Welcome Tammy, thank you for visiting today. You sound as if you have a very exciting life of exploring and experiencing new and wonderful places.
Tammy has given us a teaser of her new release The Acadian Secret. Hope you all enjoy it, I know I did.
Sue
Hi Sue,
Thanks
for having me on your blog today.
I live in
Cambridge, Ontario, with my husband of twenty years and our teenage son.
From
September to June, I am surrounded by preschoolers and covered in glitter and
glue.
Once
school is out, I grab my hubby and our son and we are off on some grand
adventure. We’ve explored pyramids in Egypt and sailed down a river in rural
China on a tiny raft. We’ve slept in the
tower of a 15th century Scottish castle, searched for the Loch Ness Monster and
have even dined at a Bedouin camp in the Arabian Desert. I love to explore this
amazing world of ours.
As a kid,
I loved to read books and watch shows like Little House on the Prairie and Anne
of Green Gables. I loved anything set in
the “olden days”.
When I
was about ten years old, I began to wonder about time travel. My biggest wish was that I’d end up back in
the pioneer era. I wanted to go and hang
out with spoiled Nellie Olsen. I don’t
remember why I wished for Nellie over Laura Ingalls, but I think it had something
to do with the fact that her parents owned the candy shop.
I had it
all figured out. I didn’t want to live
in the 18th or 19th century; I’d miss my family too much. And I can’t live
without modern comforts. I wanted the
freedom to travel back and forth through time.
So strong
was my wish to time travel, I even dressed the part, as much as I could,
without raising anyone’s suspicions. I wore dresses to school every day, when
all my friends wore jeans and t-shirts. I had to be prepared just in case it worked
and I was whisked through time. That summer, I even begged my mom to buy me a
bonnet. She did. I wore that white bonnet everywhere. If I ended up in Walnut Grove or Avonlea, I
was prepared.
By the
sixth grade I was old enough to realize that time travel probably wasn’t going
to be a reality for me, so I decided that when I grew up, I’d write a book
about a girl who could travel back and forth through time.
THE
ACADIAN SECRET is a Tween/YA Paranormal Action-Adventure about a young girl who
can…time travel.
Elisabeth finds she
can play in the past;
when bosom friends,
treasure hunters and tormented alchemists are still the norm.
BACK
COVER:
Elisabeth
London is keeping her new friends a secret from her parents. Not only do they live on the other side of
the world in the Scottish Highlands, they lived more than three hundred and
fifty years ago. Her mom and dad would never allow her to go gallivanting about
seventeenth century Scotland. They won’t
even let her go to the mall by herself yet.
Twelve-year-old
Elisabeth is old enough to know there is no such thing as magic, but when her
quartz crystal necklace has the power to transport her back and forth in time,
she no longer knows what to think. The
only thing she is certain of is that she loves spending carefree days with
Quinton, the mischievous nephew of a highland warrior, and sassy little Fiona,
a farmer’s daughter.
However,
Elisabeth’s adventures take a deadly turn when she is charged with
witchcraft. At a time and place in
history when witch-hunts were common, those found guilty were executed,
children included. Elisabeth must race to find her way back home, while trying
to stay one step ahead of the witch-hunter determined to see her burned at the
stake
Excerpt:
As the afternoon sun began to travel
behind the mountains, it cast an emerald glow across the glen. The valley was
littered with boulders, while a small river twisted its way toward a distant
forest.
Malcolm Craig was stalking his prey. He
was a tall, strong man with piercing blue-green eyes, a short beard, and wild
black hair that gave him a crazed look. He smelled the boar before he saw it.
Talbot, his hunting dog, lunged into the brambles after the wild pig which
began to grunt in anger. That was when something to the right caught his eye. A
young girl lay motionless in the heather.
"What the devil?" Malcolm
said as he jumped down from his horse. While still keeping his hearing attuned
to Talbot and the boar, he walked over and bent to peer at her. He breathed a
sigh of relief to find she was fast asleep. Malcolm scooped the sleeping girl
into his arms. “You’re lucky I found you, lassie, before that beast did.”
With a sigh, she rested her head
against his chest and put her arms around his neck. “Daddy…” she said in her
sleep.
Malcolm laughed. “Daddy? I’m nae your
daddy. No daughter of mine would be dressed like this, wandering around
barefoot in the middle of…”
Elisabeth’s eyes popped open and she
let out an ear-piercing scream. She bit Malcolm’s shoulder and he dropped her.
