Jenyfer Matthews

It’s hot!

No, I’m not talking about my latest book, but the weather. While you are freezing your …well, a tad chilly up in the northern hemisphere, we’ve got the summer dreams are made of here in the southern hemisphere. Very hot. But with it comes humidity.

And with that comes the inability to sit in my office and create stories. I mean it’s hot. The beach is only 5 minutes walk away. I should be lolling atop the waves, not slaving over a keyboard – right?

Wrong?

Motion creates immediacy creates words on page and eventually hopefully a story someone will love enough to buy.

So while one part of me shies away from my office and everything it involves – promotion, plotting, characterization for the new story, figuring out Mac’s back story and more importantly, coming up with a name I like for my heroine – it calls, and yes, smack my hand, I’m not listening. Talk to the hand!

The kids are out of school, they interrupt with wails of ‘I’m bored’ and yes, mother’s guilt sets in and I drag myself away from that heroine’s name that is on the tip of my singular brain cell that is battling to operate despite the incessant interruptions and heat and – heck, what am I saying – yes, it’s summer, I want a holiday, I want a break from edits and creativity, and let my brain rest.

For now…please. Just for a day or so more.

And here it comes again, that personal guilt and stress. Get writing, you might dry up, then where will you be?

And so tomorrow morning, my hero Mac Grainger is going to tell me exactly who he is, what he is up to, what he wants, and where he is going.

Do you hear me, Mac? Do you? Come on, don’t disappoint me – okay I’ll beg if I have to.

And so my self-enforced holiday is coming to a close rapidly. A break where I wasn’t meant to be doing anything but relaxing.

What’s that?

Relaxing was… editing, submitting, answering emails, and the occasional game of solitaire. Oh, and plus it was reading, something I had sorely neglected during the year. I promised myself in my break I would read, and I did.

So tomorrow at 6 a.m. (yes, I know, sounds disgusting!) I will be up and still in PJs, but at the computer and the words will flow from the tips of my fingers to the computer page. They of course will make wonderful sense, be perfectly formed sentences, no typos, the heroine will be to die for, and the heroine will shine.

And if you believe that, you’re on the same planet as me.

So have you started your goals for the year? What are they? And more importantly, how are you going to get there? Leave a comment and let me know what you’re up to.

Happy reading and writing everyone, and let’s make 2009 a year to write screed and screeds and read just as much.

PS: A very exciting thing to start off 2009. NO SEX NECESSARY is out in print. Read an excerpt…you know you want to

Sam Cheever writes fast paced romantic fiction with feisty characters who deal with life’s little challenges in unique and often hilarious ways. Sam’s recent published work includes her Dancin’ With the Devil series, ‘Tween Heaven and Hell, a rip roaring fantasy adventure that will leave you panting for more; the fast-paced and highly entertaining sequel, ‘Tween a Devil and His Hard Place; and the third in the series, ‘Tween Heart’s Fire and Devil’s Delight, coming in 2009. Also coming in 2009 is Nocked Over, a sexy thrill ride of an erotic fantasy. Sam’s hilarious romantic suspense, Dancing With Tad, was released through Red Rose Publishing in August 2008. Also released through Red Rose in December, her new romantic suspense, A Honeybun and Coffee is now available. To learn more about the author and her work, visit her website and her blog.

A HONEYBUN AND COFFEE
Honeybun Hunks Series: Book 1
Mainstream Romance: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense

Surprised into hiding in a men’s room stall at work, Angie Peterson, owner of the Dunk and Run Coffee Shoppe, overhears two men talking about killing someone named Alastair Honeybun. Picturing a frail, helpless old Englishman, Angie rushes to warn him. There’s only one, small problem, Alastair Honeybun is six foot two inches of yummy man, who’s perfectly capable of taking care of himself. But when the thugs show up while Angie’s still there, they soon figure out they’ll need to take care of each other.
Running from criminals who seem to know where they are and what they’re doing before they do, the two enlist Alastair’s hunky and talented brothers to help them unravel the confusing swirl of murder, kidnapping, and downright unpleasantness closing in on them. But not to worry, the Honeybun brothers are determined to put a serious crimp in the bad guys’ day!

The Honeybun Hunks

Who are the Honeybun Hunks? They are eight sexy brothers…yes eight…who like to take things into their own, very capable hands when stuff goes awry in their lives or the lives of their lady loves. Their more admirable traits, aside from the ability to track, capture, and kick bad guy’ butt, include cooking, an inbred love of animals, and the ability to hold their own in a shopping mall. Impossible you say…absolutely not I respond.

They’re Honeybuns!

Papa Honeybun was Chief Legal Counsel to one of our recent Presidents. Uncle Brick Honeybun is a US Senator. Mama Honeybun used to wrestle numbers into place as a high placed accountant, but now just wrangles testosterone as she tries to keep her challenging brood in line. The Honeybun brothers include a spy, a Marine drill instructor, a famous race car driver, a heart surgeon, an infamous writer, a lawyer, a well known dancer…and, in Book One of the series, a successful financial planner named Alastair Honeybun:

Alastair Honeybun stood in a dark corner of the bar and wished he could be somewhere else, anywhere else, other than where he was. His penetrating, blue gaze slid around the noisy bar and he watched the drunken antics of his friends with a slight curl of his lip.

