Jan Scarbrough's Blog, page 13

I write about second chances

Most of my books are about second chances. From a non-traditional Gothic novel like Tangled Memories to my newest release Kentucky Blue Bloods, the theme revolves around characters making the most of their second chances.

As an ex-English teacher, I studied and taught “theme” in literature. Every good novel will have a theme. From a website called Literary Devices, “theme is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly.”

The website goes on to say, “Through themes, a writer tries to give his readers an insight into how the world works or how he or she views human life.”

As the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Human beings have a huge capacity to learn from mistakes. Maybe that’s why this theme resonates with me. In my life, I’ve had occasion to fix my screw-ups, try again, and make things better for myself. I’ve grown up. I’ve matured. All because of second chances

In my “reunion” stories, I give my heroes and heroines another opportunity to make things right for themselves and learn to love again.

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.
Kentucky Rain—She’s divorced and has responsibilities to her daughter, not to the handsome guy next door she knew in high school.
Kentucky Blue Bloods—She dumped him, and he wants revenge.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

 

My Thanksgiving Blessings

It’s popular to give thanks this time of year. I’m thankful for the basics—God, country, and my health. I’m especially happy for family—a husband who’s put up with me for almost fifteen married years. I give thanks for two wonderful children and two wonderful stepchildren, who have given us a total of NINE grandchildren, all boys except for one beautiful princess.

Now down to details. I am grateful for all my writing buddies—many of whom have been by my side for many years. Without you, I wouldn’t be able to talk writing romance, plotting, and character development. You “get” me more than most.

I’m glad I can continue to participate in my passion—riding American Saddlebred horses. Even at my age, I learn something new every week. I’m thankful my daughter shares my passion and that maybe the princess will continue her love of horses too. Now to win the lottery so we can buy a horse for all three of us.

I’m thankful for those things that sustain me daily. My house is paid for, and I have a good job. I’m pleased with my pets—three dogs and two cats, an upstairs and downstairs cat. I’m glad I can afford all these animals. They bring me joy along with the aggravation.

Through all the ups and downs of my life, I’m grateful for surviving and growing as a person. I hope I’m able to transfer what I’ve learned into my writing.

And finally, I’m thankful for my readers—those who spend money on my books and/or review my books and sign up for my newsletter.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all of you. May your life be filled with blessings.

Kentucky, the Bluegrass State

the land of beautiful women, fast horses, and good whiskey

Kentucky is about a one-day’s journey from 75 percent of the population of the United States. The Commonwealth is known for many things, especially horses and bluegrass.

So what is “bluegrass?” My hero in Kentucky Blue Bloods wants to know. So he asks the heroine at lunch.

 Silence enveloped them. It was awkward. Uncomfortable. Lingering.

“I’m curious,” he said, breaking the deadlock first.

She glanced up from her plate, laid down her fork, and wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. “About what?”

“Is bluegrass really blue?”

The look she gave him said he’d grown two heads.

“What?” he questioned her glare. “I’m serious. I’ve wondered about it for years.”

“Well, sure it is, if you don’t cut it,” she said. “When you see meadows of seeding bluegrass waving in the June breeze, it appears blue. The blades of grass are not blue, just the flowers and seeds.”

“Well, that clears up the mystery then.”

I found an article on the Internet that explains it even more.

“… settlers found the bluegrass growing on Kentucky’s limestone-rich soil, and traders began asking for the seed of the “bluegrass.” Bluegrass is not really blue; it is green. In the spring it produces bluish purple buds that, when seen in large fields, appears to have a rich bluish cast, from which derives the familiar term, ‘Bluegrass State.’ The unique and beautiful bluegrass seed and orchard grass seed were profitably traded and widely distributed in the early years and remain internationally known today.”

Now you know the truth behind the “bluegrass” in Kentucky’s nickname.

Researching a book can be fun. Meet Monarchos!

