Interview with Aasiyah Qamar

Jen: Please help me welcome Aasiyah Qamar to Book Talk this week. Aasiyah, will you please share a short bio with us?
Aasiyah: First I wanted to say thanks for having me here today. It’s a great pleasure and a wonderful honor to be featured on this blog.

I was born on the island of Mauritius nearly three decades ago. It is located in the southern Indian Ocean, in the tropics (and no, it’s not sunny all year round unless you live by the beach, which I don’t, unfortunately!). I’m of Indian origin, in that my ancestors came to settle and work on the island at the turn of the 20th century, and though the culture has evolved to an Indo-Mauritian culture, echoes of India’s traditions and mindset still linger in our every move. So I also grew up here, then did a stint in England, and now living on the island since my other half is settled here. I’m married and mom to a 6-year old hellion that I love to bits, and in my ‘other’ life from that of the writer, I’m a struggling domestic non-goddess and a part-time university student in communications science.

Jen: Tell us about Light My World and where it's available.
Aasiyah: Light My World is a story about today’s young women and what it’s like to look for Mr. Right when half of you is shackled to traditions and the other half bears the freedom of the globalised world. It takes place on my island, Mauritius.

Diya Hemant, the heroine, is right where she wants to be at this stage of her life. She’s successfully positioned her interior design company on the local Mauritian horizon and now wants something more – Mr. Right. But mind you, she doesn’t want this in the way culture and tradition and the ‘antiquated morals’ of her mother dictates. Marriage and kids and all that commitment madness will be for later, much later. Right now, Mr. Right will do.

And then Diya meets someone who is Mr. Absolutely Wrong according to her list. But no problem – she just has to steer clear of him, doesn’t she? Except Fate has other plans for her, and for this man, Trent Garrison, a widower who came to Mauritius to bring up his two young sons in peace.

Here’s the blurb for it:
Life's good until it throws you the one curve you never wanted or expected. At twenty-four, Diya Hemant faces the prospect dreaded by every modern Indo-Mauritian girl – an arranged marriage to not end up an old maid. But for vivacious and live-life-in-the-fast-track Diya, giving in to her mother’s antiquated morals was never an option. Hearth, home and children weren’t part of her plan for the short-term, even if she’d love to find her Mr. Right. Widower Trent Garrison has already been there and done that, and has no plan to go down that road again. He has to ride the straight and steady for the sake of his sons, and nothing will divert him. Marriage, attachment, and love are not in the cards for him, not ever. Neither can afford a U-turn. But they can't dodge it either.
The book is available at the following venues:
http://eirelander.webs.com/lightmyworld.htm
http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-lightmyworld-89451-149.html
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002PHMNRY - Kindle edition

Jen: At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story.
Aasiyah: I started penning stories as young as eight. When I moved to high school, I always elected for the story-writing themes in language essays. I thus wrote short stories 4-5 pages long on an almost weekly basis. Then I left school and got into the corporate world and got married and divorced and married again and became a mom and picked up my university studies and there was no time to write.

After my son’s birth, I left the corporate world and became a stay-at-home mom, and then too, it took an instance when I nearly looked death in the face (a breast cancer diagnosis) to make me dust the dream of writing from the shelf and pursue it actively. I started to pen my first ever novel then – 10 months later I subbed it to a local publisher in Mauritius who’d made a call for local authors to come out of the woodwork, and my ms got accepted. Actually, I’d called to ask about writer’s guidelines from that publisher, and luck had it that I managed to speak to the managing editor and she asked me to pitch her the (yet unfinished!) story right there on the phone. Imagine my surprise when she says she likes it and would want that ms asap on her desk! I wrote endlessly for like 3 weeks and finished the ms and sent it off. It went through their reading committee and about 6 months after dropping that envelope at their office, I heard from the editor and she said they were buying it. The Other Side, my first book about an Indo-Mauritian divorcee who makes it back into the closed and gossip-ridden society and meets her first love again, a man of different racial and cultural origins, was published in April 2007.

