Welcome Jane Kent to Writerly Wednesday!
Website:
www.janekenthauthor.com
Book Buy Links:
(currently available only in digital format, available soon in print as part of the Whispers Publishing’s anthology, RESTORED)
http://whispershome.com/romance/lush-bold-and-beautiful/
Author Bio:
Jane Kent has been telling stories most of her life; when she isn’t writing them she’s moonlighting at her day job in professional theatre. She lives near Toronto, Canada and is allowed to share a home—as long as she caters to every whim—with two very spoiled cats. Jane would love to hear from readers at jane@janekentauthor.com and promises to respond to each and every email…though not necessarily speedily!
Blurb for LUSH, BOLD, AND BEAUTIFUL (short contemporary romance):
Gabriel Benton’s life has suddenly become an episode in the classic Twilight Zone…where nothing is as he thought it was or should be.
After ten years in exile Gabe’s back on his family’s Niagara Peninsula winery, a place he’d thought to never set foot on again…as a co-owner. And one of his partners is his ex-wife, Ayanna!
And, if that’s not enough, he’s being blind-sided by the very unexpected sexual attraction he still feels every time he’s in the same room with Ayanna. But Ayanna has every reason to hate the cheating, vice-addicted wild boy he’d once been…and he can’t really blame her.
So, exactly how, in the name of Dionysus, the god of wine, ritual madness and ecstasy, is he going to make this partnership work?
Excerpt from LUSH, BOLD, AND BEAUTIFUL:
And then she was practically running, turning into the driveway she and Makeda shared with Gabe, the sanctuary of the old carriage house beckoning—
“Hey, A, what’s the rush?”
“Acckkk!” She tripped, landing facedown in one of the Christmas-decorated boxwood bushes flanking the single step up onto her wooden porch. Thankfully, she’d still had enough of her wits about her to stick out her gloved hands in the knick of time, saving her face from looking like she’d gone five rounds trying to give her cat a pill…and lost.
“Gabe! Dammit, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” she accused, rolling to her back, which only succeeding in landing her on her butt in her sleeping-for-the-winter tulip bed. Her cold, not frozen, muddy tulip bed. “What are you doing lurking there?”
“I wasn’t lurking. I was looking for you, ” he replied calmly as he stepped down from the trellis-enclosed porch and squatted beside her. “Are you hurt?”
“No, ” she said shortly, still smarting over her ungainly fall, unaccountably and unfairly miffed at Gabe.
Not his fault. His car is right there in plain sight, Ayanna. If you hadn’t had sex on the brain, you would have seen it. You would have seen him if you’d been paying attention.
Shut up!
“Sorry, ” he said, standing and withdrawing the hand he’d extended to help her up. “I was only making sure you—”
“No, no, not you. I wasn’t telling you to shut up. I was talking to myself. At least, I thought I was.”
His lips twitched. “Must have been some conversation.”
“Um, not really. I was just…um, I was…just…berating myself for being so clumsy.”
“You’re always graceful and agile, A, ” he said gallantly, then grasped her hand and pulled her to her feet. “I startled you. But I swear it wasn’t on purpose. I thought you’d seen me. Sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” She spied an ornament that had rolled out into the driveway and suddenly noticed the string of colorful lights wrapped around one of her ankles. Well, crap, she couldn’t even go after the stupid ornament without drawing Gabe’s attention to her ample, too-fond-of-her-own-cooking muddy butt!
But Gabe likes your butt. He said so.
Yeah, well, last time he really saw it, it was only twenty years old. No need to point out the excess junk in the trunk it’s gained and is currently being shown to full—pun intended—disadvantage by slimy, clinging-tighter-than-a-second-skin—white, for God’s sake!—chef pants.
The humor struck her then and she started to laugh. “That must have been quite a sight.”
“Well, I didn’t want to laugh…at least, not until I knew you weren’t hurt, but it wasn’t easy, ” he agreed with a grin.
“Ah, noble of you.”
“I thought so, ” he said, preening a bit.
“Smartass, ” she charged, with a light and friendly smack to his arm. “So why were you looking for me?”
“Tonight is the Festive Wine Tasting for Charity at the Hilton in Niagara Falls. I thought I’d see if you were home and wanted to run over there with me. I didn’t buy advance tickets in case tonight was the night we picked the grapes, but since the weather isn’t cooperating…” He shrugged. “I know PR is usually Mom’s thing, but it couldn’t hurt to be seen, especially since a couple of the wines are ours.”
