When Worlds Collide by A.S. Fenichel

Sometimes the real world and the world we create in books collide in a magical way. It doesn’t happen that often, but The Wallflowers of West Lane series has that kind of magic. It didn’t happen by design, but there you have it. 

I set out to write a series about four friends who met as teens under difficult circumstances. Deemed incorrigible, they were each sent away to finishing school. I wanted those four women to find a special bond that would carry them through adulthood. It didn’t really occur to me that the things they would be dealing with in the early nineteenth century would hold true for women today. 

Still, that’s exactly what happened. Women are still dealing with all the same issues as my Wallflowers. The Wallflowers of West Lane lived in a time when laws did not protect them. Once married, a woman became the possession of her husband. They had only their own cleverness to guide and protect them. 

When Poppy, Mercy, Faith and Aurora return from being exiled to a boarding school in Lucerne, the first of them is married off. Aurora’s marriage is violent and teaches them all to mistrust men. When the villain is killed while cheating in a gaming hell, they are all much relieved to have that part of their lives over. These books are about four very clever and talented women who make a pact to protect each other from men who would harm them. 

The Earl Not Taken begins after the funeral and we learn that while Aurora is now free, Faith is about to be similarly married to a man they know nothing about. Poppy takes on the task of discerning the prospective groom’s character, but she can’t do it alone. Aurora’s rakish brother, Rhys agrees to help in the investigation.  

Poppy’s dislike for Rhys goes back to the very beginning. He will have a long climb up from the gutter to prove himself to our stubborn heroin. Can two people so far apart meet in the middle?

Learn more about The Earl Not Taken:

Left standing on the side while their contemporaries marry into society, four young ladies forge a bond to guard each other from a similar fate . . . Finishing school failed to make a proper lady of Penelope Arrington. But as a Wallflower of West Lane, Poppy has a far more vital role—she and her three best friends have made a pact to protect each other from the clutches of dangerous, disreputable men. So when one of them is about to be married off to a duke sight unseen, Poppy makes it her mission to divine the prospective husband’s true character. If only she didn’t require the aid of London’s most unsuitable rake. Rhys Draper, Earl of Marsden, has known the headstrong Poppy since she was a young girl, naïve to the ways of men. To her eternal chagrin—and to his vague amusement—they have been at odds over the memory of their embarrassing first encounter all these years. Now, with his services in need, Rhys sees a chance to finally clear the air between them. Instead, he is surprised by the heat of their feelings. If the two do not tread carefully, they may end up in a most agreeably compromising position . . .

Excerpt

“I want you, Penelope Arrington. I’ve never desired anyone as I do you, now, in this place.” He waited for her to slap his face, but the strike never came. 

Her nose scrunched up as it did whenever she gave something a lot of thought. “Then you do not hate me.” 

Holding in a laugh that would have given away how uncomfortable he was with his behavior over the last six years, his shame swelled in his chest. “I have never hated you, Poppy. I have always thought you a beautiful, smart, incorrigible woman. I won’t deny that your antics and attitude toward me have inspired behavior I am not proud of.” 

Those sweet lips that set his blood on fire pulled down, and a crease formed between her eyes. “I have long thought you were off bedding everything in a skirt you could catch.” 

“I am not a saint. However, your assessment was a vast exaggeration.”

She stepped back like an emerald in a room filled with every other color. Poppy shined the brightest in a room filled with jewels. “Do you remember our first meeting at George’s when you escorted me home and said you hoped I would someday tell you my wants in life?”

While he wanted her back in his arms, he respected her personal space. The moment she spoke of had changed his presumptions about her. “I remember.” 

She toyed with the fringe on one of dozens of pillows tossed haphazardly on an oversized red chaise. All the furniture might fit nicely in a sheik’s harem. Sitting, she sighed. “I want to have a different kind of life.”

Following her, he sat close. “Tell me about the life you dream of.” 

“My dreams do not include a husband to boss me about and keep me at his convenience.” An angry edge laced her words. 

“Is that what all husbands do?”

