New Release: Life in Chapel Springs (Ane Mulligan)

The Story Behind
Life in Chapel Springs

by Ane Mulligan

The most asked question I get is what prompted this story. Why Lacey? Why the accident and reconstruction? I’m a visual writer, so I need photos. When I start out with a new book (in this case the series), I find photos of people who look like the character I’m imagining. I use magazines and keep files of faces I’ve torn out of them. While looking for Lacey, I came across two photos appearing almost like a before and after of the same woman.

The resemblance was striking and sparked the “what if” that became Lacey’s story. Many women have life-altering surgery, whether elective, emergency, or life-saving. My research included interviewing a plastic surgeon and a psychologist, so I could be sure I had the psyche right and the surgery results correct. You see, often—more often than not—women have a difficult time with the results of these life-altering surgeries. A high percentage dislike the “new” self. It doesn’t match the image we women tend to carry inside us.

I still had one problem. The character Lacey was a shy, quiet young woman—so shy and quiet, she wasn’t even talking to me! I had to sit on her story for three years. Finally, after two more Chapel Springs books, Lacey “talked” to me. I understood her and could write her story. Maybe she was ready to tell it.

What both Lacey and I both hope women will take away from her story in Life in Chapel Springs is that each of us is uniquely made by God, and as Great Aunt Lola used to say, “God don’t make no junk.”

About Life in Chapel Springs:

Life in Chapel Springs has turned upside down and inside out.

Shy Lacey Dawson was happily writing murder mysteries for the community theater with her eye on Broadway. Then, a freak accident results in traumatic injuries requiring facial reconstruction. When the bandages come off, Lacey’s world is tuned inside out. Will Chapel Springs rally behind its own … or will life unravel?

Is it a midlife pregnancy or … cancer? Claire will keep her secret until she’s sure—but it isn’t easy. Neither is trying to buy a home pregnancy test without anyone finding out. Between her twins’ double wedding, the caterer cancelling, a looming nationwide art tour and her health, Claire’s life is upside down.

Gold has been discovered in Chapel Springs and the ensuing fever is rising. Then Mayor Riley discovers someone has bought the mineral rights to his land. A stranger and his nefarious investors set out to buy all the homes in Chapel Springs and mine the gold. Will life in Chapel Springs become the tailings of a gold mine?

About Ane Mulligan:

While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, award-winning author Ane Mulligan has worn many: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that's a fancy name for a lobbyist), CEO of a Community Theatre group, playwright, humor columnist, and novelist. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. Ane resides in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband. You can find her on her website, Amazon Author page, Novel Rocket, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Guest Author: Ane Mulligan

A great big, very warm welcome to Ane Mulligan! I always enjoy Ane's visits to Chirp 'N Chatter. This time, she brings a fun post about her part in a soon-to-be-released collection of novellas centering around tiny houses. I am so jealous! Had I known this collection was in the works, I would have been clamoring at Ane's door, begging for my name to be on one of the novellas. Tiny houses...oh, my! What a charming concept! Love it, love it, love it! You'll be excited to know that Ane will be giving away an electronic copy of Love is Sweeter in Sugar Hill. Just leave a comment to be entered in the drawing.

While a large, floppy straw hat is her favorite, award-winning author Ane Mulligan has worn many: hairdresser, legislative affairs director (that's a fancy name for a lobbyist), CEO of a Community Theatre group, playwright, humor columnist, and novelist. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. Ane resides in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband. You can find her on her website, Amazon Author page, Novel Rocket, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Tiny Houses, Big Ideas

Have you ever had something completely off-the-wall capture your imagination? That's what happened to me when I saw the first TV show about tiny houses. I love the idea of being able to take your home with you when you travel. And I love to travel. I know it's the romantic in me, and I could probably adapt quite well to one. After all, I spend hours a day, working in a small space, while my imagination takes me worldwide.

When the mayor of Sugar Hill asked me when I was going to place a book in our town, I decided I'd put my fascination with tiny houses into the book … sometime. I still had the last two books in my Chapel Springs series to finish. Then, some of my writing pals brought up the idea of us doing a novella collection together. So I tossed out the idea of making a tiny house the unifying element.

They asked questions; I sent them links from a newsletter I get. We shared photos back and forth of the ones we liked. Within a short time, all were onboard. We wrote blurbs for our projected stories and came up with a title: Coming Home ~ a Tiny House Collection.

I took my story idea from an episode of Tiny House – Big Living about a traveling nurse, who was tired of closing up her place and renting on the road. She was buying a tiny house so she could take it with her. I should have done more research on the job of a traveling nurse rather than on tiny houses.

