Between the Heartbeats

Between the Heartbeats is a modern day Medical Romance that occurs in rural Upstate New York. A young widow, Alexandra Cruikshank, meets a handsome locum tenens internist, Richard Blake. She's is still grieving the loss of her husband and not looking for love. He is convinced that she is the woman for him.

Alexandra and her husband, Doug, never got around to starting a family before he died. Now she's alone. Doug has been gone a year and a half. On occasion Doug comes to her from the ethereal side, but no one believes Alex. Friends and family tell Alex that she needs to stop wearing her wedding ring and get on with life. Not ready to forget the love of her life, she becomes a nurse traveler, and as a nurse traveler she doesn't have to explain herself to anyone.

When she takes her third travel assignment life gets complicated. The locum tenens internist for the Intensive Care Unit, Richard Blake, has set his sights on her. Unfortunately, the charge nurse has been slowly weaving a snare to trap the handsome doctor and is willing to do anything to get him, including framing Alex for an unforgiveable crime. The charge nurse and her cohort find many ways to make Alex's stay in their hometown uncomfortable.

Eventually, Alex finds herself in serious trouble and in desperate need of a savvy lawyer. She asks her twin sister Samantha to come to her aid. Alex is appalled during the tribunal. Some minds are devious when they do not get what they want.

Richard is working through problems of his own. His mother is a fortress on high heels. She filled the hospital board seat left open following the death of Richard's father, and doing a damn good job of it. Richard wants people to know him for who he is, not to rest on the accolades of his parents. His dream is to go to Alaska to watch the Iditarod race. As soon as this assignment ends, he's out of there. There's only one thing holding him back. He's in love with Alex.

Sit down with a warm cup of tea and take a heartfelt journey as Alex learns to let go of her past and reach out to the living.

Barbara A Scales grew up in the Central New York small village of Chittenango, the hometown of Frank L. Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz. She is the middle child of eleven. Both of her parents worked hard all their lives. Her father worked three jobs in the summers to support them. As a child, if she was not swimming in the Canaseraga Creek of Madison County, she was wandering through the fields. From those wonderful days, she developed a great love of nature.
Barbara graduated from St. Joseph's School of Nursing, Syracuse, New York in 1979. She has retired, and now lives in Ocala, Florida. Several times a day, she goes for a walk with her husband and their adopted Siberian husky Sassie. Her hobbies are archery, swimming, and gardening. And their daughter and her family live in Marcellus, New York.
Her registered nursing career spanned 42 years. In that time she met and cared for many, but she owed her compassionate understanding of the ill and infirmed to her mother. Barbara worked alongside her mother in a nursing home while she attended nursing school. It was from observing her mother she learned how to be a nurse. And with a commitment to helping others, she studied the healing arts of Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, and Healing Touch.
Although in the past, writing for nursing journals and holistic magazines kept her busy, she now focuses on creative writing. Her first two projects are children's books, Wally the Whale with the Crazy Wavy Hair and Max and Jax: The Haunted Pumpkin Patch. Wally, created with the help of her grandson, entertains as well as helps kinesthetic learners. The Max and Jax book is a delightful romp through childhood and having the bejeepers scared out of you. Did I mention she has older brothers who liked to pull pranks?
During her nursing career, Barbara experienced firsthand that God is ever present at the bedside. Ada of the Angels, published by Smashwords 2021, takes a serious look at the healing arts and the power of prayer. It is an eye witness account of a family whose daughter was comatose following a serious car accident. They survived that crisis relying on the two planks of the cross, Faith and Hope. Prayers and healing techniques were done, and this book documents her journey back.
In the near future, you can enjoy more of Barbara's writing. She has other manuscripts underway; Beckoned, The Shillelagh Express and its sequel The Search for Hy Brasil, In His Hands and Between the Heartbeats.