Judith Ingram

Interview, Excerpt, and Contest by Judith Ingram

Guest Post

Interview with Dora 

INTERVIEWER: Hello, readers. This is Mae I. Askyou, today speaking with Dora, who is featured in Borrowed Promises, Book 2 of the Moonseed trilogy. Dora, it's great to have you here today. (Dora sits silent, her arms folded across her chest.) Well, as the Native American nurse to Katherine, you have an important support role in the story, but we don't know much about you. Let's start with where and when you were born.

DORA: Not good to tell.

INTERVIEWER: Excuse me?

DORA: Best to keep that knowledge secret. Like my true name. No enemies can know the name my mother gives me. Too dangerous.

INTERVIEWER: I see. Your bio says you lived at Mission San Rafael when you were a child. Did your mother live there with you?

DORA: Yes. Then we go to dona Elena's kitchen to work.

INTERVIEWER: Elena. That's Isabel's mother. Katherine's grandmother.

DORA: Isabel's father owns big rancho. Many like us are hired to work for cheap.

INTERVIEWER: What was your mother like?

DORA: Full of stories, that one. Like me, she is a weaver and tells stories in her weaving. Sometimes she sings to me stories.

INTERVIEWER: What stories?

DORA: About our people. Before.

INTERVIEWER: Can you share a story with our readers?

DORA: My mother tells how our people are beautiful. Tall. Strong. Graceful. Every year there is called Big Time ceremony. All the people gather with fire and dancing and singing. One person hides in the bushes then rushes out, dressed like a bird. This is our ancestor. Everyone claps and dances to welcome. Other dancers, Kuksu, leap out from the bushes and run through the crowd. Then they run away from us, into the south. They take away our sickness and bad fortune.

INTERVIEWER: Did your mother grow up in the mission?

DORA: No. She grows up in the old way. She tells me about her mother and married aunts. They wear marriage belts given by their husbands on their wedding day. They wear beautiful jewelry—bracelets and ear plugs decorated with colorful beads. Also money strings. These are long with pieces of gold and shells and woodpecker scalps and also feathers. Very beautiful and important. When my mother is a girl who is ready for marriage, her mother paints four red stripes on her skirt to show. Then my father marries her, and he washes off the paint.

INTERVIEWER: That's fascinating. Do you have any brothers or sisters? (Dora shrugs and sits silent.) What happened to your mother? (Dora remains silent.) Okay, let's move on. According to the novel, at some point you took charge of Katherine's mother, Isabel. How old were you, Dora?

DORA: Already tall, maybe twelve, thirteen. I see sweet baby girl, her eyes like windows to the sky. I know I am sent to guard and help her.

INTERVIEWER: Sent? You mean, by God? (Dora nods.) That's interesting. Tell us more about your faith. The book describes how you blend Christian beliefs with Native American tradition. How do you reconcile the two?

DORA: God is God. (She shrugs.) No one knows all about Him. Not priests, not shaman. Not Dora. (She grins.)

INTERVIEWER: The book portrays you as a wise woman with uncanny insight. For example, you knew before anyone else that Victoria had changed places with Katherine. How did you know?

DORA: Easy. The light.

INTERVIEWER: The light?

DORA: God touches everyone different. He shines His light in each one different. The new one, she shines different.

INTERVIEWER: How, "different"?

DORA: Not so angry, not so fierce. Gentle, giving spirit. That Katherine, she is always the prowling lioness, fearless, always putting her hand in the hornet's nest to get the honey.

INTERVIEWER: Tell us, did she really murder her husband? (Dora sits silent.) All right, how about this: Katherine got a reputation as a witch. Did you teach her the black arts?

DORA: No black arts. Only common sense.

INTERVIEWER: What about the potions and spells you taught her?

DORA: Spells! They work on your own mind more than another's. Take suggestion, mix up with words, it comes out what you desire, what you expect. Not magic, only common sense.

INTERVIEWER: Then how do you explain the "moonseed," time travelers like Victoria and Katherine?

DORA: This is God, not magic. Not Dora. (She grins.)

INTERVIEWER: Before we go, I'm wondering if you can use your wise woman insight to tell us how things will turn out for Victoria and Katherine in Book 3, Into the Mist?

DORA: Finished.

INTERVIEWER: Yes, but how is the story finished? Will Victoria and Katherine return to their own times? (Dora grunts and folds her arms across her ample bosom.) Oh, I see. We're finished. But before we say goodbye, can you give our readers just one little hint… No, well, I can appreciate your discretion. Anyway, I've enjoyed our conversation, Dora. Thank you for your time.

DORA: Time. It's tricky. Yesterday might still be tomorrow.

Excerpt

I bit my lip, wanting to avoid any subject that could ruin the easy camaraderie of our afternoons together. Michael had been friendly and funny, teasing me gently, treating me with the easy affection of an older brother. Once or twice I'd caught him watching me with a fierce intentness that made my heart skip. But then he'd grin or offer a quip that made us both laugh, and the uncomfortable moment would pass.

I enjoyed the lightness of our friendship, grateful for the reprieve. In the rose garden at Summerwood and later on the trip to San Francisco, I had felt the slow but persistent budding of a new feeling that both thrilled and frightened me. The lightest touch of Michael's hand pricked up hairs along my skin like electricity; his boyish grin twisted a slow, sweet pain deep into my body. His clean, male scent in close proximity could stun me with unexpected waves of need, often forcing me to look away so he wouldn't see the flame in my eyes.

