Please help me welcome today’s guest, Margot Johnson…
He can’t face another loss…and she won’t stay
Krista is a professional figure skater who performs on cruise ships, a world away from the prairie town of Blue Sky where she is maid of honor at her best friend’s wedding. The handsome best man, Tate, is a small-town guy, former hockey player, and single dad.
Why not accept his invitation to trade her glamorous life for a temporary coaching position in the middle of nowhere? After all she’s been through, she needs a fresh start. But soon, complications with the ice show, her newly adopted dog, and her inconvenient attraction to Tate send Krista spinning off balance faster than a flip jump.
Who knows what will happen by spring…if she lasts?
Excerpt:
“Do you like weddings?” Tate murmured after the rehearsal as he escorted her down the aisle toward the lobby.
She felt slightly awkward with her forearm tucked through the crook of his arm. “I do.” She almost laughed at her choice of words and glanced over to see if he noticed. His tanned face, blue jeans, and brown sweater made him look strong and outdoorsy. The dark shadow gracing his chin only added to his rugged appeal. He’d probably look even better in the suit he’d wear at the wedding service tomorrow.
But seriously, why did she choose the words I do at a wedding?
“Does that mean we’re married?”
He quirked an eyebrow in a charmingly irresistible way. Instantly, butterflies fluttered in her stomach, and she wished she could bat them all away and return to her normal, in-control self. “I hope not.” She glanced over and laughed. The idea was so far-fetched it was funny.
“Whew.” With his free hand, he wiped his brow. “You scared me for a minute.”
“Aren’t you already married? You have two beautiful daughters.” She shouldn’t pry but couldn’t resist finding out more. Not that she was interested in a man right now.
“Nah.”
His voice sounded almost wistful and trailed off like he might have a story he didn’t want to share. She recognized the vague signs of weariness and disappointment she carried inside too. He must be divorced, and maybe he still felt the pain of the split.
“I’m a single dad. I take it you’re unattached too?” His statement was more of a question.
“Definitely. Happily. But I love other people’s weddings.” After what she’d been through with Zach’s continual barbs, she wouldn’t open her heart to another man for a very long time, if ever. How could she find the energy? Did she have the confidence? How could she trust she wouldn’t get hurt? Now, all she wanted…well, what did she want? She could use a break in her life, like intermission in a play, to regroup and find a new path. She needed a fresh start, plain and simple.
Margot Johnson writes feel-good stories about women who chase their dreams and find romance along the way.
She is the author of seven romances–the novels One Winter in Blue Sky, Some Other Way, Love Takes Flight, and Love Leads the Way and three novellas in the Merilee Tours series–Let it Snowball, Let it Melt and Let it Simmer. Her characters can’t possibly find their happy endings…or can they?
Before turning her focus to the fun writing life, Margot held leadership roles in human resources and communications. When not writing, she loves to connect with family and friends, volunteer with SK Writers’ Guild, and walk at least 10,000 steps a day (except when it’s minus 40 degrees outside!)
She lives with her husband in the Canadian prairies.
Please help me welcome today’s guests, C J Bahr and Marla White who are sharing about their collaboration. I’m in awe of writers who can work together to write the same book. I am not sure I could, but let’s see how it came about…
Alisa Jean is what happens when you put two writers together who share a mutual love, bordering on obsession, of hockey.
MARLA: I’m an award-winning cozy mystery writer who prefers to kill people the old-fashioned way – on paper.
C J: And I’m an award-winning writer of supernatural suspense who wreaks havoc in ghostly, demonic, or other-worldly ways with some spicy heat for good measure.
MARLA: Our writing collaboration more or less started the day the L.A. Kings celebrated Dustin Brown’s retirement. So, thanks, Brownie! Before then, I’d seen a hockey game or two, but dang, that puck is hard to follow on TV.
C J: S**t, take her to one live game and a fan is conceived if not fully born. Already a fan of the sport, I got her to watch a season, and soon my friend turned into a shouty, screaming maniac. It’s hilarious to watch.
MARLA: So naturally, we decided to turn our mutual love for the sport into a hockey romance series. Which always invites the question, “How do you write together?” The answer is it’s oddly easier than either of us thought it would be.
C J: Being lifelong best friends certainly helps. We don’t split up the characters, with one of us writing the male hero and the other the female heroine. Frankly, the idea never occurred to us, and now that I say it, that just sounds…weird. We basically leapfrog off each other’s work, making changes and approving new words as we go.
MARLA: It works out well, since I prefer to write first thing in the morning for an hour or so before starting my real job.
C J: And I prefer to write in the afternoon. So I’ll read and edit what she wrote earlier, and then I’ll write new scenes or chapters for her to build on the next morning.
MARLA: After coming up with a general outline, of course. Because I’m a plotter while she’s –
C J: A proud pantser. That’s the one difference that can be a bit tricky to work through, but we compromise and make changes to the outline as characters become clearer and more vibrant. Sometimes it takes a while, and other times, the characters just click.
MARLA: So far, “Luka,” the second book in the series, took a little bit longer. Our main characters are both dealing with some darkness, and we wanted to get it right.
C J: “Matthew,” on the other hand, practically burst off the page. We both knew back in book one, when the reader is introduced to Matt as the team’s angriest enforcer, exactly where we wanted to take him.