Jen: Describe your writing in three words.
Aasiyah: Alive. Idea-changing. Original.

Jen: Do you have a writing routine?
Aasiyah: Not really. I set up an elaborate routine whereby I would read my outline, read my previous chapter, pen down notes of the chapter to be written and then I’d sit and write. But what’s a routine when you’ve got rambunctious kids around? Routine went out of the window – I’m lucky if I get to throw a glance at my outline before I sit down with the laptop and start writing. I will maybe light a scented candle before I start, but that’s about it. I now write mostly when my son is at school, between 9 and 2, Monday to Friday, when I’m on a project. That too supposes that there aren’t university assignments and exams around the corner, in which case I cannot give so much time to writing alone. I have to admit I write in bursts – I have no idea when I’ll be able to free up a block of days to be able to dedicate to a project. I try to write a chapter a day, and since I outline my stories, I know how many chapters I will have, and thus, how many days this will entail, also counting on stuff happening to take you away from writing.

Jen: What kind of research did you do for this book?
Aasiyah: Since Diya is an interior designer, I had to brush up my knowledge about interior design and thus browsed a lot of home decoration websites and DIY home renovation books. Diya also specializes in the renovation of old Colonial houses that are typical of former French colonies like Mauritius. I thus visited some of these houses that are now museums on the island, finding all the pertinent details about their architecture and the time when they were built. One such Colonial house plays an integral part of the plot towards the second half of the book, and I thus had to have my facts right about this kind of dwelling (if you catch the book trailer for Light My World, you’ll see an image of the house I used as inspiration towards the end of the trailer).

Trent, on his part, works as an airline administration officer but used to be an operations director back in England after giving up his career as commercial pilot. For him, I had to find out what the job of operations director entailed, basically what happened in an airport operations’ department. My husband came to the rescue here, since he works for the local airline and put me in touch with people who work in those departments.

Jen: How do you pick the character’s names?
Aasiyah: Diya’s name came about when I was writing The Other Side, which is the story of her eldest sister, Lara. They are 3 sisters with modern, two-syllable names. Lara is the cosmopolitan one, thus the almost European name. Neha, the middle sister, has a traditional outlook about life and thus has a traditional name. Diya, as the youngest, was the hellion, the rebel who never did anything by the books. But she is a terrific person too behind the impulsive nature and thus her name is the same one as a symbol of light, the diya.

For Trent, I needed a very British name, and this name just stuck to him when I was thinking what to name him. He also hails from Yorkshire, and Trent is the name of a person who may have lived by the Trent River in England. He comes from an old family and thus I knew he had to have an ‘old’, distinguished kind of name.

I admit to have used the names bit quite extensively in the book – the title itself clicks in with the idea of Diya as the light bearer, the one who will light a dull and dark world with her touch.

Jen: Do you become attached to your characters and have a hard time letting them go, or are you happy that their story is told and you can move on?
Aasiyah: I’m happy to have set them on their path of finding happiness together. I have an intense, almost symbiotic relationship with my characters when I’m writing their story, and such a connection might become unhealthy if allowed to continue beyond the scope of a book. As such, no, it’s not a problem to let them go because I have to let them go. It may happen though that I don’t completely cut ties with them - they may make appearances in other books of the series. For example, Lara and Eric of The Other Side feature as secondary characters in Light My World, and the reader thus gets to see what they have been up to since the end of their book.

Jen: If you could travel back in time for one year, what time and place would you choose? And if you could only take 3 things with you, what would they be?
Aasiyah: I would go back to my son’s first year. I was so stressing over the fact of being a good mom and making sure everything was perfect that this period seems to have gone by in a breeze and before I knew it, the kiddo was grown up and I barely recall him as a baby. I would like to go back just to savor those moments but with the knowledge I have now that even if you don’t have all 10 bottles washed and sterilized at all times, the baby won’t suffer from it and you won’t be labeled a bad mom!

