LASR Anniversary Scavenger Hunt: Lies and Solace by Jana Richards

August 27, 2018 By 1 Comment


Thanks for joining us on our anniversary scavenger hunt! There are two ways to enter to win and it’s easy to play– first read the blurb below, then answer the question on the first Rafflecopter. You might win a $100 Amazon/BN GC. Follow and visit authors social media pages on the second rafflecopter and you’re entered to win another $100 Amazon/BN GC!

She can’t live with one more lie. He can’t tell the truth.

Harper Lindquist is convinced she’s found the answer to her financial prayers. Unless she pours cash into crumbling Solace Lake Lodge, she’ll lose her family’s legacy. Her would-be savior arrives in the middle of a Minnesota blizzard and she’s determined to prove to her reluctant, and trapped, financier the lodge is a sound investment. But Harper isn’t completely honest with him. And she has no idea the lake is hiding secrets of its own.

Ethan James is a liar, but his money is very real. He isn’t convinced a broken-down inn is a smart investment opportunity. But the more he understands Harper’s dreams and desires, the more he wants to be the man to make them come true. The trauma in both their pasts means neither can fully trust the other. They must find the courage to love, to trust, and to accept, or yesterday’s sorrows will keep them apart.

Buy the book at Amazon United States, Amazon United Kingdom , Amazon Canada, or Amazon Australia.

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Stuff Your Stocking Blogfest: Jana Richards

December 29, 2011 By 8 Comments

Home for Christmas

I shouldn’t be here. I should be home with my family.

Sarah pushed her cart down the endless hospital corridor, stopping at each patient’s room to distribute medications. The clock at the nurses’ station read 10 a.m. By this time, even her youngest sister Michelle would have dragged herself out of bed to open her Christmas presents. Mom would have been up for hours, of course, stuffing the turkey and getting everything just right for the big family dinner. By noon, her aunts and uncles and cousins would arrive bearing gifts of sweets and other foods. Grandma would tie an apron around her waist and mash potatoes until they were as smooth and frothy as freshly whipped cream and just as tasty.

And she’d miss all of it.

Sarah tried to push away the resentment and loneliness but they persisted, nagging at her like a toothache. As a newly minted registered nurse and low man on the totem pole on her ward, she’d had no choice but to work over Christmas. The other nurses commiserated, but were unwilling to trade shifts. Get used to it, they told her. We’ve all been through it. This is the job you’ve chosen, and it means that at times you’ll have to work when you’d rather be somewhere else.

Easy for them to say, Sarah thought bitterly. They could go home after work and be with their families. They could still celebrate Christmas with their loved ones. Her family was six hundred kilometers away. By the time she arrived at her parents’ home on December 28, all the presents would be opened, the turkey eaten, the relatives gone home.

Homesickness settled in her heart, creating a painful lump in her chest.

She pushed the cart into room 203 and checked her charts; Mrs. Grant was in her seventies and had just had a right hip replacement. She required medication for pain and high blood pressure. She’d had a difficult time the last few days. Immediately after surgery she’d been plagued with a stubborn infection. They’d just gotten the infection under control when she fell trying to get to the washroom on her own, reinjuring her hip and increasing her pain and recovery time. Sarah felt sorry for her; Mrs. Grant probably didn’t want to be in the hospital anymore than she did.

Sarah was surprised to see a small potted Christmas tree adorned with tiny red bows on the stand next to Mrs. Grant’s bed. “Have a holly, jolly Christmas” boomed from a portable stereo. Her patient smiled brightly from under her furry Santa hat.
“Hello, Sarah! Merry Christmas!”

Despite herself, Sarah smiled. “Hello, Mrs. Grant. You’re looking very cheery today.”

“Of course I am. It’s Christmas Day.”

Sarah poured a glass of water and handed her the pills. “Where did you get the little tree from? It’s cute.”

“I ordered it from the florist. Had to do something to put some Christmas spirit into this place. I got some chocolates for visitors, too. ” Mrs. Grant gestured to the windowsill beside her bed to a large, open box of chocolates. “Help yourself.”

Sarah selected a chocolate covered maraschino cherry, her favorite. “Hmm. Delicious. Thank you. That’s a big box. Are you expecting lots of visitors today?”

“No, not really. A lot of the folks in my seniors’ complex don’t drive anymore so they won’t be coming over. And besides, most will be with their families today.”

“What about your family? They must be missing you.”

Mrs. Grant gave a wistful smile. “My husband and I weren’t able to have children of our own. We have three nieces and two nephews but they all live out of town. Ralph died three years ago so I’m on my own now.”