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Q&A with Caryn Larrinaga, The Soul Searcher's Mysteries

Tell us about the process of turning your book into an audiobook.

I had so much fun working with Jessica as she adapted both of these novels into audiobooks! Luckily, I had already worked with her on a smaller project before, and I knew she would be the perfect Mackenzie from her reading of my novelette Hide and Seek and her amazing work on the NoSleep Podcast, so we skipped the audition part of the process. Once each of the novels were ready, I sent them to her to read and crossed my fingers she’d like them enough to want to perform them. (When looking for a great narrator like Jessica, there’s definitely a “She said YES!!” moment that involves much shrieking and jumping up and down.) We decided on a reasonable production schedule, then she started recording chapters and uploading them for me to approve. I love that I get to listen to it as she’s working, so we can make sure we’re both on the same page about personalities, accents, and cat-related awesomeness. Then we get to celebrate together once the book is finally live on Audible and iTunes, which is always super exciting!My favorite unexpected bonus about this process is that it happens while I’m working on the next book in the series, so I’m listening to my characters “talk” to me through Jessica’s performance, and that actually has a huge impact on my writing. Listening to her narrate Donn’s Shadow definitely helped me overcome a bit of writer’s block with the third book, and I’m so grateful!

How closely did you work with your narrator before and during the recording process? Did you give them any pronunciation tips or special insight into the characters? 

Jessica made it really easy to work very closely with her. She requested a pronunciation guide, and since even my own name can be tricky for some people, I sent over an audio recording of me saying the different character names and any other oddball words. For the first book, I even sent her an audio clip of me making Striker’s trademark “Brrrllll,” since that was based on the real Striker’s habit of trilling at us instead of meowing. :) 

Every once in a while, while listening to a chapter, I’d hear Jessica pronounce a word differently than I do (like “ylang ylang”). Before reaching out to ask her to change it, I’d look it up online… and pretty much every time, I’d learn that I’ve been saying something wrong for literally YEARS! So that’s another nice little bonus of working with a good narrator, haha. 

Were there any real life inspirations behind your writing?

Absolutely! Mackenzie’s first encounter with a ghost is based on a friend of mine, who mentioned (far too casually for something this spooky) that ghosts who are “just passing through” will sometimes sit for a spell at the edge of her bed. In the night. In the dark. It doesn’t bother my friend, but it bothered the heck out of me, so I had to go home and start writing a story about it. Mac’s additional encounters with poltergeists and other paranormal entities were also based on a few real-life events, like an experience my mother had with some kitchen chairs that moved on their own (six of them, all at the same time).I get freaked out pretty easily and I like to let myself lean into those fears and write them down, especially when they take me to weird or scary places in my mind. But in real life, I’m a huge scaredy cat. Let’s just say Mackenzie is much, much braver than I am!

How do you select the names of your characters?

I put a lot of thought into naming my characters, especially for Donn’s Hill and Donn’s Shadow. Mackenzie is named after my favorite character on a TV show called “The Newsroom,” and I thought that if I was the kind of person who wanted kids (I am not), I’d name a daughter after her. Instead, I named a character after her. :) Her last name, Clair, comes from the fact that she’s a clairvoyant. Mackenzie’s handsome landlord, Graham Thomas, is named after one of my favorite fictional men and the man who created him: Thomas Harris’ Will Graham. I’ll usually look up common names from the year a character was born, or names that represent their heritage. Then, to make sure I’m not reusing the same name over and over (my placeholder for characters who identify as female tends to be “Megan” and I have no idea why), I check them against a spreadsheet I keep of every character name I’ve used and where I used it. Yep, I’m one of those people who (rightly) thinks spreadsheets are fun. 

Who is your favorite character to write?

In the Soul Searchers mysteries, I love writing the characters who antagonize Mac. For some reason, creating moments where they get under her skin is incredibly fun. I also love writing Kit, because our personalities are really similar but I do a better job acting polite than she does. I like living vicariously through Kit and just saying whatever I want, doing what I think is best, and fighting for the people I love regardless of the consequences. 

What is your writing Kryptonite?

