Today's Special - - A Jewel in Time

Who better to write a book with than your best friends? Today, we welcome Jeanne Adams, Barbara Devlin and Caitlenn T. Ainnsley, best friends and authors of the new anthology, A JEWEL IN TIME. 

Welcome, ladies!

Love, Holidays, Bookish Besties!!

By Jeanne Adams

Do you have a Best Friend?  Most of us have more than one.  And most of us have a circle of acquaintances who we call for lunch, or a movie, or even a night out on the town.

 

But that best friend?  She’s the one you call when your boss just made a pass and you don’t know what to do.  Or he’s the one you call when you just wrote a breakup letter to your boyfriend.  Or the guy-friend or girlfriend you call to be your “date” for a wedding you don’t want to go to, but have to, and you know your ex-boyfriend/husband/lover will be there.

Besties are all that.  They’re moral support.  They help you talk things through – whatever “those” things may be.  They’ll laugh with you till you both nearly wet your pants.  They’ll help you pack when you have to move, and share the box of tissue until it’s gone.

Besties are just that…the best.  They answer the phone at 2 am, when they see your number come up on the screen.  They tiptoe out to the driveway in their PJs at nearly 4 in the morning to give you your spare keys, when you’ve been at a party and you’ve lost your house keys.  They tell you the truth when shopping - “Yes, it DOES make you look fat.  Here, try this one!”

And about that guy you met on Friday who drives the Mercedes?   “No, I don’t think he’s just divine.  I think he’s a moron!”

When you’re a writer, your Besties take on a new set of challenges.  You MAKE them read your stuff and tell them to be honest.  Put on the spot, they have to tell you what they think.  Ohhhhh, that is a minefield!  It’s worse than the dress thing or the boyfriend-is-a-moron-thing. 

It’s dangerous to the friendship.  It’s like callin’ the baby ugly, as we say down home.

But your REAL Besties won’t let you down.  They’ll still be sweet.  They’ll tell you it’s a good first draft (even when you and they both know it’s the 12^th draft.)  They’ll tell you they like the story, but honey, you SO need to work on your spelling!  (“OMG! Didn’t we both have Mrs. Jones for English in 9^th grade?  Did you SLEEP through that class?”)

And when you get past THAT stage, and maybe a few more, they’ll say, “HEY! Let’s write a book together!”

Nothing is more fun.

Two of my absolute Besties are here with me today.  We met at the Denver RWA Conference in 2001 and have been laughing all the way ever since. 

And yes, we wrote a book…TOGETHER!!  The Anthology A JEWEL IN TIME came out November, 14, 2014.  WOOT!!!

Barbara Devlin, who wrote the first story, is a fabulous writer.  All the novels in her Brethren of the Coast historical series, starting with ENTER THE BRETHREN, have been BESTSELLERS!!  Woot, go Barb!! 

Debut author Caitlenn T. Ainnsley and I met in the buffet line at RWA National in 2001, and struck up a conversation.  Grins.  This last January, Barb and I persuaded her to join her fabulous comedic, contemporary brilliance to a light-paranormal holiday anthology we’ve just published together.

So, Barbara, Caitlenn and I are, collectively, The Sultry Sisters.  And we’re the proud authors of a A JEWEL IN TIME.  The anthology stories follow a magical, gold and gem-studded glory of a brooch through the centuries, as it passes from mother to daughter.  The beautiful gem is a master jeweler’s work, and it’s key to each young woman’s fate.  The jewel is passed down in the Douglas-Gascoigne-Lake family (whom we first meet in Barbara’s first book, ENTER THE BRETHREN), and it passes each generation to the eldest daughter.

Here, in brief, are the three storylines from A JEWEL IN TIME:

Three incomparable women, one incredible jewel...

Loving Lt. Douglas - It is the Age of Sail, and First Lieutenant Mark Douglas of the Royal Navy has set his sights on a fiery society miss with a spirit to match his own. What happens when Lady Amanda Gascoigne-Lake's father rejects the sailor's suit, and an ancient brooch with mystical power portends doom?

Behind Enemy Lines - In WWII Europe, Lady Grace Corvedale flees Paris as the Germans approach, but Hitler has learned her brooch may have mystical powers, and he vows to possess it -at any cost. Lt Robert "Dix" Dixon, an unofficial attaché to the British Embassy, is dispatched to rescue her, but can he outwit The Führer to save Grace?

The Brit, the Brooch and the Blizzard - When a series of tragic events leaves Olivia DuBois stranded in Boston during a blizzard, a handsome Brit rides to her rescue, and the California girl falls hard. Emerson Gascoigne-Lake manifests the quintessential knight in shining armor, but does a family heirloom foretell true love or destroy it?

Book FIVE of Barbara’s series, CAPTAIN OF HER HEART launched last FRIDAY, right alongside A JEWEL IN TIME!  CAPTAIN OF HER HEART tells the story of Lady Alexandra Seymour and newly commissioned Nautionnier Knight Jason Collingwood. We got to know Jason and Alex in book 4, ONE-KNIGHT STAND, when they conspired to help Lance and Cara to the altar.  And as for her novella in our anthology, "Loving Lieutenant Douglas," goes back in time, 27 years, to 1785, before ENTER THE BRETHREN begins, when then Lieutenant Mark Douglas romanced Lady Amanda Gascoigne-Lake. 

Caitlenn, author of the contemporary “The Brit, the Brooch and the Blizzard”  gave fiction a rest for a few years as she worked on non-fiction until her friends – Barb and I - made her write with us.  I guess that's that what besties are for.  They don't let you give up on your dream.  In 2015 Caitlenn will be introducing an amazingly fun, kind of crazy, heroine who'll be the star of her series The Conscious Gypsy Chronicles.

As for me, I did the middle bit.  I wrote the WWII story, “Behind Enemy Lines” my first historical.  All of you who frequent The Dish have seen me here recently promoting the first book in my Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romantic Suspense, THE TENTACLE AFFAIRE, A Slip Traveler Novel.  I’ve also just put out a short Romantic Suspense novella called DEADLY DELIVERY.

So, Dishies, what do you think about Best Friends?

Do you have a BFF?  The kind who would bail you out of jail? (Or better yet, one who’d be in the cell with you, saying, “DAMN, that was fun!”)

What’s the craziest situation you and your BFF have gotten into?  Did it involve the police?

We'll give away one Kindle copy and one print copy of  A JEWEL IN TIME.

We’d love to hear from you…Come say hello on FaceBook, Twitter, or on our websites

www.caitlenn.com

www.facebook.com/caitlenntainnsley

www.BarbaraDevlin.com

https://www.facebook.com/barbara.devlin

www.Twitter.com/BarbaraDevlin

www.JeanneAdams.com

www.Facebook.com/JeanneAdamsAuthor

www.Twitter.com/JeanneAdams