A story addict since an early exposure to Dr. Seuss, award-winning author of over 30 novels and novellas, Michelle Levigne has been creating her own stories, heroes and adventures since junior high. She ventures into many sub-genres of science fiction, paranormal, romance and fantasy, including Greek mythology, Narnia spin-offs and her futuristic universe, the Commonwealth.
Michelle writes something for everyone! After all, since she likes to read all over the board, why not WRITE all over the board?
WEBSITE *** BLOG
THE FAMILY WAY by Michelle Levigne
Lisa thought she walked into her marriage with her eyes wide open, aware of the hard task of getting the approval of her cold, domineering father-in-law. When she discovered she was pregnant, she thought she would finally be accepted, but Todd's reaction to the news was the last thing she expected: "Is it mine?"She had endured his father's constant criticism because she thought Todd loved her, but now she wasn't so sure. Maybe Todd had never loved her, and he was more like his father than she dreamed. To protect her baby, should she leave him, and refuse to continue the Montgomery family tradition? Where did being a 'good Christian wife' end, and the need to protect her sanity and her baby begin?
BUY THE BOOK *** READ THE EXCERPT
**Special note - Michelle Levigne is donating 50% of ALL Tabor Heights novel sales in February and March to the Salvation Army, earmarked for Haiti relief!
WIN - Today everyone wins some goodies from Michelle!!! Simply leave her a comment or question here at her Cyber Launch Party / Baby Shower, then email Email your blogger name and the words "Cyber Launch Party" to MLevigne@aol.com with FAMILY WAY CONTEST in the subject line and be sure to include your postal address so Michelle can mail your party favors to you! It's that simple!
And better yet, that will earn you ONE raffle ticket into her drawing which will be held at the end of March for a fantastic prize: An ocean motiff set: Spiral notepad, magnetic notepad, notecard/envelope set, coasters, novelty soaps, and scented tealight set, along with a mechanical pencil and refill. All packaged in a seafoam green tote bag with a cosmetic pouch.
How do you earn MORE RAFFLE TICKETS? Here are several more ways:
A: Help Michelle decide if Lisa and Todd are going to have a boy or a girl. Cast your vote by emailing Michelle at MLevigne@aol.com with your answer, along with and your name and mailing address. This earns you ONE raffle ticket. (One entry per person)
B: Help Michelle choose a NAME for the baby. This earns you ONE raffle ticket. (One entry per person) At the end of February, Michelle will put the top name suggestions on her blog and ask for a vote -- voting will earn you a raffle ticket as well! Check out http://www.michellelevigne.blogspot.com/ during February and March for details.
C: Donate to the Salvation Army online and copy Michelle with your electronic receipt. You get ONE raffle ticket for every $20 in donations you make. ($40 = 2 tickets, $60 = 3 tickets, etc.)
D: Buy a Tabor Heights Novel and copy Michelle with your electronic receipt. You get ONE raffle ticket for each book you buy.
EVERYONE WHO ENTERS WINS a nice little "thank you" package mailed out at the end of March -- including a bubble gum cigar in pink or blue, depending on whether the vote results in a boy or a girl!
Just remember 3 important steps:
1- Email the required information to MLevigne@aol.com
2- Put FAMILY WAY CONTEST in the subject line
3- Include your postal address so Michelle can mail your prize to you!
For more information on the fundraiser for the Salvation Army, check out Michelle's web site: http://www.mlevigne.com/
Congrats on the new release Michelle - loved the excerpt!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the fun new contest - what a great idea! I also LOVE the fact that you're donating half of your book sales from your Tabor Heights books to Haiti Relief! That's so wonderful of you.
Tell us a little bit about your Tabor Heights, Ohio Series...how do the books connect? How many books in the series? What's up next?
Enjoy your party and since it's a cyber Baby Shower...guess I better whip up some cyber cup cakes, aye?
Congrats on your new release.
