"I can't believe we're here!" Sharon brushes back the hair that has escaped from her long braids.
The three hostesses of the Author Roast and Toast have made it to Woodstock! Back to l969 and all three are dressed as hippies. Bell bottom Wranglers, bra-less, in long tie dyed tee shirts and barefoot, they feel the squish of mud between their toes. Especially Lyn's incredibly huge ones. Mary's jugs bounce with the music and Sharon's big butt waddles to the beat of a big bass drum from onstage. The girls are happy!
The three hostesses of the Author Roast and Toast have made it to Woodstock! Back to l969 and all three are dressed as hippies. Bell bottom Wranglers, bra-less, in long tie dyed tee shirts and barefoot, they feel the squish of mud between their toes. Especially Lyn's incredibly huge ones. Mary's jugs bounce with the music and Sharon's big butt waddles to the beat of a big bass drum from onstage. The girls are happy!
"Yes, and thank Goodness you brought the huge umbrella Mary." Lyn snuggles closer to her two friends as they wait for the sky to clear and the music to begin again. They'd loved Joan Baez, Country Joe and the Fish, Santana, the Grateful Dead and Blood Sweat and Tears were tearing up the stage, and rockin' the tremendous crowd into a musical frenzy. "The farm way over there is the one whose barn we set up in. Margaret must already be there." Mary points and then gets sidetracked by two partyers who try to divert her with something they're smoking.
Lyn nudges Sharon and points to Mary, "We'll have to keep our eyes on her. You know how much trouble she almost got into at that Vietnam War Rally, she coulda been taken away and put in jail. She gets so involved and well, look."
Lyn and Sharon follow the voice of their fellow hostess. Mary's voice booms,"Wow, what is that, can I try it?" Without letting Mary reach for whatever it was she intended to sample Lyn and Sharon grab their friend and they head to the site of the party.
A farmer near the event has rented his barn and back yard to the girls,to host Margaret Tanner's roast. They were so lucky, some of these people had been outside for days and despite the rain and lack of food, still they stayed and partied. So they opened the party up and were feeding everyone they could. It was magic how Oliver dressed as a hippie, produced food from the air to feed people. But you were only allowed into the large barn if they were buying one of Margaret's books. The girls have tried the bee hive hair, mini skirts and disco, but this is much more fun. Although at this party there is a mixture of all kinds of music and people. The only thing more diverse then the attendees is the music!
Mary grabs her Gibson and starts to sing folk songs. Peter Paul and Mary's, Where Have All The Flower's Gone, she plucked with G, E minor, C, and D7, repeated over and over as it was in many Folk Songs. Lyn, grabs the Guitar and whips out a rendition of the Beatles, All You Need Is Love, but the barn explodes when Oliver picks out a sexy, raspy voiced rendition of Freedom.
Several girls swoon, or pass our for some reason or another. Others stare at him mouth agape.
Sharon lets him finish and then tells him if he doesn't take care of the food she won't let him stay for the final day. And Oliver really wants to hear Jimi Hendrix sing, Foxy Lady! So he turns to the food tables.
Huge apple pies, fresh with the scent of cinnamon wait to be topped with vanilla ice cream, fresh churned by some hungry hippie in exchange for food. Mississippi mud cake covered with strawberries, chocolate eclairs, brownies, chips, donuts, delectable munchies of all kinds fill the tables. Most of it has a main ingredient required by a lot of
the guests, sugar...
On another table is the set up for beverages, from Coke and Seven Up, to Brandy Clusters and GinSquashes. The only thing they are waiting on is the guest of honor
And then in walks Margaret. Dressed in a mini skirt that shows off an incredibly long, lean, pair of legs and a the body of a waif. She is looking mighty fine. The eyes of every guy in the area are glued onto her as she strolls in looking hot!
Someone hands a microphone to Sharon who informs everyone at the top of her voice.
"Let's all shout out to the guys stuck in Canada or worse, Vietnam. To a lost friend John Fitzgerald. Come home man!
Please welcome Author Margaret Tanner. She is pleased to offer signed copies of her books and my friends, Party On!" By the way what is Margaret Tanner's favorite song from the 60's for a winner of a download each of her books: Cardinal Sin and Reluctant Father.
RELUCTANT FATHER
BLURB:
Jordan Stamford is allergic to babies. As war rages in Vietnam, this jet-setting playboy arrives in Sarah Watson’s seaside home to re-development it. Sarah loves her home, and longs for motherhood. Will Jordan’s shameful family past and Sarah’s desperate longing for a child, be an insurmountable barrier for them?
