Guest Blog and Giveaway with Barbara Bretton

A friend of mine loves my contemporary women's fiction but the paranormal books leave her cold. She's never said it in so many words but when you've known and loved a friend for as long as I've known and loved her, it's isn't so much what she says that clues you in but what she doesn't say. My Sugar Maple books, the ones filled with knitting and magic, just don't seem to be on her reading radar.

We were comparing notes about upcoming books and deadlines and the never-ending terror that comes with facing the blank computer screen on a daily basis. (BTW that terror never goes away. It's as sharp and fierce and deadly today as it was when I wrote my first book in 1982.

I've just learned how to keep it in line.) She told me her new book would be released in December.

I took a deep breath. "My new one comes out on Election Day."

Her silence spoke volumes and I knew the time had come to call out that big pink elephant in the room.

"It's okay," I said with a laugh. "You're not a paranormal fan. I understand."

"I love your writing," she said, sounding relieved and embarrassed and everything in between.

"Your contemporaries are on my keeper shelf but . . . " Her voice trailed off.

"Go ahead," I said. "You can say it." I mean, I don't read westerns or thrillers. We all have different likes and dislikes and that's okay. This isn't school. You can read what you want to read without worrying about the reading police staring over your shoulder and tsk-tsking your choices.

It was my friend's turn to take a deep breath of her own. "Why?" she asked. "Why in the world would you stop writing down-to-earth, real-world books and start writing paranormal with vampires and ghosts and sorceresses-in-training?"

You have to admit it's a good question. It's also one I've been asked an awful lot since I began my Sugar Maple series two years ago.

I finally have an answer.

I love my very real earthbound world. I love my everyday life. Grocery shopping. Doing laundry. Paying bills. Rooting for Maks on Dancing With The Stars. Seeing my husband smile when I conjure up something deliciously spicy in the kitchen.

It's all good. Very good, in fact.

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

And yet despite that I sometimes find myself imagining a secret door just beyond the produce aisle at Shoprite or a hidden room accessible through my office closet or maybe a gathering of faeries in that odd little hideaway beneath the dogwood at the far end of the backyard. And who's to say those things aren't waiting for me, hidden in plain sight? They say that human infants are born with a "third eye" that sees beyond our three-dimensional world and grows dimmer as the baby moves out of diapers and into toddlerhood. I'd love to believe that's true. I'd love to believe that all we see isn't all there is, that the world is still filled with surprises and possibilities. I'd love to think the kilt-clad bagpiper who crested the hill behind a Long Island supermarket in 1985 was stepping from a dream and not a volunteer fireman late for an Ancient Order of Hibernians meeting.

What can I say? I'm a dreamer. Always was, always will be. The little girl who believed in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and guardian angels is alive and well, tucked deep inside my middle-aged writer's heart and these days she's writing about a magickal small town and yarn shop in northern Vermont and loving every minute of it.

The newest Sugar Maple book is Spun by Sorcery:

Readers love to visit USA Today bestselling author Barbara Bretton's Sugar Maple. There's just one problem-it's fallen off the map!

Chloe is always losing things-but an entire town? Just when she was about to settle down in Sugar Maple with her soul-mate Luke MacKenzie, her Fae enemy Isadora strikes, and her new hometown is gone. Even the Book of Spells, her lifeline to magick, can't help her now. Just in the nick of time, her friend Janice roars up in Chloe's ancient Buick with Penny the cat and her yarn stash in tow. If she is going to save her home she has to go back to Salem, where family secrets and centuries- old feuds pull her into the fight of her life.

If you haven't yet had the chance to read this series- now's your chance.

Barbara is generously offering five complete sets of the Sugar Maple Series.

That's 5 Sugar Maple sets of 3 books each (CASTING SPELLS, LACED WITH MAGIC, and SPUN BY SORCERY) for 5 winners drawn at random.

Open to US Shipping Only

Winner TBA Wednesday Nov 10

To Enter Leave a Question or Comment for Barbara

Be Sure to Include Your Email

Today's Guest Author is Barbara Bretton

Today our guest author is Barbara Bretton. Her most recent novel is Casting Spells, about a quaint little town that seems perfect to the outside eye-but really it is home to all kinds of paranormals. The main character is a sorceress with no magic who owns the knitting shop and acts as major of the town- Chloe.

Today Barbara discusses ideas.

Ask a writer where she gets her ideas and you always get the same answer.

Everywhere.

And it's true. Ideas really are everywhere. They're in the produce aisle of Shoprite. They're in the local diner. Sometimes they're even on some gorgeous tropical beach, hiding at the bottom of a pitcher of lovely margaritas.

I'm a writer. Over the course of twenty-something years, I've published almost fifty books and that means I know a little something about ideas and where they come from.

Which is why I'm going to tell you exactly where I got the idea for CASTING SPELLS.

My dentist's waiting room while I was preparing to die.

Now I hate dentists. Okay, not the actual dentists themselves. Some of them are very lovely people. But, let's be honest here: the things they do to our poor unsuspecting mouths are probably against the laws of the Geneva Convention. Needles, drills, all manner of sharp instruments the Marquis de Sade would have loved.

So there I was, sitting alone in the waiting room, trying not to hear the cries of pain coming from the other room. (Yes. I'm exaggerating.) I had already flipped through back copies of the American Dental Association journal when my gaze landed on a fancy display of brochures for (hold on) dental implants.

