An Interview with Terri Rochenski

On Monday Moments I've a great interview with an author friend, Terri Rochenski, who popped in last week to give us some information about her latest novel - Love's Sorrow.

There was no time to get to know her last week but today's the day!

Hello and welcome again, Terri. How long have you been a published writer?

My first official publication came in the form of a flash fiction piece titled Infinite Snare in the April 2011 edition of Lark’s Fiction Magazine. Three others soon followed, and my first short story publication was Sacrificial Oath in J. Taylor Publishing’s Make Believe anthology which released in December of 2012.

Eye of the Soul (Pool of Souls #1), my first novel, released with JTP in October of 2013. Book #2, Secret of the Souls, releases in October of this year.

And finally, the first in my Means of Mercy series, Love’s Sorrow, released this month. There’s a tentative scheduled release of book two, Love’s Revenge, in November of this year.

Please tell me about your latest release.

Love’s Sorrow is the story of an orphaned, poor young woman who is hired by a cousin by marriage to look after her sons. While there, she is introduced into London’s society where she doesn’t truly care to be or believes she should be. Of course, there is a male character who changes her mind, but finding love proves to be a tougher experience than she expected.

What is the genre/ subgenre of your latest book?

Historical romance set in mid-19^th century England and America.

Who is the hero of the story?

Anne Tearle is Love’s Sorrow’s main character, and as I stated above she is a poor orphaned young woman. Raised by an abusive aunt, the offer of employment brings freedom in a way she never dreamed of.

What does your heroine think when she first meets the hero?

She is stricken with how handsome and refined he is. While visions of him haunt her dreams, she knows such a man isn’t for her.

Which time period is your favourite to research in?

I’m a lover of early 19^th to late 19^th century. 

Great answers, Terri! Thank you. I love all historical periods, too, and I've started a family saga beginning around 1845- though it doesn't have my writing time priority right now since that's going to my novels in the Celtic Romano era.

To finish with- Some fast and furious for you, Terri:

What's your favourite time of year?

Spring and fall are tie for favorites in my mind.

Favourite colour?

Green!!

Favourite cuisine?

I love all food—except raw tomatoes & onions. Cook them and I’m good to go!

Wow! I thought we were going to be clones there but it just so happens I love raw tomatoes and onions and eat everything and anything! Thanks for answering! 

Terri started writing stories in the 8^th grade, when a little gnome whispered in her brain. Gundi’s Great Adventure never hit the best seller list, but it started a long love affair with storytelling.

Today she enjoys an escape to Middle Earth during the rare ‘me’ moments her three young children allow. When not playing toys, picking them back up, or kissing boo-boos, she can be found sprawled on the couch with a book or pencil in hand, and toothpicks propping her eyelids open.

Terri’s Links:

Website / Blog / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

Roane Publishing  Sweet, Historical Romance

Hired as a nanny for her cousin’s children, Anne Tearle finds security and a loving family. The children are a dream, but London society is a world of its own, one where a displaced farm girl has no business being. But, wealthy rake, Gavin MacKay, helps her to see associating with the upper class might not be as horrid as she first assumed.

Like all things worthwhile, love comes at a price, and the cost soon bestows more anguish than joy. Lost, but not undone, Anne must find the courage to begin life anew, or succumb to sorrow's unrelenting waves of grief.

Print
Createspace (Best Option)
Amazon
eBook
Amazon
Bookstrand
Smashword

Link for Love’s Sorrow on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21455386-love-s-sorrow

Enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win some wonderful goodies from Terri's tour. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terri - Best wishes on your tour!
Slainthe! 

Love's Sorrow by Terri Rochenski

Happy Book Birthday to Love's Sorrow!

Today marks the kick-off of Love's Sorrow blog tour AND part one of ...

 a sneak peak at the entire first chapter!

Follow along during the tour for parts two through ten, and be sure to check out the rafflecopter below for some Love's Sorrow goodies!

