J.D.R. Hawkins

One bullet can make a man a hero… or a casualty.

Archive for the month “March, 2016”

29 Mar 2016

A Bright Spot in the Dark

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With all the negativity that has been cast toward the Confederacy, there are still a few things that have happened recently. They disregard the nasty notion that the South was evil and fought to defend slavery.

One positive is that the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a preliminary injunction preventing the city of New Orleans to move ahead with removing four Confederate monuments. The injunction will remain in place while the case is being appealed.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3509449/Removal-Confederate-symbols-turns-nasty-New-Orleans.html

Another advancement is the updating being done in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; specifically, General Lee’s headquarters. The Civil War Trust has begun a renewal project, and has started demolition of the hotel and restaurant that were built onto the historical building way back when. The Mary Thompson House will be restored to look like how it appeared in 1863.

My book, A Beckoning Hellfire, describes in detail the cavalry battle that took place outside of Gettysburg.

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You can purchase it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Beckoning-Hellfire-Novel-Civil-War/dp/0595435319/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459277699&sr=8-1&keywords=a+beckoning+hellfire

For more information regarding the renovation of Lee’s headquarters, check out:

http://www.civilwar.org/education/war-department/lees-headquarters-update.html?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email_update&utm_campaign=Marchupdate2

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gettysburg/gettysburg-history-articles/ten-facts-about-lees.html?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email_update&utm_campaign=Marchupdate2

Posted in Civil War, Confederate, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
24 Mar 2016

Contractors Not Sure About Removing New Orleans Monuments

I find it interesting, and a bit sad, that New Orleans would even consider removing historic monuments that have been a part of the city for decades. Previously, I wrote about four specific monuments that have been targeted for removal. These include statues of Jefferson Davis, P.G.T. Beauregard, Robert E. Lee, and a monument honoring the Battle of Liberty Place. Mayor Landieu took it upon himself to declare these monuments as “nuisances,” and the city council voted in favor of removal.
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But now, several contractors who placed bids on the projects have expressed second thoughts. They say that the statues would most likely be damaged when moved. They were also leery of getting involved with the controversy surrounding their removal. The contractor who wins the bid will be liable if damages are caused to the monuments, which could result in thousands of dollars.
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The statues are attached to bases, and without knowing how they are attached, damages would surely be caused. The Beauregard statue is especially vulnerable. “It was constructed to be placed, not to be removed,” one contractor said. “You guys are going to have some damage.”
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The contractors that attended the March 14 meeting chose to remain anonymous. But their identities will become public knowledge when their bids are opened at a meeting scheduled for April 22.
Posted in Civil War, Confederate, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment
22 Mar 2016
4 Comments

IN LOUISIANA ANOTHER MONUMENT COMES UNDER ATTACK

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A tall memorial that honors Confederate soldiers has stood in front of the Rapides Parish Courthouse for more than 100 years, but an organization of black attorneys believes it is offensive and should be removed.

Malcolm Larvadain, an attorney who is president of the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society, asked Rapides Parish police jurors to remove the memorial, which features a statue of a Confederate soldier on top. The society is made up of area African-American attorneys.

“In this day and age of 2016, I feel that that statue is offensive. Honestly, it should be placed in a museum,” said Larvadain, whose father, Ed Larvardain Jr., is a longtime civil rights attorney and whose brother, Ed Larvadain III, is an Alexandria city councilman. “I just feel the South was on the wrong side of history and humanity. I feel that it needs to come down. I can only imagine how people who look like me (black) who walk up to this courthouse and see this the statue and see the word ‘Confederate’ at the bottom of the statue, how they feel about that,” he added.
Police jurors did not take any action on Larvadain’s request because they said they’ll wait to see what happens with Senate Bill 276 by Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton.
The bill would create the Louisiana Heritage Protection Commission, which jurors said might exercise control over such memorials.
Police Juror Richard Billing says he’s against removing the statue because it is part of history. “I think it’s history. I think it declares who we are – the place in America,” Billings said. “We were Southerners. You’re a Southerner,” he told Larvadain. “Whether you like it or not, you were born here … raised here. Black or white, it’s history. We recognize black people all over, and I have no problem with that.”
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He said he went to look at the statue only after he heard it would be raised as an issue.

