Mrs. Peacock in the Conservatory with a Rope

That's right! It's time for another clue. But the title of the post won't help you. If you've been following my clues in hopes of winning an Out of Print tee shirt of your choice, as well as eBooks from each featured release, then today's the day to collect another.

Need all the deets and clues? No problem. Check out the posts here and here to find out how you can win. (Sheesh I sound like the back of a cereal box)

Today's release comes from Elizabeth Seckman on her Healing Summer tour. Elizabeth is hosting her own contest so be sure to check out her blog for another chance to win a $25 gift card. Just click on her name and head over for more info. And click on the book cover below to find out how you can purchase Healing Summer. But first! Read on ...

Maybe Love, Not Time, Heals All Wounds

Ditched at the altar…biopsied for cancer…Mollie Hinkle is having a bona fide bitch of a summer. When life sucks so hard it takes your breath away, what's a girl to do? Pack a bag, grab a few friends, and leave the past and the worry in the rear view mirror. What wounds can’t be healed by a drive across the Heartland, where quarter flips at cross roads determine the route and the future? All roads lead to Craig, the second son and bad boy of the haughty Coulter line. Has fate brought her to the miniscule Montana town to find happily ever after or will it just break her heart?

“Healing Summer” is the second book in the Coulter Men Series.

                                                                    * Escape

I thought we could get to know Elizabeth a little better so I asked her to share her bucket list with us, and how she started writing. Take it away, Elizabeth ....

Hmm…my bucket list.

Ever since I was a kid, I have had two dreams.

#1 I wanted to be a mom.

#2 I wanted to write.

In 1994, I had my first son and my bucket over-flowethed. I was on cloud nine. Nothing else mattered. Not even the writing. I loved the mom gig. I was so crazy about it that I had three more boys and was game for a few more when my husband drew the line in the sand with the mandate: NO MORE KIDS!

Then in 2006, my last baby went off to kindergarten. And my father-in-law was diagnosed with leukemia. A few months later my dad was diagnosed with kidney cancer…and within weeks, my brother was diagnosed with angiosarcoma…a rare, fast growing cancer that ended his life within months of diagnosis.

You know how you mull over things as you wait for the sandman? Well, my thoughts stunk and their stench was affecting my spirit, and it had to stop…because  I don’t roll like that. God didn’t put me on this earth to roll over. I had to find a purpose. But I couldn’t think of what could penetrate my gloom.

Then one day, I sat with my brother in the hospital, I was reading “Gone with the Wind”. A nurse asked me about it (shockingly…she’d NEVER read it!) Of course, I told her all about it…and about Margaret Mitchell and the history that influenced the story. The nurse probably regretted she made small talk. My brother excused my behavior with a snicker and, “My little sister always wanted to be a writer.”  *Insert epiphany here.*

From that moment on, in the time I usually spent dwelling over the bad things going on in my life…I plotted happy endings and fantasies far rosier than my reality. Stories came to life in spiral notebooks and on scrap pieces of paper. It was a distraction. Nothing more. I had zero plans of pursuing publication. Other people do that, not boring chicks from New Martinsville, West Virginia. Then I sent a letter to Dixie Browning (marvelous writer! She’s retired now, but has over two hundred books to her credit!) to request an autograph for my sister. After a few back and forth messages, Dixie offered to read a few pages. She sent me a letter, told me to watch my head hopping and mind reading. She said I had talent and if I studied and stuck with it, she had no doubt I could get published.

Every time I got a rejection, I’d think, “What do they know? Dixie said I could!”

That’s my bucket PK…it’s filled with boys and books and I couldn’t ask for more!

So awesome! Thanks, Elizabeth! Love hearing how writers find that nugget of encouragement to make it happen. And congrats on achieving your bucket list! 

Find Elizabeth on GoodReads, Facebook, and her blog. 

Thanks so much for stopping by! So what's on your bucket list? And how did you get started writing?