Derinda Love Blog Tour!

So I have the greatest pleasure of honoring a wonderful and beautiful lady on my blog today!

Ms. Derinda Love from Young Adult & Teen Readers. I don't you as well as some of the other on this tour, but you are always there to cheer me on and support me on my author page. Your page is always sharing updates about my book without even me having to ask and you go out of your way to include my book in your contests.

I am so glad that I could be apart of this tour for you and that I can share in the support being given to you for how much you do for others. 

Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart!!

I am hosting a short story that the awesome Jocelyn Sanchez  has written just for you! I hope you enjoy it :))


Derinda Love  
By: Jocelyn Sanchez


My story begins with a meeting. I received a message from one of the angels here in heaven that I was to report to the elders. So I started flying to their office on the other side of where I live. The elders office was not like a normal office like on earth, or so I have been told. The offices here in Heaven are made of clouds and are surrounded with bright lights with angels flying by all the time. As I approach their office I take a deep breath and open the door. There I see four angels sitting on their floating chairs and looking straight at me. I float over into the room so that I’m facing all of them in the center of the room. When I land my feet on the soft ground I do a quick nod and an elegant curtsey to show the elders respect. One of the elders, the oldest I assume, because of his long white beard speaks first.
“Hello Derinda Love” he says with a small smile
“Hello sir” I reply back with a weak smile of my own. I’m so nervous I really wonder why I was called here.
“Yes I guess you should be curious why you were called down here to us” My eyes widen in surprise but I should know better. It was rumored that the arch-angels can hear other angel’s minds. Wow, that’s so cool!! Wonder how old I have to become to get that cool gift. With that thought the elder raised his eyebrow at me.
“Oh, and how old do you think I am?” the elder asks
Whoops guess I got to think before I talk. I bite back a smile and reply: “Not old at all sir”
“Yes, that’s what I thought” he gives a small chuckle “Now Derinda the reason why your down here is because we” he waves his hands around to the other elders and himself “have decided to give you an assignment”
“I’m sorry sir” I say confused “but what kind of assignment?”
“I, as do the other elders, believe that you are ready to get your first charge on Earth”
“Really” I start to grin so big and my wings start to flap faster “Who is it?”
“A human girl named Claire” the elder on the far left replies to me
“She is a rather special girl” the elder on the far left continues “She is technically a Nephilim. Her father is human while the mother is an angel”
“What happened to her mother?” I ask
“She decided that when Claire was born that her duty belonged to helping others in Heaven and decided to leave Earth and her daughter” the angel said sadly
“That’s awful” I say bluntly with anger
“Ah, young Derinda, Claire’s mother still watches over Claire, but she thinks that Claire is better off without her and that she can help more people here” he gestures around himself “But enough about Claire’s mother. You are to report to Earth and watch over Claire. You will take the job her father is offering and stay with them. Help train her”
”Train her? What do you mean by that, Sir?” I asked puzzled
“Well like we said” the first elder replied “Claire is special. She is blind, yet she possess some magic of an angel”
“Really” I asked excited “Like what? Can she fly? Heal? Read minds?”
 “You will see in time” the elder smiles at my excitement “Your stuff will be transported to Claire’s house and remember to not get too close to the family, you can’t stay”
I feel my stomach bubble with sadness of my limited time I get to spend with Claire, and Earth. Look at me, I haven’t even been to Earth and I’m sad to leave it already.
“Yes rather odd it is” the elder replied to my thought “Remember what we have said. Your assignment will last for 6 months.”
I nod my head “Yes sir. When do I leave?”
The first elder smiled at me “Right now” and with that said all four of the elders lifted their hand and a bright light hit me. Next thing I know I’m in front of a small house that is painted white. On the door it says welcome to the Mcadams. “I guess this is the house” I say to myself. Thanks for the warning elders, I think bitterly. I mean, what I am going to say. ‘Hi I’m your angel for half the year and oh by the way you are half angel and have a human father and an angel for a mother. But it’s nice to meet you!’ I sigh and knock on the door “Well here goes nothing”
The door opens and my mouth flies open. A man in faded blue jeans and a button up  shirt is standing in front of me and WOW! He is so hot! He has dimples on the side of his face and a lovely smile that can melt any angel’s heart. But his beautiful smile cannot hide all the years of loneliness and heartbreak I see hided in his eyes.
