Cheryl Kaye Tardif - An Author Interview at the HBS Author's Spotlight

Today I've been featured and interviewed over at HBS Author's Spotlight...

"Today our blog puts the Spotlight on Bestselling Canadian Suspense Author Cheryl Kaye Tardif. She is the author of the Divine Trilogy. Also, Cheryl writes Romance novels as Cherish D'Angelo..."

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT HBS AUTHOR'S SPOTLIGHT.

Special Guest: Judy Penz Sheluk interviews character Calamity Barnstable from SKELETONS IN THE ATTIC

Judy Penz Sheluk’s latest release is Skeletons in the Attic, the first book in the Marketville Mystery Series, and her first title with Imajin Books. The protagonist in Skeletons is Calamity (Callie) Barnstable, a thirty-six-year-old woman from Toronto. Judy recently sat down with Callie in her new home to find out why she moved to the commuter town of Marketville, which is located about an hour north of Toronto.

Judy: You’re thirty-six and single. By your own admission, Marketville is the sort of town where folks with two kids, a cat, and a collie come to live. Why the move?

Callie: Trust me, it wasn’t my idea. My father died recently in an at-work accident and he left me this house. I didn’t even know the house existed, if you can believe that. On top of it all, in order to inherit, I have to live here for a year.

Judy: The house needs some work, but how bad could it be? Plus I caught a glimpse of your next-door neighbor. He’s handsome in that hunky reality TV handyman sort of way, and I didn’t spot a wedding band.

Callie: That would be Royce Ashford, and yes, he’s hot and single. [blushes] But you didn’t let me finish. In order to inherit, I have to try and find out who murdered my mother thirty years ago.

Judy: Wow. Your mom was murdered when you were six? That must have been hard on you and your father.

Callie: I’m sure it was hard on my dad, especially since her body was never found and he was considered a suspect. But until the reading of the will, I always thought my mother had left us for the milkman or some other male equivalent. So the big shocker was finding out that my dad had kept the true story away from me all these years. I suppose that’s why we moved to Toronto when I was seven. I don’t have any real memories of living here, though I’m starting to get the odd flashback.

Judy: Why would your father put that clause in the will? Do you have a background in investigation?

Callie: Hardly. Before I moved here, I worked in a bank call center. But I’ve already found a few things in the house that have provided clues to my mother’s past. [shivers] Not everything was a welcome find. One of the things I found was a skeleton in the attic.

Judy: A skeleton? In the attic?

Callie: Uh huh. Among other things. I’d rather not say any more about it. Can we switch subjects?

Judy: Of course. Do you have anyone helping you?

Callie: [laughs] There’s this self-proclaimed psychic, Misty Rivers. She managed to convince my dad that she could help find out what happened to my mother—for a fee, of course. As if I was going to fall for that.

Judy: This sounds like it would make a great book. Do you mind if I write about your experience trying to solve a thirty-year-old mystery?

Callie: Let me pour you a cup of tea. If you’re going to write a book about me, I have a whole lot more to tell you…

SKELETONS IN THE ATTIC is now available for pre-order on Amazon Kindle for the special introductory price of $0.99 US (reg. $4.99). 

Find it here: http://getbook.at/SkeletonsintheAttic

Find Judy Penz Sheluk at www.judypenzsheluk.com, where she blogs about her writing journey and interviews other authors.

Special Guest: Eileen Schuh, author of SHADOW RIDERS

Today I welcome a good friend, author Eileen Schuh, to my blog. Eileen has a new release, and it even references one of my books. And today YOU get to read an excerpt. How cool is that? Take it away, Eileen...

NOW AVAILABLE IN EBOOK AND PAPERBACK FROM:

AMAZON

SMASHWORDS

And all fine online book retailers.

If it is not on the shelves of your local library or bookstore, please ask to have it ordered in for you.

