FROZEN NOTES - Fay Lamb - One Free print or ebook (see below)

Bio: Fay Lamb is the only daughter of a rebel genius father and a hard-working, tow-the-line mom. She is not only a fifth-generation Floridian, she has lived her life in Titusville, where her grandmother was born in 1899. Since an early age, storytelling has been Fay’s greatest desire. She seeks to create memorable characters that touch her readers’ heart. She says of her writing, “If I can’t laugh or cry at the words written on the pages of my manuscript, the story is not ready for the reader.” Fay writes in various genres, including romance, romantic suspense, and contemporary fiction.

Welcome back, Fay. Why do you write the kind of books you do?

There’s a funny back story to this one. When I first became serious about writing for publication, you could not have gotten me to admit that I write romance. I wrote contemporary fiction. One day, I awoke to the truth. While I’m probably not a hopeless romantic, I love romance, and all of my stories are romance—even my contemporary fiction. I fell in to writing romantic suspense because although I can’t watch a suspenseful show when I don’t know what’s going to happen, I sure love being the one who knows what’s going to happen and scaring other people who don’t know what to expect.

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?

This one’s going to be a little tricky to answer, so I’ll need to explain myself out of a corner for my oldest son. The happiest day of my life was the day that I gave birth to my second son. Now, that doesn’t mean that I love the oldest any less. I love them equally, but I think mothers can relate. That first birth—it’s a scary thing. You don’t know what to expect. And then when the child is born, you have all these things to learn. Well, I did anyway. During my second pregnancy, I wanted a girl. Oh, how I wanted a girl. When I began to have premature labor, I’d end up at the hospital, and on the last occasion, the nurse, listening to the baby’s heartbeat, asked if I wanted a boy or a girl. “A girl!” I said. She shook her head. “I’m sorry, honey. That’s a boy’s heartbeat.” Well, I wasn’t a happy camper. I didn’t want a boy. I wanted a girl. And then came the night that he was born. His father counted all his fingers and his toes, and I lay with my boy in my arms. A feeling of such peace fell over me. I’d never felt that before, and I haven’t had anything come close to it since. God knew that I’m equipped to handle boys, and I think that peace was due to the fact that God had blessed me with two wonderful sons.

How has being published changed your life?

When I was unpublished, I loved to write. But always, I had this pie-in-the-sky dream that it would change my life. You envision the myth of Rick Castle, that the contract is opening the door to a ritzy New York penthouse and notoriety, that Hollywood will be knocking on your door for a script of your New York Times Bestseller.

What’s funny, though, is that when none of that happened—I didn’t even get a small condo in Cedar Key, which was really my dream—I wasn’t too disappointed. Life went on as usual. I’ve learned how to promote, I’ve learned that promoting is the hardest thing I do as an author, but I’ve also learned that I’d write for free, because I love to weave a story. It’s just that simple.

What are you reading right now?

I’m not only an author, I’m an editor. Most often I’m reading stories before they get published, but I did just finish a non-fiction book on how to teach a Bible study.

What is your current work in progress?

My current work in progress is a Christmas novel slated for an October 2019 release. The tentative title is A Room at the End. This, I’m hopeful, will be a new Holiday series set in a fictional Florida swamp town at the edge of the Everglades. Of course, there will be all kinds of quirky characters and a lot of Holiday romance.

Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that my fourth book in The Ties that Bind series is Delilah, and it’s releasing in April.

What would be your dream vacation?

Tahupoo, Tahiti. I have a story sitting in my brain and on three separate drafts on paper about professional surfing, and I want to attend the Billabong Pro.

How do you choose your settings for each book?

My settings find me. My romantic series, The Ties that Bind, is actually the only series with real locations. That’s because two of the gals and one of the heroes were raised and attended school in my hometown. From there, they moved to Orlando. That series has some great unexpected scene locations, and not the theme parks. The setting for my Amazing Grace romantic suspense series is fictional, but anyone familiar with Western North Carolina can’t help but recognize a combination of beautiful mountain towns. And my Serenity Key series is set on a fictional island that reminds me of the place I love so much—Cedar Key.

If you could spend an evening with one person who is currently alive, who would it be and why?

