SUNSET BRIDGE: AUTHOR INTERVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

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SUNSET BRIDGE
A Happiness Key Novel

BY EMILIE RICHARDS

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Five very different women find friendship–and unexpected love–on the barrier island known as Happiness Key. 

Former socialite Tracy Deloche has nothing to her name but five ramshackle beach cottages and the unlikely friendships she's formed with her tenants:  Wanda, the wise waitress turned popular pie-shop owner.  Janya, the young Indian wife whose arranged marriage surprises her every day.  Alice, a widow raising her complex tween-age granddaughter.  Maggie, Wanda's daughter, a former Miami cop with a love life as complicated as Tracy's own. 

The new man in Tracy's life hasn't mentioned love or commitment–and suddenly Tracy needs a big dose of both.  Janya longs to be a mother–and inherits two young siblings to care for.  Alice may lose her beloved granddaughter to someone no one expected. Maggie helps out at Wanda's Wonderful Pies, but is the kitchen big enough for both Gray women when one of them is looking for a murderer? 

As a tropical storm brews, the wind carries surprises and secrets over the bridge to Happiness Key.  Now, more than ever, five friends will discover just how much they need one another.
CHECK OUT MY REVIEW AND BONUS ENTRIES NOW UP HERE!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

USA TODAY bestselling author Emilie Richards fondly recalls the year she served as a VISTA volunteer in the Arkansas Ozarks. Although conditions were primitive and resources scarce, by the end of her time there, the 20-year-old college student had gathered a richness of experience that would forever change her life and ultimately inspire a series of novels for MIRA Books about the age-old craft of quilting.

  

Richards went on to finish her undergraduate degree in American studies from Florida State University, and her master’s in family development from Virginia Tech. She subsequently served as a therapist in a mental health center, as a parent services coordinator for Head Start families and in several pastoral counseling centers before she began writing full-time. 

Richards says that in every social service position she held, she gained more than she gave. “I set out to help people and ended up learning so much more about myself.” 

A full-time writer, Richards has drawn on those experiences while writing more than 60 novels. As her star has risen in the publishing world, she has appeared on national television and has been quoted in Reader’s Digest, right between Oprah and Thomas Jefferson. Additionally her novels are now being filmed in New Zealand to air on German television. Although in recent years she has broadened the scope of her writing to women’s fiction, she was awarded a prestigious RITA^® Award, romance publishing’s Oscar^®, for her earlier work in the genre. Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine has presented her with numerous awards, including one for career achievement. 

No doubt Richards’s background as a relationship counselor is partly responsible for the award-winning nature of her novels. This background enables her to consistently deliver richly textured family dramas that explore the human condition. In HAPPINESS KEY, FORTUNATE HARBOR and SUNSET BRIDGE she explores the unlikely friendship that develops between four very different women who become neighbors on a rundown spit of Florida. Drawn together by their search to uncover the past of their late neighbor, they begin sharing their own doubts and triumphs, forming bonds that will ultimately heal and inspire. In SUNSET BRIDGE, the final book of the trilogy, the women welcome the ex-cop daughter of one of their own, who finds she hasn’t left the job or her lover behind, after all. When she is recruited to find the truth behind a tragic murder-suicide, her actions and discoveries will ultimately affect each of the neighbors. In the rousing conclusion, as sunset falls, exactly who will be left to appreciate it?

Richards is married to her college sweetheart, a Unitarian Universalist minister. They have three grown sons and a daughter. Born in Bethesda, Maryland, and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Richards has lived with her family not only in Virginia but in Louisiana, California, Arkansas, Ohio and Pennsylvania. They also spent two four-month sabbaticals in Australia.

When not writing or engaging in her other passion, quilting, Richards enjoys traveling and turning her suburban yard into a country garden. She is currently working on a new series for Mira Books.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW:

1.    Welcome, and thank you for agreeing to an interview for BOOKIN‘ WITH BINGO. Is there any personal information you would like to start out with today?
Sixty-something books later I still love what I chose to do with my life professionally.  Four children, two grandchildren, a great husband and one crazy beagle later, I’m still happy with those choices, too.

2.    Where did you get the inspiration or idea for this book?
I grew up on the Florida Gulf Coast yet I never really set any books there.  So this seemed like the right moment, particularly since we’re strongly considering a move there next year.

3.    How did the title of your book come about?
Sunset Bridge is the third of three related books.  Happiness Key was the first, and I loved the idea of playing with words that expressed the theme and gave a geographic clue to the story, as well.  Sunset Bridge is the last of the series, the “sunset” of the three, but it’s also a bridge to the next stage in my characters’ lives.

4.    Do you see yourself in your characters? Which characters are easiest or more difficult to write?
I think no matter how much we deny it or are unable to pin it down, there are parts of us in each character we write.  These women are all going through major transitions and adjustments, and that’s fun to explore because it’s always true no matter who we are or at what stage of our lives. 

5.    What books would you say have made the biggest impression on you, especially starting out? What are you currently reading?
Currently I’m reading Diane Mott Davidson’s Crunch Time because she gave it to me as a gift and because I love Goldy the caterer.  I’m also listening to TheTin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke who is a fabulous author. The book takes place in New Orleans after Katrina, and I used to live in the city. I lean toward mysteries and thrillers because they can sweep me away and it’s easier to get caught up without noticing technique.

6.    What is the next or current book/project you are working on?
The first book of a series set in Asheville, NC, which will debut next summer.

7.    Do you own an eReader of any kind and how do you feel about their impact on books, as well as you as an author?
I’m delighted with ebooks, have an old Sony eReader I use constantly and am hoping for an iPad for my birthday. We’ve come a long way since stories were delivered by storytellers around campfires, and I think storytelling will evolve in new and fascinating ways in the future.  No reason here to run screaming into the night with a paper book clutched against our chests.  This is a time to celebrate yet another wonderful delivery method.

8.    What is your advice to anyone, including young people, who want to be writers?
Hate to quote Nike, but “Just Do It!”  And really, that’s how all of us start.  We say “What the heck,” and dive right in.

GIVEAWAY

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