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5 Weeks To Go! HAUNTED EVER AFTER sneak peek
Each week until release day I’ll share a fun excerpt pic like the one below, and a longer excerpt here on the blog. So with 5 weeks to go, here is the first excerpt of HAUNTED EVER AFTER, my next full-length romantic comedy with a touch of magic. If you enjoyed the fun and mayhem of FAST FORWARD, be sure to check this one out on 1st September. 😉
Excerpt:
What does one talk to a stripper about over dinner anyway? ‘How was work? Did you have a good day at the office?’
Georgie served our meals of Chicken Valdostano, and after taking a mouthful and complimenting the chef, Ty directed questions my way, saving me from having to think what to ask him. ‘When’s the big day?’
‘One week’s time. Are you married?’ I asked. It was so much easier to ask that question when men knew you were taken, otherwise it sounded like you were sussing them out for potential husband material. But anyway, what sort of wife would want her husband to strip semi-naked and have women grope him in order to pay the bills and put food on the table?
He shook his head, took another mouthful, then asked, ‘What do you do for a living, Sally?’
‘Sally’s a nurse,’ Mel said.
‘I’m sure she can speak for herself, Mel,’ said Georgie, her slender fingers wrapped around the stem of her wine glass.
‘Sorry, force of habit. Five kids.’ Mel shrugged.
‘Ah, you must be a very caring person,’ Ty said. ‘How long have you been nursing?’
‘Geez, he asks a lot of questions.’ Red sat at the empty chair to my right and placed her ghostly elbows on the table. Such a classy ghost. Crashing my party and bad table manners to boot.
‘Almost ten years now.’ I smiled.
‘I could have been a nurse,’ Red said. ‘All those smart, hot doctors to drool over. Mmm…’ she rolled her eyes back in an apparent daydream.
I wouldn’t spoil her assumption and tell her that most of the doctors I knew were either grey-haired and pudgy men or skinny and awkward young men with remnants of teenage acne. Sure, there were a few lookers, but it’s no Grey’s Anatomy.
‘How long have you been, um, stripping?’ I asked, as dignified as possible.
‘Three years.’ He took a sip of wine. ‘And did you always want to be a nurse?’
Did you always want to be a stripper? I couldn’t imagine him as a young boy at school getting up in front of the class and sharing his career aspirations for career day.
‘Well, sort of, I — ’
‘I want to ask questions too, sheesh! Can’t get a word in with this guy!’ Red sat on the edge of the table and I tried not to look at her. ‘What’s your favourite colour, Sally? Wait, let me guess, mauve, right?’
Quit distracting me! I tried the ESP thing again. But what I really wanted to do was push her off the table. So much for being a caring person.
‘Okay, what’s your favourite band then?’ she persisted. ‘Favourite food?’ She leaned over the table and shoved her face in front of mine. ‘Ooh, what about favourite celebrity when you were a teenager? Huh, huh? Answer me, girl!’
I shifted in my seat and pretended I was trying to retrieve the answer to Ty’s question, which had been diluted by Red’s constant verbal assault.
‘Favourite book? Favourite animal?’ she continued shooting questions at me like a tennis ball machine, and my head started to hurt.
‘Um…’ I cleared my throat and rubbed my ear, tension building inside like a boiling pot of water. ‘Sorry, what was the question again?’
‘I said, did you always want to be a nurse?’ Ty repeated.
‘Favourite song? Favourite shop?’ Red continued. ‘Ooh, ooh! Favourite sexual position?’
In frustration, my hand banged down on the table, sending my fork flying across to the floor. ‘Missionary, okay? Missionary!’ I blurted.
All eyes stared at me. ‘What?’ Lorena asked, curiosity and concern on her face at my apparent distress.
Oh dear God.
Red had collapsed in laughter on the floor next to me. ‘Missionary! Haha, missionary position! I knew it!’ she repeated, rolling about.
Just when I thought I’d have to excuse myself from the table, a convenient explanation hit me. I cleared my throat. ‘A missionary. I, er, wanted to be a missionary.’ I gave a confident nod.
‘Um, no you didn’t,’ Lorena said firmly.
Mel had cracked up as well as Red. ‘Since when did you want to become a missionary?’
I pushed my unnatural curls from my face and raised my chin. ‘Well, if you must know, since I was a kid. My parents sent me to Sunday school (true) and I really enjoyed it (false). I thought it would be great to one day travel the world and spread the good word of the Lord (also false). There. Now you know.’
‘Good for you,’ Ty said with a nod. ‘What stopped you?’
How could I get off the missionary topic? All this quick thinking was doing my head in.
