Jaycee Ford's Blog, page 4
October 16, 2014
Sometimes Moments
It’s no secret that Len Webster and Alex Rosa are two of my bestest friends. So, when Len said in conversation that she was writing a new story, I instantly requested to be a beta reader. Honestly, I think she didn’t have an option, and I’m so glad she didn’t. I knew she was going to tug my heart strings, but I wasn’t prepared for what was to come.
Sometimes Moments
By: Len Webster
Publication: January 2015
Contemporary Romance/New Adult
One blink,
One breath of air,
One moment in time …
Could change your life forever.
Growing up, Peyton Spencer fell in love with the boy across the road, Callum Reid. As the years went by, it only made sense that they would wind up being completely and utterly infatuated with each other. That was, until the morning Peyton wakes up to find Callum packing up and leaving the small town they lived in. Left heartbroken and with no explanation, Peyton spends the next four years of her life without him, ensuring they never cross paths again.
At seventeen and months after Callum leaves her, Peyton buries her parents—feeling more alone than ever before. Now at twenty-one, she’s inherited the family hotel, The Spencer-Dayle. Just when she thinks life couldn’t get more complicated, the one person that shattered her heart, soul and belief returns. For Peyton, his return opens up all her old wounds and resurfaces the memories she’s tried to forget.
He’s not the same boy she once fell in love with. He’s guarded and keeps secrets close to him. Peyton knows her life will begin to unravel.
Untold truths will finally come to light. Whether or not Peyton wants to hear it, the truth will undoubtedly break her heart all over again.
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22093502-sometimes-moments
Add this to your TBR list … you seriously need to read this come January.
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July 9, 2014
40 Days …
“What is that smell?”
Those four words meant so much to me. Those were the first four words my first story ever had.
HAD
It’s still in there, but they stunk so bad, they’re now in chapter three.
After all of the edits, after all of the books thereafter, after all of the agent queries, after all of the Wattpad votes, after 40,000 additional words … we have come to this …
In forty days … I will become a published author. There are no words to describe how surreal this moment is. The writer has no words. The writer is speechless. There were SO MANY people who helped me make this possible, and they will be acknowledged in my book. I couldn’t have done this without any of them. Thank you for pushing me and believing in me when no one else did. In forty days, I will be a published author and it is all because of you. Thank you. ♥
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May 10, 2014
A friend named Len.
I cannot remember the exact moment when I confirmed that Len Webster was a friend. Her story Thirty-Eight Days caught my ear before she did. I started hearing a buzz long ago, but I was so enthralled in my own stories that I didn’t read at all, especially on Wattpad. I still have this problem, but I’m rectifying that. ANYWAYS … our paths began to finally cross via writing social circles as it did with Alex Rosa. The three of us belonged to writing group via Facebook called PSG (Publishing Support Group) in which we conversed on the daily writing thread. If I’m not mistaken, at times, we would just ramble excessively so we took it to a private group chat almost eons ago. It’s been that way ever since.
I have now had the pleasure to read Thirty-Eight Days … It’s Amazing.
There are a few things I’ve learned about Len:
She cannot drink like a fish.
She is as nuts about sports as I am; however, our footballs are different.
She says “fudge” instead of other choice words.
She might be tiny, but the girl does have a temper.
She has a big heart. If I say “Help”, she’s there no question.
Why am I telling you about my friend named Len?
Because she’s publishing her first book and I have the cover!
Fact: Alex and I saw it earlier than the World Wide Web did. 
The truth is, Len Webster is a romance-loving Melbournian with dreams of finding her version of ‘The One’. She calls Australia home, but secretly wishes a man with a beautiful accent would whisk her away. She’s been called a hopeless romantic and a firm believer of happily ever afters, which she doesn’t object to.
When Len isn’t acting as the voice of her characters, you can find her drowning in business textbooks as she slaves over her Bachelor degree. She spends more time than she should daydreaming of her next Europe adventure or swooning over Mr. Darcy.
