Thank you for having me here today, Romance Junkies.  I’m going to head back to the world of writing romance novels for a while, but I’ll be back to check in later today.  I’ve enjoyed blogging with you, and I hope you come see me at my website www.bessmcbride.com  I do have a newsletter on the latest happenings in my small world, so if you would like to be included (in my small world) :-), please drop me a line at the e-mail address on my website.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Bess McBride

And another spectacular cover by Tamra Westberry. I love it!

A Train Through Time is my first time travel, but not my last.  I love time travels, the juxtaposition of old and new…especially playing with modern dialogue versus the more formal dialogue of the late Victorian era here in the United States.  Both Love of My Heart and A Train Through Time are partially set in the late Victorian/early Edwardian era of the Pacific Northwest.

The idea came to me while I was at Glacier National Park last summer, and I took the train over to Eastern Washington several times to see my daughter who was giving birth to her first baby.  I imagined…what if one went to sleep on a modern train and woke up on an old one…  It’s not a new concept…although it was to me at the time.  I’ve seen other books addressing the same sort of time travel, but this one is special to me.  I love the hero, Robert, a Victorian man ahead of his time who dreams of a woman who has not yet been born…or come to his time.  Throw in a female college teacher of women’s studies who believes women are equal to men in all things, and what else can you have but love, love, love. 

Book Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ifu1wIKlAs

Blurb:  College teacher Ellie Standish thinks she’s on a sleek modern train heading to a conference on women’s studies in Seattle, but she awakens from a night’s doze to find herself on a bizarre historical train full of late Victorian era reenactors who refuse to come out of character.  When the leader of the group—one handsome, green-eyed Robert Chamberlain—finally convinces her the date is indeed 1901, a skeptical Ellie decries any eccentric theories of time travel and presumes she is smack dab in the middle of a very interesting historical dream.  She turns the directorial reins of her dream over to one smitten and willing Robert, only to realize that dreams cannot last forever.  Someday, she must wake up to reality, though Ellie no longer has any idea what reality is.  She only knows that Robert must play an important part in her future.  But how can he…if he’s only a figment of her imagination or worse yet…a man who belongs to an era long past?

Excerpt:

“I’m not going to marry an eighteen-year-old girl, Grandmother.”  Robert turned away and strode to the bay window.  He stared down onto the city below.

“Robert, be reasonable.  You need to marry sometime.  Don’t you want a wife?  One young enough to give you children?  Any one of your sister’s friends would be quite suitable.”

“I’m afraid not, Grandmother.  I’m waiting.”

“Waiting for what?” Mrs. Chamberlain muttered.

“The right one.  She will come along.  I know it.”

“For goodness sake, Robert.  Where will you find her?  You never appear even to look.”

Robert continued to stare out the window with his hands clasped behind his back.  “I do not think I have met her yet, but I feel certain that I will know her when she does finally appear.”

“Robert, what nonsense!  You are usually so sensible in all matters except when it comes to this subject.  It seems my son’s wife raised a silly romantic,” the older woman muttered.

“Perhaps she did, Grandmother.  Perhaps she did,” he murmured with a smile.

“Give me great-grandchildren, Robert.  I cannot live forever.”

He turned away and grinned at the frail appearing silver-haired woman resting on the green velvet settee.

“Yes, you will, Grandmother.  You will outlive us all.”

“Hmmppff,” she muttered looking away.  “The house is quiet.  We need children in it once again.”

“Perhaps my sister can do the honors in a few years, Grandmother.  All she lacks is a suitable husband.”  He consulted his pocket watch.

She eyed him with a piercing stare.

“Have you become a confirmed bachelor, Robert?  Has time passed you by then?”

Robert laughed and bent to kiss his grandmother’s pale cheek.

“I hope not, madam.  I did not intend to remain a bachelor for the rest of my life.”

“Then why do you wait?  Give me a practical reason, none of your romantic musings.”

