• Tag Archives Suamalie Islands

  • Lions and Tigers and…… Oh My!

    Posted on by AmandaTruAdmin Comment

    dark forest

    Lions and Tigers and… a new book!

    Yay! It’s finally here! We’ve arrived at Year 2 in the Suamalie Islands series! First up is my book, Seashells Tell No Tales! To celebrate, I got to choose the topic for a series of blog posts that the other Suamalie authors get to contribute to. Accompanying the posts is a giveaway! Here’s my question:

    In Seashells Tell No Tales, Faith has a fear of heights—and with good reason. Do you have any fears or phobias? Is there a story behind your fear?

    Thankfully, I don’t have any outright phobias. I don’t like heights. I don’t like spiders. But I wouldn’t classify those as phobias. They are definitely not paralyzing like my sister’s phobia of snakes. And they don’t cause me a significant amount of fear and anxiety, like Faith’s fear of heights in Seashells Tell No Tales.

    However, I do have a very strange, very strong aversion to something. It’s not a fear. But it is a shuddering, nails-on-a chalkboard aversion. I know it’s weird. All of you will laugh. And you should.

    I can’t stand anything made of… wood.

    Wooden pencils (cringe). Give me a plastic mechanical one.

    Wooden kitchen utensils. I would rather stir something with my bare hand rather than a wooden spoon.

    And possibly the worst… popsicle sticks. Nothing is worth eating a popsicle attached to a wooden stick.

    The aversion also extends to cardboard. I know, super weird. I can’t stand the feel of any rough wood. If something has a good coat of lacquer, I can manage. But I can’t handle the rough feel of unfinished wood.

    What’s even more weird is that within the past few years, I’ve discovered that my sisters share the same bizarre aversion. Then I found out that my dad is fine with wood, but not at all fine with cardboard. If he needs to pick up a cardboard box, he immediately feels the need to wash his hands.

    Yes, you may think we’re strange. And we are. But even more strange is the knowledge that we are not the only ones with a wood aversion. It’s a thing. A quick google shows multitudes of others with the same bizarre quirk. Not a phobia, but a definite, completely irrational aversion to the feel of wooden objects.

    Technically, it could be called xylophobia. According to my good friend Google, if you have xylophobia, you may have a strong, irrational fear or be completely repulsed at the idea of touching, licking or running your teeth along a wooden object. And just that description makes my skin crawl.

    So there you go. I can hike along the rim of a deep canyon without a problem. I can dispose of a spider if out of necessity. I was also brave enough one to take care of a rattlesnake that had made it into my garage. I may be a superhero to some, but shhhh… my kryptonite is a popsicle stick.

    Lions and Tigers and… Popsicle Sticks, Oh my!

    Seashells Tell No Tales by Amanda Tru

    A remote island with secrets that the waves and seashells don’t even dare whisper about.

    Faith Marlowe never breaks a promise. Especially not a promise she made to her dying brother. Easier said than done when the promi

    se includes taking care of an injured and embittered war vet. Not to mention having to hide who she truly is 

    in order to keep her vow.

    Army Ranger Vet, Gideon Sundquist (Sunny) doesn’t want help. He’s exiled on an island in the middle of the South Pacific and hiding from the world for a reason. However, losing both his legs forces him to accept care from a nurse. But if she—or anyone else for that matter—finds out about the black ops mission where he was injured, it could put all their lives at risk.

    On a beautiful, remote island in the Pacific, Faith will try to teach Sunny to live again. But if the tales of their secrets are told, neither will see the sun rise in the Suamalie Islands again.

    Take a trip to the Suamalie Islands where palm trees sway, the sand and sea pulse with life, and the people will steal your heart.

    Check out some of the other fun dad jokes from the other Suamalie authors!

    Amanda Tru: February 27
    February 28: Susan K. Beatty
    February 29: Chautona Havig
    March 1: Melissa Wardwell
    March 2: Tabitha Bouldin
    March 3: Marguerite Martin Gray

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  • The Gift of an Unexpected If…

    Posted on by AmandaTruAdmin Comment

    Yay! A new Suamalie Islands book is now available! Congratulations to author Melissa Wardwell! To celebrate its release, the Suamalie authors are doing a series of blog posts along with a giveaway. Melissa got to pose the question, and this is what she said:

    In an Unexpected Gift, Kiana is a closet video gamer on the internet. It is how she decompresses at the end of a long day. What is something you do to relax or decompress after a long day? Bonus points if it is completely uncharacteristic of you!

