Virtual Blog Tour- Moving On - A Prairie Romance by Annette Bower

Please join me as I welcome Annette Bower on her Virtual Blog Tour for book Moving On: A Prairie Romance.  Annette was kind enough to answer my interview questions below.  Please make sure to leave a comment below because Annette will award a $25 GC to All Romance eBooks to one randomly drawn commenter at the end of the tour.

Me: Can you tell us what inspired you to write “Moving On, A Prairie Romance”

Annette: When my sons were school aged we lived in the Town of Regina Beach. During summer holidays we went to the beach almost every day. I usually took two books with me, a notebook for writing a romance story and a cook book to plan dinner when I wasn’t watching them in the water or talking with friends.

I had a female protagonist in mind who played the guitar and sang and I wanted to play cupid. Anna changed over the years from a full time entertainer to singing as a hobby. Nick, my male protagonist began as a business man but he changed into an injured soldier because I wanted to explore a theme. I wanted to journey with two people coming together after significant losses in their lives as they healed, trusted and loved again.

Me:  Are you a full time writer or do you have an additional career on top of your writing?

Annette:  I am a full time writer now. I have worked as a rehabilitation nurse, gerontology nurse, intensive care pediatric nurse, house mother for emotionally disturbed children, administrative stenographer, town administrator, elected official, sales person, teacher’s assistant, plus volunteer in many capacities.  All in all, these experiences help to build my stories with life experiences. Oh yes, my other side, wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend add experiences of the heart. 

Me:   Did you always want to be a writer?

Annette:  I have always liked telling stories. I began as a teenage poet. When my nursing school friends and I get together they recall the time after the basement flooded in the house we shared, when I hung my wet poetry on a clothes line because it suffered water damage. I have some of that poetry today water marks and all. I enjoy distillation or showing a story in as few words as possible.

I admire John Donne’s epigram: [page 75, Complete English Poems, Everyman, 1994]

A lame begger

I am unable, younder begger cries,

To stand, or move; if he say true, hee lies.

Me:  Who would you say has been the greatest influence on your writing?

Annette:  The Saskatchewan writing community has both been unhelpful and helpful. Way back I submitted an application to join a summer writing school and I was rejected. Because I didn’t know that there were many reasons to refuse an application, I felt it was a rejection on my ability to write. I didn’t pursue writing as hard as I should have for a very long time. However, since I began again, the Saskatchewan writing community and the programs through the Saskatchewan Writers Guild have helped me grow as a writer.

Me:  Is your family supportive of your writing?

Annette:  Yes, my husband supports me one hundred and ten percent, and my children, children-in-law, my siblings, cousins and their children attend readings, purchase magazines, anthologies and now e-readers and my e-novel. They promote me as their “wife, mother, mother-in-law, sister, cousin, aunt” who writes. 

Me:  Can you tell us what you are currently working on?

Annette:  I am working on two things.  I have a novel ready to send out with the working title, Woman of Substance, A Prairie Romance about Robbie, a female university master’s student who wears a disguise to further her research and this is problematic to Jake, the male protagonist. It becomes an issue of trust. I am exploring where to send this book because like Moving On, A Prairie Romance it doesn’t quite fit the typical romance form.

Along with the two week blog tour I am on through Goddess Fish Promotions, I’m developing the female character and theme for my next novel and I’m excited by the possibilities.

Me:  Are you planning more romance novels set in the Canadian “Prairie”?

Annette:  Yes, the working title, Woman of Substance, A Prairie Romance is set in the Canadian city of Regina, Saskatchewan as well as a small town of Lumsden, Saskatchewan.

I know my city and surrounding area and since I have travelled, I realize that people enjoy reading about where they live and readers from away find the Canadian prairie landscape and culture exotic too.

Me:  If you could have dinner with two authors, living or dead, who would they be?

Annette:  I would dine on tea and hot baking powder biscuits with Lucy Maud Montgomery and discuss her world popular Anne Shirley character and ask her if she ever imagined she would help exported Canadian literature and culture around the world through her freckled-faced, red-haired orphan and her mismatched family of unmarried Marilla and shy, bachelor Mathew.