For my birthday gift to myself, I booked a horse farm tour in the Kentucky bluegrass with Unbridled Horse Tours. I reasoned I needed to do first-hand research for my current book in the Bluegrass Reunion series—Kentucky Blue Bloods.

Early in September my friend Kathy joined me, and we drove to Midway, Kentucky. We met up with tour guide Nancy (Hap) Hapgood. She’d planned the private tour for us based upon what I wanted to see—broodmare farms and Keeneland. Our tour took place a week before the big September sale at Keeneland, but the horses had not arrived. However, I soaked up the atmosphere of the sales pavilion and the barns.

The biggest thrill of the day for me was our first stop: Nuckols Farm in Midway, home of the 2001 Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos, the fastest living Derby winner (1:59.97).

I felt a special kinship to Monarchos since reading a book by his breeder Jim Squires called Horse Of A Different Color: A Tale of Breeding Geniuses, Dominant Females, and the Fastest Derby Winner Since Secretariat. I’d seen him before when I toured Claiborne Farm several years ago.

Today Monarchos is the only breeding stallion on Nuckols Farm. He has his own stall that opens to his private paddock. He loves peppermints, but is not allowed carrots after collicking a few years ago. He pulled through thanks to surgery and is back on the farm chowing down on feed soaked with a bottle of Guinness Draught. The beer is good for his digestion, which is carefully monitored after his surgery.

Monarchos is white today, not the sleek gray of his racing days. He stood quietly for us to admire him, and we even checked out the surgery scar on his belly. When we drove away, Monarchos was in his pasture doing what horses love to do—grazing in the Kentucky bluegrass.

         

 

 

 

Kentucky Blue Bloods

Bluegrass Reunion series

No one crosses Parker Stuart, caretaker to his family’s thoroughbred racing empire. Parker retaliates against anyone who dares slight him or his blue-blooded British family, especially Regina Ward and her poker-playing father. The previous spring, Reggie had had the nerve to walk out on him after a torrid, three-week affair. Now, when Parker arrives in Kentucky to collect his family’s winnings, he’s determined to settle the score with the lovely Ms. Ward.

Regina Ward doesn’t consider herself a damsel in distress. After all, this is America, and she’s accustomed to depending upon herself. However, when her father loses four of the yearlings from their central Kentucky horse farm in a poker game, Reggie knows it’s up to her to save what’s left of her family’s homestead and her proud Kentucky heritage. Can she do it when Parker Stuart, the most arrogant and infuriating Brit she’s ever met, shows up in the Bluegrass?

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Bluegrass Reunion: They thought the men they loved were out of their lives. They were wrong.

Although each romance in the Bluegrass Reunion series stands alone, all books are about second chances and are set in Kentucky. In keeping with the Bluegrass theme, when appropriate, a few horses are thrown into the plot for good measure.

The Bluegrass Reunion Series was published in this order:

Kentucky Cowboy—Bull rider/veterinarian—She dumped him in high school, because he was a risk-taker.
Kentucky Woman—Banker/exercise rider—She loved him when she was a teenager, but they never connected.
Kentucky Flame—American Saddlebred Horse trainers—She had his baby, but he left not knowing the truth.
Kentucky Groom—Teacher/software designer and Saddlebred groom—She can’t afford to fall in love with a lowly groom.
Kentucky Bride—American Saddlebred Horse trainer/CEO—She rejected him once, but he’s willing to try again.
Kentucky Heat—Country music singer/artist—She doesn’t need to take on another project, but he won’t take no for an answer. (Sequel to Kentucky Bride.)
Kentucky Rain—Divorced single mom/security consultant—She has responsibilities to her daughter and herself, not to the handsome guy next door. (Mentions characters from Kentucky Cowboy.)
Kentucky Blue Bloods—Kentucky horse breeder/British thoroughbred breeder and owner—She wants to save the family horse farm, but he has other ideas.


Excerpt

Chapter One

Early September

Bourbon County, Kentucky

Bloody hell?

