It's All About Me ~ Introducing Jean C. Gordon

Jean C. Gordon here happy to introduce/reintroduce myself to all our new and long-time readers.

The Official Bio

For Amazon Bestselling inspirational and sweet romance author Jean C. Gordon, writing is a natural extension of her love of reading. From that day in first grade when she realized t-h-e was the word “the,” she’s been reading everything she can put her hands on. She and her college-sweetheart husband tried the city life in Los Angeles, but quickly returned home to their native small-town Upstate New York, where she sets her books.

They share a 175-year-old farmhouse on 12 acres just south of Albany with their daughter and son-in-law, two grandchildren, and a menagerie of pets. Their son lives nearby. While Jean creates stories, her family grows organic fruits and vegetables and tends the livestock de jour.

A founding member of the Capital Region Romance Writers (Albany, NY), Jean currently serves as membership chair. She’s also a member of the Romance Writers of America and its Faith, Hope and Love Chapter, the American Christian Fiction Writers, and Novelists, Inc.

Jean is currently working on a new series for Harlequin Love Inspired and looking forward to the release of her first single title romance, Mending the Motocross Champion, in October.

Five Miscellaneous Facts

I love roller coasters.
I was once the runner-up Wyoming County (NY) Maple Syrup Princess.
I am not afraid of spiders or snakes.
Growing up, my family always called me by my full name Jean Marie
I chose a star sapphire for my engagement ring.

What You Really Want To Know About

Our menagerie of pets.
 

Our Xena, a lab-boxer mix. Our daughter's Cat One and Cat Two, who moved themselves over to our side of the house because her family has too many dogs, and Jester who recently came to live with us because our son couldn't keep him at his new apartment.

Our daughter's family's dogs, Mr. Buttons, another lab-boxer mix, Appa, a terrier mix, and Zori, who's anyone's guess. Appa and Zori came from Guam with the family after my daughter worked as a midwife there in a women's clinic for a year.

My Current Release

TEAM MACACHEK STARTS HERE: Meet the strong women and fearless men of the motocross circuit.

Physical therapist Dana VanAlstyne’s dreams of a family were lost in the dust of a motocross racecourse. Although she’s filled her life with her work and church activities, it hasn’t filled the empty space inside her. Nor has it eased the heartache of being abandoned by a man who wasn’t ready for a wife and children. Now her dream is to open her own private practice. All she needs is the capital to make that happen.

Anton, “Mac,” Macachek may be the top professional motocross racer in the country but he still has one race that matters more to him: winning a championship at Unadilla Raceway and showing the hometown folks the bad boy did amount to something. But when a horrific accident sidelines those plans, he makes a deal with the woman he once loved with all his heart. A woman who abandoned him. If Dana will get him back in racing shape, he’ll fund her new practice. Then an even more dangerous risk is revealed. If Mac races again, he could die.

Does Dana have enough faith to risk her heart again? She loved Mac once, but feared he loved motocross racing more than he loved her. If she helps him mend his broken body, will it also mend her broken heart? Or will it all be lost again in the dust and danger of a motocross racetrack?

Amazon Print and Kindle ~ Kindle Unlimited through April 13.
Barnes and Noble Print ~ Nook, iBooks, and Kobo Coming Soon

Where To Find Me

My Website 

Facebook JeanCGordon.author
Twitter @JeanCGordon
Sign up for my Readers Newsletter
 

Now, if you've gotten this far, want to share a little something about yourself?

Celebrate Your Name Giveaway

by Jean C. Gordon

Did you know that this week is Celebrate Your Name Week and today is Unique Names Day? I discovered that when I was surfing the net for ideas for character names for a new series with four brothers I'm thinking about writing. My favorite site for name research is the Social Security Administration's Popular Baby Names site (could be a throwback to my many years as a financial and retirement planning writer). It lets you look at the top 1,000 names for years from 1880 on. But thinking about different names and their meanings pulled me away from the SSA site. Of course, I had to look up the meaning of my name.

And the popularity of my name. From NameBerry.com (and crossed checked elsewhere):
"Originally a feminine of John, Jean was popular in Scotland long before it found favor elsewhere, and had its most shining moment here in the era of Jean Harlow (born Harlean in 1911), ultimate symbol of silver screen glamour in the 1930s, but now, though there are many grandmas and even moms with the name, it doesn't seem all that baby-friendly.

"A perennial on the popularity list until it finally dropped off in 1994, Jean was in the Top 20 from 1922 to 1936, and was extremely well used as a middle name, as in Michael Jackson's song 'Billie Jean' and tennis champ Billie Jean King, not to mention Hermione Jean Granger from Harry Potter/. It was also the actual first name of Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Maggie Smith shone in the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and nickname Jeanie was commemorated in the Stephen Foster classic song 'I Dream of Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,' as well as in the early sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie. 

Alas, Jean had fallen out of favor by the time my parents chose it. I remember going to kindergarten orientation and meeting another child named Jean for the first time, a then-current kindergartener. I didn't encounter another Jean at school until junior high school. A bit of personal trivia. My older brother and I are named after our parents, only middle name first. He's William Herbert versus Herbert William and I'm Jean Marie versus Mary Jean.

While I haven't come up with names for my four brothers, I did find out the meaning of the hero's name in my most recent book—Anton "Mac" Macachek. Anton means priceless one or praiseworthy, which is what Mac sets out to do in Mending the Motocross Champion.

For a chance to win a copy of Mac's story, share the meaning of your name or any other comment and check back tomorrow in the comments to see if you're the randomly chosen winner.

TEAM MACACHEK STARTS HERE
Meet the strong women and fearless men of the professional motocross circuit.

Physical therapist Dana VanAlstyne’s dreams of a family were lost in the dust of a motocross racecourse. Although she’s filled her life with her work and church activities, it hasn’t filled the empty space inside her. Nor has it eased the heartache of being abandoned by a man who wasn’t ready for a wife and children. Now her dream is to open her own private practice. All she needs is the capital to make that happen.

Anton, “Mac,” Macachek may be the top professional motocross racer in the country but he still has one race that matters more to him: winning a championship at Unadilla Raceway and showing the hometown folks the bad boy did amount to something. But when a horrific accident sidelines those plans, he makes a deal with the woman he once loved with all his heart. A woman who abandoned him. If Dana will get him back in racing shape, he’ll fund her new practice. Then an even more dangerous risk is revealed. If Mac races again, he could die.

Does Dana have enough faith to risk her heart again? She loved Mac once, but feared he loved motocross racing more than he loved her. If she helps him mend his broken body, will it also mend her broken heart? Or will it all be lost again in the dust and danger of a motocross racetrack?

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