The Sweet Spot (34 page)

Frog Crossing

Out West

Dear Reader,

My dog, Millie, doesn’t like salt water, or bath water, or rain—but it is the sight
of all seven pounds of her trying to drink Puget Sound that stays with me. Urged to
walk into about half an inch of ripples bubbling over pebbles on a beach, she slurped
madly as if she could get rid of anything wet that might touch her feet.

That picture just popped into my head once more, just as I thought about what I might
write to you about
the Chimney Rock books and how stories shape up for me.

We were standing at the water’s edge on Whidbey Island, looking across Saratoga Passage
toward Camano Island.
Darkness Bound
, the first book in the series, was finished and now it was time for DARKNESS BRED,
on sale now.

Elin and Sean were already my heroine and hero. I knew that much before I finished
the previous story, but there were so many other questions hanging around. And so
many unfinished and important parts of lives I had already shown you. When we write
books there’s a balancing act between telling/showing too much, and the opposite.
Every character clamors to climb in but only those important to the current story
can have a ticket to enter. The trick is to weed out the loudest and least interesting
from the ones we
have
to know about.

The hidden world on Whidbey Island is busy, and gets busier. Once you are inside it’s
not just colorful and varied, sometimes endearing and often scary, it is also addictive.
Magic and mystery rub shoulders with what sometimes seems… just simply irresistible.
How can I not want to explore every character’s tale?

That’s what makes me feel a bit like Millie draining Puget Sound of water—I have to
clear away what I don’t want until I find the best stuff. Only I’m more fortunate
than my dog because I do get to make all the difference.

Now you have your ticket to ride along with me again—enjoy every inch!

All the best,

Dear Reader,

How many of us had high school crushes, then years later come face-to-face with the
boy who will always hold a special place in our hearts? This is what happens with
Morgan Dane in HAVEN CREEK. At thirteen she’d believed herself in love with high school
hunk, Nathaniel Shaw, but as a tall, skinny girl constantly teased for her prepubescent
body, she can only worship him from afar.

I wanted HAVEN CREEK to become a modern-day fairy tale complete with a beautiful princess
and a handsome prince, and, as in every fairy tale, there is something that will keep
them apart before they’re able to live happily ever after. The princess in HAVEN CREEK
lives her life by a set of inflexible rules, while it is a family secret that makes
it nearly impossible for the prince to trust anyone.

You will reunite with architect Morgan Dane, who has been commissioned to oversee
the restoration of Angels Landing Plantation. As she begins the task of hiring local
artisans for the project, she knows the perfect candidate to supervise the reconstruction
of the slave village. He is master carpenter and prodigal son Nathaniel Shaw.

Although Nate has returned to his boyhood home, he has become a recluse while he concentrates
on running his family’s furniture-making business and keeping his younger brother
out of trouble. But everything
changes when Morgan asks him to become involved in her restoration project. It isn’t
what she’s offering that presents a challenge to Nate, but it is Morgan herself. When
he left the Creek she was a shy teenage girl. Now she is a confident, thirtysomething
woman holding him completely enthralled with her brains
and
her beauty.

In HAVEN CREEK you will travel back to the Low- country with its magnificent sunsets;
slow, meandering creeks and streams; primordial swamps teeming with indigenous wildlife;
a pristine beach serving as a year- round recreational area; and the residents of
the island with whom you’ve become familiar.

Church, community, and family—and not necessarily in that order—are an integral part
of Lowcountry life, and never is that more apparent than on Cavanaugh Island. As soon
as you read the first page of HAVEN CREEK you will be given an up-close and personal
look into the Gullah culture with its island-wide celebrations, interactions at family
Sunday dinners, and a quixotic young woman who has the gift of sight.

The gossipmongers are back along with the region’s famous mouth-watering cuisine and
a supporting cast of characters—young
and
old—who will keep you laughing throughout the novel.

Read, enjoy, and do let me hear from you!!!

[email protected]

www.rochellealers.org

Dear Readers,

Who can resist a cowboy?

Not me. Especially a bull rider, who has the courage to get on two thousand pounds
of attitude that wants to throw him in the dirt and dance on his dangling parts. But
you don’t need to be familiar with rodeo to enjoy THE SWEET SPOT. It’s an emotional
story first, about two people dealing with real-life problems, and rediscovering love
at the end of a long dirt road.

To introduce you to Charla Rae Denny, the heroine of THE SWEET SPOT, I thought I’d
share with you her list of life lessons:

1. Before you throw your ex off your ranch, be sure you know how to run it.
   
2. A Goth-Dolly Parton lookalike
   can
   make a great friend. And Dumpster monkeys are helpful, too.
   
3. Next time, start a hardware store instead of a bucking bull business—the stock doesn’t
   try to commit suicide every few minutes.
   
4. “Never trust a husband too far, nor a bachelor too near.”—Helen Rowland
   
5. If you’re the subject of the latest gossip-fest, stay away from the Clip-n-Curl.
   
6. Life is full of second chances, if you can get over yourself enough to grab them.
   
7. “To forgive is to set a prisoner free, and discover that the prisoner is you.”—Louis
   B. Smede
   

I hope you’ll enjoy THE SWEET SPOT, and look for JB and Charla in the next two books
in the series!