Parker Stuart cast a disbelieving gaze at the woman who’d met him at the airport. What was he, the youngest son of a proud British, thoroughbred-racing family, doing in a mud-caked pickup truck sitting beside a woman who resembled a caricature of a mountain hillbilly? His chauffeur certainly looked nothing like the young woman he remembered from London—the woman he’d flown across the Atlantic to seduce…again.

Women didn’t dump him without regretting it.

Especially not the woman he’d fallen in love with and had planned to marry.

Revenge wasn’t a pretty sentiment, but it was just what he had in mind.

Love her and leave her. Like she’d left him. But he’d take four of her prized thoroughbreds home with him.

He should have known he was making a mistake, but three weeks spent in a haze of good sex— her body naked, writhing beneath him, driving him wild with desire—had fogged his brain. He had fallen in love, succumbing to an emotion he’d avoided for twenty-nine years.

Too bad she hadn’t stuck around after their short fling. In fact, she had run out on him, leaving him sitting in the restaurant for two hours, engagement ring in his pocket, before he’d finally checked his text messages. There’d been nothing sweet about her “dear John” good-bye.

For God’s sake, she’d dumped him in a text!

No, the woman driving this bloody pickup looked nothing like the charming woman he’d met in London in the spring. That woman had possessed a quiet assurance and natural reserve. She’d had a genuine sweetness about her and a timeless beauty. Dressed in a classically feminine, floral-print cotton dress, she had worn a wide-brimmed, Southern Belle hat on her thick, blond hair when he’d taken her to Ascot in June. She’d called it her “Derby” hat but had meant her derby, the one in Kentucky. Her American accent with its lovable Southern drawl charmed him, but most of all, he’d fallen in love with her shy, sensitive eyes, ones he couldn’t forget.

Eyes now hidden by dark sunglasses.

Parker looked away. The central Kentucky countryside whizzed past, but he hardly saw it.

Granted, the moment he stepped off the jet at the airfield in Lexington, he had admired her curvy figure, fully appreciating those long, shapely and tanned legs. Yet, there was something objectionable about her dress, or lack thereof. She was wearing short, blue jean cutoffs with frayed cuffs, a skimpy white tank top that left nothing to his more than vivid imagination, and ankle-length barn boots—clunky, muddy, lace-up boots that smelled as if they’d tramped around a stable only minutes before his arrival.

Her apparel was an affront to him. To their time together. More than any burst of anger or recrimination, it told him exactly what to expect from this trip. She was thumbing her nose at him with her improper dress. She’d played him. He’d been a fool.

Not any longer.

Regina Ward, granddaughter of Corbin Ward, breeder of multiple stakes winners, had blood as blue as anyone in Kentucky but not as blue as his aristocratic, British blood. Tainted only by the introduction of an American grandmother, Parker’s blue-blooded family was heir to the fabled, Stuart racing stable, acres of prime London real estate, a historic estate in Kent, and a hereditary peerage granted to an ancestor by a reigning monarch five generations earlier.

No, this hayseed couldn’t raise a candle to him. Her family was nothing. Her breeding operation was negligible. And he was going to drive a stake into the last of it.

Three years ago, Reggie’s drunken father had beaten his older brother in a game of poker, winning one of the Stuart’s prize stallions. Now, the stallion, Stuart’s Legacy, was dead after only three years in Kentucky. Although any horse could die from colic, Legacy’s death was another mark against Reggie and her smalltime horse breeder father, Sam Ward.

Parker blinked hard. Focus. Don’t let her get to you.

The countryside was not as lush and green as his homeland. He knew the Maury silt loam, with its underlying limestone base, made the soil perfect for raising horses. But thanks to the summer heat, the nutrient-rich grass looked dry. Inhospitable. Just like his welcome to the Bluegrass State.

Barreling down a Kentucky back road, flanked by black or white wooden fences and an occasional stone wall built by Scotch-Irish settlers with a mad woman behind the wheel, who he barely recognized, didn’t set right with Parker. Was he taking his life in his hands by being there?

