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20 Things You Might Not Know About Me

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This blog came from another blogger – so I’m taking the challenge and passing it on. Much more fun than buckets of ice water!

Question 1: How tall are you? I used to be 5’9 3/4″ – somehow I can’t stretch that tall any more. Age and gravity, I guess.

Question 2: Do you have a hidden talent? If so, what? I remember endless amounts of trivia – came in handy in the days of Trivial Pursuit.

Question 3: What’s your biggest blog-related pet peeve? Blogs that make you jump through multiple hoops to leave a comment.

Question 4: What’s your biggest non-blog related pet peeve? Not being able to think of a word when I’m trying to say or write something.

Question 5: What’s your favorite song? Amazing Grace by Celtic Thunder. http://bit.ly/1nzv3My

Question 6: What’s your favorite Etsy shop that isn’t yours? Smokey Grove.

Question 7: What’s your favorite way to spend your free time when you’re alone? Reading and/or playing computer games.

Question 8: What’s your favorite junk food? Sea salt-sprinkled chocolate-covered caramels – a close second is shelled pistachio nuts.

Question 9: Do you have a pet or pets? If so, what kind and what are their names? Coki the Dog is a mini-dachshund who owns the house! Coki the Dog

Question 10: What are your number one favorite nonfiction and fiction books? Non-fiction – the Holy Bible; Fiction – Atlas Shrugged.

Question 11: What’s your favorite beauty product? Chanel Eyebrow Powder – I have no/very pale eyebrows.

Question 12: When were you last embarrassed? What happened? I can’t remember – don’t embarrass very easily.

Question 13: If you could only drink one beverage (besides water) for the rest of your life, what would it be? Red wine – good for the heart, you know.

Question 14: What’s your favorite movie? What Women Want – think it’s about the only one I’ve seen multiple times.

Question 15: What were you in high school: prom queen, nerd, cheerleader, jock, valedictorian, band geek, loner, artist, prep? An over-achiever: yearbook editor, salutatorian, band, folk group, etc.

Question 16: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? Right where I am, beautiful Boot Pond outside Plymouth, MA. 100_0142

Question 17: PC or Mac? PC, but iPhone and iPad Air.

Question 18: Last romantic gesture from a crush, date, boy/girlfriend, spouse? He came over and rubbed my shoulders while I was working.

Question 19: Favorite celebrity? I’m not too much into celebrities – probably any of them that still take time for the ‘little people.’

Question 20: What blogger do you secretly want be best friends with? Any and all of them. To quote my dad, “I’ve never met a stranger – they’re only friends who don’t have my acquaintance yet.”

**This blog post is a part of the ’20 Things You Might Not Know About Me’ Blog Tag started by April from Blacksburg Belle. She began this blog tag experiment to build community among creatives, help us bloggers to connect more and get to know each other better. This month’s topic is all about sharing just a little too much information about yourself. If you’d like to participate or want more info,check out the beginning post right here.**

Singularity – mystery, romance, and murder!

Posted on by July 8, 2015
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The Pawn, was released. The Queen, the 4th book in the series, won a Christy Award. I was excited to hear that he has more books about Patrick Bowers in the pipeline. Checkmate is due out December 2nd from Penguin Books. He’s considering up to three additional books in the time span between Opening Moves and The Pawn. When I asked him about the character of Patrick Bowers, he said he was looking for quirks he could exploit and therefore Patrick became a “coffee snob.” He said he was surprised at the negative press he received from a scene in Opening Moves where some dogs were killed – apparently readers felt it okay to kill people, but not dogs. We laughed about the interesting quirks of our society today.

Steven is very jazzed about his first Young Adult (YA) novel that released May 27th, Blur. The sequel to Blur, Fury, was sent to the editor today (9/3/14).

He gave me a collection of interesting facts about Steven James: he studied mime in Paris, Maine; like Patrick, he loves coffee, but isn’t a snob about it; he’s been married to Liesl for 22 years (1992) and has three daughters, ages 20, 18, and 14; he’s a runner and has participated in a 31-mile trail run. Steven related he was inspired by a man 68 years old who is training for his 4th 100-mile run.

Steven recently taught at Thriller Fest with David Morrell, another of my fave authors. He has a Master’s degree in Storytelling and feels that story trumps structure as he writes – that story is all in the crafting – how to write unforgettable fiction by breaking the rules.

Even though Singularity was up for a Christy Award, Steven graciously spent time with me and left only because we both had other appointments. Hard to believe that such a nice guy writes such gory novels! You’ll want to read them all once you’ve read one.


I was given a copy of Singularity by Revell Publishing for my unbiased review.

Can Once Upon a Time Ever Come True?

Posted on by July 8, 2015
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Deb’s Dozen: Accountant Turned Mechanic a Princess? Can Once Upon a Time Come True?

Every girl wants to grow up to be a princess, don’t they? I know I had dreams of tiaras and long flowing gowns and a prince charming with whom I’d live happily ever after. But that’s not true for all young women.

Regina “Reggie” Beswick has left her job as a high-powered CPA to help her father’s lifelong friend and his ex-marine buddies restore classic cars. Mike, her friend since childhood, has an unrequited love for Reggie and feels that she has made a terrible career move. But Reggie is living her dream and loving her life. Fate has, however, other things in store for Reggie.

Hessenberg, a small European country, has lost its princess – and a worldwide search is on to find a member of the royal family – without reigning royalty, Hessenberg will lose its status as a sovereign nation. When her true identity comes to light, Tanner Burkhardt, Hessenberg’s minister of culture, is sent to Florida to retrieve her. Tanner’s mission is vital to the survival of his country, but the all-American, car-loving Reggie has no desire to take up a tiara in Europe, and Tanner has his work cut out for him.

You’ll love all the tricks and traps that Tanner tries to convince Reggie to come back with him and take her rightful place. Rachel Hauck, although writing a modern fairy tale, has lots of twists and turns and mystery before we reach the denouement. Sit down with a cup of sweet tea and enjoy. You’ll love it!

Interviewing Rachel at the International Christian Retail Show, I wondered aloud why she chose to write modern fairy tales. She said she’d watched the whole Kate and William romance and wedding – a situation where the common girl won the prince. She wanted to go on a love story journey.

With that as her inspiration, she wrote Once Upon a Prince about a similar situation to that of Prince William and Kate. Her second book in the Royal Wedding series is Princess Ever After which will be followed by How to Catch a Prince. This spring she and two friends released the ebook, Spring Brides Collection, which contains a novella, A March Bride, about what happens to the two protagonists immediately after the end of Once Upon a Prince.

All of her books, she says are romance or “chick lit.” She’s written three books with Sara Evans, the Songbird novels, which she calls Southern soap operas. In addition she has three books in her Lowcountry Romance series along with a couple of standalone novels. The main question she asks herself when she starts writing is, “How will I make it sincere and authentic.”

Rachel has been married for 22 years to a pastor – they were in a youth pastorate for 20 years. They have no children – she says they’re akin to Elkanah and Hannah. She was a journalism major at Ohio State – her father told her she was supposed to be a writer. Instead she worked in the corporate world as a software trainer and project manager for a Fortune 500 company. She and I share a corporate background and really empathized with each other! She doesn’t like florescent lighting and said in her area at the company, she had maintenance turn off the overhead lights – each desk had a desk lamp instead. I love it – I always hated those lights, too.

She’s a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, has been a finalist at the RITAs (Romance Writers of America), a Christy Award finalist, and a Carol Award Winner. She writes books she loves to read – all from her two-story tower at home!