This isn’t for any political reason at all, but I’d like to be able to sit and talk with Donald J. Trump. I think there is a lot of depth in that man that he hides behind his official persona. I’ve never said this before, but there is something within me that knows without a doubt that one day I’m going to meet him. I don’t know if he’ll still be president. I don’t know if it will be this side of heaven, but I’m certain that I’m going to shake his hand and talk with him one day.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

I'm a University of Florida Gator’s fan. When I say fan, I don’t just mean football. We’re football boosters, of course. We have my husband’s father’s seats that he first claimed in the mid-60s, and great seats they are. We’re also Gator Tennis boosters, and this year, I was able to talk my husband into season tickets for basketball, which is my favorite go-to-game college sport. Of course, my plan is to have so many events to attend in Gainesville that we have to move there. Shh, don’t tell my husband.

What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

Time or the sense of being pushed against a clock is my greatest obstacle. I wrote for many years without a deadline because, well, I didn’t have a contract. I was blessed to have eight books in different stages of completion when I did receive a contract. Finishing them was easy. I don’t write well under deadline because I’m a finicky writer. You can’t say that my words are prose or literary-esque, but I do like to think that each word counts and tells a story that readers will remember. The irony, though, is that I also work best when I feel I’m being pushed against a clock.

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

Study the craft, work on the art of writing, and don’t seek a contract or self-publish until you know all the elements that go into good fiction.

Tell us about the featured book.

Frozen Notes is the story of two people who lost their dreams. Lyric’s dreams were taken from her by Balaam who set off for stardom, abandoning her and their unborn child. Balaam’s dreams may have come true, but they nearly cost him his life. Now, Lyric’s life has become a nightmare, and Balaam must fight his own demons to save her from the danger his abandonment has caused.

The story is set in Western North Carolina against a winter backdrop, and it is filled with twists and turns and a villain—to two—that the reader will never see coming.

Please give us the first page of the book.

A hush fell over the small crowd loitering outside Lyric Carter’s house as paramedics placed the bodies of the two men, both encased in body bags, onto separate gurneys and wheeled them to the waiting ambulances. Gun residue test completed, Lyric backed away from the woman who’d done the test on her and fell hard into the chair at her kitchen table near the opened front door. The winter chill seeped into the house.

She fought to keep her tears at bay while investigators plundered through her home looking for shell casings, additional bullet holes, and other evidence. A murder-suicide was pretty cut and dry. The investigators wouldn’t search for much else.

Her body lifted with her sobs. If her husband, Braedon, had only looked at the documents he couriered from Raleigh, he and Matthew Roberts would still be alive. He’d left them unopened on their table before a phone call sent him out, and he’d left her behind. Before Braedon had returned, Lyric hid the evidence where no one would find it, prepared to face Braedon’s wrath should it come to that.

“Which one do you think she’s crying over?” Joe Johnson from the Amazing Grace Gazette said from somewhere outside her home. She’d recognize his haughty voice anywhere. He wouldn’t be so close to her now if Braedon and Matthew were alive and not stretched out on the gurneys ... or if Balaam was here.

No. She stilled her thoughts. Braedon deserved more respect than that despite what he had done. Balaam had no place in her thoughts—not tonight—not ever.

The flashes of several cameras pulsated from outside and through her windows and doors. The blossoming migraine delivered pinpricks of pain behind Lyric’s eyes. She ran her tongue over the cut on her lip and felt the mass of swelling beneath the surface of her skin then wrapped her arms around her to stave off the cold.

A stomp at the front door announced a new arrival. Lyric turned in her chair and bit her lip to squelch a rising panic attack.

Sheriff Daniel Dixon pointed toward the newshound standing in her doorway then toward the street. Johnson ducked around the sheriff and scurried off behind the paramedics. Daniel moved around the crime scene, ignoring his investigators. He’d look in her direction soon enough. Could she bear up under his scrutiny?

Everything she’d struggled so hard to redeem or protect—her reputation, her son, her vulnerable heart—they were all in danger.

Interesting. I’m eager to see what comes next. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Here are links where you can find me:

FB Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorFay/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FayLamb

Newsletter Sign Up: http://eepurl.com/c6m7DX

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1482814.Fay_Lamb

Amazon Central: amazon.com/author/faylamb

Frozen Notes link: http://bit.ly/FrozenNotes

Thank you, Fay, for sharing this new book with me and my blog readers. We’re all eager to find out what comes next.

Readers, here are links to the book.

