Glass Angels by Karen Wiesner

GLASS ANGELS, Book 4 of the Family Heirloom Series
Inspirational Contemporary Romance
Published by Whiskey Creek Press http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com

Blurb:

Nuggets of faith can be passed down as family heirlooms from parent to child, sibling to sibling, spouse to spouse.

Book Four Family Heirloom: Forgiving

A young Christian woman struggles with seeking pardon from those she's hurt when she can't seem to get past her own inability to forgive those who have wronged her.

Three years ago, Samantha Samuels had suffered under the violent hands of Ryder Feldmann, a juvenile delinquent her pastor father had been counseling. Now she's completed her psychiatry training and plans to help other victims of violent crimes at the rape counseling clinic in her hometown of Peaceful, Wisconsin. Unexpectedly, she finds herself sharing an office building and Sunday services at her new church with the older brother, a divorce counselor, of her attacker...the very man she'd been in love with before her rape.

In the time since Kyle Feldmann's brother was jailed for his crime against Samantha, he's lived with the torment of all he's lost because of his sibling. Before the tragedy that stole Samantha from him and destroyed his dreams, Kyle had begged her to risk her father's disappointment and elope with him. Seeing Samantha again after so many years, being near her, only puts him right back where he was before the rape. Kyle wants to heal Samantha, love her, and fulfill the dreams he grieved the loss of—by marrying her. But how can they be together forever when she's still so broken?

All her life, Samantha had wanted her father's approval, but his selfish part in putting her in a dangerous situation has led her to a painful place of desperately needing to forgive him and her attacker...and being unable to in all the time since the traumatic event that ripped her life in two. As she gives her heart to Kyle once more, her already fractured relationship with the Lord is tested. In the crossfire of faith, she wonders if glass angels shatter beyond recognition when they take a leap of faith, or if they can heal and become stronger than ever before.


Excerpt:

Prologue

“I know you were just glad to see Ryder Feldmann convicted at the trial, sweetie, so you weren’t concerned about how long he’d be in the institution.”

Samantha Samuels stared at her sister-in-law, a lawyer, who’d insisted she wanted to drive her to the airport today when she left for her two-week vacation. She and Justine were fairly close. Nevertheless, she’d been a little surprised by the offer. Not once had she considered that Justine wanted to drive her so she’d have time to drop this bomb on her.

Stunned, Samantha opened her mouth. Her sister-in-law wasn’t wrong—she’d heard nothing at the end of the trial but that—thank the Lord!—her attacker would be locked away. “I assumed he’d be in prison for a long, long time.”

Justine nodded, her expression pained. She reached across to the passenger’s seat and squeezed her hand. “I know, Sam. You didn’t want to hear anything else about it whenever I tried to talk to you about this in the last several years. I can explain everything to you whenever you’re ready, but the bottom line is that Ryder’s term of confinement is almost up. He’ll be released on September 30th, followed by a year of extended supervision...”

* * * *

“Miss Samuels,” the clerk called when Samantha entered the hotel with the rest of her tour group. Tired after the long day of exploring Southwest Ireland’s treasures, including a museum and a castle—along with fighting off the aggressive advances of a certain member of her tour group—she was eager to go to her room and shower. She’d been wondering if she’d have time to snatch a few hours’ sleep before dinner.

She wended her way through the others to get to the front counter.

“You received a phone call while you were out, Miss Samuels.” The man handed her a memo.

Samantha looked at the note without surprise to see her sister-in-law’s name and phone number written on it. Justine had called the night she arrived in Ireland, but Samantha hadn’t been able to get herself to take the phone call then. She hadn’t been ready to face the fact that the man who’d raped her would be released from prison after a mere three years paying for his unconscionable crime against her.

“I do hope everything is all right, miss.”

Distracted, Samantha glanced at the clerk and nodded. While dodging the crowd, she rushed up to her room as fast as she could. Had Justine called to apologize again for seeing no other choice but to tell her the truth—even if it meant ruining a perfectly lovely trip? Samantha had thought of little else except the single sentence that had deadlocked her in the days since: “He’ll be released on September 30th, followed by a year of extended supervision...”

She couldn’t fathom that Ryder had served only three years. Three years! In three years, I haven’t even begun to heal from what he did to me. And he’s done being punished, other than a year of” extended supervision”—whatever that meant.

Samantha took a deep breath to quell the sensation of suffocation rising inside her. The tightness of her chest resembled an evil force growing in proportion to her dread. Now it was gathering all the air in her lungs and transforming it into an ominous, black cloud.

After drawing another breath and letting it out slowly, she murmured to herself, “I’ll be home in two days. I can call Justine then and ask her all the details I wish I didn’t have to know. Right now I’m four thousand miles away and it must be nine or ten at night in Wisconsin anyway.”