3 things… that’s hard. I’d take my laptop to be able to write everywhere (only had the big PC back then); a bottle of Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse because it’s truly the miracle product that can be used for face, body and hair while giving great results in all instances; and yeah, my 24-7 Internet access (I’d die without my online ‘life’ with my CPs and friends. Back then we only had a lousy dial-up that also cost a bomb).

Jen: What did you do to celebrate your first book?
Aasiyah: Went out to dinner with the hubby without the kid to an exclusive Indian eatery! Was pure unadulterated bliss!

Jen: What’s the most interesting comment you have received about your books?
Aasiyah: A linguistics student from the University of Mauritius told me that they should be featured in the university curriculum on Mauritian literature because they feature aspects of real-life with the kind of sweep-you-off-your-feet dimension of popular fiction novelists – this would thus ‘shake up’ the curriculum by giving something that can be enjoyed both as popular fiction and as study material. Someone from the press also compared my books with popular South American telenovelas, saying it was a Mauritian soap opera on paper.

Jen: What do you do in your free time?
Aasiyah: I love to read, be it fiction or non-fiction, though in this one I veer more towards magazines like Readers’ Digest and lifestyle publications. I also enjoy doing Sudoku puzzles (though I hate Maths. I cannot explain this fascination with Sudoku). I’m also a TV junkie, watch a lot of the popular series like CSI and NCIS. Not so much of a movie buff, but I do enjoy a good romantic comedy.

Jen: What's next for you?
Aasiyah: I am currently penning the book about Neha, the other Hemant sister. I will also keep writing, bringing Mauritius and my culture more into the limelight. Writing flows in my blood, and as such, I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing.

Jen: Where can you be found on the web?
Aasiyah: I have a website and a blog, and I’m also on Facebook. Here are the links:
Website: http://www.aasiyah-nolwynn.webs.com/
Blog: http://aasiyah-nolwynn.blogspot.com/
Email: aasiyah.nolwynn@gmail.com
Facebook: Really awkward link for that one, so just look up the Group for Aasiyah Qamar & Nolwynn Ardennes, and you’ll find me there!

Jen: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Aasiyah: Yes. That if ever a story strikes you, be it good or bad, please let the author know. We love to hear from our readers, and just a little note to our email or joining us on platforms such as Facebook fuels us to write more and better stories for you!

Thanks again for this opportunity to be here. It’s really been a wonderful experience!

Jen: Thank you Aasiyah for stopping by the blog and sharing with us. Readers, Aasiyah is giving away a downloaded copy of Light My World to a random commenter. Leave a comment or question as the first step to entering the contest. Then you must either leave your email address in your comment or send a message to contests.bookblog@gmail.com to complete the entry. The winner will be chosen on Sunday, December 13.

Excerpt from "Light My World" by Aasiyah Qamar

The muffled opening click of a car door broke the silence, and Trent moved to see the person getting out - more like slithering out - of the SUV.

A slim pair of legs emerged and wobbled uncertainly for a second when the sandal-clad feet hit the asphalt. When the door closed, he saw a short denim dress hugging a tiny frame. Straight black hair brushed the shoulders and the lapels of the collar, and framed a lovely, delicate face.

Trent had to blink a few times. The woman, or the girl, looked like a life-size doll. She stood barely taller than five feet, and was so small it looked like he could encircle her waist with his hands. Her eyes were deep-set and dark, rimmed with dark kohl. Her golden skin was pale underneath her makeup, and she bit her full lips, as if trying to work some color into them.

“Thank God that dog is alive,” she said in a light, youthful voice. “I sure would’ve hated to have killed it. Lucky there isn’t any damage.”

