Where The Heart Lies - Author Tour

Welcome to author, Michelle Garren Flye who is visiting today with her latest release, Where the Heart Lies!!

Stick around and find out more about Michelle and her latest release.  A bonus - not only do you discover a new book in Where the Heart Lies but Michelle will be giving away a 10% off coupon from Carina Press to one of today's commenters at this blog.  And the chances to win prizes don't stop there - Michelle will also be giving a second prize for one randomly drawn commenter over the duration of her book tour - a $10 Amazon gift certificate and a copy of Bartlett's Poems for Occasions, which inspired some of Where the Heart Lies. But, more importantly, today is a chance to meet Michelle and discover a great read!

So first up - a bit about Michelle.

Michelle Garren Flye is a mother, writer and editor based in coastal North Carolina.  She obtained her degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1992.  Not liking the hours required of a journalist, she went on to obtain a Master's in Library and Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1977.  When her first child was born in 2000, she packed her diplomas and began a new life as a stay-at-home mom, which fortunately afforded her the opportunity to pursue her writing on a semi-regular basis.

Michelle has served in various capacities for several online and print literary endeavors, including Dark Recesses, edifice WRECKED, Horror Library, Butcher Shop Quartet, and Tattered Souls.

Michelle is the author of three romance novels, Where the Heart Lies (Carina Press 2012), Winter Solstice (Lyrical Press 2011) and Secrets of the Lotus (Lyrical Press 2010).  Michelle also self-published a fiction book titled Weeds and Flowers for the Kindle in December 2011.

Here is Michelle's response to the sentence that we all know can lead one across the world or just around the corner. 

Describe a trip that changed you, whether near or far or:

Life hasn't been quite the same since...

When I was first given the challenge of writing about a trip that changed me, I knew it would be tough.  Every time I travel, something changes, but this needed to be something special.  I considered the trip to the hospital to have my first child, the trip my husband and I made to Bristol, U.K., shortly after we were married, and my first excursion to Las Vegas.  But what I kept coming back to was a much simpler trip.

It happened in the year my husband and I lived in Baltimore.  My little family (my husband, my 3-year-old son, my newborn and me) were scrunched into a two-bedroom apartment where the neighbors blasted their stereos through the paper-thin walls.  It happened that on one early spring Saturday we had nothing in particular to do.  It rained all morning and we stayed in.  By the time the sun came out that afternoon, my 3-year-old was into everything, my newborn was fussy and my husband and I were very short-tempered, to put it mildly.  Making a decision, I grabbed jackets and car keys and ushered everyone out the door with no clear idea of where to go, just to get out.

My husband drove us to Annapolis and we made our way to the waterfront.  if you've never been there on an early spring when it's just beginning to get warm, you don't know what you're missing.  The air sparkles and everyone is just happy to be there, especially after a morning of rain has kept you inside.  I remember we bought ice cream for all of us (except the baby, but he seemed happy to be outside in the sun), and we listened to someone playing reggae drums.  It resonated in me and I looked around at my husband and children and really felt how much I loved them.  It was so wonderful to feel that way after such a fretful day.

Thank you, Once Upon a Time, for asking me to write about this topic.  It reminded me that the simplest trips are sometimes the most meaningful.

Where the Heart Lies

All widowed Alicia Galloway has left of her war-hero husband are the flag that draped his coffin and his final wishes:  to move to his hometown, take over the family bookstore and enjoy a simple, quiet life with their two small children.  When she arrives, her husband's best friend makes that new life anything but simple.  How can she be so drawn to Liam Addison?

Liam only intended to help Alicia get settled.  But one unexpected kiss awakens his long-held forbidden feelings.  Soon, the town busybodies swoop in to warn Alicia away from him.  Because no matter the man he's become, he'll never live down his reputation as town troublemaker and wolfish womanizer.

No one wants the war hero's sweet widow and the supposedly former bad boy together.  But the more everyone tries to keep them apart, the closer he and Alicia get.  And the more determined Liam is to prove he's a changed man.  Will it be enough to convince Alicia to let a new love in her life?

Excerpt from Where The Heart Lies:

Alicia came out of the bathroom, fastening an earring.  She looked amazing in a long black skirt and white silk blouse with her brassy red hair falling over her shoulders.  For a moment he had trouble breathing.

He'd considered bringing flowers, but he'd known what Penny's opinion of that would be, and more importantly he hadn't wanted to do anything that would make Alicia uncomfortable.  Confronted by her beauty, however, his fingers felt empty, as if he needed something to offer just for the opportunity to look at her.  Was this how Aphrodite's worshippers had felt as they left their worldly goods a the feet of her statue in ancient Greece?

Want to read more?  I know I do.

Meantime, lets give Where the Heart Lies a rousing welcome!!  Jump in, find out more about the book or just say hello to Michelle by leaving a comment.  Maybe you'll be the lucky one to win a prize!

And, should you wish to contact Michelle directly, you can find her at:

At her website:  Breathe

And on Facebook at:  Michelle Garren Flye on Facebook



Note:  If the first four comments look funny to you - well due to a technical issue with the first post they were copied over once I deleted the original post to fix the problem.  Enough said - computers sigh!