GUARDED - Angela Correll - One Free Book

Dear Readers, here’s another author, who is new to the blog.

Welcome, Angela. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

The two female main characters in Guarded and Grounded have a lot of me in them, yet we are also very different. They are both a mixture of women I know well, family members, friends, and myself included.

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

I own a retail shop making goat milk soap and we recently renovated hotel rooms as part of our hospitality business, so I work around a lot of folks from construction guys to the girls in the shop. I am constantly playing pranks on them with fake rattlesnakes, a remote control tarantula, fake dead rats, etc. Sometimes they get me back.

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

After taking a creative writing class through community education, I participated with my classmates in providing a monthly column for the local weekly paper. I was paid $10 per column and that made me feel like a real writer!

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I love cozy mysteries and anything British pre-1950 and am presently working my way through the classics and I also enjoy poetry here and there. Some of my favorite novelists are the ones who have a poetry background. Their prose is simply beautiful!

How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?

The times I am most balanced are when I compartmentalize the many things coming at me: a time for this and a time for that. Then I can truly focus on what’s in front of me. I also find my day is much more balanced when I protect that time of prayer and devotion first thing in the morning.

How do you choose your characters’ names?

If I hear an interesting name, I will write it down in a notebook. In Guarded, there is a character named Vesta. I heard this name years ago and wrote it down because I knew I wanted to use it at some point. I thought it sounded so country, yet also had sophistication to it.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

My dad had Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and became very ill at the end, but we were able to keep him in his home and care for him there until his death. Honestly, that’s the thing I’m most proud of, that even though it took sacrifice, he could stay in a comfortable place surrounded by his family.

If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?

A horse. They are so majestic and beautiful, smart and fast. There’s nothing more beautiful to me than a horse running in a pasture, mane and tail flying.

What is your favorite food?

Ethiopian, Doro Wat to be exact.

What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

Believing that it was worth the time I had to spend to learn the craft. I worried that it was a waste of time because I might not be able to do it. Then I realized I couldn’t imagine my life without writing. At that point, I gave it everything. I am still learning and growing, but the main thing is perseverance, not talent. 

Any writer who doesn’t continue to hone their craft will have their writing start to deteriorate. Tell us about the featured book.

Guarded is about former New York City flight attendant, Annie Taylor, who is adjusting to farm life and a new relationship when the fate of the old stone house is threatened after a summer fire makes restoration seem impossible.

As she works to save her childhood home, she finds letters written during World War II that reveal a family mystery and an Italian connection. Her grandmother is hesitant to uncover the secret, afraid of what it might mean to her family’s name if they discover the truth.

Meanwhile, Annie’s boyfriend Jake, is jumping headlong into sustainable farming on the land next door. Their new relationship is wonderful—but can it last? As they take steps forward, her paralyzing fear of abandonment threatens to destroy her trust in Jake.

As the family mystery unfolds in Italy, Annie is forced to face her own past. Will she let history sabotage the future?

Please give us the first page of the book.

THE OLD STONE house looked solemn in the September afternoon. Even the birds were quiet, as if in respect for its suffering. Annie stared at charred stones, glassless windows, and a scorched chimney jutting into the blue sky, all evidence of the fiery injustice done only weeks ago.

Glass in the fanlight window over the front door was gone, a casualty of the water pressure that night as men guided hoses to the fire in the upstairs room. There was no time then to think of collateral damage. The goal was to save the house.

The door stood slightly ajar. Annie slipped inside, her running shoes crunching on pieces of glass, the stench of smoke still heavy in the air. They had left the house just as it was after the fire, not daring to move anything out until the insurance company had done its own investigation. Now it was disappointingly over, with no prize at the end of the waiting. The check her grandmother received was a fraction of the repair estimates.

“Well, that’s that,” her grandmother had said.

For all her love of heritage, home, and family, Annie knew Beulah was ultimately a frugal realist. To counter her own disappointment, Annie went for her daily run through the barn lot, following the farm lane to the stone house, as if the house might tell her how it could be saved.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

My website is: www.angelacorrell.com Of course, both Guarded and my first book Grounded are available from Amazon and other online booksellers.

Thank you, Angela, for sharing this new book with us. I know my readers will be eager to read it.

Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.

Guarded - Paperback
Guarded - Kindle

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