Helpless Hearts Book Trailer

My latest release, a western historical romance set in the 1870's is now available.

You can find it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Helpless-Hearts-ebook/dp/B009PSQ4MQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351259841&sr=8-1&keywords=helpless+hearts

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/helpless-hearts-lilly-gayle/1113461519?ean=2940015572384

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/244573

Paperback available now at Amazon Createspace: http://www.amazon.com/Helpless-Hearts-1-Lilly-Gayle/dp/1480101796/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351260021&sr=1-1&keywords=helpless+hearts+on+createspace
Or through any other book vendor using ISBN: 10: 1480101796

But the best news of all? My brother designed a book trailer for Helpless Hearts and it's awesome! Take a look and let me know what you think:

A Ghostly Tale from Kathryn Knight

My guest this week is sister TWRP author Kathryn Knight. When she asked what I wanted her to blog about, I asked if she had a blog post that would make a great Halloween story. Her reply curled my toes.

Not only is the following a true story, but it took place at the farm Stephen King used for his vampire novel Salem's Lot. And Kathryn knows the family who owns the farm. Can't get any spookier than that. So, I'm just going to turn my blog over to Kathryn and enjoy this chilling story.

Thanks Lilly!

True ghost stories are particularly eerie.  While I write about ghosts, I’ve never actually seen one.  However, our good friends have had quite a history with a ghost they call Granny Griffin.  Granny Griffin happens to reside on the farm Stephen King depicts in his novel Salem’s Lot, although he changed the name in the book to Griffen farm.  The farm is located in the Maine town of Durham, where King grew up.  His best friend, Randy, lived on the 200-acre dairy farm, which dates back to the 1860’s.

In the early 1970’s, Carlene Griffin was unable to care for the farm and had to walk away from it.  My friend’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. W., bought it, with all its furniture, treasures, and apparent ghosts.  As a child, my friend found photos from the Civil War while exploring the attic!  The first news of the ghost came when Mrs. W was approached by a medium in town, who insisted she had a message from the other side that needed to be delivered.  The medium wrote a note from Granny Griffin to her daughter Carlene, telling her not to worry about the fight they’d had before she died.  Mrs. W. was charged with delivering the note to Carlene, who was still living on the property in a renovated hen house.

My friend saw the ghost of Granny Griffin on several occasions, the first being one night when he was about 13.  A figure appeared in the doorway of his bedroom, wearing a long house coat.  He assumed it was his mother, but when he asked what she wanted, she did not answer.  As she turned away, her gray bun was clearly visible.  In the morning, Mrs. W. denied checking up on her son during the night—and he realized he had never, ever seen her wear her hair in a bun.

The father, Mr. W., remained skeptical.  Until the night he heard footsteps and rose to check the house.  He saw someone descending the stairs and followed the figure down the steps and into the kitchen, where she disappeared.  When he returned to the bedroom, Mrs. W awoke to ask what was wrong.  Mr. W. replied, “We’ll talk about it in the morning.  But let’s just say I believe you now.”

The ghost in Silver Lake has a message to share as well…and despite their painful past, Rain and Jason are forced to reunite to help the desperate spirit.  I hope you’ll check out the blurb and excerpt below!  Please leave a comment and contact info if you’d like to enter the giveaway drawing.  Happy Halloween!

Blurb:

Rain Anderson can't decide which is more unsettling—encountering the ghost of her missing friend, or reuniting with the man whose love she foolishly rejected. But one thing is certain: the past has come back to haunt her, quite literally.

Five years ago, Rain's tight-knit group of high school friends unraveled when one vanished during their senior year. Now, a parent's deathbed request has reunited the friends at Silver Lake, including Jason Lansing, the man Rain discarded. Rain and Jason discover the powerful attraction between them has survived, but though Jason is willing to forgive, he can't let himself forget. The possibility of falling for Rain again is too risky.

Slamming doors, crashing objects, flaring fires—clearly the ghost has a message to share. As Rain and Jason struggle to unravel the truth, they must face a desperate spirit in need of help…and a burning passion that refuses to die.

 Excerpt:

            “I saw...a figure.  A figure with dark hair, and I think it was Brandy.”  She shuddered and put her forehead back on his chest.

Reluctantly, he moved their bodies apart a bit and scanned her face.  He held on to her shoulders and asked calmly, “You saw Brandy?  Brandy is here?”

            She shook her head.  “No, I saw… like… an image of Brandy.  I woke up, because it was cold, and I saw something moving.  It was Brandy, I’m sure of it, although I didn’t see her face clearly.  And then she, um, disappeared.”

            “An image of Brandy?  Are you saying you saw a ghost, Rain?”  He was pretty sure she’d had another nightmare, but the way she had flown out of her room gave him the impression it had been an extremely vivid one.

            “I know, it sounds ridiculous.  But that’s what I saw.  And she sort of, well, went through the wall.  I’m sure you don’t believe me,” she added miserably, lifting her stormy eyes to his.

            He pulled her back into a hug before he could stop himself.  “I absolutely believe you.  Whether you were awake or asleep, you saw Brandy and that’s scary.  I don’t think we can deny that weird things are happening here.”

            Jason smoothed her hair and waited patiently for her trembling to subside.  If a ghost really was lurking in her bedroom, there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot he could do about that.  A rare sense of powerlessness caused his jaw to clench in frustration.

He stopped watching the door and instead focused on the gorgeous woman in his arms.  She clung to him, and his body responded to hers with a familiar ache.  He knew he was losing the battle to keep his feelings platonic.

Amazon Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Lake-ebook/dp/B009AEE6DO/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1345749376&sr=1-1

TWRP Buy Link:  http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=177_139&products_id=4973http://www.thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=177_139&products_id=4973

Oh. Wow! Great story, Kathryn. And great blurb for your ghostly romantic suspense, Silver Lake. I'm definitely adding it to my TBR list!

