A SEASON AT THE GRAND - Sherri Wilson Johnson - One Free Book

Welcome to my blog, Sherri. Tell us about your salvation experience. I accepted Jesus as my savior when I was six years old. I grew up in a Christian home and going to church every Sunday was the norm. But one particular Sunday I remember a strong urgency to be saved. I asked my pastor about it and he thought I wanted a drink of water. To this day we don’t know why he thought that except he was hard of hearing. He tried to direct me to the water fountain and it wasn’t until I screamed at him that I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart that he realized I wanted the living water and not water from a fountain.

I wanted to accept Jesus into my heart when I was seven. At first my daddy told me I was too young to understand, but not too long after that, he realized I did. You’re planning a writing retreat where you can only have four other authors. Who would they be and why? I would invite my good friend and mastermind partner CD Gill because we have the best brainstorming sessions together. I would also invite Misty Beller and Christy Barritt because, not only are we friends, but they are also some of the most prolific writers I know, and I would enjoy time with them to pick their brains about their writing process. I would also invite my friend and colleague Kristy Cambron because she is one of the most thoughtful and affirming people I know, and I think she would bring such joy and sunshine to the retreat.

What is the most embarrassing thing that has happened to you and how did you handle it? I don’t get embarrassed very easily, and honestly can’t even think of one embarrassing moment in my life. Now, I have done plenty of things to embarrass OTHER people without meaning to, but they usually get over it pretty quickly, haha!

People are always telling me that they’d like to write a book someday. I’m sure they do to you, too. What would you tell someone who came up to you and said that? Whenever anyone tells me that, I always encourage them to get started now. Don’t wait for someday. Someday may never come. Life gets in the way. Make a plan and get going. It will be one of the best experiences of someone’s life. Why? Because writing that first book is really about finding oneself. There are often such wonderful, buried treasures that someone only finds through writing a book.

Tell us about the featured book. A Season at the Grand is set in 1905 in the Mobile Bay area of Alabama, specifically in Point Clear. Amelia Harris is a traveling photographer with The Photographic Times, and she’s commissioned to take pictures of the wealthy vacationers at the resort. Her matchmaking aunts are trying to marry her off because they think she’s a spinster. But she’ll have nothing to do with it. When she meets the resort manager Titus Overton, who has also resisted the matchmaking attempts of some of his guests, Amelia’s heart does a little flipflop. But they each have too many career goals and distractions to make room for love. And because someone is threatening both of them, their priority must be to stay alive. The matters of the heart can wait.

My current contemporary romantic series, Jeopardized Reunions, is set on the bay, too. My prequel novella Bayside Betrayal, which readers can receive for free by subscribing to my newsletter, is set in Point Clear, but in a contemporary setting instead of historical.

Mobile Bay, specifically the Gulf Shores area, is my favorite vacation spot. Every time we’re there, I am inspired to write another story. A Season at the Grand was born out of one of those trips.

Please give us the first page of the book.

Point Clear, Alabama, 1905

Amelia Harris stepped off the Baldwin with one gloved hand in the porter’s hand and the other gripping the handle of her camera case. She could not afford for either of them to land in Mobile Bay. If she lost her camera, then her summer in Point Clear would end before it began, also terminating her career with The Photographic Times. They had sent her here to capture nature photographs as well as images of the elite guests enjoying their seaside holiday, and she couldn’t allow any mishaps to derail her assignment.

Besides, the summer here enjoying the same luxuries of the wealthy meant a reprieve from the matchmaking of Aunt Polly and Aunt Patsy. Why did they insist her marriageable years had an expiration date and that her occupation as a photographer would damage not only her reputation but her future, as well? Why did they think a woman only twenty-five years old couldn’t still find a husband?

“Miss?” The porter’s voice snapped her out of her rumination.

With a quick nod and a prayer her embarrassment hadn’t touched her cheeks more than the June heat already had, she smiled, then released his hand. “Thank you, sir.”

“My pleasure. Enjoy your stay at the Grand Hotel. Your belongings will arrive in your room shortly.”

Amelia smoothed her left hand across her stomach and breathed a sigh. As though that would calm the butterflies which flooded inside her. What did she have to be anxious about? While this might be her first assignment this far from home and without a chaperone or colleague, she carried herself well among the elite and had nothing to fear. Besides, she was here to photograph, not to make friends. Her presence as a commissioned photographer required no further burden of proof.

With The Photographic Times expecting a minimum of two thousand nature images for their penny postcards, socializing sat at the bottom of her priority stack. Best she decide right now to pack her jitters away in her trunk along with her swimwear and leave them there all summer.

Pressing her shoulders against the coastal humidity, she took a step down the boardwalk toward her awaiting adventure.

“Jimmy, come back here. No running on the boardwalk, young man,” a woman’s stern voice called from behind Amelia.

Before she could peek over her shoulder for a hint at the commotion, a boy—Jimmy, most likely—broke through the cluster of guests and slammed into her, ripping her case from her hand.

“Oh no!” She fell to her knees on the weathered boardwalk and grasped the case seconds before it spun its way into the glistening bay. With her hat now dangling by its string across her back and her body splayed out on top of the leather case like a dead fish, she must already be the subject of the onlookers’ gossip. Surely, it would be better if she reboarded the bay boat and returned to Philadelphia this instant.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

Find out more about me at my website: https://sherriwilsonjohnson.com/

I’m on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Goodreads and Bookbub. Readers can find me there and at other places through this link: https://linktr.ee/sherriwilsonjohnson

Thank you, Sherri for sharing A Season at the Grand with my blog readers and me. I’m eager to read it.

Readers, here’s a link to the book.

https://www.amazon.com/Season-Grand-Romance-Gilded-Resorts/dp/1942265751/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1683644894&sr=1-1 

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 or country if outside North America. (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 2 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Goodreads, 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