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Sunday, February 06, 2011

ALASKA WEDDINGS - Susan Page Davis - Free Book

Author bio:


Susan Page Davis is an award-winning author with more than thirty novels published. A Maine native, she now lives in Kentucky with her husband Jim, who is an editor, and the youngest two of their six children. She’s the grandmother of six. Susan loves reading, history, travel, and animals.

So happy to have you back here, Susan. Have you ever been to Alaska?

Yes, I have. It’s a magnificent place, and one you can’t possibly see more than a small fraction of in a single visit. While there I stayed with friends in Anchorage and drove down to Homer, where one of the Coast Guard bases in Alaska is located. My brother was a career Coast Guard officer and had been stationed there and in Kodiak. He put me in touch with some of his friends. Homer is a gorgeous town on a volcano-ringed bay. My friend and I were given a guided tour of the Coast Guard buoy tender docked there and met my brother’s retired captain. After we returned to Anchorage, I drove north to visit Wasilla, home of the Iditarod headquarters, and other sites for my research.

That sounds wonderful. Wish I could have gone with you. How was the setting chosen for this series?

My editor invited me to submit a proposal for a series of books set in Alaska. I was a bit intimidated, but overjoyed to be asked.

What do you like most about this collection?

I love the setting and the characters. The animals are a bonus.

 What book are you currently writing?

I’m actually working on two historicals. Lady Anne’s Quest is set in Oregon in 1855. An English lady had gone West to find her missing uncle. That will be part of my Prairie Dreams series from Barbour. Captive Trail is about a stagecoach driver who finds a white woman dressed like a Comanche lying unconscious in the road. It’s book 2 of the Texas Trails series from Moody, which I’m writing with Darlene Franklin (Lone Star Trail) and Vickie McDonough (The Long Trail Home).

Since all three of you are my friends, I'm very excited about that Moody series, as well as the Prairie Dreams series. What’s coming up next in your writing life?

More writing! I’m blessed to have books contracted to write through this year.

Tell us about the stories in Alaska Weddings.

In Always Ready, Caddie has followed her late father’s footsteps by becoming a Coast Guard officer. She serves in the Gulf of Alaska, where conditions are harsh. She is attracted to Aven, an officer on another ship home ported in Kodiak, but they discover a secret in the past that links them—and may keep them apart.

In Fire & Ice, Robyn (Aven’s sister) operates a kennel in Wasilla, where she raises and trains sled dogs. Six valuable dogs are stolen from her pens, and she turns to neighboring veterinarian Rick for help in finding them. Will they find romance, too?

In Polar Opposites, Aven and Robyn’s widowed mom, Cheryl is working in Rick’s veterinary clinic when she meets the new animal doctor, Oz Thormond. Cheryl thinks they are too different to ever “click,” but when Oz invites her to go to the North Slope with him and study polar bears, she begins to wonder.

Please give us the first page.

Here’s the first page of Always Ready (the first story in the collection):

Caddie Lyle stood on the bridge of the ship, watching out the windows ahead as the farthest Aleutian Islands came into view. The crew of her ship, the U.S. Coast Guard’s buoy tender Wintergreen, was carrying out its early summer assignment to check their most remote navigational aids and deliver supplies to a few isolated Native Alaskan villages. Volcanic mountains formed an eerily beautiful backdrop to the frothing seascape that stretched before them into infinity. The 225-foot ship seemed a tiny bit of flotsam.

The Bering Sea writhed all around the ship, tossing it up and down in nauseating plunges. Caddie braced her feet as a particularly violent lurch hit them. She focused on a large map hanging on the wall across the room. Seasickness rarely overtook her, but she’d struggled the past forty-eight hours in the inhospitable waters of the North.

The skipper paused beside her and looked forward out the big windows, at the barely visible land in the distance. “In a few hours, we’ll be at the western end of the U.S.A.”

Caddie nodded and pulled in deep breath. Her stomach settled down as the deck found a more level plane. “Can’t believe I’m really out here.”

“You can believe it. We’ll put in at Attu soon. When our errand there’s completed, we’ll head on home.”

Home and family seemed worlds away. Of all the people Caddie loved, only her father had seen these waters. Like her, he had come years ago with supplies for the Coast Guard station at Attu, the last in the chain of Aleutian islands. She stared out the side windows, where nothing but waves and sky existed. This wild setting reduced the massive Wintergreen to a fragile bark. But God was still above, keeping them afloat. She smiled at the thought.

“Sir,” Lindsey Rockwell, their operations specialist, called to the captain from her post at the radio desk. “I’m getting a distress signal.”

I love it already. Where can the readers find you on the Internet?

Come see my website at: http://www.susanpagedavis.com/

Thanks for coming by my blog today, Susan.
 
