Author Spotlight Featuring Dana Wayne & Her Latest Book ~ Whispers On The Wind

I've said this many times, but it never gets old. 

I love finding new-to-me authors and their books to bring you. 

Please welcome Dana Wayne!!

Thanks, L.A. it's wonderful to be here. 

Writers hear voices in their head all the time and virtually anything can spark that internal dialog.  Sometimes, those voices happen in a dream. That’s how Whispers came about. I woke up with this voice in my head telling me about Cooper Delaney and the voice in his head. I knew I could not go back to sleep until those thoughts were captured on paper, so at 3:30 a.m., I get up, turn on my computer and type away for two hours. 

My husband, bless his heart, is now accustomed to waking in the wee hours of the night to find himself all alone in the bed. He used to get up and check on me, but now he knows my imaginary friends are talking and I’ll come back to bed when they’re done.

We were headed to Dallas recently and I had this scene going on in my head and blurted out “Don’t make me do that.” He cut his eyes over and quipped “Are you talking to me or your imaginary friends again?”

That’s how it is living with a writer.

Excerpt:

You let him kill her.

The angry female voice in the pre-dawn hour jolted Cooper Delaney from a restless sleep.

Adrenalin pumping, he rolled to the right and automatically grabbed his pistol from the nightstand, fully expecting to see a stranger beside the bed.

Nothing but moonlit shadows. He swiveled his head to the left.

The room was empty.

He blinked and drew in a deep breath, trying to dispel remnants of the dream making sleep all but impossible for over a month. Always the same dream; a shadowy figure begging Coop to find her. That was it…find me, please. Two weeks ago, the voice changed and insisted Coop had to stop him.

Stop who? From what?

Tonight, the dream exploded into a full-blown nightmare.

He put the gun back on the table and lay down, right arm over his eyes. “Shit,” he whispered as the vision replayed through his mind. Powerful hands gripped her throat, the eerie silence punctuated by ragged gasps as she struggled for air. Blood trickled from her nose and the corner of her mouth. Dark hair wedged into a jagged cut across her forehead. Terror-filled eyes stared at the figure bent over her.

All the while, the voice reproached…you didn’t stop him.

At forty-three, Coop considered himself a straight-forward, no nonsense lawman, well known and respected as the Sheriff of Baker County, Texas. He looked at the facts, the evidence, and made logical, rational decisions. And yet, the dream was so real, he smelled the metallic odor of blood, felt the dampness of the earth around her.

 “Dammit.” He lowered his arm and punched the bed. I’m losing my fricking mind.

It was bad enough when the voice invaded his sleep, but two days ago, he heard it at the kitchen table where he sat eating breakfast. Wide awake. This time, she warned he – whoever he was – would kill again.

He tossed the sheet aside and sat on the edge of the bed. Heart pounding, his breath hissed as he gulped in air. Elbows on his knees, he cradled his head in his hands. “Just a dream,” he murmured, “a bad dream.”

He stumbled to the window and shoved it open with an angry thrust, gasping when the rush of cool night air caused gooseflesh to prickle his sweat-coated body. “A dream,” he whispered, willing himself to believe. “Nobody died.” He pulled down the sash and pressed his forehead against the glass pane. “Nobody died.”        

When his racing heart finally slowed, he pushed away and headed for the bathroom, stopping at the foot of the bed as he tried to remember if Miss Eva had guests tonight. A curse escaped parched lips as he grabbed his jeans from a chair. Why in the world did she want to go into the B&B business anyway?

Even as the thought flitted through his mind, he knew the answer. She decided he needed a wife and used the lovely Antebellum home to lure prospects. Hence, the majority of her guests were single women looking for a good time, or to change their marital status. He lost track of the propositions, both subtle and otherwise, thrown his way in the last six months. When had women become so forward?

He opened the door and padded on bare feet to the bathroom he shared with his son, Jason, when he was home from college. Guests used the one across the hall. 

Since sleep was out of the question at this point, he threw on a shirt and headed downstairs for coffee.

Light showing under the kitchen door stopped him cold. “Crap. Company.”

Buy:

 Amazon | Website | Draft To Digital

Blurb:

You didn’t stop him. He killed her.

Dire warnings from a voice only he can hear makes Sheriff Cooper Delaney doubt his sanity. When a body is found matching one from a recent nightmare, he believes he’s gone off the deep end. The dead do not talk to the living. Or do they? One body becomes two. Are there more?

Heart broken by betrayal, Dr. Samantha Fowler finds herself starting over at thirty-three. When she meets the local sheriff, the attraction is instant and fierce, threatening to crumble the defensive walls around her heart. Once burned, twice shy, she vows to stay far away from him for the duration of her stay at the quaint B & B they share. But when she finds one body, then another, avoiding the handsome Texan is impossible.

He’s not done.

Quarry in sight, he watches and waits. “I am the master. I cannot be stopped.”  

The clock is ticking…

Bio:

Awarding winning author Dana Wayne is a sixth generation Texan and resides in the Piney Woods with her husband, (and biggest fan), a Calico cat named Katie, three children and four grandchildren. She routinely speaks at book clubs, writer

Her debut novel, Secrets of The Heart, was awarded First Place - Contemporary Romance, 2017 by Texas Association of Authors, was a finalist for the 2017 Scéal Award for Contemporary Romance, Reviewers Top Pick and included on the Top 10 Books to Read This Winter from Books & Benches online magazine.

Her second novel, Mail Order Groom, released in April, 2017, received 4.5 Stars and the Crowned Heart from InD’tale Magazine, 5 Stars from Readers Favorite and Books & Benches, and was included in the list of 100 Best Indie Books to Read Before You Die. Her third book, Whispers on The Wind, is a romantic suspense released in March, 2018, garnered 5-Star review from Readers Favorite.

Affiliations include Romance Writers of America, Texas Association of Authors, Writers League of Texas, East Texas Writers Guild, Northeast Texas Writers Organization, and East Texas Writers Association.

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