“Oh, well… Sure, I’d love to go. Sounds like fun.”
Sure, I’d love to go? Sounds like fun? Hadn’t she just decided anything other than a business relationship between them was a bad idea? Not to mention that Gabe very likely had a new love interest in his life. Why hadn’t she stuck to her guns, just said, “no, but thank you anyway”? Trying to backtrack, she said, “But I just got off work, I smell like eau de deep fryer, so maybe anoth—”
“I’ll wait. It doesn’t start until nine and it goes until one. Maybe we could grab some dinner too if you haven’t eaten yet?”
“Um…okay, if you’re positive you don’t mind waiting?”
Dammit, why could she not say no to the man?
“No problem.” He grinned again. “I’ll see if I can put your Christmas decorations back together while I’m waiting.”
She rolled her eyes. “Thanks, ” she said, stepping onto the porch backward and starting to ease toward the door, still trying to avoid giving Gabe an eyeful of her butt in the sodden pants.
“Wait, ” he said, grabbing her arm, and then leaning down to unravel the string of lights tangled around her foot. “Wouldn’t want you to go ass over teakettle again.”
“Oh, right. Thanks. Um, again. I won’t be long, ” she managed to stutter out, sidling across the porch and miraculously unlocking the door with her back to it. She squeezed through the opening the second it was wide enough for her fit, then closed the door and sagged against it with a deep sigh.
No doubt about it, she was certifiably insane. Why else had she agreed to go out with him?
Interview
- In three days, all power will go off, everywhere for a very long time. What will you include in your author survival kit?
A generator, propane barbeque and fridge, food, water, my laptop and my towering pile of TBR books!
- Where did the idea for the work you a promoting arise?
An in house call from my publisher for a short romance about a couple that is divorced, but not because of a mistake, and is then re-united. I started thinking what if? What if you never expected to see your ex again? What if when your paths do cross, it’s in the last place you ever expected? What if you know the blame for the failure of the marriage is all yours, but you want a second chance…even though you know the other person has every reason to spit in your face and walk away?
-From Sally – who among us wouldn’t want the joy and terror of having a publisher call and ask for a novel to be written?
- What do you like to read?
I read just about anything (including the back of the cereal box at breakfast time!), but I have a soft spot for romance (big surprise there!), thriller, suspense and horror…and any combination thereof!
-From Sally – I miss those days when I could give in to my compulsive reading addiction, now, I have to search for my reading glasses and the impulse to read the cereal box has passed.
- Tell us about the most exciting place you have ever visited?
I have a number of exciting places still to see on my “bucket list”, but to date, the answer has to be Egypt. The Pyramids have fascinated me since the first time I saw a picture of them in grade school; now I can say I’ve seen them, touched them, walked on them! I’ve cruised down the Nile, I’ve seen the treasures of King Tut’s tomb in the Cairo museum, and I’ve floated in a hot air balloon over the Valley of the Kings…pretty heady stuff—no pun intended—don’t you think?
- What is the most mundane, day-to-day, thing you can share about yourself?
I’m lucky in that my day-to-day life working in theatre is not mundane. It’s constantly changing…sometimes a little too much! I guess the only mundane part would be the routine of getting up and going every day (yes, it actually is a full-time job). Not that I’m complaining; I’m lucky there too…I have a job and in these economic times there’s nothing mundane about that.
- What scares you the most?
Now there’s a question that gives power if answered…I respectfully decline to comment in the interest of self-preservation! Though, I will give a hint and admit to using one of my greatest fears in my only historical romance, The Promise of Canaan.
- Tell us anything but keep it G rated.
Remember the great egg controversy in Gulliver’s Travels regarding which end of the egg is the “proper” end to crack open? Well, we have a similarly ridiculous controversy in our house over toilet paper…over from the top of under from the bottom? I’ll leave you guessing as to my stand!
Before leaving I’d like to extend my thanks to Sally for inviting me to be a guest on Writerly Wednesday, a lovely and generous way to share with writers and readers alike!
Website:
www.janekenthauthor.com
Book Buy Links:
(currently available only in digital format, available soon in print as part of the Whispers Publishing’s anthology, RESTORED)
http://whispershome.com/romance/lush-bold-and-beautiful/
Keywords:
Lush, Bold, and Beautiful; Jane Kent; Whispers Publishing; contemporary romance; multi-cultural; wines and vineyards; food and recipes
Come back next week to visit with another Writerly Wednesday Guest.