“I don’t go by and salute it. I don’t agree with everything that’s been done. … I think it needs to stay where it is because of history,” Billings said.

“It is history, but it’s an ugly history,” Larvadain said. “That history involved enslaving people who looked like me, Mr. Overton, Mr. Perry, Mr. Fountaine.”
He was referring to the three black members of the nine-member Police Jury – Ollie Overton, Scott Perry and Theodore Fountaine.

The Confederate memorial was erected in 1914 by the Thomas Overton Moore chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, according to information on the base of the statue.

Most jurors did not seem that familiar with the Senate bill and noted the statue-removal request was new. The Senate bill, if it becomes law, might make it harder to remove a statue or memorial.

“Except as otherwise provided in this section, no memorial regarding a historic conflict, historic entity, historic event, historic figure or historic organization that is, or is located on, public property, may be removed, renamed, relocated, altered, rededicated, or otherwise disturbed or altered,” the bill reads.

 

It does note that a public entity may petition the commission for a waiver if it seeks to remove a memorial.

Fountaine, Overton and Perry each had a different take on the memorial.

“The statue should never have been put up, and it should come down,” Fountaine said.

Perry said Larvadain’s request caught him by surprise, and he noted he never paid much attention to the memorial.

“I’m going to wait and see what the Legislature does,” Perry said.

Jury President Craig Smith also said the jury wants to see the outcome of the Senate bill.

“If we have to, we’ll address it again,” Smith said of the request to have the memorial removed.

Overton said the memorial is “distasteful” to him and others, and he would like to see it removed.

He noted there would be cost in removing it, and he indicated he’d like to wait to see what happens with the Senate bill.
(Courtesy Dixie Heritage Newsletter, Mar. 19, 2016 ed.)
Posted in Civil War, Confederate, History, Uncategorized and tagged , , , ,
16 Mar 2016
2 Comments

Last Vacation on Blog Tour

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Today’s featured book is Last Vacation by Sarah Elle Emm. Here is more information about the novel. Make sure to scroll down to enter the giveaway!

About the Book:

Seven days have passed since Naples real estate agent Megan MacKenna has heard from her twin sister, Madeline, who was vacationing on the beautiful, Caribbean island of St. Croix. Though authorities are not convinced there is a case to solve, Megan knows with all of her heart something happened to Maddy. When Megan receives a direct warning to leave the island or end up like her sister, she turns to the only person who has taken her seriously since she arrived, Gabe, a breakfast cook at a local diner.

Undercover DEA agent, Gabriel Walker has been building his cover for months, waiting for the opportunity to work his way into the infamous Torrez crime ring. When Megan shows up asking questions and Gabe realizes her twin’s disappearance might be linked to the Torrez men, he has to convince her to go back to Florida before she becomes their next victim.

The closer Megan gets to the truth, the more Gabe begins to suspect he is missing a huge piece of the puzzle. And someone is closing in on Megan…

Character Interview with MEGAN:

  1. If you had a free day with no responsibilities and your only mission was to enjoy yourself, what would you do?

A day with no responsibilities? I don’t have those. My twin sister, Maddy, has enough free days for the both of us. That being said, if I have everything on my list crossed off for the day, I might read for a bit. I might also stop in one of the boutiques on Fifth Avenue in Naples and pick up a new pair of heels. But only if I’ve finished work for the day.

  1. If you could spend the day with someone you admire (living or dead or imaginary), who would you pick?

That’s easy. I always visit Grandma Lynn when I have time. She’s adamant about living in the retirement home because she says I am too young to have an old lady living with me, but I visit her almost everyday. It is part of my routine. I’d spend the day with both of my parents if they were still around, but I am not sure how that would go. I probably wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut, and I’d ask them why they always had to travel and go off on adventures instead of staying home with Maddy and me.

  1. What is your idea of perfect happiness? And, what is your current state of mind?

In a perfect scenario, my sister has finally come to her senses and is settled down in Naples, holding a steady job. I no longer have to worry about what sort of trouble she might get into next. Currently, I am frantic and desperate with worry, trying to find her. I’m the only person who can help her. It’s been my job to look after her since our parents died.

