Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
Cue the trumpet fanfare. Today marks the release of “Hoodoo Cupid”, my first contemporary romance, by Red Rose Publishing. “Hoodoo Cupid” tells the story of two ad agency pros—copywriter Maggie Scanlan and agency wunderkind Dan Constantine—who fall in love in an Emergency Room…with a little help from a certain voodoo doll.In honor of the occasion, and because it’s Thursday, here are thirteen of my favorite lines from the story:
1. Forget the clichés about friends helping you move and friends helping you move bodies. Real friends sacrificed their lunch hour to help you exact proxy revenge outdoors on a day so brutally cold even the agency’s smokers refused to risk it.
2. “Now hurry up and push your pin in his heart so we can get back inside. My five-year plan doesn’t include freezing to death for the sake of you or your bad boy.”
3. “It’s not going to work. It never does. All it does is make me feel better. Take that, Daniel Curtiss Constantine.” Maggie finished hacking through the second leg and started to sob.
4. “Yeah, I can see how it’s a real attitude adjuster,” Germaine said dryly.
5. The universe had other plans. It planned to enjoy a big honking, snorting, coffee-through-the-nose-spewing belly laugh at Maggie’s expense. There, not a dozen yards in front of her, striding in the direction of her favorite takeout, was the bane of her professional life.
6. It never occurred to her to push him into traffic. He stepped off the curb all by himself.
7. “So this is what it takes,” Constantine gasped, “to get your attention.”
8. She expected the surroundings to diminish him. Instead she discovered the width of his shoulders owed nothing to padding. An uneasy mix of guilt and curiosity writhed inside her. Did his legs match the rest of him?
9. [His eyes] were a clear light gray, completely at odds with his Mediterranean complexion and the dark brown eyelashes that belonged in a mascara commercial. When those eyes focused on a person—the way they focused on her now—it was like being targeted by a pair of lasers.
10. His voice had a husky quality—a subtle roughness like vintage mohair upholstery, which inspired almost as much thigh wriggling and skirt palming among the agency power groupies as his eyes.
11. The only answers Maggie had were rude. She found a spot on the floor that looked like Kansas and wished for a tornado.
12. Worse, the movement called attention to his muscular, mostly naked legs. Inside her head she groaned. He’d be perfect if only he weren’t in advertising.
13. (The one my Texas friends like best.)
“Afghanistan?” she squeaked. “You were in the Army?”
“Three years, eight months, seventeen days, and just a little over three hours. Do you want it in minutes? C’mon, Maggie, give me a little credit. You didn’t think it took me seven years to graduate Yale, did you?” He laughed. “If I’d been that slow, the only way I could’ve made a living would’ve been to move to Texas and go into politics.”
Now you know you want to read the rest. Check it out at Red Rose Publishing and, maybe, take it home for Valentine’s Day.
Happy Reading!
Jean Marie
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago at 2:01 am. Add a comment
Saturday, January 30th, 2010 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
That’s right–me, the person who hates to chat–will be co-hosting the Red Rose Channel at Blog Talk Radio tomorrow, January 31, from 2-3 p.m. EST. Well, I might hate IM chat, but I do like to talk.
And I won’t be the only one there. The featured guest will be Red Rose author Angela Kaye Austin. Angela is an author of inter-racial contemporary romance novels featuring strong African-American women whose love can’t be bound by race, bank accounts, age, religion or gender. Her current novel, Love’s Chance, tells the story of Sinclair Mosley, a woman on a mission to pay back her parents and save her family business. That mission takes her to Pennsylvania, where the locals don’t exactly welcome her with open arms. But Chance O’Malley does. At the risk of losing everything that brought her to Pennsylvania, including her family’s restaurant, Sinclair must decide if she’s willing to take a chance on love.
My co-host will be one half of the Red Rose Channel’s terrific twosome, Kali Willows. Franny is away on a well-deserved vacation, and she turned over the keys to the kingdom. Tune in or call in (917-889-3332), if only to see how I manage to make her sorry. 