He straightened and grinned.  “I can only assure you once again that I wait for the right woman.  I know it sounds foolish, but it is the truth.”  He turned away toward the door.  “I must go into the office to see to a few things before we leave tomorrow.  I look forward to riding the train.  I always do.”

Buy Link:

 The Wild Rose Press

Bess McBride, www.bessmcbride.com, www.rvromance.com

And look at this cover by Angela Anderson.  Isn’t it fabulous?

A Trail of Love is my third published romance novel with The Wild Rose Press who have been veddy, veddy good to me.  This one was inspired by my…then…upcoming gig as a park ranger at Glacier National Park last year.  I wrote several chapters before I actually arrived at the park but ended up putting it on hold for the summer due to edits on other books.  And I’m glad I did.  It’s much better for my having actually spent some time in the park and around bear rangers.  Little do they know, they’re all featured in my book as a composite of my hero, Dace!  :-)  Since I’m still actually working at the park this summer, I wave at them with a huge anonymous pseudonymly grin, knowing they’re all handsome heroes…at least “in my book,” they are! 

Book Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TONFALG3rmU

BLURB:

Kerrie is on the run from a painful past, and she hides in plain sight as a summer employee in the majestic setting of Glacier National Park.  Lonely and isolated from the family and friends she left behind, she dreams of the day when a kind and gentle man will say to her:  “I fell in love with you the first time I saw you across the room.”

Dace Mitchell could be that man!  The handsome bear ranger rescues Kerrie from her own foolish behavior–more than once–and she finds herself drawn to him against her will…until she discovers he’s already involved with someone else.

When Kerrie begins to get mysterious silent phone calls, it seems the past has caught up to her.  Can Dace save her from a violent man who will stop at nothing to have her?

EXCERPT:

A moose!  Baby mooses!  Was that the right word?  Kerrie had never seen moose before in real life.  They were magnificent!  The dark brown mother so tall, her long stick-like legs seemingly incapable of bearing her great weight.  The dark blonde youngsters, though lighter in color and smaller in scale, were perfect mirror images of their mother.

She turned to face an approaching vehicle, casting a last glance over her shoulder to make sure the moose cow and her calves did not reenter the road.

A large silver truck pulled up to the kiosk and Kerrie wished she could have slid down to the floor of her booth.  The driver was Dace and he wore the same Smokey Bear hat as she, except as one of those outdoorsy men, it looked so much better on him.  He worked for the Park Service.  Her summer had just gotten much, much longer.

Kerrie’s heart tapped an excited rhythm against her chest.  If this was any indication of what the summer promised, her hiding place suddenly looked a lot like Paradise.

Dace cleaned off the battery posts and reattached the cables.  He got back in the truck and turned the ignition over.  The truck started right up.  Kerrie was sure she actually heard it purring under his care.

Dace unfolded his long legs from the small truck and got out.  “There you go,” he said with a grin as Kerrie kept her distance.

“Thank you, Dace.  I really appreciate your help.  I should get one of those gizmos so I don’t have to stand by my dead truck like a helpless female.”

His eyebrows shot up, and he tilted his head inquiringly.  “I doubt you’re helpless.  I’ve discovered you women are pretty handy when you need to be. Goodnight, Kerrie.”

Dace climbed in his truck and watched Kerrie pull out of the parking lot.  Her taillights disappeared into the night.  What was with that woman?  For that matter, what was with him?  He had better things to do than stalk an unwilling female.  Didn’t he?  A vision of his sterile, lonely apartment in government housing popped into view.  Okay, so maybe he didn’t have anything better to do.

Still, there was something in those beautiful brown eyes of hers that compelled him. Loneliness was turning him into a hopeless romantic, for Pete’s sake. Every now and then, he caught her looking at him with an expression of…  What was it?  Longing?  Dace bit his lower lip.  If anything, Kerrie acted like she would be happy to see the last of him.  For the most part.