Books and video games. If I’m on a deadline, feeling stressed, or--let’s face it--just awake and at home, it’s soooo tempting to spend the entire afternoon living in someone else’s imaginary universe instead of working on my own. I have to work hard to keep myself on task some days, but I try to find a balance between working and relaxing.

What’s next for you?

Right now, I’m working on the third and final book in the Soul Searchers Mysteries. It’s bittersweet to be wrapping up Mac’s story, but I’m excited for her to get to solve her personal mysteries on top of yet another murder (poor girl - she’s such a body magnet!). Apart from that, I’m also working on a standalone horror novel that pulls from my Basque heritage. We have some deliciously terrifying folklore and it’s so much fun to explore the dark things that scared my ancestors. I also have three short stories coming out in a few different anthologies this year, and hopefully more to come!Definitely subscribe to my newsletter at www.carynlarrinaga.com -- you’ll get a free ebook, plus you’ll stay in the loop about everything I have coming up!

Q&A with RaeAnne Thayne, The Sea Glass Cottage

Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into writing?

I started out in journalism in high school and discovered I loved telling stories. After graduating in journalism, I spent ten years at a daily newspaper as a reporter and editor but dreamed of writing a romance novel some day. When I was on maternity leave with our oldest (who is now 30!), I started my first book. It took me about 5 years of tinkering with it, dealing with rejections, rewriting and starting something new before I sold my first two books to Bantam Loveswept in 1995. I’ve been writing full time since 1997 when our second child was born. The Sea Glass Cottage is my 63rd book. I get a little overwhelmed when I think about all those words!

What made you write this story? (The "story behind the story")

That’s a very long “story behind the story”! My husband of 34 years was adopted at birth to a wonderful loving famiy and never knew anything about his birth parents. He was never really interested, though I always wondered. He took a DNA test a few years ago before going in for a major surgery, just out of curiosity so our kids could know something about his ethnic heritage, and was astonished a few months later when results from Ancestry.com came in linking him to several close relatives on his maternal side. He wasn’t going to do anything about it but through a very strange sequence of events, he eventually connected with three half-brothers, an aunt and several uncles (including one who has been our neighbor and friend for more than twenty years without either us knowing the connection!). Unfortunately, my husband’s birth mother died several years ago so he never had the chance to meet her but my husband now has a wonderful relationship with his brothers, who have embraced and welcomed him. I have heard of these kind of stories before and after living through the amazing results from a simple DNA test, I wanted to write about someone trying to trace her father. That’s one of the underlying subplots to THE SEA GLASS COTTAGE.

Which character do you most relate to in the story and why?

I love all of them but probably am most drawn to Juliet, who yearns for those she loves to be happy. That’s a universal mom need, I think.  Also, she hesitates to lean on others even when she really needs the help because she doesn’t want to be a burden and feels as if her role is to caretake those she loves instead of the other way around. I can definitely relate to this one!

Is this based on a real place?

Cape Sanctuary is kind of an amalgamation of some of my favorite spots along the Pacific coast, a mix of Carmel, California and Cannon Beach, Oregon. It’s loosely based near Trinidad, California. I only wish it really existed!

What theme or message do you hope readers will take away from your book?

Like all my books, the core story is that we’re all here to learn how to take care of each other. All my books have the underlying theme that our lives become better and more fulfilling when we reach out to help and lift someone else. The world can sometimes feel ugly and angry. I feel like there’s an increasing need for us all to focus on trying a little harder to be kind. Life is filled with pain and trials but it can also be beautiful and joyful at the same time.

What drew you into this particular genre?

I still consider all my books romance novels at heart because that is the genre I have adored since I was eleven years old. My books will always have some kind of love story in them! But my hardcovers also have provided a wonderful chance to explore deeper relationship issues: Healing a rift between a mother and a daughter, finding peace when a relationship with a sister ended in tragedy, finding common ground between an aunt and a niece. 

If you could sit down with any character in your book, what would you ask them and why?

I would probably ask Juliet why she kept so many secrets from those who might have been able to help her deal better with the challenges she faces.

Where is your favorite place to write?

