I have the pleasure of having a guest post from author Jennifer Collin. She answers...
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What would be your
dream place to visit and why?
Like many Australians, I’m reasonably well-travelled. There
must be something about being stuck down here at the bottom of the earth that
drives us to get on a plane and see the world. The characters in my Evans
Trilogy have this is wanderlust as well. Book One, Set Me Free, opens with
Charlotte returning from a jaunt to Italy, where, like I did many years ago,
she walked the hiking trail along the Cinque Terra. Book Two, Open My Eyes,
begins in Kyoto, Japan, another place I’ve visited that has stayed with me. And
finally, half of the action in Book Three, Bring Me Back, takes place in New
Zealand. My husband and I went to New Zealand on our honeymoon and we often
daydream about relocating there.
I’ve ticked many places of my bucket list and most of them
met my expectations. In addition to the above, some of my favorite places in
the world include Ireland (just all of it), the Scottish Highlands, London, Copenhagen,
Berlin, Amsterdam, Krakow (Poland), Prague, Tokyo and Hanoi (Vietnam).
I’ve had misadventures in Paris, where I was accosted beneath
the Eiffel Tower by a man who wanted to take me back to his apartment, slip me
into some silk trousers, and take photos of me with poking my bottom up in the
air. Eww! There was also the time my friend and I were stumbling back to our
hut in a northern Thai rice paddy field when two men in full military gear
suddenly appeared out of nowhere to watch the spectacle of the drunk
westerners. “Did you see that!” we stage-whispered to each other, giggling
manically and completely oblivious to the danger we were in.
There are many places I still want to go. I want to see a
white Christmas in Canada and pound the pavement in New York. I want to see the
west coast of the USA and some of the big landmarks, like Yellowstone National
Park and the Grand Canyon. I want to go to Chile, and Brazil and Argentina. I
want to see the craziness that is Mumbai (India) and waltz through the Winter
Palace in St Petersburg (Russia). I want to see the Terracotta Army in Xian,
China and the futuristic cities of Beijing and Shanghai. And I want to take my
kids on safari somewhere in Africa and to the Great Pyramids in Egypt.
The world is such a big, beautiful place with so much to
see, I’m not sure there is any one dream place for me. I want to see it all.
But if I could check out for a few months to go anywhere I wanted to immerse
myself in a novel, I dream of overlooking either the lush, green, rolling hills
of Ireland in summer, or the snow-capped Remarkables in Queenstown, New
Zealand, with a fire warming my back and a cat purring on my lap. Ahh…
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by Jennifer Collin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Chick Lit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURBS:
Disastrous love life
aside, Charlotte Evans is rather content with her life. Her quaint little art
gallery is plodding along nicely, and her sister Emily’s artistic career is
about to take off, thanks to her tireless promotion. She even gets to see her
best friend every day and drink his delicious coffee in the café next door.
But when dastardly property developer Craig
Carmichael comes along, threatening to demolish her gallery and take everything
away, Charlotte has an unexpected fight on her hands. Not only is she battling
to stop Craig’s development, she’s also struggling against the mysterious
magnetic pull that has her on a collision course with Craig himself.
Craig Carmichael is fighting the Battle for
Boundary Street on more than one front. The tenants of the building he wants to
knock down are mounting a strong case against him and in a hot-headed moment he
put his career on the line for a project that is threatening to fail. If the
project doesn’t succeed he will lose everything, but for some reason he’s
having trouble maintaining his focus.
As their worlds begin to unravel around them,
anyone could win. It’s what they might lose that has Charlotte and Craig
wondering what it is they really want.
Everything happens for a
reason, they say. And sometimes the reason is you're stupid and make bad
decisions. Sleeping with her sister's best friend is one of the dumbest things
soon-to-be divorcee Emily Evans has ever done. But she's determined to put it
behind her and move on. She's walked away from her cheating husband, managed to
make a new friend, and found herself a real job and somewhere to live so she
doesn't have to couch-surf any more. Everything should be falling into place
but for one problem – there are some mistakes from which you can't move on.
Meanwhile, Ben Cameron is
getting on with his life. After all, it's the only thing to do once your heart
has been stomped on by the woman of your dreams. Expanding his business and
getting cosy with the girl next door are proving welcome distractions. He's
even happy to babysit his nephew, as long as he can to hand him back when he's
done! And thankfully, Emily Evans, the woman with the heavy boots, is avoiding
him like the plague.
But Emily can't avoid him
forever, and when she drops a bombshell that turns Ben's world upside-down,
suddenly, getting on with his life takes on a whole new meaning.
Andy Evans is on the move.
For six long, lonely years, he’s been running from his past, leaving his family
and his life as a drug-addicted rock star far behind. His latest move takes him
to the sleepy seaside town of Oamaru, New Zealand, to sell cigar-box guitars to
tourists. The only running he’ll need to do will be training for the
half-marathon in nearby Dunedin. But when Andy sets eyes on Steampunk HQ,
Oamaru's main tourist attraction, he realises his days of running might not be
over, especially if a certain Steampunk fan from his past catches up with him.
Annie Martin is on the cusp
of great success. Her career as a Steampunk academic is about to take off, as
long as she can convince one disagreeable, New Zealand-based Professor to sign
up to the anthology she’s putting together. Thankfully, Annie is a master at
maintaining her poise and few people, no matter how nasty, can rattle her. Not
any more. In fact, it’d been a good six years since anyone had gotten under her
skin, after her best friend’s brother had vanished into thin air.
