A Quintology crossing Time and Space #timetravel #scifi #romance

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of Scifi and the supernatural. This month we're celebrating the first book in a series at Romancing the Genres. My first series book was also my debut novel, making it a first in more ways than one. When I wrote Keir originally, I had no plan in mind. Certainly no intention to write a series. All I had was an unfinished old short, a need to find myself, and a flood of words waiting to break free. By the time I'd finished the first draft of Keir some six weeks later after frenzied scribbling and a real epiphany, I realized I had two very separate stories. I split them and focussed on Keir. But once that was finished and I turned to the second story, I realized muse wasn't done. By the time I was ready to submit, I was querying Keir as book one of a five book series. Yes, five books. I knew roughly where I wanted the overall story to go although I didn't write book three until a year later. And while I call it the Redemption series, I also refer to it with a smile as a quintology. Why? Well, quintology means five. But it so happens my heroine is called Quin.

With book one re-released last year and book two just last month, I'm currently working on a side story due to release in May. The draft of book three is done but in serious need of an overhaul - I've learned so much in the almost four years I've been published. Books four and five are half done disaster zones, and another side story is knocking on the door. Rather like Douglas Adams whose Hitch-Hiker Guide books became a 'trilogy in five parts' the Redemption series is sprouting extras!

Will it end at five books? Well, the fifth has a very definite finale. The working title is Endings. But I can always do more side stories from the series, and I have plenty of other characters in the same universe shouting for their own adventures that I know I will never be done with it completely.

If you'd like to know more about the series, you can check out the books on my website, on both the Available Works and Coming Soon pages at http://pippajay.co.uk, or I always love to chat on Twitter as @pippajaygreen

WHICH WITCH NOVEL IS YOUR FAVORITE?

By Diana McCollum    
{Note: Diana will respond to comments as soon as her internet access is restored.}

I had never read any kind of paranormal book. And then one day, I was on my lunch hour from work and walking in Safeway. Near the checkout stand was a rack of books. One cover in particular caught my eye, “Breath of Magic”, by Teresa Medeiros, and I bought it.

This book is what I would call a light paranormal. Not a lot of blood and gore, in fact hardly any. Puritan witch, Arian Whitewood gets more than she bargains for during a witch hunt and she and the broom she is riding on, crash land into the 20^th century and the arms of the hero. A love story mixed with time-travel and magic! I fell in love!

After reading “Breath of Magic”, I bought the second book, “Touch of Enchantment”, and followed the journey of Arian’s daughter, Tabitha Lennox, from the 20^th century back seven centuries into the past, and straight into the path of a horse ridden by a chain-mailed warrior.

Now I was totally hooked on paranormal romance. Witches are the best!! Who doesn’t love magic?

I’ve read many books since those first two containing a witch heroine or hero, magic and sometimes time-travel. I’ve loved them all.

This summer I read Nora Roberts trilogy starting with the first in the series “Dark Witch”. You just can’t go wrong with a book written by Nora, excellent series.

My very favorite book I’ve read would have to be “The Witch’s Daughter”, by Paula Brackston. I read this book last year. I will always keep this book, although it is on loan to my sister at the moment. Not only is “The Witch’s Daughter “a well written story, it’s written in first person, which I don’t care for.

And yet, the story drew me in, kept me captivated and I forgot all about first person.

The magic of these books led me to write about... you guessed it, Witches!

My new book is The Witch with the Trident Tattoo, now available in E-book formats at all major retailers. If you want to know the exact date the book will be available in print, sign up for the Windtree Press newsletter.

These are some of my favorite witch stories. Do you have a favorite?

Romancing The New Year

Dear Readers

I’m hoping to write more books this year, stay healthy, and enjoy life, but I’m not making any firm

goals because the last two years have thrown such spanners in the works, and not good, handy spanners, but kick you in the guts, bruising spanners, that I didn’t meet any of the goals I’d set for myself.

So, for my first 2016 post I thought I’d look back at the top ten, favorite historical romance books I read in 2015, and perhaps hint at the books I’m looking forward to reading this year.

So, my top ten historical romance books of 2015 are: (drum roll, I feel like I’m at the Oscars – in no particular order)

10.  His Forbidden Touch – Shelly Thacker

9. You Only Love Twice – Elizabeth Thornton (my first of her books and it won’t be my last)

8. Never Judge a Lady by her Cover – Sarah MacLean

7. Lady Hope & The Duke of Darkness – Maggi Anderson (my fellow Embracing Romance Blog Member)

6. Dukes Are Forever – Anna Harrington

5. The Madness of Viscount Atherbourne – Elisa Braden (her first book and it’s so good!)

4. Earls Just Want to Have Fun – Shana Galen

3. The Other Duke – Jess Michaels

2. When The Duke Was Wicked – Lorraine Heath

1. His Saving Grace – Sharon Cullen (my fellow Loveswept author)

I read many more and enjoyed loads of them, but these were my favorites! What were some of your favorite historical romances in 2015?

As to releases in 2016, here are the one’s I’m looking forward to:

·       DUKE OF SECRETS (Moonlight Square, Book 2) – Gaelen Foley

·       THE SEDUCTION OF LADY CHARITY – Maggi Anderson

·       THREE WEEKS TO WED – Ella Quinn

·       SUTHERLAND’S SECRET – Sharon Cullen

·       TEMPTING MR. TOWNSEND – Anna Campbell

·       LORD GALLANT – Wendy Vella

Whatever you read this year, I hope it brings you joy! And if you really loved it, I hope you’ll tell everyone. Authors #1 selling tool is word of mouth. So get out there and share the joy of reading.

