Guest Author Monday

Please welcome our guest author — E. Ayers

Thanks so much for inviting me to be on your blog. It’s been hectic lately as I’m about to release two books. My sixth River City novel A Child’s Heart should be released by mid-month and my newest western A Calling in Wyoming should be out any day on Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. Then it should begin to show up in other ebook retail sites.

My River City novels tend to have a wee bit of heat to them, but all my westerns are sweet romances so you don’t have to worry about your eight-year-old child looking over your shoulder while you read it.

A Calling in Wyoming was so much fun to write because it’s based on a friend’s son. The real Adam looked at me one day and asked if I’d write a romance for him. At twenty-seven, he’s decided the time has come to settle down. He’s established with his career, and he’s ready for the next phase of his life. Except he’s still looking for the right gal. So I got to conjure one up for him. (Ah, if real life was only so easy!)

Adam’s handsome, very nice, a devout Christian, fun loving, and really quite a catch. He does work for a beer company, but he doesn’t drink. He’s half Samoan, volunteers at his church, and loves martial arts and basketball. I let it all rattle around in my head and decided the only way I could write him into a story was to make him a cowboy.

So it’s not the real Adam in the story, I just borrowed some things from him such as his first name. One of those borrowed things, was his faith and I decided to put it to the test. I have no idea how he will react when it reads it. Maybe it will surprise him. He does know that I’ve put him in cowboy boots and on a horse, and he thinks that is loads of fun. But he has no clue what I’ve done to him. He claims he’ll read when it’s published.

I’m also fortunate to have had a family member be the pastor of a church. I know it’s a 24/7 job. They do get called for the strangest things and are expected to be there for the parishioners. It’s a job, and like so many jobs, it’s either loved or hated. So what happens when you have a great job and you get called for another. As my grandmother would say, do you feather your nest or do what you really love?

In the story, Adam Kavika goes west to visit his grandmother on the family ranch, but on the way, he stops in Creed’s Crossing to visit Neil Jones, the pastor of the tiny church in that town. Except when he gets there, Neil has died. The community is looking for Adam to take over the pastoral duties of the church.

Adam is young, vibrant, and has a great career. Why would he want to give up everything to become the pastor in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere? He’s not trained for the job. Plus, he has Lindie, the love of his life who has a wonderful job back east. She’s a city girl with her RN and a master’s degree in nursing. She’s already worked her way up to the position of assistant manager of a hospital’s cardiac unit.

Adam knows his decision must be agreeable to Lindie because he is determined to keep her. They have one week to make a lifetime decision. One week that puts their faith to the test. One week to get to know the community. Can they do it? Or will they return to their fast-paced lifestyle where everything is well ordered?

Creed’s Crossing is a tiny, fictional town in Wyoming. It sits in the middle of a ranching community. People there work hard and they play hard. They also know their neighbors and everyone else who lives in the county. If you love cowboys and small communities, you’ll love Creed’s Crossing, Wyoming. But don’t expect to step back in time. These are contemporary romances, and the community has cell phones, flat screen TV’s, and ranching today is high tech.

Here’s a little snippet from A Calling in Wyoming.

Pushing open the heavy door, Adam stepped inside. Its darkened interior looked like something from an old movie of a saloon in the wild west.

“Have a seat wherever you want, sir.” A pretty blonde approached him with a menu. “Kinda surprised to see you here. I’m Faith McLean. Our special today is the smokehouse burger.”

He slipped into a wooden booth and spotted the big TV screen showing a video of Keith Urban singing. Adam found himself tapping his foot to the music as he looked at the menu. “I’ll have the special and a draft.”

“Really? Preachers drink?”

He chuckled. “Even Jesus drank wine.”

“But I thought it didn’t have alcohol in it.”

“Then he would have been drinking grape juice. Wine is fermented. If it were sitting in an open container, it would lose its alcohol content, but it also wouldn’t be as safe to drink.”

“Huh?”

“Think about it. No refrigeration, no control of insects. Wine was a healthy, safe thing to drink.”

The blonde raised her eyebrows and wandered off. She vanished behind a set of doors. When she came out, she spoke with another blonde who looked to be her younger sister, but they could have passed for twins. The younger one looked over her shoulder at him, then shrugged her shoulders as she poured a glass of beer. A moment later, she brought the frosty mug to him

“Hi, I’m Hope McLean.” She put his beer down in front of him. “You really going to drink this?”

“I work for them.” He stuck his hand out. “Pleased to meet you, Hope McLean.”

She took his hand and then slipped onto the bench across from him. “You work for them? But I thought you were a preacher.”

“I’m the assistant youth pastor at my church. Several members of this community want me to take the reverend’s place.”

“You gonna do it?”

He took a sip of the cold liquid. “Let’s say you are living your dream right now. What would happen if someone offered you a very interesting job, far away from here, that was completely different from what you do, with very little pay. Would you take it?”

“Well, this is no dream job, and getting out of here sounds like fun.”

“Okay, try this. Where you would be going would make Creed’s Crossing look like the big city, and you’d have to take care of a bunch of orphaned children. You’d get paid a stipend and would be given a place to live and food.”

She scrunched up her nose. “What’s a stipend?”

He bit the insides of his cheeks. “Just enough money to cover your personal expenses.” He looked at her perfectly manicured nails with fancy designs on them. “And not enough to have your nails done on a regular basis.”

“No way!”

“But what if that job is what God wants you to do?”

She shook her head.

“Well, God put me here and I’ve got to figure out what He wants me to do.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

She slipped out of the booth and scurried over to her sister.

A minute later, he was served his burger. Yeah, good luck, good karma, God’s Grace. It’s still my decision.

FREE GIVE-AWAY:  For a free copy of A Calling To Wyoming please email E.Ayers @ ayersbooks .com and put my name in the subject line.

Thanks for sharing A Calling to Wyoming with us and we can’t wait for it to be released. We wish you much success with it and your writing.