So he didn’t confide. Instead he moved through his days as a highly paid financial planner with a certain kind of contented glee, and his nights, as one of the guys, with much reluctance and teeth grinding.

Unfortunately, Alastair unknowingly views a kidnapping that night in the bar. Days later, as he’s recovering, none too bravely, from a terrible bout of the flu, an attractive woman named Angie Peterson knocks on his door and informs him that he’s about to be visited by two thugs who intend to kill him:

The sound of shrill barking greeted her insistent knocking long before she heard footsteps on the other side of the door. She suddenly felt as if someone was staring at her and waved at the peephole in the door, smiling.

Angie blew out a sigh of frustration. “Humor me.”

But Alastair doesn’t really believe Angie until he calls his office and learns that two men answering the description Angie gave him of the men she’d overheard talking about killing him had visited his office. By the time Alastair realizes the kook in his kitchen might not be so kooky after all it’s too late and the killers are pounding on his front door. And thus begins the race between these two innocent but far from helpless victims, and a surprisingly agile and intuitive criminal enterprise, which has only one goal in mind. Kill Alistair Honeybun, and by default due to her presence in his life, kill Angie Peterson too. It’s quite a ride. I hope you’ll check it out.

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Author Jane Beckenham found literature at a young age. In books she discovered dreams and hope, stories that inspired in her a love of romance, and travel. Years later, after a blind date, Jane found her own true love and married him eleven months later.

Life has been a series of ‘dreams’ for Jane. Dreaming of learning to walk again after spending years in hospital. Dreaming of raising a family and subsequently flying to Russia to bring home her two adopted daughters. And of course, dreaming of writing.

With her family growing up, life is a round of playing mum’s taxi service, all the while wondering what her hero and heroine are up to behind her back! Writing is Jane’s addiction – and it sure beats housework.

Today Jane is the author of nine novels, including contemporary romance, historical and time travel/romance.

Desperately Seeking Santa
Red Rose Publishing
Mainstream/Holiday/ Contemporary
ISBN: 978-1-60435-249-8

Santa leaned against a railing of silky teddies and thongs, all pink fluff and feathers along with black lace and faux fur. Mandy blinked several times. The guy didn’t move. The look on his face, humor and downright daring indicated he knew exactly what he leaned against. But still he stayed there. His arms crossed his chest, pulling the red suit across his broad shoulders. The fabric stretched and Mandy’s eyes widened. This was no weasely old man Santa and she wondered for the first time, what lay beneath all that fake Santa stuff?

Woohoo, the big day is over, well at least it is down under in New Zealand, which is my neck of the woods. All over for another year, which gives us time to recover physically (from the all food!) and financially, from succumbing to overspending. Which brings us to the next big day – NEW YEAR’S DAY.

It’s a time when we start afresh, thinking of what we’d like to achieve for the coming 365 days ahead. My father would always sit down at the beginning of the new year and say to my mum, ‘what shall we do this year?’ What he was talking about were goals, whether it was a journey somewhere, or redecorating the house.

So as January 1 2009 approaches I am pausing, albeit fleetingly, since I’m the mother of teenagers and mum’s taxi service is in big demand at the moment. I have to think what I want for 2009.

Of course it would be nice to have several new book contracts under my sleeve, but I think what I’d really like is to live with the motto ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’. Basically, I want to be kind to me. Give me a break!

One of the ways I really want to do this, which is really kind of apt, given that I’m a writer, is to read some more – and no I’m not talking about EDITING! Nope. No way. I mean read for pleasure.

It seems so weird that it has gone by the wayside in 2008. I have about 20 books in my to be read pile. Yet, I find so little time to read.

Which is bad, bad, bad. I mean, if I’m writing, and want people to read my books. I should at least make time to read others. If I can’t make it a priority, then who will?

So if you’re in doubt what goal you’d like to set yourself this year. How about making it BE KIND TO YOU, year. Take time to do something wonderful for yourself everyday, and forget the dusting.

Happy reading…go on, I dare you!

Well, here I am again, talking about releases.

I meant to talk about my Wild Rose book, which released in print at the first of the month. But lo and behold, I have other books to talk about — five to be precise. Five? Yes, not only do I have new releases, but I have old books in print and old books up for awards. To find out more about the books, see excerpts, and find purchase links, go to my web site .

I was going to talk about all those books, but I thought, hey, this is my chance to savor them. I mean, these are all books which are ‘old’ to me — I wrote the most recent release last year and the others before that. In fact, Brilliant Disguise, a book that just came out in print, is the first book I ever drafted. The version in print now isn’t the one I drafted, of course — it’s been vastly improved (I think).

This is why it’s tough to do double-releases for ebooks. Many publishers release a book first in e-format then a few months later (or longer than that) it comes out in print. Look at this timeline: I draft a book and submit it to my editor. A month or so goes by. She buys it (we hope). It gets put on an editing schedule. A few months later, I get edits back from her. We do the edits, and a few months later, it goes to production. Then it gets assigned a time slot for release.

It could be six months to a year from the time of submission to the time of release (sometimes less, sometimes more). In that timeframe, I’ve drafted another book, done promo for other books, and had other books bought and edited. I’ve almost forgotten about that book that’s releasing RIGHT NOW. So I have to drop what’s current now, revisit that book, and promo it. Then imagine that I have to do it all again in a month or two or three because the publisher decided to put the book into print.

