Yolanda Renee, Book Tour

It’s a pleasure to be participating in author Yolanda Renee’s MURDER, JUST BECAUSE Blog Tour through MC Book Tours today.

The author is offering an awesome tour-wide international giveaway. More information on the giveaway is listed below.

MURDER, JUST BECAUSE
by Yolanda  Renée

◊ Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
◊ Publisher: Yolanda Renee
◊ Series: Detective Quaid Mysteries
◊ Paperback: 291 pages
◊ Print & eBooks
◊ ISBN-10: 0985820632
◊ ISBN-13: 978-0985820633
◊ Contains explicit sex & graphic violence

You can find her book on Amazon and Smashwords.

"While this book does contain explicit sexual language and graphic violence, it could easily be taken from the daily headlines. The content is plausible and realistic as we look at the world around us. The events in the book are not overly done but give a pragmatic look at the terrifying actions killers can and sometimes do take."

Excerpt:

It was a matter of beginner’s luck, but rookie detective Steven Quaid’s career and reputation as an elite investigator skyrocketed when he captured one of the most sadistic serial killers in Alaskan history: Stowy Jenkins, AKA the Snowman. But that was ten years ago.

And now…Jenkins is back. Escaped from prison and on the move, his bloodlust is stronger than ever, and his methods of torture are even more horrifying than before. As his bloody rampage continues and the number of mutilated bodies mounts, terrified Alaskans increasingly doubt Quaid’s ability to catch the killer again. The detective’s reputation is on the line, and he’s going to need a lot more than luck, because this time, Jenkins is driven by more than the thrill of a random kill.

This time, it’s more personal. He’s out for revenge…and his ultimate target is Quaid. In a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, Jenkins starts picking off the people in Quaid’s life…slowly, gradually tightening his circle of corpses and drawing ever closer to the most important person in Quaid’s life...his wife. Can Quaid do the impossible again? Can he outmaneuver the killer, or has the detective's luck finally run out?

Author Yolanda Renee

For those who aren’t familiar with the author, here’s a bit of background on her in her own words.

At one time Alaska called to me, and I answered. I learned to sleep under the midnight sun, survive in below zero temperatures, and hike the Mountain Ranges. I’ve traveled from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, and the memories are some of my most valued. The wonders, mysteries and incredible beauty that is Alaska has never left me and thus now influences my writing.

Despite my adventurous spirit, I achieved my educational goals, married, and I have two handsome sons. Writing is now my focus, my newest adventure!

For more on Yolanda and her writing, you can connect with her here:

Blog    *     Facebook     *     Twitter     *     Pinterest    

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

This tour-wide giveaway is for a complete set of the Detective Quaid Mystery series books for one winner, paperback copies of MURDER, JUST BECAUSE for five winners, and a Kindle copy of MURDER, JUST BECAUSE for 10 winners.

To enter the giveaway, just click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions. The widget may take a few seconds to load so please be patient. If the widget doesn’t show up, just click HERE and you’ll be directed to the widget.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to follow Yolanda on her week-long tour HERE. You never know what you might find out. Do you enjoy watching a character grow from one story to the next?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

IWSG, How Things Are, Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:  Diane Burton, JH Moncrieff, Anna @ Emaginette, Karen @ Reprobate Typewriter, Erika Beebe, and Lisa Buie-Collard!

This month's question is: The IWSG’s focus is on our writers. Each month, from all over the globe, we are a united group sharing our insecurities, our troubles, and our pain. So, in this time when our world is in crisis with the covid-19 pandemic, our optional question this month is: how are things in your world?

It is the worst of times and the best of times. It is a supremely strange, surreal, and scary time. (Note my cleaver use of alliteration, humor must be maintained.)

I had a long dreary post detailing my angst but I figured we are all pretty much feeling the same thing so why belabor the point? It's also very easy to get bogged down in the quagmire, get sucked into the quick sand, get swirled around in the whirl pool and become depressed.

Therefore, I am choosing to share up-lifting quotes and pictures.

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.