  1. What do you consider to be the most overrated virtue and why?

That’s tough. Before Maddy disappeared, I might have said forgiveness was overrated. I admit, I’ve been a little tough on her all of these years, never really understanding her or forgiving her for making what I consider reckless decisions. But now? That’s she missing? I wish I had told her to her face that I accepted her and wasn’t mad at her for every decision she made. I hope I get the chance to tell her how sorry I am.

  1. Tell us 3 things about yourself that the readers do not know about.

– I secretly admire Maddy for being so daring and going on adventure-seeking vacations.

– My co-workers always remark about how I have my life together, from my luxury convertible to my designer shoes to my commercial real estate sales record. And yes, I am successful in my career and happy with that part of my life, but underneath it all, I am a bit lonely.

– I’ve never been in love. Even though I thought I loved my ex-boyfriend, I look back now and realize I was in love with the idea of him and the image of us as a power couple. But it wasn’t really love. I doubt I’ll ever be in love.

Excerpt:

Megan parked in front of the bungalow and climbed out of the junky, little car, as she was referring to it now, resisting the urge to kick it. Though the air-conditioning wasn’t working at full power, it had offered some relief from the island temperature. Even though she’d tried to dress weather-appropriately with a short, thin cotton dress, the humid air seemed to reach out to her and settle over her at once, sending a drop of sweat down her temple. Out of habit more than anything, she wiped the sweat away before it could ruin what was left of her make-up. She sighed aloud. She didn’t just miss her Maserati. She missed her office and her house. Her routine. She missed her life.

Maybe the police were right. Maddy had just left on a whim. It was something she had a reputation for, for Heaven’s sake. Megan wondered if she should just leave and go back to her life. Maddy would probably show up with some ridiculous story and a new tattoo before she knew it. After all, how was she supposed to find her sister if no one had seen or heard of anything bad happening to her? All facts pointed to what the police were saying…

Maddy checked out of her hotel, and no one had seen her since.

Of course, she still had questions…Who were the guys she had left the hotel with? Maddy could have gotten involved with a man, but had she left St. Croix with him? It was a definite possibility. Her twin was probably sun tanning on a booze cruise somewhere in the British Virgin Islands by now. Still, before she had left Naples, Maddy had been sober for nearly sixteen months. Had she given up on sobriety?

As she climbed the steps to her bungalow, Megan tried to convince herself the theory was true. She would go home and wait for Maddy to show up with her new tattoo and tale of sailing the Caribbean islands. Then, she would try, yet again, to convince Maddy to get a job and stay put. And they would have the same old argument about why Maddy refused to act more responsible.

As she pondered her twin’s recklessness, a hand clamped over her mouth, and her arms were pulled into captivity.

Everything went dark.

About the Author:

Sarah Elle Emm is the author of the HARMONY RUN SERIES, a young-adult fantasy and dystopian series, released in May 2012 by Winter Goose Publishing. (PRISMATIC, May 2012, OPALESCENT, February 2013, CHATOYANT, September 2014, NACREOUS, August 2015) Her debut fiction novel, MARRYING MISSY, was published by Bird Brain Publishing in October 2011. Sarah is a graduate of The University of Evansville, she has lived and worked in Mexico, Germany, England, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and has traveled extensively beyond. Sarah lives in Naples, Florida with her family. When she’s not walking the plank of her daughters’ imaginary pirate ship or snapping photos of Southwest Florida scenery, she is writing.

 

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<b><span style=”color: #d5a6bd; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;”><a href=”http://www.sarahelleemm.com/&#8221; target=”_blank”>Website</a>&nbsp;I&nbsp;<a href=”https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Elle-Emm/146731658742629&#8243; target=”_blank”>Facebook</a>&nbsp;I&nbsp;<a href=”https://twitter.com/sarahelleemm&#8221; target=”_blank”>Twitter</a>&nbsp;I&nbsp;<a href=”https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5354926.Sarah_Elle_Emm&#8221; target=”_blank”>Goodreads</a>&nbsp;I&nbsp;<a href=”http://www.amazon.com/Sarah-Elle-Emm/e/B0063X57K6/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1&#8243; target=”_blank”>Amazon Author Page</a></span></b></div>

Check out the Release Day Blitz for Last Vacation

 

Giveaway:

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Posted in Author, Book Giveaway, book tour, Uncategorized and tagged , , ,
14 Mar 2016
6 Comments

Researchers Discover Confederate Shipwreck

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An area off the North Carolina coast known for its War Between the States shipwrecks may be adding another to the collection after the discovery of what is believed to be a Confederate blockade runner near Oak Island.

