Virtual Book Tour & Giveaway for Moria's Time by Dayna Leigh Cheser

Join Dayna Leigh Cheser on her Virtual Book Tour for Moria’s Time, presented by CBLS Promotions from September 25- October 18, 2013.  Please leave a comment or question for Dayna to let her know you stopped by.  You can enter her tour wide giveaway by filling out the Rafflecopter form below. 

Moria's Time (TIME Series #2, Sequel to Janelle’s Time)

Historical Romance

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Release Date: August 15, 2013

Heat Level: Steamy

Word Count: 103,300

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Description:

Janelle Grayson is distraught over a troubling vision. Old Agnes MacKendall has seen her infant daughter, Moria, as a young woman, years in the future, traveling afar to a perilous place, fraught with danger.

Janelle and her husband, Richard, are both concerned about the vision. They decide to do all they can to prepare their precious little girl for what likely lies ahead for her. It’s a future charged with risk the likes of which, for the unprepared and ordinary person, could spell certain doom.

So begins Moria’s Time—Book 2 of the TIME Series.

At six-years old, Moria starts to learn about her heritage. Like her mother, Moria is a MacKendall. The women of this Scots clan have unusual powers including, among many other skills, natural medicine—which Janelle soon discovers is Moria’s special and strongest gift. Richard agrees with Janelle that she should train Moria, focusing on, and nurturing, her rare strengths in preparing for her future. By the time she’s a teen, Moria is a talented natural healer.

At fourteen, Moria meets Elizabeth Blackwell who befriends and mentors Moria, guiding her through the long and arduous journey to her goal of becoming a doctor. 

Later, while visiting family in England, Moria meets Florence Nightingale—who will figure significantly in her life in the future. The family also meets Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Later, Miss Nightingale summons Moria to London, where she works at a charity hospital and meets Dr. Simon Hensley.

Moria becomes one of the first 38 nurses bound for Scutari, Turkey with Miss Nightingale. Dr. Hensley, in love with Moria, follows her, much to her chagrin, but she’s skittish—about men, relationships, anything and anyone that might distract her from the challenge of being a woman daring to want a career in the male-dominated field of medicine—and, so … she rebuffs him.

At home for a visit, Moria is overjoyed to reconnect with her twin sister, Adelle, and meets her beau, Walter. He and Adelle convince Moria that Dr. Hensley isn’t the enemy. He may well be the one to protect her from the men she fears. Back in Turkey, Moria and Dr. Hensley work things out.

Simon and Moria return to London after the war. At Devonwood, the Grayson family estate, Moria’s Grandmother convinces Moria can marry Simon and not endanger her future. Simon proposes; Moria accepts. The twins plan a double wedding.

After the wedding, Simon and Moria visit medical schools for interviews. Moria is turned away from school after school, simply because she’s woman. Finally, a school in Pennsylvania accepts Moria who graduates at the top of her class.

Does Moria have the right to impose what her needs on Simon? How long will Simon put his life on hold while she pursues hers? Do they really want to open a practice? As doctors, is a practice all that’s available to them? There are so many questions, and too few answers.

Warning: This title is intended for readers over the age of 18 as it contains adult sexual situations and/or adult language, and may be considered offensive to some readers.

Buy Links:  Amazon   B&N    Kobo

Excerpt

Many months have passed since Moria traveled to London to meet with Miss Nightingale.  A lot has happened in her life.

She's home in New Hampshire for a brief visit for her birthday, where she reconnects with her twin sister, Adelle, and meets Walter, Adelle's beau, for the first time.  She tells of her non-relationship with a man who, it seems is very much in love with her.  Walter, not knowing the particulars of Moria's background, wonders why she is so skittish about having a man in her life.

It seems to Moria that she'd always felt this way - that men, in general, could derail her dreams and hopes of becoming a doctor - and, in the 1850s, this was indeed a very real possibility - almost a probability.  As her skill level increased, so too did her mistrust of men, and Walter, being a man and not understanding why she felt this way, wanted to know why.

<><><><><><><><><><><> 

 “When did you start to hate men?” Walter ventured.

“I don’t hate men.”

Walter chuckled. “You could’ve fooled me.”

“I don’t hate you. I like you, a lot.”

“True, but I’m no threat to you the way things stand. Why do you think Doctor Hensley is a threat to you and your dreams?”

The answer was automatic. “He’s a man.”

Walter threw his hands into the air. “Listen to yourself! You’re not making any sense. Where did you get this idea men are such a threat, anyway?”

That question brought Moria up short. She stopped to think. Where had this obsession with protecting herself from men come from? “I don’t know. It seems like I’ve always … no, wait.” She snapped her fingers. “Elizabeth.”

Adelle took on a knowing look. She explained to Walter, “Elizabeth Blackwell, her long-time friend and mentor, the first registered female medical doctor in both the United States and England.” Walter nodded.

“Yes. Even before I met her, she’d had problems with men in her professional life. Men stood in the way of her admission to medical schools, they stood in the way of her attending classes, they barred her from additional training, both here and in Europe, they wouldn’t hire her to work in their practices or partner with her, they wouldn’t even rent her space so she could set up her own practice.”

“Well now,” Walter said. “And she didn’t give up, through it all?”

“No, she didn’t. She’d promised a dying friend … oh, never mind.” Moria abandoned the tangent and got back on topic. “She’s made some headway. She and her sister, who will graduate from medical school soon, will open a practice in New York after Emily has received further training in Scotland and Europe.”

“But, how did you come to hate, or at least have a strong mistrust, of all men?”

“She and I met when I was fourteen years old. We’ve written many letters to each other, and talked at length in person. Because we are friends, and she’s my mentor, she’s told me of her problems. When I was younger, the challenges seemed to be, at their root, because of men ….” As awareness started to dawn on Moria, the space between her words lengthened, giving her time to think, “… but it’s really because of the system, which, of course, is run by men.” A light dawned. “And, the men feel threatened by the women who are attempting to change the system. So it’s really the men who have the problem with women! We’re more of a threat to them than they are to us! Of course.”

Adelle started to laugh.

“What’s so funny.” Moria eyed her sister.

“It took a man to point it out to you.”

<><><><><><><><><><><> 

Moria knows that since she - and her misguided obsession about men - are responsible for the state of things with Doctor Hensley, she has to fix things.  When she returns to where they are working, she immediately sets about making things right.  When she presents herself at his office, he's uncertain and is cool and aloof.  But, convinced finally that she's sincere, he quickly warms to her and is delighted she's back in his life again.

About the Author:

My mother, a non-fiction author, two brothers—one as a newspaper editor, the other, a copywriter—and a sister, a church newsletter editor, prove that clearly, writing ‘runs in my family’.  Much of what I’ve written over the years was never published – much of it never shared with anyone. 

My father, a school teacher/reading specialist, started teaching me to read after story-time one night when I was four years old.  I’d stopped him mid-story to ask how he was able to say the same thing every time he read that story to me.  My lessons started that night, beginning a life-long love affair with books—and for that, I am grateful.

The short stories I wrote in junior high school entertained my peers – and the occasional teacher who intercepted them in their travels.  At the high school level, one English class assignment was to write an autobiography.  In the teacher-specified chapter entitled ‘Future Plans’, being a published writer topped the list.  I can’t remember not wanting to write.

After a college professor told me I ‘couldn’t write my way out of a paper bag,’ I stopped writing for years.  It was not until the late 1970s, when I wrote an article for the now-defunct World Radio News (San Diego, CA), that my writing gene was reactivated.  The article was about our amateur radio club providing communications for a March of Dimes Walk-a-thon.  Seven of the twenty pictures my husband submitted with my article were used.

In early 2002, between jobs and wanting to write seriously, I obtained a third-shift position as a gated-community security officer and used the ‘free time’ to write what became Janelle’s Time.  When the draft was complete, it went on the shelf.  At that time, the industry was shifting from the Post Office to the internet – a very confusing time!  In 2009, when I started my Twitter page, @Writers_Cafe, the WIP came off the shelf.  What I’ve learned from my (now) 19,000 followers is prodigious – I feel like I’ve earned a degree!  By August 2011, it was ready—at last—for submission.

@RileyCarney, a Colorado teen, and prolific YA fantasy author, who heads her own non-profit literacy project moved me to write an article about her.  Never officially published, countless people have seen the article, thanks to Twitter retweets and some carefully chosen email inboxes.

On New Year’s Day, 2010, my shiny new blog, A Place for Writers, went ‘live.’  It evolved into a combination chronicle of my writing journey and helpful posts on publishing industry topics.

In the fall of 2011, I added ‘DIY Interviews’ to my blog (see the ‘DIY Interviews’ tab of my website for details on doing an interview).  Not a primary task in the overall scheme of things, over fifty authors have submitted interviews to date.

Janelle’s Time is book one of my ‘TIME Series’ and was published in July of 2012. Book two, Moria’s Time, was my winning NaNoWriMo project for 2011.  It’s now complete and will be released in August 2013.  There are three more books in the series: Adelle’s Time (my winning 2012 NaNo project), Logan’s Time, and Clarissa’s Time (my 2013 NaNo project for 2013).

In September of 2012, I switched from my blog A Place for Writers, and went to a full website: www.DaynaLCheser.com.  With thirty+ pages, my new blog, ‘Posts by Dayna,’ is there now, along with ‘DIY Interviews,’ and extensive information about the ‘TIME Series.’ 

My husband, Pete, and I have been married for forty-five years—no children—and have lived in Southwest Florida for over twenty years, originally hailing from New England.

Connect with Dayna Leigh Cheser

E-mail: Dayna@DaynaLCheser.com

Website: http://DaynaLCheser.com

Blog: http://DaynaLCheser.com/posts-by-dayna-blog/

TIME Series info: http://DaynaLCheser.com/the-time-series-2/

FB Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDaynaLeighCheser

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Writers_Cafe

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6476216.Dayna_Leigh_Cheser

Amazon Author Page: http://Amazon.com/author/Dayna.Leigh.Cheser

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Tour Schedule

Sept 25: Book Reviews
Sept 27: Queen of the Night Reviews 
Sept 30: My Devotional Thoughts (Guest Post)
Oct 1: Ali's Books
Oct 4: Crystal's Many Reviews
Oct 4: Jody's Book Reviews, Giveaways & Tours
Oct 5: Crystal's Many Reviews (Guest Post)
Oct 8: deal sharing aunt
Oct 11: Samantha Holt (Guest Post)
Oct 12: Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess
Oct 14: Brianna's Bookshelf
Oct 15: Coffee Beans & Love Scenes
Oct 16: It's All About the Romance
Oct 13: Brooke Blogs

Oct 18: Lusty Penguin Reviews (Guest Post/Review)