I'd already started working on my outline, when a plot point took me to my critique partner's daughter, who's a nurse. My idea of what a traveling nurse did and what they actually do wouldn't work for my story. Terrific.

Here it was, my idea, and all my writer pals had their stories finished or nearly so. Me? I was at the starting gate without anything. So I did what I always do in this spot. I call my critique partner Micelle Griep. A short time of brainstorming and we were on to something. Michelle's mind works so much like mine—or maybe it's because we've been critique partners for 13 years. Whatever, it works.

The city motto for Sugar Hill is "the sweet life," so naturally, I titled my novella Love is Sweeter in Sugar Hill. And while it gave me fits in the beginning, it worked out in the end to be a sweet romance.

Love is Sweeter in Sugar Hill, by Ane Mulligan

She has a tiny house. He lives in a mansion. She vows to charge a doctor with malpractice. His job depends on that doctor's finances. Will love find a way?

Kayla's Challenge, by Linda W. Yezak

She was one "I do" short of marrying the man her pushy parents chose for her. Now, half a country away, she needs a tiny house to finally be free.

If These Walls Could Talk, by Pamela S. Meyers

Both claim to have inherited the same Queen Anne until an unexpected blessing changes everything.

First Love, by Yvonne Anderson

Betrayed by her husband and desperate for healing, she can only move forward by going back home.

Dash of Pepper, by Kimberli S. McKay

His responsibilities tie him to the small town he loves, but her career plans will lead her to the big city. Will he cut his roots for her or will she clip her wings for him?

Big Love, by Michael Ehret

Homelessness expanded her world and constricted his. Now she needs his help, but he only remembers the pain. Can they find big love in a tiny house?

The Light Holding Her, by Chandra Lynn Smith

Friends since childhood. She's being stalked. He's in danger. Is their faith big enough to carry them through the trials into a deeper relationship?

Delia here. Don't these tiny house books sound amazing? I can't wait to dive right in. Short of owning one of these little jewels, I can certainly dream of having one...by visiting the fictional worlds created by all these authors. 

Let's chat! Would you like to own a tiny house? If so, how do you see yourself living in one?

Guest Post: Ane Mulligan

I'm delighted to welcome Author Ane Mulligan back to Chirp 'N Chatter! I know you'll enjoy Ane's wonderful post, and...she'll be giving away an electronic copy of WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS! Be sure to leave a comment below to be entered in the drawing.

Everyone Wants to Belong

Every time I passed a mirror, I would look to see if I could catch a glimpse of someone I looked like. You see I was adopted as an infant. Now before y'all get the wrong idea, I had a wonderful childhood in a loving family.

I always knew I was adopted. I felt special and loved. I never lacked for love, but when I started school, I met my first set of twins. They were in my class and the two people who looked exactly alike fascinated me. That's when I realized I didn't look like anyone.

My lineage is Irish and a pinch of French. My adoptive dad was Scandinavian and mama was German and Scottish. I began to watch sisters who looked alike, a daughter who looked like her mother. And I felt like I didn't belong anywhere. That is when it started; my obsession with looking at people to see if I could find someone I looked like.

When I turned fifty, I would look in the mirror and wonder if I looked like my mother or father. Was I a combination of both or a replica of one? I didn't have my biological mother or a sister to ask about the changes that happen to women. I would stare into the mirror and ask whose nose is this? Whose ears? Whose hands?

Then in 2009, I found my birth sisters. The whole story is on my website under Adoption. I finally had my answer. I was a replica of my mother – nearly an exact one. I have sisters who look just like me. I have the Mullvain hands. I watched my sisters' mannerisms and realized they were the same as mine!

When my youngest sister, Cindy, and her husband came to see us, I don't remember what I did, but her husband, John, turned to her and said, "She is so your sister." Sweeter words were never heard. And for once, I felt like I truly belonged.

I knew if I felt like this, other people—other women—did too. Being a novelist, the natural progression was to write a story about an adoptee who looks nothing like her loving family. I decided to give her a profession that might help her find her birth mother, and it was one with which I had experience. I made her a lobbyist for a pro family group.

My heroine had to learn that God had placed her where He wanted her. There is a Scripture I love, Psalm 27: 10 "Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close." NLT

For me, the story is a tribute to my adoptive parents. And it also is a tribute to how God is trustworthy with our dreams. I had to give Him my dream of finding my birth sisters, and He was faithful with it. In His time, he brought me great joy by fulfilling my dream. I didn't just get a sister, but five of them.

About WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS:

Her dream job has a Catch 22—and time's running out

Rookie lobbyist Sienna O'Shea is determined to make a name for herself in New York's capitol city and use that influence to gain easier access to her birth records. For years she's searched for her birth mother, but when she's handed her first assignment—to lobby support for the permanent sealing of all adoption records—her worlds collide. Swept up into the intrigue of backroom politics, falling in love was not on Sienna's agenda, but the candidate for Lt. Governor runs a formidable campaign to make her his first lady. When an investigative reporter discovers foreign money infiltrating political campaigns, the trail leads to Sienna's inner circle.

Ane Mulligan writes Southern-fried fiction served with a tall, sweet iced tea. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. An award-winning and multi-published novelist and playwright, Ane is the creative director and CEO of Players Guild@Sugar Hill, a community theater and a contributor to Novel Rocket. She resides in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a dog of Biblical proportion. You can find Ane on her website at www.anemulligan.com or her Amazon author page.

Writing Tips: Ane Mulligan

 

Did y’all know that Delia developed my logo for me? She did. And I love it. She caught the essence of my Southern-fried Fiction brand. So, when she told me my topic was writing tips, I thought, “Cool. I love to pass on tips I’ve learned from other writers.”

And that’s true. I don’t have many of my own, though. Other authors, who have mentored me and taught workshops, have instilled them all in me. I’m merely paying them forward, hoping it

takes you less time than it did me to grab the brass pen and sign a contract.
Here are five that stand out to me and have made a big difference for me:

1. Story is king. Learn the basics of good writing and then trust your instincts as a storyteller. Learn when to break the rules, and then do it with panache.

2. Coincidence can’t replace Motivation. Motivation is the key to great characters and plots. Readers will follow a character through anything if the motivation is believable.

3. Give your characters a lie they believe, flaws and quirks to make them real. People can’t relate to someone who is good all the time. They want to see characters that make mistakes like they do. Who mess up in life like they do. Characters they can relate to.

4. Make metaphors and similes fresh and turn clichés on their ear. The opening lines to my latest WIP, Life in Chapel Springs, are: The morning fog was about as thick as the pea soup Great-aunt Lola used to make. Claire hated that soup then and she didn’t much like this fog now. That’s making an old cliché fresh. Instead of saying a “Cheshire cat grin” I used “She grinned like Garfield with a pan of lasagna.”

5. This one was taught to me by the late Ron Benrey. I keep it posted nearby lest I forget. It’s called The Magic Paragraph and goes like this:

• Signal which head to enter

• Twang an appropriate sense, emotion or mental faculty

• Show appropriate action

• Repeat if necessary

Home to Chapel Springs:

A homeless author, a heartbroken daughter, and a theatre ghost. There’s trouble in Chapel Springs.

There’s always someone new in Chapel Spring, either coming home or stirring up trouble.

Bestselling author Carin Jardine’s latest book is a flop. While the reviewers are happily skewering her, her racecar-driver-husband walks out on her and she’s evicted, because he hasn’t paid the lease on their condo for the last three months. Then she discovers he also he drained their bank accounts. Homeless and broke, she and her little boy have no choice but to retreat to the house she inherited from her nana in Chapel Springs—the house that’s been gutted. Then, a stranger knocks on her door. One that will change the course of her life.

After the residents thwarted Howie Newlander’s plans for a Miami-style resort on Chapel Lake, he’s running for mayor and spreading rumors about diverted water and misused taxes. The Lakeside Players want to remodel the town’s old theater, but it’s rumored to be haunted. When Newlander and Mayor Riley go head-to-head, Claire gets caught in the middle.

Claire’s youngest daughter is in love with a young man whose daddy is none other than Mayor Felix Riley…the man who blames Claire for every wrong in Chapel Springs. Having him part of her family isn’t in Claire’s plan. The years of her heartache should warn her daughter off this boy. So far, her daughter’s heart isn’t hearing the warnings.

With hearts pulled in all directions, will they find a home in Chapel Springs?

About Ane Mulligan:

While a floppy straw hat is her favorite, novelist Ane Mulligan has worn many including pro-family lobbyist, drama director, playwright, humor columnist, and novelist. She firmly believes coffee and chocolate are two of the four major food groups. Ane writes her Southern-fried fiction in Sugar Hill, GA, where she resides with her artist husband, chef son, and a dog of Biblical proportion. You can find Ane on her Southern-fried Fiction website, her Amazon author page, Google+, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, and Pinterest.