ReplyDeleteTabor Heights is a combination of several small towns -- Berea, Ohio (the geographic anchor), Troy, Ohio, and Orange City, Iowa, where I went to college. All the main characters go to the same church, and all the action in the current 4 books, and the next 5 books, take place during 1 year. I include calendar dates throughout the books to help readers match up overlapping events. Things that happened in one book will be mentioned in others. As you get to know the different characters and the places where they work and live, the college in town, the stores and social spots, the layout of the town, the Metroparks, etc., you'll get a more concrete image of Tabor Heights. And I have stories planned for Year 2 and Year 3, so stay tuned!
ReplyDeleteI really like your excerpt although I'm not to sure whether I like Todd or not. Please tell me he gets nicer and more thoughtful during the book. I can't wait to read this and find out.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Todd gets better. Although he has to go through some pretty painful soul-searching.
ReplyDeleteHere's an excerpt the day after the pre-dinner party scene:
Todd overslept in the big hotel bed. That amazed him, since he never slept well on any business trip. From the first night of marriage with Lisa, he had been unable to sleep decently unless she was next to him. It was proof how important Lisa was in his life.
That night after the debacle in the Mediterranean, Todd tossed and turned and stared at the clock for minutes at a time. He thought he saw every hour and half hour change in those ridiculous red numerals. Then, somewhere between five a.m. and being late for work, he fell asleep.
He still couldn't think clearly when he got to work. His thoughts kept going back to the restaurant, rewriting what he could have said, rewriting what Lisa should have said, until he couldn't quite remember what had happened. All he knew was that his father and sisters weren't talking to each other, again, and Lisa had gone home without him.
For all he knew, she didn't go home, but stayed with Karla and Kevin. He hadn't called the apartment. He knew he should have. He had reached for his cell phone sitting on the nightstand five times, but stopped each time he remembered that he had forgotten to call Lisa on his last business trip. She was probably angry about that, too.
Why hadn't he called her? He always called her when his plane landed and he was settled in his hotel, and then on his last night before coming home. It was one of their many rules. They always made plans for what they would do their first night back together.
Why had he forgotten to call her? Through the growing headache, at only nine a.m., Todd admitted he hadn't exactly forgotten. He hadn't called Lisa because he was angry. Over what, he wasn't quite sure, but he had a growing certainty, as strong as his growing headache, that his anger was somehow connected with her.
For what? What had Lisa done?
Nothing. That was the problem. He was angry with her, yet he knew she was innocent. Somehow that made him even angrier. It was stupid. He hated feeling stupid. Somehow, Lisa was responsible for that.
So he hadn't called her.
Now, sitting in his office, his second day home, he still hadn't done his laundry or given Lisa her chocolate covered cherries and colored pencils. Lisa had kissed him when he came in the door, but he hadn't kissed her yet.
Hope that makes you want more!
This sounds really good. I wish you the very best with it!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to tell you how awesome it is that you're donating 50% of your sales for The Family Way to the Salvation Army Haiti releif.
ReplyDeletelenikaye@yahoo.com
Whoops.I said The Family Way when I should have said Tabor Heights Series.
ReplyDeletelenikaye@yahoo.com
COMING UP in Tabor Heights:
ReplyDeleteThe May release is "A Quiet Place." Jeannette Marshall returned to Tabor Heights, widowed and newly pregnant, looking for a quiet place to heal her heart. Nathan Lewis was her best friend since their orphanage days -- in fact, he introduced her to her husband. She didn't realize that when Nathan said he loved her, he wasn't speaking as a big brother.
For Nathan, the timing never seemed to be right to tell Jeannette how he really felt, so he ended up being Uncle Nathan to her son. Then her vicious in-laws showed up in Tabor Heights and tried to take her son away from her. The days that followed would test Jeannette's and Nathan's faith, their friendship, and put their love and secret dreams to the test.
