Monthly Archives: October 2014
COVER REVEAL! 12 Daves of Christmas (plus excerpt)
Ta-Da! Here it is, the sparkling cover for my first ever Christmas story, 12 DAVES OF CHRISTMAS. đ
What is the book about? Here’s the blurb:
A beautiful, uplifting holiday story from best-selling author Juliet Madison about a lonely writer, her grandmotherâs ghost, a road trip, and 12 different Daves.
Abby Solomon may write happy-ever-afters for a living, but doesnât believe sheâll have her own. But then a surprise visit from her grandmotherâs ghost sets her off on a journey sheâll never forget.
Grandma Charlotte wants to find her first love, Dave, who she mistakenly thought had died in World War II. A quick search yields a list of twelve possibilities, and Abby and Charlotte set off on a Christmas road trip â twelve Daves over twelve days along the sun-drenched East coast of Australia.
With just over a week to make the meeting happen, Abby has to meet a dozen Daves â some sweet, some quirky, some downright dangerous, while trying to honour her book deadline and enduring the awkward challenges of having a ghost as a travelling companion. But when she comes across a young doctor who looks like one of the heroes in her novels, Abby has the chance to discover that true love transcends time and space and that happy endings arenât only to be found between the pages of a book.
12 DAVES OF CHRISTMASÂ is a 30,000 word novella and fits into the Romagic Comedy genre – it has romance, comedy, and magical elements, like some of my other books;Â FAST FORWARD, I DREAM OF JOHNNY, & HAUNTED EVER AFTER.
Release date: 8th December 2014
Publisher: Escape Publishing
>> Be notified when it is released by subscribing to my newsletter HERE.
Here is an excerpt…
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âWhat about Grandpa?â I said. âIs he, ah…â
âOn the other side? Yes. Iâve touched base with him, and it was good to see him again, it really was, but Iâm afraid to say heâs moved on. We loved each other of course and had a great life, but the truth is…â she took another of those redundant breaths, â…we werenât soulmates.â
âWhat do you mean heâs moved on?â
âHeâs spending the afterlife with Lorna. And Iâm not angry. I donât blame him, because when all the obligations and responsibilities of physical life are down the pooper, all that matters is being true to your heart and soul.â
I frowned, from disappointment at Grandpaâs choice of afterlife companion or confusion as to how this all worked, I didnât know.
âSorry, darling, it must be hard to comprehend all this. But the fact is, Harry and Lorna had a…what do you call it? A rendezvous or a fling, if you like, many years ago. I knew about it and of course I was furious, but after a while I forgave him. Because in reality, I knew I still loved and longed for Dave, so who was I to judge?â
âBut Grandma, who is Dave and why didnât you stay with him back then?â
âItâs a long story, muffin. But the gist of it is, we were together before the war, well, during the war. But then he went off to fight when he was eighteen and I never saw him again.â She dropped her gaze to the floor. âWe promised that when the war was over weâd meet again at our favourite place, and I was to turn up there every Saturday at noon until we were reunited. Months and months passed and I was there every week without fail, but he never showed.â
âBut the letter…he wrote to you, obviously.â
âJust the once. As you can see in his letter, he promised to keep writing whenever he could, but something must have happened to prevent him from fulfilling that promise.â She puffed up her short fluffy hair with an upturned palm like she always used to do, and pointed to the watch. âHe gave that to me before he left, said it was to remind me that in time weâd be together again. I maintained it and kept it working.â
âBut he didnât die in the war?â
âApparently not. I thought he had, everyone did. They said he was missing in action, presumed dead. And then when the war ended and he failed to return after several months, well, after a while I had to decide whether to keep hoping or let go and start living my life.â
âSo what happened to him?â
âThatâs the thing, I donât know. Iâve tried to find out where he is and what happened, but the wretched administration up there,â she pointed to the heavens, âleaves a bit to be desired.â She crossed her arms. âAll they could tell me was that my Dave Smith had not passed through the pearly gates. But to find out more information requires more manpower and paperwork, and they put me on a three month waiting list. Three months! While Harry and Lorna have their happily ever after, Iâm left to twiddle my thumbs and wait it out. Iâll be putting in a complaint when I get back, you mark my words.â She gave a curt nod. âBut that will probably take another three months to process! Theyâre utterly swamped up there, what with all the deaths. And the queues, there are more crowds than a Buddy Holly concert, let me tell you.â
I didnât know whether to laugh at what I was hearing or be frustrated along with her. Grandma wasnât known for being shy, and if she had something to say about something that was bothering her, sheâd say it.