 More about Kathryn:

As a child, Kathryn Knight kept her parents on a constant quest to find enough reading material to last her through each week.  An early fondness for books about horses later gave way to a lasting preference for both love stories and ghost stories; as a writer, the paranormal romance genre is a perfect fit.  Silver Lake is Kathryn's first novel; her second novel, Gull Harbor, has also received a contract from The Wild Rose Press and will be released in 2013.  She lives in New England with her husband, her sons, and a number of rescued animals.  Please visit her at www.kathrynknightbooks.com,  http://kathrynknightbooks.blogspot.com/, or on Facebook at Kathryn Knight books.

Kathryn Knight

~Passionate Romance with a Paranormal Twist~

http://www.amazon.com/Silve

r-Lake-Kathryn-Knight/dp/1612173853/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1350858685&sr=8-2&keywords=silver+lake

Get Your Pink On!

It's October. That time of year when I once again remind ladies to 

As a registered x-ray technologist certified in mammography and a breast cancer survivor, I can't stress enough the importance of an annual screening mammogram. It's one of the few x-ray examinations that can save your life.

I know some women find them painful. Believe me. I hear it all the time. But a mammogram isn't nearly as painful as breast cancer. Trust me on this.

In June 2007, I had my screening mammogram. My friend and sister mammographer, Linda, "squeezed" me in after we'd finished our patients for the day. This was back when our hospital still had film screen, so the x-rays dropped from a processor. I pulled the curtain in the tech area and was standing in front of the view box in my pink floral cape when Linda began hanging the films. The Left CC (cranial-caudal--the film taken from the top of the breast) fell from the processor first. It looked fine. No different from the year before. Then the Right CC fell out. It looked--different from the mammogram I'd had 18 months earlier.

Yes, I was 6 months late getting my mammogram, but I had no pain, no lumps, no family history, and no reason to be concerned. Until I saw that Right CC. There, next to my chest wall on the inside of my right breast was a star-shaped lesion with a large calcification in the center. That same lesion was evident on the RMLO (right medial-lateral obligque image--the one taken from the side.) But it was the Friday before Father's Day and the radiologist had already gone home. So, I had all weekend to worry about that lesion. And suddenly, I had a BIG reason for concern. I'm not a doctor or radiologist, but I'd seen enough mammograms and enough cancers in my time to know that lesion didn't look good.

On Monday, the radiologist ordered additional images and an ultrasound. I had those procedures the following Friday. And the Friday after that, I had a biopsy. The results came back July 3, 2007. I had breast cancer. Stage 1, but on the cusp of being Stage 2 because the margins weren't clean and the cancer had a high proliferation rate...which meant is was aggressive and growing fast. I had DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma Insitu- an early cancer that is still contained in the ducts) and an invasive ductal carcinoma--a cancer in the duct that has spread to the surrounding tissue. And it was triple negative.


Triple-negative breast cancer doesn't express the genes for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) or Her2/neu. Prognosis for Triple Negative breast cancer is the same for other breast cancers at the same stage, but more aggressive treatment is require to achieve that prognosis.

Some types of triple negative breast cancer are known to be more aggressive with poor prognosis, while other types have a prognosis similar to or better than hormone receptor positive breast cancers. Studies of  triple negative breast cancers suggest that with optimal treatment, 20 year survival rates are close to those of hormone positive cancer.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple-negative_breast_cancer

Although my cancer was Stage 1, I had a lumpectomy where more tissue was removed from the breast to ensure "clean" margins and I had to have a lymph node biopsy to prove the cancer hadn't spread beyond the breast. Four nodes were removed and all four were negative. But because of my triple negative status, I had to have chemo and radiation. I had the chemo first.--two chemo drugs, Adriamycin and Cytoxan once every other week for eight weeks. Then after an MRI to prove there were no more lesions or DCIS, I was given the choice of a mastectomy and radiation, or radiation treatments five days a week for 6 weeks.

I chose to keep my breast, which meant mammograms every six months for 3 years and yearly MRI's for three. To this day, there are times when I second guess my decision to keep my breast. But, had I chosen a mastectomy, I'm sure I would have second-guessed that decision as well.

Triple negative breast cancer has a different recurrence rate and pattern than hormone-positive breast cancers. The risk of recurrence is much higher for the first 3-5 years but drops sharply and substantially below that of hormone-positive breast cancers after that.

On December 12 of this year, it will be five years since my last radiation treatment. I will officially reach the five year mark and my personal risk of a recurrence will drop to that of someone with hormone positive breast cancer. Which isn't to say that I'm no longer at risk, but by God, I still think I have a reason to celebrate!

So the next time you hear a woman complaining about how much a mammogram hurts, remind her that a few seconds of discomfort could save her life.

If she claims she doesn't need a mammogram because she isn't having any problems, remind her that most breast cancers are silent and painless. By the time a woman feels a lump, she already has an active disease.

Remind her that if she has extremely dense breast, a mammogram can miss a lobular carcinoma hiding within the glandular tissue. So, if she feels a lump and the mammogram is normal, she needs an ultrasound and possibly a biopsy.

If she claims she doesn't have a family history of breast cancer, remind her that 70% of all NEW breast cancers are in women with no family history.

Hey, someone in the family has to be the first to screw up the gene pool. In my family, I was that person.

Although breast cancer is rare in women under 40 and the risk increases with age, no woman who has breasts is immune. That includes trans-gendered women.

Are you at risk? Check out the breast cancer assessment tool.
http://www.cancer.gov/bcrisktool/Default.aspx


And for more information on breast cancer, please visit http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/BreastCancer/index?ssSourceSiteId=null