Frozen Notes (Amazing Grace) (Volume 4)  - Print book
Frozen Notes (Amazing Grace Book 4) - Kindle

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Winners in the US can choose either print or Kindle edition. Foreign winners will receive a Kindle 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 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

BECAUSE OF ME - Fay Lamb - Free E-Book

Fay Lamb works as an acquisition/copyeditor for Pelican Book Group (White Rose Publishing and Harbourlight Books), offers her services as a freelance editor, and is an author of Christian romance and romantic suspense. Her emotionally charged stories remind the reader that God is always in the details. Because of Me, her debut romantic suspense novel is soon to be released by Treble Heart Books/Mountainview Publishing.
Fay has a passion for working with and encouraging fellow writers. As a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), she co-moderates the large Scribes’ Critique Group and manages the smaller Scribes’ critique groups. For her efforts, she was the recipient of the ACFW Members Service Award in 2010.
In 2012, Fay was also elected to serve as secretary on ACFW’s Operating Board.
Fay and her husband, Marc, reside in Titusville, Florida, where multi-generations of their families have lived. The legacy continues with their two married sons and five grandchildren.

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

The truth is that I can’t write main characters if they haven’t faced issues that I have faced. I might put them into different circumstances, but it would be a little hard for me to relay the emotions of a character if I have never been through what I plan to put them through.

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

I’ve been called quirky by numerous people. I never understood why, so I enlisted a good friend to tell me one quirky moment she remembered. She listed about ten, and, well, I still don’t see why she thinks I’m the least bit odd. Anyone could announce on a road trip that the next rest stop on the interstate is a very nice one and accidentally follow a semi-truck into the weigh station.

But I guess one of my biggest quirks is that I’m a big fan of a little-known actor. I love his work, and I enthusiastically support him in everything he does. When I actually ran into the wonderfully talented young man, though, I was as speechless as an adoring teenager to a rock star. All I could do is call my best friend and whisper into the phone, “He has the darkest hair I’ve ever seen” after my actor friend took off his hat and sunglasses and smiled at me as if all his online contact and my promotion of his work showed me to be somewhat normal, and he expected to carry on a conversation. It didn’t happen, and my friends won’t let me live it down.

When did you first discover that you were a writer?

Before I could string letters together to make words, I was telling stories, but when I was twelve years old, my friend’s mother asked me to share my writing with her. She was a college professor, and I know the dribble of a twelve-year-old was probably amusing to her, but she told me that I would be a writer. I took her at her word, and I never stopped putting pen to paper.

I was a storyteller first, before I became an author. Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world. As a co-moderator of the American Christian Fiction Writer’s Scribes’ large critique group, I’m reading volumes of pre-published fiction by writers of every genre. When reading published works, though, I tend to gravitate toward romantic suspense and contemporary romance. I like any story as long as it has meat for me to chew on.

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

I’m a fifteen-minutes-at-a-time kind of gal. I will deny that I suffer from A.D.D., but it is much easier for me to finish a project when I have ten of them going on at a time. That’s not hard when you co-moderate a large critique group of approximately 275 writers, manage approximately thirty-five small critique groups, enjoy being on the ACFW operating board, and work as an acquisitions editor for Pelican Ventures (White Rose and Harbourlights). I set out four different tasks and work on each fifteen minutes out of each hour. When I finish one, I add a new one to the list. I’m never bored.

How do you choose your characters’ names?

I don’t believe I’ve ever made a conscious effort to name a character. My ideas actually come to me through my characters. Often they show up on the stage of my mind, announce who they are, and tell me the basic premise of their story.

That’s not considered quirky is it?

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Netting my husband. There are so few good guys out there, and when you’re able to find one that puts up with everything about you and loves you the way you are, that’s a big accomplishment. I know other people think so, too. I have all kind of dear women telling me how lucky I am to have him. I’m not sure what that says about their opinion of me, but that’s okay. He’s mine!

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

A cat. Have you ever notice that they never doubt that they deserve more than they will ever receive? The two that live in my home have their own personal maid, butler, cook, and chauffeur, and sometimes they look at me as if given the chance, I’d be fired without notice.

What is your favorite food?

Anyone who follows my chatter on Facebook knows that I love fried pickles, a hot fudge sundae with bananas and whipped cream, and sweet iced tea from a local restaurant, the Moonlight Drive-In.