It can get downright confusing! That’s why, right now, I should be doing promo for five books — one that just released, two that released earlier in the year and are now in print, and two that released MONTHS ago but which are now up for awards. But for this moment, I’m just going to relax and not worry about the promo. After all, these are ebooks and they’ll be around for a long, long time. I can always do some promo for them.

But those edits I need to do for a book next year … yep, I need to do those. And that galley proof needs to be verified. And Chapter 3 in my latest WIP has to get done. So that’s all from me for now. If Jen will have me, I’ll drop by next year and let you know how it’s going. Until then, have a good holiday and squeeze in some time to kick back and relax in among the holiday fun. I’ll be snuggled up near the fire, laptop on and my fingers flying ….

Candy, Corpses, and Classified Ads

Twenty years ago, JT McCord jilted Molly Lawford. She survived and moved on to marry twice, but her first husband died and her second husband ran off with a hairdresser. Molly gave up on romance and settled down in Tangle Butte, Minnesota, as a small town reporter.
Now JT McCord is back in town as the Chief of Police. His first official act is to investigate how Molly’s thought-to-be-vanished husband turned up buried next to the septic tank in Molly’s back yard, dug up by a neighbor’s marauding pig.

While helping JT unravel the facts, Molly’s resolve about keeping him at bay unravels, too. If she can survive a couple of attempts on her life (and maybe arm wrestle a couple of town hussies for JT’s affection) she might find the love of her life—all because of a pig and some plumbing.

Though author Terry Odell claims to have fallen into writing by accident while writing fan fiction for the Highlander TV series, she’s certainly been taking her work seriously ever since! Terry has numerous romance short stories published by The Wild Rose Press in addition to three romantic suspense novels from Cerridwen Press.

If writing wasn’t enough, Terry’s also been busy entering contests. Finding Sarah is a second place winner of The Lories, Published Division, Romantic Suspense. What’s in a Name? was a finalist in the prestigious Daphne du Maurier contest, sponsored by the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA. It also finaled in the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence contest.

Terry makes her home in Orlando, Florida. To find out more about Terry visit her website her

*****

The memories of that excursion swirled through my head, and I played around with a short story, but never finished it.

Three books later, the Montana setting insisted on hitting the page, and the seeds for When Danger Calls were planted. I set the book in Montana and managed to work in bits and pieces of my riding adventure, although the trail rides play a very minor role in what is primarily an action-adventure romance.

Here’s a snippet. This scene takes place well into the book. Ryan, the hero, has invited Frankie, the heroine, to spend some time with him at his father’s ranch. He’s been reluctant to get involved because Frankie has a five-year-old daughter, Molly, and Ryan is still trying to get over the trauma of having another young girl die in his arms on a mission. Until this point, Frankie has rejected the thoughts of any relationship with Ryan because he has ignored and avoided any interaction with Molly.

*****

They walked to the barn, Molly falling behind until Frankie took her hand. When they reached the structure, Ryan inhaled the familiar, comforting scents. Horses, feed, manure. For the moment, all his other worries left. He turned to see Molly hiding behind Frankie.

“Come on, Peanut,” Frankie said. “We talked about this, remember. You wanted to ride. You even wanted a pony.”

“Over here,” Ryan said. “This is Sparky. See. He’s not so big.” He patted the mule between the ears.
Molly shook her head. “My braves are all gone.” She wasn’t crying—yet.

Ryan crouched to her level. “Maybe if you watch your mom, some of your braves will come back. But you don’t have to ride if you don’t want to.” He looked up at Frankie. “We can take a few turns around the corral and see if she changes her mind. I’m not in favor of forcing kids. They usually know when they’re ready.”

Frankie’s eyes telegraphed her pleasure, but he was surprised to find it was the way Molly’s had lost some of their wariness that warmed him.

Once Molly had agreed to watch, Ryan saddled Corky, and glanced down the row of stalls. “I think Hot Rod could use a little exercise.” He wandered to a brown and white paint. The horse snorted and shook his head.

“Um … it’s been years since I’ve been on a horse. I kind of expected a Buttercup, or a Dobbin, or something milder than a Hot Rod.”

Ryan laughed, and it felt good. “Don’t let the name fool you. He’s as docile as they come. Knows the trails better than I do.”

She didn’t look convinced, but he saw her glance at Molly and paste on a confident grin. “Okay, then. But let’s definitely start in the corral.”

An hour later, Frankie watched Ryan put away saddles and bridles, pitch hay, and curry the horses, all the while explaining everything to Molly, who was now enchanted and chock full of braves. After ten minutes of watching from outside the corral, Molly had allowed Ryan to settle her in front of him on Corky, and the transformation had begun. She’d gone from a death grip on the saddle horn to leaning forward to pat Corky’s black mane. Before long, she was willing to ride solo, with Ryan walking alongside, one hand on Corky’s bridle, the other on Molly’s back. The heart-in-her-throat at seeing her little girl atop such a mass of power disappeared when she saw the way Molly smiled at Ryan—and the way he smiled back. Not once had he given her that, look at me being nice to your kid look she’d seen too often. As a matter of fact, he’d hardly paid her any attention at all since they started riding. It had all been focused on Molly. Now the lump was in her throat, not her heart.

About When Danger Calls

If someone asks single mother Frankie Castor to clear a room, she’ll smile and find a vacuum cleaner. Ryan Harper uses a gun. Can they work together when their lives depend on it?

