Welcome, Romance Lovers! Jan Scarbrough is my guest today!

    Available now at Resplendence

Welcome, Romance Lovers!

Romance writer Jan Scarbrough is my guest this morning. Jan writes primarily for Resplendence Publishing, and has a brand new release out!

Welcome, Jan!  Thanks so much for coming today. Tell us a little about yourself.

Thanks for inviting me, Fran! My name is Jan Scarbrough and I live in Louisville, Kentucky. I was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but have been a Kentucky resident since college. I’m married. I have two children and two stepchildren, all grown. I have four grandchildren, and one more on the way.

I’ve been a professional writer since 1982 – no, not a romance writer, but a technical writer! I write policies and standards by day and romance by night.

I enjoy riding American Saddlebred horses. I’ve owned three horses over the years, but now to get my “horse fix” I take a riding lesson once a week. I also volunteer at The Luci Center, a therapeutic riding center.

When did you first start writing Romance?

I realized I loved to write because of a 9th grade English teacher. My girlfriends and wrote a romance about the Beatles. We took turns writing different chapters. I still have that handwritten notebook in a box in the basement.

I went to college to become an English teacher because of my love of reading and writing. However, I put aside my desire to become a published novelist until 1988 after spending four days in intensive care and almost dying. After that, I figured it was about time to make my dreams come true.. In 1990, I joined RWA and the rest, as they say, is history.

What drew you to Romance?

I loved to read growing up. I loved Georgette Heyer, Anya Seton, Thomas B. Costain. And then when I read The Flame and the Flower and The Wolf and The Dove, I became a big romance fan.

Tell me a little about your most recent book and any upcoming books in 2009.

I’m currently doing a series for Resplendence Publishing called the Bluegrass Reunion Series. The tagline is: Bluegrass Reunions: They thought the boys they loved were out of their lives. They were wrong.

These are stories set in Kentucky and, as the tag line says, they involve former friends and lovers coming back together. So far Kentucky Cowboy and Kentucky Woman have been published. Kentucky Flame is scheduled for a June release and Kentucky Bride in December. All the books will be sold in electronic versions and in trade paperback. Kentucky Woman and Kentucky Bride will be combined for a paperback release.

I love these books because they are set in my home state and most of them include a story about a single mom, which I was one once. If I can work a horse or two into the story, it’s even better.

I’m also doing a Christmas novella which will be released in September. It belongs to the Ladies of Legend series that I’ve done with my three writing buddies Maddie James, Magdalena Scott, and Janet Eaves. Our 2008 Christmas anthology was so popular that Resplendence asked us to do another.

Tell me more about the Ladies of Legend series.

My writing buddies and I have a small e-mail group where we chat most nights. During these e-mail discussions, we decided to create a small town in East Tennessee called Legend and populate it with fictional characters and romance. We spent the month of May 2007 writing our individual stories, and soon after we finished them, we sold them to Resplendence Publishing. The Ladies of Legend Anthology: Finding Home came out in January 2008.

Since the first book we’ve published A Legendary Christmas. Three of us have written standalone novels set in Legend, Tennessee. Maddie James has created a spin-off series called The Matchmaking Chef with Suzie Matthews from “Bed, Breakfast and You” in Finding Home.

I’m currently working on the 2009 Christmas novella for the Legend anthology. This is fun because we’re going back in history. Mine is set in 1968 and involves the love story of the parents of one of my contemporary Legend characters.

How do you find ideas for your books? Real happenings? Dreams? A great imagination?

I’m an only child. I guess you can say much of “The Reunion Game,” the novella I wrote for Finding Home, was pure imagination. The heroine was a twin. However, I drew on how I felt as a teenager when my mother wanted me to do something—I’d do the opposite! For example, I didn’t ask for contact lenses until I was eighteen when an English boy suggested I’d look much prettier without glasses. My mother had nagged me all through high school to get contact lenses. So you see, I draw upon real happenings and then toss in a bunch of imagination.