Archaeologists using sonar imaging discovered the 226-foot-long remains of a shipwreck on Feb. 27 in an area where historical documents indicate three runners used during the blockade of the port of Wilmington are located, said Billy Ray Morris, North Carolina’s deputy state archaeologist who manages underwater operations. Morris and a team of divers will return this Wednesday to the site, about 30 miles downstream near Fort Caswell to confirm their finding.

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“Nobody’s found a new Civil War wreck in decades,” Morris said Monday. “With a high-energy maritime environment like you have off the coast of North Carolina, ships are broken apart. This one is relatively intact. You can see that it looks like a ship.”

Three blockade runners are known to have been lost in the area: the Agnes E. Fry, Spunkie and Georgianna McCaw. “By the time I’ve crawled across it with a team of archaeologists and a couple of graduate students … I’m confident I’ll know which wreck it is,” Morris said. He said he hopes to tackle the project on Wednesday. He added that he is not 100 percent certain that the shipwreck is one of the blockade runners.

Wrecks of 27 blockade runners, Confederate ironclads and Union ships used in the blockade have been found in the area that includes the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean around islands such as Oak Island, according to Morris. “It’s the single best assemblage of Civil War shipwrecks anywhere in the world,” he said.
Blockade runners were the cigarette boats of their era, moving fast with an unarmed captain and crew using their talents to avoid the Union ships and get their goods to land.

Military supplies would be put on trains to Weldon in northern North Carolina, and then on to Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The civilian supplies were sold dockside. They were items that the Confederacy couldn’t make and which appealed to the wealthy, Morris said, such as wine and liquor, fancy fabric, books and shoes.

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The Union blockade of the port of Wilmington began in 1861 and ended in January 1865, when the Union troops closed the port and overtook Fort Fisher.

The Underwater Branch of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology and the Institute of International Maritime Research discovered the shipwreck with the help of a multiyear grant called the American Battlefield Protection Program, Morris said. The grant, funded through the National Park Service, is ending this year, he said.
Posted in Civil War, Confederate, History, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
11 Mar 2016
2 Comments

March is Women’s (Civil War) History Month

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Throughout the course of history, women have repeatedly demonstrated their strength, power, and resilience. The Civil War changed the role women played in American society. For the first time, women were allowed to participate in the war effort, not only by joining traditional sewing groups, but by volunteering as nurses and hygienists. Prior to the war, nurses were primarily men. But this changed with the advent of such notable women as Mary Ann “Mother” Bickerdyke, Clara Barton, who later founded the American Red Cross, Louisa May Alcott, who went on to write “Little Women,” and Florence Nightingale, to name a few. The new PBS television series, “Mercy Street,” accurately portrays what it was like to be a nurse in a Civil War hospital. With all the trials presented to them, including the lack of medical technology, these women withstood danger on the battlefield and criticism from their peers to persevere.

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Many cases of women fighting on the battlefields have emerged over the years. Some of these brave souls disguised themselves so they could fight alongside their husbands, brothers, or friends, while others retained their hoopskirts and acted as spies for both the Union and the Confederacy. Belle Boyd, who supposedly crossed enemy lines to smuggle Union strategy plans to General Stonewall Jackson, traveled around the country after the war to tell her fascinating stories. Many other brave women smuggled supplies, including desperately needed drugs, across enemy lines to support the troops and the cause for which they believed in. A few also smuggled slaves and POW’s.

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Women who were left at home while their menfolk went off to fight were faced with the everyday obligation of tending to their farms, businesses, and families. These women, although not as famous, deserve as much recognition for surviving insurmountable challenges and achieving amazing accomplishments. According to Clara Barton, the four-year time period of the Civil War advanced the social position of women by fifty years. Prior to the war, American women were expected to behave according to strict Victorian standards, but afterward, women’s roles in America changed dramatically.