Love's Sorrow

Means of Mercy #1

Historical Romance

by Terri Rochenski

Release Date: April 21, 2014

Publisher: Roane Publishing

Hired as a nanny for her cousin’s children, Anne Tearle finds security and a loving family. The children are a dream, but London society is a world of its own, one where a displaced farm girl has no business being. But, wealthy rake, Gavin MacKay, helps her to see associating with the upper class might not be as horrid as she first assumed.

Like all things worthwhile, love comes at a price, and the cost soon bestows more anguish than joy. Lost, but not undone, Anne must find the courage to begin life anew, or succumb to sorrow's unrelenting waves of grief.

Purchase Links:  
Print
Createspace (Best Option)
Amazon

eBook
Amazon
Bookstrand
Smashwords

Chapter 1 / Excerpt 1

With a loud grind and clanking, the train came to rest at King’s Cross Station. The engine car let out a hiss like the sigh that escaped my lips every night when I laid on my pallet after a long day’s work.

Pressing my face to the window, I stared in amazement at the mass of moving people. When boarding the train in Birmingham, excitement kept me from giving the well-to-do folks more than a mere glance, but I sat captivated as my fellow passengers disembarked around me.

Lavish bonnets and bright-coloured dresses of silky material made me ashamed of the threadbare gingham frock and tattered straw hat I wore.

Aunt Martha and Mary always tried to keep up with the latest fashions by ripping and sewing old dresses—garments beyond repair became an extra flounce or two, and the nicer threads unwoven and made into lace collars or cuffs. I hadn’t ever been allowed time for such frivolous activities, so I made myself content with proper skirt length and suitable patches for worn elbows.

Content, until I gazed upon the ladies of London in all their finery. Aunt Martha would say those folks sinned by squandering their money in such a way.

For about the tenth time, I imagined my aunt’s kitchen minus its scullery maid and target for hurled objects. I choked back a giggle for what must have been the fifth time that morning. My days of being a slave were over, for I had been offered employment.

Fingers trembling, I stood and wrapped my thin shawl tight around my shoulders, clutched my bundle closer, and walked the train’s narrow aisle. I stepped onto the platform and peered around the sea of faces for Joanna Telford.

I had never met my cousin from London. Until a few weeks earlier, I wasn’t even aware I had family beyond Uncle Edward and Aunt Martha. Mrs. Telford wrote to tell me she and her husband were in need of a nanny and governess for their two young sons, and being the merciful guardian he was, Uncle Edward decided to send me away from his wife.

Without her knowing.

Another smile lifted my lips, and I shifted on my feet, moving my tied bundle from one hand to the other. I grimaced as a whiff of body odour rose. Aunt Martha allowed me to bathe once a week, which would have been on the morrow, but asking to do so early certainly would have aroused suspicion. Sneaking away from her house before sunrise as I did would never have occurred with success.

No one spared the poor farm girl a second glance, and insides buzzing like a honey bee, I stood unmoving, a white-knuckled grip on my worldly possessions.

Minutes moved passed slower than a lazy stream and the surrounding crowd began to disperse. I waited. Despair crept closer with every passing heartbeat.

A stooped man in black livery made eye contact with me, and a pleasant smile lit his face as he started my way.

“Miss Tearle?” His voice rasped like a rusty barn door hinge.

“Yes. I am Anne Tearle.” I was grateful to my aunt for one thing. My accent matched almost perfectly with those buzzing around me. Aunt Martha's hatred of the Black Country we lived in and the cane across the back of my legs every time I slipped into the bouncing regional lilt had eradicated all but the barest traces of it.

