About the Book
Book: All Together West: A Ginnie West Adventure
Authors: Monique Bucheger & G.L. Rasmussen
Genre: Upper Middle Grade
Release date: December 5, 2024
Families are
complicated… and no one knows that better than 12 year-old Ginnie
West. With her dad engaged to her best friend’s mom, this summer
should be a dream come true. However, the return of Tillie’s birth
father muddles the girls’ celebration.
On the plus side, Ginnie’s dream of training on her beloved horse, Calliope, is finally happening. However, she soon discovers that her riding experience is not enough when Tillie, her best friend, and Toran, her twin brother, and their new horses outshine Calliope in performance.
To complicate matters further, Ginnie finds herself in the midst of an escalating prank war with her mischievous Uncle Jake, drawing the entire family into the chaos. The West/Stratton/Taylor families must come together and heal, allowing her great-uncle’s cherished motto, “When you’re here, you’re family,” to hold true once more.
Click here to get your copy!
About the Authors
Monique is a bestselling author, a
certified Farland Fiction Coach, and an empowerment speaker,
dedicated to championing the underdog, in both her writing and
real-life adventures.
Having a heart for families in crisis, Monique creates stories that capture the essence of real-life challenges and triumphs, with a touch of humor.
Monique’s upper middle-grade series, ‘The Ginnie West Adventures,’ delves into sensitive and weighty themes such as parental loss, abandonment, and overcoming abuse. She delivers stories not only for tween readers, but for those young at heart.
Drawing from her experiences nurturing a dozen of her own children and fostering over a hundred more, Monique’s experiences shape her books, creating novels in a number of genres, including a historical family saga, contemporary family dramas, a fun picture book, and a middle grade series weaving whimsy and heart into her tales.
A country boy
by birth and by choice, Gary spent his youth
working on the family farm, for local farmers and ranchers, on
horseback or playing sports. Offered scholarships in Agriculture
and Advertising Design, he opted for the bright lights and big
city. Eight years in the advertising field convinced him that
wasn’t where he wanted to be.
Gary freelanced in design and illustration, converted his love of writing for advertising to a newspaper column about the country lifestyle. He has also worked as a ranch manager, cowboy, rancher, and horse trainer. An avid painter and author, Gary shares his talents through mentoring others, is a past president of the Western Art Guild and Idaho Writers League and is an active member of Western Writers of America.
Gary and his wife, Margie are the parents of four children and ten grandchildren and have traveled extensively throughout Europe, Great Britain and the United States.
More from Monique
All Together West: A Ginnie West Adventure is an accumulation of many arcs, including getting to know some family members that Ginnie didn’t even know existed not very long ago. These blasts from the past make Ginnie and Tillie’s present very interesting.
When Monique and G.L. wrote Book 5: Chase Your Dreams West: A Ginnie West Adventure, it turned into a very long book and was split almost in half–with some storylines going into Book 5 and others into Book 6. A new plotline was added to weave a more interesting tale that readers have really liked. In fact, while Ginnie and Tillie have puzzled along trying to solve some riddles, readers made some interesting guesses that have given the authors ideas to add to future novels.
So put on your thinking caps and jump right in with your best guesses as the girls go on a treasure hunt. Who knows what they might find as they search for clues from the present to fill in gaps from the past? Their hunt might lead to an amazing adventure in the future.
Blog Stops
Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, December 5
Stories By Gina, December 6 (Author Interview)
For Him and My Family, December 6
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, December 7
Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, December 8 (Author Interview)
Texas Book-aholic, December 9
A Modern Day Fairy Tale, December 10 (Author Interview)
Library Lady’s Kid Lit, December 11
Fiction Book Lover, December 12 (Author Interview)
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, December 13
Vicky Sluiter, December 14 (Author Interview)
Artistic Nobody, December 14
Locks, Hooks and Books, December 15
Guild Master, December 16 (Author Interview)
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, December 17
Blossoms and Blessings, December 18 (Author Interview)
Giveaway
To celebrate their tour, Monique and Gary are giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf54110
Interview
How did you get started in writing? For advertising
BOOK 5: CHASE YOUR DREAMS WEST: Do you have a favorite scene in your newest release? Ch 38 and the scenes/chapters leading up to it.
BOOK 6: ALL TOGETHER WEST: A surprise happens in the final chapter that wasn’t planned until it popped out of my keyboard. I didn’t give G.L. a heads up–but he liked what happened–so we left it.
What genres do you write? Humor, Family Drama, Adventure, Western, Fiction and Non, Upper Middle-Grade
What is one thing you hope readers will take away from your story? Life is an adventure and always worth living.
Who are your favorite authors? Most of the classics, many contemporary and Patrick McManus
How do you get your story ideas? I ask “What if…? or What would…? a lot. What would it be like if your best friend became your stepsister? What would it be like to have a good stepmom–and still miss the birth mom you barely remember? What would it be like to live in a three-generational family? What kind of things would your mom/grandma/aunt write in a diary? As a kid? As a new mom? Write to you as their cherished child? Grandchild? What kind of treasures would you find of your mom’s that your dad stored/ hid in a barn loft?
What advice can you give to writers trying to break into the publishing world? Don’t write to break into publishing, write what you would want to pick up and read multiple times.
What qualities do you look for in a hero and heroine? Imperfect people who are willing to try new things–even if they make mistakes, fix them, do the hard “right” thing, give themselves and others grace as they figure out what is important to them and why.
What do you plan to work on next? I want to write the West Family Saga–starting in 1983 when Ginnie’s great-uncle (the patriarch of this branch of the West Family Tree is an 11-year-old boy growing up with his 5 brothers. My co-author, G.L. and I have been discussing cool plot points for different West family members.
What foods do you eat when writing to keep you going? At the moment I am partial to white cheddar Poppables and magic cookie bars. Occasionally I like a good salad as well.
If you could vacation anywhere, where would you go? I have been everywhere I want to be. I’m working on becoming a curmudgeon in my desert domicile.
Where can readers connect with you?
My website will have the latest news on the books and will often have the best deals on them, though you can find them at your favorite retailers.
Monique’s website is: https://authormoniquebucheger.com/
If you buy the print books through me, I will sign them for you.
Monique Bucheger and G.L. Rasmussen
(My answers are in blue and G.L.’s are in red.)
PS: As a FREE thank you gift for having us, you and your readers are welcome to download a short story that we wrote to introduce you to Ginnie and her family, which happens before Book 1 in our series.
Ginnie & Toran’s Great Escape:
