Worst Vacation Ever By Kathy Coatney

 

         This month’s theme for Romancing The Genres is the worst shopping trip ever. Since I'm not much of a shopper, and I absolutely adore shopping online, I decided to share my worst vacation ever.

         When our children were young back in the late 80s, four and seven, we had friends with kids that were the same age. They invited us to their cabin on a private lake. We were excited and left early on a Saturday morning for a three-day weekend. It was about an hour from our home. We parked and hiked in about half a mile, arriving midmorning, then began unpacking. The kids were crazy excited and raced into the bedroom to play.

         Not five minutes later, a howl came from the bedroom. I raced in to find our four-year-old had jammed his knee into his eye. It was quickly swelling, and turning purple and black. Fortunately, it wasn't serious enough for an ER visit. After a few hugs and kisses, he was back on track and playing with the rest of the kids.

         We finished unpacking and went out for a hike. In my memory, the hill we climbed was almost vertical, but in retrospect, I doubt it was really much of a hill. We hiked to the top, then started back down. We’d barely gone fifty feet when our youngest tripped and fell, rolling down the hill before we could grab him. He came up covered in scratches and blood, but again, nothing serious enough for an ER visit. We cleaned him up, put on Band-Aids where needed, and he was off playing again.

         We had dinner and everyone was exhausted, so we headed to bed early. I’d been asleep about an hour when I suddenly had to rush out to the outhouse with the worst case of diarrhea I'd ever experienced. I came out to find our oldest son with the same issues. We spent the night in and out of the outhouse. By morning I was exhausted and ready to go home, even though we’d planed on staying another day.

         We began packing and our friends offered to let the boys stay with them, but my husband and I felt like we wanted everybody home as we weren't sure what catastrophe would happen in our absence.

         This was one of those vacations where you never want to repeat it, but at the same time, it becomes something we laugh about on a regular basis. These are the memories I use when I'm writing to bring humor into my stories. I feel it’s essential since I tend to deal with heavier topics.

         In my first book, Falling For You…Again the couple lost their 14-year-old daughter in a boating accident two years before the book began. I interspersed humor in that story often to deal with the heavier topics.

         In my latest book, Falling in Love With Her, book 5 in The Murphy Clan—Falling in Love Series, I used humor throughout the book as my heroine, Ingie Pulaski, was abandoned by her mother at a young age. This meant she had heavy issues to contend with, so I used levity to soften her pain. I also had the Trench Coat Brigade on hand to add humorous moments to the book. What you'll find in almost all of my books is a serious topic infused with laughter to provides heartwarming prose and a happily-ever-after that will leaves the reader smiling and happy at the end of the book.

         Do you like humor your books?

         Falling in Love With Her is available now.

 

A LEFT AT THE ALTAR, FRIENDS TO LOVERS, BROTHER’S BEST FRIEND, AFRAID TO COMMIT, DESTINED TO BE TOGETHER, ROMANTIC MYSTERY NOT TO BE MISSED!

Ingie

Love, marriage, and a family aren’t in the cards for me after my fiancé left me at the altar. I was so certain he loved me, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. My mother’s words haunt me. “She’s an ugly duckling. She’ll never attract a man. A husband and family aren’t in her future.” Instead of dwelling on the past, I focus on running Three Rivers Fly Shop and Boat Repair, the legacy from my father.

Two years later, Ian Callahan, my brother’s best friend and my childhood heartthrob, returns home. Certain he’ll never see the swan lurking beneath the ugly duckling, the same as when we were teenagers, I protect my heart by insisting on a friends with benefits relationship. The fact is, I don’t need love. I have my work, a persnickety, one-eyed cat, and keeping the Trench Coat Brigade in line—a wacky group of seniors with a penchant for meddling, matchmaking, and mystery-solving.

Ian

After my last relationship crashed and burned, I left my job as an arson investigator and firefighter in Seattle to return home. Ready to settle down, my hometown is the only place I want to put down roots. And the only woman I want to make a life with is Ingie Pulaski. She’s smart, sassy, and fearless, but she wants a causal relationship 

When a building is torched and a body is found, I find myself keeping tabs on the Trench Coat Brigade to ensure they stay out of trouble. But there’s an added benefit to that assignment—I’m spending a lot more time with Ingie. And I’m making it my mission to show her there’s more to our relationship than friends with benefits.

Ingie

I’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places until I meet up with Ian again. Now I have to conquer my deepest fear—abandonment—or lose the only man who loves me just the way I am.

Order your copy now because men like Ian are one of a kind!