âHow do we know where to look? I mean, do you have any idea where he might be?â
âI met him when we were living in Berrinda. He was passing through with his soldier friends for a camping trip to celebrate his eighteenth birthday. When he told me he was going off to war, he said that if he returned safe and sound heâd want nothing more than to settle down in a place like Berrinda, or one of the other small towns on the south coast. Thatâs all Iâve got to go on.â
âThatâs a start, I guess. He might be in the phone book. What did you say his last name was?â
âSmith.â
I sighed. She had to go fall in love with someone who had an extremely common first and last name!
As if reading my thoughts, Grandma said, âShame his name wasnât Reginald Liktenblacht or something easier to find.â She shrugged and grinned.
>> Be notified when 12 DAVES OF CHRISTMAS is released by subscribing to my newsletter HERE. You can also follow me on twitter and Facebook.Â
Deadlines, Dangers, & Delta Girls!
It has been a busy month or so, hence my lack of posts on the blog recently. It seems the letter of the month is: D, so let me fill you in on whatâs been happening in my worldâŚ
Deadlines:
My third Tarrinâs Bay novel, Miracle in March, was due on 30th September. I sent it in on d-day, at 11pm. Phew! Now, fingers crossed it doesnât suck. đ
While writing this book I also had edits to do on 12 Daves of Christmas, attended the RWA writers conference, and if youâve read my last post, dealt with the excitement of signing a 5 book deal for my YA series (see Delta Girls below). There was so much happening at once, my brain felt like it had several internet browser tabs open all at once! Oh, I also got injured. Read onâŚ
Dangers:
Two days before my book was due, the universe decided it wanted me to take some time out. It didnât seem to care that I had a book to finish, nah-ah. It thought, âJuliet needs to take a break, but she just wonât tear herself away from the computer. What shall we do? I know! Letâs throw her down the stairs.â
Yep.
Down I went.
At 1:30am on a Monday.
10 steps to be exact.
An overweight cat in my arms and fluffy bedsocks on my feet probably didnât help matters.
My son came out of his room and just looked at me strangely as I lay in a heap on the stairs.
âArenât you going to help me?â I asked, panting from getting the air knocked out of me.
âI thought you were just killing a spider or something,â he replied.
Apparently I must make a lot of noise when Iâm in spider-slaying mode. He soon realized I was hurt and helped me walk back upstairs (the cat was hiding under a chair at this point, looking at me wide-eyed and wary like I was some psychotic person who enjoys freaking the crap out of furry domestic creatures just for fun). He got me a drink of juice (my son, not the cat), which was nice. But I had to get my own ice pack.
I discovered during my fall that the brain can think of many different things in only a second or two. The old âlife flashing before your eyesâ thing. Okay, I knew I would probably survive the ordeal, but in that second or two when I had no control and was in pain and couldnât stop myself falling, it was pretty scary. I thought such things as: Will my son remember how to call emergency? Does he remember our address? Will I get a head injury? Will I break a bone? And I even had time to think: Oh crap, will I still be able to finish my book in two days?!
Thankfully I landed, though with a bump to my arm, which went suddenly numb and weak. I hurt EVERYWHERE, and to make things interesting, I only had one packet of frozen vegetables to use as first aid. Despite this, I managed to get some nice, large, black bruises, and strained muscles. I also got scratched by my cat, and even broke a fingernail. Ouch. Okay, so the fingernail didnât hurt, but damn it I had just grown my other ones long enough to match. đ
I discovered that being in pain is good for the vocabulary â itâs amazing how many new swear word combinations one can come up with while trying to roll over in bed when every muscle is screaming at you to be still, or after sneezing and pulling your damaged shoulder tendon to the point that it feels like thereâs a knife in your back! Three weeks later my shoulder is still causing pain, so Iâm getting a cortisone injection soon to kick inflammationâs ass. Silver lining of all this â I couldnât do housework for a week.
Delta Girls:Â
If you missed my post about my Young Adult book deal, here it is. After signing my contract and filling out various forms for my publisher, I started plotting and writing the second book in The Delta Girls series. The first book, SIGHT, will begin edits soon and will be releasing on May 12th 2015, with each book following soon after. The second book, SOUND, is taking shape and Iâm very excited about the story. Iâm remembering how much I love writing YA. I find the voice easy to slip into and especially as itâs told in first person, Iâm finding it fascinating to get inside the mind of another character.
This book is due at the end of December, and Iâm keeping my fingers crossed that two days before the deadline I will remember to not carry my overweight cat down the stairs while wearing fluffy socks. đ
âŚWith all these D words, I think I should end the blog post on a positive note, so here are some random, positive words starting with D. Can you think of any more? If so, leave them in the comments!
Dreams, destiny, dancing, dinner, delicious, drinks, dessert, diamonds, decadent, dashing, Draculaâs muscles (well, have you seen them?). đ