Lois Lowry

I've only written four songs in my whole life, but I've written those four songs a million times.

Bob Dylan

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the the overcoming of it.

Helen Keller

Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.

Maya Angalou

What else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives, acts, and experiences otherwise than we do?

Nietzsche

What is the purpose of anger and hate? Does it bring you joy? Does it bring you happiness and contentment? Does it bring you love? If the answer is no, then why give anger and hate safe harbor in your heart when, like a category 5 hurricane, it will destroy the harbor and your heart as well?

Bish Denham

Here's a little humor. I wrote new words to the song 

Loco-Motion. It's a brand new dance called...

The Hunker Down.

Everybody’s doing a brand new dance, yea

(Come on baby and do the Hunker-down, now)

I know you’ll get to like it if you give it a chance, yea

      (Come on baby and do the Hunker-down, now)

My little baby sister can do it with me

It’s easier than catching this new disease

So come on, come on, do the hunker-down with me.

You gotta buy TP, now

      Come on, baby

Snatch a pack, jump back

      Well I think you’ve got the knack

Now that you can do it share it on your phone, yea

      (Come on baby and do the Hunker-down, now)

A snatch and grab motion and a dash for home, yea

      (Come on baby and do the Hunker-down, now)

Do it nice and easy, now and don’t lose control

A little bit of rhythm and a whole lot of soul

So come on, come on, do the Hunker-down with me

Move around the floor in the Hunker-down

      (Come on baby and do the Hunker-down, yea)

Do it bumping elbows (stay six feet away) now

      (Come on baby and do the Hunker-down)

There’s never been a dance that’s so easy to do,

It’ll make you happy when you’re feeling blue

So, come on, come on do the Hunker-down with me

Being Thankful
***

Despite everything going on, I have plenty for which to be thankful.

My family and friends in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are well. We have enough food.
We have shelter, water, electricity.

And, it is spring.

I will leave you with these pictures which remind me that no matter what, life will continue.

Blue iris

Claret cactus

First spring bouquet, 

bluebonnets and columbines

***

What are you thankful for? Have a favorite inspirational, uplifting quote?

IWSG, In the Spotlight, Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure
Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts: Jacqui Murray, Lisa Buie-Collard, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence!

This month's question is: Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories?

Not that I can recall.

Now on to other things. 

I am the featured In the Spotlight author on the IWSG Anthology Blog and I'm sharing here, what I wrote for the blog.

***

When I saw what the theme for this anthology was going to be and that it was for middle graders, I knew immediately the story I needed to tell.

Because my family has lived between Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for over hundred years and because I was raised in the VI, most of my stories have a strong Caribbean flavor. For research purposes I have a small collection of books about the islands. One of those books, by Isidor Paiewonsky, is Eyewitness Accounts of Slavery in the Danish West Indies also Graphic Tales of Other Slave Happenings on Ships and Plantations. It was in this book that I read excerpts from the journal of a twelve-year-old boy named Jacques B. Romaigne.

Jacques’ story haunted me for years. He lingered behind a near opaque curtain which he pulled aside from time to time, casting ghostly shadows across my mind, reminding me he was still there and that he wanted his story told. Finally I gave in and wrote, “The Blind Ship.”

I tried peddling it around to various children’s magazines, but no one was interested. I knew my writing wasn’t the problem so my guess is that it was too dark and serious. Whatever the reason, his story has languished in my files for a good 15 years, yet in all that time, Jacques has never left me.

Now, at last, he has come out of from behind the curtains, and his story can be told.

Excerpt:

At last we are on our way, He wrote a few days later. Le Rôdeur is 200 tons and we now have on board 160 Negro slaves.

Jacques reread his words. He had already commented on the fair weather carrying him toward the Caribbean. He tried not to think about what lay in the close dank, dark quarters of the hold. It was enough that he could hear their muffled moans and cries through the decking.

He took up his quill and continued writing.

I know you will miss me while you tarry in France, but Father needs me on the plantation. Besides, I long to see the green hills of Guadeloupe and the blue waters of the bays. Take heart, Mother, soon you will follow and we will be together once again.