Buy here: https://www.kathycoatney.com/falling-in-love-with-her-a-romantic-mystery/

         Thank you so much for stopping by today. I think finding humor is vital, and I hope you'll stay in touch and follow me @

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Travelling Through Time

by Kristina O'Grady, Time Travel Romance Author

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel through time? In my novels, I use quantum physics, abet very loosely. Most of my reasoning comes more from my creative licence than it does from science, however, if you read books such as Matrix Energetics by Richard Bartlett it does seem possible; we just haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe that day is coming. And wouldn’t it be fun?

If you could travel through time, where would you go?

When I was a kid, I dreamed of traveling to the Old West.

The way of life back then fascinated me. Of course, I wasn’t ready to give up my comfortable jeans in exchange for a tight corset, no matter how good it was for posture. So I figured I’d have to disguise myself as a boy. This theory was all well and good, that is, until I hit puberty. Then I wanted to go somewhere romantic.

What period in time is more romantic than the Regency Era? I easily fell in love with the dashing rakes, the beautiful dresses and the extravagance and elegance of everyday life of the ton.

To me, every one of those ladies was a princess and every rake, their prince charming. I love reading about their journey to find the love of their life. It allows me to believe in the good of this world that we live in.

I suppose that’s what romance is all about; and that’s why we read it. We read it to escape from our everyday lives, to forget the bad news we see on the television and in the papers. That’s why I love time travel, to escape. And since I can’t actually travel through time (not yet, anyway J) I’ve done the next best thing…I wrote about it.

Please find me at my website, www.kristinaogrady.com on Facebook, www.facebook.com/kristinawrites and on Twitter, @KristinaOGrady. I would love to hear from you. Thank you to Romancing The Genres for hosting me today.

Debutantes Don’t Date Book 1 Time Travel to Regency England

At the stroke of midnight...

One minute Grace Lancaster is an overworked event manager organising 2013’s New Year’s Eve ball… The next she’s kissing a rather gorgeous man at the Regency themed party. Everyone’s entitled to an out-of-character New Year’s kiss, right? Except Jasper Mossman, Earl of Bingham, isn’t at a costume party - he’s a real-life gentleman from 1813...

And, it seems, kissing a man in Regency London has consequences!

What Grace considers normal behaviour scandalises Regency society and so far she’s provided the irrepressible gossips of the ton with a season’s worth of conversation! In a scramble to protect her reputation, as well as his own, Jasper insists that they marry for the sake of her honour. Marrying Mr Darcy might be a 21st century girl’s dream – but the reality is far from romantic. Corsets are uncomfortable, no running water is disastrous! Grace had always planned on falling in love before she got married, but when Jasper takes her in his arms she just might believe she’s finally found her very own Prince Charming.


Damsel In Distress? Book 2 Time Travel to Regency England

A chance meeting that could scandalise the ton!
19th century England. Harriet is running for her life, chased by three men on horseback through Hyde Park. Knocked unconscious, everything goes black…

Philip, Baron Eaglestone, has never seen such a beautiful damsel in distress. And he’s even more intrigued when she opens her eyes, and begins to speak. Because this irresistible woman can only remember her first name, and has no knowledge as to who was trying to kill her… or where she is!

As Philip cares for Harriet, their attraction burns… and neither can shake the feeling that their chance meeting was truly a moment out of time. But if her memory returns, Harriet will be faced with a question. Will she return home or could it be that family is where her heart is – with a Regency rake!

Seeking Treasure

by Lorraine Beaumont, New Adult Time Travel Romance Author

Treasure is such a solitary word and yet it has the ability to send your mind racing off on a journey through time and have your heart chasing right after it.

For the heroine’s in my books, it is no different. In Forgotten Time, my debut new adult time travel novel, Katherine Jamison is a young woman temping at a high end auction house, and when she “borrows” an ancient amulet to wear to a costume ball, she inadvertently sets in motion a chain of events that result in her waking up in Victorian England betrothed to an arrogant self-centered earl.

Normally when you hear the word treasure, it will incite visions of chests of gold, swashbuckling pirates who look like, maybe, probably, definitely…Johnny Depp.

When in reality treasure does not always come in the form of gold and it is not always accompanied by pirates, no matter how good looking they are. Instead, it is merely something found of great value.

While researching these items for my books, I uncovered many different stories about real treasures that were found by everyday people, like you and me.

And who doesn’t love a good treasure story? I know I do.

Take for instance the story of a man who walked into a flea market one day and bought a small oil painting for $50 and found out it was by a listed artist worth $1 million dollars.

Or the story about a man who went to a Pennsylvania flea market and bought a dismal painting for $4

dollars because he liked the gilded ornate frame and found out he is now the possessor of a first printing of the Declaration of Independence, which is expected to bring $800,000 to $1 million dollars at auction.

And last but not least….at a New York tag sale, someone bought a ceramic bowl for $3 dollars and it sold at the famed auction house Sotheby’s, for $2.23 million.

To the auction world however, these items of great value are not called treasure but instead “Finds.” They come in many different mediums, shapes and sizes, which in the third book in the Ravenhurst Series, Time to Remember, my heroine Raven Tremaine discovers while cataloguing the contents of Ravenhurst estate,  a castle with a few thousand feet of additions that dates back to King Arthur’s realm. She has a few good “cheats” up her sleeve as well that will enable just about anyone to be able to discern whether they have stumbled upon a true “Find.”

So the next time you pass a flea market or happen by a tag sale or auction, why not stop, take a look around and maybe just maybe you will “Find” a treasure for your very own.

I’ll keep my *fingers crossed* for you.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my little “Finds.”

Happy Hunting and as always, I’m sending out a big THANK YOU for reading.

Lorraine Beaumont is an international bestselling author. She writes books with an ensemble cast of characters, with plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. She writes the kind of books she enjoys reading and can only hope that you will enjoy them as well.

There is not much more she enjoys than interacting with her readers, so if you happen upon a “Find” of your own and want to share, she would love to hear about it.  Who knows, she may even be able to tell you what it is worth.

The fifth book in the Ravenhurst series, Now and Forever will be available soon.

http://lorrainebeaumontauthor.blogspot.com/p/books.html

 

 Connect with Lorraine online anytime

Blog: http://www.lorrainebeaumontauthor.blogspot.com/

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/LBeaumont_

Reality... What a Concept

by Angeline Fortin, Time Travel Romance Author

Reality… What a concept.

Robin Williams uttered those profound words as a part of one of his most memorable stand-up comedy routines. As I was just a preteen when it first came out, most of it was largely beyond my understanding but that quote has remained with me throughout the years since.

Reality.

The notion really doesn’t seem to have much relevance in the genre of Romantic Fiction, does it? No matter what the sub-genre, be it contemporary, historical or paranormal, there is always an element of magic in a romance novel if only because the Hero is always a magnificent lover and true love always ensues. Not an exceedingly credible idea, is it? But we take it, accept it because it embodies the escape we are looking for and because the author’s finely woven tale manages to suspend our sense of reality and make their world as genuine as our own.

Time Travel Romance has a greater challenge in successfully suspending reality than many subgenres, I think. The concept of time travel itself is pure fiction. Even when logically presented and grounded in scientific probability, it is still only theory and therefore, as much fantasy as the witches, vampires and ghosts that are commonplace beings in paranormal romance.

That being said, I don’t believe Time Travel Romances are destined to fail in successfully engaging the reader’s imagination if there is an element of truth included in the tale. But too often they do fail when things seem too easy.

There is nothing that I find more improbable in Time Travel Romance than those tales where the time-traveler accepts the phenomenon without question. A Heroine who discovers that she traveled through time only to shrug prosaically and essentially say, “Yes, of course, I did. Why not?”

Even more incredible and unlikely, is the Heroine who inexplicably possesses extraordinary skills that help her fit seamlessly into her new environment. I’m not speaking of skillsets that are vital to the story line but those that provide her the ability to drop in at some random point in history without a stumble or two along the way.

More than likely, it wouldn’t happen that way, and as a writer, I believe it shouldn’t.

Where is the thrill for the reader if the Heroine travels back to the ancient city of Atlantis and just happens to be an expert at under-water basket weaving?

To me, the thrill would be found in a Heroine’s inability to swim.

I believe it is the conflict found in not knowing everything or sometimes anything that drives time travel plausibility. It shouldn’t be so much about the Heroine fitting in as it is about her standing out.

She should be confused, angry, or even afraid of the situation. Isn’t it more far-fetched that she wouldn’t be? Imagine yourself in such a situation. How do you think you would react? Nonchalantly? Completely unnerved?

Though I’ve penned four Time Travel Romances so far, I’ve never given this notion the consideration I think it deserves and will address it more fully in my upcoming novel, TAKEN.

In TAKEN, my Heroine denies, panics and rallies against her peculiar, bizarre circumstances. She defies her dazzling, rugged Scottish Laird, confounds him with her foreign words and outlandish ways.

She thoroughly leads him on a merry, passionate chase. There are moments of joy, friendship and adventure while she stumbles her way through the past, but she refuses to blindly accept the hand Fate has dealt her. Despite her efforts, she never truly fits in well enough for the Hero to divest himself all doubt… even while he divests himself of his clothes.

If the idea intrigues you as it does me, I hope you’ll take a chance on TAKEN, when it is released later this fall.

Is Time Travel Romance Back "In" Again?

by Angela Quarles, Time Travel Romance Author

At the time I'm writing this post, the mid-season finale of Outlander hasn't aired yet--in fact, it's tonight! And I, like scads of other fans, are eagerly awaiting another dose of Jamie goodness. Since I'm kicking off this month for the time travel romance authors, I felt like it would only be appropriate to mention the series that most judge our time travel romance books by, even though technically it's not a Romance. But I think the reason readers do, is because of the hero, Jamie. He does epitomize the Romantic Hero. And let's face it, you write a yummy, compelling hero like that, and you'll get droves of fans (though not all, there are some haters).