“Hello” he says with a warm smile “I’m Michael”
I couldn’t help it I started to laugh. I mean the irony that his name would be named after an angel was too much. I managed to control my laughing and looked up at him. He was still smiling but had a confused look on his face.
“I’m sorry. I had a moment there, happens all the time” I grin “It’s lovely to meet you Michael, I’m Derinda Love. I’m here for the job offer”
Understanding lit his face “Yes, the job offer. Your boss called earlier and told me you were coming. Come on in, I’ll get Claire” he opens the door for me and waits until I inside then closes the door. He goes up the staircase to the second floor, and calls out to Claire.
“Claire. Honey the lady I told you about is here”
I hear two sets of footsteps and then I see a beautiful little girl walk down the stairs. She was holding onto her father’s hand while the other hand touched the walls. She looked like a little angel, with her light blonde hair and her pretty glowing skin. Michael held her hand all the way down the stairs and then let go. Claire with amazing grace and beauty walked straight to me with no trouble at all. My eyes widened, I thought the girl was blind…
“Claire has an amazing sense of direction” Michael said answering my inner though. Hmm maybe not amazing sense of direction, more like magical. Claire stops directly in front of me and holds out her hand.
“Hello, my name is Claire” she said with an angelic child’s voice and a beautiful smile. So much happiness showed on Claire’s face and made me smile. She was so precious. I reach out and shake her hand when something weird happened. I felt a huge magical shock pass between our hands.
“Wow!” Claire said with surprise and jumped back
“What’s wrong sweetie?” Michael rushes to her side and grabs her hands
“Nothing daddy” Claire said and rolled her eyes “You worry too much, it was just an electric shock”
“Oh, okay” he puts her hand down “Well I’m going to show Derinda to her room, go into the living room and listen to some music”
“Actually” I say to Michael “Can Claire show me to my room? I’ll love to get to know her a little”
“Sure” he smiles “Great idea. I’ll get dinner started” He said and then left the room. So, he can cook and he’s hot. If he gives me chocolate for dessert I swear I will marry him. I smile at the thought as I grab Claire’s hand. When I did she looked down at them as if she could see the swirling magic that was passing between us.
“What’s your name?” She asks shyly
“My name is Derinda Love” I say to her with a smile
“It’s a very pretty name”
“Thank you. You have a lovely name too”
She stops and smiles up at me “Really?” she asks
“Absolutely” I smile back
We walk all the way up the stairs and Claire pulls me along with her. She seems to know where she’s going and has no trouble guiding me. She walks up to a door at the end of the hall.
“This is your room” she said and opened the door. She grabbed my hand again and walked in. In the room there were flowers everywhere. Lilies, Roses, Sunflowers…It was breathtaking.
“There are so many flowers” I say in awe
“Daddy let me decorate it” she grins “Do you like it?”
“I love it” I grab her into a hug “Thank you sweetie”
Claire hugs me back and then steps back. She tilts her head up and seems to be thinking hard about something.
“Can I show you something?” she asks nervously
“Of course” I arch my eyebrows in confusion “What do you want to show me?”
Claire stares at me for a few moments more and then walks to the flowers. She grabs a small pot with a white lily in it. The lily was turning brown and dying. Claire sat on the bed and stared at the plant.
“Watch” she said
And with her hand held above the flower she starts to hum. I watched confused as the once dying flower started to grow tall and regain its color. I gasp and walk over and sit next to her on the bed. When she stopped humming the plant looked perfect. I saw the remaining gold light on Claire’s hand start to fade away.
“How long have you known you could do this?” I ask. What I wanted to actually ask was ‘How come I’m the only person without a cool power!’ 
“A while now” she lowers her head down “I haven’t showed daddy”
“Why not?” I ask
“I don’t know” she had tears in her eyes “I don’t want him to worry about me more”
“Hey, come here” I reach out and Claire lays her head on my lap. “Why did you show me?”
She hesitated a moment before she answered “You seem special. You glow”
I blink a couple of times and frown. “What do you mean I glow?”
Claire sits up and looks at me. The tears are now gone but, she seems to be seeing me. But that can’t be possible…can it?
“Claire” I say slowly “Can you see me?”
She smiles and lets out a tiny laugh “No, I’m blind silly” she pauses “But I can see your colors”
“Colors?” I ask
“I can’t see you with my eyes but I can still see you. It’s like, I can see colors swimming around where you are, but that’s it”
“Hmm” I sigh “Do different colors mean different things?”
