My Story BEFORE the Story ~ Clara Malone ~ Desert Willow

Hi! My name is Clara Malone. I just finished college and had to put my job-hunting on hold to travel to Texas and deliver my grandmother’s last love letter. She’s about to die and I’m scared. The letter’s recipient, a retired general she dated seventy years ago, didn’t even make it to Texas like he’d said he would. A weak heart kept him from boarding the plane, and now he’s still in Germany, and I’m stuck in Texas waiting for him to get well and make the trip.

Broke, unemployed, and stuck next to an Army post.
Perfect…
Not.

I don’t like Army posts and I don’t like soldiers. Too many memories. Too many broken hearts. First Dad. Then Scott. Plus the guys who broke Grandma’s heart and Mom’s heart. No sir. No more military men. Not even the Prince-Harry looking young captain who was told to take care of me while I wait. Definitely not him. Too cute. Too perfect. That must equal trouble—all kinds of trouble.

I need to find a ballet studio where I can stay busy and in shape, so I can eventually find a job. Should have picked a practical major. Who majors in dance with an emphasis in ballet? Not reasonable people, that’s for sure.

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My Story Title:  Desert Willow

My Story Genre:  Romance

My Story Released  February 11, 2020 (BRAND NEW)

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The Author of My Story:   Patricia Beal 

Patricia Beal has danced ballet since her childhood and has performed with pre-professional companies in South America, Europe, and the United States. She fell in love with a handsome airborne infantryman at Fort Bragg, married him, and quit her day job to have his babies. Soon came the desire to have book babies, too. Patricia is a Genesis Award semi-finalist, First Impressions finalist, and the author of A Season to Dance (Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, 2017). She writes from Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband and two children.

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FROM THE AUTHOR:

Desert Willow: A Love Song to the City of El Paso, to Family, and to Prince Harry

I enjoy this story so much! It’s great to finally get to share it with you.

Desert Willow started as a NaNoWriMo project in 2015 and has a lot of my grandma’s history in it—life in the German colonies of the south of Brazil, the beginning of the shoe industry there, and the story of the most influential man her town has ever known, my great-grandfather.

And what does that have to do with El Paso and Prince Harry?

Well, my Prince Harry lookalike, a young Army captain named Andrew Lee James who lives in El Paso, is helping the protagonist deliver her grandmother’s last love letter, a letter she was urged to write all those years ago after what happened in Brazil.

The contemporary story of Clara (protagonist) and Andrew was fun to write too because I’ve been around the Army since the nineties. We moved to Fort Bliss/El Paso in 2012 and lived there for six years. I thought I was going to hate it, but I loved it, so I just had to write an El Paso story.

Now I think that what I enjoyed the most about writing this novel was making all the connections and showing how the actions of a distant past affect and inform the modern story so deeply.

Some of you have journeyed with me for a while and know that my debut, A Season to Dance, was my salvation process. What comes after salvation can be hard. What’s that? Well, looking at past mistakes through God’s eyes and realizing just how wrong we were, for starters.

We know how quickly God forgives us, but can we forgive ourselves and each other as quickly?

Desert Willow deals with all that. And with Prince Harry… 😊

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Patricia Beal's Connections:

• Website: www.patriciabeal.com
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/bealpat
• Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/bealpat
• Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/patriciasbeal
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/patricia.beal.author
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/patriciasimoesbeal
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Patricia-Beal/e/B01N7NNE2I
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCusGML42eeycuYcxFCAtDZQ
• Blog: http://icfwriters.com (group)

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WHERE Desert Willow can be purchased:

• https://shoplpc.com/desert-willow/
• https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Willow-Patricia-Beal-ebook/dp/B081874X24

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The author will gift the winner an Amazon gift card!

Be sure to leave a comment ~ with ~ an email address where you can be reached should you win.

DRAWING TO BE HELD WEDNESDAY EVENING ~ February 19, 2020