Stay tuned for the release of HAUNTED EVER AFTER on Sept 1st from Escape Publishing.
>> You can add it to your Goodreads shelf HERE.
>> And you can preorder from Amazon & iTunes at the moment (though will be available 1st Sept from all ebook retailers):
A bride-to-be, a mystery, and the stripper next door…
Yep, that’s what my next magical romantic comedy novel is about in a nutshell! HAUNTED EVER AFTER is now available for preorder and is on Goodreads (links below). And here is the official blurb, thanks to managing editor Kate from Escape Publishing who edited my draft into the fabulousness below…
HAUNTED EVER AFTER (release date: 1st Sept 2014, Escape Publishing/Harlequin Australia):
Mixing romance, humour and a sparkle of magic, Juliet Madison is back with a new full-length novel about a bride-to-be, a mystery and the stripper next door.
When bride-to-be Sally Marsh attends a weekend away with her bridesmaids, the last thing she expects is an uninvited guest: the ghost of her fiancé’s ex-girlfriend.
Red is quirky, loud and distracting, and Sally is soon desperate to find the reason behind her presence, so she can rid herself of her embarrassing shadow before the wedding day. Unfortunately, the ghost is reluctant to share the reason for her existence, but very enthusiastic about Ty, the surprise hen’s night stripper who keeps showing up at awkward moments.
Time is running out for Sally, but it’s also running out for Red. By the time all is revealed, Sally will be tested to the limits, and go above and beyond everything she’s ever believed in order to ensure not only her own happy-ever-after but Red’s as well.
Think Bridesmaids meets Ghost Whisperer with a bit of Magic Mike (the good bits) 😉
>> You can add it to your Goodreads shelf HERE.
>> And you can preorder from Amazon & iTunes at the moment (though will be available 1st Sept from all ebook retailers):
- Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00M19AWO2
- UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00M19AWO2
- AUS: http://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00M19AWO2
- iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/haunted-ever-after/id902138042?mt=11
>> See the Pinterest board for the book HERE.
Thanks to my readers for your ongoing support, and I hope you enjoy Haunted Ever After! 🙂
COVER REVEAL! Haunted Ever After (plus excerpt)
Drumroll… Ta-Da! 🙂
What do you think?
The design team at Harlequin Australia / Escape Publishing have given me another fabulous cover. It’s always so exciting to see a cover for the first time, and I end up giggling like a little girl. 😀
This is my first cover with a guy on the front! Hello. Oh, except if you count the male nose and mouth on the cover of Starstruck in Seattle. 😉
As soon as it’s up on Goodreads, and on Amazon etc to preorder, I’ll post links. But for now, enjoy the cover and the blurb and excerpt below…
(Unofficial) blurb:
When bride-to-be, Sally Marsh attends a weekend away with her bridesmaids in the small country town of Barron Springs, the last thing she expects is for an uninvited visitor to tag along: the ghost of her fiancé’s ex-girlfriend.
She’s quirky, loud, and hyperactive, and the prim and proper Sally is desperate to find out why she’s being haunted so she can be free of her embarrassing disruptions before the wedding day. Problem is, the ghost is reluctant to share the reason for her presence, but seems intent on tempting her with the hot and charming stripper, Ty, who is always turning up at awkward moments. Is the ghost on a jealousy-fuelled mission to stop the wedding?
By the time the ghost’s secrets are revealed, Sally’s strength will be tested to its limits, and she must go above and beyond anything she’s ever experienced in order to ensure a happy-ever-after for not only herself, but others too.
Exclusive excerpt:
She pushed her finger forwards, and — plop! —the stone fell from my grasp and down my t-shirt through the small valley of my cleavage. I shivered at its cold, smooth surface as it travelled down to my abdomen. ‘Oh no!’ Red laughed as I unbuttoned my jacket and tried to discreetly shove my hand down my top.
‘Can I help at all?’ I spun around to see Ty standing nearby, my hand still lodged between my boobs and my elbow pointing to the heavens, where I wished Red would toddle off to. I yanked my hand out and straightened my jacket.
‘No, I’m fine thanks. Where did you spring from?’
‘I saw you looking at something in your hand so I came to see what it was.’
‘Oh, it’s just a gemstone.’ I brushed a non-existent strand of hair from my face. ‘It sort of, um, fell down my top.’ I could still feel it low against my belly, but I didn’t think my arm could reach down far enough to get it. I could also feel an uncomfortable wave of heat rushing across my face, belying the fact that it was a cold winter’s day.