Frankie’s returned to her childhood home in Montana to help care for her mother. Her biggest worries are balancing the budget and the upkeep of an aging home. When she offers a man a ride home from the hospital, she never imagines she’ll end up having to choose between her daughter’s life and matters of national security that could cost the lives of millions.

Ryan returns to his family home to find a way to prove he didn’t leak vital information on a covert ops mission gone south. As he searches for the meaning of a file he’s kept hidden from the mission, he has no idea that international mercenaries have been searching for it—and him. When the mercenaries come after Ryan, he’s torn. Fighting for his country wars with fighting to rescue people he loves
Set against a Montana mountain backdrop, When Danger Calls is a story filled with action, adventure, and romance, where the stakes keep getting higher and higher.

When Danger Calls is published by Five Star Expressions in hard cover.
Order from Amazon

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You can special order these books at your local brick and mortar store as well.

When Danger Calls is a hard cover, library quality edition. Economy got you down? Please feel free to go to your local library and request that they add this book to their collection. You’ll get a free read, and the author gets the royalties.

Prefer digital books? I have four other romantic suspense novels from Cerridwen Press. Two, Finding Sarah and What’s in a Name? are also available in print. You can find them at www.cerridwenpress.com.

Like short stories? I have six romances with The Wild Rose Press.

Please visit my website and take a look at some free reads, some peeks behind the scenes, and more information about all my writing.

K.Z. Snow (formerly writing as Kate Snow) is the daughter of Milwaukee tavern keepers and learned her first words off a Wurlitzer jukebox. Nine years of higher education, resulting in a 2 1/2 English degrees and a stint as a teacher, did not dampen her enthusiasm for beer, Green Bay Packers football, classic R&B, and various forms of political incorrectness.

She’s been many things in her life, including a varsity debater, a Catholic, a hippie, a Girl Scout, a junker, a fag hag, a gardener, an editor, a saxophone/bassoon/tambourine player (not all at once), a damned good dancer, and a companion to most species of domesticated animals, including men.

One thing she has never been is a Republican. One thing she will always be is a writer.

She now lives in rural Wisconsin, not far from the birthplace of surrealism, a.k.a. “The Dells.” Her imagination and her hips continue to grow unchecked.

You cant miss the excellent dialogue, hilarious, or the imaginative role-playing, and Ralphie is a priceless addition to the story. The secondary characters are perfect; from Laurens mix of girlfriends and her sister all the way to Herb and Harriet; humor, compassion, true friendship and wisdom. I was DYING reading the scene where the friends go to meet Santa; hilarious.

The Romance Studio

Merry Christmas, everybody, and many thanks to Jenyfer for inviting me over! I’m K. Z. Snow, and in addition to publishing contemporary romances through Cerridwen Press, I also have books available at Ellora’s Cave, Loose Id, Changeling Press, MojoCastle Press and, under a different name, at Samhain and Double Dragon.

My holiday romantic comedy, Mrs. Claws, originally had a subtitle: The Nightsweats Before Christmas. I hated having to drop it, because it perfectly suited the heroine and the storyline. You see, Lauren Rose made her first appearance as Glenna’s droll, older sister in Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad, another of my Cerridwen titles. A reviewer said Lauren deserved her own book. So her own book she got — attitude, nightsweats, and all.

I wanted to make this multifaceted woman the star of a Christmas story. Not everyone is all happy-happy-joy-joy around the holidays. Christmas can be a stressful time, especially when other aspects of life aren’t going smoothly. So Lauren became, at least in my mind, not only the heroine of a novel but the standard-bearer for all Grinchettes — those of us who struggle, screw up (or get kicked), often feel humbuggy, and yet harbor undying hope for bliss, even though we doubt it’s every going to come our way.

Mrs. Claws developed into a story about a bright, sometimes ornery, but fundamentally caring woman who’s used to being in control. A woman who’s recently learned there are some things in life you can’t control, and those things can hurt you badly. Like a husband who’s been having a clandestine affair with some young doll then decides to scrap his marriage to be with that doll.

Although Lauren’s world has been painted black when Mrs. Claws begins, she’s been trying her damnedest to adjust. She loathes self-pity. So she’s gotten back on the dating track . . . but with no success. Not one of the seventeen men she’s dated has plugged in the lights on her tree, if you know what I mean. Desperate for some cheer as the holidays roll around, Lauren decides to apply for a job playing Mrs. Santa Claus at a huge, bustling shopping mall, figuring that might dispel her blues and help her revel in “the most wonderful time of the year.”

At first, it seems like an unfortunate decision. Lauren had no way of anticipating what the job would entail. She couldn’t foresee the unflattering costume and makeup she would have to wear. She didn’t know she’d be working with a little person (not child, but adult dwarf) named Ralphie who serves as Santa’s elf and has a wickedly mischievous streak. She hadn’t thought about the people of all ages and both sexes she’d be forced to deal with — people she would normally never choose to deal with — including and especially the man playing Santa. And she certainly didn’t know a couple of unpleasant exes would make unwelcome appearances. Lauren’s meddlesome group of girlfriends further complicates her month of employment.

But the tide eventually turns for this luckless lady. In the process, she learns some valuable lessons. One of the most important is that compatibility, like genuine happiness, often runs along hidden and unexpected channels. Little by little, Lauren manages to dig deep enough to find those channels. She also rediscovers the incomparable value of family, friends, and humor.

