River’s Journey by Ryan Jo Summers / #GuestPost #BlogTour @RABTBookTours @RyanJoSummers

On 4 september 20213 september 2021 door elsinSummers Ryan Jo - River's Journey

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Winds of Destiny, book 1

River Gallagher loves three things– her family, Frank Finn, and her hometown. Her property management career is going great, or at least it was until Calder Finn arrives in town. His rash plan threatens her and the future of everyone in Sweetwater Harbor, NC.

Calder Finn returns home to settle his father’s estate. But not only is his father still alive, he has a wild and beautiful guardian. River not only threatens Calder’s intention for a quick escape, she also questions his beliefs. Something very few people have ever done before. Tempers flare and personalities clash until an uneasy alliance is forged… at least temporarily.

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Guest Post

The inspiration for this book, and ultimately the series, came from walking around a noisy warehouse day after day.

I had always lived surrounded by huge, beautiful lakes, and was never more than a stone’s throw from a relaxing shoreline. In 2004 I transplanted myself to a landlocked state where I never saw the water. I deeply missed all the things that being near the shore meant to me.

For ten years I worked in Loss Prevention, and one of my duties was patrolling two big warehouses. It was noisy, miserable work and I truly detested that job for the whole ten years but stayed for the bevy of benefits. In the meantime, I was writing, and getting attention with magazine and trade journal articles and my debut published novel in 2012.

Somewhere after that, while writing other books, finding them publishing house homes, starting up a part time pet sitting business, and mourning my lake home, I had a mental breakthrough. Because time to truly relax was just about impossible while working three jobs, I sometimes retreated to my mental happy place for brief periods to recharge. Naturally, this mental escape was rimmed by a rocky shoreline, kissed with cool breezes, and teased by slapping waves.

I realized, as I walked my concrete warehouse beat, that my imagination could make the unbearable manageable. The cold concrete beneath my shoes became soft sand. The harsh squeal of the overhead conveyors became the cries of the gulls passing by. The slams of pallets hitting the floor became the slap of boats bumping their berths. The cold steel pillars became the wooden pilons of the piers. The beeping horns of the powered industrial equipment became the horns of the ferries and boats in the harbor. If I closed my eyes for a moment, I could picture myself home.

Over time, I named this imaginary place Sweetwater Harbor (not a name from where I hailed, but I thought it sounded so pretty) Eventually I dreamed up people to stay there. It started with just the Gallagher sisters and their parents. River, Storm, and Raine were ladies I wanted to have as friends. Muriel and Cordell were people I wanted as parents or mentors. The sisters and I had some fun times in my mind. If those warehouse walls could have only seen inside my imagination and talked!

Finally they said they wanted male interests, so Calder, Brody, and Ford had to come to town for one reason or another. Oh, and they had a brother named Winter, and he wanted his own story too, with a love interest of his own. And that is how the Winds of Destiny series came to be.

Thank you, Ryan Jo Summers and RABT Book Tours

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About the author

Ryan Jo Summers lives in Western North Carolina. Her first published non-fiction came in 2007 with articles for local, and eventually national, and on-line magazines. In 2012 she released her first fiction novel with a small press publisher. Since then, she has released countless articles and over a dozen novels and novellas with assorted publishers. She also released two self-published books.

Ryan Jo comes from a family of wordsmiths. Her dad is a songwriter, and his aunt wrote poetry. Ryan’s style in fiction writing would broadly be labeled as clean, sweet romance, but she stretches fingers out into the assorted sub-genres. On several occasions she weaves threads from different sub-genres into one book. Wholesome, sweet titles would include “Beside Still Waters”, “Cinnamon’s Courageous Heart”, and “Rainbows in the Moonlight”. Her multiple-genre threaded titles comprise of “Chasing the Painted Skies”, “September’s Song”, and “Wild Whispers”.

Ryan Jo’s other passion beyond writing is animals. She has worked as a veterinary technician, director in a non-profit rescue shelter, provided foster care, and more recently she worked as a dog walker and boarding service. She has a menagerie of rescued pets who keep her company and offer inspiration. Her rom-com book, “It Happened at the Park” was largely written during the time she and her collie, Ty, visited the community dog park. She has two dogs saved from traumatic origins, feral cats who adapted to the house cat lifestyle like Garfield took to lasagna, a bonded pair of bunnies, a flock of chickens, fish, and a talkative parrot who is currently in his “trying twenties’ stage.

Ryan Jo bought a century-old mountain cottage and when she’s not writing or working, she enjoys restoring the Victorian echoes inside and creating flower and vegetable gardens outside. Other interests include houseplants, baking and cooking—because the cutting and blending is therapeutic – working bent and wiggly word-find puzzles, exploring the nearby national forests, and of course, reading. While she lives land-locked in the mountains, she dreams of packing up her dogs and going to the beach.

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Author Links

Website: http://www.ryanjosummers.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RyanJoSummersAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyanJoSummers

Blog: https://summersrye.wordpress.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6604705.Ryan_Jo_Summers

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/phoenix690322/_saved/

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