“Most of the time” she replies “Red for love, green for jealously, pink for embarrassment, and yellow for happiness” Claire paused “Except your color is different”
“Different how?” I ask
“You shine gold” Claire said excitingly “It’s so pretty, I’ve never seen it before”
“I bet you haven’t” I say with a grin
“Are you...” she stopped in mid- sentence
“Am I what?” I ask
“Magical” she whispers like it’s a secret word
I laugh “You could say that” I spent the next hour talking with Claire about Heaven. About her powers and what I was. We talked about Angels and how her magic was very strong. I didn’t tell her why I was there but I told her what I thought she should know and told her that we couldn’t tell her father. We were about to talk about what we were going to do the next day when Michael called us down for dinner. Claire and me walked happily down the stairs laughing about a story I was telling her about my angel friend Missy and this fairy Marco. When Michael saw Claire and me walk into the kitchen he smiled.
“I see you guys are getting along well” he said as he puts food on each of our plates.
“Daddy Derinda is awesome” Claire said then ate a bit of mashed potatoes “She loves flowers like me and she was telling me stories”
“Really?” he smiled at me “Stories about what?”
I smile back “Angels”
“Angels?” Michael raised his eyebrows
“You know, they live in Heaven, have cute wings, and eat lots of chocolate” I say with a wink and dig into my food
Michael stares at me for a moment then shakes his head and smiles. “You are imaginative, that’s good”
Claire started to giggle and Michael looked at her. “What’s funny baby?”
“Daddy do you like the color red?” she looks at me with she said emphasized the word red
“Red?” he looked confused “I guess honey why?”
“Nothing daddy” she said with another giggle
Red? I think. What does she mean when she said red? I push the thought aside the rest of the night. I tucked Claire into bed, and told her another story. When she was asleep I tip toed out of the room and went down the stairs.
“She asleep?” Michael asks
“Sound asleep” I smile at him. I stand in the door way and watch him put the left overs in the fringe. He looks really handsome in his blue jeans and shirt. I was so fascinated watching him that I didn’t notice he was staring at me and saying something. I blinked and blushed red.
“What did you say?” I ask
Michael chuckled “I said, what did you do before this”
“Oh you could say I watched over people” I say with a laugh
“Really?” Michael sits at the kitchen table and I sat next to him. “Were you any good at it?”
“Yes, I was great at watching but” I pause
Michael leans in “But what?”
I look up and stare into his beautiful blue eyes “I got tired of watching, unable to do anything. When the opportunely came to make a difference I took it”
He seems to think that over “And do you think you made the right choice?” he finally asks
I look at the stairs and think about all the hours I spent talking to Claire. I only just met her but, there’s a bond between us that’s special. Then there’s Michael, I only just met him today but I feel…..something I never felt before. I take a deep breath and smile.
“Yeah. I think I did”
The next day me and Claire played all day and got to know each other better. Those days turned to weeks, and those weeks’ months. The bond between me and Claire continued to grow every day, and I found myself slowly falling in love with Michael. The way his eyes shined when he talked about Claire, the trips to the Zoo and museums he took us on his days off, and how he and I connected together….I knew I was in love. Soon I found myself running out of time. The 6 months were going to be over in under 3 weeks and….I wasn’t ready to let them go. One afternoon on the beginning of the last 3 weeks I was teaching Claire a traditional Angel dance while she tried, unsuccessfully, to teach me a modern human dance.
“D?” Claire said interrupting my thoughts
“Yes sweetie” I reply and try the move she showed me again
“No, no” she giggled “I might be blind but I can tell your doing the moves wrong” she walked up to me and grabbed my hand and showed me the move slower.
“It’s easy. Try to close your eyes, your ears will help lead you to the music” I finally get the move right and Claire jumps and cheers.
“What were you saying Claire?” I ask after she was done cheering
Claire stares at me and asks “Are you okay? Your colors have been all over the place”
“They have?” I sighed. One thing I learned spending time with Claire was that she might be blind but there was no pretending around her. She somehow saw everything better than seeing people.
“Yeah your colors have been blue and yellow recently” Claire said
I learned a while ago that blue meant sad and worried while yellow meant happy. “I’m okay Hon, it’s just..” I babble off not knowing what to say
“You also been having a lot of red in your color” she adds with a knowing smile
“So” I say and feel my cheeks getting heated
“You love daddy, you love daddy!” she yelled and giggled
“Shhh” I hushed her and look out the door to make sure Michael wasn’t listening. She watched me do this and giggled uncontrollably. I smile despite myself, I love her so much, and she was like my own daughter. I start to laugh despite everything and then me and Claire started our daily magic lesson. We have gotten much accomplished the pass several months. Claire learned to focus her magic on one object so she could heal different objects without touching or humming. We also learned that the ‘colors’ she was seeing were auras, and made a chart on the different colors. Claire was a special child indeed. The last two weeks we were practicing more than ever, because of her normal human lessons and then the secret magic lessons. On the last week Claire knew something was wrong.