Len can be found sitting at her University library, earphones in, and writing instead of studying. If she could, she would own a cupcake bakery just for an endless supply of red velvet cupcakes. Her best friends are a hot cup of tea, a warm jumper and her MacBook, ready to write to her heart’s content.
COVER REVEAL
Publication: June 18th
Contemporary Romance/New Adult
SYNOPSIS
Nolan Parker and Clara Lawrence never saw eye to eye. In fact, if you asked Clara she would tell you that Nolan Parker hated every thing about her. They never shared any form of connection besides Alex Lawrence.
She was Alex’s bratty sister and he was Alex’s best friend, they never stood a chance.
Five years have passed and almost 12,000 miles have kept them separated, both living completely different lives. Unchanged perceptions and expectations should have kept them apart. But when Nolan returns, the foundations of their relationship is sure to change.
Their story was meant to end the day Nolan left for Stanford. But what if seeing each other after five years was the game changer? What if this was their one chance to rewrite their relationship or were they always destined to never be more?
TEASER
“Hey, yourself.” He turned to her and smiled, giving her a perfect view of his incredibly defined abs, broad shoulders, and his large arms. Clara mentally groaned. She wanted to feel each ripple of muscle under her fingertips.
Oh God, I’m so screwed.
“That shirt?” She faked her annoyance. Fantasies already invading her thoughts, causing her to blush and refuse to make eye contact with him.
“Your breakfast,” he replied, and placed a bowl of fresh fruit and yogurt in front of her, dodging her question. “Alex would kick my ass if I didn’t feed you. So pass on last night’s dinner and this breakfast to him,” he said, wiping his hands on a tea towel. Clara moved her fruit around the yogurt before starting to eat a piece of cubed fruit at a time.
“Sure, I’ll tell him you’re trying to poison me to quicken his return.”
If you’re a book reviewer/blogger and you’d like to be included in the book tour, head on over to Wanderlust Book Tours.
Last but not least, enter the giveaway!
I’m so proud of you Len. I cannot wait to stand your book next to Alex’s. 
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May 6, 2014
What’s in a Name …
Writing comes from all sorts of inspiration in life; various people you meet or places you’ve been. They all make their way into stories somehow.
“If a writer falls in love with you, you can never die.”
True love, maybe. But I have been in love countless of times – where I just swore I loved him – and alas, my heart … t’was broken.
My stories are premiered on Wattpad for the time being. The latter ones will become restructured where only the names are the same. I have ideas to expand my simple Love Bug Series into two series with a total of eight books. These all started with inspiration. The perfect fictional male as the hero … and the exes as the villains.
Story: WATCHING FIREFLIES
Villain: Ryan
Ryan is a variation of Brian. Brian was an “I only want you around when it’s convenient for me” type of guy. Dumping him was the wisest decision I had ever made. I won’t mention here what happened to Ryan. Not in the mood for a #SpoilerAlert.
Truth: I started dating my now husband two weeks BEFORE I dumped Brian. #SorryNotSorry
Story: HORNET’S NEST
Villain: Josh
When I started my freshman year of college, I had just been dumped by this douche named Jeff – which sucked at the time but definitely for the best – but I had vowed to not exclusively date anyone my first year. I just wanted to have fun and not worry about the male species. By the summer after, I got a job working at Blockbuster. (It was awesome. Free movies all of the time.) Anyways, in walks a guy who I could tell was a smidge older than my eighteen years of age, but he was … hot. I stood in my blue and yellow trim polo shirt checking him out (literally) and while he hands me his Blockbuster member card, he also hands me his phone number. I was blinded by the tats, but that was a red flag. A guy giving a girl their number means he wants the girl to chase him. Girls … don’t chase. Just … no. But … again … blinded by the tats. And then I found out he was in the military … and I was a goner.
… He dumped me on my birthday.
Hornet’s Nest has yet to be edited properly. Josh needs to suffer more.
