Spotlight & Giveaway: Winter at the Beach by Sheila Roberts

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Sheila Roberts to HJ!

Hi Sheila and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Winter at the Beach!

 
Hi right back atcha! Thanks so much for allowing me to hang out with the gang here at Harlequin Junkie.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

This is the second book in the Moonlight Harbor series and I’d like to welcome you all to this Washington Coast beach town, and, specifically the Driftwood Inn, managed by the intrepid Jenna Jones, who lives with her daughter, her Aunt Edie, a moochie handyman named Pete and Jolly Roger the parrot. Jenna is determined to make the beach the place to be this winter and has come up with a great idea for a festival. Come one, come all. But, as often happens with the best laid plans, things go awry and Jenna and her Driftwood Inn guests are going to have to band together and tough it out during a storm that’s enough to have the tourists running for home… except for the fact that the road out of town is closed. Bring on the hot buttered rum and let the problems get solved and the romance begin!
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

Life at the beach was good. It was even better when you ran a motel and had people staying in it.
Lately life at the beach hadn’t been quite so good for Jenna Jones, manager of the Driftwood Inn in the beach town of Moonlight Harbor, Washington.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The town of Moonlight Harbor was inspired by the fun beach town of Ocean Shores, Washington where you can, indeed, enter a tourist shop through the jaws of a giant shark. Several years ago a storm took out the power, leaving the residents trapped with no way to pump gas and no way to get out even if they could. Just like in this story, they all banded together and helped each other through it.
• I got so hungry for cookies while writing this book (warning to authors: never put a cookie exchange in your story. It’s bad for the hips!). Many of the cookie recipes were submitted by readers who hang out with me on my Facebook Like page.

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

I love my protagonist, Jenna Jones. Her rat of an ex cheated on her and then hit her up for spousal abuse when they divorced. But she’s made a new start and is determined to carve out a great life for herself and her daughter. And the beach is the perfect place to do that because, after all, life’s good at the beach. Especially when two gorgeous men are both crazy about you.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

“Uh-oh,” said Celeste.
“Uh-oh,” Jolly Roger repeated, then subsided into silence as darkness took over the kitchen.
More like oh, no. “Okay, don’t anybody panic,” Jenna said as panic flooded her entire body. “We need candles.” And flashlights. And she had to get outside and start the generator. She made a dash for the drawer where Aunt Edie kept her matches and emergency candles and collided with her sister, who was obviously on the same hunt.
“Whoa,” squeaked Celeste as she ricocheted against the kitchen counter. This was followed by the plink of cookies tumbling to the ground. “Oh, no! The snowballs.”
“Don’t move,” Jenna said as she slid along the floor, feeling for the drawer. She got to it and fumbled around inside until her fingers closed around a thin candle and then a box of matches. She managed to light the candle without setting her fingers on fire and held it up.
There, in the thin circle of light, stood Celeste, staring at the floor, horrified. Jenna bent to inspect the damage. Cookies lay scattered across the vinyl like pebbles, most of them broken.
“Some of them are okay,” Celeste said and began to scoop them up.
“You can’t give people cookies that have fallen on the floor,” Jenna protested. All they needed was for someone to get sick and sue them.
“Sure, you can. Two-second rule,” Celeste said. “Anyway, Aunt Edie’s floor is so clean you can eat off it. Right, Aunt Edie?”
“Yeah, with Pete trooping through here all the time in his muddy boots? Toss ’em,” Jenna ordered and dug a candle holder from the drawer. “At least we still have the brownies.”
“And a few of the snowballs didn’t fall,” Aunt Edie said. “With them and the brownies, we should have enough to put on some small plates. And we can make some non-bake chocolate cookies to add.”
Jenna set the candle on the counter, then pulled out a flashlight. “Round up some of the scented candles,” she told her sister. “And get a fire going in the wood- stove. I’ll bring in the lantern and the oil lamp from the garage when I come back.”
“Where are you going?” Celeste asked.
“To start the motel generator.” And to have a quiet nervous breakdown.

