Today, Cat Shaffer joins us to talk about the joy of the unexpected gift! Welcome,Cat!
****
I love unexpected gifts. I’m sure everyone is excited by a surprise delivery of fresh flowers or a piece of jewelry that is absolutely perfect. Most of us, I figure, know the person who sent them. But what would it be like to receive presents from an absolute stranger?
And then discover the stranger is the man who’s occupied your dreams for years?
That’s what happens to Jessica Flint in “Man of Her Dreams,” part of the new Enchanted Lover set. Actually, that’s only a tiny bit of what happens to poor Jessi when she goes back to her small Michigan hometown.
The town is fictional but it’s built of bits and pieces from my past. I have had the great fortune to have been raised in a small farming community and lived or worked in small towns most of my life. What some people might see as dull or sleepy I consider a great place to hang around.
I spent the last two weekends in two different small towns enjoying their festivals. Yeah, there were funnel cakes and overpriced lemonade shake-ups but that’s not why I go every year. I love the chance to visit with people I haven’t seen for a while, pick up neat little craft items and enjoy the things that make the festivals so different even they’re only a few miles apart.
Like the skillet toss at one. Yes, people take turns tossing cast iron skillets to see which one travels the farthest. Or the other’s punkin chunkin where children toss little pumpkins at a target painted on the street.
Sometimes I set up my table and meet readers at these festivals. Other times I help with community projects like grilling up burgers for my Lions Club as I did earlier this month. It’s amazing how many people call my name as they come to purchase one, just wanting to say howdy.
Living in a city has separated Jessi from the quirks and qualities of the small town that nurtured her. Going home – despite being forced to go to her class reunion beyond her will, being trapped in a bridesmaid’s dress that defies description and falling for the stranger/fiancé she found waiting at the airport with her mother – throws her back into the organized chaos of being surrounded by people who love her.
Okay, I’ve never been forced to go to a class reunion. Or being trapped in a maid of honor dress that absolutely defies description. And I have never found myself falling in love with a man I’ve dreamed about all my life but never believed actually existed – and who may actually have been conjured up courtesy of her eccentric office assistant.
I hope you’ll join Jessi on her trip back home and the roller coaster of a love that spans the centuries.
Cat Shaffer, the daughter of a poet and a teacher/librarian, grew up in northwest Ohio, finally saw the light and moved to Kentucky, the land of beautiful horses and far better weather. She lives with a dignified but ultra-sneaky cat, and could not continue to live if coffee disappeared from the planet. Check out her website at www.catshaffer.com.
ENTER TO WIN A $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD & A SET OF 7 PRINT BOOKS HERE!
ENCHANTED LOVER: Tales of Everlasting Love
Seven Novels of Mystical, Magical and Paranormal Romance
PARAMOUR by Margaret Ethridge (ghost)
Two men: one living, one dead, and both vying for her love. Camellia Stafford has never been alone in her room. For twenty years, she’s been engaged in a fierce power struggle with her bedroom’s previous tenant, Frank DeLuca, the ghost trapped in the light fixture above her bed.
ENTRANCED by Maddie James (time travel, reincarnation)
Jack and Claire set out on a wild search through time, not only for the resolution to a powerful attraction between them, but also for a historical artifact that holds the key to their future happiness–the coveted silver-plated chalice made from Blackbeard’s skull.
MYSTIC THUNDER by JC Wardon (witch, mystic)
Millennia of tempestuous ancestral history forewarn Rayne Cavanaugh to hide her ability to communicate with ghosts. But– When the nephew of the man she just can’t resist goes missing in the mountains of Mystic Waters, West Virginia, she must decide between self-preservation and love.
RUNNING OUT OF TIME by Cheryl Norman (time travel)
When Stacy Webber travels to Germany for her best friend’s wedding, she loses more than her luggage and purse. She lands in a different time, fifty years ago, with no idea how to return to her world.
TIMELESS by Jan Scarbrough (psychic, ghost, reincarnation)
When Beth Abbott receives a surprise inheritance from her birth mother, she travels to the family’s nineteenth century mansion in Old Louisville, KY, now a bed and breakfast. There she meets the resident ghost, a little girl whose crying not only scares, but also intrigues guests.
MAN OF HER DREAMS by Cat Shaffer (dreams, parallel times)
Jessi Flint has a perfectly good life with a successful business and the perfect man. So, he’s only in her dreams…until her flaky assistant goes to a New Age fair and Jessi suddenly begins receiving gifts with love notes signed by a mysterious Damian.
ALMOST MAGIC by J.M. Kelley (magic, witch, gifts)
When it came to Vivian Burroughs’ unique connection with nature, her grandmother always said, ‘Mediocrity may not burn as bright as a firecracker, but it seldom blows up in your face.’ But the old woman never advised her on what to do when a sexy new neighbor stokes the flames of attraction.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | IBOOKS | KOBO | SMASHWORDS