Posted in Civil War, History, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , ,
08 Mar 2016

Mississippi Stands Firm

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A lawsuit has reignited debate over the presence of Confederate symbols in a Southern state, but in Mississippi, Southerners are mounting a legal defense of their Dixie flag.

A federal complaint filed last week says the Confederate cross on the Mississippi flag is hate speech that endangers African Americans, according to Carlos Moore, a black attorney from Grenada, Miss., who cited the killing last summer of black church-goers in South Carolina.

 

The government of Mississippi is preparing to defend their flag, however. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) said voters should decide whether their flag should be redesigned, not a “frivolous attempt to use the federal court system.” The state’s attorney general, Democrat Jim Hood, said his personal belief is that the flag hurts the state and it should change, but that will not prevent him from fulfilling his oath to defend his state’s laws.
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Although several Southern flags reference elements of the Confederate “Stars and Bars,” Mississippi is the last state to keep the secessionist symbol in its entirety. While some Mississippians say flag the reflects poorly on the state’s image, many see it as a symbol of loyalty to their often misunderstood, even maligned, state history.

“It is frustrating that the United States as a whole lumps us all as a bunch of ignorant racists who are uneducated and don’t have shoes and go around having stereotypes about everybody else,” Bess Averett, director of the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation in Vicksburg, Miss., told The Christian Science Monitor in 2006. “Hey, we have cars and trains like everyone else, so we could leave if we wanted.”

 

In Mississippi, people are digging in their heels in support of both their “Rebel Flag” and self-determination.
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A previous state referendum – in 2001 – showed voters supported keeping the Confederate symbol by nearly a 2 to 1 margin, with a fairly equal voting split coming even from black neighborhoods.

 

Where Mr. Moore sees “state-sanctioned hate speech,” as he wrote in his lawsuit, Southerns see a symbol of their family’s heritage, said Jeremy Gouge, a 44-year-old roofer, who has family ties to the South.

 

“I know there’s things that happened. I can’t control what other people have done,” Mr. Gouge told the Associated Press. “What’s the next flag that someone is going to say, ‘We don’t like that flag, let’s take that one down?'”
(Courtesy of Dixie Heritage Newsletter, 3/3/16)
Posted in Mississippi, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment
03 Mar 2016
2 Comments

Historical Fantasy Book on Blog Tour

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I’m of Irish descent, and I love all things related to Ireland. Because this is Irish Heritage Month, I’d like to spotlight a new book titled Blood Ties by author Hazel West. Be sure to follow the tour.

http://hazelwest.blogspot.com/2016/02/blood-ties-virtual-book-tour.html.

Synopsis

In an Ireland that mixes high kings, faeries, and modern warriors who drive fast cars, Ciran, a descendant from the famous warrior Fionn Mac Cool, bands together with a company of young warriors from the legendary order of Na Fianna to go on a quest to recover their missing family members who were captured by the Goblins in a shaky peace between the two kingdoms. Ciran and his companions must figure out not only how they are going to rescue the prisoners, but how they are going to complete their mission without killing each other. Through trial and error, running battles, unexpected friendships, and daring escapes, Ciran and his company come face to face with the Goblin King himself in a final battle that will decide the fate of all involved and of Ireland itself.

The first book in a new series, Blood Ties takes the traditional Irish legends and puts a modern spin on them with a heavy helping of friendship and the love of family.

Title: Blood Ties (The Modern Tales of Na Fianna #1)

Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy, Alternate History

Purchase Links:

Createspace Paperback: https://www.createspace.com/5165155

Amazon Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1505596130?keywords=Blood%20Ties%20Hazel%20West&qid=1455604855&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BTPAO7S?keywords=Blood%20Ties%20Hazel%20west&qid=1455651450&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/615849

About the Author

Hazel West lives in Purgatory, er, Florida, with her books and her hedgehog, Horatio. When she’s not writing, she’s reading other people’s books, studying folklore, or binge-watching something on Netflix—drinking coffee is also a given.