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

A smile, of course. And I hope this will encourage readers to remember that when we all pull together we can survive difficult times and challenges.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

Excited to be putting the final touches on the spring release of the next Moonlight Harbor book, The Beach Retreat.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: US only: A copy of Welcome to Moonlight Harbor and Winter at the Beach

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Excerpt from Winter at the Beach:

Everything’s ready for the Seaside with Santa festival parade. Maybe not everyone though. A few people have their doubts about carrying on when a storm is predicted, including Jenna’s sister Celeste, who’s going to be riding on the Driftwood Inn float. Let’s listen in:

Ten minutes later, they were all settled in Aunt Edie’s cozy living room with hot buttered rum and a plate of Christmas cookies. Roger, who’d been put to sleep for the night, was quiet beneath his cage cover. Which was just as well, as there would’ve been much whining for him to parrot.
“I’m going to get pneumonia in that.” Celeste groaned, looking at her costume, a glittery turquoise mermaid tail and a body suit with a turquoise bra.
“It’s the Driftwood Inn. You have to look beachy,” Jenna said. “And you’ll be sitting under a beach umbrella. That’ll serve as a wind break.”
“That’s not a wind out there. It’s a hurricane.”
“All this complaining from the woman who went skydiving on her spring break? Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“Gone with the wind.”
“Ha-ha. Anyway, the weather will be fine by tomor- row,” Jenna said. “These storms always blow them- selves out.”
She’d said the same thing to Seth earlier when he’d asked if she still wanted him to drive the float. “Fine by me,” he’d said with a shrug. “I’m under the thing. I won’t be stuck sitting on top in a mermaid costume. I hope your sister’s still speaking to you after this.” Now, listening to her sister, Jenna hoped so, too.
Her cell phone rang, and she picked it up to hear Kiki Strom on the other end. “I don’t want to discourage you or rain on our parade—so to speak,” she said. “But I’m wondering if we need to cancel. The weather report doesn’t look good. There’s supposed to be a big storm blowing in tomorrow.”
“I think it already got here,” Jenna said. “It’ll prob- ably be on its way out of town by the time the parade starts.”
“That does happen sometimes, but I’m worried that the weather we have now is just the warm-up act.”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,” Jenna suggested, and hoped they wouldn’t get to the bridge only to find it washed out.
“Okay. It’s your call,” Kiki said, and left Jenna won- dering if she was making the right one.
Of course, she was.
Or was she simply being stubborn? This festival was her baby, and it was always hard to part with one’s baby. It was also hard to fail. Was she doing all this to prove she wasn’t a failure? Who was she trying to impress, the people of Moonlight Harbor? Her ex?
There was an ugly thought. She sent it packing. “Who was that?” Aunt Edie asked her.
“Kiki, wanting to make sure the parade is still on.” “Oh, I do hope so,” said Aunt Edie. “People have
worked so hard on their floats. It would be a shame to let a little wind ruin everything.”
There, thought Jenna. She wasn’t doing this just for herself. Other people wanted the parade to happen as much as she did.
“A little wind,” Celeste repeated. “All we’re missing is Dorothy’s house and the Wicked Witch of the West.”
“It’ll be fine by tomorrow,” predicted Jenna the weather girl. “Anyway, the show must go on.”
“You’d better pray the curtain doesn’t fall on us,” Celeste said.
“Since when have you become such a Debbie Downer?” Jenna demanded.
“Since you decided to stake me to a float in nothing but a mermaid tail,” Celeste retorted.
“With a body suit,” Jenna reminded her.
“Anyone like more buttered rum?” asked Aunt Edie. “Yes, please.” Celeste held out her mug. “And make
sure you send a big batch with me tomorrow. Maybe if I get drunk enough, I won’t realize I’m freezing to death.”
“Oh, very funny,” Jenna said in disgust.
But after fielding four more calls from worried pa- rade participants, her resolve was starting to falter, and worry edged its way into her mind as she lay sleeping. Her dream put her on the Driftwood Inn float in a wind so strong she found herself gripping the roof of the little motel with both hands while the rest of her body (in a mermaid costume) flew out like a human flag.
She was the only one on that float and the only one on the street, while all along the parade route angry people booed her as she passed, throwing tomatoes and clamshells at her. Her sister stood among them, all bundled up in a warm coat and scarf and laughing uproariously.
Susan Frank came into sight and she was dressed like Glinda, the good witch from the Wizard of Oz. But she wasn’t smiling. “I told you this would hap- pen,” she hollered.
Meanwhile, Jenna was trying desperately to hang on to her miniature motel. Finally, the wind became too much for her and she lost her grip.
“Good riddance,” called Susan as the strong wind caught Jenna up, blowing her toward a tall stand of fir trees. Head over heels she tumbled, trying to straighten herself out, until a big tree loomed in front of her. She was going to get hit!
She woke up with a cry, her heart racing. In the bed next to her, Celeste was lightly snoring, oblivious to her sister’s nightmare.
That was all it was, Jenna assured herself. A silly dream.
The next morning the wind appeared to have died down. The sky was still gray and threatening, but, so far, the clouds had only been able to squeeze out a light mist. Mist was okay. They could deal with mist.
“See?” she said to her sister as they made the coffee for breakfast. “It’s going to be fine.”
“It doesn’t look fine,” Celeste retorted.
Pete walked in at that moment. “Is the coffee ready?” “Not yet,” Jenna said. “Sit down and have a bagel.”
Had she just offered food to Pete the mooch? Good grief, she was turning into her aunt.
He plopped down at the kitchen table. “Weather- man’s predicting a big storm for later today.”
“Well, it’s not going to come until after the parade,” Jenna said firmly.
“You better hope it doesn’t.”
“It’ll be fine,” she told both him and herself.
“I do wish I could be on the float with Celeste,” Aunt Edie said wistfully.
Yes, that was what they needed, her aunt out in the freezing cold, getting pneumonia. “I know,” she said. “I’m sorry you have to work the desk.” Thank God she’d come up with a reason to keep her aunt inside and warm.
Aunt Edie sighed. “Ah, well. That’s the hospitality business.”
“Courtney will be in to help later this afternoon,” Jenna said. “Maybe you and Celeste and I can check out the booths at the pier if the weather turns nicer.” It could improve.
Maybe. In a parallel universe.
A cloudy sky still scowled at them as she and Celeste drove behind the float to the start of the parade route, where everyone was to assemble. The wind had come to the party. But it wasn’t too bad yet. Hope- fully, the worst of the storm would hold off until after the parade… Or, better yet, wait and come in at night, after everyone had shopped and eaten. Yes, nighttime would be okay. Sort of.
Most of the participants were present, and Brody and Ellis were on hand with their clipboards, directing traffic, when the Driftwood Inn float pulled up. The fire and police departments had brought only one police car and fire truck. Frank waved at her from behind the wheel of his patrol car and called, “Good luck!”
“This is all the patrol cars you could spare?” Jenna asked the chief of police. “And what happened to the motorcycles?”
“Can’t spare ’em,” he replied tersely. “With the storm about to break, we need to be ready for emergencies. You should’ve canceled,” he added, giving her a dis- approving frown.
Her cell phone rang, and the mayor’s name showed on the screen. Had Parker been talking to the chief? Jenna opted not to take the call and shoved the phone in her pocket. People were already gathering along the parade route. They’d paid good money to the various motels and B and Bs, and they’d come expecting to have a good time. And that was what they were going to get.
Celeste had put on her mermaid costume only to discover she couldn’t walk, so Seth had carried her to the car back at the motel. Now he helped her out, walked with her to the float and set her on the little bench they’d disguised as a rock. The beach umbrella in back of it was swaying like a palm tree in a typhoon, but Jenna noticed her sister wasn’t looking quite so cranky anymore. Even though she was with Mr. Fabulous, the cop back home, she never seemed to tire of male attention.
A lone plastic flower from one of the floats blew off and danced past.
“Are we ready?” Brody asked Jenna.
She checked the time on her cell. “We still have ten minutes.” The last thing she wanted was to get to the viewing stand and be stuck with the mayor ten minutes before parade time.
He pointed to the leaden sky. “I don’t think I’d wait.”
The high school marching band was in place, ready to kick off the parade, but she hated to start early. What if some people were still making their way there?
A burst of wind whipped past her, nearly taking her hat in the process. That decided it. “Okay, let’s go,” she said, and a fat drop of rain landed on her nose.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