The First Bucket List

By Robin Weaver

I’ve been chugging away at my bucket list and for the most part, I feel fortunate to have checked off many of the things within my power to accomplish. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a long list. For example, I’m still waiting on my hug from Jon Bon Jovi, hankering for dinner cooked by Bobby Flay, and my name has yet to appear on the NYT Best Seller list, but I have been to Hawaii, London, and Yankee Stadium. I’ve also been skiing in Alaska and dancing in Tokyo.

Fear not, I won’t bore you with my list of things done and yet to do (otherwise, “avoid listening to folks droning on and on about bucket lists” might make your top twenty).  I did wonder where the term originated, though.

Believe it or not, the term is relatively recent.  Merriam Webster defines the term as a list of things one has not done yet but wants to do before dying. Obviously, Bucket List was popularized by the 2007 movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman playing terminal cancer patients living it up while they still can. That, however, wasn’t the first time “bucket list” was uttered. Believe it or not, the actual terminology is related to computer programming. Naturally a geek like me would find that fascinating. Compilers reference a bucket list of objects.

The term is derived from the phrase kicking the bucket—aka, dying, an expression used since 1785, and perhaps even earlier. Although the derivation of bucket list is quite old, Merriam Webster indicates the first known use (with today’s meaning) was in 2006. But I’m not sure that’s the whole story. Based on my research, the term was used—perhaps for the first time?—in in the book Unfair & Unbalanced: The Lunatic Magniloquence of Henry E. Panky, by Patrick M. Carlisle. The novel includes the passage:

“So, anyway, a Great Man, in his querulous twilight years, who doesn’t want to go gently into that blacky black night. He wants to cut loose, dance on the razor’s edge, pry the lid off his bucket list!”

I’m sure you wondering how you’ve made it his far without knowing that! Well, here’s another totally useless fact. Did you know bucket list is also urban slang for a ugly females? People can be so cruel.

Here’s to your bucket list. Hope you check off many things in 2016.

What's on my Bucket List by Paty Jager

The main thing on my bucket list is travel. My husband and I had decided years ago that when we retired we would visit every one of the 50 states. I've been to more than my husband by traveling to writer and reader conferences but there are still plenty to see and lots of historic sites I want to wander through.

Traveling to RomCon in 2013

The states we've frequented the most other than our home state of Oregon are: Alaska, Washington, California, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona and Texas.  Alaska and Texas because we have family living there.

We made several trips to Wyoming when our oldest daughter went to school in Torrington. We've driven through Montana, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. And drove twenty miles into Nebraska when we were in Wyoming just to say we'd been there.

I've traveled to New York for a writers conference then traveled to Washington D.C./ Maryland to visit my sister-in-law and her husband

Visited Pro Rodeo Museum

. They took me to some sites in Virginia close to D.C. I visited Georgia with my oldest daughter when our son and his first wife were having their first child.

I attended an RWA conference in Louisiana and a Reader conference in Ohio, that due to a traffic accident while traveling from the airport to the hotel, we drove through Indiana and Kentucky. ;)

So, While I've been to 23 states I have a little over that many to still see. And all the National monuments, parks, and historical sites. Whew!  We are going to be busy for a while.

We also want to take one  more trip to the Netherlands so my husband can visit with more of his relatives, then take a train to Spain to see my two nieces who married Spaniards and live there. Then because of the show Doc Martin on OPB, hubby wants to see the villages in England that sit on the rock ledges along the islands coasts. I want to see Ireland after reading Nora Roberts Born in Ice,  Born in Fire, Born in Shame trilogy that is set in Ireland.

Before we can do any of this, we have to finish building a hay barn and a shop. The house is complete now it is time to get the outbuildings all up.

Do you have traveling on your bucket list? If so, where do you want to travel to and why?

www.patyjager.net

Writing into the Sunset 

When the "Prompt" is Wrong: ***WRITE A NEW TRILOGY***

I posted some of this in January 2015 and now we come full circle; this contemporary paranormal Hansen trilogy releases in print on January 26, 2016!

I happen to be one of those odd ducks who refuses to write anything that does not fit her brand; I do not wish to waste either the words or the effort. So when the opportunity arose, I launched into my first contemporary paranormal story. Ever.

I knew enough about the genre to realize that world-building is key. Whatever the rules for the fantastical element, they must be logical and consistent throughout the manuscript(s).

If you know me, then you know that I write the Hansen Series with Norwegian heroes. And the only way I figured I could be true to that brand, was by making the hero a Viking ghost from the year 1070.

“Hollis McKenna walked into the hotel foyer and spotted him across the space, leaning casually against the wall. His eyes flicked back and forth, examining the largely female crowd with unexpected seriousness. She assumed he must be one of the cover models, dressed as he was in costume—though fur and leather were unfortunate choices on this roasting Labor Day weekend in Phoenix.”

And just like that, Sveyn Hansen manifested himself into my life. And into the life of Hollis McKenna, curator for the brand new Natural History wing (which does not exist) at the Arizona Historical Society Museum (which does) in Tempe, Arizona. Boom.

Sveyn was far too compelling to be quiet. He kept explaining what happened to him, and how he really is not a ghost, because he never actually died. And then I realized why he has been drawn to Hollis: to finally get his Happily Ever After.

I bounced my premise and its resolution off several paranormal-reading friends, and every one of them bought into it. And when I explained the major shift in the middle of their relationship, they got goose bumps. Goose bumps.

And now, Sveyn Hansen is set to meet the world.

The release party will be at the museum where the heroine Hollis works. And the collections manager proofed my books to make sure my details were correct. And she got so excited that her intern asked if she could come to the release party, too.

Because of my appearance schedule this coming year, I’m not releasing the ebooks until March 15th so that the print copies get “legs” at the big events I’m attending. So, mark your calendars.

'Cause Sveyn rocks.