Her voice reminded him of laughter, and the tinkling of fragile crystal flutes. Shaking off the bizarre notion, he focused on her words, and a slow throb built in his blood. The overwhelming feeling settled as a twitch in his cheek, and he winced when a stab of pain shot from his clenched jaw.

No damage? She thought there was no damage? What about his car? “Lady, you just demolished my car.”

Nothing betrayed her cool composure when her gaze traveled to his rental car and back again onto him. “Sorry, but you hit from behind. You’re at fault.”

He opened his mouth to give her a fitting reply, but only a gasp escaped him. She’d stopped dead in the middle of the road, and it was his fault? Was she unconscious or what? “If it weren’t for you, it wouldn’t have happened.”

She pursed her full lips, and her chin jutted out in a fierce way as her hands settled on her hips. She craned her slender neck to look into his face. “Well, I should’ve killed the dog? That’s what you wanted?” she asked. “And you wouldn’t have jammed into my car if you hadn’t been tailgating me.”

“I wasn’t tailgating you—”

“Yes, you were,” she replied with defiance. “And you were speeding, at least a hundred where the limit is eighty.”

He couldn’t believe his ears. “Miss, you were going faster than me, so don’t get on your high horse here.”

“Stop evading the issue. It’s your fault.”

Disbelief strangled his throat as he stared at her. She glared back, not in the least bit intimidated by the fact he towered above her by more than a foot. At the same time, he flinched under her accusing words. Kill the dog. Right - like he’d have wanted to kill a poor animal. What was it about this scrap of a girl that had him so ruffled? A thought struck him, and he voiced it out loud. “Are you even old enough to drive?”

“I’m twenty-four years old, for your information,” she spat out.

“Jeez, that’s supposed to make me feel better?” he retorted. What difference did it make if she was legal? Other than she could be held responsible for the accident.

“My car is damaged, and it’s your fault.”

Her dark eyes grew even darker as they narrowed on him. Fire - or ice - burnt in them. Her voice however dripped with frost when she said, “I thought British men were supposed to be courteous.”

“I beg your pardon?” He couldn’t believe it. She’d done it again - he was struck speechless.

Her hand fluttered before her in an evasive gesture as she shook her head. “You know, proper British manners. Can’t say you’ve shown any so far.”

“How do you know I’m British? Does it read not-from-Mauritius somewhere on my face?”

“Your accent,” she replied. “You speak just like Hugh Grant.”

Hugh Grant? That pasty-faced pin-up? “Thanks. That’s a very positive compliment.”

Trent had the pleasure of seeing his sarcasm unsettle the unnerving Miss Know-it-all. Her chest rose and fell in rapid succession as she glowered at him.

“You’re so...” she paused and seemed to look around for the proper word. “Obnoxious,” she spat out a few seconds later.

He’d been called many things in his life, but this one was a first. And coming from a tiny lady like her, he didn’t know whether to laugh or be annoyed. It was a long time since he’d had such a verbal joust with someone. He had to admit it was as stimulating as it was unnerving. But dammit, he had no time to ponder upon that. He was getting late. And he itched to shut that busybody up.

“Jeez, that’s incredible,” he said. “A pretty head as yours came up with such a big word. I sure hope you won’t get a nosebleed from too much brain activity—”

He stopped short when he noticed something on her face. Horrified, he stood there, his jaw slackening as his mouth hung open.

“What?” she asked.

He pointed at her face. “Your nose. It’s bleeding.”

Review: "Swept Away" by Toni Blake

Kat loved Brock when she was a teenager and he broke her heart... not once, but twice. So ten years later on the eve of Kat's wedding when he wades in from the sea onto a beach occupied only by Kat, she's going to need to keep her senses to keep from being swept away by Brock.

Brock is in the middle of a mission and doesn't need any distractions. But when he discovers Kat on a private tropical island, he decides that a little hot and sweaty fun might be in order since they are stranded. And he's not about to let her engagement to a man she doesn't love stand in the way of making up for his past rejection of her.