I am the luckiest of writers because I have my own office. Several years ago, we made the impulsive decision to buy the house adjacent to ours. It was rundown and unsightly and kind of blighted the view from our backyard. Our plan was to fix it up to increase our own property value and then rent it out but after the renovation, I loved it too much to rent it out so I took it over. I have loved it! With a special needs son who has multiple disabilities and requires total care, life at my house is at times chaotic and messy but I always have such a sense of peace and calm when I go to my office. And I love that I can walk through the backyard in my jammies to go to work.

What do you like best about your new book?

I love the peace and healing that came to the characters from being honest with their loved ones and opening their hearts to second chances.

Do you have a favorite character in The Sea Glass Cottage?

This is a hard question because all my characters become cherished friends when I’m writing a book and I love them all but I really adore Henry. He is just an amazing hero for Juliet ☺

What inspired you to become a writer?

I have been a voracious reader all my life and have loved romance novels since I used to steal them out of my mom’s room when I was still a preadolescent! I always used to tell stories to my friends, usually involving our latest celebrity crushes. I didn’t know I was destined to become a writer at the time but when I look back, I see all the things that set me on the path. I actually wanted to be an actress and was very involved in drama in high school, including performing in a repertory theater company, but my mom persuaded me to take a journalism class my junior year and I fell in love with telling stories. Even as I went into journalism through college and my subsequent career as a reporter and editor, I dreamed of writing a romance novel. I never imagined some day I could say I’ve written sixty-something of them!

What does the future hold in store for you? Any new books/projects on the horizon?

Yes! Always ☺ The last book in my Haven Point series, SUMMER AT LAKE HAVEN, comes out June 23. This is Samantha Fremont’s book, for those who have read others in the series. It also includes a surprise novella. Next up will be a standalone Christmas book in an all-new community, Silver Bells, Colorado. CHRISTMAS AT HOLIDAY HOUSE will be out in late September. And I recently spent three days at a California beach house with writer friends plotting my next hardcover and can’t wait to start writing it! THE PATH TO SUNSHINE COVE (tentative title!) will also be set in Cape Sanctuary and will be out April 2021.

What advice would you give to aspiring or just starting authors out there?

Focus on the emotions you want your readers to feel in your stories. Readers love finding authors who can carry them away with their storytelling, making them feel what the characters feel. They want that emotional ride! Find the kind of stories you love to tell, focus on your strengths and constantly keep stretching yourself in new directions. 

Making Dreams Come True the Vicarious Way by Anna Belfrage

When I was a child, I used to dream of three things: to time-travel extensively, to wake up one day in medieval England transformed into a boy who served Richard Lionheart or to one day discover I could run so fast the ground blurred under my feet. The time-travel thing never happened. Neither did the page thing. Maybe a good thing, as should I have ended up in medieval England it is likely I would not have met Richard—a most absentee king—but rather his not-so-honorable brother, John. As to running like the wind, well I did run a lot. And yes, I was very fast. But not that fast.

That speed-running dream has never quite left me. When no one sees, I will take off up a steep incline and pretend I am as fast as a cheetah. Anyone seeing me would probably fall over backwards with laughter at the likeness, because whatever else I might be these days, I am not a graceful cat streaking along the ground. 

The benefit of being an author is that one can live vicariously through one’s characters. My urge to time-travel has resulted in a series called The Graham Saga  which features reluctant time-traveler Alex Lind, her 17th century husband Matthew Graham, and their many, many adventures in Scotland and Maryland of the 1600s. That medieval page dream of mine led to a four-book series set in the 14th century (I have long since fallen out of love with Richard. Gallant warrior, yes, brilliant general, absolutely, but good king? Not so much…) With my characters in The King’s Greatest Enemy I have donned gambesons and kirtles (not in combination), I have buckled sword belts, pondered how best to vary the Lenten fare of fish, more fish even more fish. 

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In my latest series, The Wanderer (of which A Flame Through Eternity is the third), I have at last achieved that dream of running so fast everything but the sound of my footfalls disappears, my vision narrowing into a chute as I thunder towards the goal. Okay, I’m not the one doing the running. Helle Madsen does, a young woman who has recently had her life significantly turned upside down by events so strange she very much wants to laugh them off as figments of her imagination. Except that she can’t, seeing as she is right in the middle of things. 