Ty tried to hold back a grin, but a hint of it twinkled at the sides of his mouth. ‘So, maybe just give your shirt a bit of a shake?’ He grasped his close-fitting black ribbed top at the hem and gave it a shake, and a glimpse of his tanned, hard abs brought back flashes of him last night in his underwear.
The heat on my face intensified. ‘Well, you see, I sort of can’t,’ I replied, touching the spot where the gemstone lay.
‘Why not?’
Oh dear God. Of all the days, why did I have to wear this thing underneath?
‘Because I’m wearing a bodysuit.’
Ty’s eyebrows rose. ‘Oh, one of those all-in-one lycra things?’
I nodded.
‘So you’d need to, um…’
‘Unhook it, below, yes.’ Too much information. Why was I telling him this? Surely a man of his ‘experience’ knew how a woman’s bodysuit was structured.
‘In that case, I’ll let you get on with it.’ He gestured behind and turned away, then turned back briefly. ‘I’ll just wait over here.’
I hid behind a stall and grasped the stone through my clothing with one hand, walking it up my body the way one does with a draw cord lost in the waistband of one’s pants, but it only moved slightly. I plunged my hand down my top again and dug around, but the tight-fit of the bodysuit made it difficult. C’mon gemstone! Where are you? It was like the Bermuda Triangle in here. If this failed I’d have to find the ladies bathrooms and do the unhooking, but if I could just get it…
I grunted, sinking my stomach muscles inwards to make more room for my arm, and stretching poor Mel’s t-shirt piece of art. My fingers came in contact with cold stone which I grasped, and with my other hand I pushed it upwards, until the stone was in my hand and my arm was finally out of a place I didn’t exactly aspire it to be whilst in public, or even private, for that matter. ‘Phew!’ I breathed out, having held my breath for a little while.
I adjusted my top and jacket and returned to where I’d been, feeling as though everyone was looking at me, even though they weren’t. Except Ty.
‘Got it?’ he asked.
I held up the stone in victory.
He clapped. ‘If you were single I would have given you a hand. You know, just to do the helpful gentlemanly thing.’ He winked.
Flirt. ‘Oh, I’m sure.’ I crossed my arms and diverted my gaze from his.
Stay tuned… HAUNTED EVER AFTER releases on 1st Sept 2014. Subscribe to this blog or to my email newsletter HERE to be reminded on release day.
Book News: I’ve signed another contract!
The paperwork is all in order so I can now officially announce that I’ve signed a 3 book contract with my publisher, Escape Publishing (digital imprint of Harlequin Australia)! 😀
The books are as follows:
- HAUNTED EVER AFTER (previously Haunted Housewives) – a romagic comedy novel about a prim and proper bride-to-be who is haunted by the ghost of her fiance’s ex-girlfriend on her hen’s/bachelorette weekend away. There’ll be fun and games, a stripper who has more to reveal than rock-hard abs, and one very feisty red-haired ghost on a mission. Releasing 1st September 2014.
- 12 DAVES OF CHRISTMAS – a heartwarming romagic comedy Christmas novella about a romance writer who spends more time on her fictional love lives than her own, and receives a surprising visit from her Grandmother’s ghost asking for help to find her first love, Dave, who disappeared during the war. Cue a Christmas road trip, and a series of funny and touching moments as they work their way through a list of Daves in search of the right one. Releasing 1st December 2014.
- MIRACLE IN MARCH (tentative title) – Book #3 in the Tarrin’s Bay series, though a complete stand-alone story just like The January Wish and February or Forever. …Miracle in March is about two ex-lovers both in need of a miracle, who find themselves unexpectedly reunited during a one week stay at the Tarrin’s Bay Beachside Cabins. Emma’s hiding the truth about why she ended their relationship six years ago, and James is no longer a high-flying lawyer but a single stay-at-home dad with an autistic son. At the Town of New Beginnings, truths will be shared, dreams will be remembered, and a miracle or two just may occur. Releasing 1st March 2015.
I can’t wait to share the first book, Haunted Ever After, with you in September! The other two are currently in progress, so I’m working hard on making them as enjoyable as possible and meeting my deadlines!
I use Pinterest a lot for inspiration, so if you’d like to follow my boards for each of these books, here are the links:
Haunted Ever After on Pinterest, 12 Daves of Christmas on Pinterest, Miracle in March on Pinterest.
You can also stay updated by subscribing to this blog, and to my email updates at www.julietmadison.com (free gift included!).