Why had Justine called a second time? And why in the world did she feel she had to tell me this before I left for Ireland? As if I had any chance of enjoying the trip anyway. I’m too much of a homebody not to have started wishing my flight would return me to my home the day I arrived. Why, Justine, why? As a lawyer—though only part-time since the birth of her son a few years ago—Justine was too logical to drop a ticking bomb in someone’s lap without good reason. She certainly had to realize her announcement would upset Samantha for longer than a few hours.

Shaking slightly, Samantha tossed the messenger bag she’d brought with her for the tour today on her bed and grabbed the phone. Unfortunately, she realized that she didn’t have the slightest clue how to make an international call. When she phoned down to the desk to explain her trouble, the clerk calmed her with the words, “Allow me to place the call for you. I’ll forward it to your room shortly.”

Samantha thanked him, gave him the information, then sat on the edge of the bed, her hands clasped tightly together in her lap. An odd thought entered her head. What if Justine’s phone call had nothing to do with the announcement she’d made in the car? What if someone was ill? Perhaps her son, daughter or husband—Samantha’s older brother—Joshua.

Daddy? Samantha’s cheeks filled with shame and regret.

Luckily, the phone rang within a few moments, disrupting the usual direction of her thoughts. “Justine?” she said as soon as she picked it up.

“It’s me, Sam,” Justine answered, her flinty voice filled with reassurance. “Don’t panic. This isn’t a medical emergency or anything like that. You had to know I couldn’t leave things the way we did at the airport. I didn’t want that conversation to go like that, sweetie.”

“Why did you have to tell me now?”

Justine sighed. “Oh, Sam, I thought long and hard about whether to bother you about this before you left for your vacation. I talked to Joshua, Tamara, Kim and Peter, and they all advised me to tell you right away.”

Tamara and Peter, Samantha’s oldest siblings, and Peter’s wife Kimberly were the three people Samantha trusted most in the world. Even still, she couldn’t understand why any of them would encourage Justine to go ahead with this.

“Did I completely wreck your vacation?” Justine asked softly. “We all knew when you got back, you’d be going to work at the clinic, putting in long hours...and you wouldn’t want to hear the truth then any more than you did at the trial and the years since. We couldn’t see any other way to do this. And you insisted your friend Jordan was picking you up from the airport when you got back from Ireland. You weren’t willing to negotiate.”

I’ve been in hiding. I don’t know how else to cope. After all this time, I still don’t. Samantha shook her head. Eyes closed, she asked in a tone that begged her sister-in-law to enlighten her, “How can they possibly release him, Justine? He raped me. Ruined my life in ways that no can begin to understand...” Samantha inhaled shakily.


Read more:

http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/kswiesner/GAexcerpt.pdf
Purchasing info: http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/kswiesner/fiction9.html
Visit Karen’s website: http://www.karenwiesner.com

Author Interview - Cheryl Pierson

Joining us today is Cheryl Pierson. Here is Cheryl’s Bio: Cheryl was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, and grew up in Seminole, Oklahoma. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma, and holds a B.A. in English. She has taught numerous writing classes and workshops over the past years and also works on an individual basis with many of her students, and other authors, locally and nationwide.

Cheryl’s most recent publications include her debut novel, released through The Wild Rose Press in May of 2009, “Fire Eyes,” and her second novel, “Time Plains Drifter.” She has also sold numerous short stories, as a contributor for the Adams Media anthologies “The Rocking Chair Reader: Family Gatherings”, as well as the earlier “The Rocking Chair Reader: Memories from the Attic.” Her short stories also appear in the 2006-09 editions of the Adams Media Christmas anthologies, as well as various other publications, including “Chicken Soup for the Empty Nester’s Soul.” Her holiday short story, “A Night For Miracles,” was released in December, 2009, through The Wild Rose Press.

Look for her third novel, “Sweet Danger,” available Oct. 1, 2010 through The Wild Rose Press, and her short story, “To Make the Magic Last,” through Victory Tales Press, “A Summer Collection” anthology, May 2010. “Scarlet Ribbons,” a Christmas short story, will be released in September, 2010, through Victory Tales Press.

Although Cheryl has written and sold articles to local newspapers as well as these short stories, her first love remains romance novel writing. With the release of TIME PLAINS DRIFTER, her debut novel in the speculative romance genre of paranormal/time travel, she garnered the Honorable Mention Award in the “Best New Paranormal Author” category in the prestigious PEARL contest, presented 3/21/10. Time Plains Drifter also received a 4.5 review from Romantic Times Magazine. She’s now at work on another novel, TIME PLAINS GUARDIAN, in the speculative romance genre of western historical paranormal/time travel and hopes to complete it before the end of the year. She has just completed a western historical novel, GABRIEL’S LAW, and is in the throes of revision.