That is, ultimately, what Mrs. Claws is all about — searching beneath the surface to find the wellsprings that keep hope alive and make life worth living. So, from me and Mrs. Claws, a sincere wish that your holiday season is full of love and laughter!

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I’m here today to talk about my latest Cerridwen release, Endurance, which was released yesterday, Thanksgiving Day in America.

I’m thankful that it released. My History Patrol series has had a problematic life. The first book, Forgiveness, released last year, and was one of my first books ever released. It’s done very well on the contest circuit despite the fact it’s only available in download and has never been in print. I’ve been pleased.

Anyway, long story short: I lost my editor at CP before the book released. The second book, Endurance, had already been bought, so I was assigned a new editor. We whipped that book into shape and she bought the third book.

Yep. That editor left. I was assigned a new editor to get Endurance, book 2, out the door and to work on Temperance, Book 3.

Edits for Temperance, Book 3 (due out next year), are … a struggle. In the first round I saw more edits than I’ve ever seen — more than on all my 8 books that I have out combined. Usually it takes me a day at the most to do edits. This took me several days — almost 10 days, to be precise. I’m not saying the edits weren’t valid. I think many of them were. But some … I’m not so sure if they were really essential.

So I’ve finished the first round of edits and just got the next round. I haven’t even opened the file yet. I’m not even going to look at the next round until sometime in December. I want to savor the release of Endurance and gird my loins for more angst.

I think this is probably a very good lesson for me. Most of my releases at my other publishers have been relatively easy. I’ve had a few covers I’ve whined about, or maybe I misunderstood my editor on some points. But I’ve never had so many detail-oriented edits as I have for the History Patrol books.

Of course, these are complicated books. “Time travel meets reincarnation” is how I phrase it. For Endurance, my off-handed summary is: ‘Endurance, a first-person paranormal time travel reincarnation romance (try saying that fast a few times). It’s first-person male POV, about a man who’s been stranded in time by an immortality virus and has a career as a paid assassin. The woman he’s assigned to kill is the love of his life, reincarnated in this place and time. Nico almost makes a huge mistake and targets Lucinda, but luckily there’s someone there who knows the truth — a telepathic dog named Cerberus, who intervenes.’

Complicated? Yes. But very, very interesting. I hope it and the other books in the series are worth the work. Only time will tell (time travel, get it?)

Endurance
by
J.L. Wilson

Imagine being torn away from all you know and love. And now imagine being torn away from your place in time.

That’s what happened to Nico Haidess who is trapped, not just in time, but in a reincarnation gone wrong.

He’s a Guide with the History Patrol, sent back from 2190 and now stranded in 21st century America. He’s been reunited with the love of his life, Lucinda Delacroix who has been reincarnated in this place and time. There’s only one problem: he doesn’t recognize her as his lost love and she doesn’t recognize him.

To Lucinda, Nico is just a handsome stranger, a man who seems oddly familiar. And to Nico—a paid assassin—Lucinda is just an assignment, a suspected traitor. He must kill her on Easter morning and make it look like an accident.

Luckily one other creature can help. Cerberus is a telepathic dog on special assignment with the History Patrol, sent to bring these two lovers together. Cerberus has a vested interest in the fate of Nico Haidess and he’ll do whatever it takes to see Nico and Lucinda reunited—even if it means dying and defying God to accomplish his purpose.

But the clock is ticking for all of them and time is starting to run out.

Barbara Goodwin has been writing romance novels for five years. A native Californian, she loves dogs, movies, and reading. Her career as a flight attendant with a major U.S. airline gives her unlimited ideas for her novels. Barbara has published five romance novels, four with Cerridwen Press and one with Whiskey Creek Press. She has also written a young adult novel with her nephew. From Dreams To Reality will be published by Cerridwen Press March 19, 2009.

How the Love Beyond Time Series came to be

As I was staring at the bookshelves looking for Christmas romances one holiday season, I realized that I would love to write one of my own. The next year I went to a June wedding in Sisters, Oregon, a beautiful small town on the East side of the Cascade Mountains, and decided to write a western based on that town which is styled after the old west with boardwalks and old-fashioned store fronts.

I finished the 1890s western, No Time For Christmas, and realized I needed to make it a series. My hero, Joshua Forrester had two sons, and the heroine, Adeline Benjamin had two nieces that she’d raised. I knew then that each son and niece needed their own book and decided to write a five book series. My love for time travel stories made it a must that I write these books where each story would take place in a different time period.

As I wrote the ending for No Time For Christmas, I realized it couldn’t be the first book in the series but must be the third. Then I decided that each book should start and end on the same two days no matter how long the hero and heroine were gone in their respective time periods. I chose time periods that I would love to see and researched the history of those times. That helped me develop the story lines for each book. I plugged in my hero and heroine (which I had already written character profiles for) and the rest is…history!

I thoroughly loved writing and researching these books. Book one, No Future Christmas, takes place in 2110 and deals with a corrupt world order. Book two, No Silent Christmas, is about the silent film era and prohibition in 1925. Book four, No Hope For Christmas takes place in 1940 World War II on a real airplane, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner that flew passengers for only one and a half years before it was commissioned for the war effort. I have a real romance with past airplanes where stewardesses made up bunks and catered to their wealthy passengers. Book five, No Diamonds For Christmas, takes place in 1956 on the Queen Mary and has a handsome diamond thief bent on revenge, a cursed diamond and, of course, the haunted Queen Mary!