Not exactly the kind of reading that puts you in a relaxed frame of mind but I'm one of those people who'll read the backs of cereal boxes so I grabbed for it. To my surprise it was kind of interesting. You could still eat steak without worrying that your teeth will land on the table. I could see the benefit. No wonder he had the stack of brochures placed next to a back issue of AARP's Modern Maturity.

Suddenly a question popped into my head, "But what happens to an aging vampire when his teeth start to go? Do they make uppers and lowers for the undead? Is there a dentist out there who would fit a vampire with implants?"

I pretty much giggled my way through my time in the dental chair, thinking of the possibilities.

And then I forgot all about it for almost four years until I was chatting on the phone with a knitter/writer friend of mine. We were talking about what makes one yarn shop better than the rest and I said, "I wish there was a magic knit shop where your yarn never tangled, your sleeves always came out the same length, and you always, always got gauge." (If you're a knitter, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.)

Well, the next day my imagination was on fire. It was Labor Day 2006. A cold rainy September Monday. I'm not sure how the two ideas came together but they did and in a few hours I suddenly had created the magical town of Sugar Maple, Vermont with its resident vampires, werewolves, witches, trolls, house sprites, shapeshifters, mountain giants, and Chloe Hobbs, the half-human half-sorceress owner of the knit shop of my dreams. Toss in a murder, a Fae enemy, and a hunky human cop who comes to town to solve the crime and you have CASTING SPELLS which, I'm happy to say, is still available. And I'm even happier to say that the sequel, LACED WITH MAGIC, will be on the stands August 4.

(And yes I do have some retired vampires in my book who zip around in Rascals and don't let dentures slow them down.)

I'm giving away five copies of CASTING SPELLS to five lucky readers. All you have to do is leave a comment and I'll choose five winners at random on Sunday. Winners' names will be posted here and on my blog at http://bmafb.blogspot.com/ – I look forward to hearing from you.

Drop by my website http://www.barbarabretton.com/ or my knitting blog http://www.romancingtheyarn.blogspot.com/ and say hello! There's always a contest going on.

Thanks for joining us today Barbara! I can't wait to read Laced with Magic. And Good Luck to all those who enter the contest for a copy of Casting Spells.

Remember everyone who enters please make sure you leave contact info so if you are chosen you can receive your free book. Thanks! ~RR

Happy Earth day and Join Us for Author Barbara Bretton Tomorrow

Happy, Happy Earth Day Everyone!

I hope you are all being eco-aware and practicing recycling today.

I am planning my garden and shopping for herb seeds. I want to add lavender, rosemary and sage to my garden this year. I just have to figure out where to put it. Hubby always loves that (not) since he gets to drag out the tiller and break up the ground. Usually means heavy lifting and dirt hauling, too. Oh well, it is good for him.

I also need to figure out organic ways to protect my garden from the awful beetle type bugs that destroyed over half of it last year- even while using natural/organic pesticides.

Anyway I hope you all will join us tomorrow here at Fang-tastic Books. The wonderful author, Barbara Bretton will be joining us and giving away FIVE copies of Casting Spells. Woo Hoo! Now that's a giveaway.

I adored the book, Casting Spells. I even had the twinge of desire to learn how to knit. Then I talked myself out of it deciding that I have enough hobbies already I don't need a new one right now. I am already so busy I don't get to half of the things I really enjoy. Yet Barbara does a wonderful job of making knitting sound sexy and fascinating...Maybe someday.

I could crochet when I was a kid, after watching my mom for hours she taught me a few stitches and I made a few things but I haven't touched the needles in years so I don't remember anything. My mom's arthritis has halted her crocheting so even she hasn't done much in years and has forgotten many a stitch.

I can't sew either, another thing I really wish I knew how to do. If I could sew I would have all kinds of cool clothes and lingerie since I always have ideas...just no know how on what to do with them.

Ahh...for now I will stick to my books. Those I know what to do with. :-)

A Review of Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton

.5

Four and a half fangs for Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton

OK, who knew knitting could sound fun and sexy and could be the perfect setting for a paranormal romance, well that and the fictionally fun, supernatural town of Sugar Maple, Vermont where Chloe Hobbs, the only human in town is the owner of the knitting shop Sticks and Strings.

I don't speak knit talk so some of the terms had me lost but I skipped over all that because what really matters is that I do speak paranormal and romance.

Barbara Bretton's Casting Spells definitely cast a spell over me and I am sure it will cast a spell over you as well. I read through the book quick because I was so engrossed and I wanted to know what happened, who did what and of course if Chloe got the guy. The guy being Luke MacKenzie a cop who came to town to investigate the first murder in Sugar Maple's history. The cop that Chloe instantly falls for even though he's a human and she's half sorceress with currently no magically ability but still supposed to seek out only magical men for the sake of the town.

Ah it's a complicated situation and nothing is as it seems in Sugar Maple, not even to Chloe who has lived there all her life.

Casting Spells will knit you up into a web and won't let you go until the book is finished. It was completely engrossing and a fabulous story. I love how the characters change and evolve and how Chloe herself finally gives in and deals with what she has to do to make things right. And Luke, hmmm, always been a sucker for green eyes myself...something about the rarity of them. True green eyes you don't see very often...more like never.

The story was a fun whirlwind of plot, character development and flat out fun combined with good paranormal elements and heated romance. Everything a reader could ask for.

And I loved the cats who play minor rolls in the book, but the showstopper had to be the shape shifting friends and the maddening dancing silverware. Sounds crazy right?

Read the book, you'll love it.