    Before I respond to this question, I need to ask for the definition of two terms—relax and decompress. By contrast, I fully understand the phrase “long day.” I started my morning today at 6:00 am. I ran about 3 miles on my treadmill, and I haven’t stopped running since. There’s been so much to do, and so much still needing doing. It’s now almost midnight, and I’m writing this blog post, which doesn’t feel like it should count as relaxing or decompressing either!

    The sad reality is that I don’t relax and decompress right now. It’s a problem. But I don’t have time in my schedule. I recently started a new part-time job, and I’m trying to manage that with my author work, with being a very-involved mom to four busy children. I honestly feel like time must go slower for others than it does for me. I don’t know how some of my amazing author friends manage to get everything done. I’m thoroughly convinced they must have a magical device that slows time down so they can accomplish more. I think my magical device puts time on fast forward!

    I go to bed each night with a long list of what I should have accomplished today. I get up in the morning and put out fires all day. Then I end the day again only adding more to my list. I hope that life will eventually settle down. I’d love to get a few minutes to relax and do something simply because I enjoy it and not because I’m trying to get something done for someone else.

    In the meantime, let’s play the “if game.” If I had time to relax and decompress, what would I do? Growing up, my relaxation was reading. Oh, how I loved reading! I still do! But since I started writing my own books, it’s more difficult for me to turn off my brain when reading. While I still love to read, now it takes a lot of effort for me to settle down and relax into it. So my first choice for my elusive fantasy moments of relaxation would not be reading.

    Here’s my confession: I actually know exactly what I’d do if I had time at the end of a long day. I would watch a low-budget princess movie on TV.

    On a rare evening after the kids are in bed, my husband may flip on the TV in our bedroom. Then he may start scrolling through all the shows on Amazon. We even have a subscription to one of the channels that shows a lot of Hallmark movies—a subscription I haven’t looked at in months. He’ll ask me what I want to watch. I’ll idly watch the screen flipping through pictures and movie titles, not really caring what we should watch. Then I’ll spy a movie about royalty. The Princess Something or The Royal Whatever.
    “That one. Let’s do that one,” I’ll say.

    Unfortunately, there are a decentnumber of cringe-worthy royalty movies. We may wince through the cheesy plot and trite dialogue. The movie may not include an actual plot at all. There may be a few smiles and a tad bit of sweet romance. But there’s nothing at all similar to what I experience every day and very little resemblance to anything I write. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that princess movies are bad. Quite the opposite. I like them. A lot. So much so that it really doesn’t matter if they are good or bad.

    For an hour and a half, I don’t have to think. I don’t need to live in reality. For the space of just a bit, it provides a meaningless escape from everything. And somehow, it’s exactly what I need.

    So if I had time to relax and decompress, I would watch the cheesiest princess movie I could find and enjoy every minute. Even better, my sweet husband would watch it with me (with very minimal teasing about my cinematic taste).

    However, instead of indulging in relaxing, my usual nightly activities involve fighting sleep as I stay up late, trying to make headway on my to-do list. Those activities invariably involve writing—as they did tonight. In the exercise of creating words that look back at me from a screen, I find a bit of release. I feel a sense of accomplishment as I see the neatly organized rows of words. There’s an emotional release in the feeling that I’ve transferred some of my tumultuous thoughts onto an organized page, and I can leave them there.

    For now, that little taste of relaxation and decompression gained through writing is just enough for me to finally shut my computer, go to sleep, and wake up to brave it all again tomorrow when my alarm clock strikes 6:00am.

    An Unexpected Gift by Melissa Wardwell

    Something’s up in Suamalie, and it’s looking like love!

    When Kiana, Lulu, and Meilani decide it’s time for the islands to
    have affordable wedding options, Something Suamalie becomes the
    marriage of skills, friendship, and wedding splendor on the islands.

    Cruising around the island on a Moped in a business suit may seem
    incongruous, but Kiana knows how to blend practicality and
    professionalism, a strong work ethic and relaxation. With no time for
    mistakes or changes in plans, she’s also decided to forgo romance
    (for herself). There just isn’t enough time in the day. That is until the
    early arrival of one of the groomsmen of Something Suamalie’s first
    booking throws everything off balance, including her thoughts on
    long distance dating.

