Desert Willow Blog Tour: Author Interview + Giveaway

 

Welcome to the Blog + Review Tour & Giveaway for Desert Willow by Patricia Beal, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours!

Title: Desert Willow
Author: Patricia Beal
Publisher: Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas
Release Date: February 12, 2020
Genre: Contemporary Romance

After a failed engagement, Captain Andrew Lee James has focused on building a career in the Army he loves. That commitment includes helping a feisty, out-of-work ballerina whose devotion to her grandmother’s dying wish immediately grabs his heart. She’s the one, but will he be able to win the heart of a woman who has vowed to never be involved with a soldier?

College graduate Clara Malone swore to never love anyone in the military again but when her dying grandmother asks her to deliver a love letter to the general who broke her heart decades ago, she agrees and finds herself escorted by a handsome Army captain whose kindness challenges her beliefs. Surrounded by desert willows that shower her path with pretty pink flowers and sing with the buzzing of hummingbirds, Clara enjoys the wild beauty of El Paso—and her time with Andrew—more than expected.

Can she deliver her grandmother’s last love letter without losing her heart to a man who represents everything she fears?

PURCHASE LINKS*: Goodreads | Amazon

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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.

CONNECT WITH PATRICIA: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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Hi Patricia! Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions and giving my readers the chance to get to know you and your newest book- Desert Willow- a little bit better. I always like to begin these interviews the same way with something fun… tell us 5 random facts about yourself that we WON’T find in your bio!

Thank you so much for having me! 😊

5 random facts not in my bio –

·         I love my day job. I’m an Army Special Operations Forces civilian employee, and there isn’t a thing I would rather do with my life. What a privilege to serve alongside America’s best, helping them in the fight against our Nation’s adversaries.

·         I could watch waters move for hours—rivers, oceans … love it!

·         I don’t know how to use foundation.

·         If I could live on Hot Tamales cinnamon flavored candies, I would.

·         I believe that Brazilian churrascarias are heaven on earth.

Let’s talk writing! Before writing fiction, you were not a stranger to writing professionally- working as a journalist overseas, etc. Did you always know that fiction was something you wanted to pursue as well?

I read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist when I was 15 and knew that I would love to write something as inspirational and life changing. The idea for the debut, A Season to Dance, didn’t come until 20 years later, but I’m proud of it. I think it’s a powerful novel.

How has the experience of publishing your fictional stories been different than those previous writing experiences? 

Writing fiction and trying to publish it was so hard that I had a breakdown and ended up in God’s arms, surrendered for the first time. The full story of how I ended up saved while working on a manuscript that wasn’t originally Christian is here: http://internationalchristianfictionwriters.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-season-to-dance-book-that-wrote-me.html

Can you tell us a little bit about Desert Willow? Where did you get the inspiration for this story?

Desert Willow is a love song to the City of El Paso, to family, and to Prince Harry.

It 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.

What do you hope readers will take away from the book? 

What my friend Cynthia took away from it:

“Sometimes, authentic love blossoms despite less than ideal circumstances. Often, it’s during those circumstances that God forgives, redeems, and restores, and supernaturally weaves a fresh outlook and a new beginning. Just as Clara and Andrew learn that true intimacy begins with Christ, so it is, too, with our earthly relationships. Desert Willow is a beautiful, poignant portrayal of love lost and found. Reminiscent of realistic life scenarios, it’s a novel that will move readers to tears…for all the right reasons.”

~Cynthia Herron

Author of Her Hope Discovered, Welcome to Ruby series

This sounds like a fantastic read, and I cannot wait to read it myself. I have found that writers are so often some of the best readers too. If we were to take a look at your TBR, what might we find there? 

I work with some crazy smart people, so I read to keep running with the big kids these days. I just finished The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education by Craig Mullaney. I’m now listening to Six Minutes to Freedom by John Gilstrap and Kurt Muse. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Muse this week. He is the men who helped end Noriega’s dictatorship and who we saved from a Panamanian prison 30 years ago. Next is Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek and a review of my Arbinger Institute books. Did I say I love my job? I did read David Rawlings The Baggage Handler in December, so I’m not dead to fiction in any way, shape, or form 😉

Thank you again for taking the time to answer my questions. Before we go, can you give us an idea on what we can look forward to next? Any projects you are currently working on that you can share?

I have two works in progress: Kindred Spirits and The Seven Lives I Never Lived. For details, visit me at www.patriciabeal.com! Thank you so much for having me here 😊  

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(1) winner will receive a $50 Amazon gift card!

Be sure to check out each stop on the tour for more chances to win. Full tour schedule shown below. Giveaway will begin at midnight February 10, 2020 and last through 11:59 PM EST on February 24, 2020. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US/CAN mailing addresses only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to the policies found here.

ENTER GIVEAWAY HERE

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