Excerpt Tour: I Have A Story

 

I HAVE A STORY

Colleen L Donnelly

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                     GENRE: Historical Romance

 

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BLURB:

 

Jim Turner writes crime but doesn’t live it. He respects his grandfather’s tales of heroes but doesn’t believe them. When his failing grandfather sends him to a remote peninsula to write the end of his own heroic love story, Jim includes a war criminal interview to maintain his edge.

 

Chastity is an anomaly, a misfit in pre-WWII culture as well as in Jim’s life. Her spritely charm and endearing features turn Jim’s world upside down, especially when she reveals his grandfather’s peninsula as the site of her upcoming wedding.

 

Do good journalists flee when their interviewee is murdered? Do heroes write fiancés out of another’s story and themselves in? “The End” become the hardest words for Jim to write.​

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EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

 

Author's Note:  Boy meets Girl. Even the best of heroes have unheroic moments.

 

“Mr. Turner?” The voice was husky, but unmistakably a woman’s. She rose from one of the chairs as I turned, her form a solid rectangle that even her plain belted dress didn’t add any femininity to. “Mr. Turner.” Abandoning her previous courteous address, she clearly knew who I was. Lots of people recognized me. But I could tell, by the expressionless look on a face which seemed hardened rather than softened by age, this was no fan of my fiction. Perspiration dampened my collar.

 

Wally entered the lobby and sidled around us, stopping behind the counter. I wanted to join him, to escape this woman’s dour demeanor that darkened my newfound elation.

 

“May I help you?” I asked her instead. Maybe the hair severely pulled back from her face fixed her features in their rigid positions.

 

“Is there someplace we could talk?” She probably meant somewhere safe from Wally’s ears. Or from those of the man who lingered in another of the lobby’s chairs, his face hidden behind a newspaper.

 

I gestured outside, and she frowned. She apparently didn’t wish to be seen publicly as much as she didn’t want to be overheard privately. But under no circumstances would I invite her to my room. I gauged her to be the darker side of forty and, though dressed like a woman, she was built like a rock. The opposite of Chastity… Chastity! Every choice I made could affect her.

 

“Outside,” I commanded, refusing to waver. Not waiting for an argument or a response, I pushed through the door into the evening’s dusky shade, instantly regretting my decision. My goodness. Just one afternoon with a woman like Chastity had dulled my keen edge. Even my characters knew better than to meet a stranger alone in the dark. “Right here is fine.” I stayed near the light glowing from the lobby’s glass door as the tank of a woman joined me.

 

She immediately utilized a tactic I employed in my stories—silence. It loosened every tongue. Except mine. My collar grew moister, but I said nothing as I waited for her to crack.

 

“I have a message for you,” she said at last.

 

My breathing changed and my face warmed. Two more things which would get me killed in one of my books. “From whom?”

 

She ignored my question. “You are being watched.”

 

Before I could utter a response, she disappeared. Even with her bulk, she strode with purpose and vanished into the dark.

 

“What do you mean? Who sent you?” I shouted too late into the darkness where she had vanished. I was being watched? Who was watching me? Randy Reed? Hitler? Dwayne? After a hasty glance around, I hurried back inside the lobby.

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Colleen L Donnelly put her science education to use for years and then put it behind her to pursue other passions. Her first love is writing and her second is hunting—hunting for that next good story, hunting for relics and antiques, hunting for the next good author to read. An avid believer in work hard/play hard, Colleen splits her time between indoors and out, always busy at something.

 

Buy Links: 

Amazon: https://amzn.to/4lq6qGO

Goodreads: bit.ly/4jHc6Lj

BookBub: https://bit.ly/4ivgQls

 

Social Media Links:

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/colleen-l-donnelly

Website: http://www.colleenldonnelly.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/colleen.donnelly.568/

Goodreads: http://www.Goodreads.com/colleenldonnelly 

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/colleenldonnelly/ 

Amazon: http://amzn.to/37vcnO4

Twitter:   https://x.com/ColleenLDonnell/

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION: 

 

Colleen L Donnelly will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

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