Samhain Publishing Ltd. Weblog

Hidden Identities, Murder and High-stakes Poker!

Hi all. I thought I’d start out with a little about me. I’m a fairly new author to Samhain, but not new to writing. I still have the very first book I wrote – “The Jewel Filled Jar.” It was in pencil on 4 pages of blue lined paper and I designed my own crayon cover. I know it will be worth millions when I die! I’ve always loved writing but never seriously thought about writing a full length novel until some twenty years ago. Since then, I’ve been multi-published in full length fiction and short stories, poetry, magazine articles and literary essays. I even wrote and co-produced a documentary on Kansas history that won state and regional awards. You can visit my website at http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin for more on my writing along with some free short stories.

My real love continues to be romance and HEA endings, even if there’s mystery, ghosts, time travel or suspense mixed in. There’s no rhyme or reason to the way I write. Sometimes ideas come to me full blown and I can write a novel in 3 months. Other times, I have an idea but struggle with characters and plots gone awry.

Since I’m a product of ‘women’s lib’, I love independent, strong heroines. What I didn’t realize until Abigail O’Brien kept quoting them in SONG OF MY HEART was how many women from the nineteenth century were just as vocal about their rights as we were in the 1970s. Mary Wollstonecraft, Susan B. Anthony and Kate Nye-Starr were a few of Abby’s favorites and I really enjoyed the part they played in Abby and Max’s story.

SONG OF MY HEART first came out as an eBook from Samhain, but is now also available in print. It received a 5 Heart Review from The Romance Studio and I’m really excited about sharing Max and Abby’s adventures with you. They were two stubborn, independent people who found love hard to resist – after several shootings, high stakes poker games, robberies, and incidents where Max had to rescue Abby from trouble. Oh, I almost forgot about the time she was in the middle of a pasture with a charging bull.

Of course, Maxwell Grant wasn’t the easiest man to get along with, either, because he constantly changed disguises and Abby wasn’t sure who she liked more – Donal O’Flagherty, a rogue Irishman who flirts outrageously; Reverend Jonas Fishbone, who although very considerate is far too pious; or Jeffery Markham, the suave southern gentleman and expert poker player.

Max and Abby’s story begins at a Harvey House restaurant in Topeka, Kansas and sweeps westward aboard the train, through Denver and on to San Francisco. Here are just a couple of excerpts to whet your appetite: