Between the Heartbeats is a Medical Romance and Women's fiction. It is a modern day story that occurs in a rural setting of Upstate New York. It involves a young widow, Alexandra Cruikshank, and a handsome locum tenens internist Richard Blake. She's not looking for love, and he's convinced 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 and grieving. Doug's been gone a year and a half. On occasion Doug comes to her from the ethereal side, but no one believes her. Everyone has been telling her 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 a thing.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. She and her cohort, Carl, find many ways to make Alex's stay in their hometown uncomfortable. Silvia uses Carl's weakness against him.Eventually, Alex finds herself in serious trouble and in desperate need of a savvy lawyer. Fortunately, her twin sister Samantha has that skill set and willingly comes to her aid. Alex is appalled during her tribunal when she finds out how devious some minds can be 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 has taken over her dead husband's hospital board seat 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 has ended, he's out of here. 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 lets her past go and learns to 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
