Jan Scarbrough's Blog, page 12

Meet USA Today Bestselling Author Magdalena Scott

Welcome Magdalena Scott who joins us to talk about Return to Legend.

What do you like about writing the Ladies of Legend series?

Creating the McClain family has been lots of fun. I had to put the family tree down on “paper,” because even I couldn’t keep track of all of them. (Each of my stories has a McClain as either the hero or the heroine.) I’ve written seven novellas—five contemporary and two “retro” Christmas novellas—1975 and 1978. One of the little boys, Martin McClain, in a retro novella is the hero in MIDNIGHT IN LEGEND, TN. Since I had already written Midnight and Martin’s story, it was enjoyable to look back in time and imagine what he would have been like as a little guy.

More than that though, it’s been a thrill to work on this series with three very talented authors. I’ve learned a lot from Jan Scarbrough, Janet Eaves, and Maddie James, and feel privileged to tag along with them on the streets of Legend, Tennessee.

Who is your favorite Legend character?

Midnight Shelby, who is later Midnight Shelby McClain. She’s smart and strong, a born leader of people. And she’s beautiful. I still like one of the old covers best, because it captured Midnight perfectly. Her father is American Indian and her mother is Irish. Midnight has black hair and eyes, and porcelain skin. Maybe just a teensy bit of Irish temper, but you’ll need to read her story to be sure.

What is the appeal of Legend, Tennessee, and small-town life?

Small town life is about people taking care of each other, and pulling together as a community to keep the town going. Much of small town America has had a rough few decades, but the towns that have managed to thrive can be an inspiration for those that haven’t yet found their niche in today’s world.

Ladies of Legend: Return to Legend Boxed Set

The boxed set is available at 99 cents only for the pre-order period plus release week. The release date is May 19, 2015. Pre-order your ebook copy for 99 cents today!

Amazon | iBooks | B&N | Kobo

The boxed set includes the novellas: Crossroads by Janet Eaves, Heart to Heart by Jan Scarbrough, Star-Crossed by Maddie James, and Second Chances by Magdalena Scott.

Blurb for Second Chances:

Anne McClain Bradley has returned to Legend, Tennessee after a tragedy sent her successful, well-ordered life reeling.

Journalist Pete Garrity chose the quiet little burg as a hideaway, but now he’s stuck in Legend with no way out. What a surprise for Anne to show up in Legend—she might be just the answer to his dilemma. But every time Anne looks at Pete, she’s reminded of the pain she came here to escape.

Legend has a way of healing broken hearts, but Pete and Anne must learn to forgive each other, and themselves, before the healing can start.

Biography

USA Today Bestselling Author Magdalena Scott writes sweet romance and women’s fiction with small town settings. She invites readers into her world to find out what’s hidden just below the surface of those tiny dots you can barely see on the map—mystery, romance, and the occasional unexplained occurrence. Readers have commented that they’d like to move to the towns she writes about, which she takes as the highest compliment of all. Magdalena is a lifelong resident of small town America, and shares her otherwise serene studio apartment with Attila, the Kitten from Heck.

Throwback Thursday: My first novel contributes to current ones

When I was in junior high school, I wrote my first book. It was a group project dreamed up by my girlfriends and me. You see, we had our own little fan club. I’m dating myself when I tell you the name of the group—the Beatles.

We were Beatle fans, which was not uncommon back then. Some of us were true Beatlemaniacs while the others were just along for the ride. We were the Lassies: Julie, Susan, Karen, Deane and me. We met at slumber parties (sleepovers to you youngsters). We ate pizza, drank grape ale (grape juice and ginger ale), listened to Beatle records (using record players), and talked about boys.

Some of us even saw the Fab Four. I saw them twice—screaming and then sobbing when I saw them the first time as they ran to the second base stage at the Atlanta baseball stadium.

The point of this remembrance isn’t really about the Beatles. It’s about how my friends and I wrote our first novel—one chapter at a time. We each took turns writing a chapter until we finished the book.

This practice came in handy when my writing buddy Maddie James and I did the same thing. The Montana McKenna’s Prequel was written one chapter at a time. Maddie wrote the first one. I followed, dropping a bomb at the end of chapter two that Maddie had to deal with. We had a general agreement about where we were going with the story, but didn’t know how we were going to get there. It was fun!

The Montana McKenna’s Prequel is the love story of James and Liz that sets up the Montana Ranchers Series. You can find out if we pulled off the prequel by going to Amazon.

And if you want to know how far my writing skills have come…here is a snippet from our novel Were You Dreaming?

Five girls were warming up on the stage. They were dressed in matching black, brown, tan, and red kilts, white silk blouses with puffy sleeves, black vests, and black alligator and leather stacked heels. They were young and very attractive.

“We’re ready, sir,” the black headed girl said as she picked up her electric guitar.

“All right, go right a’ead,” a man said.

He was sitting in the middle of the empty auditorium. Beside him sat a short blond.

“Ready, Lassies?” the girl asked her mates.

“Checkers!” they answered.

“All right, Jan.”

Jan stepped up to the mike, tested it and said, “Our first number is a song Julie and I wrote. It’s called Volcano.” She stepped back into her place and screamed, “One, two, three, Fa!”

The Montana Ranchers Series (The Montana McKenna’s Prequel)

Welcome to McKenna Ranch!

Meet Brody, Callie, Mercer and Parker—the four siblings in the clan of James McKenna, a Montana rancher. Growing up on the ranch was a great life, until Callie and Parker’s mother passed away, leaving James a widower. It wasn’t long, however, before he remarried, bringing stepmother Liz into their lives, along with her son, Brody. Soon, James and Liz added a new McKenna to the family, when daughter Mercer was born.

Brothers and sisters are prone to disagreements, and this Brady Bunch family of step, half, and full siblings are no exception. As they grew up on the ranch, they learned values that stuck with them throughout their lives—even though they may live apart as adults. But there is one thing that will bring them all back together. Their father’s only wish.

Beginning with a short prequel novella that tells the story of James McKenna and Liz Caldera, and how they came to blend their families, these stories put you on the McKenna Ranch near Yellowstone National Park. This series leads off with Jan Scarbrough’s Brody. Maddie James’ Callie follows.

These sweet to sexy stories give you a glimpse into Montana ranch life, and of course, provide lots of contemporary cowboy love and romance.

The Montana McKennas: Prequel by Jan Scarbrough and Maddie James

Brody  by Jan Scarbrough
Callie  by Maddie James
Parker , by Maddie James (coming soon)
Mercer,  by Jan Scarbrough (coming soon)

Now on Kindle Unlimited—Subscribers read for free.

Six Bluegrass Reunion series romances soon to be in Kindle Unlimited

Six of my eight Bluegrass Reunion series romances published by Resplendence Publishing are slowly making their way to Kindle Unlimited.

Kentucky Cowboy
Kentucky Woman
Kentucky Flame
Kentucky Bride
Kentucky Groom
Kentucky Heat

Kindle Unlimited is Amazon’s Netflix-style subscription service for e-books. The Kindle Unlimited service will allow customers to “freely read as much as they want from over 600,000 Kindle books for only $9.99 a month,” Amazon said in a press release.

My Bluegrass Reunion novels are heartwarming, contemporary romances about family and second chances. Each romance stands alone. The settings are Kentucky. When the plot allows, I include horses, particularly the American Saddlebred.

My last book in the series, Kentucky Blue Bloods, is set near Lexington, Kentucky, at a thoroughbred horse farm. And in Kentucky Rain, I finally wrote about a divorced heroine. It only took me twenty years! These two books will not be placed in Kindle Unlimited. You can find them on all popular ebook sites.

Series Summary

Kentucky Cowboy—She dumped him in high school, because he was a risk-taker.
Kentucky Woman—She loved him when she was a teenager, but they never connected.
Kentucky Flame—She had his baby, but he left not knowing the truth.
Kentucky Groom—She can’t afford to fall in love with a lowly groom.
Kentucky Bride—She rejected him once, but he’s willing to try again.
Kentucky Heat—She doesn’t need to take on another project, but he won’t take no for an answer. (Sequel to Kentucky Bride.)
Kentucky Rain—She has responsibilities to her daughter and herself, not to the handsome guy next door. (Sequel to Kentucky Cowboy.)
Kentucky Blue Bloods—She wants to save the family horse farm, but he has other ideas.

The Ladies of Legend are back! Pre-order new release for 99 cents!

Ladies of Legend: Return to Legend Boxed Set

The boxed set is available at 99 cents only for the pre-order period plus release week. The release date is May 19, 2015. Pre-order your ebook copy for 99 cents today!

Amazon | iBooks | B&N | Kobo

The boxed set includes the novellas: Crossroads by Janet Eaves, Heart to Heart by Jan Scarbrough, Second Chances by Magdalena Scott, and Star-Crossed by Maddie James

Before life-long Legendarian, Addie Bynum, dies, she knows she had loose ends to tie up. So she bequeaths some of her worldly possessions to four special people, bringing all of them back to Legend.

Sharon Clark vows there is no way she will ever return to Legend, Tennessee. But desperation has a way of changing everything….
When Jeremy Hamilton’s Aunt Addie gives him a second chance, he must decide if he believes in the unbelievable and the pet psychic who teaches him about faith…and love.
Anne McClain Bradley returns to her small town roots, while Pete Garrity is looking for a fresh start. Second chances. Believing they exist is sometimes the hardest part.
When Jasmine Walker returns to Legend after a fifteen-year absence—she doesn’t expect her troubled teenage past to collide with her well-planned, professional future.

Can they all Return to Legend, and with Ms. Addie’s help, finally find love and happiness?

Kentucky Woman free at Amazon on Friday

On February 27, 2015, Kentucky Woman is free on Amazon as part of my publisher’s Free Book Friday promotion.

Write what you know. Write what you love. I did that in Kentucky Woman.

The book opens in Louisville and continues at a fictitious Central Kentucky horse farm. The hero is Jackson Breckinridge, a banker. The heroine is “single mom and ex-jockey” Alexis Marsden.

In the book, I combine my love of horses with my experience as a single mother.

His expression softened. “You’ve loved horses all your life, haven’t you?”

Where did that come from? She shrugged. “I’ve heard a theory that a person is either born with a horse gene or not. I guess I have it.”

“I was born with it too.”

“Horses are in your blood.” 

“My Kentucky blueblood,” he said with a touch of self-mockery in his voice.

If you have children, can you relate?

Tyler tramped into the living room and crawled into bed. “Can I watch TV?”

“Not on your life. Tomorrow’s a school day.” 

When had she started sounding like her mother? Of course, Tyler knew he had school the next day. Odd how one’s best intentions faded once becoming a parent. Responsibility for a child’s life was a heavy, although joyous, burden.

And I even call on my experience with my mother.

A familiar pang shot through Alex’s stomach. Why did her mother always make her feel like she was five years old? Defensive. As if her judgment was flawed. 

Alex took a deep breath, hoping to steady her nerves. Her relationship with her mother was complicated. One minute Alex was the child. Next, the parent. In rare moments, they were friends. That’s when she did dumb things, like complain about Jack Breckinridge’s idiotic proposal.

You know me, I can’t resist adding one of my pets into a book, so in Kentucky Woman, I wrote in Red, my chow mix.

Once in the house, Alex climbed the stairs to check on Tyler. His door was shut and she quietly pushed it open. Light from a nightlight illuminated the room just enough for her to see her little boy sound asleep, sprawled out in the middle of his new bed. At his feet lay a great big fuzzy dog, his sorrowful amber eyes looking up at her as if he knew he didn’t belong.

“Jack,” she called downstairs in a hushed voice. She put her finger to her lips when he joined her and then pointed into the bedroom. 

Jack smothered a laugh. “It’s just Copper,” he said.

“Copper?” 

“The barn dog. She was a stray who adopted the farm.”

The copper-red dog’s flag-like tail thumped up and down on the bed as if asking for forgiveness and acceptance.

Take advantage of the free copy. You might enjoy the book.

Kentucky Woman, one of the books in my Bluegrass Reunion Series, has recently been placed exclusively on Kindle Unlimited, a subscription service called the “Netflix of ebooks.” A subscriber to Kindle Unlimited can freely read as much as they want from over 600,000 Kindle books, all for only $9.99 a month.”

Amazon review: I thought Kentucky Woman wonderfully portrays the struggles of a single parent in a realist fashion that many can relate to.

Amazon review: This book combines love of horses and racing with passion and romance. It caught me on the get-go and kept up a pace of love, betrayal and intrigue. I promise you will not be disappointed with this book.

 

 

 

Why do you still take horseback riding lessons?

My mother-in-law asked me this question the other day. You see, she can’t understand why a person who has ridden as long as I have should still need lessons. After all, in her day, she could rent a horse at a stable and go on a trail ride.

However, that was a long time ago before liability and aggressive lawyers. I don’t know of a place, except maybe the Kentucky Horse Park, where you can rent a horse. I rented a horse in Montana one summer. But it was like the trail ride in Kentucky. It consisted of following behind the tail of another horse at a walk. Sure, the scenery was good. In Montana, I rode beside a beautiful lake and up a steep caldera to view the mountains in the distance.

So, I take riding lessons, because I don’t own a horse. My weekly riding lesson is how I get my “horse fix.” Besides, I’m learning something new all the time. Riding once a week isn’t much practice. I don’t consider myself an expert. Did you know every part of your body must be positioned correctly when you ride? There are subtle movements of your fingers or calves or even your “seat” that signal something to a horse.

But isn’t that the way in life? Your lessons are never finished. You are constantly learning. Growing. Or at least you should be.

I’ve written romance novels since 1990, but I’m no expert. I’m constantly learning here too. In January, I took an online plot development class. I welcome comments from readers. I listen to my editors. For my self-published books, I’ve found a terrific proofreader. I’m never satisfied.

Nothing is perfect. Maybe that is how it should be. Without perfection, we have the incentive to learn something new.

A special Christmas present to me—the Hallmark Channel

The salesman at Costco talked us into switching to Direct TV. Ten days before Christmas, a technician set up our satellite dish, unconnected the old cable boxes, and gave us new remote controls. I soon realized we lost a few favorite channels, but we gained TVG and the Hallmark Channel.

Besides previews for Kitten Bowl II, the channel is full of holiday movies. During the gray days before Christmas, I watched my fill of these movies. Two hours of feel-good, happy-ever-after ending love stories.

Even my husband got hooked on a few of the movies. “Why am I watching these?” he asked.

“Because we’re tired of bad news,” I said. “And we want to watch something less negative, more optimistic.”

Janie Emaus explains why the movies make her feel happy in her Huffington Post blog, 4 Reasons Hallmark Movies Saved My Holiday Spirit. Read it. She explains it very well.

However, the writer in me soon started analyzing the plots of these holiday movies. I came up with a few pre-requisites.

1. A bad boy friend

2. A hero who is totally opposite from the heroine

3. A well-meaning friend, angel, or relative who provides guidance to the heroine

4. A heroine with an important career, or seeking a career, or a single mom

5. A visit to the Christmas tree lot and decorating the real tree

6. A belief that “it’s Christmas!” and that because it’s Christmas anything can happen

So if you’re tired of talk radio and cable news, turn on the Hallmark Channel for a quick dose of hope. It makes life more tolerable.

 

Judd Romeo, My Kentucky Cowboy

Meet my hero Judd Romeo in Kentucky Cowboy as the heroine does for the first time since high school.

Fisting her hand, Mandy pounded on the door. Then she stuck both hands into her pants pockets, knocking her car keys out of the right pocket. She bent down to pick them up.

The door opened and a pair of hand-tooled, black leather cowboy boots stepped into her line of vision.