He glanced again at Reggie.

“Does everyone in Kentucky drive this fast?” Parker added a touch of upper-class disdain to his voice.

She glanced at him and grinned, gum popping in her mouth. “Until we get caught.”

He lifted an eyebrow. God, he hated women chewing gum. That more than anything put him off. She must have recognized his distaste, for she grinned and smacked her gum louder.

Parker cleared his throat. “How far is it to your farm?”

She flicked the turn signal and spun the steering wheel right, throwing him against the passenger side door.

“We’re here,” she said and popped her gum once more for good measure.

They bounced down a poorly paved country lane bordered by tall oak trees, up a gentle knoll and pulled around a circular drive, halting in front of a stately, Greek Revival house.

“Welcome to Richlawn Hall built in 1830,” she said with a touch of pride then opened her door and left him sitting alone in the cab.

Heat and humidity sucked the air from his lungs the minute he climbed from the truck. Parker put his hands on the small of his back and arched, stretching his cramped muscles.

Reggie came around the front of the truck and saw him. He couldn’t read her eyes behind her sunglasses, but he had her attention. He played to his audience, prolonging his stretch, and thought her gaze may have been fixed on the button fly of his classic Paul Smith jeans.

“Our house is on the historic register,” she informed him with an impish toss of her fifties-era ponytail.

“So is mine,” he came back then perversely added, “several of them.”

She fisted her hands at that. In the glare of the hot sun, standing in front of him, legs spread, hands on hips, she looked smug and self-assured, almost as if she was ready to do battle with an opponent. Him.

Brilliant! No matter how she tried to put him off with her gum popping and hillbilly attire, he was ready to take on this woman. Parker set his jaw and returned her stare.

Miss Regina Ward had no clue he was about to even the score—and enjoy himself wholeheartedly while doing it.

Join me at the 33nd Annual KY Book Fair, Saturday, November 15th, 2014, and do your Christmas shopping

The 33rd annual Kentucky Book Fair takes place on Saturday, November 15th, 2014 at the Frankfort Convention Center in Frankfort, Kentucky, the Commonwealth’s Capital City. The 4th Annual KBF Children’s Day is the day before—Friday, November 14th, 2014.

I’ve attended the fair in the past, and it’s great fun for authors and readers. This year I am signing Timeless, my gothic romance set in Old Louisville, and Kentucky Cowboy.

The Kentucky Book Fair is operated by a non-profit independent board of volunteers, with co-sponsorship from the State Journal, Frankfort’s daily newspaper; the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, a state government entity; the University Press of Kentucky and Joseph Beth Book Sellers, Lexington, Kentucky.

Each year more than 150 authors attend the Fair, prepared to sign their latest books and to meet the patrons. Net proceeds from the Kentucky Book Fair fund grants to Kentucky school and public libraries for local book purchasing and other literacy-related causes, a total that now exceeds $368,000.

I hope to see you in Frankfort this year!

My favorite horses

I was challenged by a friend on Facebook to post pictures of my favorite horses. Heck, how can I do that? There are so many.

My love of horses started in the fourth grade when I fell in love with The Black Stallion books by Walter Farley. It progressed to riding lessons at the local stable. I remember a big horse named Rogue that was “an ex-steeple chaser.” Let’s just say jumping fences and falling off didn’t agree with me, but I never gave up my love for horses.

Later, enter my own daughter who announced at age nine she wanted to take riding lessons. That began my love affair with the American Saddlebred. I’ve taking riding lessons almost every week for thirty years, and I’m still learning. I’ve owned three American Saddlebreds—a dream come true for me: Mr. Too Little, Royal Tierra, and Starhart’s Heritage. I’ve also ridden a few champion saddlebreds in my lessons: Captain Gillian, Mr. Snuffleupagus, A Taste of Champagne, and Take Me Away. They are my favorites, along with some very special lesson horses: Lyric, Larrikin, Beau, Magic, Preston, Marty, Dan, Juanita, Snickers, Tobias, and the list goes on and on.