Enjoy!
Barbara Goodwin

Love Beyond Time Series

No Future Christmas
Book One

Twenty-first century Police officer Mike Forrester can’t believe his eyes. A woman is standing in a glowing tangerine light in the early morning hours after his shift.

He has to see if the vision is real. His hand closes around her wrist and he’s stunned by the hot, intense desire that rushes through him. The world spins and the last thing Mike remembers is the gentle touch of the woman’s hands on his face as she strokes his mouth.

Twenty-second century scientist Shauna Wentworth doesn’t intend to bring Mike Forrester home to her time. But before she can send him back they find themselves in a race against time to uncover a political secret that will rock the world.

Soon the global military police have them listed as number one on their worldwide most wanted list.
While fighting a corrupt world order Mike and Shauna fall deeply in love. Can their love survive between two different worlds?

No Silent Christmas
Book Two

When Firefighter Scott Forrester picks up his brother’s BlackBerry to invite his father for Christmas dinner he hears a high-pitched whine and a tangerine light surrounds him.

In an instant he disappears from the room.

When the color dissipates Scott is standing on a dirt street. Most of the women are dressed in the same, shapeless style from the 1920s. Amid the Barbie-doll dressed women, one stands out. Her long blonde hair and startling blue eyes cause a hot, wild desire to race through Scott. He has never reacted to a woman so intensely before.

Scott finds he’s in 1925, the era of prohibition and gangsters. Until he can get back to his own time he takes the only job offered to him and becomes reluctant silent screen actor.

Scott’s co-star is stunning socialite Maggie Ingram. When a series of accidents almost kill Maggie, Scott begins to suspect matinee idol Carey Chambers. But why would Chambers want Maggie dead? Also, Scott wonders where Chambers gets his illegal liquor.

This is No Silent Christmas for Scott as he navigates the glitz and the glamour of Hollywood in 1925.

No Time for Christmas
Book Three

After losing his wife to a car accident one Christmas season, Joshua Forrester buries his grief in work as a commercial real estate salesman. Twenty years later, and still alone, Joshua is addicted to everything electronic. As he steps out of his condo one morning he’s shocked to find he’s in 1890. His Blackberry doesn’t work, there’s no electricity, and his hometown of Sisters, Oregon looks like a Hollywood movie set from the wild, wild, west days.

But this is no movie.

Adeline Benjamin, the beautiful town spinster, takes him under her wing when he’s thrown in jail for counterfeiting money dated 1980. Joshua is instantly attracted to Addie. Heat burns through him every time he’s near her, but he gains a powerful enemy because of his attraction. Sheriff Hall claims Addie Benjamin as his own and won’t tolerate this stranger taking away his woman.

As Joshua grows to love Addie he must overcome the sheriff’s anger and distrust, accept that he may be on the longest camping trip of his life and find a way to make a living in a time he never thought he’d see.

No Hope for Christmas
Book Four
Coming December 18!

Modern-day flight Attendant Evie Benjamin wants adventure and she gets it when she time travels to 1940. Her first trip, assigned by Transcontinental and Western Air, is to work the first pressurized commercial airplane ever built—the Boeing 307 Stratoliner.

Only the wealthy and the famous can fly the luxury of the “Stratoliner.”

James Jeffries, III owns a worldwide construction company. He also works for MI5 securing information hoping to get the United States to help the British win the war against Germany.

Evie is stunned by her first meeting with James. His voice flows like honey down her spine, calling to her, touching her deep in her soul. When James requests her for a top-secret mission she is plunged into peril and loses her heart in the process. But the secret mission is compromised and Evie and James have to find out who leaked vital information.

How will Evie and James newfound love survive the ravages of time and war amid a pitch-black, nighttime landing, a devastating car accident and other perilous adventures?

No Diamonds for Christmas
Book Five
Coming February 5, 2009!

Beautiful restaurant owner Mary Benjamin time travels to the Queen Mary, circa 1956. When she arrives on the dark ship a masked man rescues her from nearly sliding overboard. At his tender touch an unexpected rush of desire courses through her, weakening her. But will he hurt her?

Accomplished, British jewel thief Gavin MacAfee will do anything to steal the cursed Resurrection Diamond from the Duke of Pemberton. Yet, everything changes for Gavin when he meets Mary under the brilliant stars on the Queen Mary’s deck. A sudden rush of desire and a powerful need for her consumes him.

Mary doesn’t trust Gavin when she meets him without the mask. He’s too cocky, too sure of himself. Soon she finds she’s falling in love with a masked thief who’s tender and kind, yet obviously up to no good.

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Julia Barrett has been writing prose and poetry most of her life. She originally majored in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa, but parenthood necessitated a regular paycheck and an unexpected career in nursing. The author has lived throughout the Mountain West, but she is proud to admit to being a fourth generation Iowan. Ms. Barrett and her husband currently reside in California with their German Shepherd, three cats, and two birds.

Anytime, Darlin’ is a powerful story of love, loss, and a life-and-death struggle for survival. Despite the harsh reality of the storyline, author Julia Barrett has deftly created a powerful character-driven tale. {…} The characterization is strong and the writing taut as the fast-paced love story carries the reader from the opening paragraph to the final scene. Anytime, Darlin’ is highly recommended to anyone who craves explosive suspense.
Night Owl Romance

What inspired Anytime Darlin’?