“D what is going on?” Claire demands one night when we were making magical orbs with our hands and passing them back and forth. 
“What do you mean?” I asked confused
“Something has been bothering you for a while now. Please tell me” she pleaded
“Claire. I...” I choke up on a few tears “I have to leave soon”
“What do you mean leave?” she asked scared “For how long?”
“Sweetie, I wasn’t sent down here to stay forever” I let a few tears fall down my cheeks “I have to go back”
“To heaven?” Claire is crying but soundlessly now “But…Derinda I don’t want you to go”
“I don’t want to go either but…”
“Please” she cries harder now “Don’t’ leave me”
“Oh baby” I grab her and put her in my lap while she cries louder and louder. “I don’t want to leave you but the arch angels would never let me stay”
“Why not” she cries out “Why are they taking my mommy away from me? Did I do something wrong?”
“Claire this has nothing to do with you” I say sadly “I don’t belong here”
“You belong with us Derinda” Claire said as she falls asleep crying
I lie next to Claire on her bed and think about everything I’m about to lose. I was almost asleep when a knock came at the door. I get up and open the door to see Michael.
“Hey Derinda” he smiles “She asleep?”
“Yeah” I close the door and enter the hallway
“Can we talk for a moment?” Michael asks nervously
“Of course, let’s go and sit down in the living room” We walk down the stairs slowly and sit on the loveseat together.
“So your job is supposed to end at the end of the week” He starts out
“Yes” I say sadly
“Well would you consider staying longer? Claire really loves you and her studies have been really improving”
I stare at him open mouthed. How would I love to say yes, to stay with them on Earth but it was impossible.
“I can’t” I say “I am needed by my bosses somewhere else”
Michael looks down at his hand and then surprises me when he leans in and grabs my hand. I look at our hands and then look up at him slowly. I see his eyes focus on my mouth and the next thing I know he kisses me. I have wanted him to kiss me for so long I forgot I would be leaving at the end of the week and kiss him back. We finally break away from each other and stare into each other’s eyes.
“Don’t leave” Michael said and leaned in again
We kissed again but this time the kiss was more intense. I lean back even though it pained me and tried to catch my breath. “Michael I can’t” I start to cry
“Derinda” he whispers and pulls me into a hug “I know you love staying with us. I know you love Claire and she loves you too. I..” he paused and looks into my eyes “I love you”
What he said made me cry harder so I held onto Michael tighter. The next couple of days were bittersweet. Michael made me dinner every night, we went on moonlight walks, and he even took me to Hershey Park one night. All the while he tried to convince me to stay. But every night I had to say ‘I can’t’ and watch how much pain I was causing him and Claire. On the last day on Earth I packed all my stuff early and was sitting with Claire on my lap, listening to the music in the living room. She cried most of the day, I did my share of crying too, but she understood why I couldn’t stay. The clock rang as it turned 10pm I got up and went to find Michael so I could say my good-byes with both of them. I found him sitting on the front porch looking at the sky.
“Michael” I say quietly
He turns his head around and looks at me with a small smile, but I can see the pain in his eyes
“Hey Derinda. You all packed and ready?”
I shallow pass a lump in my throat “Come inside so I can say good-bye to you and Claire together. I turn to go inside but Michael gets up fast and grabs my hand.
“Derinda” he sighs “This is silly. I love you, and I think you love me” he says as he searches my eyes “Why are you not staying? Is it something else?”
I take a deep breath “Let’s go inside and I will try to explain better….it’s not going to change anything though” I look up at him and give a small smile
He leans in and lays a gentle kiss on my lips then rests his forehead on mine. We stand like that for a while then Michael kissed me quickly on the cheek and takes my hand. We walk together into the living room to find Claire asleep.
“Let me wake her up” he reaches for Claire “Sweetie wake up. Derinda wants to talk to us before she goes.”
Claire gets up and yawns. “D, are you leaving?”
