Wonderful Women with Guest Blogger: Caroline Clemmons

Win a copy of Save Your Heart For Me and welcome author Caroline Clemmons to the Book Boost today!

She's here to share with us the women who have inspired her...


March is Women’s History Month and we each have one special woman who influenced us more than any other, don’t we? Before I disclose that person, please indulge me while I tell you about several women who made a significant contribution at my different life stages.


(1) My grandmother, Frances Josephine (nee Gamble) Phifer Reynolds was an amazing woman who raised four children and outlived two husbands. She made each of her grandchildren feel as if he or she was her favorite. She was shy, but when she spoke her words were worth hearing.


(2 and 3) Several teachers influenced me, but Mrs. Huff during my fourth grade in Morton, Texas and Mrs. Mary Stewart during two years of journalism in Lubbock, Texas especially took time to interact individually with students.


(4) Helen Keller was an inspiration even though I disagreed with her support of socialism. With the help of Annie Sullivan, Miss Keller overcame unbelievable handicaps to make a contribution to too many causes to name here. Who of us could have overcome being both blind and deaf from the age of nineteen months? When I’m discouraged, I tell myself if Helen Keller could do, I had better cowgirl up.


(5) My eldest half-sister, Elsie Lorraine (nee Johnson) Reed, was only two years younger than my mom, and Elsie functioned as the matriarch of our family. She was a classy lady who taught me to be less insular and to embrace deep spirituality, even though we attended different Protestant denominations.


Who was not influenced by his or her mother? You’ve probably guessed that the most influential person in my life was my mom, Lena Mae (nee Phifer) Johnson. She demonstrated devotion to her children daily. Her life goal was to see her children safe, secure, and happy. I was a puny kid doctors predicted would not live to maturity, but Mother determined to see I grew up in spite of any naysayers. Obviously, she followed through. More than just because she gave birth, I owe my life to her devotion.


Which brings me to my current release. Save Your Heart For Me is a novella in which the heroine is named after my Aunt Elizabeth Margaret Phifer Scott and the heroine’s mom is named after my mom. Although my aunt was never called Beth, I used that form of Elizabeth in the story. Mother loved reading my books. The novella was to be a surprise for her, and I knew she would be delighted. When she died before I completed the work, I simply had to put it away for a while before I could finish writing the story.

Now it’s complete and available from The Wild Rose Press.

Kerri, thank you so much for hosting me today.

A Note from the Book Boost: What a lovely post and thank you for sharing all the special women in your life with us. We all should be so lucky to have such strong and inspiring women in our lives, I know I do! Please tell us more about your book.

Blurb:

After fleeing an abusive husband six years ago, Beth Jeffers wants nothing more than to protect her son Davey and to help her mother operate a boarding house. The women in her family have had no luck with men, and she has no intention of letting any man influence her son. Not even Matt Petrov, no matter how much her lonely heart urges otherwise.


Federal Marshall Matt Petrov, also known as Lone Wolf Peters, fell in love with Beth the first time he saw her. Then she was another man’s wife, so he kept his longing a secret he’s saved his love for her for six horrific years. Now, the lovely widow and he have crossed paths again. This time, he intends to risk all for a chance at happiness. First he must rescue his distant kinsman from an assassin’s clutches. Will Matt succeed before his kin is killed? And will his secrets shatter the love he and Beth now share?


Excerpt:

The tall younger woman kept her head lowered and all he saw was her shapely backside while she tugged at the corner of her navy skirt caught under one leg of the safe.

“Let me.” He tilted the safe to free the fabric, then pushed the unwieldy block of metal into place.

“Oh, finally.” She shook out her skirt and bent to brush at the stain marring the hem. “Thank you—“ When she straightened and looked up at him, she fell silent and paled as if she’d seen a ghost.

Hell, he figured she had. A phantom from her past.

“Beth? Beth Jeffers?” Matt tried to mask the sensations raised by seeing her again—surprise, longing, heartache—but doubted he succeeded.

She, on the other hand, quickly recovered her composure and turned up her nose as if she’d smelled a skunk. “What are you doing here?”

“Honestly, Beth, I’m surprised at you.” Her mother looked from one to the other. “You two know each other?”

Beth pushed a stray golden curl from her face and raised her chin. “We met long ago.”

She wore her blonde hair in a bun, but wisps escaped to frame her face. Time had been good to her. The years had rounded her a bit in the right places and softened her—except for her ice-cold blue eyes.

She gave Matt a measuring glare and balled her fists at her hips as if challenging him.

“Whatever you want, you won’t find it here.”

Matt wanted to say something sharp to make her think he cared nothing for what she thought, but his mind went blank. Danged if she wasn’t prettier than when he’d known her six years ago, especially without bruises marring her ivory skin from her sonofabitch husband’s fist.

Want More Caroline?

Caroline Clemmons writes romance and adventures—although her earliest made up adventures featured her saving the West with Roy Rogers. Her career has included stay-at-home mom (her favorite job), newspaper reporter and featured columnist, assistant to the managing editor of a psychology journal, and bookkeeper. She and her husband live in rural North Central Texas with a menagerie of rescued pets. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with family, reading, travel, browsing antique malls and estate sales, and genealogy/family history. Her latest releases include The Texan's Irish Bride, Out of the Blue, Snowfires, Save Your Heart for Me and Home Sweet Texas Home.

Visit her website her: www.carolineclemmons.com
Pick up your copy of her book today. Click here.

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