At dinner a few days later, M. Gagne and Captain Boucher spoke of shipboard issues. Jacques, as a paying passenger, ate with the men. They talked over his head, as if he wasn’t there.

“The slaves have brought ophthalmia on board with them,” said M. Gagne.

“Ophthalmia?” asked Jacques. “What is that?”

“An eye disease that causes blindness.” said M. Gagne. “At worst the blindness is permanent. Most often, if treated properly, vision will return, though in some cases one’s sight will be permanently impaired.”

“How bad?” asked Captain Boucher.

“It is spreading at a frightful rate. There are already more than I can manage.”

***

The release date for VOYAGERS: The Third Ghost 
is May 5, 2020,
but purchase links are available,
and you can preorder a copy now.

Print 9781939844729 $13.95
EBook 9781939844736 $4.99
Juvenile Fiction - Historical / Action & Adventure / Fantasy & Magic
Dancing Lemur Press/Freedom Fox Press

Amazon - Print https://www.amazon.com/dp/193984472X/ Kindle https://www.amazon.com/Voyagers-Third-Ghost-Yvonne-Ventresca-ebook/dp/B083C4WPR5/

Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/voyagers-yvonne-ventresca/1135912991?ean=2940163430857

ITunes - https://books.apple.com/ca/book/voyagers-the-third-ghost/id1493413956

Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/voyagers-the-third-ghost

***

You can check out an interview with me on C. Lee McKenzie's blog HERE.

***

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for the rain we got.

What are you thankful for? Have you ever included family traditions or customs in any of your stories? If you haven't checked out the other anthology authors who have been featured on In the Spotlight, drop what you're doing and go over there RIGHT NOW! 

IWSG, The Agony of Defeat, IWSG Anthology, Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:  Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes, Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson!

This month's question is: Has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

I'm sure I've been inspired at some point in my life, but I've written so many stories, so many partials, so many snippets, that I can't remember anything specific.

***

The Agony of Defeat

So, at the end of January I had this fabulous opportunity to submit a novel of mine to Simon and Schuster (without an agent!). It looked to me like it was, on many different levels, the perfect fit for the particular editor who was accepting unsolicited manuscripts. I worked so hard on it - days, weeks, months - to edit/revise and generally make it as clean as possible. But then...right there at the end...as I exported it from the editing program - which I really like - back to my computer, all of the formatting was lost and I was left with a garbled mess of single/double spaced paragraphs with/without indentations with/without page breaks.

There was no way I could possibly reformat 200 plus pages manually to get it sent off in time. I'd already been up since three in the morning and it was 4 PM when it happened and I had to be at work by 5 PM and wouldn't be back home until 7:30 PM - I know just 2 and a half hours - and I was already exhausted.

I sobbed and wept and cussed a blue streak. Poor hubby, he did a good job being supportive and compassionate even as I yelled at him to shut the f**k up I don't want to hear about how you understand what I'm going through.

via GIPHY
Truly, this has been the single worst writing experience of my life, worse than losing stuff on my computer when it went nuclear. Worse that any rejection.

via GIPHY
All I can tell myself is that there must be a reason for the agony of this defeat. Can somebody please tell me what it is? Is there another editor/publisher out there that's even more perfect?

***

Here is the link to IWSG Anthologies where you can meet the contributing authors of Voyages: The Third Ghost. Stop by and a learn a little about who we are. 

***

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for...

I'm thinking about it...

Today I'm thankful for...

Chocolate.

What are you thankful for? What has been your single worst writing experience? Have you written a story that was inspired by a photo or piece of art?

IWSG, Voyagers and Other News, Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:  T. Powell Coltrin, Victoria Marie Lees, Stephen Tremp, Renee Scattergood, and J.H. Moncrieff!

This month's question is:  What started you on your writing journey? Was it a particular book, movie, story, or series? Was it a teacher/coach/spouse/friend/parent? Did you just "know" suddenly you wanted to write?

Happy New Year!

This is a longer post than I intended...