    Beau was perfectly content with his job and the growing attraction to
    a girl back home; however, he hadn’t figured in the sassy and
    sometimes unprofessional wedding planner. Seeing her world begin
    to unravel while she and her partners fumble with their first weddings
    tugs at his heart strings and leaves him second guessing his choices in
    the romance department.

    She’s a study in opposites. He’s attracted. So now what do they do?

    Take a trip to the Suamalie Islands where palm trees sway, the sand and sea pulse with life, and the
    people will steal your heart.

    Check out some of the other stories of fun getaway experiences by the other Suamalie Islands authors!

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  • Room For A Tie-Dyed Fishing Story

    Posted on by AmandaTruAdmin 1 Comment

    You can now get your hands on the newest book in the Suamalie Islands series! To celebrate its release, the Suamalie authors are doing a series of blog posts along with a giveaway. Marguerite Gray chose the topic, and this is what she said:

    In Room for Love, Amy runs a bed and breakfast on Alexandre Island. She pours herself into making the experience memorable for her guests through her delicious recipes and comfortable, inviting accommodations. Do you have a positive (or funny) B&B or Airbnb (a cabin in the woods or a condo on the beach) experience to share? What made it special?

    I’m really sorry to disappoint you, but I’m really not cool. Yes, I write exciting stories filled with romance, adventure, inspiration, and suspense, but I’m actually quite dull. I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I have never stayed in an actual B&B or Airbnb. On second thought, that’s technically not quite true. I stayed in a beach house rental once, but it was for a funeral. Not exactly something to enjoy remembering.

    My family didn’t have much money growing up. The few vacations we had were to visit my grandparents or to go camping in a tent in the mountains—both of which we loved. As an adult, my husband and I have been so busy raising kids that we not taken the time for those weekend getaways. In fact, this past spring was the first time in about 16.5 years that we went away for a weekend just the two of us.

    However, just because my memories don’t fit the classic categories doesn’t mean that I don’t have some pretty amazing stories and memories! When I was about nineteen, my mom, my two younger sisters, and I decided to go camping. We hadn’t gotten to go at all that summer, so we decided to go ourselves, even though our dad couldn’t go with us. To date, it is the only “girls trip” I’ve even been on. And it didn’t go well.

    When we got there, we found out tConvert to blockshat the tent we’d grabbed had gotten wet, shrunk, and mildewed. The colors had bled together, and it now resembled a ‘70s tie-dye disaster. Worse, it no longer fit with the tent poles. We had no other option for a tent and were 2.5 hours from home. So we tried to put it up anyway. It took us a long time. I remember forcing the tent pole into the tent canvas by sheer strength and stubbornness, finally fitting it in and getting it upright.

    Then we entered the tent and found out that the water damage had left another souvenir. The tent stunk. Really stunk. Then I found out that I’d apparently done a lousy job of packing and had forgotten something essential. Pants.

    I wore my middle sister’s sweatpants. She wore our younger sister’s pants. And our youngest sister wore pajama pants.

    Eventually, we made it through the night in the stinky tent. In the morning, we woke to find that it had collapsed around us.

    We also tried to get some fishing in. I’ve always loved to fish and was very familiar with the stream that ran through the campground. We hiked upstream and spent several hours fishing. Unfortunately, the stream was notorious for getting your line snagged and devouring your fishing hooks. Also unfortunate, we had a limited supply. After I’d lost several, I was not about to let another one go.

    Sure enough, my line got snagged and I couldn’t get it to release. I announced to my mom and my sisters that I was not losing another hook. I cautiously checked to make sure we were completely alone in the forest. Then I stripped off my borrowed pants and waded into the water. Realistically, I wasn’t being immodest. I was wearing a large shirt that covered any areas of concern.

    However, the water was deeper than I’d anticipated. Soon the bottom edge of the shirt was dipping in the stream, and I was steadily raising it up. I’d come this far, though. I couldn’t turn back now. But I couldn’t let my shirt get wet. I had a very limited supply of clothing.

    So I did the only logical thing. I looked around once more to make sure my sisters and my mom owned the only eyes around. Then I shrugged out of my shirt and tossed it to the shore.

