Novelist and Children's Author

Featured Book: Chapel Springs Revival

Posted by on Sep 18, 2014 in Faith, Fiction | 6 comments

And the winner of The Heart Stone Trivia Game is:

Karen O’Connor

Congratulations, Karen!

You win a small bag of sea glass from The Capitola Art and Wine Festival

And now, our featured book . . .

From the back cover:

CSR COVER

With a friend like Claire, you need a gurney, a mop, and a guardian angel.

Everybody in the small town of Chapel Springs, Georgia, knows best friends Claire and Patsy. It’s impossible not to, what with Claire’s zany antics and Patsy’s self-appointed mission to keep her friend out of trouble. And trouble abounds. Chapel Springs has grown dilapidated and the tourist trade has slackened. With their livelihoods threatened, they join forces to revitalize the town. No one could have guessed the real issue needing restoration is their marriages.

 

With their personal lives in as much disarray as the town, Claire and Patsy embark on a mission of mishaps and miscommunication, determined to restore warmth to Chapel Springs —and their lives. That is if they can convince their husbands and the town council, led by two curmudgeons who would prefer to see Chapel Springs left in the fifties and closed to traffic.

 

An interview with Claire:

I’ve heard you are the one who spearheaded the reviving of Chapel Springs. Is that true?

Are you from the mayor’s office? If you are, it wasn’t my fault. Whatever it was. Felix Riley takes credit for everything that works and blames me if anything goes wrong.

Really? Did anything go wrong?

Of course not—unless you count the incident at Georgia Tech with the monkey.

Moving right along, I’ve heard of your Great Aunt Lola’s theatrical career. What was it like growing up with her?

I adored her. Patsy and I both did. The old gal would give us her cast-off gowns to play dress-up. But she retired from the screen when she was seventy-five, I think. She wanted to leave her fans wanting more. She was quite the flamboyant character. She tried to teach Patsy and me to flirt, but it didn’t take when we were eight years old. She died a couple of years later.

She had a bit of a racy past didn’t she?

You bet your booty patooty. Aunt Lola never took second place to anyone or anything. She lived the high life, all right. Presidents and princes wined and dined her, while all I got was a TV tray in front of a ball game. I miss her and her stories, not to mention her advice.

Great Aunt Lola knew men, that’s for sure. What with having seven husbands, she might have been able to tell me how to get my Joel to pay me more attention. Right. Like that would happen. I’d have to turn into a high definition television set or a fishing reel to get some attention paid to me.

I’ve heard that you…well aren’t the best cook in Chapel Springs. Any truth to that rumor?

Okay, I admit I failed home economics—twice. My culinary expertise maxed out at Jell-O jigglers. And coffee. I make a mean pot of coffee. Unfortunately, that lack got me into trouble with my firstborn’s future mother-in-law. But the woman coerced me.

How so? You’re no shy violet from what I’ve heard?

Who’ve you been talking to?

Let’s see, first there was Faye, oh and Gloria, then Bev and—

Uh-uh, that dog won’t hunt. They gossip. Besides, if you’d heard my son’s future mother-in-law talk, why she’s wound tighter than an eight-day clock. The woman never takes a breath. She could talk the hind legs off a donkey. It wasn’t until after she’d hung up that I heard the end of that particular conversation.

So, what did you do?

Oh, no you don’t. You’ll have to read the book like everyone else to find out.

While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, bestselling novelist Ane Mulligan has worn many different ones: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that’s a fancy name for a lobbyist), drama director, playwright, humor columnist, and novelist. Her lifetime experience provides a plethora of fodder for her Southern-fried fiction. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. President of the award-winning literary site, Novel Rocket, Ane resides in Suwanee, GA, with her artist husband, her chef son, and two dogs of Biblical proportion. You can find Ane on her Southern-fried Fiction website, Google+, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, and Pinterest.

 Ane-PR.headshot

Sherry here: Isn’t Ane a hoot? I really enjoyed her interview with her character Claire. So fun! 

 

Ane is offering a copy of Chapel Springs Revival to one of you. Please answer the following question in the comment section along with your e-mail address so that I can contact you if you’re the winner.

 ANE’S QUESTION: What would Claire have to do to get some attention?

 

FUTURE GUEST: Allison Flexer, author of Truth, Lies, and the Single Woman, guest posts October 2nd. Mark your calendars!

 

 

6 Comments

Join the conversation and post a comment.

  1. Jennifer Hibdon

    Claire said”I’d have to turn into a high definition television set or a fishing reel to get some attention paid to me.” What a fun character!!!! Thanx for the giveaway!!! Can’t wait to read more!
    j4hibdon (at) yahoo(dot) com

  2. Deanna S

    thank you for the copy of Ane’s book, She is so fun 🙂

  3. Deanna S

    She might have had to turn into a high definition television set or a fishing reel to get some attention 🙂

  4. Ane Mulligan

    Sherry, thanks for having Claire on your site. She’s a mess, but she it looks like she didn’t have any disasters. Your site is still standing!