Sarah’s sympathy must have shown on her face. Mrs. Grant wagged her finger. “Now, don’t start feeling sorry for me. I have lots of friends at the seniors’ complex and my nieces and nephews are like my own children. I’ll admit that being in the hospital over Christmas isn’t ideal, but Christmas is what you make of it, isn’t it?”

Sarah suddenly felt ashamed. She’d done nothing but whine and feel sorry for herself for missing Christmas day with her family. This likely wouldn’t be the last holiday she’d be separated from them. Like Mrs. Grant said, she needed to make the best of it. Maybe she could start with an attitude adjustment.

“Yes, you’re right, Christmas is what you make of it. Can I borrow your hat for a while?”

Mrs. Grant handed it to her. “Of course. What do you plan to do with it?”

Sarah popped it on her head. “Spread a little cheer, I hope. Merry Christmas, Mrs. Grant.”

“Merry Christmas, Sarah.”

She pushed her cart down the corridor once more, her heart a little lighter. “Ho, ho, ho, everyone! Merry Christmas! Here comes Nurse Santa! Merry Christmas!”

About the Author: Jana Richards has tried her hand at many writing projects over the years, from magazine articles and short stories to full-length paranormal suspense and romantic comedy. She loves to create characters with a sense of humor, but also a serious side. She believes there’s nothing more interesting then peeling back the layers of a character to see what makes them tick.

When not writing up a storm, working at her day job as an Office Administrator, or dealing with ever present mountains of laundry, Jana can be found on the local golf course pursuing her newest hobby.

Jana lives in Western Canada with her husband Warren, and a highly spoiled Pug/Terrier cross named Lou. You can reach her through her website at http://www.janarichards.net.

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Behind the Book

February 12, 2011 By 9 Comments
Where do ideas for books come from? How does that little idea grow into a novel?

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Years ago someone told me a story about a friend of his who attended a wedding in another city. The friend sat with the rest of the congregation in the church as the bride walked up the aisle to her groom. But once she got there, she halted the wedding liturgy and turned to the congregation.
“Thank you for coming today,” she said, “but there’s not going to be a wedding. If you reach under your seats you’ll find an envelope taped there. When you open the envelope you’ll know why I won’t be marrying this man today.”
With that she walked out of the church to the stunned surprise of everyone assembled. Then there was a mad scramble to retrieve the envelopes under the pews. Inside were pictures of the groom in bed with the maid of honor, who apparently wasn’t so honorable.
I don’t know if this story is true (it sounds a bit like an urban myth to me) though my friend’s friend swore it was. But it got me thinking about wedding disasters. What if a woman was dumped at the altar? How would she feel? What would she do next? Could such an awful situation be funny? That’s how “Her Best Man” was born.
Sarah Stevens’ dream wedding turned into a nightmare. Not only did her fiancé Brad turn tail and run from the church, her mother totally lost her marbles, humiliating Sarah even more. I feel sorry for poor Sarah, but I wouldn’t be doing my job as a romance writer if I didn’t make things even worse for her. (Insert evil laugh here).
How do I do that? By having her motley crew of assorted relatives make life miserable for her. Her mother’s been living with her since her parents’ divorce (Is that why Sarah agreed to marry Brad so quickly?) Then her great aunt arrives to “comfort” her; translation, gloat over her misfortune. The last straw comes when the great aunt announces that her daughter will be coming to stay with Sarah for a couple of weeks. Sarah knows this means non-stop moaning about her disastrous wedding, along with many giddy little jabs from her mean-spirited cousin. Sarah can’t take another minute. To escape, she decides to use her ticket for the Caribbean cruise meant to be her honeymoon.
Meanwhile, Brad is feeling pretty lousy about what he did to Sarah. He decides to stay in Ottawa to apologize and somehow make it up to her. Sarah’s a great girl; he was just scared about marriage when he bolted from the church. He offers his brother Will, who had been best man at the wedding, his ticket for the honeymoon cruise.  Will is a travel writer and is just getting over a bout of Delhi belly received on one of his trips. Some fun in the Caribbean sun is more appealing than the Ottawa snow.
So Sarah and Will end up on the same cruise ship, in the same cabin. Let the fireworks begin!
My hope is to make “Her Best Man” one third of a three part series in which someone gets left at the altar at the beginning of each novel. I’m working on books two and three now. Wish me luck!
To read an excerpt from “Her Best Man” or any of my other books, please check out my website at http://www.janarichards.net/ Don’t forget to enter the contest running at my website right now. I’m giving away copies of my books. For more information check out my contest page. Cheers!