 “Yes Claire I’m leaving”
“Will you visit?” she asks with a few tears rolling down her face
“I…promise I will look over you always” I say simply I know she will understand what I meant
“Derinda you said you will explain” Michael reminds me
“My life is complicated. I have a responsibility to others and I have no choice to stay. I was told this was short time job and then I have to move on”
“Can’t you quit your job? Or transfer to a different location?” Michael said
I sigh again “It’s not that simple” If only it were that simple. All of a sudden Michael and Claire both freeze. I walk over to them and see if they are okay. They’re both motionless. I look at the clock it stopped moving. Someone has frozen time.
“Hello again Derinda Love” a voice from behind me says
I spin around and stare opened mouthed at the angel standing before me. It was the angel that could read minds, the one I called old.
 “Hello sir” I nod and curtsey
“You may call me Ian, Derinda” he smiles knowingly. Reading my mind no doubt
“I was just saying my good-byes sir” I look down at my feet
“What is wrong young Derinda? Why do you look so somber?”
“It’s just I….I really love them sir” I look up to see his expression to find him smiling at me.
“I know Derinda” he seems to be lost in thought “Tell me do you love the man?”
I blush and try not to think about kissing Michael. Seems like I failed because the elder starts to laugh. I blush even harder.
“Well Derinda? Do you?” he has an amused expression on his face
“Yes” I snap mad that I do but cannot stay “I do. I love them both, but I cannot stay now can I?”
The elder stays quiet. Wait, does that mean I can stay? He probably hears my thought but I have to ask anyway.
“Can I stay with them?”
“Well…yes but do you understand what that means?”
I raise my eyebrows confused “What does it mean? What do you mean by that?”
The elder sighs and sits on the chair next to the T.V. “You may stay here with the approval of an elder, such as myself but at a price. You will have to give up being an angel and everything that comes with it. You can never be a guardian angel again, you can’t see your friends anymore, you will lose your angel abilities such as flying, strength, and healing. In other words you will be human. You will age, get sick, like normal humans.”
I stand and think over that. Giving up everything I worked so hard to accomplish, my angel rank I spent so hard to higher, my friends in Heaven, and most importantly giving up the chance to help others. Do I really want to lose all that? No, but I going to do it anyway.
“Seems to me you have made your decision” the elder said with a smile
“Yes, I have. I don’t want to lose everything but…I love them and my place is here, on Earth with the people I love” I say with confidence
“Very well” the elder raises his hand at me and gold light flows out of me. My angel essence. “It is done” he looks at me, than at Claire
“Do you truly love the girl?” he asks pointing at Claire
“I do, with all my heart” I say
“Then I have one more gift for you” He gets off the chair and walks over to Claire. He takes his hand and points one finger at her face.
“I wish you all the happiness Derinda Love” he said and touched her forehead. Three things happened when he did. Time continued, a flash of gold light appeared in front of Claire and Claire screamed.
“Claire!” Michael yelled and ran to her side “Are you okay sweet-heart?”
Claire looked at her father surprised and then smiled so big her face looked like it hurt. She reached out and touched her father’s face with tears in her eyes.
“Daddy” she said “I can see you”
Michael eyes widened and then he started to cry. He grabbed Claire and swung her in a circle while she laughed and cried. I watched with tears in my eyes as my new family rejoiced at Claire’s restored vision. Michael sees me standing there and grabs me into the huge and we all start to laugh.
“Derinda” Claire said “I can see you. I can really see you” she smiles and hugs me hard.
“I know sweetheart. And guess what? I can stay” I smile and cry a little
“Really?” Michael said as he grabbed us all into another hug “What changed your mind?”
I looked at the angel still watching us in the living room and grin “I just realized that losing what I had before is nothing compared to losing the people I love now”
“Oh my god Derinda! Look at the angel over there” Claire points at Ian as he waves at her. He was standing in the corner like Claire said with his glowing white wings pointing out.
“What are you taking about baby?” Michael said with such happiness in his voice “There’s nothing there”
If he only knew……….

Twenty years has passed since that day. And not a day goes by that I regret my decision to stay on earth. Soon after the elder came that night me and Michael got married. Two years after that I was blessed with the birth of twin boys who I named Ian and Gabriel. We spent the next several years raising Claire and the boys to be the best person they could be. After College Claire decided she wanted to travel the world, so she could see all the beauty the world had to offer. She is now a doctor and uses her healing abilities to help make a difference. The boys are starting college in the Fall both are And me? Well I’m enjoying my human life with my 3 wonderful children and my beloved husband Michael.