Friday, February 5, 2016

Missing Pieces - 12 Things About Heather & A Giveaway

Summary:
Sarah Quinlan's husband, Jack, has been haunted for decades by the untimely death of his mother when he was just a teenager, her body found in the cellar of their family farm, the circumstances a mystery. The case rocked the small farm town of Penny Gate, Iowa, where Jack was raised, and for years Jack avoided returning home. But when his beloved aunt Julia is in an accident, hospitalized in a coma, Jack and Sarah are forced to confront the past that they have long evaded. 

Upon arriving in Penny Gate, Sarah and Jack are welcomed by the family Jack left behind all those years ago—barely a trace of the wounds that had once devastated them all. But as facts about Julia's accident begin to surface, Sarah realizes that nothing about the Quinlans is what it seems. Caught in a flurry of unanswered questions, Sarah dives deep into the puzzling rabbit hole of Jack's past. But the farther in she climbs, the harder it is for her to get out. And soon she is faced with a deadly truth she may not be prepared for.

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12 Things About Heather Gudenkauf
                        
1.    I’m the youngest of six siblings. I have the best big brothers and sisters ~ they have always looked out for me. And still do!
2.    My parents have been married for 57 years. Everything good about being a spouse and parent I’ve learned from my mom and dad.
3.    I’ve been told I have a pretty serious addiction to Diet Coke. This may be true. My Diet Cokes have to be fountain pop with lots of ice and a skinny straw. Is that weird? Yeah, I know.
4.    My favorite book of all time is Willa Cather’s My Antonia. I reread it every year and it continues to enthrall me.
5.    The night I met my husband he dropped a crawdad in my drink and didn’t notice for a half an hour. I married him two years later.
6.    All five of my novels are set in my home state of Iowa. Many people don’t realize how beautiful and diverse the Iowa landscape is and I love sharing
7.    We have an incredibly sweet and gentle German shorthaired pointer called Lolo. We named her after Olympic medalist and Iowa native, Lolo Jones.
8.    In college I met one of my favorite novelists, John Irving, at a University of Iowa Hawkeye basketball game. After I gushed about how much I loved his books, Mr. Irving was kind enough to sign the back of my ticket and offer kind words of encouragement about pursuing my own writing dreams.
9.    In addition to be a writer, I’m also a Title I Reading Coordinator for my local school district.
10. I have three children, two of whom attend The University of Iowa, my alma mater. I’m working on getting my third child to consider going to school there once she graduates high school. No pressure ~ Go Hawks!
11.One of my favorite pastimes is hiking through the woods. We have several nature preserves near my home and I find it incredibly relaxing and reinvigorating to be able to take Lolo for long walks surrounded by nature. This is where I work out the twists and turns of my novels.
12.I begin all my novels in longhand. I buy myself a beautiful journal or notebook and start writing. Eventually I transfer what I’ve written to the computer.

About the Author:
Heather was born in Wagner, South Dakota, the youngest of six children. At one month of age, her family returned to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota where her father was employed as a guidance counselor and her mother as a school nurse. At the age of three, her family moved to Iowa, where she grew up. Having been born with a profound unilateral hearing impairment, Heather tended to use books as a retreat, would climb into the toy box that her father’s students from Rosebud made for the family with a pillow, blanket, and flashlight, close the lid, and escape the world around her. Heather became a voracious reader and the seed of becoming a writer was planted.

Heather Gudenkauf graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in elementary education, has spent her career working with students of all ages and continues to work in education as a Title I Reading Coordinator.
Heather lives in Iowa with her husband, three children, and a very spoiled German Short-haired Pointer named Lolo. In her free time Heather enjoys spending time with her family, reading, hiking, and running. She is currently working on her next novel.

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MIRA Books is giving one lucky winner a print copy of
Missing Pieces by Heather Gudenkauf

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