Helle is a financial professional. She is happy among excel sheets and forecasts, enjoys digging into Share Purchase Agreements and turn-around plans—as financial people do. Pragmatic and successful, she was thrilled when she was offered an opportunity to go to London and work at a firm called Woolf & Partner. Turns out Mr Woolf is the real wolf-in-fleece type. Turns out Mr Woolf recognizes Helle the moment he sees her, even if she knows for a fact that she’s never met him before. Turns out—fortunately for Helle—that a certain Jason also recognizes her and is determined to keep her safe from Woolf. This time round, seeing as he failed spectacularly 3 000 years ago…

So, one moment Helle is your normal ambitious person. The next, she has to come to terms with the fact that she is a reincarnated soul—and a very, very old soul at that—who finds herself caught up in an epic love story spanning three millennia. Unfortunately, it’s not your “let’s ride out into the sunset and live happily ever after” love story. I mean, that would be dead boring, wouldn’t it? 

Helle is a rational creature, so she remains very skeptic of this whole multiple life story that Jason tells her—but she did recognize Jason when they first met, even if she can find no feasible explanation for why she did. After all, she’s never clapped eyes on this tall handsome man with hair the color of mahogany before. Except that it seems she has—three thousand years ago! It makes Helle’s head ache. 

I enjoy making my protagonists suffer. I believe it builds character. Plus, I had this dream about running like the wind… Which is how Helle, to her horrified astonishment, discovers she can run so fast people call her a freak. A useful talent, it turns out, but one Helle has major problems accepting—or even talking about. Where Jason sees the beauty in her speed, is awed by her feline grace, by the power that surges through her, Helle mostly wants to find a duvet and pull it over her head and pretend none of this weird stuff ever happened. Unfortunately for her, she’s not the one writing her story. 

I still have those moments when I wish I had the speed of a stampeding zebra. Just as I would like to be able to dive like a dolphin. Which is why, dear peeps, if you ever see me on a beach, you will find me tumbling in the waves, pretending I can indeed leap out of the water as gracefully as a dolphin does. If I’m not practicing my running skills, that is! 

And as to what happens to Helle, her re-discovered ancient lover and their personal nemesis, Sam Woolf, theirs is a story laced with adventure, romance and quite a lot of tension. There are times when Helle wants to flee it all. But she can’t, not now that she has found Jason again. That, dear readers, is most fortunate for me: without Helle, there would be no epic time-spanning love story to tell!

***************************

Anna has recently released A Flame Through Eternity, the third in her Romantic Suspense series, The Wanderer. 

When she isn’t writing contemporary suspense with a time travelling twist, Anna is usually visiting her favourite historical periods, namely the 17th century and the 14th century. And yes, she is quite convinced people were as much about love back then as we are now! 

Find out more about Anna on www.annabelfrage.com. 

Or pop by her Amazon page and browse through her books, http://Author.to/ABG

Q&A with Kay Hutchison, My Life in Thirty Seven Therapies

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? Or what first inspired you to write?

Many things. Firstly, publishing my father’s life story gave me my first true experience of putting together an interesting personal story and the processes involved – it was a hard back full-colour coffee table book Hurricane Hutch’s Top 10 Ships of the Clyde – we learned fast about design, researching images and permissions, the print and marketing demands. Then, after joining a writing retreat I discovered I really enjoyed shaping and telling stories about my own childhood, about relationships and the twists and turns of life.  There was quite a bit of preparation for the course with best-selling author Mavis Cheek – we had writing homework to do – I found I loved the experience and indeed the 12 short stories and poetry I developed were the beginnings of what is now My Life in 37 Therapies.  During my career, although there was plenty of creative writing to do with work, but it was never about anything personal.  Now it is.

Where/When do you best like to write?

