Run Into Fall by Jannine Gallant

Yep, it’s that time of year again. Temperatures are cooler, a few leaves have started to turn and the kids have gone back to school. A whole new routine begins—one where I can write without constantly hearing, “Mom, do you know where my flip-flops went?” (As if they got up and walked away of their own accord!) “Mom, what’s for breakfast (or lunch or dinner)? Mom, can you drive me…” (Fill in the blank—the choices are endless.)

Tara at the 2012 Championship Race

In our house, the beginning of the school year means the beginning of fall sports. No, my girls didn’t get their athletic ability from me, thank heavens. My husband is a sports fanatic. (Not watching—doing!) While for most high school sports enthusiasts, fall means football, it doesn’t around here. My girls run cross country. My youngest, Kristen, is a freshman this year. Her older sister, Tara (a junior), spent the summer brainwashing my beautiful ballerina into believing she likes to run. Tara is a die-hard competitor (Nevada state champ last year—yes we live in CA, but Tahoe kids compete in Nevada since it’s so much closer.) This year Tara’s goal is not only to be personal State Champ again but to have her girls’ team win as well. It didn’t take a math whiz to figure out she needed at least one more fast runner to accomplish her goal. Kristen is a recreational runner. Tara decided that somewhere in her sister’s genetic makeup, there must be a competitive racer just waiting to be released. So she is slowly but surely torturing her into shape, determined to let the team’s missing link loose! LOL Kristen is improving. She has until the end of October to accomplish her sister’s (and what is becoming her) goal.

So, on most Fridays I drive an hour or two (or three) to races to cheer them on.

Since we are so immersed in the running world around here, it isn’t surprising I chose to make one of my heroines a runner. In Maybe This Time, Chloe runs into her old high school pal, Adam, on the course of the Lake Tahoe Marathon. A friendship turns into a romance in this story about finding love a second time around. There’s plenty of humor too. The book opens on the set of a reality dating show set in Hawaii. The show’s name—Get Lei’d. One of my more clever moments if I do say so myself. So if you enjoy running or reality TV or funny romances, give this one a try.

What’s the fall sport of choice in your house?

Find links to all my books on my website. Or, follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Reunions by Jannine Gallant

I couldn’t settle on one of our topics for this post. Usually I’m inspired, but this month, not so much. So, I’m going to stray a little. June is about graduations – which brings to mind reunions. It’s been a while since I posted about my Class of ’85 books. This series, published by The Wild Rose Press, wrapped up early this spring. My last book for the series came out a year ago. I’ve read every one of these books, over twenty of them. They are great stories about people revisiting their past and learning something about life and love in the process. The common link in the series is that either the hero or heroine (or both) was a member of the Summerville High class of ’85. He or she receives an invitation to a 25^th high school reunion in Summerville on the shore of beautiful Lake Ontario. These books have gotten terrific reviews. But, frankly, sales stink!

So, I’ll ask the million dollar question – why? Maybe I’m wrong, but I’d have to say a large portion of the women who read romances fall into the over forty category. (I know I do!) The characters in this series have a lot more in common with our readers than they do with a twenty-something hottie. So, why do books about older heroes and heroines not attract the attention I feel they deserve? Are crow’s feet a little too close to home for comfort? Would you, as a reader, rather escape into a world full of shape shifters, cowboys, or a setting from days gone by than read about a woman who has grown children and is on husband number 2? In the contest between escapism and reality, I have a sneaking suspicion reality comes out the loser. I’d love to know why you chose one sub-genre of romance over another to read. Please share your thoughts.

I’ll leave you with a really fun excerpt from Maybe This Time, my third and final book in the Class of ’85 series. This is the scene that inspired me to write the book. I hope you enjoy it!

Chloe Lane stood on the set of the hit reality dating show, Get Lei’d, with five other women, wondering if she’d completely lost her mind. All the other contestants were beautiful and young, painfully young. Sweat beaded her brow despite the tropical breeze blowing through the open cabana. Nerves shredded her stomach lining. She was forty-three years old and the mother of a teenage daughter for God’s sake. She had no business being on stage with the twenty-something girls still in contention.

Why had she let Sarah talk her into this madness? Why hadn’t Rafe sent her home weeks ago? Sure they’d had fun on the extravagant dates arranged by the show, but a long term relationship between the two of them didn’t seem likely.

Lamont stopped in front of her, opened his makeup case with a flick of his manicured nails, and clicked his tongue. Chloe gritted her teeth and concentrated on not kicking the annoying little man. If he made one more comment about her crow’s feet she’d scream.

His black brows lowered, and he wielded the touch up brush with more force than finesse. “Please, no close-ups on this one. I’m good, but I’m not a miracle worker.”

Bruce Kildare, the director, paused in his endless pacing; his voice boomed across the set. “We want her to look her age. That’s why the viewers love her. Cougars are all the rage.”

Blurbs and buy links for all my Class of ’85 books are on my website. Thanks for visiting!

American the Beautiful

By Jannine Gallant

One of our April topics is Keep America Beautiful. I feel blessed to live in an incredibly beautiful place – Lake Tahoe. I can walk out my door and hike for miles in the pristine wilderness. The lake is a few minutes walk from my house. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Of course there are drawbacks. When I’m fighting with a four foot high berm left by the snowplow, trying to clear my driveway in a raging blizzard, I tend to forget what a joy it is living in Tahoe. No place is perfect! But after the storm passes, the glistening snow covered world is magical.