Cheryl lives with her husband in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where she has been for the past 25 years. She has two grown children, ages 20 and 23.

[Anne] Yeah Sooners!!!  Sorry, I had to throw that in.  When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

[Cheryl]When I was just a child—maybe 4 or 5, I would write in books. My mom couldn’t understand why I kept doing that, and I guess maybe I couldn’t explain to her. I wanted to be the one to write the story we were reading! LOL

[Anne] LOL.  That's cool.  Tell us about your latest book.

[Cheryl] Sweet Danger Blurb: When undercover cop Jesse Nightwalker enters Silverman's Deli, he doesn't expect to find himself at the mercy of Tabor Hardin, a sadistic murderer he helped put in prison five years earlier. Now, Hardin's escaped, and he's out for more blood--Jesse's. Lindy Oliver has had her eye on her handsome neighbor for several months. Fate provides the opportunity for them to finally meet when they both choose the same deli for breakfast. Becoming a hostage was not in Lindy 's plans when she sat down to share a pastry with Jesse, but neither was the hot kiss he gave her when bullets began to fly. That kiss seals both their fates, binding them to one another with the certainty of a vow. But Jesse's got some hard-hitting secrets. With both their lives at stake, Lindy has a plan that just might save them--if Hardin takes the bait. Will they find unending love in the midst of Sweet Danger?

[Anne] What inspired you to write this story?

[Cheryl] I knew I needed to ‘branch out’ into contemporary. I normally write historical western stories, but I had some contemporary stories to tell, too! I had written one before this one that I’m still subbing. Sweet Danger was the first contemporary I’ve sold, though I have sold 2 western historicals and several short stories.

[Anne] How did you go about researching your book?

[Cheryl] I really didn’t have to do a whole lot of research since it is a contemporary. I set it in Oklahoma City because I was picturing the buildings there. I’m a native Oklahoman, and nearly every story I write takes place in contemporary Oklahoma or, in the historicals, Indian Territory, before Oklahoma became a state.

[Anne] Do you have anything new in the works?

[Cheryl] I’m always working on something. My WIP is another contemporary involving an undercover DEA agent whose cover is blown. He’s left for dead in the woods near a young woman’s house. Their relationship is threatened by the drug kingpin who ordered him murdered—and now must see her dead as well.

On the historical front, my latest ms. is being considered by one of the larger houses, and I am keeping my fingers crossed for good news from that direction!

[Anne] What is your writing process like? Are you a plotter or a pantser?

[Cheryl] Oh, definitely a pantser!!! I wouldn’t know what to do if I actually had a PLOT to work off of from beginning to end! LOL It’s more fun this way.

[Anne] I totally agree with you there.  If you could be anyone of your characters, which one would you chose to be and why?

[Cheryl] Hmmm, probably I would be Jenni Dalton from Time Plains Drifter. She is thrown back in time and finds love when she least expects it. My guys…I wouldn’t want to be ANY of them—they all get wounded and have so much angst to deal with! LOL

[Anne] What type of books do you like to read when you’re not writing?

[Cheryl] I read pretty much everything—not just romance. I love alternate history—like Eric Flint’s series. Also love westerns, like Louis L’Amour and Jack Schaefer, Peter Brandvold and Forrest Carter. Lots of great writers out there, and of course, romance novels are at the top of my list always!

[Anne] Name three things you can’t live without (excluding spouses and family because that’s a given).

[Cheryl] Books, pen and paper. (And can I also say, tomatoes? Cause I could eat my weight in those.)

[Anne] Now that’s a new one…LOL…Tomatoes, really? Humm. All right you can have your tomatoes. Where can we find you on the web?

[Cheryl] You can visit my website at http://www.cherylpierson.com

You can e-mail me at fabkat_edit@yahoo.com (I love to hear from readers and other authors!)

You can visit my blogs at: http://www.cherylpiersonbooks.blogspot.com and also at http://www.westwindsromance.blogspot.com

[Anne] Where can we purchase your books?

[Cheryl] You can purchase FIRE EYES and my two short stories with THE WILD ROSE PRESS by clicking on the titles. My short stories are A NIGHT FOR MIRACLES and UNTIL THE LAST STAR BURNS OUT (this one is a FREE READ!)

TIME PLAINS DRIFTER is currently unavailable as I am searching for a new publisher for that book and working on the sequel to it. I do have a few copies for sale if anyone wants to order from me. My e-mail addy is listed above where you can contact me.

SWEET DANGER will be available from THE WILD ROSE PRESS in October, 2010.

