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Showing posts with label Sontheimer Murphy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sontheimer Murphy. Show all posts

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Guest Post by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy


Today romance author Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy is here to talk about two key themes in her new book, "Devlin's Grace", PTSD and learning to deal with your past. Yesterday I posted an excerpt from, and a giveaway of, the book. Lee Ann is a full-time romance author. A native of the old historic city of St. Joseph, Missouri, one time home to both Jesse James and the Pony Express, she now lives and writes in the beautiful Missouri Ozark region.  Her romance novels include Love Never Fails, Witness Protection Program, Sing We Now of Christmas, A Patient Heart, In Love’s Own Time, Miss Good Samaritan, In The Shadow of War, Guy’s Angel, and Heart of the Ozarks, all from Rebel Ink Press.  She also has six other novels and several novellas available. Her work also appears in more than twenty anthologies and she has multiple short story/non-fiction credits.


She is a member of RWA, Missouri Writers Guild, EPIC, and the Ozarks Writers League. Her work also appears in multiple anthologies. She earned a BA degree in both English and History from Missouri Southern State University as well as an AA Degree in Journalism from Crowder College.  She worked in broadcast media for a decade and also has a background in education.  Her weekly column “Hindsight” appears each week in the Neosho Daily News.

She is married to Roy W. Murphy and the couple has three children, Emily, Megan, and Patrick Murphy. If Lee Ann – or Lee as many of her writing friends know her – isn’t writing, she’s reading or spending time outdoors. In Neosho, Missouri, the small town she now calls home, she serves on the local library board, is active in the annual Relay For Life fight against cancer, has worked with the local Arts Council, and is active in her parish.

Find Lee Ann online:

Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4543214.Lee_Ann_Sontheimer_Murphy

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Serving our country is a family tradition.  My dad served in the Army and so did both of his brothers as well as their father.  I have great-uncles who served in both the Army and the Navy.  Many relatives served from their arrival on American shores during the American Revolution, War of 1812, the Civil War, First World War, World War II, Vietnam and even in the Persian Gulf.  So I have every respect for members of our Armed Forces.  Even in the “old country” my ancestors served in everything from Her Majesty Queen Victoria’s Royal Navy to Frederick II’s elite Prussian Reinhard Corps.

            My latest Rebel Ink Press release, Devlin’s Grace, deals with a Marine veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Devlin suffers from PTSD (post trauma stress disorder) and it’s a major part of the storyline.  I wanted to make the story as realistic as possible so I did thorough research.  And I drew not only on my own experiences as someone with a family member suffering from PTSD but from many resources as well. One of my grandfathers served in the Pacific Theater during World War II and saw some of the heaviest fighting in the Philippines.  Most of the time, he was a wonderful man and a loving grandfather but there were also times when the demons of the war haunted him.  He drank too much then and things happened – like the time he woke up from a nightmare and tried to strangle my grandmother because he thought he was back in the war and she was a Japanese soldier.  My grandmother, shortly before she died a few years ago, shared with me her belief I had the best of my grandfather.  He loved me and spoiled me.  But even so, one of our favorite games was to re-enact the Battle of Leyte on both land and sea using plastic boats in my grandmother’s deep kitchen sink.  And that’s not all. During the Vietnam war era, one of my cousins served and was back home on leave.  We were hosting a huge family picnic in his honor when a car backfired out in the street and he hit the dirt.

            Devlin’s Grace is more than just another love story.  Although it deals with the holiday season, it’s not only a Christmas tale.  It’s intended to be a realistic portrait of life between two people who learn to deal with troubled pasts and issues on a daily basis.  It celebrates the power of love and the resilience of the human spirit.

            Here’s a brief excerpt dealing with Devlin’s PTSD issues:
           
             
            Understanding dawned. “It eats you alive, doesn’t it?” Gracie asked him, voice soft and still. “The little girl plus whatever else you did, devours you.  You’re not the devil, but you’re running from him.”
            Something shone in Devlin’s eyes, ancient and heavy.  He nodded. “You got it, babe.  No one’s ever quite figured it out before now.  Oh, others who served, they know, but you’re the first civilian who understands.”
            Gracie hurt, her soul wounded by the revelation.  “You’re in a hell you made yourself,” she said, “and afraid of ending up in the real one.”
            His twisted smile shattered her heart.  “Yeah, pretty much.  Ever since I got back I’ve walked in the fiery pits, burned for my sins, and tormented myself probably more than any demon ever could.  I’ve hated every day, hated each night, and sometimes wondered why I bothered to stay alive.”
            “Devlin …”
            “There’s names for being this fucked up,” he said. “PTSD’s one of them.”
            When he broke off, Gracie opened her mouth to say something but Devlin quoted what she thought was the Bible but wasn’t, not quite.
            “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” Devlin intoned, “I will fear no evil, for I am the meanest son of a bitch in the valley.”
             As he spoke he broke away from her, Devlin came to his feet and stood, as remote as if he were on an unknown island.  He laughed, without mirth, a bitter dry hoot reminding her of rattling bones. “I don’t remember who quoted it first but I understood it.  Later on, I adopted it as my motto.  I have to be the meanest – otherwise, I’ve no doubt the devil will claim me as his own and damn me to hell, a worse place than the one I’ve made for myself.”

