better than I anticipated.” The gleam in his eye sent shivers up her back as she stepped out of the office.  Annalisa agreed. She just hoped she could concentrate on work with him around… but, wow, those jeans looked good on him.

Copyright Kristen James, all rights reserved. If you like the short stories and previews on my blog, try my Kindle freebie, Embers of Hope, Flickers of Passion. 

A Roller Coaster Ride

by Kristen James

I just published “The Perfect Christmas,” a short story that appeared in Skive Quarterly around 2005. I hope you enjoy it!

I’ve been trying to think of interesting things to share here on my author blog, and it’s a little funny that a writer has a hard time finding things to share. I could write about writing, but writing tips are more for other writers than readers. I will share that this last month or so has been a wild and fun roller coaster ride with my books. A Cowboy For Christmas hit #100 in Kindle and then More Than Memories reached #92 yesterday. I’ve been on the Movers & Shakers list with several different books and also hit the top of the category in Romantic Suspense and Contemporary Romance. The reason those numbers are so exciting is that they represent just how many people are reading my books.

This means some exciting things for my writing career. I’ve worked as a publisher and freelance writer for the last several years, which has been great because I could work on “work” projects and my own writing from home. This allowed me to get an amazing amount of writing done and sharpen my writing skills. I’m so happy I was able to work out my own job the way I did, but I’m also excited about where I’m headed. I’ve backed off from publishing quite a bit over the last year, and from ghostwriting and freelance writing over the last six months. I have a couple writing projects right now but I plan to transition to working on my own fiction full time in 2012.

I’ve actually published 2-4 books a year the last couple of years, but I want to work on a longer, deeper book. I have a couple projects in the works for publication in 2012 and I might also write more novellas like The Fairy and her Giant.

Thank you to everyone for your friendship and for reading my work. Here’s to another exciting year!

I’d love to hear from some of you… what do readers want to read on author blogs?