Friends and Foes by Sarah M. Eden – Countdown to Summer 2012

I’m not normal. I’m an author. I spend enormous amounts of time avoiding responsible things like cooking dinner and doing laundry and making vital phone calls. Instead, I fill my days with making up stories, talking to voices in my head, and laughing hysterically at my own wit. Like I said, I’m not normal.

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LDSWBR: Do you find it easier or more difficult to write during the summertime? Why?

SARAH: Is this a QUESTION? I have children still at home, and during the summer they are literally at home. They are here all the time. Every day. The only time they leave, I am with them, driving them to activities and camps and classes and the library. I do schedule a little writing time after they go to bed, but I’m usually so tired that the words I write are either gibberish or every one of my characters finds themselves suddenly struggling with paralyzing exhaustion.

How many more weeks until school starts again?

LDSWBR: Would you rather be in the pool or next to the pool?

SARAH: I would rather be inside the air conditioned house. Despite growing up in southern Arizona where the temperature soar above 100* in April, spend July above 115, and don’t come back out of the triple digits until October, I am a complete and utter wimp in the heat. Also, I don’t like water. I’m even kind of afraid of water. The few times I’ve been on a boat were not particularly pleasant, and not because one of those boat trips ended with my nose getting broken–but that’s a story for another day.

So, yeah. I definitely wouldn’t choose to be in the pool. I take my kids swimming because I love them, but I don’t enjoy the actual “being in the water” part of it. Man, they have no idea how much I love them. (Wow, I kind of feel like I’m talking to a psychologist, here. I have the sudden urge to lay on a leather couch and recount my vaguest of childhood memories and stair at ink blots.)

LDSWBR: Ice cream or slushie? What flavor?

SARAH: You ask the most ridiculous questions. Who could possibly choose a pathetic cup of half-melted ice and gooey syrup over a bowl of sweet, creamy heaven? Sheesh. Flavor: Butter Pecan. Or, in a pinch, Pralines and Caramel.

LDSWBR: I’ll ask better questions next time. :) Thanks, Sarah!

Friends & Foes by Sarah M. Eden

AMAZON | DESERET BOOK | SEAGULL BOOK

After five years of tracking and capturing spies on English soil, Philip Jonquil, Earl of Lampton, is in pursuit of his last quarry. But at a traveler’s inn, he encounters an unexpected and far more maddening foe: Sorrel Kendrick, a young lady who is strikingly pretty, shockingly outspoken, and entirely unimpressed with him. Indeed, Sorrel cannot believe the nerve of this gentleman, who rudely accuses her of theft and insults her feminine dignity. Doubly annoyed when they both end up at a party hosted by mutual friends, Philip and Sorrel privately declare war on one another. But Philip’s tactics, which range from flirting to indifference, soon backfire as he finds himself reluctantly enjoying Sorrel’s company; and, much to her dismay, Sorrel finds Philip’s odd manner to be increasingly endearing. In the midst of this waning war and growing attraction, Philip catches wind of the French spy he’s been tracking, and Sorrel inadvertently stumbles upon a crucial piece of the puzzle, making her indispensable to the mission. But can two proud hearts negotiate a ceasefire when cooperation matters most?

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Book prizes donated by the authors include:

Reality Check by Karen Tuft

Cold Justice by Kathi Oram Peterson

Journey to the Fringe by Kelli Nielsen

Dangerous Favor by Joyce DiPastena (choice of print, Kindle or Nook)

Twitterpated by Melanie Jacobson

Of Grace and Chocolate by Krista Lynne Jensen