I believe we are all connected in some way. Sometimes the connections are casual, sometimes deep and lasting. The two main characters in Anytime Darlin’, Devlin and Jake, experience an instantaneous connection that transcends time and space. Unfortunately, they cannot act upon their feelings for years. They each have their own path to follow. As a writer, I followed their paths along with them. I heard their voices. Devlin and Jake told me their story, I simply recorded it. I didn’t always know what they were going to say before they said it or what they were going to do before they did it. And it was not only Devlin and Jake who constantly surprised me, their friends and even their enemies communicated in exactly the same manner. As a writer, it was a most interesting experience. I believe the spontaneity of their story is evident in every word I wrote. Happy reading!

Anytime Darlin’

by

Julia Barrett

Jake McKenna is one of the first responders when a young runaway is found unconscious. She’s desperately ill and has been beaten and sexually assaulted. Jake saves her life and is determined to protect her from the man who is equally determined to destroy her. Ultimately Jake realizes he must allow her to make her own decisions about her future, though it breaks his heart.

Devlin Barre survived the destruction of everything she held dear then learns she has been given into the care of the very person who stole her life. Her risky escape nearly kills her. One man brings her back, Jake. She loves him, but he has his own path to travel. Devlin refuses to become a burden. Brokenhearted, she leaves to rebuild her life.

Years later Jake and Devlin meet again. Has their connection survived? What of the monster who attempted to destroy Devlin? He’s still waiting for the opportunity to finish what he started.

Excerpt

Jake applied the electrodes to her chest and flipped on the portable EKG machine. After a quick glance at her heart rhythm, he began a systematic head-to-toe assessment as Kyle radioed each finding back to the ER. Jake felt sick as he stripped her and ran his hand over every single bruise and abrasion, checking for broken bones and possible internal injuries, anything they might make worse by moving her carelessly. The girl had been badly beaten. Her back was scraped raw and there were thick purple wheals around both wrists. Her left side was swollen and covered with bruises. From the feel of things, Jake suspected at least a couple of broken ribs. He didn’t find needle marks—her arms and legs were clean. This wasn’t likely to be a drug overdose. Leanne and Lou got the IV started and Jake sighed with relief as fluids began flowing. The EKG showed a normal sinus rhythm but she was tachycardic and the woman was right, she was hot. Her axillary temp was one oh three point four. Her lungs sounded congested. Probably pneumonia. Jake suspected she’d been outdoors for several days and she’d probably been guarding her respirations because of the rib pain, which meant she was a sitting duck for pneumonia.

Mike cleared his throat. “He was wearing waffle-stompers,” he said, “look at the marks on her thigh.”

They stared in silence.

Then Jake broke it. “Let’s move it people.”

Kyle and Lou wheeled in the gurney and the four of them lifted the girl gently. As they laid her down, her eyes flew open. Jake was by her head, looking right at her. He started. Her eyes were unexpected, aquamarine with flecks of gold, wide and slightly almond-shaped and when she slowly lowered her lids, her long lashes cast faint shadows on her pale cheeks. Suddenly her eyes opened again and sought his. Jake was surprised by the intensity in her gaze. He saw confusion mingled with pain and a flat-out panic, the kind of panic one would find in a cornered animal.

Jake felt a hand wrap around his as he pushed the gurney.

“It’s okay, darlin,” he whispered soothingly, “it’s okay. We’ll take care of you. We‘re taking you to the hospital.”

He thought her panic increased for a moment but then she nodded, almost imperceptibly and he could tell she understood him.

“You got a name, sweetheart?”

She closed her eyes and shook her head slightly. “No.”

“C’mon, everybody’s got a name,” he coaxed, “it’s all right, you can tell me, sweetheart, nobody’s going to hurt you.”

“Dev,” she said after a moment, so softly beneath the mask that he almost missed it. “Devlin.” Her eyes closed.

“Devlin,” Jake repeated, “I‘m Jake and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Suddenly the hand in his went rigid and the rapid respirations turned to gasps.

“Heart rate increasing!” called Leanne. “One sixty a minute!”

“Lou,” Jake spoke with deliberate calm, “give me an ET tube now and get the ambu-bag.”

Jake and Lou worked fast and had the girl intubated before Kyle could even put the vehicle in gear. Mike slammed the ambulance doors shut.

“I’m right behind you,” he called.

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Carolynn Carey has had a lifelong love affair with the written word. She started (and quickly abandoned) her first novel in elementary school. In high school she was editor of the school paper and worked after school for the newspaper published weekly in the rural county in Middle Tennessee where she grew up. Later, in college, she majored in journalism and again worked on the school newspaper. Her career didn’t deviate much from her earliest love: She was an academic editor for many years.

Fiction writing had always been a dream for Carolynn, one that stayed a bit out of reach until she decided to become serious about learning the craft. Joining the Romance Writers of America (RWA®) and then the Smoky Mountain Romance Writers chapter of RWA® provided the encouragement and assistance she needed. In the last few years, she has finaled three times in RWA’s prestigious Golden Heart contest for unpublished writers, and in 2004 she won her own chapter’s Laurie award in the short contemporary unpublished category. Later that year, her winning manuscript sold to Avalon Books and was published as A Summer Sentence in 2005. A sequel, Falling for Dallas, followed in 2006. Since that time, she’s had a traditional Regency, Compromising Situations, published by Cerridwen Press, and her women’s fiction entitled Lily for a Day is available now from Cerridwen Press.