But Outlander wasn't the first. As near as I can tell, that honor goes to Anya Seyton and her 1972 novel Green Darkness, but I'm not positive. If you know of an earlier one, please pipe up in the comments! But Outlander did seem to spawn a sub-genre in time travel romance--the Scottish time travel.

I was a late-comer to Outlander; I didn't read it until 2010 after I'd written the first draft of my newly released debut novel Must Love Breeches (and promptly had to change the name of my main character from Clare to Isabelle!).Until then, my forays into time travel fiction were in the science fiction genre, like Connie Willis' Doomsday Book, or the classics like H.G. Wells The Time Machine and Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. But I think I mainly enjoyed time travel stories through movies, like Kate & Leopold or Hot Tub Time Machine or Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. But I think the first one for me, was the classic Christopher Reeve movie Somewhere in Time.

I'm not sure what draws me to it, and since I discovered time travel romance, I'm able to feed my love for it more often. I think it's the fact that, when well-written, it allows the reader to experience the past through a modern lens, which allows for more opportunity to contrast modern culture with the past. I'm also a sucker for fish-out-of-water stories.

It's funny how trends go, or what's perceived to be popular. From what I hear, time travel romance was very popular in the 90s, but then the market became over-saturated, so the traditional publishers pulled back on them. But it enjoyed a solid following of readers afterward, who got their fix from indie or small press publishers, or the occasional traditionally published book. I've had readers say, after hearing what my book is about, say "oh, that's so popular right now," and I'm taken aback, because for the last three years, which was when I started the publication journey for this book, I was hearing from agents and editors that the genre was dead, and that I was going against trend. I didn't care, I loved this book and wanted to find a home for it. Three agents loved it enough too, and offered to represent it. I chose one, and off we went, only to face rejection. It did get through some gatekeepers in two NY houses, only to be shot down by the marketing department, who felt it wasn't marketable. Basically, the refrain we were hearing was that time travel was dead and coupled with being a debut author, it was too risky. I wanted to shake them, and say, "But Outlander is coming to Starz and will breathe new life into it." I did receive two offers from reputable small presses, but decided instead to turn them down and go indie, because I wanted the control. And I'm glad I did! I worked hard this summer to put it through rounds of professional edits so that it could be ready in time for Outlander, in case it did spark a new trend, a flexibility I wouldn't have had if I'd gone traditional or accepted the small press contracts.

Now, because of Outlander, new readers are coming to that series (I know, because I work in a bookstore and am selling it). And because of its popularity, and huge media exposure, people outside of our writing world are thinking this is a hot, popular thing. Yay! As I said earlier, this was a weird mental shift for me, as I'd been hearing for so long that it's a dead genre. Hopefully, Outlander will appeal to a new generation of readers and again spawn a curiosity to read more in that vein. I've already seen some reviewers of mine say they picked it up because they'd been watching Outlander and wanted to try a time travel romance.

What do you think? Twenty years later, is the Starz adaptation of Outlander making time travel romance popular again?

Book Page: http://bit.ly/MLBBook
Trailer: http://youtu.be/5DBDbI2suOg

Blurb: She's finally met the man of her dreams. There's only one problem: he lives in a different century.

"A fresh, charming new voice" – New York Times bestselling author Tessa Dare

HOW FAR WOULD YOU TRAVEL FOR LOVE?

A mysterious artifact zaps Isabelle Rochon to pre-Victorian England, but before she understands the card case’s significance a thief steals it. Now she must find the artifact, navigate the pitfalls of a stiffly polite London, keep her time-traveling origins a secret, and resist her growing attraction to Lord Montagu, the Vicious Viscount so hot, he curls her toes.

To Lord Montagu nothing makes more sense than keeping his distance from the strange but lovely Colonial. However, when his scheme for revenge reaches a stalemate, he convinces Isabelle to masquerade as his fiancée. What he did not bargain on is being drawn to her intellectually as well as physically.

Lord Montagu’s now constant presence overthrows her equilibrium and her common sense. Isabelle thought all she wanted was to return home, but as passion flares between them, she must decide when her true home—as well as her heart—lies.

Bio:Angela Quarles is a geek girl romance writer whose works includes Must Love Breeches, a time travel romance, and Beer & Groping in Las Vegas, a geek romantic comedy in novelette form. She has a B.A. in Anthropology and International Studies with a minor in German from Emory University, and a Masters in Heritage Preservation from Georgia State University. She currently resides in a historic house in the beautiful and quirky town of Mobile, AL.