Story: BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY
Villain: Jacob
Literally, one week after Josh, I had just got settled into my new apartment at LSU with my three roommates. (We had my birthday kegger party a week prior where not only did Josh not show up, but dumped me on the phone. I floated the keg myself.) ANYWAYS … it was a Friday before the first LSU football game and we were getting to know our new neighbors (who were all men 
) so we ordered pizza which meant the men flocked to our apartment. We knew who they all were by now, but in walks this guy. I’m sitting in a chair by the window in our living room. He just walks into my apartment like he owns the place. Baseball cap, tall, scruffy beard … I watch him as he walks straight to the pizza and just takes a slice. So, I say, “Help yourself.” He just nods and says, “Thanks.” I still had no idea who this dude was, but I was intrigued. Not enough to make anything of it.
I find out that he’s my neighbor’s friend who doesn’t live at my apartment complex. He would always talk to me on and off. Friendly. Cordial. Still never thought anything of it. There was this one day in October that we all piled into one of my sorority sister’s Jeep for an LSU football game. I took a picture of the people in the back seat (he was one of them) and we went to the game, had a blast, still never thought anything of it … until I got my pictures back. No one in the picture was looking at the camera … except him, and his smile … was … beautiful. My eyes lingered on the picture … but he was out of my league. He was too cute. I just befriended him and actually started dating another guy instead. Nothing serious or anything.
One of our sorority functions came up, and the guy who I was dating couldn’t go because of work. So, I went over to a neighbor guy friend’s apartment, trying to figure out who I should ask as a date (you had to bring a date), and he said, “You need to ask Jacob.” That caught me off guard. I looked at him like he was nuts. Jacob wouldn’t go with me. He was a pre-med, hot, Cajun boy. So, I asked my friend, “You think he would go with me?” And he had the sliest smirk on his face as he said, “Just ask him.” I left shaking my head.
Surprise, surprise. He says yes.
The function is a “mystery bus trip” where my sorority sisters and their dates load a bunch of limo buses to some bar in another city. By the time the first slow song came on, I could tell that I wasn’t alone in the feelings department. It was a really epic little story with the build up and the finally getting together.
… I was a distraction.
The break up was horrible. But thinking back on it now. I should have never made him a villain. Yes, he chose his future over me and I wasn’t a part of that future, but he never wronged me. He doesn’t deserve to be a villain.
Mental Edit Note: Change “Jacob” to “Jeff” … Jeff deserves it much more.
To read about all of these villains, check out my work on Wattpad while you still can for free!
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April 1, 2014
The Modern Day Love Letter
Ahhh … the text message. Done away with the long script with a quill and a jar of ink. Done away with the epic letters with declarations of love. Done away with the surprising cards just to say “Thinking of you”. Done away with the cute little notes passed around in class with your crush’s name written with a heart as the dot over the “i” in his/her name.
Today … you get the words on a screen. Much like the books that we now read. We as a society are done with paper as a whole. “Save The Trees,” they say. But much like the books we read today … anyone can do it. Anyone can type something out and press send. The words are there. Sure, they mean something. Hopefully the person saying them to you mean them. But to actually drag your fingers across the page and feel the words pour out of their hearts onto paper, that means something. They are literally giving you their heart.
Alas … we must save the trees. So, a little speech bubble holds everything that means something.
A little speech bubble could also be the most annoying little piece of shit that humans ever created.
I present to you the modern day equivalent of a Shakespearean insult:
One thing comes to mind when I see this one singular letter …
Are you too damn lazy to enter in an “O” before the “K”???
I find your laziness insulting.
“Away! Thou’rt poison to my blood.”
That was Shakespeare. There are no better insults than Shakespearean insults … and the letter “K”. And really, “Okay” is only okay for Hazel Grace and Augustus. (If you don’t know what I mean, read The Fault in Our Stars … okay.)
So, not only do we have the ease of technology (heaven forbid anyone get a paper cut), but we also have the lazy nature of one letter responses. We live in such a “whatever” society. No one puts up an effort anymore. No one fights for what they want anymore. If it’s too hard, people just quit. People do whatever possible to keep their heart intact that we’re pulling away from the best feeling in the world. Everyone wants to protect their heart, but without pain, one can never have joy. We will all become the robots we all fear to be. We are becoming mechanical.
“The heart was made to be broken.”
