Hi Jana, I’d like to first say thank you to you and all your readers for taking some time out of your busy day to spend with me.
For those of you that don’t know me, I’m the author of the paranormal/fantasy romance series, Heaven and Earth. My first book in the series, The Sea Archer, won, “Best in Category: Paranormal” for the Chanticleer International Book Awards in 2018. The Warrior’s Progeny is book two of the series. The series is about the Greek gods and their modern-day descendants, kind of a Percy Jackson meets Nora Roberts.
I was thinking about a blog topic for today, and given our Covid-19 plight, I kept coming back to freedom. Everyone keeps asking what are you going to do when things return to normal…whatever that is.
The first ten years of my life, I grew up in Bellingham, Washington (in the 1970’s). Back then it was a pretty small town, Western Washington University wasn’t even a university yet. You went out to play and didn’t come back unless it was time for lunch, dinner or bed-time. Seriously, outdoors, playing in the woods, building forts, riding bikes (which was the most expensive thing a child could possess). We walked on the train tracks to go to a tiny grocery store where we’d spend our entire allowance on candy, and eat it all on the way home. I’d spend hours designing lego’s, and creating future house plans with them, we all watched the same shows, and you had to wait each week for them to come on, creating that delicious anticipation. It was innocence personified.
From a very young age, I thought and made up stories. I read books and listened to them on my record player, I loved art and being creative with whatever I could get my hands on at the time. That kind of simplistic life is lost today but I do have to tell you since April, we’ve been forced to return there, albeit in small measure but a return nonetheless. After all, there’s only so much Netflix you can watch before you start pulling your hair out! It’s been really fun playing games, having family dinners, spending uninterrupted time together, where the pressures of the world are outside your little bubble.
As we begin to go out and explore our surroundings and get to know life outside the four walls of our homes again, I hope you can keep that wonderful sense of connection with those you’ve been quarantined with. Returning to work or finding work, re-establishing friendships, and moving on, yet also remembering we were able to function more simplistically then we used to.
Living in Washington state, I have seen my share of things I never thought I’d see in my lifetime, and find myself yearning for the lighter days of life. I like to live there in my stories, a way to escape and have an adventure, before returning to reality and the demands of daily life. I hope you enjoy my stories too! I also wish you all health and well-being, romance and adventure. One of my favorite quotes is from the movie, Hope Floats, and it goes something like this:
Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it’s the middle that counts the most. Remember that when you find yourself at the beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up and it will.
Thank you so much, I truly appreciate you taking the time out to join me today!
Blurb, The Warrior's Progeny:
If love dies, can it be reborn…only stronger?
Colton Stone is a newly traded tight end whose reputation is as battered as his football helmet. When he receives a vacation invitation from his new teammates, he accepts. There he collides with Dr. Lillian Morgan, a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon, and doesn't know what to think.
A widow with two children, Lilly is looking forward to her friends' wedding. When she meets Colton Stone, his arrogant attitude only makes her long for the love she took for granted. Lilly struggles between letting go of her perfect past for an uncertain future.
Strange events occur, out of the realm of normal consciousness. When black energy touches their world Colt and Lilly become the pawns of the immortal Greek gods. Is the love developing between them natural, or part of a larger prophecy?
Excerpt:
Lilly looked down at the football, lying prone and guilty in the sand, as realization hit her.
“Oh my God, Que! Are you okay?”
She examined Que’s head and neck checking for injuries, with rapid authority. A small goose egg already formed just above her right temple. A tiny cut opened in her eyebrow, from her broken sunglasses now laying in the sand, causing a small bead of blood to well up.
Used to the recklessness of her son and his friends regarding the sport, Lilly turned, gearing up for an impressive tongue lashing to teenagers.
“What in the hell...” she bellowed, turning around and smacking her face into the sweaty muscular chest of a massive redhead. Refusing to let the fourteen-inch height difference and the hundred and sixty pounds of additional weight intimidate her, Lilly balled her small fists on her hips, shifted her gaze up, and narrowed her eyes.
“What in the hell is the matter with you? You’re on a crowded beach with a bunch of young children and families. You’re a grown-ass man. Can’t you catch a football?” When he stared down at her in fascinated disbelief, she continued. “There is a wide-open park just over there,” she said, stabbing her finger in the general vicinity. “Maybe you and your little friends”— she looked over at all the massive men in his group, but continued undaunted—“should go over there and pull your heads out of your asses.”
Buy Links:
Amazon Kindle: https://amzn.to/3dEdzzL
Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-warriors-progeny-jeny-heckman/1137148709?ean=2940162896401
Award-winning author, Jeny Heckman, was born in Bellingham, Washington, and was the youngest of two daughters. She met her husband, Jeff, in August 1992, and eloped three months later, at Magen’s Bay, on St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.
She wrote her first book, The Catch, in a few short months but took several years before she gained the courage to self-publish it at her son’s urging, and her love for writing began.
In 2018, Jeny knew her next project would be a series that showed adults could have adventures in the paranormal-fantasy genre too. So, she created the Heaven & Earth series, a story of doomed Greek gods and their only salvation, their modern-day descendants. Her first book of the series, the Sea Archer, was immediately picked up by the New York publishing house, the Wild Rose Press, and won, “Best in Category” from the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Awards.
In the year 2020, Jeny released, Dancing Through Tears, a short story from the anthology, Australia Burns: Volume Two, highlighting the Route 91 massacre from the perspective of one family at the concert, and at Mandalay Bay. She also intends to release, the Warrior’s Progeny, and Dee’s Cornucopia, in 2020, continuing the Heaven & Earth Series.
Jeny lives in Washington State with her husband of over twenty-eight years.
Social Media Links:
Website: https://jenyheckman.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heckman.jeny
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jenyheckman
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenyheckman
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeny-heckman/
Pintrest: https://www.pinterest.com/jenyheckman17
GoodReads: https://bit.ly/3fd8RJA
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/jeny-heckman
YouTube: https://bit.ly/30vNfUI
Newsletter Sign-up: http://eepurl.com/dDTPI9
Warrior’s Progeny Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy5nbMGQoCg
Jana, again, thank you so much for having me on today! I really appreciate it and love your site!
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