I currently have a short story, TO MAKE THE MAGIC LAST, available in a just-released anthology with VICTORY TALES PRESS. The anthology is called “A SUMMER COLLECTION” and (of course) the stories all have a summer based theme. I will be included in a Christmas anthology with VTP that will be released sometime in the fall as well.

I’ve also written several other short stories for Adams Media’s Rocking Chair Reader series and the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Memories from the Attic: PENNY MEMORIES.  Family Gatherings: THE SUGAR CUBE CURE.   Classic Christmas: True Stories of Holiday Cheer and Good Will: SILVER MAGIC.

[Anne] Is there anything else you’d like to add?

[Cheryl] Thank you so much for having me here! I appreciate this chance to talk about my books and tell you a bit more about me. I will leave you with an excerpt from my EPIC Award Finalist novel, FIRE EYES.

THE SET UP: Marshal Kaed Turner has been deposited on widow Jessica Monroe's front porch by a band of Choctaw Indians with orders from the chieftain: "Do not let him die." But can she save him? He's been severely beaten by a band of renegades that run the borderlands between Arkansas and Indian Territory. The last man they brought to her doorstep died. What will become of Marshal Turner? Can she save him?

FROM FIRE EYES:

Taking up the scissors again, she cut away his clothing, starting with the sleeve she’d already slit. He lay still as she pulled away the bloody chambray. When she lifted the front placket of material from his broad chest, he gave a low, agonized curse. His breath hissed inward, and he shifted.

“What? Did I—oh, my God.” Jessica squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to believe what she had seen.

The badge. U.S. Marshal. Turner’s lawman’s star wasn’t pinned to his shirt any longer. The pin was jammed down through the material into his bronze skin, a bright crimson ring around the outline of the star itself. By that one act of cruelty, Jessica did not need to wonder any longer whose handiwork this sadistic beating was. She knew, as surely as if the marshal had spoken it.

Now she wished she’d asked Standing Bear if his warriors had killed any of the men who had been responsible for this. She hoped they had surprised the white men, and murdered them all. She hoped they’d taken scalps. She hoped—

“Just pull.” Her patient moistened his lips. “Straight up. That’s how it went in.”

She wanted to weep at the steel in his voice, wanted to comfort him, to tell him she’d make it quick. But, of course, quick would never be fast enough to be painless. And how could she offer comfort when she didn’t even know what to call him, other than Turner?

“You waitin’ on a…invitation?” A faint smile touched his battered mouth. “I’m fresh out.”

Jessica reached for the tin star. Her fingers closed around the uneven edges of it. No. She couldn’t wait any longer. “What’s your name?” Her voice came out jagged, like the metal she touched.

His bruised eyes slitted as he studied her a moment. “Turner. Kaedon Turner.”

Jessica sighed. “Well, Kaedon Turner, you’ve probably been a lot better places in your life than this. Take a deep breath and try not to move.”

He gave a wry chuckle, letting his eyes drift completely closed. “Do it fast. I’ll be okay.”

She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Ready?”

“Go ahead.”

Even knowing what was coming, his voice sounded smoother than hers, she thought. She wrapped her hand tightly around the metal and pulled up fast, as he’d asked.

As the metal slid through his flesh, Kaed’s left hand moved convulsively, his fingers gripping the quilt. He was unable to hold back the soft hint of an agonized groan as he turned away from her. He swore as the thick steel pin cleared his skin, freeing the chambray shirt and cotton undershirt beneath it, blood spraying as his teeth closed solidly over his bottom lip.

Jessica lifted the material away, biting back her own curse as she surveyed the damage they’d done to him. His chest was a mass of purple bruises, uneven gashes, and burns. Her stomach turned over. She was not squeamish. But this—

It was just like what they’d done to Billy, before they’d killed him. Billy, the last man the Choctaws had dumped on her porch. Billy Monroe, the man she’d come to loathe during their one brief year of marriage.

She took a washrag from the nightstand and wet it in the nearby basin. Wordlessly, she placed her cool palm against Kaedon Turner’s stubbled, bruised cheek, turning his head toward her so she could clean his face and neck.

She knew instinctively he was the kind of man who would never stand for this if it wasn’t necessary. The kind of man who was unaccustomed to a woman’s comforting caress. The kind of man who would never complain, no matter how badly wounded he was.

“Fallon.” His voice was rough.

Jessica stopped her movements and watched him. “What about him?”

His brows drew together, as if he were trying to formulate what he wanted to say. “Is he…dead?”

What should she tell him?

The truth.

“I—don’t know.”

“Damn it.”

“You were losing a lot of blood out there,” Jessica said, determined to turn his thoughts from Fallon to the present. She ran the wet cloth lightly across the long split in his right cheek.

His breathing was controlled, even. “I took a bullet.” He said it quietly, almost conversationally.

Jessica stopped moving. “Where?”