He smiled at the last thought.  There was something about her, and he wasn’t going to be satisfied until he knew what it was…or she gave him firm marching orders.  With a sigh, he pondered the night ahead, hoping he would be able to get some sleep…though that seemed unlikely.  Images of the silky dark curls of a complicated woman had been interrupting his sleep for the past few nights.

Buy Link: 

 The Wild Rose Press

Bess McBride, www.bessmcbride.com, www.rvromance.com

She’s back!

A Sigh of Love was contracted two weeks after my first book, Love of My Heart, by the same house but a different editor.  It’s a contemporary romance set in Alaska, and is “inspired” by a true story…all the way up to the romance.  All characters are a figment of my imagination and bear no resemblance…really! 

One of the great things about writing romances is that we I get to rewrite history occasionally. Not “that” kind of history, but the significant happenings in my own little world.  This book was one of those moments.  So, the memory of traveling around Alaska for an entire week talking to myself in a video camera has now transformed itself into a wonderful romance with a happy ending!!  :-)  Yay fiction!!

Book trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXy4muhI0kE

Blurb:  Abbie is on her way to Anchorage, Alaska to meet George whom she has been corresponding by telephone for the past three months. George has repeatedly asked her to come up to Alaska for a visit so they can meet in person. Call her crazy, but Abbie makes airline reservations to fly from her home in Seattle up to Anchorage to meet George. She’s lonely. Why shouldn’t she make a mad romantic dash up to the last frontier to meet a man? She’ll just ignore the practicality and logistics of a long-distance relationship. When she calls George to let him know her arrival time, he chooses that awful moment to let Abbie know that he thinks they don’t have much in common after all and she should cancel her plane reservations. Abbie is stunned, humiliated and ashamed of the lonely desperation that drove her to make nonrefundable airline reservations to Alaska.

What to do? Abbie decides to go to Alaska anyway. A grouchy and depressed Abbie meets Tom on the plane, a tall, handsome anthropology professor who happens to be half Native Alaskan and half Caucasian. As the plane flies north, Tom and Abbie discover a mutual attraction. By flight’s end, Abbie is completely enamored of the stranger, and she doubts her judgment, perhaps even her sanity, as she finds herself falling again for yet another Alaskan male…until George shows up, that is.

Excerpt:  Abbie shoved her carryon bag under the seat in front of her as far as it would go. She had the aisle all to herself, and she fervently hoped that the two seats next to her would remain empty. She was in no mood for casual airplane chitchat. From her seat, she could see down the length of the plane, and it appeared as if most of the passengers had already boarded and seated themselves.

Good, she thought with satisfaction stretching her legs out in front of her and placing her paperback on the seat next to her. What kind of idiot takes an 8 p.m. flight to Anchorage, Alaska, in September anyway? She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Besides me.

Abbie let loose a sigh which began deep within her soul. It came out louder than she planned, and she hoped no one else on the quiet plane heard the understated groan. She opened her eyes and found a tall man standing in the aisle next to her seat. Startled, she blinked and met a pair of almond-shaped, obsidian eyes that crinkled at the corners. His friendly smile widened to a grin.

“May I?” he asked, indicating the window seat past her.

“Oh, sure.” Abbie quickly scrambled out of her seat and stepped into the aisle to allow him to pass. She caught her breath when he slid past her to take his seat. His face was strikingly handsome. Exotic eyes were the prominent feature in an angular bronze face with a narrow nose and full lips.

As the plane rolled onto the runway, Abbie leaned her head back and closed her eyes for a moment. It wasn’t too late. She could still jump up and ask the attendants to stop the plane and let her off. She smiled imagining the scene. Would they open the doors and let her out onto the runway to trudge back to the terminal on foot? Would they take the airplane back to the terminal and boot her out the door—forbidden ever to book a flight with them again? A quiet hysterical giggle escaped her wayward lips. Or would they force her to inexorably march on and continue the flight to Anchorage against her will?

Buy Links:

The Wild Rose Press

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Bess McBride, www.bessmcbride.com, www.rvromance.com