I couldn't allow Michael to guess where my heart was taking me—because of Raymond.

Although many things were unclear to me, one fact seemed certain—Katherine must marry Raymond Delacroix and have at least one child with him. If I gave in to my new feelings for Michael, and if I were cruel enough to let him see them, then I risked both hurting him and ruining Katherine's chances with Raymond when she came back to her own time.

And Katherine would come back. I was convinced of it, all my desperate wishes to the contrary. She would marry Raymond, give birth to Elise, and secure a future that would eventually lead to her daughter painting a picture of Katherine and me at the bridge over Two Trees Creek. By the same token, I would return to life as a lingerie model and a cold marriage with Ryan Ashton. Ryan.

"What?" Michael's voice made me jump and turn my head.

"What?"

"You said 'Ryan' again."

"I did?"

Michael had removed his glasses, and he blinked at me from only a foot away. God, he has beautiful eyes, I thought. Soft gray-green depths that held me breathless, fighting a slow, aching pull to be in his arms.

"He's…nobody," I said.

Michael was studying me, his eyes so solemn and searching that I couldn't look away. He didn't speak, but in that moment my heart yearned toward him, and he saw it. His expression changed. His gaze moved slowly from my eyes to my mouth.

I turned my face away and shut my eyes over a sudden sting of tears.

"Kat?" he said softly.

His voice held a new, cautious note of intimacy. A moment later his thumb brushed my wet cheek, and the tenderness of his touch wrenched a low cry from me. I pushed his hand away and struggled to sit upright.

"Don't touch me!" Pain made my voice sharp. "You can't touch me, Michael!"

But his hand was already under my elbow, helping me to sit. He pushed a handkerchief into my hand.

"Here. Take it." He sounded bewildered and hurt. "Seems you'd rather do the job yourself."

He watched me wipe my eyes and blow my nose with his handkerchief. I couldn't look at him, and after a moment he reached for his glasses and slipped them on.

In a tight voice he asked, "Do you still want to visit Union Square?"

I pressed the soggy handkerchief to my lips and nodded.

Michael pushed himself to his feet and thrust out a hand to help me up. We folded the blanket between us, careful not to touch each other's fingers, and he picked up the hamper. As we crossed the grass in uneasy silence, a fresh roll of tears made me reach into my handbag for a clean handkerchief. A flash of copper tumbled into the grass.

I stopped quickly, but Michael was quicker. He scooped up the coin, examined it briefly, and gave it back to me.

"You still carrying that thing around?"

I looked up at him, my handkerchief arrested halfway to my face. "My coin? What do you know about my coin?"

He squinted at me and frowned. "You're kidding, right? I was with you when you paid a nickel for that worthless thing at the county fair. You said it was good luck, and you carried it around in your pocket for years." He stopped at my look. "What is it?"

"Michael, are you certain this is the same coin?"

I handed it back to him. His gaze lingered on my face, puzzled, before he examined the coin. He weighed it briefly on his palm, flipped it over, and gave it back to me.

"Of course I'm certain." He pointed his finger at the familiar nick in the rim. "There's where the wagon wheel ran over it, and you were so furious because you thought the magic was ruined." He screwed up his eyes against the sun and studied me. "What's the matter with you, Kat? You're looking at me like I've got two heads."

I shook my head in dazed wonder, suspended once again in that universe where Katherine's world and mine overlapped and where it made perfect sense that her lucky coin should have somehow come to me—twice.

Borrowed Promises
Moonseed Trilogy
Book 2
Judith Ingram

Genre: paranormal romance

Publisher: Vinspire Publishing, LLC
Date of Publication: May 31, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-9890632-4-1
ASIN: B00JD0H2ZE

Number of pages: 249 pages


Cover Artist: Elaina Lee/For the Muse Designs

Book Description:

On the night of the new spring moon, a near-fatal accident propelled Victoria Reeves-Ashton over a century back in time to awaken in the body of Katherine Kamarov.

Now, after three months of pretending to be Katherine and laboring to repair relationships damaged by Katherine's brash and selfish personality, quiet and gentle Victoria finds that her heart is putting down roots in Katherine's world, in her family relationships, and especially in a deepening friendship with Katherine's winsome cousin Michael.

Hidden letters reveal the story of other moonseed-time travelers like herself-and Victoria realizes that she and Katherine will likely be returned to their own times the following spring. Tension mounts when a rich and handsome suitor applies to marry her, and Victoria must choose whether to accept him for Katherine's sake or to follow her own heart.

Ryan Ashton, the husband Victoria left behind, is baffled by the woman his wife has suddenly become. Unwilling to believe her story about an exchange in time, Ryan struggles to understand the stark transformation of his timid, remote wife into a sexually aggressive and captivating siren. Against his better judgment, he falls hard for this new woman who is a perplexing mixture of cruelty, sensuality, and tenderness, a woman who he suspects has the power to either break his heart or heal the aching loneliness he has lived with all his life.

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About the Author:

Judith Ingram weaves together her love of romance and her training as a counselor to create stories and characters for her novels. She also writes Christian nonfiction books and enjoys speaking to groups on a variety of inspirational topics. She lives with her husband in the San Francisco East Bay and makes frequent trips to California's beautiful Sonoma County, where most of her fiction characters reside. She confesses a love for chocolate, cheesecake, romantic suspense novels, and all things feline.

Website, blog & free weekly devotional: http://JudithIngram.com

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