Links

Blog: http://hazelwest.blogspot.com

Writing blog: http://talesfromamodernbard.blogspot.com

Twitter

Goodreads

Youtube Channel

Pinterest

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Excerpt

“How did your training go?” Da asked as he pulled back.

“Well, but that isn’t what I came to tell you.” I quickly detailed the events of our patrol first to get that out of the way. Maybe I was stalling, but I felt I should tell him this before anything else.

He listened quietly, but I could tell that it bothered him that we had been attacked and so close to home. It wasn’t like we had been days up in the mountains, it was only an hour’s drive north. Well, an hour my driving, but still.

“There’s something else I need to tell you,” I said after I had finished and assured him Tierney was all right—he and Tierney’s father had been sword brothers as all men of our families were. “I know I should have told you before, but it was so uncertain, I didn’t want to let anyone know. But now that I do have something to show you for it, I felt I must let you know what I have been doing in my spare time.”

“Ciran,” he said warningly, but I shook my head, pleading with him to let me continue.

“Before Tierney and I left for Dublin, Eamon asked us to look into a few…things. Just some tracking—off the books. And at first we didn’t find anything, but this morning, on our way back, we had a new lead, and we checked it out.”

He had turned back to his bench and was gripping the edge tightly, his knuckles white, shaking his head, but I pushed on, unable to stop now that the damage had already been done.

“We went to the stone circle in Westmeath. They made their last stand there.”

“Ciran.” His voice was strangled with rage and grief.

“I found this.” I yanked the medallion out from under my breastplate and put it on the table in front of him, more and more anxious to finish and win him over to my side on this matter for once.

He stood there for a minute, shaking with emotion; of what exactly, I couldn’t be sure, but then he took the medallion that he had crafted himself and after a moment’s hesitation, threw it across the room, overturning the bench with a violent shove and a thundering crash. “It’s not my son, is it?!” he shouted.

I stepped back, more grieved than frightened. He swung around on me. “Why did you disobey me? This is exactly what I was afraid of. Finding something that would give us all false hope and for what? To find his corpse rotting on a spike someday in the north, or worse? You will not go back, Ciran, do you hear me? You will just forget this whole thing.”

“I can hardly disobey the High King, Athair,” I said, trying to keep my own emotions under wraps, fluctuating from indignant anger to fear and grief. “And what if he is still alive? What if we have left him and the others to die alone in pain, waiting for help that will never come? It’s not just Aeden, it is Eamon’s brother, our own crown prince, and as loyal country-men, subjects, and Fianna, we cannot give up so easily! It is our duty to push on!”

His good hand wrapped around one shoulder as the leather-bound stump crashed into the other, jerking me forward. “You will forget him, Ciran, and by Lugh, I swear, if you bring this up in front of your brothers…”

“Daegal already knows, and how can he not? His dreams were what guided me to the standing stones in the first place. Would he dream so often of these things if there was not some need to find them?” I asked.

“Ciran,” he shouted, then softened and hung his head, his jaw tight. “Ciran, mo fuaime, please forget him. There is nothing you can do for your brother now. He is gone, and you had best start believing that. We had all best start believing that.”

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Posted in Author, book tour, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , ,
02 Mar 2016
2 Comments

Best Selling Author on Blog Tour

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Today I am featuring “The Bodyguards of L.A. County” series by Cate Beauman. Here’s more info about the author and her books:

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International bestselling author Cate Beauman is known for her full-length, action-packed romantic suspense series, The Bodyguards of L.A. County. Her novels have been nominated for the National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award, National Indie Excellence Award, Golden Quill Award, Writers Touch Award, and have been named Readers Favorite Five Star books. In 2015, JUSTICE FOR ABBY was selected as the Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Gold Medalist, while SAVING SOPHIE took the Silver Medal. SAVING SOPHIE was also selected as the 2015 Readers Crown Award winner for Romantic Suspense and FALLING FOR SARAH received the silver medal for the 2014 Readers’ Favorite Awards.

Cate makes her home in North Carolina with her husband, two boys, and their St. Bernards, Bear and Jack. Currently Cate is working on Deceiving Bella, the eleventh novel in her popular Bodyguards series.