For an instant, Mandy forgot to breathe, and then her breath came too quickly. Her heart raced. She glanced up. Up past the pointed toes of expensive leather boots, past tight Wranglers, past a big gold belt buckle pressed against a flat belly and a white Western shirt that delineated a broad chest and brawny arms, and into the piercing blue eyes of Judd Romeo.

She tipped her head back, unprepared for what she saw. Time seemed to stand still. Judd shifted his stance and flashed his familiar, bad boy smile. There was a Colin Farrell edginess about him, a sexy untamable quality that welled up from every fiber of his cowboy persona.

“Hello, Mandy,” he said.

Judd is a bull rider, a member of the PBR, the Professional Bull Riders, established to bring mainstream attention to the sport. Mandy has never appreciated his love of bull riding. It’s too risky and foolhardy. Only his mother understood.

His mother had known Judd wanted to be a champion bull rider. He really wanted it. Deep down in his soul.

It had nothing to do with the money. Not even the million-dollar bonus. He wanted to win the championship because he wanted to wear the gold belt buckle that proved he was the world’s best.

Knowing the motivation of a bull rider was important in grasping Judd’s character.

She glanced at the makeshift bucking bull hanging between the trees. “Why do you ride bulls?”

It was a long moment before he answered. “It’s a sensation that’s hard to explain—the greatest sensation imaginable. That shot of adrenaline when you leave the chute is addictive.”

Her eyebrows drew together at his words. “But it’s so dangerous. Men have been killed trying to ride bulls.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand the appeal. It can’t be the money, because your mom told me you barely made ends meet during most of your career. Why have you stuck with it for ten years?”

Judd flashed a sudden confident smile. “It’s quite simple, really,” he said, giving her a once over with a look that curled her toes. “I like to make the crowd cheer. I like to win.”

A reviewer on Amazon recently validated my characterization of Judd. She said, “We are bull riding fans at our house so this book was particularly interesting to me. Ms. Scarbrough must either be a diehard fan of bull riding or did a lot of research of the sport of bull riding and interviews with bull riders because she really relates to the passion these young men have.”

I’d say Judd Romeo is one of my most favorite characters. If you’ve read my books, tell me who you’ve liked the best.

What I love about writing the Bluegrass Reunion series

Research. Yes, I actually enjoyed the research needed to write this series.

The eight books in the Bluegrass Reunion series are contemporary romances about family and second chances. They are set in Kentucky. Each romance stands alone.

For Kentucky Cowboy, I learned about the Professional Bull Riders—about bull ropes and suicide wraps, about “rank” bulls like the champion Bushwacker and famous cowboys like Ty Murray and the Brazilian Adriano Moraes. For firsthand research, my husband and I took many enjoyable field trips to PBR events.

Bull riding is “America’s original extreme sport,” and it’s no job for the faint of heart. Like my hero Judd Romeo, the cowboys are in it for the love of competition and the love of the sport.

I was pleased when a reviewer on Amazon validated my research. She said, “We are bull riding fans at our house so this book was particularly interesting to me. Ms. Scarbrough must either be a diehard fan of bull riding or did a lot of research of the sport of bull riding and interviews with bull riders because she really relates to the passion these young men have.”

For Kentucky Blue Bloods, I booked a horse farm tour in the Kentucky bluegrass with Unbridled Horse Tours. I wanted to see a broodmare farm and Keeneland. The tour took place a week before the big September sale, and the horses had not yet arrived. However, I soaked up the atmosphere of the sales pavilion and the barns. I hope I conveyed it in the book.

Many of the heroines in the Bluegrass Reunion Series are single mothers. I didn’t need research for that part of the books. I lived it. Most of the mothers were either unmarried or like Mandy in Kentucky Cowboy an aunt. It wasn’t until book seven, Kentucky Rain, that I actually felt comfortable writing a divorced heroine.

And as for the books containing American Saddlebred horses—well, I research firsthand every week when I take my riding lesson at Premier Stables.