“In Shadow Riders, Schuh takes us along on a horrifying, suspenseful trip.” ~ Catherine Astolfo, award-winning author of Sweet Karoline

“A riveting plot and dynamic characters will leave you craving more." ~ Luke Murphy, international bestselling author of Dead Man’s Hand and Kiss & Tell

From the moment she falls in love with the ‘bad boy’, the very core of her being is forever changed. 

Allison Montgomery is wrapping up a career as a successful entrepreneur when she’s brutally kidnapped and whisked to South Korea. To ensure her survival, she gradually forges a bond with Carbon, her smooth-talking but abusive captor, a bond that over time proves incredibly strong. Jail time, death threats, counselling—nothing can convince Allie to betray her illicit lover.

However, a team of dedicated cops, an understanding lawyer, her ex-husband— there are those who persist in believing she can break free of Carbon’s hold. She must. Justice for six massacred men depends on it.

- An exploration of the emotional ties that trap women in violent relationships. -

Excerpt from SHADOW RIDERS:

She ran her fingers over the embossed lettering on the cover of her book, Lancelot’s Lady by Cherish D’Angelo. Tim had the dark hair and deep eyes of the handsome hero, but he wasn’t rugged like the cover model. Tim was gentle, both in appearance and personality…

The long hours and extensive travel involved in running their business had often kept her and Tim apart. He had offered to change things—sell the company, hire more help, downsize. She’d tried to envision their marriage returning to the way it had been in the early years. However, she knew that it could never be the same. They were no longer young and full of energy and dreaming and sharing dreams and chasing dreams. They were old and worn and destined to walk in separate, dreamless worlds.

Allie traced the firm jaw of the hero on the cover. Love ought to be forever but seldom was. She had fought a dark, churning, growing feeling of doom for what seemed like a decade before they had split….

There was no doubt Tim loved her. He respected her. Allie thumbed through the first chapters of her book to refresh her memory. Tim wanted her, like Lancelot was driven to possess his lady on the Caribbean island. When her doorbell rang, she greeted her guests with her eyes still on the page…

Ah, yes. The romance novel versus the reality. We all eventually must face it—the truth about ‘happily ever after.’ The reality of being ‘old and worn and destined to walk in separate, dreamless worlds.”

It’s just that…the protagonist in a novel generally doesn’t face it.

Allison Montgomery does many things that fictional protagonists generally don’t do; she does things that real women do. Things like divorce her husband, go through menopause and…refuse to leave a violent relationship.

I thank Cheryl Kaye Tardif for allowing me to use her romance novel Lancelot’s Lady released under her pen name, Cherish D’Angelo, to help me shine light on the contrast between the fantasy and the reality in matters of the heart.

I like the irony of have a fictional character reading a novel. It somehow makes Allie more real. In fact, she becomes desperately real, uncomfortable so for some.

We see in her our weaknesses, and our desperation. Her poor decisions become ours, her illicit love ours…and we know none of it should be, because we are strong, we are woman.

Yet in reality we fail and flail and fall. And at times, do not want to rise back up.

We are victimized, manipulated, lied to, and loved…all by the very same man.

Allison Montgomery is us. Lancelot’s Lady is but a dream.

Author bio:

In addition to SHADOW RIDERS, Canadian author, Eileen Schuh has published three novels in her ongoing gritty Young Adult BackTracker Series: The Traz, Fatal Error and Firewalls. The Traz also comes in a School Edition. As well, she has to her credit two adult science fiction novellas, Schrödinger's Cat and Dispassionate Lies.

Born Eileen Fairbrother on a small farm near Tofield, Alberta, Canada, she now lives with her husband in Alberta’s northern boreal forest in the St. Paul area.  In addition to writing, she enjoys speaking to youth and adults about the magic of literacy and the social and personal issues addressed in her novels.

Schuh recently retired from a life of careers that varied from nurse to journalist to editor to business woman.

She invites you to visit her online:

Website

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Amazon author page