“Och, child! You bit me!”
The silence in the valley broke as
Talbot howled, the boar squealed and Elisabeth jumped to her feet and wailed in
horror.
"Dinnae move, lass!" Malcolm
yelled to be heard over the pandemonium. He reached for his dagger. It was
almost time for the kill.
The enraged boar deserted his hiding
spot in the brambles and charged toward the dog, its lethal tusks ready to
kill. Talbot was well-trained so, instead of turning tail and running, he
danced backward, facing the pig, luring it away from his master. With the boar
now in pursuit of the dog, Malcolm did what was natural to any man born and
bred in the Highlands: he ran at the beast as if he were a wild animal himself.
Jumping on the boar from behind, he grabbed its ear, yanked its head up and
slashed its throat.
Elisabeth continued to scream. Malcolm
jumped off the boar as it fell limp at his feet and cleaned the blade on the
carcass before putting it away. He walked toward Elisabeth, his bloody hands
held in front of him.
“Enough, lass. It's all right now.”
Her wide eyes fixed on the enormous man
dressed in a skirt. “You’ve got a knife!”
“Aye. And a sword.” He smirked as he
pointed to it.
“You’re armed!”
“I’m nae going to harm you, though. I
was hunting.”
“Hunting what? Little girls? Where am
I?”
Not waiting for an answer, she ran from
Malcolm and toward the forest, her bare feet slowing her great escape.
“That lass is completely mad,” Malcolm
grumbled while rubbing the shoulder she had bitten.
Malcolm mounted his horse; he couldn’t
leave the terrified girl alone out here. It wasn’t safe and would soon be dark.
She would be easy enough for a blind man to find again because she hadn’t
stopped screaming. For some reason, he hadn’t stopped smiling.
His black warhorse was as large and
intimidating as Malcolm was, and the animal’s powerful legs kicked up tall
grass and thistles as it barreled along. The sound of its hooves seemed
amplified as it raced toward Elisabeth. Malcolm caught up to her. Without
needing to slow his horse, he reached down, scooped her up into his arms, and
placed her in the saddle in front of him.
“There. Now be a good lass. I promise,
I’m nae going to hurt you.”
And with that, Elisabeth fainted.
“Well now, that certainly makes things
easier,” Malcolm muttered under his breath as he wrapped her in his plaid and
nudged his horse on.
Spirit Stealer: Ghosts in the Library
Fury's family leave the city for a six month visit to rural New Zealand.
They stay in an old house belonging to her mother's family, but who is
the ghostly figure in a hidden attic room and why is Fury the only one
who can see her? She learns the ghost is the spirit of the original
owner who has been trapped in the room for one hundred years.
On holiday in Nelson, New Zealand, Fury meets Eion who offers to teach
her to paddle board. Immediately attracted to him, she agrees. After
basic instruction, he takes her out to Skull Island, a creepy looking
rock some distance from the beach. No one has ever discovered a way up
to the caves which look like eyes, but Fury finds a secret entrance and
convinces Eion they should investigate. Their excitement rises as they
discover tunnels and caves hidden beneath the ground, but neither is
prepared for the arrival of ghostly pirates bringing their treasure
chests to bury in one of the underground caves.
Ghost Bus: Mystery of the Phantom Bus
I live in
Cambridge, Ontario, with my husband of twenty years and our teenage son. 
So strong
was my wish to time travel, I even dressed the part, as much as I could,
without raising anyone’s suspicions. I wore dresses to school every day, when
all my friends wore jeans and t-shirts. I had to be prepared just in case it worked
and I was whisked through time. That summer, I even begged my mom to buy me a
bonnet. She did. I wore that white bonnet everywhere. If I ended up in Walnut Grove or Avonlea, I
was prepared. 
Elisabeth
London is keeping her new friends a secret from her parents. Not only do they live on the other side of
the world in the Scottish Highlands, they lived more than three hundred and
fifty years ago. Her mom and dad would never allow her to go gallivanting about
seventeenth century Scotland. They won’t
even let her go to the mall by herself yet. 
Was Scheherazade a real person? Yes and no. Like Robin Hood, this storytelling queen is a legend herself and may be based on a real person. However, it’s not known for sure. Wiki has a pretty good write up on her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheherazade 
“Oh, goodness. Look at how low the sun sinks. I’m afraid we’ll have to continue tomorrow.”