I could not put this book down. I was drawn in from the first page, which happened to be a flash back to a teenage Kat on her high school graduation day. I enjoyed the characters and the situation Ms. Blake placed them in. The isolated tropical island, a couple bad guys hunting down Brock, a little suspense and a red-hot romance make for an intriguing story. I think my only complaint is that I figured out who the mastermind criminal was almost from the minute he was introduced. Granted he wasn't the smartest criminal, but it would've been nice to have been in the dark a little longer. That said, this one thing did not diminish my enjoyment of the book. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on my books from Ms. Blake and highly recommend this one.

Contest winners

I have just realized that I have not made a post with contest winners in over a month. Each of these winners was announced in the comments of the contest post.

So, here we go...
Mary McCarthy contest (10-30) -- Barb
Janette Kenny contest (10-31) -- Lisa
T. J. Banks contest (11-13) -- Virginia
Jennifer Rardin contest (11-14) -- Amber
Kathleen Duble contest (11-16) -- Angela
Wendy Ely contest (11-20) -- Karen & Fedora
Sandra Marshall contest (11-21) -- Robyn L.
Brooke London contest (11-23) -- Glenda
Lisa Comstock contest (11-27) -- Mariska
Helen Osterman contest (11-28) -- jj_devine
Renee Vincent contest (11-30) -- Heidi87

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by the blog to support the authors. And if you've not won a contest, keep trying.

Interview with Rebbie Macintyre

Jen: Our guest this weekend is Rebbie Macintyre. Rebbie, will you please share a short bio with us?
Rebbie: Like most writers, my life experiences have provided the fodder for my stories. I’ve been an English teacher, a counselor for troubled kids, a salesperson, a violinist, swimming coach, SCUBA diver, and a sludge truck operator. My great-grandfather claimed to be a dowser, a legend that provided the seed for my first book, Cast the First Stone. I was a single mom and then became a stepmom, and my second book, A Corner of Universe, mirrors some of the emotions I struggled with during hard times.

Jen: Tell us about Cast the First Stone and where it's available.
Rebbie: Cast the First Stone is a historical mystery set in Depression era Colorado. It’s the story of a young Hispanic widow who saves her brother from a murder conviction by using the ancient art of dowsing. It’s available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com. I’m also giving away signed copies of the book; I explain that at the end of the interview.

Jen: At what age did you discover writing and when were you first published? Tell us your call story.
Rebbie: I started writing diaries when I was seven or eight years old. (I saved a half dozen of those little vinyl books with the locking tabs!) It wasn’t until my daughter was grown that I took up writing full time. I wrote three different books with a dowser as a protagonist. It took me several years, lots of critique groups and a pond of tears to learn the craft. When I thought the story was good enough, I queried and contracted with an agent. A year later, he called with the news that Five Star had offered a contract for the book. From the day I came up with the idea for the story until the publication date was ten years. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but there you go.

Jen: Are there any other writers, published or not, in your family?
Rebbie: My niece, who is twenty-two, has just finished the first draft of her first book. My daughter just received a contract to write a textbook for a course in fashion design. My cousin, Freedy Johnston, is a music composer who tours with his own group. Another niece is also a music composer and performer.

Jen: How do you approach your writing? Do you plot or go with the flow?
Rebbie: I write like E.L. Doctorow describes: Writing a book is like driving down a road at night with your headlights on. You know where you’re headed, but you can only see a little way in front of you! I start with a one or two sentence summary of the book, then write a paragraph which includes the inciting incident, turning points and the ending. Then I begin the first draft. The scenes come as I drive down the dark road, and I like to write a fast first draft, usually only four to six weeks working every day. There are a lot of holes when it’s over, but it gives me a story from which to build.

Jen: What kind of research did you do for this book?
Rebbie: Lots of research on the web about the Great Depression and dowsing, but I also used my mother’s stories from what she remembers about that time.