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Excerpt & Giveaway: Devlin's Grace by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy



I have another excerpt for you today, this time from "Devlin's Grace", a contemporary romance by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy. Lee Ann is a full-time romance author. A native of the old historic city of St. Joseph, Missouri, one time home to both Jesse James and the Pony Express, she now lives and writes in the beautiful Missouri Ozark region.  Her romance novels include Love Never Fails, Witness Protection Program, Sing We Now of Christmas, A Patient Heart, In Love’s Own Time, Miss Good Samaritan, In The Shadow of War, Guy’s Angel, and Heart of the Ozarks, all from Rebel Ink Press.  She also has six other novels and several novellas available. Her work also appears in more than twenty anthologies and she has multiple short story/non-fiction credits.


She is a member of RWA, Missouri Writers Guild, EPIC, and the Ozarks Writers League. Her work also appears in multiple anthologies. She earned a BA degree in both English and History from Missouri Southern State University as well as an AA Degree in Journalism from Crowder College.  She worked in broadcast media for a decade and also has a background in education.  Her weekly column “Hindsight” appears each week in the Neosho Daily News.

She is married to Roy W. Murphy and the couple has three children, Emily, Megan, and Patrick Murphy. If Lee Ann – or Lee as many of her writing friends know her – isn’t writing, she’s reading or spending time outdoors. In Neosho, Missouri, the small town she now calls home, she serves on the local library board, is active in the annual Relay For Life fight against cancer, has worked with the local Arts Council, and is active in her parish.


  

Find Lee Ann online: 


Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4543214.Lee_Ann_Sontheimer_Murphy

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Excerpt (Sweet)


When he held out the cup, Gracie noticed the scarring on the underside of his left arm.  Dead white skin mottled with angry red patches and rough ridges indicated he’d suffered serious burns.  She noticed similar scars on the side of his neck and wondered how much of his body had been affected.  Everything she’d learned screamed at her to say nothing, to ignore what she saw, but Gracie followed instinct.  After accepting the cup, she put it down on the end table and touched the old burn.  Her fingers brushed against the coarse skin and marveled to find it cool.  She expected heat, but it would’ve gone long ago.  Dev started to jerk away from her, but when she touched him, he stopped.  Like a bird poised for flight, he remained still as she stroked the damaged area.

Before she could speak, he pulled his arm back and with a defiant glint in his eyes, he removed his t-shirt. “If you want to see the scars, you can see them all,” Dev said, voice harsh and hoarse. 

He revealed a torso dappled with terrible raised welts, both back and belly.  These scars were worse than the others.  Raised red ropes twined like vines over his flesh, fused and almost melted.  The agony Dev endured was beyond anything she could imagine and Gracie’s eyes brimmed with tears.  They spilled over, down her cheeks with silent hurt.  One glance at his face, set hard and as stoic as a statue intensified her empathy.  She laid her right hand on his back, his scarred flesh beneath her touch and with her left she touched the center of his chest.

Beneath her hand his heartbeat thumped, rapid but steady.  His eyes locked with hers and in them Gracie glimpsed flickers of his personal hell.   Confusion showed up, too, along with regret and maybe shame.

Whatever she did or said now would be pivotal, she sensed.  Based on her actions he’d either leave and be gone from her forever, something she didn’t want, or a new beginning would emerge, delicate and fragile.  If she took time to think, she’d be lost so Gracie mined deep into her woman’s soul.  When words came, she spoke them, her voice soft and yet as constant as the evening stars.  “Oh, Dev, it must’ve hurt so much.”

“I don’t want your pity,” he said, a snarl transforming his face into something wolfish, alien.  “Don’t feel sorry for me, babe.  I don’t need charity and I sure as hell don’t need you to tell me some dumb ass feel good bunch of shit.  So quit crying over me.  Maybe it makes you feel better, but it makes me mad.”

“It isn’t pity,” Gracie told him. “I admire you.  It takes a lot of courage to overcome hurts like this.  I hurt for you, but I don’t feel sorry for you.  I hate you had to go through such pain, but I’m crying because I care.”

His hard face softened a little. “Why?”

In this raw moment, she could give him nothing but honesty. “I don’t know, but I do.”

Then Gracie leaned forward and bent just enough to touch her lips to one of the ugliest lesions, the worst of the scars.  He shuddered as she kissed his chest and when she lifted her tear streaked face, Devlin grasped her arms.  He held her in place and kissed her back, full on the mouth, without remorse or mercy.   Gracie gasped with surprise.  His lips burned hers as if she kissed a devil fresh from the pit, but she liked it.  Her body answered his call and her arms moved to circle his neck as she gave him back the kiss.

For your enjoyment here's the book trailer: 

 

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Author: Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
Publisher: Rebel Ink Press
ASIN: B00A8J1D1I
Format:
ebook
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary 
Length: 398 KB
Release Date: November 15, 2012
Buying Links:  Barnes & Noble  Amazon

Book Blurb (from the author):  
When he rides out of the fog on his motorcycle, Gracie Alloway almost mistook him for a demon rising from the smoke and steam of hell.  Except she's attracted to him from the first moment.  Devlin's everything she's not - wild and a little wicked.  But opposites attract because good girl, college student Gracie wants more of this bad boy.


Devlin dreamed up a fantasy woman back in Iraq a lot like Gracie and she evokes a side he hasn't shown anyone in years.  She also dares to enter his personal space and take liberties no other woman's dared.  Although he struggles with PTSD and other issues, Gracie won’t run and she refuses to abandon Devlin.


If she can just tame him and help him battle his demons. If he can teach her how to live a little bit more, they might just have a chance at a future together.
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