One of my writer friends has published her first book!!!!! So exciting and I'm helping by dedicating this post to her new book and information for her blog tour!!!
We hope this is a great success for Shaunna---You go girl.
Dark Days of Promise:
Thirty-four year
old Vicki Laramie must learn to trust before she can love, but she might die
trying.
While Vicki’s children grapple with the death of their
father--a man whom she’s successfully fabricated as loving, a lie her
rebellious teenager recognizes--she must find a way to support her family and
find a role model for her boys. She never intends to fall for Staff Sergeant
Chase, her best friend’s son, who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD). She’d much rather choose a safer man to love, but her children have a
voice in the decision she makes. With two deaths to deal with, a suitor after
her money, a rebellious son, and Sergeant Chase’s repeated attacks, she can
only hope to survive the danger she faces. If she doesn’t, her children will be
left without either parent.
ISBN: 978-1-61252-218-0
Interview with Shaunna:
Me: Thank you for giving us your time today, Shaunna. We are excited
for your first published book, Dark Days of Promise. We would love to
know more about you and how you feel about writing and being an author.
Shaunna: It's
good of you to invite me, Valerie
Me: Why should we read Dark Days of Promise??
 |
| Shaunna Gonzales |
Shaunna: I've
toyed with writing since a teenager but have only written in earnest since
2005. Like most authors, the first attempts were awful but this one was
different. It is not what I started out to write, but certainly what Heavenly
Father wanted me to write. In an effort to give Dark Days of Promise an
authentic feel I endeavored to include some experiences of veterans I know and
could often be found discussing the realities of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder) in their lives and how it could honestly be shared in this project.
On the evening of this books first promotion, a woman approached me, excited to
find someone who knew enough that she could have a listening ear. I realized
that the scope of PTSD reaches deep into the core of our society and includes
infants, children, housewives, the working and unemployed as well as veterans;
in short, all of us. In an effort to treat this subject fairly, I altered my
writing course from "romance with a twist" to helping our society,
sufferers and innocents alike to becoming aware. It is more than those who
experience the violence, more than the victims who experience this debilitating
disease that are affected. It is their families, the bystander of violent crime
and all of us who dare to care for and love them.
ME: It sounds very interesting. Tell me when
did you first start writing and why??
Shaunna: About seven years ago, after reading most of
J.K. Rowlings, Harry Potter series I craved more great reads and went to the
local library. After spending months wading through awful fiction, one touting
its prize winning status, I threw it across the room. (In my weakened condition
it only made it to the bed for a soft landing.) "I
could write better than this!" I grumbled. My hubby, ever understanding of
my turbulent moods answered with a calm, "Then why don't you?" It
wasn't long before I set out to do just that!
ME: Good for you!! How do you find the determination to continue to write??
Shaunna: I love to
write. When I get fatigued, which happens a lot with MS (Multiple Sclerosis), I
only have to find the strength to look outside myself, to reflect on the
conversations with PTSD sufferers and the peace they find in sharing their
stories with me. Of course, not everyone is in a place where they feel they can
share the dragons that haunt them every waking hour, but it is my hope that
there will be more communication, if not with me, then with someone.
ME: You are an inspiration!!! How do you come up with ideas for your books?
Shaunna: You really want me
to tell that story. Okay. I wrote a Christmas romance that when I thought I had
it finished, bored me to tears, literally. I knew it needed help. Not in the
writing so much as it needed to fly. It needed to give the reader (and me) a
reason to turn the page. Tears streaming down my face, I turned to prayer.
Prayer guided a downtrodden me to my keyboard. There a scene flew from my
fingers. I knew it was exactly what my ailing story needed! I remember reading
it over and thinking, "Where did that come from?" I had to know if
what I'd written could really happen and started asking questions. Those
questions carried me to vets and some active soldiers. I've never changed a
word of that scene. Punctuation? Yes. You can find that scene, in its entirety
in Dark Days of Promise. I'll give you a hint which scene I'm talking about.
(Vicki flys.)
ME: What a journey you have traveled. Did you have a mentor??
Shaunna: One specifically? No. I have several
authors whose work I admire. I read and that is how I learn, by mimicking what
I see that works. This is why I refuse to read on the same day that I write, it
is too easy to plagiarize with my method of learning. I have to be really
careful.
ME: What do you love about writing??
Shaunna: Writing is an escape for me,
whether it is into someone else's troubles or another time. Yeah, I love the
escape.
ME: What do you dislike about writing??
Shaunna: Right now? The promoting and
the energy it takes away from my writing. I'll be in the middle of an on-line
chat and glance over at my notes for my WIP (Work in Progress) with longing and
an apology that I've been away too long.
Valerie, this has been a joy to
be here. Please invite your readers to visit my blog for posts of where I'll be
on this blog tour. Sometimes I'm not sure where I'll be until the last minute.
ME: Shaunna, thank you so much for your insights and inspiration. Good luck with the sales of your new book and I hope it helps many people suffering from PTSD.
Here is Shaunna's Blog:
Here is Shaunna's Blog:
Shaunna's Blog: http://www.shaunnagonzales.blogspot.com
