Meet Maddie James-Author

Please welcome another of my Kentucky author friends, Maddie James!

I’m thrilled to be part of the Enchanted Lover: Tales of Everlasting Love boxed set, with Margaret Ethridge, JC Wardon, Jan Scarbrough, JM Kelley, and Cat Shaffer. This wonderfully diverse set of paranormal novels is sure to please. No vampires and no werewolves, but there is magic, ghosts/spirits, mystics, witches, reincarnation, and time-travel. That enough to scratch your paranormal itch?

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My book, Entranced, is the lead book in my Soul Mates series. 

Here’s the blurb:

Can souls touch through time and hold on when all odds are against them?

Claire Winslow vacations on an East Coast barrier island, content with her life and her potential future—until the illusion of a man walking the misty shore haunts her. Then one kiss—a beautiful, soulful, stolen kiss in the night—and her life changes forever.


Nearly 300 years past, Jack Porter is in hot pursuit of his kidnapped wife. Not an easy feat considering the year is 1718 and the kidnapper is the notorious pirate Blackbeard aka Edward Teach. Determined to rescue his wife and take the pirate’s head in the process, Jack steals aboard the pirate’s ship to save her.


Entranced sends Jack and Claire on a wild search through time, not only for the resolution to a powerful attraction between them, but also for a historical artifact that holds the key to their future happiness—the coveted silver-plated chalice made from Blackbeard’s skull.

***

The year was 1990 (I think). I had just discovered Romance Writers of America and was attending a yet-to-be-official Kentucky chapter meeting. I’d met informally with a couple of the women who were pulling the chapter together. The lady who was soon to be the president had just returned from the RWA convention.

During the meeting she pulled out a thick, red, hardback novel, placed it on the table, and said, “And this publisher was giving away this novel. I assume they think she is going to be huge! Why would they put a hardback novel on the chair of every attendee at dinner if they didn’t think so?”
She passed the book around. I held it in my hands and could only dream. I jotted down the title, and soon thereafter, bought my own copy.

That book was Diana Galbadon’s Outlander. And yes, she of course, turned out to be huge.

Outlander was my introduction to time travel novels – especially romantic time travel novels. I fell in love with Jamie Fraser like most every other woman who has read the books. I loved the idea of falling through time—how does that work, exactly? And was curious about how to handle parallel universes, and make everything fit together.

The thought of escape, disappearance, of not being in control of what was happening to you, or where you had landed, intrigued me.

And as years rolled on, after reading the first few books in the series, I knew that I needed to pen one of my own. How? I wasn’t sure. And I definitely didn’t whip one or two out within a few months. I can easily say this writing project has been with me for two decades.

At this point in my writing career, I was a neophyte. I’d been stabbing at contemporary category romance, sending my work out to Harlequin and Silhouette. Unsuccessfully. What made me think I could pull off something incredibly complex like a time travel novel? Or a series?

I suppose it was the immediate love I had for the genre. It was different, at least to me. I’d never read anything like it before. And I knew I had to go for it. I also knew it would be tricky, and that I needed to take my time with it.

While on a family vacation during spring break of 1992, I found my premise, and the setting. Pirates, the ocean, the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My next step was research. And finally, I started to write. And write. And write.

And now, here we have it. The five book Soul Mates series, with the first three books released, and books four and five coming in winter/spring 2015. I'm so excited to have Entranced be included with this boxed set, so that more readers hopefully can be turned on to this series. Enjoy!


Remember, here are the details for the Enchanted Lover boxed set!

ENCHANTED LOVER: Tales of Everlasting Love 

Seven Novels of Mystical, Magical and Paranormal Romance 

PARAMOUR by Margaret Ethridge (ghost)
Two men: one living, one dead, and both vying for her love. Camellia Stafford has never been alone in her room. For twenty years, she's been engaged in a fierce power struggle with her bedroom's previous tenant, Frank DeLuca, the ghost trapped in the light fixture above her bed.



ENTRANCED by Maddie James (time travel, reincarnation)
Jack and Claire set out on a wild search through time, not only for the resolution to a powerful attraction between them, but also for a historical artifact that holds the key to their future happiness--the coveted silver-plated chalice made from Blackbeard's skull.



MYSTIC THUNDER by JC Wardon (witch, mystic)
Millennia of tempestuous ancestral history forewarn Rayne Cavanaugh to hide her ability to communicate with ghosts. But-- When the nephew of the man she just can't resist goes missing in the mountains of Mystic Waters, West Virginia, she must decide between self-preservation and love.



RUNNING OUT OF TIME by Cheryl Norman (time travel)
When Stacy Webber travels to Germany for her best friend's wedding, she loses more than her luggage and purse. She lands in a different time, fifty years ago, with no idea how to return to her world.



TIMELESS by Jan Scarbrough (psychic, ghost, reincarnation)
When Beth Abbott receives a surprise inheritance from her birth mother, she travels to the family's nineteenth century mansion in Old Louisville, KY, now a bed and breakfast. There she meets the resident ghost, a little girl whose crying not only scares, but also intrigues guests.