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Random Fun Facts About Romantic Suspense Author Cate Beauman

  1. I keep notebooks in my car, purse, etc. because I never know when an idea will come to me.
  1. I recently started writing Deceiving Bella, book eleven in the Bodyguards of L.A. County series which I hope to release this summer.
  2. The first editor I shared my work with told me not to quit my day job and refused my manuscript.
  3. I would have to say that one of the biggest things I have learned throughout my writing journey is to support myself, trust who I am as a person and as a writer. I think that’s vital to thriving in an often brutal industry.
  4. Never be afraid to learn, go after what you want, grow from rejection, and be thankful every single minute for your tragedies and triumphs.

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Falling For Sarah (The Bodyguards Of L.A. County #2)

 

Widow Sarah Johnson struggled to pick up the pieces after her life was ripped apart. After two years of grieving, she’s found contentment in her thriving business as photographer to Hollywood’s A-list and in raising her angel-faced daughter, Kylee… until bodyguard and long-time friend Ethan Cooke changes everything with a searing moonlight kiss. 

 

Sarah’s world turns upside down as she struggles with her unexpected attraction to Ethan and the guilt of betraying her husband’s memory. But when blue roses and disturbing notes start appearing on her doorstep, she has no choice but to lean on Ethan as he fights to save her from a stalker that won’t stop until he has what he prizes most. 

 

Goodreads I Amazon

Justice For Abby (The Bodyguards Of L.A. County #6)

 

Fashion designer Abigail Harris has been rescued, but her nightmare is far from over. Determined to put her harrowing ordeal behind her and move on, she struggles to pick up the pieces of her life while eluding the men who want her dead. 

The Mid-Atlantic Sex Ring is in ruins after Abby’s interviews with the police. The organization is eager to exact their revenge before her testimony dismantles the multi-million dollar operation for good.

 

Abby’s safety rests in the hands of former US Marshal, Jerrod Quinn. Serious-minded and obsessed with protocol, Ethan Cooke Security’s newest agent finds himself dealing with more than he bargains for when he agrees to take on his beautiful, free-spirited client. 

As the trial date nears, Abby’s case takes a dangerous turn. Abby and Jerrod soon discover themselves in a situation neither of them expect while Jerrod fights to stop the ring from silencing Abby once and for all.

 

Goodreads I Amazon

Saving Sophie (The Bodyguards Of L.A. County #7)

 

Jewelry designer Sophie Burke has fled Maine for the anonymity of the big city. She’s starting over with a job she tolerates and a grungy motel room she calls home on the wrong side of town, but anything is better than the nightmare she left behind.

Stone McCabe is Ethan Cooke Security’s brooding bad boy more interested in keeping to himself than anything else—until the gorgeous blond with haunted violet eyes catches his attention late one rainy night.

Stone reluctantly gives Sophie a hand only to quickly realize that the shy beauty with the soft voice and pretty smile has something to hide. Tangled up in her secrets, Stone offers Sophie a solution that has the potential to free her from her problems once and for all—or jeopardize both of their lives.

 

Goodreads I Amazon

Finding Lyla (The Bodyguards Of L.A. County #10)

 

Principal Dancer Lyla Markovik-Avery is always on the go. Grueling practices and endless performances rule her busy days—and things are about to get more hectic. Russia is rolling out the red carpet for their beloved star, despite the string of violent terrorist attacks that have rocked the nation.

 

Bodyguard Collin Michaels’ life is falling apart. His long-time relationship recently ended. He’s trying to start over, but that’s easier said than done. Luckily, Collin has a new assignment on the horizon: keeping a beautiful ballerina safe for the next three weeks.

 

Collin finds comfort in Lyla’s easy friendship, but that all changes after a night out on the town. Simple feelings become complicated—something Collin can’t afford, especially when tragedy strikes and Collin realizes Lyla’s caught in the middle of a dangerous plot for revenge.

 

Collin and Lyla are forced to flee. They need to reach the border before it’s too late, but the odds are stacked against them in a country that wants them dead. With time running out, Collin formulates a risky plan that might be their only chance of making it out alive

 

Goodreads I Amazon

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