BIG thanks to my publisher for continuing to publish my books, and to my readers and reviewers who keep me in business! 🙂
~ Juliet
Happy Birthday FAST FORWARD! My 1 year anniversary of being published :)
It’s my baby’s first birthday! My book baby that is 😉
FAST FORWARD, my debut ro-magic comedy novel that was published on 1st February 2013, is now one year old. Which means, it’s also my publishaversary! (sp?) As if that’s not enough excitement for one day, today, the 1st February 2014 is also the publication day of my new novel (and 5th book), FEBRUARY OR FOREVER! …Stay tuned at 3pm Sydney time for a special release day blog post for that. 🙂
So yay! Triple the celebration!
It’s been a BIG twelve months, and I’m thrilled that readers have had such a positive response to my first book (and my others). Over 100 ratings and over 50 reviews have come in for Fast Forward on Goodreads, which you can read here. You can also see a list of my published books on Goodreads here and add them to your shelves if you wish.
How it all began…
It all started on New Year’s Day 2012. I was wondering which story to write next as I was flipping through a magazine. The next page I turned had an article titled Fast Forward, and I knew instantly that I had to write it, right away! (I had already come up with the title so it was like fate giving me a shove in the right direction). I wrote the first chapter that day, and the character of Kelli was born.
I had so much fun writing this character and her story, starting as a conceited young model and transforming her into a mature, empathetic, nice, well-rounded person (hehe, if you’ve read the book you’ll get that pun) 😉 I also loved writing the quirky secondary characters. I’ve had several readers tell me they fell in love with fifty-year-old Will! He’s such a Superman. 😉
What’s happened since then…
Since publication, Fast Forward became a Number 1 Bestseller in the futuristic category on iTunes, and a Top 100 Bestseller in the romantic comedy category on Amazon UK. It was also a finalist in the women’s fiction category of the Book Junkies Choice Awards, was a Harlequin Junkie Book Club pick, and I recently became a finalist for Favourite New Romance Author in the ARRA Awards. 🙂 It’s great to look back at the year gone and see how things have progressed.
And how appropriate that the cover of FAST FORWARD comes with its own birthday cake?! Saves me having to find a nice cake picture for the blog post! Speaking of covers, I couldn’t be happier with the design the fabulous Harlequin team came up with. The image of a beautiful young woman blowing out a fifty-year-old’s birthday cake is funny and intriguing, and captures the premise of the story perfectly.
…A wonderful thing during this past year was my Nanna being able to read the dedication to her at the front of the book. She passed away a few months later, so I’m glad she got to live long enough to see a book dedicated to her (and she read the book too!).
Thanks, thanks, and more thanks…
To my publisher, thank you! And to my readers, thank you! Having a book out in the world (and now five), is a dream come true. If you’ve read Fast Forward and enjoyed it, I would love love love if you’d consider telling your friends about it. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend (though some would say coffee and chocolate, but no, I tell you the truth ;)) Just one recommendation can lead to another, and another, and so on, which can help authors to be able to continue writing and publishing books. If you’d like to share, send them a link to this post, or to the book’s page on Amazon, or my publisher’s page where all the various links to different stores are. Cyber hugs to everyone who’s spread the news about Fast Forward and/or my other books, you are the angels of this industry!
If you haven’t read FAST FORWARD yet, you can grab a copy via the links at the bottom of this post, and now I’ll leave you with a few one-liners from the book, followed by an excerpt from a scene that many have said is their favourite:
- “Fifty?” I blurted, almost choking as the word launched from the slingshot of my voice box. “I’m not fifty! I’m supposed to be twenty five!”
- Wait … if I was married to William McSnelly, then that would make me … Oh God, no! Kelli McSnelly. Shoot me now.
- “Liliana, do you believe in … ” I glanced around surreptitiously to make sure there were no men in white jumpsuits getting ready to whisk me away to a facility for middle-aged menopausal psychopaths. “ … time travel?”
- Automatically reaching for non-existent keys in my non-existent handbag, my hands then flew to my cheeks. How do I unlock the car?
- I might need support underwear to fit into the support underwear and that could go on and on. I’d be my own Russian doll.
And a brief excerpt from many readers’ favourite scene: the ‘support underwear’ scene…
I grabbed the edge of the fabric again, pulling as hard as I could, but only managed to squash my face, my upturned nose now practically touching my forehead. I must have looked like one of those criminals who cover their face with stockings. I could rob a bank in this thing, only I’d need an accomplice—or a guide dog—to show me where the hell I was going and possibly an oxygen tank feeding me air through a straw.
Oh my God! What was I going to do? My mind swirled in one chaotic haze, as panic rose within and the chances of getting out of this predicament alive seemed slimmer by the minute. Unlike my abdomen.
Crazy images flashed through my mind of Will finding me passed out on the floor of the bedroom, the magic suit still covering my head, arms still stuck up in the air … paramedics whisking me off to hospital …. Will waiting anxiously outside the operating room and the doctor emerging with an expression of defeat, pulling the mask off his face in resignation.
I’m sorry, Mr McSnelly. We did everything we could. We managed to remove some of it, but couldn’t get it all, I’m afraid. The situation was too far advanced and she couldn’t fight any longer. I’m very sorry.
Will would collapse in tears and the doctor would go back to the operating room and sign my death certificate. Cause of death: Asphyxiation by SlimFX Magic Suit.
A lawsuit—ha! how appropriate—would ensue and, if the suits weren’t taken off the market, they would at least come with a warning on the packet like cigarettes: Use magic suit at own risk. May cause death, deformity, or post-traumatic stress disorder. They’d have a grotesque picture of some poor woman—probably me—trapped in the suit. Others would show gangrenous arms from the circulation being cut off and faces permanently disfigured from the pressure exerted by the suit during its attempted take-off mission. I realised then that I’d have to have a closed coffin at my funeral so as to spare my family from the trauma of seeing me like that. Speaking of coffins, I’d probably need an extra-long one to accommodate my arms, permanently extended above my head from not only the stuck magic suit but also rigor mortis.
~*~
FAST FORWARD: Aspiring supermodel, Kelli Crawford seems destined to marry her hotshot boyfriend, but on her twenty-fifth birthday she wakes in the future as a fifty-year-old suburban housewife married to the now middle-aged high school nerd.
Trapped in the opposite life of the one she wanted, Kelli is forced to re-evaluate her life and discover what is really important to her. Will she overcome the hilarious and heartbreaking challenges presented to her and get back to the body of her younger self? Or will she be stuck in the nightmare of hot flushes, demanding children, raunchy advances from her husband and hideous support underwear forever?
Buy FAST FORWARD via…
Escape Publishing, Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon AUS, iTunes/iBookstore, Kobo, Google Play, B&N/Nook, JB Hi-Fi.
>> Join me this weekend for an online facebook party and chat to celebrate Fast Forward’s birthday and the release of February or Forever: https://www.facebook.com/events/1419435084961712/
RELEASE DAY! … I Dream of Johnny
It’s here! The release of my second book! It was not that long ago I was celebrating the release of my debut novel, Fast Forward, and now, seven months later I’m celebrating the release of I DREAM OF JOHNNY, my romantic comedy novella with a magical twist, out now with Escape Publishing.
If you like stories that make you giggle and leave you feeling uplifted and positive, then I hope you’ll check out ‘Johnny’. I love writing stories that are both humorous and heartwarming, and I hope you’ll enjoy reading them.
As with Fast Forward (which contained time travel 25 years into the future), this book has a slight magical twist, and a new sub-genre is emerging called ‘Romagic Comedy‘ which captures this type of story perfectly… set in every day life, but with a hint of something supernatural, yet not enough to be a true paranormal or fantasy book. In this case, think of a mix of the TV shows The Big Bang Theory and I Dream of Jeannie (yes – it has a magic lamp, AND geeks) 😉
>>Getting three wishes isn’t all it’s cracked up to be when an unfortunate spelling error in Mandy’s high-tech magic lamp changes her wish for a Greek God into a Geek God. His fashion IQ is in the negatives, he’s clingier than cling wrap, and he has a penchant for breaking into song at inappropriate moments. Before Mandy can request a replacement wish, she has to put up with him for twenty four hours, and the timing couldn’t be worse – – it’s her friend’s wedding day, her ex will be there, and the God of Geeks insists on coming along for the ride.
Here is what people are saying about the story so far…
“Pure, absolute fun!” ~ Maria
“If you’re looking for a light and quick read, pick this one up!” ~ Deanna
“Ms Madison is a brilliant author and I can seriously see her rocking the chick lit charts.” ~ Ananda
“Super adorable … A light, sweet read (like cotton candy).” ~ Cynthia
I DREAM OF JOHNNY is available worldwide and you can buy it from all ebook retailers, including:
Amazon, Amazon UK, iTunes, B&N/Nook, Kobo, Google Play, JB Hi-Fi, Booktopia, ebooks.com,Escape Publishing.
…Come back to the blog on 2nd Sept at 12pm Sydney, AU time for a huge event I’m holding to celebrate this release, called the Three Wishes Blog Blitz! Over 35 blogs are participating and giving away great prizes, so make sure you stop b y and enter the prize draws. It will run until the 6th September.
Happy reading, and be careful what you wish for! 😉
JULIET MADISON 