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Behind the Book

February 12, 2011 By 8 Comments
A question writers are often asked is “Where do the ideas for your books come from?” I always say ideas come from everywhere, but today I’m going to try to be a little more specific and let you in on some of the thought processes that have gone into my own books.

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There’s an old adage in romance writing that says if the hero in your romance novel is a fireman, your heroine had better be an arsonist! That speaks to the need for conflict in our stories. Readers want a happy ending, but they want to see the heroine and hero struggle for that happily ever after.
 I decided to take that adage literally when I wrote “Burning Love”. The way I saw it, Riley is a firefighter, and though Iris may not be an arsonist, she’s pretty careless when making dinner. She’s had three cooking fires in her apartment. The last one is so serious that her apartment is ruined and she’s evicted. Furthermore, her landlord bars her from renting in any of the other buildings he owns, and spreads the word among other landlords that she’s a menace. She and her cat Whiskers find themselves out on the street. That’s when she shows up at Riley’s door looking to rent a room in the old house he’s renovating.
 I didn’t want the differences between Riley and Iris to end there. Riley is practical and traditional, while Iris, the daughter of unconventional, nomadic parents, is a dreamer with bohemian tastes. She dreams of traveling to exotic locations and seeing the world; Riley dreams of restoring the old house his great aunt and uncle brought him up in and putting down roots. He wants a home, stability. She wants adventure, excitement. She only needs the room in Riley’s house for six weeks until she takes her new job on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  Clearly, this couple needs a little help to get to their happily ever after!
Enter Angelica and Hildegard, two angels in Heaven’s Relationship division. They provide comic relief as well as the little extra help that Riley and Iris need in order to realize they belong together. I like to think that somebody out there is looking out for us, especially in matters of the heart. And it was great fun to create two such off the wall characters like the angels, and a world where anything was possible.
Another book where world building came into play was my romantic suspense “Seeing Things”. I wondered what it would be like to be psychic. So my psychic Leah McKenna “sees” the abduction of a small boy. Leah is a reluctant psychic. She doesn’t want to see bad things happening to children. I’m not psychic but I could relate to her. I wouldn’t want to know something bad was going to happen before it happened, or have the ability to “see” something terrible happening to a child, especially if there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I think I’d feel a bit like a freak, an outsider, totally different from everyone else. That’s how Leah feels. She’d been engaged once, but her psychic abilities eventually became too much for her fiancé and he left her. She’s done her best to suppress any visions, and it’s worked for two years. But now the visions are back, stronger than ever.
She goes to the police, to a detective she’d previously worked with, and from her description of the child, he determines that the boy is named Jeremy and he went missing about the same time Leah had her vision. Jeremy’s uncle, David Logan, was looking after him at the time of the kidnapping. David doesn’t believe anything Leah says. If she can describe Jeremy, even down to a small cut on his finger, it must be because she was part of the kidnapping. He decides to stay close to her to see if she will lead him to his nephew.
I think David’s reaction is how most people would feel. Visions and other psychic phenomena are garbage, and he certainly doesn’t want to entrust his nephew’s life to hocus-pocus. It’s not until she tells him something that no one but he knows, something he’s never told anyone, that he’s forced to believe in Leah’s visions.
The really fun part about writing this story, aside from building a growing romance between two people who totally distrust each other at the beginning, was figuring out exactly what Leah can see and what she can’t see. What were her powers? How can she nurture them and make them stronger? Research helped with those questions. I read books about psychics, especially psychics who worked with police on missing person cases. It was fascinating reading. I learned that psychic visions are often metaphors for something else. So when Leah sees repeated visions of snakes, she knows it symbolizes something else. But what? I know I’d be frustrated by a vision that was more of a riddle than a straightforward clue, and so is Leah.
I like to start my stories with “what if” questions (What if a firefighter fell in love with a girl prone to setting fires? What if a reluctant psychic “saw” the kidnapping of a child?). But then I explore the characters’ feelings and motivations (Why is restoring the old house so important to Riley? Why does David feel such guilt about the kidnapping of his nephew?). I want to get under their skin and figure out what makes them tick.  
Next time I’ll be back with a behind the book look at more of my books. You can read excerpts of my books at my website http://www.janarichards.net I also have a contest running at my website right now. For more information check out my contest page. Please stop by!

Purchase Burning Love   Purchase Seeing Things   Facebook Page   Blog Journeys with Jana

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