I’m just back from the United Kingdom, having attended the Romance Novelists conference in Yorkshire with several of the Word Wenches, followed by a research trip into Scotland with Mary Jo Putney. I love traveling, but it’s even better when you have the company of someone who understands why it’s necessary to photograph every inch of a two-hundred-year-old croft house. Exchanging writerly war stories and brainstorming new plots over a bottle of wine really enriches the experience!
I’m back just in time to remind everyone that the third book in my Crystal Magic series–Crystal Vision–will be out August 7th. If you haven’t looked into the series yet, it’s a contemporary take on the descendants of the psychic characters in my various historical Magic series. I’m loving playing with the idea of people with odd abilities dealing with the modern world. Even those with paranormal gifts try to explain them scientifically these days.
But what I’m really loving is developing a truly special fictional town in the Santa Cruz mountains—a place where science and magic might divide the inhabitants, but they still have to work together to survive. Take a peek at an excerpt and see what you think!
Researching in Scotland and brainstorming plots with another writer sounds like a dream come true!! I’m so happy you are continuing to mine the deep vein of possibilities with the irrepressible Malcolms, and that you have such a great time doing so! They are a truly fascinating bunch, and I never tire of meeting new ones and adding them to what I know of their family tree. I read the original six Malcolm stories after discovering my first, Aidan and Mora’s story *Magic Man* which by the way ruined me for most other romance writers for months! Lol, it really blew me away. Lately, I have been reading your Unexpected Magic series. I just finished *Chemistry of Magic* and it’s quite simply one of my most interesting reads EVER. Your plotting is inspiring, characters so unusual AND so real, your richly detailed settings so absorbing. The thing about this story that stood out most was the parts of the narrative that dealt with the characters’ personal and professional goals, and how they pursued them, while a lifetime love was concurrently, unexpectedly growing. Along the way, the reader got to learn the practicalities involved. The science of minerals and herbs, the challenges of setting up and managing a country household, how cleverly women sometimes could maneuver around men who thought them invisible, the rewards and difficulties of establishing railroad and other technology that would eventually be taken for granted. Even the law and finances, which must be pragmatically addressed, were so enjoyable. I know you come from an accounting background, and you are also very aware of the law. I don’t think many writers have such a feel for how these affect every layer of a person’s daily existence as you do. …I did not actually intend to pelt you with dozens of compliments, which can become a bit tiresome, lol. I just felt the need to applaud this wonderful book. When people speak unkindly of the romance genre I just have to roll my eyes. I will read this book and this series many times, just as I have with the original series. I studied literature in college but your “cheesy romances” are among my most intellectually enjoyable reads, satisfying my mind and heart at every level. Eh, there I go again. I just wish someday I would write as well as you, and that writing could someday be a lucrative venture as well. I will go on reading you and Rowling and absorb all I can about how it’s done. Thank you for seriously brightening my life with your words.
I’m overwhelmed, Jenny, thank you! Keep in mind it took me thirty-five years of publishing books and heaven knows how much learning how to write before I reached this stage. 😉 Do not set yourself impossible goals. Enjoy your creativity while you learn and you will always be ahead of the game. Writing is seldom a lucrative venture. It requires a business head plus a writing one these days. So read and listen and I wish you well!