MARLA: One of the most fun we had with “Matthew” was replaying a scene from “Luka,” but this time from Matt’s perspective because their stories run concurrently. The idea of knowing what a person is dealing with makes it easier to feel compassion for them was important to us.
C J: I mean, he is an almost irredeemable jerk to Lincoln in the first book. Largely inspired by Jonathan Quick, we both loved Linc but had a little too much fun making Matt a thorn in his side. There had to be a reason he was such an a-hole, and when we found it, we knew what his book needed to be about.
MARLA: So far, knock on wood, we’re in the midst of book four in the (hopefully) seven-book series and haven’t had any major conflicts between the two of us.
C J: Well, except for your overuse of “up”. And towards instead of toward.
MARLA: Let it go, it’s my inner-Brit, I can’t help it.
C J: Anyway…writing in a different genre has opened us to a whole new group of readers, and we just love it.
A red-hot hockey sin bin romance
Matthew Holt uses his anger on the ice, gaining him the title of enforcer for L.A. Quakes and high minutes in the sin bin. But hooking up with a teammate’s little sister may earn him the highest penalty of all.
Ever since pee wee hockey, I’ve only known one way to play the sport I love – one hundred percent all in. My focus has always been protecting my teammates, so when the only team I’ve ever played for betrays me, trading me to a team thousands of miles from the family that needs me, who can blame me for taking angry and bitter to a whole new level.
Then Phoebe Anderson, the younger sister of my new teammate, literally falls into my arms and suddenly my life takes another, weird turn. Because believe it or not, my late sister voices her approval of the adorable klutz and refuses to be denied. Or am I going nuts? Either way, will our siblings prove to be too big of an obstacle to overcome? Or am I ready to let go of my anger and do whatever it takes to earn Phoebe’s love?
Excerpt:
This is from Phoebe and Matt’s first real date, and she discovers some surprising information about him.
“You can’t be serious. The original cartoon Mulan is way better than the live-action piece of garbage.” I’ve figured out that arguing is Matt’s primary mode of conversation, but he’s doing it with a sparkle in his brown eyes and a hint of a smile dancing on his lips. He takes a bite of a tortilla filled with roasted poblano peppers, onions, corn, Mexican cream, and cotija cheese. I’ve never had Rajas Con Crema, but I think I’m in love now. I want to date it. “The animated movie features great songs. Reflection, A Girl Worth Fighting For, Honor To Us All. And of course, my personal favorite,” he grins before singing, “mysterious like the dark side of the moon.”
First, I’m not surprised he likes the song I’ll Make A Man Out Of You, but I am surprised he has a pretty great singing voice. Who would have guessed?
I snicker. “Of course, that would be your favorite song.” I hold up a finger, ready to make my own argument for why the live-action is better. “That’s one of the problems. Live-action Mulan fixed many of the cultural problems and sexism. It also is closer to the historic Mulan story.”
“And I’ll counter-argue unlike the animated Mulan, who is an active force in shaping her own destiny, the live-action Mulan joins the Imperial Army, and the rest of the plot simply happens to her.”
I laugh. I can’t help myself. It’s like he’s giving a PhD dissertation. When I finally get a hold of myself, grateful I didn’t pee myself laughing, I grin at him. “I still can’t believe you watched both Mulan movies multiple times. I just don’t see it.”
“Yeah, well, I watched them with my younger sister.”
“You guys close?”
“Yeah.” He looks away before grabbing the last taco. For the record, I ate three to his seven. And, I also sense his discomfort talking about his sister, so I cut him some slack and change the topic.
We talk for another two hours about everything and nothing. Like his movies, he prefers classic rock like Guns N’ Roses, Rush, and Metallica over the synthesized crap of Pixel Grip or Death Comes Crawling.
“I mean, how do people not know when the instruments aren’t even real?” He gives an exaggerated shudder, which makes me laugh again.
“Mathew Holt, I had no idea you were so funny. And such a traditionalist. Plus, those bands use synthetic sounds on purpose. They’re not pretending a fake electric guitar is real.” I put my hand on his arm without thinking about it. His skin is warm to the touch, and the thought of how warm he’d be in bed comes into my brain unbidden. The image of him naked beside me isn’t unwanted, mind you, it just came of its own accord.
“Why are you smiling at me like that?” He raises an eyebrow at me, lip curled up on one side.
“I just didn’t know you were funny, that’s all.” I lie. If he knew what I was really thinking, we’d both be in trouble.
Favorite Lines:
“She sees rainbows and sunshine everywhere she looks, and all I see is the impending storm, flooding, and destruction.”
“I’m going to romance her so hard she won’t know what hit her. Somewhere between the front door and the bedroom last night, I decided to claim her, body and soul.”
“I need your rainbows to light my super dark world, or I’m lost.”
“I want the world to know this amazing woman is off the market and she’s mine. She’s my everything.”
Alisa Jean is the pseudonym for award-winning authors Marla A. White and C J Bahr. They first teamed up over thirty years ago over a bottle of Zima (don’t ask) while polishing their gear for a horse show. They’ve since moved on to better beverages and writing novels.
Separately, Marla prefers to murder characters in the usual way, while C J uses paranormal means. The long-time best friends joined together as a writing team through their mutual love of hockey. Wonder twin powers activated! Their hockey romances examine flawed characters with heart, humor, and sexy sizzle.
Author Alicia Dean 