A Valentine
February 1, 2019
Last year was crazy busy with the release of The Broken Road series. I’ve spent the last year and a half doing more editing than writing. And just when I realized I needed a break, I came up with the idea for Be My Valentine. So with my revamped website, I’m debuting the short story. I think I can talk about it without spoiling it. So, here we go…
What would you like to share about Be My Valentine?
I had just decided that I needed a break after all the writing and editing involved with The Broken Road series. On the way home from the day job, Taylor Swift’s Beautiful Eyes started playing on my phone. And I came up with the intro. The lead characters, Katie and Leo, were created just for this story.
But if you’re wondering if the story has any ties to other stories within my “Gagengirl Universe,” it does. Katie’s neighbor Jenna Kelly McBride has a sister-in-law who is a romance novelist. Her sister-in-law is Heather Kelly in Let There Be Love. And Leo’s neighbor Ian Walker has a brother who lives in St. Augustine. But you don’t need to have read any of those stories to enjoy my new short story.
What happened to Solvang?
I was so busy with all of the editing for The Broken Road series, I was unable to have it written in time to post last summer. But if you’re missing amateur sleuth Felicia Michaels, you’ll be able to buy Solvang this summer. This past fall, I wrote the remaining mysteries and I can’t wait for you to read them. It is collection of six mysteries. I’ll start teasing them in the coming months.
Is there anything you’d like to add about the revamped website?
I’ve returned all of my original author’s blog entries from the first version of the website. So you can re-read my comments about Mad Dog Chronicles and Adventures in St. Augustine when I was posting them. And unlike those stories (and Solvang), By My Valentine won’t be going anywhere. It is the first of five holiday romantic short stories I’ll be posting over the next three years. The five stories will eventually be included in an ambitious project I’m working on, but I plan to leave them here for several years.
