Emma Blooms at Last Blog Tour! (+$50 Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title: Emma Blooms at Last

Author: Naomi King

Series: One Big Happy Family #2

Pages: 320

Date Published: November 4th 2014

Publisher: NAL Trade

Format: Paperback

Genre: Amish Romance

Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tour

Synopsis:

Romance is in the air during the fall wedding season in the Amish community of Cedar Creek. But while one loving couple prepares to tie the knot, Amanda and Wyman Brubaker’s large family faces a threat from outside their happy circle...and must learn to pull together.

Recently wed Amanda and Wyman Brubaker are thrilled that their children from previous marriages have blended together to form a strong family. But when the construction of Wyman’s new grain elevator is delayed, making the project more expensive than anticipated, Amanda’s determination to rally the kids into taking on work to improve the family’s finances comes into conflict with Wyman’s sense of responsibility as head of the household....

Meanwhile, as James Graber and Abby Lambright prepare for their long-awaited nuptials, folks gather from far and wide. Amanda’s nephew Jerome has long been smitten with James’s sister Emma and wants to seize this chance to woo her. But Emma’s been burned once and is twice shy of trusting the fun-loving, never-serious Jerome. As Emma and Jerome struggle to understand each other, and find the courage to make a leap of faith, the Brubakers face a bigger challenge than they first anticipated and begin to discover just what it means to fight...the Amish way.

~Guest Post!~

A Day In the Life

(Or, Why We Never Saw Jessica Fletcher Actually Writing in Murder, She Wrote)

By Naomi King

My alarm goes off at 5 a.m.

 By the time I shower, dry my hair and get dressed, my Border collie Ramona is ready to start her day, as well—and around 6 my husband gets up and goes through the same routine. We eat breakfast and talk about the day ahead, and then I kiss him goodbye and send him off to work, often with a paper lunch sack in hand.

No, we really aren't Ozzie and Harriet, but we do live a pretty traditional life—at least until Ramona herds me downstairs to my office. You won't catch me running the vac in my housedress and heels, because I'm usually dealing with the emails that accumulated overnight, and maybe making a few comments on Facebook as I suck down a cup or two of Lipton tea. Then I get my mind ready to write.

I deviate from this on days when I run errands. I detest doing them on Saturdays when the stores are busy, so I allow myself a couple of quick power-shopping expeditions during the week, to exciting places like Target, Cub Foods, and the post office. Basically, I hate to shop, so I don't dawdle over potential new clothes or salivate over the stiletto heels in WalMart. A writer's stay-at-home wardrobe is very, very basic and somewhat ratty, usually. Thank goodness Ramona doesn't care that my favorite pink teeshirt has had a bleach hole in the shoulder for several years now. She does get excited when we go to the drive-up window of the bank, though, because the tellers send out treats in the drawer for her!

Once I'm home again, I tell myself to quit stalling and get busy. The schedule of book deadlines taped to my computer desk is plenty of incentive to start putting words on the page, because I'm contracted for back-to-back-to-back books in my two Amish series until at least the end of 2016. One late book, one missed deadline, and my life is toast.

Now we get to the part in the Murder, She Wrote episode where Jessica Fletcher gets called out to snoop into suspicious doings and a body falls out of the closet. She will go on to meet her friends and several potential killers, and have great fun trying to figure out who dunnit by the time an hour's gone by. She always succeeds.

Me, I'm still staring at the screen of my Mac, hoping to eek out a few more words before I slip up to the fridge for a snack I don't need—after I check my email again. Truth be told, I've begun writing at the kitchen table on my iPad lately, because I can't multi-task there—no email bells ding, no Facebook comments beg for my reply, etc. Then the pages start to come and the characters begin to do worthwhile, interesting things that give me ideas for what will happen next. While I have a basic synopsis of main events for a book before I begin to write it, it’s maybe 10 or 20 pages long . . . which leaves me a little short, considering my finished manuscripts run from 200 to 320 pages, depending upon which series/book I’m working on. It means I make up a lot of stuff as I go along, hoping it’s good stuff.

By 4:30 or 5 I count up my day’s pages and call a halt. It’s time to get out of the chair and into the kitchen to rustle up some supper. Nope, no housedress or heels in this scene, either, but I do make a meal worthy of Paula Deen or other cooks whose food you’ve drooled over, because I really like to cook. Sometimes, if I’m stuck on a scene during the day, I do some pre-work on dinner and talk to myself while I do the food prep. I think just getting off my butt for a while activates my brain.

After supper we walk Ramona, I maybe check email one more time, and by 8:30 or so I’m putting on the jammies to read in bed for a while. Yes, during the summer it’s still light out at that hour!  But as I told you at the beginning:

My alarm goes off at 5 a.m. 

~Try an Excerpt!~

“It’s been way too long since I hitched up a sleigh,” Jerome said as he lightly clapped the reins on Sparky’s back. “I don’t think this one’s seen the snow since Uncle Atlee passed, and that’s a shame. Are you warm enough?”

           

Emma burrowed deeper beneath the quilts Jerome had draped over them. Now that she was settled on the plush old seat, leaning into Jerome as the sleigh tilted slightly on the downhill lane, she felt happier than she had in a long time. The full moon was beaming down from a blue velvet sky dotted with diamond stars, making the snow-blanketed pastures glimmer all around them.

           

“I’m cozy. And I’m having a really gut time,” Emma replied with a contented sigh. “Night rides are the prettiest, especially now that the wind has died down.”

           

“Jah, it’s a perfect evening,” Jerome replied softly. “I’ve been hoping for more time alone with you, well—since the day we went shopping, Emma.”

           

As she thought back to that day she’d spent trying to escape Jerome’s attentions, Emma let herself relax . . . allowed the breeze from the accelerating sleigh blow away her former objections to the handsome man who was driving it. The clip-clop of Sparky’s hooves on the snow-packed road settled her heartbeat into its rhythm while the warmth they shared beneath the quilts soothed her after a day of surprising guests and revelations. “Denki for giving me another chance, Jerome,” she murmured. “You were right at the wedding. I’ve missed out on a lot of opportunities to go out and have fun.”

~Meet Naomi!~ 

Drawing upon her experiences in Jamesport, the largest Old Order Amish community west of the Mississippi, longtime Missourian Naomi King writes of simpler times and a faith-based lifestyle in her Home at Cedar Creek/One Big Happy Family series. Like her series heroine, Abby Lambright, Naomi considers it her personal mission to be a listener—to heal broken hearts and wounded souls—and to share her hearth and home. Faith and family, farming and frugality are hallmarks of her lifestyle: like Abby, she made her wedding dress and the one her mom wore, too! She’s a deacon, a dedicated church musician and choir member, and when she’s not writing, Naomi loves to travel, try new recipes, crochet, and sew. Naomi, whose real name is Charlotte Hubbard, now lives in Minnesota with her husband and their border collie, Ramona.

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