When Annie finds her future
career on a collision course with her secret past, Andy Evans is the last
person she expects to find tangled up in the mess. With a vengeful drug-dealer
or two hot on his heels, and a vindictive academic determined to ruin her
credibility, can Annie bring Andy back to his family before it’s too late?
Annie and Andy are used to being alone, but if they don’t work together,
there’ll be much more at stake than her livelihood and his sobriety.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPTS
‘You
know I’m going to fight you in this development, don’t you?’
‘I
do.’
They
walked in silence until they rounded the corner into her street and crossed the
road in front of her building.
Charlotte
stopped. ‘You lied to me,’ she accused, finally seeking out his eyes.
‘No
I didn’t. Not technically. I failed to tell you something, but I didn’t lie.’
Was he teasing her?
‘Same
thing,’ she snapped. ‘I don’t like liars. And I’m not very fond of people who
are out to ruin my life,’ she added.
‘I’m
not going to ruin your life,’ he said, not looking away, holding her with his
dark brown gaze.
‘Well
that means that you are because you’re a liar.’
He
chuckled softly and gently. ‘Your argument is not sound.’
Charlotte
withheld a grin. He was right. She sounded like a petulant child. She decided
not to bite back.
‘I’m
going in now,’ she said. ‘Thanks for seeing me home, I guess.’
He
shrugged. She paused, and her gaze fell on his lips. When the corners of his
mouth started to turn, so did she, on her heel, to stomp up the stairs to her
apartment.
‘Goodnight,
Charlotte,’ he called.
Throwing
him one final glare, she closed her door on him and made a beeline for the
shower to wash away the sinful desire threatening her good judgment.
Excerpt
They
walked back to the car, side by side, a little closer this time. It felt
normal, like it used to be between them.
Comfortable and safe. She reached
for his arm and wrapped her fingers around his bicep, feeling his muscles
twitch beneath her touch. She rested her
head against his shoulder. He reached
around her and pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head, sending a shower
of tingles down her spine and all the way to her toes. Keeping her eyes on
those toes, she soaked up his warmth.
When
he pulled up outside her new home, he asked, ‘So, do you want to book in that
shopping trip then?’
Emily
didn’t want to get out of the car. She wanted to stay there with him. It was so
quiet and peaceful and toasty. It felt like home.
Emily
closed her eyes. She could hear the hum of the car engine, the faint sounds of
the radio not quite turned all the way down. Another car drove past. And there
was Ben’s breathing. The slow intake of air and the whisper of his exhalation.
There
had been other days, other times like this, late last year after she split from
Geoff, when Ben was the centre of her universe. Back then he was always there,
when she didn’t even realise she needed him. Even before she split from Geoff
he’d been there, always there to make her laugh, keep her company when she was
lonely, amuse her when she was bored. Ben had always been there, but she hadn’t
seen him until it was too late.
She
could see him now.
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Excerpt
‘You’ll
be able to play that one day if you keep practising,’ David told him when he
set the guitar down.
‘Do
you think so?’
‘I
do.’
‘I
think my mum’s here,’ Genjii said, looking towards the door that led to the
shopfront.
‘Is
she? I didn’t hear the bell.’
‘She
came in while you were playing.’
Guitar
case in hand, Genjii led David through to the front of the shop. On the other
side of the door, he stopped unexpectedly, and David crashed into him.
‘I
guess it’s not your mum,’ David murmured, taking in the woman staring at the
row of cigar box guitars on the wall. Another Steampunk freak, come to check
out Oamaru’s famous HQ. David’s heart began to pick up speed. A handful of them
had wandered in since he’d been in the shop and they’d put him on edge every
time.
From
behind at least, this one wore her Steampunk well; the corset cinching her
waist rounded her hips nicely. Her long skirts brushed the floor. Unlike the
others, who’d always seemed uncomfortable in their costumes, this one looked
like she belonged in Victorian England. This one stirred memories of the
Steampunk freak he’d left in his past, the one he didn’t want to see again. He
shook his head and reminded himself the probability was low. Six months. He was
only here for six months.
Then
the woman turned around.
David’s
heart stopped. His heart, which hammered constantly these days, even when he
wasn’t running or remembering, just stopped beating. The rumble of his
thoughts, the white noise he was never able to clear, fell into silence.
The
woman froze, staring at him, brow gradually puckering. David knew he was
staring back, but he was unable to tear his eyes away. It felt like minutes
passed, but it must have been only seconds, before she stepped towards him.
‘Andy?’
she said. It came out in a gasp. Her chest rose and fell in short bursts, and
the colour drained from her face. She swallowed. ‘Is it you?’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jennifer Collin writes quirky, and sometimes gritty, love
stories about ordinary people dealing with what life throws at them.
She lives in Brisbane,
Australia, with her husband, two noisy children and a cantankerous cat.
She used to party, but now
her idea of a good time is an uninterrupted sleep. These days, her characters
do her partying for her, and she doesn't necessarily let them sleep.
Links
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, described as “brilliantly imagined”, “beautifully
written and compelling” and “ fantastic at bringing history alive for
children”. She is also the author of