MAN OF HER DREAMS by Cat Shaffer (dreams, parallel times)
Jessi Flint has a perfectly good life with a successful business and the perfect man. So, he's only in her dreams...until her flaky assistant goes to a New Age fair and Jessi suddenly begins receiving gifts with love notes signed by a mysterious Damian.



ALMOST MAGIC by J.M. Kelley (magic, witch, gifts)
When it came to Vivian Burroughs' unique connection with nature, her grandmother always said, 'Mediocrity may not burn as bright as a firecracker, but it seldom blows up in your face.' But the old woman never advised her on what to do when a sexy new neighbor stokes the flames of attraction.

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RUNNING OUT OF TIME IN A COLD WAR

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Special Sale Price: 99¢

RUNNING OUT OF TIME, my time travel novel that's included in the Turquoise Morning Press's Enchanted Lover--Tales of Everlasting Love boxed set, takes the heroine back fifty+ years to West Germany during the Cold War. Younger readers may have missed the Cold War. Some of us remember the tension and terror of the constant threat of nuclear war. Scary times.

Take fifty-two years ago this month. Perhaps you've read or seen history programs about the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was in junior high school and the crisis is permanently etched in my memory. On October 14, a U-2 spy plane shot photographs proving that Soviet missiles were being erected in Cuba. To prevent alarming the American public, and to conceal his evidence from the U.S.S.R. (and some say, for political timing because of the upcoming midterm elections), President John F. Kennedy kept the buildup of Soviet missiles in Cuba a closely guarded secret. On October 17, a second U-2 plane photographed more missiles, missiles with enough range to strike anywhere in the continental United States. 

Diplomacy failed on October 18 when Andrei Gromyko denied any buildup of military weaponry in Cuba. Rather than confront him with the evidence, President Kennedy maintained secrecy and met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on a course of action. As a teen, I knew only what the president told us in his televised speech on October 22. The United States would quarantine the island of Cuba (a nice way of saying "blockade") until the missiles were removed. It wasn't until years later I learned how frighteningly close we came to war. The military wanted to invade Cuba, and who knows what would've ensued.

Fifty-six USNC warships and eight aircraft carriers circled the waters around Cuba enforcing the quarantine. As I remember it, the next few days were the most stressful of the Cold War. U.S. military bases worldwide were on high alert. Nuclear war seemed imminent when a U-2 stationed in Alaska wandered into Soviet airspace and encountered Soviet fighter jets. Fortunately, the U-2 escaped and returned unharmed, but not before a group of American fighter jets launched. In Cuba, a U-2 was shot down. The nation was on edge, and I suddenly wished my dad had built that fallout shelter we'd seen on television.

Eventually, both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Premier Khrushchev backed down from their military threats and reached an agreement. The Soviets would dismantle and remove all missiles from Cuba and the United States would lift its quarantine and remove missiles from Turkey. By the end of November, all Soviet missiles were gone from Cuba. One year later, President Kennedy was dead and by October, 1964, Khrushchev left office. He never recovered from losing face. Backing down from Kennedy was viewed by party leaders as a sign of weakness for the USSR.

My story takes place in the weeks following the Cuban Missile Crisis and is set in an actual U.S. Army base in Germany. It isn't a good time or place for a modern time-traveling Hooter's girl! 

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Meet J.C. Wardon--Author

JC Wardon is the author of the Mystic Waters Books, published through Turquoise Morning Press. As a lover of the paranormal romance, the psychological thriller, and the suspense of dangerous plots, all woven into one, JC creates stories that will curl your toes, and make your heart pound. JC's novel, Mystic Thunder, is part of the new boxed set--just in time for Halloween--titled ENCHANTED LOVER--TALES OF EVERLASTING LOVE. Available for a limited time for 99¢

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Rayne Cavanaugh and her two identical sisters all have different inherited mystical gifts. Rayne is of The Devine, which means she is able to cast and conjure spells, but they each have another gift which manifests before they learn of this particular ability, and Rayne’s is to see and talk to ghosts. She flees to Mystic Waters, West Va., to hide from the notoriety she’s suddenly exposed to in LA, but what she finds when she gets there is a man whose nephew is missing, and a ghost who insists she follow him into the dark reality that someone has been murdering young men for years on Mystic Mountain. She must choose between protecting herself and helping the man she is falling in love with, while conscious of the three thousand year old curse that warns all Cavanaugh women to never fall in love.

 JC Wardon's Cavanaugh Sisters Trilogy kicks off a thirteen-book series roller coaster ride that will leave you captivated. Whether you’re titillated, tantalized, breathlessly horrified, or shocked to the core, JC’s books always conclude with a sneak peek into the next breathtaking trip.

As of this writing, seven of the thirteen Cavanaugh Series Books are in publication, with the remainder to come out over the next year. Though the trilogy: Mystic Thunder, Touch of Lightning, and Tempest’s Embrace novels must be read in order and in their entirety, to solve the two major quests the characters are burdened with, as well as set up the complicated foundation for the future Cavanaugh series novels, the remaining books can stand alone. However, each subsequent book’s characters build from the ones that came before. (They are a family, after all!)