Jen: What’s the most challenging aspect of writing? Easiest?
Rebbie: Getting a great idea is the most challenging aspect of finding a story, no question. The easiest? I’m not sure I could apply the term to writing.

Jen: What’s the most rewarding aspect?
Rebbie: For me, finishing the book is the most rewarding aspect of writing. I spent over two years on a book that I did not send out for publication because it is simply not right. I learned a lot from it, though, about finding my own voice and style, being myself on the page, and not trying to imitate someone else. Even though it probably will never be published, I still felt an immense sense of accomplishment when it was finished.

Jen: Is there a genre that you’d like to write? Is there a genre you’ll probably stay away from and why?
Rebbie: My voice and style are suited for suspense, I believe, so I’ll stick to that. Cast the First Stone is a fast, page-turner read and it’s a mystery. My upcoming release, A Corner of Universe, is a suspense story set in current day Chicago. I can’t see myself ever writing sci-fi or fantasy. But then again, you never know what turn your creativity will take!

Jen: What five authors or people, from the past or present, have been important to you as an author? What question or comment have you always wanted to say to them?
Rebbie: There are so many present day authors I read and love, in all genres. But for the classics, I love Charles Dickens and the uniqueness of his characters. Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf. I’m also an admirer of Brenda Ueland, a woman who shouted out her writing voice without reservations!

Jen: Do you do anything special to celebrate a sale, new contract, or release?
Rebbie: Hubby and I pop a bottle of bubbly!

Jen: What’s the most interesting comment you have received about your book?
Rebbie: When Cast the First Stone was first released, I got a lot of emails from people about how their family members were dowsers or they’d heard stories about ancestors who dowsed. It was a great way to connect to readers.

Jen: What do you do in your free time?
Rebbie: Read, of course, bike and walk. Be with the family. I take a girl trip every fall and we go hiking in Colorado or Montana. It’s the best!

Jen: What's next for you?
Rebbie: My upcoming book, A Corner of Universe, will be released in March 2010. It’s set in current day Chicago and is about a physician’s wife who takes in her adult stepson in hopes of saving her floundering marriage, but ends up jeopardizing everything she holds dear—including the life of her unborn child.

Jen: Where can you be found on the web?
Rebbie: www.rebbiemacintyre. com

Jen: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Rebbie: Yes. I’d like to know how you as a reader discover new books. How influential is the Internet in making your selection for books?

Jen: Readers, Rebbie is giving away five (yes, that's 5) copies of Cast the First Stone. She will personalize the copy to whomever you’d like, if you want to use the book as a Christmas gift. To enter the contest, leave a comment or question for Rebbie. Then you must either leave your email address in your comment or send a message to contests.bookblog@gmail.com. The contest will end on Thursday, December 10.

Excerpt from "Cast the First Stone" by Rebbie Macintyre

Here's the flap blurb:
Using a divining rod or a crystal pendulum, dowser Trini Bates can locate the unseen: underground water, buried minerals, lost valuables.

Some claim she’s a wonder worker.

Others say she’s a liar, a cheat, a fake.

Trini is neither saint nor charlatan. Recently widowed, she only wants to be left alone to grieve. However, when her brother’s bootlegging partner disappears, Trini is summoned from her seclusion to dowse for his whereabouts. She finds his body at the bottom of a Colorado canyon, but she’s devastated when the sheriff accuses Parn—the brother she raised after their mother’s death—of murder.

Trini admits her brother is wild and reckless, but he’s not a murderer.

And if he’s innocent, then who is guilty?

Trini’s investigation plunges her into the bloody Prohibition world of moonshine and machine guns. She discovers Sheriff George Mallis hides a secret. Before he wore a sheriff’s badge, he spearheaded the largest illegal liquor trade in Colorado—a trade that cost him the lives of his sons. Mallis blames Parn for their deaths, and Trini is terrified he will wreak his vengeance on an innocent man.

