#Inspiration for Bad Traveler #foodieromance by @LolaKarns @DecadentPub

Bad Traveler

By Lola Karns

Published by Decadent Publishing

Genre: Contemporary Small town Romance, Foodie Romance, Heat Level 3 

Recipes are a way of life for Gwen Jones. Take one single mother, her infant daughter and a business plan for a small town bakery. Combine with an eventful cross-country flight, chance encounter with her college crush and a dash of motion sickness. Stir in a few nuts, or family members, and large quantities of chocolate. Will this recipe be an oven oops, or as delicious as her alma matter’s newest coach?

Having survived an attack in Afghanistan that cost him a leg and a wife, Kyle Collins developed a strategy to find meaning in life. He may be an assistant basketball coach but he refuses to sit on the sidelines. When the runs into the woman whose lips are as unforgettable as her brownies, Kyle decides to spice up Gwen’s recipes.

When a secret ingredient is thrown into the mix, can their recipe for a happily-ever-after rise to the occasion, or will it end up a hot mess?

Excerpt:

“Or we could go to my shop, drink some coffee or have cookies and milk. I have my keys.”

“Perfect.” His heart thumped as he put the car in gear. No one would bother them. They would be alone in a cozy space she’d created. The absence of students left the streets virtually empty. Her gloved hand covered his for the five-minute drive. After a few turns, they parked behind the store and entered through the kitchen.

“What will you have? Unfortunately, I have tons of inventory left from today.” She opened the back side of the display counter, revealing about a dozen or so of six different types of cookies. “I swore I wouldn’t sell day-old cookies, but I may bundle up some at a discount rate tomorrow since there are so many.” The touch of sadness in her voice made him want to whip out his wallet and buy them all up.

“I’ll take an oatmeal raisin, a chocolate chip, and…. Are those ginger snaps?”

“Actually, those are molasses cookies. They are spicy like a ginger snap, but different.” She stacked an assortment of cookies on a plate. “It’s my nana’s recipe. See what you think. Coffee?”

“Don’t make coffee on my account. I’m too wired already. I’d rather have milk.”

“Me, too.” She poured milk into a couple of mugs and started toward the corner table, which featured a plush, secondhand love seat. He followed with the cookies. A rapping on the window drew their attention to a couple outside. Gwen pointed to the Closed sign, but the couple persisted.

He walked to the door. “We’re closed.”

She rushed to his side, adding, “We’ll be open Tuesday at seven a.m. We hope to open in the evenings starting in late January.”

The couple walked away.

“I could have made a sale, but….” She sounded frustrated and tired.

“I think we should stay in the kitchen. I doubt people will bother us if we have lights on back there.”

A spark returned to her eyes. “If we sit on the floor behind the counter, no one will know we we’re here. They’ll think someone left the lights on by accident.”

Sitting side-by-side on the floor, backs against the counter, they set the plate of cookies between them along with their mugs of milk, handy for dunking. He picked up the firm molasses cookie with large pieces of sugar that stuck to his fingers. The crisp outside yielded to a softness that melted in his mouth. Sweet with a hint of saltiness to make it interesting, just like Gwen. Tonight, he’d see if she would melt in his arms, and his mouth. It was his night.

****
Inspiration: For me, inspiration swirls in the ether until various pieces collide in my brain. Three factors came together for Bad Traveler.

1. There is nothing fun about flying cross country with an infant. I have been the screaming baby section and run through airports with car seats precariously dangling from the stroller. I have pretended turbulence is “super-fun bouncy ride in the sky” even though I’m more scared than the kids.

2. Living near the home of Seal Team 6, I grew more aware of issues facing veterans as they returned home from war. A series of reports in the Virginian-Pilot piqued my curiosity.

3. The bakery near me closed. I decided to invent one, which is much easier than opening a real one.

Ten facts about Lola:
1. I am a bad traveler. The only thing worse than flying is traveling by boat or car, but I love seeing new places.

2. When I was four, I decided I wanted to go to Australia because it looked lonely.

3. In high school, I went to Australia for a summer as part of a 4-H youth exchange program. I stayed on farms and sheered a sheep.

4. I rarely make brownies – too dangerous.

5. My baking powder biscuits won a blue ribbon at the Illinois State Fair, but nowadays, I usually make buttermilk biscuits.

6. I have lived in seven states, but only one west of the Mississippi.

7. My favorite of high-heeled shoes are a black Chuck Taylor All-Stars.

8. Two of my cats are feline nudists, aka Sphynx cats. The other has fur.

9. My curls are natural. The color isn’t.

10. The best part of my morning routine – reading a few chapters of a book while drinking my first cup of coffee.

Brief Bio: Lola Karns
Having worked as a bartender, shipping clerk, concierge, document translator, European history doctoral candidate, and more as she moved through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Georgia, and Virginia, Lola decided she needed a more portable career. Writing fit the bill.

Lola currently resides in Minnesota with her husband, two children, two hairless cats and a fluffy ex-stray cat. When not writing, she enjoys baking, reading and drinking coffee.