Posted 6 months ago at 10:19 pm. Add a comment
Sunday, January 17th, 2010 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
Still deep in the writing cave, but I’ll be emerging soon. Promise! (Be afraid. Be very afraid…) As a foretaste, today I posted the first tickle of promo for “Hoodoo Cupid”, my February 4 release from Red Rose, at Beyond the Veil.
Tomorrow, if I figure out how to do it, I’ll try to post a very low res version of one of the interior pages of Fantasy Art Templates. My promo copies arrived yesterday, and they are beautiful beyond belief. Even better, earlier tonight Jana Oliver was looking for the name of a specific member of the angelic hosts–and it was in there, along with everything from pirates to giants to snake goddesses. Not only is it gorgeous, the book’s a great reference too. Win!
Cheers and smiles,
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago at 2:46 am. Add a comment
Friday, January 1st, 2010 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
For reasons beyond human ken, the good folks at Samhain Publishing thought I’d be the perfect person to open the next decade of the company blog. You can read the damage here. One thing you can be sure of, it fits right in with the Cartoon Network’s New Year Looney Tunes marathon. Enjoy!
Wishing everyone the best of the New Year!
Cheers and cyber-confetti,
Posted 7 months ago at 5:15 pm. Add a comment
Saturday, December 19th, 2009 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
Holiday Squirrels 2009 ((c) Greg Uchrin, IVCaffeine.com)
The tree has been trimmed (while it was snowing–win!) and
my December blog at Beyond the Veil is live. All that’s left is to wish one and all a very happy holiday. May the big day–whichever one you celebrate–be spent with your loved ones doing that which brings you joy and warms your heart for the months ahead.
Cheers!
Posted 7 months, 1 week ago at 2:20 am. Add a comment
Sunday, December 6th, 2009 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
It’s now live: my cover for “Hoodoo Cupid”, coming February 4, 2010, from Red Rose Publishing.
Isn’t it gorgeous? The artist is Red Rose’s Art Director Shirley Burnett, and she totally aced it.
Cheers and big, big smiles,
Posted 7 months, 3 weeks ago at 10:23 pm. Add a comment
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
I can now. The German and British rights to Jana Oliver’s Demontrappers series have been sold in what Publishers Marketplace likes to call good deals. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Book one is scheduled for a summer 2010 release, and it’s going to be fabulous. The beta version blew my socks off. Can’t wait to read the final.
Cheers and happy dances,
Jean Marie
*off to watch the Muppets play "Bohemian Rhapsody" again*
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 8:02 pm. Add a comment
Saturday, November 21st, 2009 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
I’ve posted a sneak peak of the next installment of Ward Theater, “Green Eyes”, at Beyond the Veil. It’ll go live here on December 1, but until then, if you want to read it, you’ve got to go BtV.
Enjoy!
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 2:53 am. Add a comment
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
Bianca D’Arc was one of the first Samhain writers I met live–and one of the nicest. Her paranormal romances, usually featuring m/f/m menage, have won numerous awards, and in January her first m/f/m zombie romance will be released from Kensington. This is all great professional news for her.
What’s not great is what’s happening in her personal life. Her mom is very, very ill. As a result, she’s not even thinking about promoting her latest Samhain release, Dragon Storm. So the rest of us at Beyond the Veil are trying to help out. BtV’s fearless leader, Carolan, has posted the publisher’s blurb and a link to an excerpt. If paranormal menage–with dragons–is your thing, you won’t be disappointed.
Cheers,
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 12:15 am. Add a comment
Saturday, October 24th, 2009 | Author: jmward14 | Blog | No Comments
My report on Capclave 2009 is now live at Beyond the Veil. And the rest of the photos can be found on my Flickr page. Enjoy!
Posted 9 months, 1 week ago at 12:14 am. Add a comment