    The only problem was that it didn’t quite have the aerodynamics I expected. Instead of sailing through the air to land dry and safe, it only offered a meager hop from my hand, landing in the water with a plop. By this point, I could no longer pretend that I had any shred of modesty left, and my mom and my sisters were laughing hysterically on the shore. I think that is also the only time I can say I went swimming in a bikini… sort of.

    Still determined to complete my task, I reached down into the cold water and extracted my fishing hook. Then I marched back to shore with my prize in all my glory. That was a good fishing hook for me. I caught multiple fish on it after that. Until it got caught again sometime later and I refused to perform an encore.

    To clarify, there is no evidence that this event occurred, except in the memories of my mom and my sisters. But there it is still alive and well, and they make sure to keep me humble. Not that I need a lot of humbling. After all, I was asked to tell about a charming stay at a B&B, and all I could come up with was an embarrassing tale that could earn me a T-shirt saying “I Strip For Fishing Hooks.”

    All that to say, check out Marguerite Gray’s Room for Love. I’m sure she has a much more appropriate, modest tale involving no hint of a tie-dyed stinky tent and missing clothing.

    Room For Love by Marguerite Gray

    God gave her peace then; maybe He’ll do it again.

    When Amy Lee’s son heads off to college, the bed and breakfast owner finds life even lonelier and emptier than she had after losing her husband. She needs something to occupy her mind and heart while she reinvents her life again. What more could she ask for than an after-school program for local children and a renewed interest in painting?

    Then the arrival of a professor of archeology shakes her world and makes her yearn for the way things were only a few short months ago.

    Still grieving the loss of his beloved wife, and ignoring the warnings and protests of his grown children, Professor Walker Standish escapes on a six-month sabbatical. His heart, barely beating these past months, jerks to life again when he finds more than a room at a B & B.

    Where an ocean meets the shore, love has room for one more.

    Take a trip to the Suamalie Islands where palm trees sway, the sand and sea pulse with life, and the people will steal your heart.

    Check out some of the other stories of fun getaway experiences by the other Suamalie Islands authors!

    Marguerite Gray: July 25

    Chautona Havig: July 26

    Rachel Skatvold: July 27

    Susan K. Beatty: July 28

    Tabitha Bouldin: July 29

    Amanda Tru: July 30

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  • Travel Woes and Treasure Troves

    Posted on by AmandaTruAdmin Comment

    Today is release day! I’m so excited that everyone can finally read Where Treasure Lies! This is the start of a new series, but the story itself is still very much my style. You’ll find a page-turning story with a deep message. You’ll also find suspense, romance, and humor. Of course, watch out for some plot twists!

    However, one of the unique things about this book is that the story is told in split time. It is essentially two stories told thirty years apart, but they have a shared ending. The main characters arrive in the Suamlie Islands thirty years apart, but they both have especially lousy first days in the island paradise. Nothing goes according to plan. But sometimes, even the worst travel woes can end in our greatest blessings.

    I have notoriously bad travel luck. It would take more pages the War and Peace to recount the real-life travel woes my family has experienced, and no one would believe them. The running joke among family and friends is to watch out when Amanda and Brian try to go on vacation. Honestly, my tales don’t always have obviously happy endings. There was the time on our honeymoon in Hawaii when our public transportation went out of service, and we missed our nonrefundable dinner cruise. There was the other time years later when our vehicle died somewhere in the middle of Wyoming and left us stranded for a couple of days. There was the time we had everything loaded up in our trailer and set out on a trip to Yellowstone when an hour from our house, our vehicle died (as in really died and could not ever be recesitated). The details on all of those are super entertaining, and if I tried, I’m sure I could think about all of the what if scenarios God surely protected us from through our canceled or imperfect vacations. But last summer, I experienced the perfect example of God bringing good out of some serious travel woes.

    Every summer, we try to take a family RV trip. We take along my parents and in-laws who travel with us in their own RVs. Last summer, our travels took us to the national parks in Washington state. We had spent an amazing day in North Cascades National Park and had just returned to our RV site for the night when my mom realized she didn’t have her cell phone. She didn’t know where she’d parted ways with it, but our last stop before driving about 1.5 hours home had been about a four-mile hike to a beautiful glacial lake. It was evening now and the sun would soon make its departure for the day. It seemed there was no way to even search for the phone, let alone find it. My mom was devastated. All her pictures, all her contacts—everything was gone. She was so upset that she determined that she and my dad would head home and cut their vacation short so she could figure out what to do.

