Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway: Chance for Rain by Tricia Downing

Welcome to my stop on the virtual book tour for Chance for Rain by Tricia Downing. This tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt for you as well as a great guest post. I also have the tour wide giveaway for you for a chance to win a $50 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for more excerpts, guest posts, interviews, reviews, and more. Enjoy!

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Title: Chance for Rain
Author: Tricia Downing
Publisher: Front Street Press
Publication Date: July 27th 2018
Paperback Number of Pages: 360
Genres: Contemporary, Women's Fiction, Romance

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Elite athlete Rainey Abbott is an intense competitor on the outside, but inside, she feels a daunting apprehension about her chances of finding true love. Her life as a downhill skier and race car driver keeps her on the edge, but her love life is stuck in neutral. A tragedy from her past has left her feeling insecure and unlovable.

Now that she’s in her thirties, Rainey’s best friend Natalie insists she take a leap and try online dating. Rainey connects with brian85 and becomes cautiously hopeful as a natural attraction grows between them. Fearful a face to face meeting could ruin the magic, Rainey enlists Natalie to scheme up an encounter between the two where Brian is unaware he is meeting his online mystery woman. Rainey is left feeling both guilty about the deception and disappointed by something Brian says.

When they finally meet in earnest, Rainey’s insecurities threaten to derail the blossoming romance. As she struggles with self-acceptance, she reveals the risks we all must take to have a chance for love.

Goodreads * Amazon * Barnes & Noble * IndieBound

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EXCERPT:

“Sometimes going shopping is work,” Natalie announces as we head back to her house after a morning at the mall. “You can’t be creative when you’ve been jammed up in an office for five hours. You have to get out for new ideas to come to you.”

“I love how you can rationalize almost any of life’s indulgences,” I say. Nat turns and winks in response to my playful smirk.

“Life is too short to deny yourself all self-indulgent behavior.” The words hang in the air slightly, as we both know it was an off-handed comment, but our minds go immediately back to the event that reinforces her words.

“Yes, life is short.” I say this in a way that reassures her that her comment was taken in the spirit it was said, rather than meant to dredge up bad memories. Though I can’t help but elaborate on the subject. “Do you realize I’m only six years shy of my mom’s age at the time of the accident?”

“Yep,” Nat answers a bit too quickly. “I do. And I also realize something else. Your mom was thirty-eight, married to the love of her life and had two charming young girls.” I quickly realize I have given her the perfect segue into a lecture that has been constructed, rehearsed, and delivered to me many times in many different iterations over the past ten years. Now, as if she is attempting an intervention while we drive down Colorado Boulevard, Natalie blurts out, “Rainey, it’s about time we found you a man.”

“Why? Are you getting tired of hanging out with me?”

“It’s not that,” she says. “It’s just. That. It’s time,” the words spit out of her mouth. It’s obvious she wants to punctuate her points. “You can’t keep running away from it. You’re an incredible catch—beautiful and charming to be around. Athletic. Everything most girls would die to be.”

I know she is keenly aware of my resistance, but I get the feeling she isn’t going to fall for it today. But I also can’t ignore my feelings or my truth.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Paralympian, Speaker, Author, Disability Advocate

On September 17, 2000, Tricia Downing went from being a competitive cyclist to a paraplegic requiring a wheelchair for mobility. Her life was changed forever, but Tricia’s competitive spirit and zest for life continued on. Making the transition from able-bodied cyclist to an athlete with a disability, Tricia has completed over 100 races, including marathons and triathlons, since her accident. She was the first female paraplegic to complete an Ironman triathlon and qualified for the Hawaii Ironman World Championship twice. Additionally, she was a member of Team USA at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Tricia’s professional life has been immersed in sports as she earned a master’s degree in Sport Management in 1995 and worked at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. She was the press officer for the USA Table Tennis team at the 1996 Olympic Games.

She has received many sports accolades, including the USA Triathlon Physically Challenged Athlete of the Year (2003), Sportswomen of Colorado—Inspiration (’03), Triathlon (’05), Hall of Fame (’12) Awards, the 2006 Most Inspirational Athlete from the Challenged Athletes Foundation and the 2008 Courage Award from the Tempe Sports Authority.

As a community leader and disability advocate, she was a member of the 2013 class of the Girl Scouts Women of Distinction. She also received the 2019 Inspiration Award from Craig Hospital for outstanding community contribution from a Craig Hospital “graduate.” (Craig is a world-renowned spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation hospital) Tricia has truly excelled despite her life-altering injury.

In addition to her sports pursuits, Tricia has taken an active leadership role in her community as a peer mentor to others experiencing spinal cord injuries, she founded Camp Discovery (and subsequently The Cycle of Hope non-profit) dedicating 10 years to helping female wheelchair users gain confidence and self-esteem through a yearly sports and fitness retreat. Additionally, she serves on the board of USA Shooting, which is the National Governing Body for the Olympic sport of shooting.

Tricia published her memoir: Cycle of Hope—A Journey from Paralysis to Possibility in June 2010, with the second edition released in January 2017. In August of 2018, she published her first fiction novel Chance for Rain.

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GUEST POST:

What is one thing about yourself that you love the most and why?

Isn’t it funny that it’s easy to come up with a list of things you don’t like about yourself, but when asked what you do like, it is so much more difficult!

I’d have to say the thing I like best about myself is my tenacity. I am driven every day by my goals and I have so many…they will keep me busy for a very long time. I think some of my determination is probably innate—simply part of who I have been since I was a kid. I remember being on the swim team at the age of seven and getting up on the starting blocks and knowing that I wanted to win my race. I was going to go as hard as I could for that one lap (which seemed so long back then), so I could win a blue ribbon. I loved the challenge of the sport and the feeling of accomplishment.

The other part of that tenacity came after I suffered a paralyzing accident at the age of 31. I was a competitive cyclist at the time and while out training one day, was hit by a car and paralyzed from the chest down. If ever there was a character-building situation in my life, this was it. I had to learn all over again so many basic skills—getting dressed, using a wheelchair, driving with my hands. So much was new, but the thing that wasn’t new was facing challenges and my competitive spirit to conquer anything that stood in the path of my goals. I had to learn patience (which isn’t one of my strong points) and to ask for help. But regardless of the situations that came my way, I kept my eye on the prize—returning to my life on my terms. I was able to go back to my full-time job and return to my roots of racing. Since I have been injured, I have competed in many sports: triathlon, rowing, and shooting and have competed at the World Championships in each of those sports. I owe that to my never-give-up mentality. It’s exhausting for sure, mentally and physically to push through an injury like mine, but it’s not unlike the other challenges we take on in our lives. Like, writing a book for example. At the outset it seems impossible. So many pages to write, ideas to come up with, making it flow and staying the course through edit after edit. It takes persistence and thick skin. I greatly admire writers who go back into the arena over and over, sharing their stories with the world. And, as an author myself, my goal is to continue to hone my craft, enjoy the process and connect with readers around the world.

I’m so glad to have had both the challenges and opportunities of my life, because each one of them has made me better, and they’ve all given me hope that I can handle whatever comes my way.

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GIVEAWAY:

Tricia Downing will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter after the tour. To increase your chance at winning, leave a comment at a different blog stop on the tour each day. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway