Liz Flaherty and The Healing Summer

Wild Women Authors is pleased to feature author Liz Flaherty as she celebrates the release of The Healing Summer. With Liz is Carol of Carol's Clip Joint in Peacock Tennessee. Liz will go first though she's a little startled that someone wants to interview her—she’s one of those “always a bridesmaid” people, which is just fine with her.

Where are you from? Peacock, Tennessee. No one ever finds us unless they turn the wrong way off the interstate, but we like to tell people that when it comes to nice people and gentle places, our town makes Mayberry look wild and wooly.

What do you do there? I’m the owner and operator of Carol’s Clip Joint. It’s a three-chair beauty salon right next door to the Methodist church on Main Street. I bought it when I figured out life wasn’t going to go in any of the directions I planned on. It’s one of those places people come when they need to talk, you know? Kids do their homework while their moms have foils on their heads. There’s a “take one, leave one” bookshelf free to all. I’m very proud of my place—sometimes it’s a stopping point between heartbreak and its solution. For me as well as my clients! Plus, we do nails and we’re great with color.

How did you meet Steven Elliot? He was married to a dear friend, Promise, and is the brother of two other dear friends. He’s ornery and a pain in the neck and so good-looking he makes my knees wobble just looking at him, but he’s one of the good guys. I wouldn’t trust him with my heart—which is kind of a play on words, since he’s a cardiothoracic surgeon—but well, maybe I would. Maybe.

Was it love at first sight? Oh, good heavens, no. He was just someone who was always there on the periphery of my life. I cut his hair when he came down from Knoxville. When he needed to talk about Promise, I listened. And talked, too—we both loved her. She’s been gone for three years now, and Steven and I laugh because we know very well what she’d be saying to him at this point: “Get a life, desperado.” It was never my intention to venture in from the edges of that life.

What do you like most about Steven? Remember where I said he was a pain in the neck? Yeah, I like that in a guy. And where I said he was good-looking? I have to admit I like that, too, but what I like even better is that he doesn’t know how handsome he is. He can rock a suit that costs more than my car and my entire wardrobe, but spends most of his time in jeans and tee shirts under his lab coat. In case you wondered, he also rocks a lab coat.

And what do you like least? That he’s a pain in the neck. Just kidding! He’s kind of self-involved sometimes. Entitled. When we first started dating, he asked if we could be exclusive. He wasn’t pushy about it, but since I’m the loyal type, I said “sure,” because I don’t even have the time to spend with one guy, much less more than that. However, when I asked that the exclusivity go both ways, he was startled. He went along with it, but I think he just hadn’t expected the chubby girl from his hometown was going to make demands of her own.

What made you become a stylist? I never meant to make it a career, just a stopgap thing until I could complete my education and become…well, something an educated person becomes. But life got hard. My high school boyfriend was killed in the military. Our precious baby girl, Miranda, died of SIDS. My brother committed suicide. I had to keep plugging away. I owed it to the memory of those people I loved to be the best I could be. It turned out that being a beautician—and a friend—was that best. I’m not taking chances again, by any means—I’m not going to fall in love with the desperado, but I like who I am. I like my life.

What is your biggest fear? Loss. I don’t like admitting that, because I like being strong, but those losses when I was 18 were egregious—I don’t feel as if I could survive it again.

How do you relax? I don’t. That’s why I want that vacation on Topsail Island. Believe me when I say I need that time.

Thank you for spending time with us, Carol. Now we'd like hear what Liz has to say.

What movies or books have had an impact on your career as a writer? I think I became a writer because of Louisa May Alcott’s Jo March character. Although I’ve loved many writers and books since, Little Women is still the biggest influence. And that new movie? It rocks! It’s my favorite version ever.

Tell us a bit about your publisher: how did you hear about them and what influenced your decision to submit to them? I’ve been affiliated with the Wild Rose Press for many years, although they are not my only publisher. I love that they are willing to work with an author on nearly any question. With this particular book, I was difficult about the cover, though not wrong, and I love the one I ended up with.

What book[s] currently rest on your TBR pile? You know, I don’t know. I have a lot of cozies on there, because I love them and I can’t write them. A few memoirs. Not so many romances anymore, but lots of women’s fiction.

Lastly, what's up next and when can we expect to see it on the shelves? A Place to Hang Her Heart is my novella in the February 11 release of Be My Heartwarming Valentine: A Heartwarming Christmas Town Box Set. Other than that, I’m working hard on a series for Harlequin Heartwarming.

Where can we find you? I’m all over the place—I think I blog so much I’ve worn out my welcome in a few places. But thank you for coming by, and feel free to visit me…all over the place.

Bio:

Retired from the post office and married to Duane for…a really long time, USA Today bestselling author Liz Flaherty has had a heart-shaped adult life, populated with kids and grands and wonderful friends. She admits she can be boring, but hopes her curiosity about everyone and everything around her keeps her from it. She likes traveling and quilting and reading. And she loves writing.

Find her at: lizkflaherty@gmail.com and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorlizflaherty/ and Twitter: https://twitter.com/LizFlaherty1

Buy links:

The Healing Summer is available in both paperback and ebook.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X8DGPM6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i6

B & N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-healing-summer-liz-flaherty/1133411458

Google Books: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Healing_Summer.html?id=kj64DwAAQBAJ

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-healing-summer

I brought along an excerpt, just to give you a better look at Carol and Steven. I hope you like it.

There had been other “hook-ups,” both during break-up times and since Promise’s death, but he had never given serious thought to waking up with anyone he slept with—at least, not on a consistent basis. No one ever asked or expected him to be faithful. No one called him her boyfriend. No one admitted they had to pee like a racehorse—it was as if the women he’d been with didn’t have bodily functions other than orgasm.

Not that exclusivity was a problem. It wasn’t at all.

“I don’t need you to fall in love with me or promise me lifelong loyalty or any of that. I don’t even expect you to consider our relationship a…well, a relationship, but I’m not much into that kind of adventure, either.” She grinned sheepishly. “I know I sound like a prude, but so be it.”

He knew she was no prude. She was exciting and sexy and so much fun he sometimes he went days on end thinking he might actually be able to live without Promise. Not just exist, but live, with a large part of his heart intact.

“I want to be your boyfriend,” he said. “No class ring—I hocked it to buy beer when I was a freshman in college. But we’ll sit together at all the Little League games and the Cup and Cozy and I’ll even buy—if I have any money. When you’re taking care of Reese and pretending you’re not, I’ll pretend right along with you. What do you think?”

“I think you have your eye on my Mustang.”

“Nah, it’s too little—hurts my knees—though I probably look good in it. Not as good as I do on a motorcycle, but not bad. I’ll be an excellent boyfriend.” He lifted her hand, turning the chain he’d given her round and round. “Boyfriends give charm bracelets.”

“Well, since you did give me the bracelet and I love it, it’s okay with me if you’re my boyfriend. For the summer anyway.” She leaned in to kiss him, her hand on his shoulder, and he caught her wrist just to touch her. He loved her skin.

“You don’t think I’ll stay in Peacock, do you?” He held her gaze.

“No.” But she didn’t seem unhappy—not even a little bit sad. “You’re too—I don’t know—intense, maybe. You move too fast. No one does that here. You know that. Besides, you’ve been gone too long. Other than a few weeks some summers and the awful time while Promise was sick, you haven’t actually lived here since you left for Vanderbilt. And I don’t think you’ve wanted to, have you?”

She was right—until this summer, he hadn’t wanted to come back here. But that was before finding Miss Abigail’s. Before Jamie Scott died.

Before Carol.

“Dillon was away for years,” he said. “He didn’t even come and visit after his folks retired to Arizona, and look at him now. You couldn’t pry him off Lawyers Row with a crowbar.”

Carol shook her head. “Dillon came home and found Grace. Had she not been here, he wouldn’t be either.”

But you’re here. Steven didn’t say the words out loud. He was startled to have even thought them.

She checked the clock on the oven. “It’s time for me to go. I told Grace I’d pick them up at ten. When are you guys leaving?”

“As soon as everyone kisses his wife goodbye. I’ll follow you into town and kiss you at the same time so you won’t feel out of place or anything.”

She went to the sink, rinsing the coffee carafe and their cups and draping the dishcloth neatly over the sink divider. “That’s really big of you. You’re not going to throw your cell phone away or anything like they did in that movie, are you?”

He picked up her suitcase to follow her out the door. “Nope. Why? Are you going to worry about me?”

“Heavens, no.” She opened the Mustang’s trunk for him. “I’m not your mother.” She gave a little toss of her ponytail. “I’m your girlfriend.”