Book 'Em North Carolina: The Women of Valley View

Today's special guest is Sharon Srock. Sharon lives with her husband, Larry, and two dogs in Rural Oklahoma. She is a mother, grandmother, and Sunday School teacher. Sharon has one and three-quarters jobs and writes in her spare time. Her favorite hobby is traveling with her grandchildren. She is a member of the ACFW and currently serves as treasurer for her local chapter. Sharon’s debut novel, The Women of Valley View: Callie released in October 2012. The second in the series, The Women of Valley View: Terri released in April 2013.

IN THE AUTHOR'S OWN WORDS

The Women of Valley View and I are excited to be guest posting on the Book’em North Carolina blog this week.

I’d like to introduce you to Terri Hayes, female lead in The Women of Valley View: Terri.

To explore Terri’s development as a character, we have to go back to the first book in the series. When I began work on The Women of Valley View: Callie, the working title was Project Iris. I wasn’t planning a series of books, but wanted my story to appeal to a broad range of women readers. Callie, a medical office manager is in her fifties, Karla is in her early sixties and retired, Pam is forty, on her second marriage, and still raising her family, Terri is twenty nine in the first book, and it made since to make her the single one.

As Callie’s story developed, I needed the other characters to have skills that would help move the story along. For Terri’s character, that meant owning a daycare center. As a daycare owner she was under a certain legal obligation to object to Callie’s story solution in book one. It added a layer of conflict.

As I said, I never intended to write a series, but as the first book grew I realized that each of the women had a story to tell. I changed the title and began to look for the next story line.

Enter Steve Evans. We met Steve and his daughters, Iris and Samantha, in book one. Steve and the girls were in trouble and Terri was a huge part of the solution. As with the women, Steve’s character developed strictly due to the needs of the story. I made him a bestselling writer because this allowed him the ability to be able to work from anywhere and gave him the resources he needed to reclaim his family.

A widowed man with two daughters, a single woman looking for a Christian man, two teenaged girls who don’t want to see their father and their new single friend spend their lives alone... Steve Evans and Terri Hayes are a match made in heaven. And it really was a God thing the way everything from Callie’s story lead to Terri’s story.

Each of the women still wants their stories told. Book three (The Women of Valley View: Pam) is contracted. Book four will be Samantha’s story. I’m planning a total of six stories in the series. Each book will stand alone, but the characters will overlap.

I never planned to write a series, but I’ll keep writing as long as these women keep whispering their stories in my ear.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Despite a bustling day care center and a new foster child, Terri Hayes hungers for a family of her own. Then a plumbing mishap leaves her homeless and questioning God’s plan. Steve Evans’s gracious offer of his basement apartment as a temporary solution is an answered prayer.

Steve is a successful writer and a good father, but Terri is horrified when Steve’s book research leads him to a harsh confrontation with the parents of her foster child. She needs to distance herself from Steve, but her efforts fall short as his two scheming daughters plot to make Terri their new stepmother.

Will harsh words and sneaky plans drive Kelsey’s family further apart and put a wedge between Terri and Steve? Or does God have another plan in store?

AN EXCERPT

Sean watched from the landing as Ella hauled an over-loaded laundry basket up four flights of stairs. He swallowed back the automatic urge to help. He’d learned his lesson earlier in the day when his normally mild-mannered wife refused his offer in words he hadn’t known she knew. Well, maybe knew, but never used.

He trailed her to Kelsey’s empty room, leaning in the doorway. Was there anything he could say that he hadn’t already said? Nope.

Ella sorted out the neatly folded clothes. Her hands hesitated over a pink top with a purple princess silk screened on the front. Kelsey’s favorite shirt. Ella picked it up and sank to the side of the bed, clutching the shirt to her heart. She began to rock as fresh tears streaked her cheeks, tears he would have sworn were all cried out.

Her voice was a broken whisper. “Oh, baby. What have we done?”

“Ellie, please don’t cry anymore.”

Ella met his gaze from across the room. Wet, narrowed eyes and continued silence were the only acknowledgement she offered. She used the shirt to dry her face then slipped it over the head of her daughter’s favorite stuffed bear. She propped the bear on Kelsey’s pillows and walked from the room with no further recognition of her husband’s presence.

LEAVE A COMMENT AND WIN A PRIZE!

Sharon will be awarding an e-Book copy of Callie, the first book in the series, to a randomly drawn commenter at each stop, plus a grand prize of a $20.00 gift card to the Pelican Book Group website to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/03/virtual-book-tour-terri-by-sharon-srock.html