My writing journey began when I was eight years old. My mother was homeschooling me at the time with the Calvert Course, as it was called then. Now it's Calvert Education with over a 100 years of homeschooling experience. It was quite something. They shipped everything that would be needed for each grade in a big box: books, paper, pencils, teacher's manual, etc. EVERYthing.

Anyway, one assignment was that I write something about my family. I doubt my mother expected much, a page perhaps of misspelled words because I was then (not so bad now, though still not great) a most terrible speller due to dyslexia. But apparently I wrote three pages describing my family in great detail. It was in this treatise that I wrote about my sister and me as two grils. From then on we have often been affectionately referred to as "the grils." Even my husband has been known to use it.

My mother, impressed with my effort, became extremely supportive of my writing. Many years later, as an adult, I was going through a slump and somehow she knew. Out of the blue she sent me THE ARTIST'S WAY by Julia Cameron.

The book worked. It got me writing again. And now I'm going to reveal a little secret. Embedded in each my three self-published books - and in any book I may publish in the future - are those three words from her, "follow the way."

***

Big news for me. My story, "The Blind Ship," will be in the next Insecure Writer's Support Group Anthology!

 Journey into the past…

Will the third ghost be found before fires take more lives? Can everyone be warned before Pompeii is buried again? What happens if a blizzard traps a family in East Germany? Will the Firebird help Soviet sisters outwit evil during WWII? And sneaking off to see the first aeroplane – what could go wrong?

Ten authors explore the past, sending their young protagonists on harrowing adventures. Featuring the talents of Yvonne Ventresca, Katharina Gerlach, Roland Clarke, Sherry Ellis, Rebecca M. Douglass, Bish Denham, Charles Kowalski, Louise M. Barbour, Beth Anderson Schuck, and L.T. Ward.

Hand-picked by a panel of agents, authors, and editors, these ten tales will take readers on a voyage of wonder into history. Get ready for an exciting ride!

Release date – May 5, 2020
Juvenile Fiction: Historical (JUV016000) / Action & Adventure (JUV001000) / Fantasy & Magic (JUV037000)Print 9781939844729 / EBook 9781939844736

A Writer’s Digest Best Site for Writers and The Write Life’s Best Site for Writers.
Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database; articles; monthly blog posting; Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram groups; #IWSGPit, and a monthly newsletter. www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com

***

I'm also thrilled to announce that I have an article in the prestigious travel magazine, Destination, which publishes magazines geared towards specific locations in the Caribbean and around the world. My article, "Yard Culture and the Fellowship of Food" is in Destination: US Virgin Islands/British Virgin Islands. The magazine is published only once a year, so my article will be in the hands of readers for a whole year.

***

Being Thankful

What's not to be thankful for?

2019 was a bit rocky, but ended on a high note.

I have a loving husband and sister.

I have a roof over my head, running water, electricity, food

and,

I have my health.

What are you thankful for? How did you begin your writing journey? Do you feel good about what you accomplished in 2019? Are you looking forward to 2020?

IWSG - End of Year Thoughts

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:  Tonja Drecker, Beverly Stowe McClure, Nicki Elson, Tyrean Martinson!

This month's question is:  Let's play a game. Imagine. Role-play. How would you describe your future writer self, your life and what it looks and feels like if you were living the dream? Or if you are already there, what does it look and feel like? Tell the rest of us. What would you change or improve?

If I were living the dream, the only thing I'd change is having my own special space, a she shed as it were. Other than that, I'm good.

End of Year Thoughts

It's December, already. The year seems to have gone by way too fast. Maybe it's because I'm older? 

Aside from politics, climate change, the destruction of natural habitats and wildlife, the ever increasing problem with plastic, the suffering of millions and millions and millions of people due to war, famine, and disease, I personally have had a pretty good year. 

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a split-brained society/world, a strange schizophrenic place where one thing means another, where reality is questioned, where on one hand science is denied while on hand it is nonchalantly used every second of every day - the computer/internet, medicine, cell phones, cars, electricity, engineering on all levels... the list of how we use science is so long I'd be typing for who knows how long. And yet, science, or certain branches of it, is denied as somehow not being science or not being scientific or not being factual. 