Living in Kentucky I’ve been privileged to see and even meet a few famous thoroughbred horses: Monarchos, Mine That Bird, Smarty Jones, Big Brown, Dynaformer, Cigar, Funny Cide, Pulpet, Danzig, and Seeking the Gold. I have other favorites like Zenyatta, Barbaro, California Chrome, Rachel Alexandra and on and on.

When I write novels about Kentucky, I love to slip in a horse or two. Sometimes the plot of the whole book revolves around horses—like Kentucky Flame and my November release Kentucky Blue Bloods.

    

Maddie James joins the Enchanted Lover boxed set with Entranced

ENCHANTED LOVER: Tales of Everlasting Love

Seven Novels of Mystical, Magical and Paranormal Romance

ENTRANCED by Maddie James (time travel, reincarnation)

Jack and Claire set out on a wild search through time, not only for the resolution to a powerful attraction between them, but also for a historical artifact that holds the key to their future happiness–the coveted silver-plated chalice made from Blackbeard’s skull.

Maddie James talks about Entranced

I’m thrilled to be part of the Enchanted Lover: Tales of Everlasting Love boxed set, with Margaret Ethridge, JC Wardon, Jan Scarbrough, JM Kelley, and Cat Shaffer. This wonderfully diverse set of paranormal novels is sure to please. No vampires and no werewolves, but there is magic, ghosts/spirits, mystics, witches, reincarnation, and time-travel. That enough to scratch your paranormal itch?

My book, Entranced, is the lead book in my Soul Mates series. Here’s the blurb: Can souls touch through time and hold on when all odds are against them?

Claire Winslow vacations on an East Coast barrier island, content with her life and her potential future—until the illusion of a man walking the misty shore haunts her. Then one kiss—a beautiful, soulful, stolen kiss in the night—and her life changes forever.

Nearly 300 years past, Jack Porter is in hot pursuit of his kidnapped wife. Not an easy feat considering the year is 1718 and the kidnapper is the notorious pirate Blackbeard aka Edward Teach. Determined to rescue his wife and take the pirate’s head in the process, Jack steals aboard the pirate’s ship to save her.

Entranced sends Jack and Claire on a wild search through time, not only for the resolution to a powerful attraction between them, but also for a historical artifact that holds the key to their future happiness—the coveted silver-plated chalice made from Blackbeard’s skull.

***

The year was 1990 (I think). I had just discovered Romance Writers of America and was attending a yet-to-be-official Kentucky chapter meeting. I’d met informally with a couple of the women who were pulling the chapter together. The lady who was soon to be the president had just returned from the RWA convention.

During the meeting she pulled out a thick, red, hardback novel, placed it on the table, and said, “And this publisher was giving away this novel. I assume they think she is going to be huge! Why would they put a hardback novel on the chair of every attendee at dinner if they didn’t think so?” She passed the book around. I held it in my hands and could only dream. I jotted down the title, and soon thereafter, bought my own copy.

That book was Diana Galbadon’s Outlander. And yes, she of course, turned out to be huge. Outlander was my introduction to time travel novels – especially romantic time travel novels. I fell in love with Jamie Fraser like most every other woman who has read the books. I loved the idea of falling through time—how does that work, exactly? And was curious about how to handle parallel universes, and make everything fit together.

The thought of escape, disappearance, of not being in control of what was happening to you, or where you had landed, intrigued me. And as years rolled on, after reading the first few books in the series, I knew that I needed to pen one of my own. How? I wasn’t sure. And I definitely didn’t whip one or two out within a few months. I can easily say this writing project has been with me for two decades.

At this point in my writing career, I was a neophyte. I’d been stabbing at contemporary category romance, sending my work out to Harlequin and Silhouette. Unsuccessfully. What made me think I could pull off something incredibly complex like a time travel novel? Or a series? I suppose it was the immediate love I had for the genre. It was different, at least to me. I’d never read anything like it before. And I knew I had to go for it. I also knew it would be tricky, and that I needed to take my time with it.