When it comes to my writing, I’ve capitalized on the Beautiful America theme. Two of my books are set partially in Tahoe. Maybe This Time features Emerald Bay on the cover, something I specifically asked for from the cover artist.

The balance of the story takes place on the California coast. Our shoreline is truly spectacular, but then I’m a teensy bit biased being a California girl born and bred.

Not one of those SoCal beach babes, mind you. I grew up at the very top of the state in the Redwood Forest. You can’t really do justice to the sheer power of a redwood tree in a photograph. You have to stand beneath one, with your head tilted so far back your neck aches, to appreciate the grandeur of the world’s tallest tree. The thick redwood forest, shrouded in fog, has an eerie feel to it that called to me as a writer.

So I wrote A Deadly Love about a serial killer loose in these woods. This book will be released in August.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the photos of my beautiful corner of America. For more information on my books, please visit my website and blog.

Mother Nature Stars in my Books!

By Jannine Gallant

Gardening and Nature is one of our topics this month. No one who has ever seen my yard would mistake me for a gardener. I’m lucky if I put one planter box of flowers out on the deck and remember to water it. My yard is green – because it’s full of thimbleberry bushes. Nature is my true love – beauty and simplicity wrapped into one lovely package that requires no effort on my part! LOL.

I grew up in the coastal woods of Northern California and have lived most of my adult life in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I can’t imagine not being able to walk out my door and into the forest. Nothing is more beautiful than the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, the chirp of birds high overhead, the chatter of a squirrel taunting my dog. I love hiking until I’m out of breath, then sitting by a stream sparkling in the sunlight, breathing in the scent of pine needles… But I digress.

I can’t write cities with any authority. My characters live in small towns with nature all around. I have the occasional scene in a city, but for the most part I stick to what I know. My first book, Victim of Desire, takes place in Napa Valley, but my characters travel to a wilderness retreat in the High Sierra and to Lake Tahoe. One very tense scene takes place on the trail through the woods where I walk every day. It has now been dubbed “The Scary Trail” by a local friend. LOL

My Class of ’85 books all have rural settings. In Lonely Road to You my h&h journey cross country through Yellowstone and the Badlands on a road trip that involves camping, bears, and bison. After All These Years takes place in a ramshackle old cabin in the Adirondack Mountains, and Maybe This Time is set by the ocean in Northern California and on the course of the Lake Tahoe Marathon.

 My latest book, Bittersweet, is a historical set on a farm in Colorado. My grandparents lived on a farm when I was growing up, so I tried to channel those childhood memories of barns and fields and gardens when I wrote this story.

So, what are your favorite settings in books? Authors, do your characters find love in the woods or on city streets? Readers, tell us what locations fascinate you. They could wind up in my next book!

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A New Adventure

I’m thrilled to be a part of the revamped Roses of Prose! In the spirit of new beginnings, a little info about me. Probably more than you ever wanted to know! LOL

Jannine the Author
I write romantic suspense and contemporary romance with a bit of mystery thrown in. I can’t seem to write a story that doesn’t keep the reader guessing… My first novel, Victim of Desire, was published by The Wild Rose Press last spring. My current work in progress is a sequel starring the heroine’s sister, Grace.

I’ll admit it—I have a weakness for those submission calls tossed out by publishers. I can’t seem to resist, even if I’m hip deep in another story. When I saw the call for the Class of ’85 series about a 25 year high school reunion, I was hooked. I wrote Lonely Road to You, but could I stop there? Not a chance. I adored this series and the interaction with the other authors. After All These Years was my second offering, and Maybe This Time was my third. I really have to work on my powers of resistance! LOL

I’d just finished Maybe This Time when the call came for the new Honky Tonk Hearts series. I don’t write about cowboys, or do I? Apparently I do. I told you I’m a sucker for a submission call. Nothing But Trouble was an absolute blast to write. I don’t have a release date yet for this one. It’s currently in the editing stages, but I’ll keep you updated on its progress.

And finally, my first love. Historical romance. I double majored in history and creative writing, so you’d think I’d write historicals. I do—or did. I wrote three of them, long meandering sagas that gathered an impressive pile of rejections. I took a pair of pruning sheers to the final one and hacked away. The final result was a really wonderful story (if I do say so myself) set in rural Colorado in 1880. Bittersweet will be released by the Whiskey Creek Press in February of 2012.

Jannine when she isn’t glued to her computer!I live in gorgeous Lake Tahoe with my husband, two daughters, and dog, Ginger. When I’m not writing, I’m either hiking (or snowshoeing depending on the season) in the woods around our home with Ginger, chauffeuring my girls from one sporting event to another, trying to catch up on housework, or cooking. I do love to cook, and for those of you interested, I post recipes on my personal blog at http://janninegallant.blogspot.com/. I grew up in a small town, live in the mountains, and love being outdoors. You’ll find a big dose of small town life or outdoor adventure in all my books.

To all you readers out there, what are your favorite settings for a story?

Find buy links and blurbs for all my books on my website at www.janninegallant.com. Thanks for reading!

Jannine Gallant