Category: Excerpts from my Novels

Author's World, Bookshelf, Excerpts from my Novels, Favorite Reads, Publishing new novel, Uncategorized

Release Date for new Novel

Veronica Mahara

Hello Everyone,

I hope this finds you well and if you are in the part of the world where spring has sprung I wish you a happy spring! The longer, brighter days have certainly been a great help to my mental health. Along with planting a new veggie and flower garden, I have been sewing summer clothes in anticipation of a hot summer season.

I am excited to finally be able to announce the release date for my fourth novel, Beyond Diamonds. May 15th is the official release date but you can pre-order starting Monday, April 29th.

I am also doing an ARC -advance reader’s copies (which will go beyond the release date) at Booksprout and Booksirens.

Here is the blurb for Beyond Diamonds:

Due to her father’s success in the jewelry business and the diamond trade, Jane Wallingford enjoys a privileged lifestyle as part of Cincinnati, Ohio’s upper class.

At nearly twenty-five years old, she’s more interested in horticulture than marriage and children. When she finally falls in love with Martin, a mild-mannered jeweler, she’s faced with harsh disapproval from her parents, and Jane’s plan to marry and bring to society her grand ideas for a garden estate is shattered. With an arranged marriage looming, she endeavors in her studies of the plant world while she nurses her broken heart and ambitions.

Tragedy strikes and Jane can marry Martin, but he has his own plans, and she soon finds herself in a small northern California town where a rundown homestead and sheep farm await her. In Clermont City, and the society of San Francisco, Jane meets people from different social standings, including Martin’s cousin, Harry. She’s drawn to the handsome, down-to-earth man who doesn’t take her as seriously as she takes herself.

Using her substantial dowry, Jane sets out to turn the farm into her dream estate, while Martin engrosses himself in the raising of sheep. Even with the help of Harry, a fellow sheep farmer, Martin struggles to make a living at it. Unconcerned with money, Jane continues her passion for horticulture, and the running of her household until news from back home suddenly changes her way of life. The family’s fortune is bankrupt and now Jane and Martin must make the farm work or lose everything. Secrets come to light that will shake Jane’s faith in Martin, drawing her deeper into a scandalous relationship while her role on the farm changes dramatically. What was once a hobby, now becomes a lifeline.

A heartfelt story of fortunes lost and gained and a woman’s journey to find love and success on paths unknown. 

Thank you for your support 🙂

Peace and Love,

Veronica

Artist's World, Author's World, Bookshelf, Excerpts from my Novels, Writer's Journey

New Book Cover

Veronica Mahara

Hello Everyone,

Hope you are all doing well.

Here is the book cover to my new novel, Beyond Diamonds.

I am so grateful to Jane Dixon-Smith for helping me design all my covers!

Can’t wait to share this story with you all!

Stay tuned for updates on Beyond Diamonds!

Peace and Love,

Veronica

Author's World, Bookshelf, Excerpts from my Novels, Favorite Reads, Gardening, Seasonal Delights, Writer's Journey

Fall and Falling Behind

Veronica Mahara

Hello Everyone!

Hope you are all doing as well as you can out there.

I feel the Fall around me now in the Pacific Northwest. We had such a long beautiful stretch of sun and warm weather. I was spoiled in its light. My roses and flowers still think it’s summer and then yesterday a wild, dark storm came through. I will be doing clean up in the gardens as soon as the rain lets up. It’s satisfying to get everything tucked away for winter. Bulbs will be going in the ground and and my cat Tommy is beginning to spend more time by the fire. It’s quite cozy.

~Beyond Diamonds~ my fourth book was on hold this summer for various reasons, one of which was Covid. I never thought I’d get it, but after a trip back East, I came home with the nasty thing! Vaxed and boosted I thought I could handle the travel without a mask…. no… It’s taken me two months to get back to myself again.

Having rescheduled my editing services, I have been tackling the rewrites. It’s pretty fun to go over my developmental editor’s comments and suggestions. Jane, my protagonist is in up to her elbows with her husband Martin’s dream- a sheep farm near the San Francisco Bay area. What can a wealthy city girl from Cincinnati in 1879 learn on a farm ? And why does she suspect there might be more to his mere devotion to it? His handsome cousin Harry poses a problem… she likes him and in way she shouldn’t. Then there’s her brother back East holding tightly to her inheritance. What if he decides he needs it for the jewelry business their father started? Will his gambling debts in Cincinnati find their way to Jane and Martin?

Lots to do still and I’m looking at a January 2024 debut. I hope you will all like it. Until then check out my ~Traveled Hearts, Sacred Terrain and Unending Trails Trilogy~ at Amazon. The love and adventures of Jessica, Jacob and Caleb are waiting for you!

Take care,

Peace and Love!

Veronica

Artist's World, Author's World, Bookshelf, Excerpts from my Novels, Gardening, Seasonal Delights, Watercolor Life

Editing Mode:Spring Clean-up

Veronica Mahara

Hello Everyone,

Spring is here! In my yard and beyond all the buds are fat and ready to burst. My yard needs some cleaning from the last wind storm, but it’s wonderful to see the plants and trees and shrubs come back to life. At this time in the world I needed to see renewal and hope for the future even if it’s only in my little patch of earth.

Beyond Diamonds, my fourth historical novel set in the late 19th century is in rewrite and editing and rewrite and … I have a deadline and it’s really got me going. So much fun to get to the end of the my book then go back and start the clean-up. My protagonist, Jane Cabot desires the things that only money can buy. What about the thing money can’t buy? The missing piece is for her to find.

My interest in gardening has spilled over into this novel as Jane becomes interested in horticulture when her parents want her to become interested in culture, society and the proper place for a woman. When she falls in love with Martin, against her parent’s wishes she gets a whole lot more than she bargained for.

I’ve found time to do a watercolor. It helps to rest my mind and spirit. I hope you enjoy. It’s my rendition of one of the botanical arts from -The Book of Flowers, Pierre Joseph Redoute.

Thanks for visiting,

Peace and Love,

Veronica

Author's World, Bookshelf, Excerpts from my Novels, Favorite Reads, Gardening

More Beyond Diamonds

Veronica Mahara

Hello Everyone,

A watercolor I did of sweet peas.

How are you all doing? Depending on your part of the world you are enjoying summer, sun and warmth or the worse cold you’ve know so far. We in the Pacific Northwest are kind of in between. Spring is hinting its arrival. I have buds on my trees and daffodil spears coming up in pots around my garden. Still cold and cloudy, but hopeful with the few sun breaks we’ve been getting. I long to work in my gardens again!

My next novel, entitled Beyond Diamonds has been great fun to write and is getting me through the winter doldrums. I’m halfway done and my protagonist, Jane is finding life’s challenges not only lie in the struggles on the sheep farm, far from her life in Cincinnati’s society, but in her marriage to Martin whose devotion to their land takes precedence over Jane. As a result, feelings between his cousin, Harry and Jane are allowed to heat up.

Her wealthy inheritance buoys her from the daily routine of country life with escapes to San Francisco society and a home unlike any in the area. But what will happen if she losses her fortune? And how will she manage without the household help and her trips into the city across the bay?

Stay tuned. Beyond Diamonds is set to publish in early 2023. In the meantime you can read my trilogy beginning with Traveled Hearts. Spoiler alert – Jane makes an appearance in the second book, Sacred Terrain.

Have a wonderful day!

Peace and Love,

Veronica