While on a family vacation during spring break of 1992, I found my premise, and the setting. Pirates, the ocean, the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My next step was research. And finally, I started to write. And write. And write.

And now, here we have it. The five book Soul Mates series, with the first three books released, and books four and five coming in winter/spring 2015. I’m so excited to have Entranced be included with this boxed set, so that more readers can hopefully be turned on to this series. Enjoy!

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Bio:

Whether writing traditional contemporary romance or building paranormal worlds, bestselling romance author, Maddie James, pens stories that frequently cross a variety of romantic sub-genres. Sweet or spicy, suspense or comedy, western or time-travel, her heroes and heroines always chase one thing—the happily-ever-after—whether they realize it or not!

Maddie has over 40 titles in ebook and trade paperback print published worldwide, with foreign editions in French, German, Dutch, Russian, Spanish, and more. Her books have received numerous 5 Star and Top Pick reviews and have landed on various retailer top-selling lists. She has been listed as a Top 100 Most Popular Contemporary Romance Author at Amazon.

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Cheryl Norman joins the Enchanged Lover Boxed set with Running Out of Time

ENCHANTED LOVER: Tales of Everlasting Love

Seven Novels of Mystical, Magical and Paranormal Romance

RUNNING OUT OF TIME by Cheryl Norman (time travel)

When Stacy Webber travels to Germany for her best friend’s wedding, she loses more than her luggage and purse. She lands in a different time, fifty years ago, with no idea how to return to her world.

Cheryl Norman discusses Running Out of Time

RUNNING OUT OF TIME, my time travel novel that’s included in the Turquoise Morning Press’s Enchanted Lover boxed set, takes the heroine back fifty years to West Germany during the Cold War. Younger readers may have missed the Cold War. Some of us remember the tension and terror of the constant threat of nuclear war. Scary times.

Take fifty-two years ago this month. Perhaps you’ve read or seen history programs about the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was in junior high school and the crisis is permanently etched in my memory. On October 14, a U-2 spy plane shot photographs proving that Soviet missiles were being erected in Cuba. To prevent alarming the American public, and to conceal his evidence from the U.S.S.R. (and some say, for political timing because of the upcoming midterm elections), President John F. Kennedy kept the buildup of Soviet missiles in Cuba a closely guarded secret. On October 17, a second U-2 plane photographed more missiles, missiles with enough range to strike anywhere in the continental United States.

Diplomacy failed on October 18 when Andrei Gromyko denied any buildup of military weaponry in Cuba. Rather than confront him with the evidence, President Kennedy maintained secrecy and met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on a course of action. As a teen, I knew only what the president told us in his televised speech on October 22. The United States would quarantine the island of Cuba (a nice way of saying “blockade”) until the missiles were removed. It wasn’t until years later I learned how frighteningly close we came to war. The military wanted to invade Cuba, and who knows what would’ve ensued.

Fifty-six USNC warships and eight aircraft carriers circled the waters around Cuba enforcing the quarantine. As I remember it, the next few days were the most stressful of the Cold War. U.S. military bases worldwide were on high alert. Nuclear war seemed imminent when a U-2 stationed in Alaska wandered into Soviet airspace and encountered Soviet fighter jets. Fortunately, the U-2 escaped and returned unharmed, but not before a group of American fighter jets launched. In Cuba, a U-2 was shot down. The nation was on edge, and I suddenly wished my dad had built that fallout shelter we’d seen on television.

Eventually, both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Premier Khrushchev backed down from their military threats and reached an agreement. The Soviets would dismantle and remove all missiles from Cuba and the United States would lift its quarantine and remove missiles from Turkey. By the end of November, all Soviet missiles were gone from Cuba. One year later, President Kennedy was dead and by October, 1964, Khrushchev left office. He never recovered from losing face. Backing down from Kennedy was viewed by party leaders as a sign of weakness for the USSR.