I would love to discuss with Robert B. Parker his style of writing. He makes story telling appear deceptively effortless with minimal description and plenty of witty dialogue over a Spenser’s doughnut and a glass of Sunny Randle’s sauvignon blanc.

Me:  What are you currently reading?

Annette:  Stray Love by Kyo Maclear a novel about the power a character’s past and the effects on their present and future. 

Me:  Quick Five to Get to Know the Woman behind the Author:

Coffee, tea or soda? Coffee with milk.

Cookies, cake or pie? Cookies with just a bit of crunch.

Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate and Vanilla side by side, like one of those twirled soft ice cream cones.

Movie choice—comedy, romance or horror? Romantic comedy. I won’t pass up an opportunity to watch Miss Congeniality with Sandra Bullock at least once a year.

Favorite Season—Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter? I will favor sunshine in all the seasons. I live in Saskatchewan, a province that boasts on balance 2,256 sunshine hours annually. So if the sun is shining I’m happy.

 

 

Moving On: A Prairie Romance

by Annette Bower

BLURB:

Anna is a mysterious woman that has just moved to Regina Beach. The residents of the small town know everyone’s business and they are very interested in discovering Anna’s secrets. Nick was a Sergeant in the Canadian Army, doing active duty until a horrific accident sent him home to recover. He helps Anna feel safe and comfortable in her new environment, just as he has always done for his men in strange, dangerous places. Meanwhile, he focuses on preparing for his future physical endurance test to prove that he is capable of returning to active duty.

Anna doesn’t talk about her past, and Nick doesn’t talk about his future therefore she is shocked to discover that his greatest wish is to return to active duty. She won’t love a man who may die on the job again. Intellectually, she knows that all life cycles end, but emotionally, she doesn’t know if she has the strength to support Nick.

Excerpt 1:

Anna plowed through fallen leaves and broken twigs that were spread over the stone pathway leading to the stairs. The screened summer door sprung open but the solid weather door refused to budge. She twisted the key, jiggled the door knob and finally she turned sideways and bumped her hip against the stubborn paint- encrusted door. Banging against something and having it move felt wonderful. The momentary hip sting was an annoyance compared to the pain that she’d endured over the last year. Taking a deep breath she pushed the door open, inhaled stale air and watched dust motes floating on current of outside air.

The lawyer hadn’t known if Murray had spent any time here. Part of her wanted to look around and think of him as a carefree child, then a young man whole and alive, while the other part of her wanted a clean slate.    

Anna ran her hand over the white refrigerator and matching stove and trailed a finger in the dust on the country kitchen table and solid chairs. Through a large window was an expansive view of blue water. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth reminding her that she was thirsty. Anna turned the taps at the kitchen sink. They squeaked, but nothing came. All that water out there but none where she was going to live. She walked down a hallway and peered into rooms until she found the bathroom. The taps in the sink and tub repeated the noise and the toilet had green liquid in the bottom. She stomped her feet against the tiled floor. Damn. There were a few bottles of water in the car, but how would she use the other facilities? She didn’t know how to rough it; Murray was supposed to teach her how to camp in the wilds.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Annette Bower lives and writes in Regina, SK Canada. She is an author of many short stories published in anthologies and magazines in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. She explores women in families, women in communities and women at the beginning and end of love and their quest for love. She pursues the writing craft in workshops, conferences, Writing with Style, Banff Centre for the Arts, Victoria School of Writing, Sage Hill Writing Experience, the Surrey International Writing Conferences and the Romance Writing of America Conferences. 

When she isn’t writing she walks or bikes around the streets and parks in her neighborhood imagining complex worlds behind seemingly ordinary events.

Her first contemporary romance, Moving On A Prairie Romance is published by XoXo Publishing™ a division of Ninni Group Inc.

Website: http://www.annettebower.com/

Blog:   http://www.annettebower.com/blog

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Annette-Bower-XOXO-Publishing-Author/378438088839629

 

Please remember to leave a comment or question for Annette below as an entry in her contest for the $25 GC to All Romance eBooks to one randomly drawn commenter.  You can follow her tour here.