Big Life, Small Moments by Nan Reinhardt

I was thinking this morning about how other people’s lives seem so much larger than my own. My life is very ordinary, filled with ordinary stuff like laundry and weeding gardens and walks around the neighborhood. Cooking breakfasts, scaring up lunches, and dreaming up something wondrous for supper each night. I don’t go very many places—not to restaurants or concerts or movies or shopping. I’m mostly at home or at the lake, writing or editing. Sometimes, I go out to lunch with friends and a couple times a year, Liz and I go on retreat where I…yes, write.

Is my life small? I wonder sometimes if I’m missing big moments because so much of my life is made up of so many small ones.

There have been big moments, though, as there are in everyone’s life—marriage, the birth of Son, Son’s marriage, Grandboy’s birth, Son’s PhD, my first novel being published, and going to Paris and Ireland. Lots of big moments set in among the small ones.

And even small moments can feel big. Every time I type THE END on a first draft, that feels like a huge moment, as does receiving an email from my editor telling me I nailed the revisions on a manuscript. Book release day is always an extraordinary day where I find myself all over the interwebs on blogs and Facebook posts and Tweets and it makes me wonder, who is this person? Small moments in time, but big ones in my life.

Lots of the folks who seem to have larger lives than mine travel a lot. I don’t travel much—Husband is a homebody and I find myself less willing to leave him for long periods, but oh, how I travel when I edit other author’s work! I love reading about faraway places. Funny that because I do often long to travel to faraway places, yet my books all happen in the same little Indiana river town… I don’t use my own work to see the world. I’m not sure why; I’m sure Freud would have some fun with that.

My family used to tease me about living in “Nan’s world,” and perhaps I do. I love River’s Edge and all my imaginary friends there. But I also relish the small moments in my real life that make it feel big. Dinner with Son, just the two of us, boat rides with Husband watching the sun set over the lake, playing a game with Grandboy, basking on the deck with a book and a glass of wine, rereading a particular scene I really had fun writing, processing a story with Liz, going to the winery with my lake friends—small moments all, but altogether, I believe they make my life bigger.

Tell me about your small moments or your big ones. Let’s talk…

 A big moment happened yesterday—The Fireman’s Christmas Wish, book 3 in the Lange Brothers trilogy released from Tule Publishing. What’s more fun the Christmas romance?

The Fireman’s Christmas Wish, Book 3 in the Lange Brothers Trilogy

Her heart is wide open, but he’s nailed his shut.

Preschool teacher Harley Cole has always viewed life through rose-colored glasses. With a career she loves, friends she enjoys, and a home that is her haven, there’s only one thing missing—finding her soul mate. As the holidays approach, Harley is inspired to help her former high school crush rediscover his holiday joy. It’s just a good deed...until the feelings she thought were gone come rushing back.

Fire Chief Becker Lange returns home to River’s Edge with a heavy heart. His divorce has emotionally ravaged him, leaving him more confused than ever about what women want. So to protect himself from another failure, he closes his heart. And then Harley Cole makes him a flirty dare that she can help him overcome the holiday blues. Beck’s not sure he wants to, but Harley’s a hard woman to tell no.

Can the magic of Christmas and a sweet stray kitten bring these two lonely souls together?

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YFH87XD

B&N Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-firemans-christmas-wish-nan-reinhardt/1141372530

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-fireman-s-christmas-wish

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-firemans-christmas-wish/id1620215901

Tule Bookstore: https://tulepublishingshop.com/products/the-fireman-s-christmas-wish

Nan Reinhardt is a USA Today bestselling author of sweet romantic fiction for Tule Publishing. Her day job is working as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader, however, writing is Nan’s first and most enduring passion. She can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t writing—she wrote her first romance novel at the age of ten and is still writing, but now from the viewpoint of a wiser, slightly rumpled, woman in her prime. Nan lives in the Midwest with her husband of 48 years, where they split their time between a house in the city and a cottage on a lake. 

Talk to Nan at: nan@nanreinhardt.com

www.nanreinhardt.com

www.facebook.com/authornanreinhardt

www.twitter.com/nanreinhardt

www.instagram.com/nanreinhardt

www.tulepublishing.com/authors/nan-reinhardt

www.bookbub.com/authors/nanreinhardt

www.goodreads.com/author/show/5758438.Nan_Reinhardt

Felicity's Fortune by Kara O'Neal

I could hardly wait for the second book in my Gamblers and Gunslingers series – FELICITY’S FORTUNE – to release!

When we visited St. Joseph, Missouri, we had to stop at Jesse James’ house. While I was walking through those rooms, I wondered about his wife.