When you take the temperature of someone who is sick, do you deny the reading of the thermometer? Do you argue that something must be wrong with the thermometer, or the person taking the reading, or the numbers being registered? And while you're arguing and/or denying do you ignore further readings that say the person's fever is getting worse and continue to do nothing to correct the cause of the fever?

Via NASA: “The area covered by older and thicker sea ice
 in the Arctic diminished by almost 50 percent
between 1980 and 2012.”

Asking for a friend. 

No matter what this planet, this tiny spec of dust in a vast unknowable universe, is the only home we have, it's the one that grew us. It's the only place around, for who knows how many light-years, where we can live in relative comfort. We are not built to live in space or on the moon or on Mars. Earth is it folks.

I think I can safely say that if we continue to go in the direction we are going it is not the earth that will be destroyed, it will be OUR habitat and US. The earth has survived for billions of years and in that time has gone through many changes and has evolved many species. We are only the latest incarnation, and a pitifully new one at that. As a new species we have taken this miraculous blue ball and, like an undisciplined puppy, torn it to pieces and we are now wondering what happened to the toy and wondering where the next toy is going to come from and are thinking about going off to find a new one to rip apart.

No matter what, the earth will survive, whether we do is questionable.

As we come to the close of 2019 and move into 2020, think about what your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren are going to have to deal with. Are you going to teach them to love this planet and each other, or are you going to buy them more plastic toys for Christmas?

May the holidays bring us meaning and understanding and love. May we all learn to be grateful and thankful for the small, yet oh so important, things in our lives. Things like, air, water, food, and our very lives.

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year

IWSG, Chocolate, and Being Thankful

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts: Sadira Stone, Patricia Josephine, Lisa Buie-Collard, Erika Beebe, and C. Lee McKenzie!

This month's question is: What's the strangest thing you've ever googled in researching a story?

I don't know that I'd call anything I've researched strange. Interesting yes, but not strange. I haven't researched anything like what kinds to poisons to use, or how long does it take to choke a person to death, or is there a ghost of JFK haunting the White House, but I have done some very interesting and in depth research on, among other things, chocolate. 

Cocoa beans come from this fruit. The seeds are
surrounded by a sweet meat.The trees are native
to Central America and only grow within a small
 latitudinal range.

Did you know that cocoa beans were literally used as money? A 100 beans could get you a jackrabbit or a turkey hen. A tom was worth 200. A turnkey egg, an avocado, or a fish wrapped in corn husks was worth three beans. Among the Maya and Aztec only the wealthy and royals drank hot chocolate - which was laced with chili - because doing so meant they were literally drinking their wealth. It is because of these two facts that we get the term about money not growing on trees, which at one time it really did. 

Supposedly chocolate in candy form didn't make an appearance until the 19th century. However, there's strong indications that soon after the Spaniards conquered the Aztecs and Mayas nuns added sugar to chocolate and were the first to make candies.  In 1544 it was a delegation of Maya nobles to the court of Prince Phillip who first brought chocolate to the Old World, not Cortes as some would have us believe. The Spanish crown became so enthralled with drinking chocolate they wanted to keep it secret and only a few monks, hidden away in Spanish 
monasteries, knew the recipe for preparing the beans. But eventually the secret was leaked and it became the new rage in Europe.

Pedro de Toledo

By the way, it's because of drinking hot chocolate that we have saucers. Sometime between 1639 and 1648 the Viceroy of Peru, one Pedro de Toledo the Marques de Mancerea, became concerned when a lady spilled chocolate on her gown. He had the problem corrected by having a silversmith make a plate with a raised ring in the center of it. A small cup could then be set on the plate without fear of it slipping off. The "mancerina," or saucer, was born. This lead to potters making matching cups and saucers.

Here endth the lesson.

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for, what else, chocolate!

What are you thankful for? Do you have a favorite kind of chocolate? A favorite candy bar? And what's the strangest thing you've ever researched?