The elderly gentleman removed his hat, tucked it under one arm, and dipped his head. "Welcome to London, missy.” His smile widened and the skin around his watery blue eyes crinkled. “I’m the Telfords’ coachman, Emanuel. The missus has sent me to collect you.” 

~~~oOo~~~

About Terri Rochenski

Terri started writing stories in the 8^th grade, when a little gnome whispered in her brain. Gundi’s Great Adventure never hit the best seller list, but it started a long love affair with storytelling.

Today she enjoys an escape to Middle Earth during the rare ‘me’ moments her three young children allow. When not playing toys, picking them back up, or kissing boo-boos, she can be found sprawled on the couch with a book or pencil in hand, and toothpicks propping her eyelids open.

Website / Blog / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

Tour Schedule

Book Blitz and Tour-wide Giveaway

Signed paperback copy of Love's Sorrow, 

$10 Amazon gift card, & swag package.

Ends 5/16/2014

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code.  No purchase necessary, but you must be 18 or older to enter. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter, and announced on the widget. Winner well be notified by emailed and have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. The number of entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Roane Publishing's marketing department.

For the Love of Murphy

For the Love of Murphy

Publisher: Roane Publishing

Release Date: March 17, 2014

Key Words: Adult, Romance, Sweet, Contemporary, Anthology

They say love conquers all, but whoever "they" are, must not have heard of Murphy's Law -- whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

These five tales of sweet, accidental romance prove Cupid's arrows are a lot tougher than they seem, and sometimes it pays to be unlucky.

No Wrong Turns by Lisa A. Adams

Jessica Brannah is escaping from her last heartbreak with a loaded car and a new address. But, when Murphy's Law finds her stranded in a back country town, she realizes there's no outrunning love.

Falling For You by Michelle Ziegler

Darci’s ready to move on. Too bad the dating pool stinks. Until, a ghost from her past resurfaces—the man she missed out on in college.

Andrew was the one man she’d always loved, but neither of them ever made a move. But, old feelings aren’t the only thing resurfacing of late. Darci’s ex comes crawling back at the most inappropriate time, and with all the testosterone flying, she might not end up with either man.

Coffee and Cufflinks by Annabelle Blume Fresh out of a failed relationship and exhausted by a constant barrage of fiascos at work, Olivia Johnson doesn’t see the man of her dreams standing right in front of her. She tells herself the morning coffee meet-ups with Daren are nothing but coincidence, but even she can’t deny his unequivocal attractiveness. When a night entertaining clients takes a turn for the worst, and Daren shows up where she least expects him, failure starts to look more like fate.

A Slippery Slope by Rebecca Hart

Anne Montgomery is psyched for her girl’s only weekend, despite her friends’ choice of vacation locale—the snowy slopes of Harris Peak Ski Resort—where someone as notoriously accident prone as she has no business being. When Murphy’s Law finally catches up with her, Anne is forced to consider there may be times when it pays to be unlucky.

The Shamrock Incident by London Saint James

Florist, Marissa Carmichael isn’t usually a klutz, but she’s in a hurry and having a bad day. In her haste, she loses her balance and tumbles from the back room of her shop, arms flailing. Her less than graceful entrance halted by a headfirst crash into a display case chock full of silk flowers.

Trey Cleary didn’t think his day could get any worse, until he finds. himself picking the side view mirror of his BMW up from the ground. On a mission to do something about it, he locates the flower shop matching the name on the back of the van that mangled his ‘baby'. But, his car is forgotten when a beautiful woman bursts into the room like an out of control whirling dervish, and takes one mother of a wipeout into the shop’s counter. Coming to her aid brings out the hero in him like no one he’s ever encountered, and leaves him with a need to know more.

For Marissa and Trey, this just might be the one time it pays to be unlucky.

~~~oOo~~~

Purchase Links:

Amazon / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / iTunes (Apple)

Tour Schedule

Book Blitz and Tour-wide Giveaway

$10 Amazon Gift card & paperback copy of

For the Love of Murphy

Ends 4/11/2014

a Rafflecopter giveaway Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code. No purchase necessary, but you must be 18 or older to enter. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter, and announced on the widget. Winner well be notified by emailed and have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. The number of entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Roane Publishing's marketing department. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

Print

Createspace (direct - best option)
Amazon

eBook
Amazon
Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble
KOBO
Smashwords

Best wishes to all authors involved!
Slainthe!