EXCERPT:
Lewis Inlet Annual School Bazaar.
The loud crying of a baby erupted in the surrounding crowd, and Jordan Stamford baulked just inside the school gates. Instinctively his hands moved to cover his ears and block the noise, but he was able to stop them at the last second. People surged around him, cutting off retreat, and his stomach muscles clenched, his pulse rate escalated—he was trapped.
The wailing grew worse, reverberating inside his head until his brain felt ready to explode. Teeth gritted, he pushed his way through the crowd. He could get away. It wasn’t like when he was sixteen and trapped on a train with some screaming baby. By the time the train pulled into the station and he could get off, he had been on the verge of hyperventilating.
Taking several shuddering breaths, he fought to get himself under control. This crying baby had resurrected the phobia he’d thought buried years ago. What kind of sniveling coward would go to pieces at the sound of a screaming child? Why should it still bother him so much after all this time? For years he had religiously avoided going anywhere near children. For God’s sake, what had made him drop his guard and come to a school bazaar, of all places?
He didn’t mind making regular donations to charities that looked after neglected children, as long as he didn’t have to present the checks in person. He feared having kids. With his family history, he was genetically predisposed to reject his offspring. No way would he risk bringing a child into the world to suffer the same fate as he had.
****
“Look at this horrible thing, Lisa. You’ll have to pay someone to take it away.” Sarah Watson squatted on the ground and shoved the moth-eaten deer’s head under the trestle table.
“You wouldn’t get me touching it,” Lisa said. “Have you met Jordan Stamford yet?”
“No, and I don’t want to, he’s going to wreck Lewis Inlet.”
“But he’s gorgeous.”
“I couldn’t care less what he looks like. Ouch!” Sarah banged her head on the table as she went to get up. A pair of expensive shoes and the hem of tailored sports pants came into her line of vision. “Coming here with his big city ideas and flashy car.” She climbed to her feet. “Lording it up at the big house. Who does he think he is, anyway?” She tossed her head, and her jet-black curls danced.
“And you are?” The owner of the expensive shoes savaged her with a contemptuous sweep of his ebony eyes.
BLURB: One bloody night Bryce Harrington thought savagely, and this happens. He had committed the cardinal sin of getting his secretary pregnant, and now he had to pay the price – offer marriage.
Caroline Dennison had committed the cardinal sin of falling in love with her boss. While her brother risks his life in the jungles of Vietnam, and her friend, a draft dodger, is on the run from the authorities and needs her help, Caroline has another desperate battle on her hands. How to win Bryce’s love
EXCERPT:
Make Love Not War!
Bryce Harrington cursed as an antiwar protester shoved a placard through his car window. Unwashed bloody hippies, disrupting a man going about his lawful business. It was 1966, for God’s sake. The government ought to lock up the lot of them.
“No conscripts for Vietnam!” a young woman screamed. Bryce felt tempted to press his foot on the accelerator and scatter them all in his wake. He was going to be late, and he didn’t like tardiness. It showed a lack of discipline.
When he arrived at work he parked the car and climbed out. “Damn it.” Some moronic protester had scratched the door of his car.
In his office another shock awaited. He found a note from his secretary.
I’m sorry. Have gone home. Felt a migraine coming on.
He slammed the door of the executive suite and marched down the corridor to see Miss Bumpstead, head of the typing pool. What a shocker of a morning it had been. A bloody nightmare.
The stray puppy he had been feeding for more than a month had been run over by some creep who didn’t even have the decency to stop and check on the little mutt’s welfare. Left him lying on the road like a piece of garbage.
After taking the dog to the vet to be put down because the injuries were so severe, he’d got caught up in that antiwar demonstration. And now, to top it off, his secretary had gone home and left him at the mercy of some giggling little girlie from the typing
pool.
MARGARET TANNER
Margaret is a member of the Romance Writers of Australia, the Melbourne Romance Writers Group (MRWG) and EPIC. She won the 2007 and 2009 Author of the Year at AussieAuthors.com.
Her novel Frontier Wife has just won the best historical romance novel at the 2010 Readers Favorite Award.
Margaret is married and has three grown up sons, and a gorgeous little granddaughter.
Outside of her family and friends, writing is her passion
http://www.margarettanner.com/ Publishers: The Wild Rose Press and Whiskey Creek Press.
Visit Margaret's Author Page at The Wild Rose Press