- Oscar Wilde
Love will find you. You can’t run away from it. Let it consume you. And then maybe … just maybe …
The text message won’t be so bad at all. There isn’t much better than Jane Austen in the 21st century.
I’ll end this blog hypocrisy (since I typed instead of hand wrote it) with just a little note from me to you. ♥
And just to plug my new little project, it has nothing to do with bugs or cowboys. It’s about a long and forgotten place in my hometown of New Orleans. I’m doing my best to entwine history and fiction into a love story that I’ve been dreaming of for over a year. I hope you’ll start the journey with me.
Order of the Garter
http://www.wattpad.com/story/14010224-order-of-the-garter
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March 16, 2014
Sex & Books
In the two years that I have officially proclaimed myself as a “romance writer,” I have come across two things:
Women like reading about sex.
Men don’t like their women reading about sex.
The Hypocrisy: These same men have all been to a strip club and/or have watched porn.
“No,” you say. “This is the 21st century. We’ve gone through two sexual revolutions.” And thanks to the famous (or famously infamous) E.L. James and her Fifty Shades, we are embarking on our third.
The heart of all romance stories is not romance, but love. When you peel back the layers to the story – the sex, the friendships, the career – the foundation is Boy meets Girl … or Boy meets Boy or Girl meets Girl, because homosexuality is mainstream … hence, the third sexual revolution … deal with it. Maybe the main characters hate each other. Maybe it’s love at first sight. But the main focus is to have the reader’s heart melt at the end. The road taken to get there, though, is up to the author.
The modern romance novel took form in the early 1970’s. Women for the next couple of decades would glance around while in the grocery store and sneakily toss one of the mass market paperbacks into their carts and stroll away to buy milk or frozen peas. Enter the invention of the eReader. With a simple click of a button, you have thousands upon thousands of books at your fingertips, especially Romance, which is the highest selling genre. My first edition Nook has so many Harlequin Blaze Bundles, I’d almost be embarrassed … but I’m not, because I’m a romance writer, and one had to learn from somewhere. It wasn’t until I read the Fifty Shades series – in the span of a three day weekend – that I realized that I could quite possibly write this.
This: Detailed sex, not erotic romance.
Someone once said that they enjoyed my story … until a cock literally slapped them in the face. Meaning, the flow of the sex scene seemed perfect enough without having to use various names for male and female genitalia. This was me just coming off of Fifty Shades. Fifty Shades is what women wanted. … Not true. We want love.
But why is it still frowned upon to read a love story that revolves around orgasmic word sex?
This is the part that some men cannot comprehend. When women read these types of books, it has the same effect as what men have from watching porn.
Yes … women get horny, guys. You should be glad.
So, why is this a problem?
The answer is that it’s not reading the sex … it’s because it’s fictional. Non-fictional men cannot compete in the sack with fictional men. And I hate to point it out to ya, fellas, but ya ain’t ever going to.
By the time men evolve into a non-fictional form of Mr. Grey (or maybe even a Mr. Darcy), women will have moved on to something else more mind-blowing. Instead of getting all huffy and licking your ego wounds, just smile and reap the benefits. It’s not that hard to understand.
So … men, stop cowering in the corner like a scorned monkey and buy your women these books. Embrace the fact that we have gone through two sexual revolutions and third one is taking place in the form of books. If you’re not reaping the benefits of this, then you’re doing something else wrong. Maybe wear a cowboy hat. Chicks dig that stuff.
Women, men are still not conforming, and that’s okay. That is why we can have polygamist relationships with lots of fictional men. Taking a different man to bed every night and you don’t have to fold his underwear in the morning? Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
So, if your man ever demands to know why you “read so much smut?” Smile and say, “If I read current events or the politics of the day, then I would be so much smarter than you,” as you smile bigger because you know you already are.
If you’re in the mood for some “classy, not raunchy” sex, head over to Wattpad, where you can find my first story, Watching Fireflies, for a limited time. The edited and expanded version is to be published at some point in time. The love bugs are all crossing their fingers while we wait.
http://www.wattpad.com/story/8413668-watching-fireflies
Until next time, Happy Reading!
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