Mallis isolates his prisoner in jail. Her only link to Parn is through the chief deputy—a man willing to risk his job for Trini’s affection, a complication that rocks her fragile emotional balance. Trini bonds with the murder victim’s children, and with their help, unearths disturbing truths about her brother’s life. When her dowsing fails to find a friend’s missing daughter, Trini realizes her doubts about Parn’s innocence have sabotaged her ability. Even when the children are threatened and someone tries to kill her, her precious gift lies dormant. Somehow, Trini must reclaim her power if she’s to save the children, her brother and finally, her own life.

And a short excerpt:
Merle Woodson is missing, and Trini’s brother is questioned about his disappearance. Here, Trini uses her dowsing talent to locate Woodson’s body. She hopes her discovery will prove her brother’s innocence, but of course, it has the opposite affect, and her brother is accused of murder.

The crystal swiveled at the end of the twine like a child’s toy spin-top in motion.

“Where is the man?” Trini said.

A tickle on the ends of her fingers signaled the talent was awakening. She moved the crystal an inch west so that it hovered above the town of Jackson. The instrument became a tiny pendulum swaying above the map, an infinitesimal movement that she wondered if she felt more than saw. Not yet. Not yet.

She moved the crystal again, an inch to the north, over the hamlet of Walsh’s Hole. Just keep open. Keep loose. It’s coming now. It’s coming.

“Show me the man,” she repeated.

The energy surged into her hands, and the crystal increased its sway. The whorls on Trini’s fingertips swelled and throbbed, her hands flamed crimson and the skin appeared to stretch near bursting. At the end of her motionless fingers, the string and the crystal turned in a perfect circle the size of silver dollar. Her veins jutted like mountain ranges winding their way up her forearms into her biceps, and she felt pinpricks along the top of her arms.

As the crystal turned, the sensation deepened; the pinpricks became deep talons that dug into her flesh. Heat, then burning ice, seared her arms, her shoulders and chest, and the muscles in her neck. She didn’t know how much more she could take. In the back of her mind, she registered surprise; the dowsing had never hurt like this. She must be more nervous than she thought.

One final surge of her energy to her reddened fingertips and she knew she’d found her target. She withdrew the crystal, set it on the desk and massaged her bloated hands.

“Holy God,” whispered Taggert.

“Trini, are you all right?” asked Roy.

“Yes, I’m all right. And I think you’ll find Merle Woodson right here.”

Review: "A Cowboy Christmas" by Janette Kenny

When I invited Janette Kenny to guest on the blog, I learned about this book and decided I had to go out and buy a copy.

Here's the blurb from the back cover:
Reid Barclay doesn’t have time for Christmas, not with trouble brewing at the Crown Seven Ranch. He’s got prize thoroughbreds to protect, and an long-ago wrong that he wants to make right. But the beautiful cook who’s taken over the ranch kitchen is a welcome distraction, even if Ellie Jo Cade burns everything from gingerbread to roast beef. Her sweet face and womanly figure are pure temptation…

Cornhusk angels…bright berry garlands…spun-sugar snow—everything about Christmas holds fond memories for Ellie Jo. She’s doing her best to make peace with an ornery wood-burning stove and make the old ranch house truly festive. All she wants is to believe in Reid…and the only-at-Christmas magic that makes hearts glow…

First, I want to start my review by saying how excited I am that this is the first in a new series. Janette has created an interesting place in the Wild West that I look forward to revisiting. Ellie Jo and Reid are characters that take hold of your heart and don't let go. I cared what was going to happen to them as they worked through their personal issues and fought the attraction between them. I laughed at the Ellie Jo's cooking attempts and cried during the climax of the book. Janette also created the perfect villain -- the man you just have to hate. Add in several well-developed secondary characters, a couple plot twists, and a holiday theme and we have a special book.

I highly recommend adding A Cowboy Christmas to your holiday library.