I like to set myself targets and I set aside blocks of time to write – half days, full days, evenings, even a week. I need to have enough time to balance walking, being out in nature, exercise (mainly yoga) and quiet time to help me think, plan and write.  But I always know when I’m ready - I immediately get cracking and write freely and energetically. I then work with an editor to refine the structure and content of the story.

Do you have any interesting writing habits or superstitions?

When I’m in the flow of writing I always keep a notebook and pen by my bed as I often wake up in the middle of the night, two, three, four times, with ideas that need to be in the story when I start writing the next day.

What do you think makes a good story?

I like stories with kindness and heart, surprises or a shocking turn of events, a mix of joy and sadness and at the end, some deep, universal truths about life. Structure is also key. A clear beginning, a meaty core, and a sense of release at the end.

What inspired your story?

My own burnout.  Although I didn’t realise it at the time, it was a breakdown of sorts and something that changed my life and led me in a completely new direction. I tried things I’d never tried before. Once I had recovered, I wanted to share the story.

How does a new story idea come to you?

Usually in the middle of the night or when I’m out on my own walking, listening to the birds and stopping to sit on a bench with my notebook. I may not know exactly where it fits but I feel inspired to write about the idea as soon as I return home.

Is there a message/theme in your book that you want readers to grasp?

The passage of time and all of life is important to enjoy – no matter what you are going through – happy or sad, easy or not, don’t let a single moment slip by without recognizing it has meaning for you. At my time of life now, looking back, I find I enjoy life more every day. I am only now beginning to understand a little of what life is about and why things happened as they did in my life. The experiences made me sit up and take notice.  Before this I was just rushing through life, in too much of a hurry to notice or appreciate, all that I had.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

Just the simple act of being open and telling my personal story has connected me with so many people who recognize something of their own life experience in the pages of my book.  It is wonderful when someone feels comfort from reading the story.

What was your greatest challenge in writing this book?

Prioritising my own writing over other demands.  As a woman I have always prioritised others – especially men - before myself and so my book always was put to the back of the pile. (Thankfully one day in 2018 I met the all-girl team at Red Door who had read my manuscript and they immediately said they wanted to publish my book and wanted to help me get it done. They helped me enormously.)

Who are some of your favorite authors?

Nora Ephron

Jane Austen

Sheila Heti

Kazuo Ishiguro

What person(s) has/have helped you the most in your career?

Too many to mention but my business partner Richard Dikstra has always supported my career since University days when we met at Glasgow University. Pam Masters who ran a major division of the BBC and Channel 4 and gave me a number of career opportunities.  John Bond of White Fox has helped me in Publishing and Writing.

What’s the best writing advice you have ever received?

Always work with experts – no matter what experience you have in the Creative Industries, never assume you know best.  There are so many great experts in the business – so seek out and learn from the best.

What is the one book no writer should be without?

Writer’s & Artist’s Yearbook

If your book was turned into a movie, who would you like to play the main characters?

a. Cate Blanchett – Kay

b. Tom Hanks – Jonathan

c. Alex Baldwin – Graham

d. Catherine Zeta Jones - Daisy

Q&A with Jayci Lee, Temporary Wife Temptation

Did you always want to write for Harlequin?

I read my first Harlequin when I was thirteen and by the time I was fourteen, I dreamed of becoming a Harlequin author. It is truly a dream come true to debut as a Harlequin author.

Share your favorite memory of reading a Harlequin romance

During summer vacation in high school, I used to borrow 10 Harlequin romances per library trip and read them all day, and sometimes all night, long.

What is a recent book you have read that you would recommend?

I really enjoyed Golden Heart Award winner Susannah Erwin's WANTED: BILLIONAIRE'S WIFE. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys intense, slow burn, billionaire romance.

About JAYCI LEE

Jayci Lee writes poignant, funny, and sexy romance. She lives in sunny California with her tall-dark-and-handsome husband, two amazing boys with boundless energy, and a fluffy rescue whose cuteness is a major distraction. She is semi-retired from her 15-year career as a defense litigator, and writes full-time now. She loves food, wine, and travelling, just like her characters. Books have always helped her grow, dream, and heal. She hopes her books will do the same for you.