Media links:
Website/blog www.lolakarns.com
Twitter @lolakarns
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LolaKarns
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6451976.Lola_Karns
Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/+LolaKarns/about/p/pub
Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/lolakarns/
Bad Traveler webpage: http://lolakarns.wordpress.com/bad-traveler/

Bad Traveler Buy Links
Amazon
Decadent Pub

Inspiration Behind the Book

by Patricia Yager Delagrange

How many times have I seen an Amber Alert on the news which ends in the child’s death?  How many times have I been driving down the freeway and read about another child kidnapping in yellow lights across a billboard?  How many times have watched on the news that another child has been murdered?

Too may times.  One time is too many.

And each time this occurs I wondered how in the world do the parents make it through such a tragedy?  How do they go on?  How can they return to work?  How can they face interacting with family and friends after their child’s death?  How do they go on living?

This question had burned in my mind for years and I wanted to write about it.  People have asked me how I can write about something that’s never happened to me.  I counter with: I write fiction.  All fiction writers tell a story they’ve made up in their heads.  But they imbue that story with their own feelings.  Which is what makes a good book.  And I have a wealth of feelings that I used when I wrote Moon Over Alcatraz.  I have two children.  I know what it’s like to love two human beings unconditionally, with no reservations.  My kids often ask me, “Do you love me, mom?”  And my answer is, “Always and forever.”

So I took a happily married couple, excited to have their first child, placed them in the delivery room, and had the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby’s neck, which produced a still birth.

And that’s pretty much what happened to that couple - their life stood still.  They didn’t know how to move on from there.  Instead of looking to each other for solace and renewal, they turned away from each other.  Both of them, unbeknownst to the other, dealt with their grief in a way that broke them apart, instead of pulling them together.

Losing a child is devastating.  And each person deals with that emotional turmoil in their own particular way.  I’d go so far as to say that no one can predict how they would act in that circumstance.  Emotions can be unpredictable, surprising even to the person who’s experiencing them.  This is what happens to Brandy and Weston.  You have a difference in their emotional upheaval.  One character is the mother who carried her baby to term, and the other is the father who didn’t have that same physical experience.

BLURB:

Following the death of their baby during a difficult birth, Brandy and Weston Chambers are grief-stricken and withdraw from each other, both seeking solace outside of their marriage; however, they vow to work through their painful disloyalty.  But when the man Brandy slept with moves back to their hometown, three lives are forever changed by his return.

EXCERPT:

Three days later we were standing at the edge of a hole in the ground at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Hayward, the silence so thick, the insides of my ears buzzed like a distant swarm of angry bees.  Mr. Peralta and another gentleman stood off to the side while Weston and I held hands next to a tiny casket.

Weston had chosen a simple mahogany box with gold handles, a bouquet of white lilies graced the top of the small box.  I knelt down and laid a kiss on the smooth wood then wiped off the tears that had fallen on top.  Weston joined me, placing a single red rose in the middle of the lilies.

He helped me up and we stood side-by-side in silence, my guilt over her death like a stone in my empty belly.  I missed everything I’d dreamed would be happening right now, yearned for all that could have been.

Weston nodded at the man standing next to Mr. Peralta and our baby was slowly lowered into the gaping maw.  She reached the bottom, and a bird landed on the rich brown dirt piled next to the grave.  It pecked around, chirping a little song then flew off - as if saying goodbye.  My heart squeezed inside my chest.

I picked up a small handful of soft dirt.  “Goodbye, Christine,” I whispered, throwing it on top of her casket.

Weston wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in close to his side.  Why her?  Why my baby?  Was this supposed to make sense?  And, if so, to whom?

We drove home in silence.  No words existed to express my grief.

BUY LINKS

Musa Publishing

Amazon 

Barnes & Noble 

Learn more about Patricia Yager Delagrange on her website and blog. Stay connected on facebook and Twitter.

Summer Vacation

Wonder why I've been neglecting this blog for two whole weeks?  I spent my summer vacation at the Wiccan Haus. Don't believe me? Look at these stunning pictures. Okay, I admit, they're not from the Wiccan Haus, that magical island only accessible by ferry boat. But they are from an island. It is only accessible by ferry boat. And I came back amazingly refreshed and relaxed.

I had the pleasure of visiting Mackinac Island this summer. The picture on the left is the natural feature Arch Rock. Below is the coast with its crystal clear water and beautiful colors. I have been staring at these pictures ever since I returned, mostly because I couldn't stay and stare at them in person nearly as long as I wanted to!

I admit I have Wiccan Haus on the brain. For the parts  of the summer when I wasn't hanging out with my toes in the water or mesmerized by the beautiful scenery, I was immersed in the Wiccan Haus world. My next Wiccan Haus book Psychic Lies will come out on October 26th.

But you don't have to wait that long for a book from me. My first Finally Ever After short story Zane's Art (also from Musa Publishing) will come out the week before on October 19th.

My huge news of the summer: I have signed with Entangled Publishing. They are launching their Bliss Imprint on August 25th. My novel (tentatively titled) Construction Beauty Queen will be released on September 25th as part of their line. I am so excited. This story is very close to my heart, and I promise to have more details soon!

Finally, my first upcoming release on September 15th is More Than A Fantasy, a one night stand short story that is part of Decadent Publishing's 1Night Stand series. I have an amazing, sexy cover that I will unveil tomorrow.  Stay tuned!