Carolynn lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, with her husband, who has been of incredible encouragement over the years by always believing in her. They have one daughter, also a lover of the written word, who teaches English in North Carolina.

*****

I’m delighted to be a guest on Jenyfer’s blog today, just one day following Cerridwen Press’s release of my women’s fiction titled Lily for a Day. The title (as well as the cover design) relates to the book’s setting: a daylily farm in Tennessee.

You say you’ve never heard of a daylily farm? Well, one is located about five miles from my house. The owners boast of growing hundreds of varieties of daylilies, and if you were to pay a visit to the farm in the summer during the days that are open to the public, you would see rows and rows of daylilies in bloom in more sizes and colors than you could imagine. And you would understand why I wanted to set a novel on a daylily farm.

Actually, the fictional Darnell Daylily Farm in Lily for a Day is central to the book’s plot, ranging from the office building (that causes the accident which leads to the independent protagonist, Marti, breaking her ankle and becoming more dependent on her adult daughters) to the shed (where the beautiful Glenna works after her ignominious flight from Hollywood).

I hope you’ll want to visit Darnell Daylily Farm and learn for yourself whether Marti gets a second change to bond with her daughters. And while you’re there, you will probably learn a thing or two you didn’t know about daylilies.

Lily for a Day

by

Carolynn Carey

Marti Darnell is convinced she was an inadequate mother to her two daughters, but both have married and moved on with their lives, and Marti is content with her non-eventful existence. She and her husband Harold own and operate Darnell Daylily Farm in Tennessee where their daughters were raised, and Marti still has her friends, including Steve, their employee and neighbor.

Then Harold falls off the roof of their small office building and lands on Marti, breaking her ankle and his own wrist. That same day, Glenna, the oldest daughter and Steve’s former fiancée, calls to say she’s leaving her Hollywood producer husband and moving back home. Marti and Harold’s injuries necessitate more contact with their other daughter, the perpetually disapproving Candie, and her busy physician husband Matt. Add to this mix the charming home health care nurse, who falls for Steve, and then Jake, Glenna’s estranged husband, who comes to Tennessee to try to win his wife back.

A gorgeous movie star follows Jake and then makes a play for Candie’s husband. When Candie leaves Matt and moves back to the daylily farm, Marti realizes they have come full circle. Can she be a wiser mother to her girls this second time around? And will her grown daughters pay any more attention to her advice now that they’ve experienced their own failures?

Chapter Seven

Even a small thorn causes festering.

—Irish proverb

Glenna was on a rare rampage. As soon as the reverberations from the slammed back door died away, I heard the sound of cabinet doors being closed so hard that the glassware behind them rattled. I grabbed my crutches. I didn’t look forward to confronting Glenna, but at the same time, I wasn’t going to sit by and let her destroy my kitchen.

By the time I’d propelled myself halfway through the dining room, the popping of a cork told me that Glenna had found what she’d been looking for. Wine in the middle of the afternoon? What a wonderful idea.

“Pour a glass for me too,” I called to her. “And pull out a kitchen chair for me. I’m coming to join you.”

If Glenna was happy to have my company, she did a good job of hiding it. When I stepped into the kitchen, she stood, wine bottle clutched in her hand, and glared at me. “Did you know that Dad was going to invite my low-down, good-for-nothing, ratfink of a husband to live in the office building within spitting distance of the house?”

I quickly shook my head. “I had no idea, sweetheart. You have my word.”

She held my gaze for at least a half a minute. If I’d been lying to her, I’m sure I would have blinked. As it was, I had to hold my breath and call upon eyelid muscles I’d never known existed in order to keep my eyes innocently open.

Finally she dropped her gaze, sighed, and shook her head. “I can’t believe Dad did this to me. Do you really want a glass of wine?”

“Absolutely. Did you get me a glass?”

“No, but I will.” When Glenna turned back around to fetch my wineglass, I hurriedly blinked a few times to get a little moisture back onto my dry eyeballs. Then I pulled out a chair at the kitchen table. “You don’t mind if I sit with you, do you?”

She sighed again. “No.”

“Good. Once I heard that cork pop, I started craving a glass of wine. Could you step it up a bit?”

Glenna smiled. She also stepped it up a bit. She set my glass on the table, poured it three fourths full of the merlot she’d opened, and then helped herself to a generous measure before dropping into a chair on the far side of the table.

“Cheers. Although I’ll be damned if I know of anything to be cheerful about.” She lifted her glass, then downed half of its contents in three long swallows. “I don’t recall you being a daytime drinker, Mom.”

“Some days call for a glass of wine in the afternoon.” I took a sip of mine. Merlot wasn’t my favorite but it would do. “Can you believe that I didn’t recognize your husband when he came to the front door this afternoon?”

Her eyes widened. “Did he have to tell you who he was?”

“Yep.”

She giggled. “I’ll bet that deflated his ego quite a bit. He likes to think of himself as a household face in this country, and then his own mother-in-law doesn’t even recognize him.”

“He appeared a little shocked, I’ll have to admit.” I took another sip of wine. “He claims he wants you back, you know.”

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