Oranges for Miranda by Annette Bower

Please welcome Annette Bower author of Oranges for Miranda

Annette Bower will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Oranges for Miranda

by Annette Bower

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GENRE: Romance Contemporary Sweet

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INTERVIEW:

What and who inspired you to start writing?

When I was thirteen, my aunt shared her romance novels with me. I enjoyed them, and they became my escape for many years and continue to do so. I began and started and stopped writing for quite a few years, and gradually I had a novel. 

How did you come up with ideas for your books?

The idea may come from friends, “you should set a romance on a farm.” I wrote Ponytails and Promises. “You should write an older heroine.” Oranges for Miranda. 

My women’s study class inspired Woman of Substance. My Moving On novel is about the current events about returning soldiers, and discussion about inclusion resulted in Fearless Destiny.  

What expertise did you bring to your writing?

I’ve had the opportunities to have varied careers in health care, education, and administration. I have lived in a small town and large cities. I travel whenever I can. 

As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

Immediately to bring Oranges for Miranda to the attention of as many readers as possible. And to write the first draft of another novel. 

Do you belong to a critique group? 

No, I do not. I belong to a group of writers, but we talk about writing and the business of writing. If we would like members of the group to read our work, we ask who is available. I hire an editor before I submit it to my publisher, Soul Mate Publishing. 

Do you outline your books or just start writing? 

I begin writing notes, and I create an idea book with pictures of my heroine, her clothes, her home, and how she might stand, sit, etc. I do the same for the hero. I circle a story until I’m ready to begin. I will write the opening chapters and then go back and rewrite until I’m happy and then go forward. I am a slow writer.

Do you have any hobbies, and does the knowledge you’ve gained from these carry over into your characters or the plot of your books?

I am a reader of human interest articles and old fashion radio listener. These keep me up to date on the current concerns of the different age groups in North America. 

I walk and ride my bicycle around my neighbourhood, and when I travel, I interact and watch as many people as possible. 

Do you have an all time favorite book?

I do, inside out girl by tish cohen. This book tics all the boxes for me—a social commentary, heartache, family, romance and love. 

Have you started your next project? If so, can you share a little bit about your book?

My heroine’s parents named her after their favorite actor, Keanu Reeves. Keanna is mid-twenties and stopped her formal education after high school. Keanna has a folder full of certificates she acquired because they were required for her work or just because she was interested in the subject. She served tables, cleaned hotel rooms, qualified as a personal care worker, can teach English as an Alternative language, knows ASL because of a deaf family member. She has settled in a small prairie town and is slowly becoming an integral part of the community. At this moment, I have a deaf character and a pony. I’m not sure if the pony will stay. Her hero is a Computer programmer. 

What is your favorite reality show?

Escape to the country, or couples looking to start over in a new country or different part of the world. I enjoy them for the opportunity to see inside houses, learn about customs and prices. It is almost armchair travel. 

BLURB:

Miranda Porter, a newly retired award-winning businesswoman, leaves home to transition into her new life stage. Always in control, this is her time to have fun without plans and responsibilities. Enter Renato Monteiro, a considerate tour guide with secrets. Miranda isn’t looking for long-term. She wants a purpose in her retirement. Could her purpose in retirement be finding love in this unlikely place? Could her aim be domesticity and caring for and be cared for by a newly found friend? Will a vacation romance end because of miles?

Renato Monteiro has decisions to make. Stay in his birth country where his female relatives want him to marry a woman young enough to give him children. Or does he return to his second home, where he has a purpose and has built a life without children? The day Miranda and he bumped heads changed his life and his pursuit. Now he must decide which is most important the family he was born into or the family he chooses.

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EXCERPT:

The bubbles floating across Miranda Porter’s abdomen and covering her breasts reminded her of the retro photos of women in clawfoot bathtubs. She inhaled the scent of lavender and wiggled her toes against the worn brass taps. Who should I be today in this new place? What name would reflect a woman in this bathroom in this whitewashed stucco home nestled among the other houses sheltered by red-tiled roofs in Albufeira?

Arriving in the southern coastal city in Portugal late in the afternoon after a long and tiring journey from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, she’d admired the stylish women walking along the cobblestone streets in their stilettos. Women with names like Raquel, Sofia, or Lusia all sounded softer, more romantic. Indeed more European than Miranda. Miranda was in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, where father and daughter were stranded on an island. But not her story, just her name. She wasn’t stranded. She chose the Portuguese Algarve to be the place of winding down and redefining the woman she was now. Not the Miranda of the Canadian Prairie, award-winning realtor and mother of two adult children.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Annette believes home is where her stories percolate. And her home is a condo where she watches the urban life below, airplanes arrive and depart at the international airport, and the seasons change on farmland near the horizon. Annette travels extensively but always returns home to Regina, Saskatchewan. Whether at home or away, and even though directions are always a challenge, she wanders the streets, parks, and lanes observing how people live, love, and care for one another. Your way of sitting, holding hands, the way you tilt your head, or a t-shirt you wear may end up in one of her stories.

On her first trip to Olhos de Água, a fishing village in Portugal, she stopped at a café where the proprietors were a mother and daughter. Annette sat at the outdoor blue and white tiled table and ordered an espresso and brandy. While the sun warmed her back, she opened her new notebook. The older woman walked by carrying a basket, tipped her head toward Annette’s blank page, and shrugged. When black-laced heeled shoes struck the tile, and the scent of just-picked clementine oranges interrupted Annette’s writing, the woman plunked three oranges at the edge of her page. Annette cherishes this gift from one woman to another. Recently, Annette travels with an accompanying Orange and shares pictures on Social media as her way of honoring those Portugues women. A version of this event appears in her new novel, Oranges for Miranda.

During another trip, while searching for an address in Malaga, Spain, she asked a well-dressed man carrying a floral paper-wrapped bouquet if he spoke English? Would he direct her to the address? With impeccable English, he suggested she walk with him. They chatted, and she discovered he was a lawyer in his final days of retiring. Finally, she asked to whom he was giving the flowers. He lifted the cover to reveal a large crucifix. This detail has not appeared in a story yet.

In a coffee shop, looking south between glass tower office buildings, she could be anywhere in the world. However, she is home watching people on Eleventh Avenue run for buses, bring tea to a panhandler, and holding mittened hands while bending into the wind.

Annette uses experiences she gathered as a nurse, town administrator, elected official, traveller, and member of a large extended family to inform her stories because writing is her joy.

Annette Bower is a Soul Mate Publishing author of five contemporary romance novels. Her novel Fearless Destiny was first runner-up in the 2017 Sweet Contemporary RONE awards and winner of the Raven Award. Her novel Ponytails and Promises was a finalist in the 2020 RONE Awards and is the 2020 winner of the Raven Award.

Webpage: https://annettebower.com/  (Also a sign up for my monthly newsletter)

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

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Oranges-Miranda-Annette-Bower-ebook/dp/B095Z4DF2F

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BowerAnnette

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE

Annette Bower will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

RAFFLECOPTER:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f3827