Ring of Truth
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I traveled with my sister to pick up tiny Alyssa, and our journey to Moscow and Akmola (now known as Astana) is one I will never forget. I hope Veronica’s tale will shed some light on the anguished yet wondrous path birth parents, adoptive parents, and adopted children tread.
I would like to thank my wonderful husband Jed for his help with my novella. He always has to slog through the roughest drafts. Thank you, too, to my dear friend and marvelous writer Bill Fuller for his insights. I am also grateful to my fellow author in this anthology, Kate Moore, who proved she is not only a splendid storyteller, but a perceptive reader, too. And many thanks to the very talented Ciji Ware, who invited me to participate in this project and also made a key introduction when it came time to research the world of opera. Thank you, Ciji! As it happens, my best source prefers to remain anonymous; but she knows who she is, and I thank her.
Author’s Note from Kate Moore
This little story grew and took shape with inspiration from many sources. First, a big thank you to my fellow authors, Ciji Ware and Diana Dempsey, for inviting me to join them in the project. It’s been great fun. My thanks, as always, go to a group of brainstorming authors—Carol Culver, Diana Dempsey, Barbara Freethy, Lynn Hanna, and Barbara McMahon. Further thanks go to Hank Biddle, Senior Vice President, Western Region, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, who provided invaluable information about hotel staffing and operations. And a final thank you to my son Kevin for showing me how a thirty-something person experiences San Francisco.
About the Authors
About Ciji Ware
In addition to the novella “The Ring of Kerry Hannigan,” Ciji Ware is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of eight novels and two nonfiction works. She is the daughter, niece, and descendant of writers (including William Ware, author of the historical romance Zenobia, 1836; Henry Ware, author of On the Formation of the Christian Character, 1831), so the writing profession is just part of the “family business.”
Among her many accolades, she has been honored with the Dorothy Parker Award of Excellence and a Romantic Times Award for Best Fictionalized Biography for Island of the Swans, and as a result of that book, was made a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (FSA Scot), a tribute she treasures. In 2012, she was a finalist in the prestigious WILLA (Cather) Literary Award for A Race to Splendor.
Ware is also an Emmy-award winning television producer, former radio and TV on-air broadcaster for KABC in Los Angeles, as well as a print and online journalist. She received a BA in History from Harvard University and has the distinction of being the first woman graduate of Harvard College to serve as the President of the Harvard Alumni Association, Worldwide.
The author lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and can be contacted at http://www.cijiware.com.
About Diana Dempsey
Diana Dempsey traded in an Emmy Award-winning career in TV news to write fast, fun romantic fiction. She is the author of eight women’s fiction and mystery novels. Her debut novel, Falling Star, was nominated for a RITA award for Best First Book by the members of Romance Writers of America. The Ms America mysteries introduce beauty queen and budding sleuth Happy Pennington.
In her dozen years in television news, the former Diana Koricke played every on-air role from network correspondent to local news anchor. She reported for NBC News from New York, Tokyo, and Burbank, and substitute anchored such broadcasts as Sunrise, Today, and NBC Nightly News. In addition, she was a morning anchor for KTTV 11 Fox News in Los Angeles. She started her broadcast career in the anchor chair for Financial News Network.
Born and raised in Buffalo, New York—Go, Bills!—Diana is a graduate of Harvard University and the winner of a Rotary International Foundation Scholarship. She enjoyed stints overseas in Belgium, the U.K., and Japan, and now resides in Los Angeles with her husband and a West Highland White Terrier, not necessarily in that order.
Diana loves to hear from readers. Visit www.dianadempsey.com to email her, and be sure to sign up for her mailing list while you’re there to hear first about her new releases.
About Kate Moore
Kate Moore is a Readers’ Crown winner and three-time RITA finalist who has been reading and writing romance fiction since she was ten. Her historical fiction takes readers to the dark side of Regency London and the triumphant side of love. Her contemporary fiction, on the lighter side, is set in the San Francisco area where Kate lives in a little town north of the Golden Gate with her surfer husband and her children’s dogs. Kate can be contacted at www.katemoore.com.
.Authors’ Book Lists
Available from Ciji Ware
Historical Novels
Island of the Swans
Wicked Company
A Race to Splendor
“Time-Slip” Historical Novels
A Cottage by the Sea
Midnight on Julia Street
A Light on the Veranda
Contemporary Novels
That Summer in Cornwall
That Autumn in Edinburgh
That Winter in Venice – coming 2015
That Spring in Paris – coming 2016
Contemporary Novellas
Ring of Truth: “The Ring of Kerry Hannigan”
Nonfiction
Rightsizing Your Life
Joint Custody After Divorce
Available from Diana Dempsey
Women’s Fiction
Falling Star
To Catch the Moon
Too Close to the Sun
Chasing Venus
Mystery
Ms America and the Offing on Oahu
Ms America and the Villainy in Vegas
Ms America and the Mayhem in Miami
Ms America and the Whoopsie in Winona
Novellas
Ring of Truth: “A Diva Wears the Ring”
Available from Kate Moore
Regency Romances
To Kiss a Thief
Sweet Bargain
The Mercenary Major
An Improper Widow
Regency Historicals
Winterburn’s Rose
A Prince Among Men
To Tempt a Saint
To Save the Devil
To Seduce an Angel
Blackstone’s Bride
Contemporary Novels
Sexy Lexy
Contemporary Novellas
“Once Upon a Ring” in Ring of Truth anthology