In August, we have "Detours." If you read my first Tabor Heights novel, "The Second Time Around," you met Bekka, Kat and Amy, 3 college girls sharing an apartment together. This is THEIR story, a year of changes and dreams and detours off the paths of their dreams and careers and LOVE.
Bekka was there for everybody else, letting her friends cry on her shoulder when they were having romance problems, but when would it finally be HER turn to find Prince Charming?
Shane was a cowboy on a motorcycle, and he had his eye on Bekka for a long time ... whenever her friends and his multiple jobs and their conflicting schedules didn't get in the way!
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteYour book sounds wonderful. I have put it on my must read lists. I am a DB author too.
Walk in harmony,
Melinda
Another excerpt from "The Family Way" :
ReplyDelete"So." His voice caught. He coughed to clear his throat. "Who have you told about the baby besides my family?"
"You're the only one I told. You told your family." Lisa shrugged. From her tone of voice, she could have been talking about a mediocre sale at the grocery store.
"Aren't you happy about this baby?"
"I haven't decided yet."
"You'd better decide soon."
"Don't tell me what to do, Todd. You don't have the right." Again, delivered in the same even, careless tone of voice.
"Of course I have the right!" He stood, almost dropping the tray and the stack of sheets. "We're having a baby, for God's sake."
"No, I'm having a baby, and you just happen to be the man I'm married to." She didn't look up from her work.
Todd wanted to rip the paper off the worktable. He felt hot and his throat hurt. His father's words of caution pounded in his head. Lisa was still out of sorts, so fresh in her pregnancy. He didn't want to get her any more upset.
"Look. Sweetheart." He leaned on the edge of the table. "We have to fix this, work it out, for the sake of the baby."
"For the sake of the baby." The pencil clutched in her hand suddenly snapped. One end flew across the room. The other absorbed the slow drops of blood coming from the cut side of Lisa's finger. "Is that all you care about?"
Her eyes gleamed with tears, red-rimmed and starting to swell. How long had she been fighting tears?
"What do you want me to do?" He kept his voice soft, otherwise he knew he might yell and grab her and shake her.
"I think we need to get some counseling. At church."
"What?" He would have laughed, but for the sick twisting in the pit of his stomach. Only failures went in for counseling. People who couldn't figure things out for themselves. He wasn't a failure. Lisa wasn't a failure.
Not yet, anyway, a quiet voice whispered in the dark corners of his mind.
"Sure. Make the appointment. Whatever you want." He turned and walked out the door.
That night, when he tentatively reached out and put an arm around Lisa in bed, she didn't stiffen or move away. She might have been asleep already, but somehow he didn't think so. Todd fell asleep with a smile.
Congratulations on the new release!! Thank you for the excerpts. Often the best way to discover the next read.
ReplyDeleteCheers!!
marypres@gmail.com
This book and also the next one in the series sound very interesting.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on both.!!
Thanks for the extra excerpts and I also hope that Todd becomes nicer to Lisa as the story develops.
Hope everyone has a great evening.
Congrats on the new release.
ReplyDeleteHope you make a lot of money for The salvation Army!
I checked out your website and noticed a lot of Sci Fi there. Will you be writing more or have you moved on to contemporary romance?
ReplyDeletewow what great excerpts that drew me in; a great sounding story Michelle. Thanks for the read.
ReplyDeleteTabor Heights here we come, lol. I love the prize you have.
Do we wait on naming the baby? Thanks.
So considerate of you to give to Haiti relief from the book sales.
Many thanks to all who stopped by and celebrated with Michelle yesterday! Everyone wins some goodies from Michelle!!! If you left her a comment or question here at her Cyber Launch Party / Baby Shower, then email Email your blogger name and the words "Cyber Launch Party" to MLevigne@aol.com with FAMILY WAY CONTEST in the subject line and be sure to include your postal address so Michelle can mail your party favors to you! It's that simple!
ReplyDelete