RESCUING FINLEY - Dan Walsh - One Free Book

Bio: Dan Walsh is the bestselling author of 15 novels including The Unfinished Gift, The Discovery, and When Night Comes. He’s been a finalist for 6 Carol Awards and has won 3, the winner of 3 Selah Awards, and 3 of his books have been finalists for RT’s Inspirational Book of the Year. A member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and Word Weavers International, Dan writes fulltime in the Daytona Beach area. He and his wife Cindi have been married 39 years and have 2 grown children and 2 grandchildren. You can find out more about his books or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads or Pinterest from his website at http://www.danwalshbooks.com.

Welcome back, Dan. You have a lot of books out now. What is your favorite setting to use in your books?

For my earlier novels, I chose a variety of locations, but most of my books now take place somewhere in Florida (or a fictitious FL town). I’ve lived here since I came here as a kid in 1965. It dawned on me … people love to visit FL (and many wind up moving here). So why am I trying to come up with all kinds of other locations? Once in the book, it’s not uncommon for part of the story to take place somewhere else, but most of my novels are in FL, or else nearby in Georgia.

What do you look for when you’re shopping for a book to buy for yourself?

Even though I write mostly inspirational novels and love inspirational movies, I like to read suspense novels, or else well written adventure/historical non-fiction books (but well-written, I mean, “reads like a novel.”) The way I pick them is probably how most people do. I ask, do I know the author and already like their books? If not, I look at things like the cover, the “back cover” description, then at the reader reviews.

Give us a little tour of the setting for this book.

Rescuing Finley takes place in Summerville, FL, a fictitious small southern town located in the middle of the state (somewhere near Ocala). Most people are well aware of the bigger Florida cities like Orlando, Miami or Tampa. Maybe even Daytona Beach (where I live). But Florida is filled with much smaller towns that have their own measure of charm. I decided to make a fictitious town to give me the creative freedom I need as I tell the story. But Summerville resembles many of these smaller FL towns.

What other books do you have coming out soon?

Right now I’m working on Book 2 of my Jack Turner Suspense series. Book 1 was When Night Comes. It was something of an experiment to see if I could “get away with” writing in 2 distinct genres. I believed it was possible, and I’m happy to discover I was right. It did well enough to allow me to write both kinds of novels going forward (suspense and inspirational). Book 2 will be called Saving Parker and I plan to release it in March.

The rest of 2016 will be spent writing Books 2 and 3 of the Forever Home series (the series for Rescuing Finley).

Please give us a glimpse of your home.

We’ve lived in the same house the past 30 years. It was always my dream to buy a small house we could afford, then stay there as the years go by, adding onto it rather than buying bigger houses. That’s what we’ve done. It started at 1,300 square feet and now has 1,850 (still a modest size) and a backyard pool. I’ve attached 2 pics of the outside. The first is the front from Google Maps (street view). The 2nd is our backyard, with a pool we added 10 years ago.

We’re empty nesters, so the house is a little more than we need (3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a home office). But it’s paid for and filled with so many memories, I don’t see us downsizing any time soon. The rooms are nicely furnished with a warm, comfortable lived-in look. I used my first advance check back in 2008 to let my wife finally get the IKEA kitchen she had dreamed about (our kitchen is the fanciest room in our house).

Is this novel part of a series or a stand-alone book?

As I mentioned earlier, Rescuing Finley is Book 1 of the Forever Home series. Book 2 will be Saving Parker, and Book 3, Finding Riley. I hope to release Book 2 in July and Book 3 in November.

Be sure to contact me in plenty of time to feature those books near their release dates. Now tell us about this story.

Here’s what’s on the back cover:

Amy Wallace has made plenty of mistakes in her young life, but she didn't see this one coming. Chris Seger is a marine serving in Afghanistan. His life is forever altered by a single, fateful step. A mother of another Afghan war vet suffers a devastating loss, which changes the course of Finley's life for good. Finley is a mostly-golden retriever, who suddenly finds himself alone and confused in a dog shelter. Later, he's brought to a prison to be trained in a special program for female inmates. Could this prison become the place where Finley finally finds freedom? Rescuing Finley tells the story of how one rescue dog powerfully impacts three tragic lives and puts all of them on a road toward redemption and healing.

Please give us the first page of the book.

She could get arrested for this.

Amy knew that walking into the mall. Signs were everywhere. Shoplifting is a crime! Shoplifters will be prosecuted!

But Amy Wallace didn’t need a sign to tell her she was doing wrong. She’d been raised a church girl. Thou shalt not steal. She’d stolen plenty before now. The worst kind. Not just stores, but from family. And not just once, many times. One too many. They’d finally gotten sick of it, all her lies, and threw her out of the house.

That was over a year ago. Since then, she’d been on her own.

At the moment, Amy considered herself a recovering meth addict. Clean five days now, ever since she’d lost her job after failing a drug test. The temptation to start using again had gotten really bad recently. Today it had been especially strong.

“Are you ready?”

Amy looked up at Sandy’s face. Sandy was the ringleader of their little trio. Standing beside her was Chloe. The two of them were close friends; Amy was the outsider. Neither of them were users, and that was a good thing.

“I’m ready.” She stood and looked around. “Are you sure we should do this?”

“Yes,” Sandy said. “I’ve done it just like this five times already. Never got caught. Never even had to run. Just do like I told you. You’ll be fine.”

Sandy was so confident. But her confidence did nothing to calm Amy’s nerves.

You have me hooked. I can’t wait to read the rest of the book. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Probably the easiest thing is just to visit my website and check out my homepage. There are buttons there to connect to my blog, send me an email, sign up for my newsletter (which I highly recommend) or follow me on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Pinterest. They can find me at: http://www.danwalshbooks.com

Thank you, Dan, for sharing your home and this new book with us.

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

Rescuing Finley (A Forever Home Novel) (Volume 1) - Paperback
Rescuing Finley (A Forever Home Novel) (Volume 1) - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. You must follow these instructions to be in the drawing. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, Google+, Feedblitz, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link:
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com