Reckless Beginnings
by Tina
Hogan Grant
GENRE: Women’s
Fiction (based on true events)
BLURB:
Tammy
Mellows, a fourteen-year-old native of England, was shocked when her father and
troubled older sister, Donna, moved to the States.
With her family now
separated by divorce and divided by an ocean, Tammy felt helpless when she
learned Donna had run away and couldn’t be found.
Thanks to her father
insisting she stay behind in England to finish school, Tammy could do nothing
for the next three years but pray that Donna would be found safe.
When Tammy’s lifelong
dream of moving to the States was finally fulfilled, she had high hopes of
looking for Donna. But with no leads and faced with turmoil in her own life,
there wasn’t much Tammy could do.
After a forbidden
secret love affair and a catastrophic dispute with her father, Tammy eventually
meets Steven, settles down and has his child, only to discover he is a heroin
addict. Thrown into a life of drugs and violence. Shadowed by his addiction,
she becomes the silent and forgotten one. Living in fear of what Steven might
be capable of and struggling alone to provide for her young son.
What consequences
might she face if she leaves Steven? Is she ever going to find her sister alive?
Will she have enough courage to conquer the impossible challenges of her
twisted world and still come out on top?
Excerpt:
“What
do you mean she’s gone, John?”
Who
was gone? Tammy wondered.
Her
mother became angry. “She can’t just disappear, John! Someone must know where
she is!”
Glued
to the railings, Tammy was dying to know who and what they were talking about.
Then
her mother began to cry hysterically while she held the phone tight and
screamed into it, “She’s still a child, John. She’s just seventeen. You should
never have put her in that home! She isn’t an object you can just discard
because she’s in your way. She’s your daughter!”
Tammy
remembered how her heart sank to the floor when she suddenly realized they were
talking about Donna. Her sister had run away and was now missing. She wanted to
race down the stairs and snatch the phone from her mother’s hands and ask her
father WHY? Why had he put her in that awful place?
Donna
had written a letter to Tammy and Jenny, telling them how much she hated being
in the home. How no one wanted her anymore and she was going to run away.
Frightened by what she had read, Tammy showed the letter to their mother. As
upset as she was by both the letter and the fact that Donna had written to her
sisters and not her, Rose never believed Donna would actually run away. “I’m
sure she’ll be okay. She just needs time to adjust. It’s all new to her. We
have to trust your father’s judgment. He said this would be good for her. I
have to believe that. She is a very troubled young girl and needs help,” her
mother had told her. But she had run away, and now no one knew where she was.
Interview
with Tina Hogan Grant
Can
you describe your dream home?
I have to say that I’m lucky enough to be living in my
dream home and the best part is that it is paid for. It’s located in a small mountain community on
the edge of the national forest about two hours north of Los Angeles. We
brought it knowing we were going to tear down the run-down shack that was
currently sitting on the property. It was unlivable and looked like something
out of a John Wayne movie. The first thing we did was build a guest house so
we’d have something to live in once we moved up there full time. Over the next
ten years improvements were made to the
surrounding buildings on the property and house plans were drawn up. Once the
original house was torn down we spent the next three years re-building. It’s a
rustic cabin, with high ceilings, a loft overlooks the great room, which is
where I do most of my writing. There is a lot of natural wood, the loft is
actually supported by a tree trunk. Yes we have a tree in our house. The focal
point is the cast iron wood burning stove surrounded by a slate heart and a
large knotted pine mantle.
The decor is rustic, most of the furniture is made out of
logs, antiques decorate the shelves and walls. It’s spacious and we also have a
guest house in the back. The lot is large with vegetable gardens, a cottage
garden and chickens roam free in their own gated area. This home is a work of
love, determination and dedication and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
If
we were to come to your house for a meal, what would you give us to eat?
My husband and I do not eat red meat. Our only source of
meat is venison, chicken or fish we catch ourselves, tuna, mako shark, halibut,
rock cod etc. So it would be a dish made
with one of those or a salad with all the ingredients picked from our
garden.
Tell
us about the absolute BEST fan letter you have received.
This has nothing to do with writing but something that
really touched my heart when I did a fishing class for the students at my son’s
school. he was ten at the time and I was a commercial fisherwoman fishing off
the southern coast of California. The school was looking for parents to hold
after school activities for the kids and I suggested a fishing class. They
loved the idea. So once a week I held a class and showed the children how to
rig a fishing pole with line, attach the bait, cast the line. I taught them
about different kinds of fish, their habitats. How to read a tide chart,
directions of the winds, how to read a compass and fish finder. They were
fascinated and then on the last class I took them all fishing. The parents came
along and everyone had an amazing time. For some families it was the first time
they had ever been on a boat. After the trip the parents wrote me some
wonderful thank you notes and it really made everything that extra special.
Say
your publisher has offered to fly you anywhere in the world to do research on
an upcoming book, where would you most likely want to go?
I have a series I plan on writing. A romantic comedy that
takes place in all fifty states. If I had a generous publisher LOL, It would be
awesome if he’d cover the cost to do all the extensive research I would love to
do which would involve visiting every state. I’d say it would take about a year.
Who
designed the book cover for the book you are touring?
My book is published by Page Publishing and they did the
cover design but they went by my input
and the ideas I had in mind and did a fantastic job. I love it!
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Tina
Hogan Grant was born in England and grew up in a small town on the Yorkshire
Moors. She is the youngest daughter of science fiction author, James P. Hogan.
After moving to California, she became a commercial lobster fisherwoman,
fishing off the coast of Southern California for ten years with her husband
Gordon.
For
fourteen years, she’d had a notion of writing her debut novel “Reckless
Beginnings”. But it wasn’t until the sudden death of her father in 2010 and a
battle with breast cancer a year later that she made the decision to get it
done. Seven years later, she finally completed it. She is now working on a
sequel titled, “Better Endings.”
She
currently resides with her husband in the small mountain community of Frazier
Park in Southern California. Together they enjoy anything that involves the
outdoors, fishing, hiking, kayaking and riding quads.
Giveaway:
$50 Amazon/BN GC
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.
4 comments:
Thanks for hosting!
Thank you for hosting!
Adding to my TBR. Thanks for hosting.
Fun interview!
--Trix
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