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25 comments:

  1. This looks wonderful! I love the Alaska setting! Being from MN, I always feel an affinity for them.
    We're having a warm-up today in MN, which is nice, but the deep freeze continues next week!
    Thanks!

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  2. Alaska is one place I have to go to someday!! How exciting to set the stories there. (And I especially like Aven's sister's name...spelled correctly and everything!)
    Thanks!
    coolestmommy2000 at gmail dot com

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  3. Patsy5:40 AM

    Oh, I love Susan's writings. I've read several of her books and they're great! I know this one will be as well. Looking forward to reading it.
    From the Bible Belt
    plhouston(at)bellsouth(dot)net

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  4. Please include me for Alaska Weddings, I don't like to miss any of Susan's wonderful books. Thanks!
    Merry in TX

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  5. Good morning, ladies, and thank you for your encouragement! Yes, Robyn, it is a cool name--nice to hear from another one. And Minnesota, well, that's a place I've never been and would like to see--but not in February, I think. Patsy and Merry, nice to see you here. I hope you all are blessed this Lord's Day.

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  6. Anonymous8:31 AM

    I LOVE stories that feature Alaska as a backdrop! Can't wait to read! Sign me up! Thank you!

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  7. I enjoy her books - I like the Alaskan theme
    More snow in Illinois
    msboatgal at aol.com

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  8. Ooooh! This sounds good! I traveled to Alaska as a teen and have been dreaming of going back for years! Since I live in Kansas, I guess I'll have to settle for living vicariously through these characters...at least for now. I can't wait to dive into this book. ;)

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  9. I would love to win this book, Haven't read any thing about Alaska lately. ybutler@oppcatv.com

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  10. I would love to read this book.

    I live in So Cal.

    lkish77123 at gmail dot com

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  11. I have always wanted to take an
    Alaskan cruise! I really enjoy
    reading any book written by
    Susan Page Davis. Please count
    me in.
    Thanks, Cindi
    jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com

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  12. Yes, I have always wanted to visit Alaska. Thanks. gahome2mom/at/gmail/dot/com

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  13. Anonymous5:16 AM

    This sounds like a good book. Angela Chesnut from Kentucky. I hope I win.

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  14. Good morning! It's snowing here in Kentucky. If you're in the icebox mode, too, it's a good time to curl up and read about Alaska. Everyone who hasn't been to Alaska wants to go, and everyone who's been there wants to go back. I would love to go back myself and get up to Fairbanks and some other places I didn't get to before. A lot of people don't realize that Alaska has fewer miles of paved roads than any other state. It's truly a challenge to get around up there!

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  15. Alaska is the one place i want to go to...and we only live 35 miles from the road that leads to Alaska Hiway! i love that you are using the name Aven in your book - but i thought it was a girl's name. it is so appropriate for an Alaskan.
    thanks for giving me a chance to win.

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  16. Marianne, I think Aven could be a girl's name, but personally I've only met one real person with that name, and he's definitely a guy. And he lives in Alaska! He's my son's friend, and I got to see him when I was there. I asked if he would mind if I used his name and he graciously said it was okay. So if you ever get up to Alaska, and you meet a young man named Aven. . .You just never know, do you?

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  17. Seeing as how I have never traveled anywhere, I love reading books set in places that I would LIKE to travel to one day, so this one fits the criteria! Alaska!!! Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy.

    Anne, rural NC

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  18. I love the Weddings books! Alaska is such a different state that I'm sure we'll learn a lot about it while reading!

    I am a subscriber!

    dancealert at aol dot com

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  19. Oh, please include me thanks. live in ND

    ABuening4fun [at] gmail [dot] com

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  20. I've been to Alaska multiple times and it is very beautiful. Because of its sheer size, there is a lot more diversity than one might think. Good post

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  21. please count me in...thanks :)

    karenk
    kmkuka at yahoo dot com

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  22. Susan Page Davis is one of my favorite authors! Thanks for a great interview with her and a chance to win this great book! =)
    Kari in Oregon

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  23. Had a penpal who lived in Alaska. Seems like I got her name out of the Alaska magazine which my dad subscribed to. He always wanted to go to Alaska, but never got there.

    MN

    karin56381 (at) gmail.com

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  24. I would so love to win a copy of Alaska Weddings. Thank you for the chance.

    I live in Indiana.

    Smiles & Blessings,
    Cindy W.

    countrybear52[at]yahoo[dot]com

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  25. Always wanted to go to Alaska and maybe one day I can. Until then I will read great books set in Alaska. Enjoyed your interview Susan and thanks for stopping by to chat and share with us.
    Please enter me in giveway.

    I am from Georgia

    misskalllie2000 at yahoo dot com

    ReplyDelete