My story takes place in the weeks following the Cuban Missile Crisis and is set in an actual U.S. Army base in Germany. It isn’t a good time or place for a modern time-traveling Hooter’s girl!

 

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Bio:

Cheryl Norman grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and earned a BA in English at Georgia State University in Atlanta. After a career in the telecommunications industry, she turned to fiction writing and won the 2003 EPPIE award for her contemporary romance, Last Resort.  Her debut with Medallion Press, Restore My Heart, led to a mention in Publisher’s Weekly as one of ten new romance authors to watch. Running Scared, a romantic suspense set in Jacksonville, Florida, and Washington D.C., received a Perfect 10 from Romance Reviews Today. Reviewer Harriet Klausner calls her writing “Mindful of Linda Howard.” She currently writes the Drake Springs series romance novels for Turquoise Morning Press. In addition to writing fiction and cookbooks, Cheryl works with other breast cancer survivors to raise awareness about early detection and treatment of the disease.

Enchanted Lovers Blog Tour Contest Starts October 7 – October 20, 2014

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J.M. Kelley joins the Enchanted Lover boxed set with Almost Magic

ENCHANTED LOVER: Tales of Everlasting Love

Seven Novels of Mystical, Magical and Paranormal Romance

ALMOST MAGIC by J.M. Kelley (magic, witch, gifts)

When it came to Vivian Burroughs’ unique connection with nature, her grandmother always said, ‘Mediocrity may not burn as bright as a firecracker, but it seldom blows up in your face.’ But the old woman never advised her on what to do when a sexy new neighbor stokes the flames of attraction.

There’s Magic in the Air

When Almost Magic was with my lovely editor, Karen, I may have gone through about eighty different potential titles for the story. I’d never written paranormal before. I didn’t really know how to capture in just a couple words what was going on in the pages. The problem, I came to realize, was this: I was trying to find a complicated title for a simple premise.

Almost Magic has a good bit of, well…magic. It has witches and ghosts and mystical matchmaking. But it’s not about that.

It’s about finding magic in the ordinary. According to Vivian Burroughs, our (slightly) enchanted heroine, her grandmother once told her, “Mediocrity may not burn as bright as a firecracker, but it seldom blows up in your face.”

This is Vivian’s private mantra. This is what drives her. Growing up with not-so-ordinary gifts drives her to find extraordinary ordinariness.

Hopefully, when you get to the end of Almost Magic, you’ll see the point I was trying to make all along. Magic isn’t just found in the pages of a book. It’s all around us.

There’s magic to be found in a chilly autumn sunset. In waves crashing on the shore. There’s magic in a child’s laughter. There’s even magic there when you’re feeling low and your usually aloof cat chooses that moment to curl up in your lap and make you feel a little better.

Most of all, there’s magic when you meet that one person who makes your heart skip a beat every time you hear him speak your name. You know it has to be magic, too, because while your heart is skipping that beat, you’ve completely forgotten he’s standing before you, wearing black socks and tan sandals.

Love isn’t always easy to find, even for those given a mystical edge in life. In the end, even the most magical among us want the same thing: Someone who gets us, through and through.

That’s the enchanted story, and I’m sticking to it.

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Bio:

Not so long ago, native Pennsylvanian J.M. Kelley packed her bags and moved south. Now, the wannabe Carolina Girl can’t speak a single sentence without adding the word y’all at the end of it, and regards a blast of snow flurries as a doomsday-level event.  When the day job allows, she likes to go on writing jaunts to her favorite lake, or a local coffee shop with delicious shakes and questionable Wi-Fi connections.

J.M. Kelley is a member of Romance Writers of America (PAN). She serves on the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Writers’ Workshop as Vice President and Publicity Chair, and is a proud recipient of a Carrie McCray Memorial Literary Award.

Enchanted Lovers Blog Tour Contest Starts October 7 – October 20, 2014

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