I love fried pickles, too, but I can’t eat them anymore, because of all the sodium. What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

Believing in myself. I’m very timid by nature, and it took a while and a lot of honest critique from people who cared enough about my writing career to gain that tough skin all writers mention. Once I was able to take the criticism and determine for myself what was right for my story, I gained confidence in my abilities. At times, my husband has had more faith in my talent than I did. He talked me off the quitter’s ledge many times, and the day I received my contract for Because of Me, I stood in stunned silence, and my husband cried tears of joy.

Tell us about the featured book.

Because of Me was birthed when the hero, Michael Hayes, came onto the stage of my imagination and said, “There’s a young boy, Cole. I’m not his father, but he’s definitely on this earth because of me. I allowed something horrible to happen to his mother, but I still love her. I despise the kid, though. I’ve forgiven another for so much more, and Cole’s only fault is that his father is the man who took everything from me. How can I learn to love this child and protect his mother from the man who can again take her from me?”

Michael’s story captivated me, and when it was all said and done, I realized that Romans 8:28 permeates the pages of this story. All things, both the good and the bad, are used by God for our good.

Please give us the first page of the book.

 “Michael.” Issie bolted upright in bed, fighting the blankets and gasping for air. She ran her hand across her mouth and scanned the darkness enveloping her room.

Her breath, harsh at first, settled into a normal rhythm. She had nothing to fear. “Michael,” she choked out his name again then settled back down and curled into a ball.

She’d clung to the memory of his handsome face, but with each passing year he slipped further away. The desperate yearning to see him took her breath away.

One thing she’d never forget was the way his eyes, the color of dark chocolate, always followed her lips when she spoke, as if he wanted to kiss them long and deep. He’d loved her then. She loved him now.

Another face fought to replace her treasured memory. She shuddered and closed her eyes, fighting the vision of Tom Jervis on top of her, taking everything she’d saved for Michael—for their marriage bed. Everything she desired fell out of reach on that night.

“Mommy?” the frightened voice sounded from the hallway.

“Cole, I’m here. What is it?”

With bare feet, her seven-year-old plopped across the wood floor and over the old woolen rug to her bed. “Are you okay?”

Issie turned on her bed stand lamp. A soft light shone from beneath the green glass top, illuminating his sleepy face and tired soul-filled gray eyes.

“I had another bad dream.” She scooted over, and he climbed up beside her.

The nightmare had vanished for such a long time. Why was it resurfacing now? Could you call them dreams if the events really happened?

“Mommy, who’s Michael?”

She stiffened. He’d never asked that question. Had she not cried out for Michael in the night before? How could she answer? Yet, not responding might alarm him since he heard her call out the name. “Yeah, baby, I do.”

He rolled over to face her. “Your bad dreams are about him?”

She touched her finger to his nose. “No, they aren’t about him, but he’s in them. Having him there makes it better for me.”

Better for her, but not for Michael. What had it cost him to watch Jervis do what he’d done to her?

“How does he make it better?”

Issie pushed her boy’s shaggy blond hair from his face. He needed a haircut, but he wanted it long until the end of the baseball season. His helmet fit better, he said.

“How does he make it better?” He repeated, propping himself up on one elbow. “Did he help you?”

A vision of Michael branded her memory—the tears in his eyes, the rage in the flare of his nostrils, and the sorrow in the turn of his lips.

“No, but he would if he could.” She pressed her chin against the top of Cole’s head and wrapped her arms around his pint-size body, drawing comfort from his warmth and concern. Cole was a good boy. No one could tell her differently. “In my dream, Michael’s having a tough time too, maybe worse than Mommy.”

“Where does Michael live?” He yawned and turning, he faced away from her, his little body curving with hers.

“I don’t know where he is today.” At least that was the truth now. “I haven’t seen him in over seven years.” Since his release from prison, Issie had no idea where he’d gone.

“Oh,” he said. His breathing soon settled into a sweet rhythm of sleep.

“Michael.” She breathed the name. As she’d done since the day she learned she carried a boy, she imagined Michael embracing her son and accepting him as his own. The fantasy, though, was too fantastic for even her to believe.

Wow! I’m hooked. How can readers find you on the Internet?

My website is www.faylamb.com and I love making new friends on Facebook and Twitter at www.facebook.com/fay.lamb and www.twitter.com/@faylamb


Readers, here’s a link to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.
Because of Me


Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. 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 Feedblitz, Facebook, 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