    Even though it was late in the day and there seemed little hope, I talked to my husband, Brian, and we decided we would drive back to look for it. We knew there was a very slim chance of finding it. It could have been at the parking lot, somewhere along the trail, or at the lake a two-mile hike from the parking lot. Or by now, someone could have picked it up. But we had to try.

    I didn’t tell my mom because I knew she’d not want us to go. We left the kids with my in-laws and headed out. I prayed the whole way, asking God to please help us find the phone. It took us about an hour and twenty minutes to get there, and light was fading fast.

    We looked near where my parents had parked. No phone. Then we rushed to the outhouse. If it wasn’t there, we would jog the two miles on tired legs to the lake and hope we made it there with enough light left to see if the phone was there on the ground. I checked the outhouse I knew my mom had used, but I didn’t see it. Frantically, I went around to recheck the other side Brian had already checked. My heart sank. We weren’t going to find it. The outhouses were completely empty.  I walked back around to the front, knowing we’d need to head to the lake.

    Then Brian walked out holding something in his hand. I recognized my mom’s sunflower phone case. He’d found it!

    What relief! No 2-mile run to the lake! Truthfully, it hadn’t seemed likely that we’d find it, and it wasn’t… except God. It had been hours since we left, and yet God had kept the phone safe until we returned for it.

    It sounds funny, but that lost cell phone ended up being such a blessing, and I’m so thankful Brian and I went to find it. Going to and from, we spent three hours driving through a national park just the two of us. It ended up being the only time the entire trip where it was just us. Yes, strange kind of date, but we loved being together. On the way back, we stopped for a picture of the sunset over Diablo Lake, and we stopped to see the lights in the water at Ladder Falls. I filed that crazy drive under the category of one of my favorite memories, and there it will stay. Isn’t it wonderful how God can take the most unfortunate circumstances and turn them into something good? I love finding the ray of sunshine in the dark, knowing that He put it there just for me.

    It reminded me a little of the story of Joseph and how he told his brothers, “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good…” Losing a phone is a lousy thing to happen, but God intended it for good.

    Likewise, the characters in this book have some pretty lousy things happen to them, starting with their arrival on the island of Oli Oli. But we also get to see how those things progress and impact parallel stories thirty years apart. Add some romance, mystery, adventure, suspense, and a splash of humor, and you have a pretty fantastic read!

    If you’re curious about this book, I suggest you at least check out the sneak preview on Amazon. In it, you’ll read about Scott and Tavia’s rotten first day in paradise. Maybe you’ll have a little empathy from your own traveling experiences, and maybe you’ll want to stick around to find out what happens after those memorable beginnings!

     

    Where Treasure Lies

    Two stories…thirty years apart. Will solving the mystery of the past provide the key to the present?

    Scott Connelly arrives in the Suamalie Islands determined to acquire property for his father and leave as soon as possible. But he doesn’t count on the animosity of the residents, the fascinating local legend of a sunken Spanish treasure ship, or the highly unavailable waitress who comes to his rescue. The fabled treasure promises to buy his freedom, but even seeking it may be a dangerous risk.

    News of her father’s death precedes Tavia Connelly’s arrival in the Suamalie Islands. Despite the hatred of the island residents, Tavia’s determined to settle her father’s affairs and return immediately to assume her role as head of the family company. But her father’s wishes require her to find out what happened long ago, given only Scott’s mumbled clues, crazy rumors, and a centuries-old fable.

    Tavia should be safe after all those years, but her presence attracts a lot of resentment, and the ghosts of Scott’s enemies may still lie in wait for someone to come searching for a treasure that may have never existed.

    But what if it did?

    Take a trip to the Suamalie Islands where palm trees sway, the sand and sea pulse with life, and the people will steal your heart.

     

    Don’t miss other authors travel stories and chances to enter the giveaway! Check out these blog posts as we celebrate the release of Where Treasure Lies.

    What about you? Have you ever experienced any ridiculous, hilarious, or just plain bad travel luck. Did your story have a silver lining?

    Check out some of the other travel stories from the other Suamalie authors!


    Susan K. Beatty: March 1

    Chautona Havig: March 2

    Melissa McKay Wardwell: March 3

    Tabitha Bouldin: March 4

    Marguerite Gray: March 5

     

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