She’d set up a house, cooked meals, raised children…and her husband was an outlaw. She knew what he was, and that surprised me. Of course, who knew how she felt about his choices, and I’m sure it was hard to leave him since she loved him.

But I thought…what if she hadn’t known? What if a woman had married a man who was an outlaw, and she discovered it…

And turned him in.

So…FELICITY’S FORTUNE was born.

I had to give her a mighty hero, and so Butch Wilder grew in my mind’s eye. And he’s a good one. He had to be a little sinful, though, but he’s got a big, big, big heart!

I loved writing this story. Felicity’s daughters are the cutest little things.

I also enjoyed sending Felicity to Hell’s Half Acre, because God bless Texas, but that place was scary. It belonged in a book.

You know, that’s the best thing about being an author. You get to put cool places, events and people in your books.

I hope y’all enjoy Felicity and Butch’s story as much as I did! Happy reading!

Blurb

Felicity Capwell Archer had no idea she'd married a thief and a killer. And even though she's the one who turns him in, people still think she helped her former husband steal and is now hiding the money. To protect herself from the repercussions and attacks, she hires Butch Wilder. Gambler. Gunslinger. And a giant who hides a heart of gold.

Butch Wilder grew up on the streets of New Orleans, learning how to fight, how to gamble and how to use a Colt .45 with deadly precision. When Felicity begs him to protect her family, she's too damned pretty and too intriguing to turn down. Determined to avoid any emotional attachments and to keep it purely professional, Butch takes the job. But he finds himself sitting down to nice meals, walking her children to school and being part of a family for the first time.

Only by finding and returning the stolen loot can Felicity and her daughters ever truly be safe. Following clues she deciphers from her former husband’s letters, Felicity and Butch travel to the outlaw-infested Hell's Half Acre. It's madness, but Butch will do anything to protect Felicity. Even if it means his life.

Excerpt

When Butch reached Rickman’s office, he tried to see through the windows to the inside, but the grimy panes allowed for nothing. Cautious but unafraid, he walked in without hesitation.

But when he found who had come calling, he about swallowed his tongue. He stopped short, his hand on the knob, his mind devoid of all thought.

“Are you Mr. Wilder?”

Her honey voice poured through him, grabbing hold of his senses.

She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry to interrupt your work, sir, but I’m looking for Mr. Butch Wilder. Are you he?”

Snap out of it, man! Butch blinked then cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. Yes. I’m Butch Wilder.” He shut the door.

She looked him over.

He steeled himself against the fear he might see in her eyes due to his size, but when her gaze touched his face, what he found was desperation. Confused and a little nervous, he wrapped his thumbs around his suspenders.

“Do you know who I am?”

Would it upset her if he did? But he couldn’t lie to her. Somehow she’d know if he did. “Yes.”

She twitched her lips as if frustrated by her infamy. He couldn’t blame her.

After letting out a slow exhale, she said, “My home, and by that I really refer to my children, my housekeeper and myself, has been under attack since my former husband was arrested and tried.”

So…she had gotten divorced. Or was it an annulment? He stayed quiet, not knowing what she wanted or if he was allowed to respond.

“We need constant protection until this is settled.” She waved a hand in the air. “Until either the…the hanging or…” She paused, and her gaze went distant.

He narrowed his eyes slightly. What bothered her? The event she hadn’t mentioned or the hanging?

She shook her head. “I apologize. The last weeks have been rather harrowing.”

He could imagine. From the arrest, to the trial, to now…

A portion of what she’d said registered in his mind. “I’m sorry, ma’am. But why are you here? You mentioned…protection?” Hell. Was she going to ask him to…

“Yes. The sheriff’s office can’t provide anyone, so he suggested I hire you.”

Butch’s mind whirled with the implications.

“I will pay you well, plus meals, because I would prefer it if you moved into my home. People come at all times of the day and night. I’m fearful of what has occurred in my absence for the last few hours.” She pressed two fingers to her temple and rubbed. “Not that I can do anything about it,” she muttered. She let out a weary exhale.

While she struggled with exhaustion, he tried to make sense of what she was offering. It was ridiculous. Him? Butch Wilder? Protect her? And her family?

Hell. That was damned laughable.

Book Purchase Link:  https://amzn.to/3MXKUa9

Author Bio

Award-winning author, Kara O’Neal is a teacher and lives in Texas with her husband and three children She write stories with strong family ties, lots of romance and guaranteed happy endings! Please visit her at www.karaoneal.com.

Where to Find Kara

Website –  www.karaoneal.com

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