Due to the time constraints of meeting publication deadlines, JC does not currently have a blog, but you can check out all her current and upcoming releases at: http://jcwardon.com where you are free to comment on your reading experience, or even ask questions.

or tweet her at: @jc_wardon

or drop by her FaceBook Author page (and feel free to “Like”): https://www.facebook.com/JCWardonNovelist

REVIEWS:

“I would say that J.C. Wardon is a shining new star in the paranormal genre.” Debra Taylor, The Romance Reviews

“Wardon has crafted a page-turner with the first of the Cavanaugh Sisters Trilogy.” Karen Sweeny-Justice, RT Book Reviews

EXCERPT:

Rayne broke free of the tangle of cars and sped-up to head toward the highway and home. Tears formed from both the pain in her skull and the realization that she was forever trapped by genetics that had finally exposed her to the world, and, not unexpectedly, ended what she’d hoped was a promising relationship.

She wanted to scream out her anger and frustration. She wanted to crash into something and shatter it to smithereens. After years of extreme caution, one persistent child ghost succeeded in making her break the first and most important rule her family lived by. She had failed to keep the secret that safeguarded them all. And she had to hurry home to let them know before they heard about it from someone else or saw it on the news.

The exit ramp leading to the highway was as congested as it always was this time of day, so Rayne ignored that route and kept on driving, ending up in the lower income side of the city few tourists ever saw. Los Angeles, the city of Angels, was not so angelic here.

Disreputable business establishments gave way to weathered homes with shabby yards, some with garbage littering streets and lawns, and many with rusting cars sitting atop concrete blocks. It wasn’t a part of the city she knew well. She kept on driving and continued wiping at her nose until the leather seat on the other side of the console filled with bloody tissues.

Rayne kept her speed down and her eyes on the residential road as she reached for another tissue, only to feel the box was empty. She pinched her nose with her finger and thumb, and was nearly gasping for breath as she glanced over to see if there was a used one that wasn’t too saturated. When she looked back up, her breath hitched as an image jumped in front of the car.

Slamming on the breaks flung the used tissues, the empty box, and her purse from the passenger seat onto the floorboard. Her heart beating wildly, Rayne stared at the large ghost before her as its glittering essence mingling with the heat vapors radiating from the hood of her car. Panic turned to anger and finally to despair as she recognized the pesky ghost who made a habit of harassing her.

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The Next Big Thing!

Many thanks to Pam Ripling for adding me to her blog hop. Pam is a multi-published, multi-talented lady. She designed cover art for my first four novels (Including the Quasar finalist Full Moon Honeymoon) and first two cookbooks. We were two of the launch authors (She wrote as Anne Carter) in 2001 for Wings ePress and have stayed friends and colleagues since.

I'll admit I'm a blog hop virgin. As I understand it, I follow her format and answer a few questions. Then I'll name a few of my author friends and invite them to join in the fun. Here goes!

What is your working title of your book (or story)?

Running Out of Time is the title of my May, 2013, release from Turquoise Morning Press. It's a time travel, which is a bit of a departure for me. I wrote a novella (Twilight Time) for the Romance on Route 66 anthology (and now a single release) and had so much fun with it, I decided to write another, longer story. Time travel is fun!

What genre does your book fall under?

Running Out of Time is a paranormal romance. There's a bit of intrigue, a bit of magic, and a lot of romance.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

It's always fun to cast my characters. I can see Miley Cyrus (especially with her new look) as my heroine and Josh Hutcherson as my hero.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

An elderly woman finds the perfect mate for her son...fifty years too late!

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

My publisher is Turquoise Morning Press, which was founded by author Maddie James. TMP published Rebuild My World, the third in my Mustang Sally series that began life with Medallion Press.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

About ten weeks, which is fast for me. I completely rewrote it last year because I wasn't happy with the original version.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Hmm. Most time travels jump back or forward more than fifty years, like the film Kate and Leopold. I was told there wasn't a market for a 1960s setting, but then I read about "Boomer lit" and decided I would try the older reader demographic. So if you're into retro, check out Running Out of Time. Of course, the younger readers should enjoy my twenty-one year old characters.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My husband. He told me stories of his active duty in Germany in the 1960s while serving in the U.S. Army. He brought out old slides and photos to help with my research. With his help, I was able to nail the setting--West Germany in 1963.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

While time travel stories are fantasy (deliberate anachronisms), they are educational, too. Readers interested in history and life during the Cold War should find Running Out of Time suitable reading. Also, it's tame enough for young adult readers.


Check out these talented authors I’m inviting to the blog hop party. I hope they’ll join in the fun and become part of The Next Big Thing!

Judith Leigh--author of inspirational romance and sweet romance (and my co-author: Romance on Route 66), including her latest story The Christmas Cake.

Maddie James--author of contemporary romance, including her latest, Broken.

Jan Scarbrough--author of contemporary romance, including her holiday novella, Santa's Kiss.

Dolores J. Wilson--author of Southern humor, romance, mystery, and women's fiction (as D.J. Wilson), including the paranormal Little Big Heart.



Elizabeth Sinclair--author of contemporary and paranormal romance, including the Hawk's Mountain series.

I hope you will check out these fine authors. Thanks for stopping by for a chat!