Do you identify with the characters you write about?

I’m a little like all my heroines. I suppose I identify with Jane in “The Reunion Game” because I was a lot like her—shy, afraid to talk to boys, afraid to take risks. Jane’s switch of identities is something I’d have loved to do.

Where can your readers find you online, Jan?

My Lord Raven video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBLfpBrZ1VU

Jan’s MySpace page

http://www.myspace.com/janscarbrough

Web site:

www.janscarbrough.com

Blog:

http://sisterwriters.blogspot.com/

Ladies of Legend MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/ladiesoflegend

Ladies of Legend website

http://www.legendtennessee.com/

My Bio
A professional technical writer by day, Jan Scarbrough spends her nights writing romance. She is a member of Novelist, Inc., the Romance Writers of America, and the Kentucky Romance Writers, where she manages their award-winning web site. Jan has written for Kensington and ImaJinn Books, and currently has contracts with The Wild Rose Press and Resplendence Publishing. She is the mother of two grown children and a very “young” grandmother. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky, and rides American Saddlebred horses for fun and recreation.

Kentucky Cowboy
"Warmhearted and wonderful... Kentucky Cowboy is a keeper." — Bestselling Author Joanne Rock

Winner of the 2006 PASIC Book of Your Heart Contest, Contemporary Series Romance

BLURB
A contender for the world title, professional bull rider Judd Romeo defies death for a living. Now he must deal with the death of his mother by settling her estate. Returning home to Kentucky, he runs smack dab into the arms of his high school sweetheart, a woman he has never forgotten.

Veterinarian Mandy Sullivan learned early on that risk-takers are trouble. Having custody of her sister’s child, she is working hard to be both mother and father to the abandoned girl, and doesn’t count on trouble showing up next door.

Mandy discovers she can’t avoid the famous cowboy she’s never quite put out of her mind. When Mandy’s sister comes back threatening to take away the little girl she loves as her own, will Mandy realize Judd is not the same man he was back then?

Kentucky Woman
Winner 2007 San Diego RWA's Spring Into Romance Contest
2nd place 2007 PASIC Book of Your Heart Contest, contemporary series

BLURB
Years of hard work and schooling have paid off for single mom and ex-jockey Alexis Marsden. She now has a desk job she loves and she’s paying her bills—barely. But she can’t give her son everything he needs, especially a father. When the big brother of her child’s father asks her to marry him, does Alex give up her hard-won independence and settle for an old-fashioned marriage of convenience?

Workaholic banker Jackson Breckinridge has spent his life meeting the expectations of his parents and protecting his younger brother. When his brother fathers Alex’s child, Jack must protect his parents from the truth and fix his brother’s screw up. Marriage to the childhood playmate he’s loved since his school days is just the right thing to solve his problems. He accepts her terms for a marriage of convenience, but he longs to convert it into a one that’s for real.

Kentucky Flame—available in June

BLURB
Horse trainer Jake Hendricks arrives to take charge of Royalty Farm from his one-time mentor. After the main barn goes up in flames, Jake must do everything he can to save the farm which is already under financial pressure from a greedy local real estate developer.

After gathering the courage to leave an abusive marriage, horse trainer Melody O’Shea returns to Royalty Farm when her father needs her help. Coming home to the famed American Saddlebred farm is bittersweet because it is also the home of her daughter, the secret child she gave up for a private adoption.

Mel doesn’t count on Jake being there. The man left her nine years earlier not knowing she was carrying his baby. Forced to work with Jake to save her daughter’s home and heritage, Mel grapples with the mistakes of her past and her love for a man who once rejected her, but who she never forgot. When danger escalates, Mel’s life is in jeopardy and she must work with Jake to solve the mystery that threatens her safety and the safety of the daughter they both love.

Thanks for being here this morning Jan!  Loved talking with you!

You're welcome, Fran!  I enjoyed being here.