The town of Moonlight Harbor needs to convince tourists that the beach is still the place to be—even when the sunshine goes south for the winter. Jenna Jones, new proprietor of The Driftwood Inn, has the perfect idea: a holiday festival called Seaside with Santa.

Jenna is happy to throw herself into planning the event. With all the decorating, preparation and extra reservations at the inn because of the festival—and with two wonderful but very different men hoping to claim more of her time and her heart—Jenna is busy. Busy, but happy. Even with her troublesome ex in the picture, life feels as close to perfect as she’s ever known.

Until the weather turns her festival into a farce. Suddenly Mother Nature is not only raining on Jenna’s parade, the old bat’s trying to blow the floats and their princesses out to sea. Soon everyone is without power and the road out of town is blocked. And Jenna has a full motel.

After the generator conks out, she’s not so sure she and her guests will make it through to the New Year in one piece. But with a little pulling together and a lot of holiday spirit, everyone might find that life—and Christmas—is always good at the beach.

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Meet the Author:

Sheila Roberts is happily married and lives in the Pacific Northwest. She did lots of things before settling into her writing career, including owning a singing telegram company and playing in a band. Her band days are over, but she still enjoys writing songs. Sheila’s books are best sellers and have been made into movies for the Lifetime and Hallmark channels. When she’s not speaking to women’s groups or at conferences or hanging out with her girlfriends she can be found writing about those things near and dear to women’s hearts: family, friends, and chocolate.
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