This
Ring
By Jacqueline Paige
Length:
23,700
Genre:
Paranormal / fantasy romance
Book
Description:
Attempting to
pick up the pieces of her life and heart, Emma flees to an isolated cottage on
a lake. Not knowing what to do or where to start, she needs time to decide on
her new life.
An invisibility
curse has given Bryce forty years to reflect on past mistakes. The arrival of
an intriguing woman brings him someone to watch, who just might be the first to
see him in decades.
Together they
may find their chance to live again…
This
Ring was previously published in 2011 as one of the stories in the Curses book
The most fascinating thing began to happen as the sun started to light
the world. It looked as if fog, or mist she supposed, was coming off
the ground and shore, moving out over the water. She sat there in
awe, never having seen such a thing in her life. It was both eerie
and breathtaking all at the same time. For a second she pondered on
whether she should run back inside and get her phone to record it—but not
knowing how long it would last she sat right where she was.
In no time the lake was covered in a blanket of mist that hovered and
swirled just over the water’s surface. Emma couldn’t take her eyes
off the bright white layer over the water. Birds were oblivious to
it being there as some flew from the trees to land among the haze—only to
vanish from her sight. There was something else among the white
vapor; she stood to get a better look in the low light, trying to decide what
it could be.
As her eyes focused through the misty dawn glow she dropped the cup to
the sand beside her shoes. It looked like a man; only he wasn’t
quite solid looking. Which, she knew was crazy. Men
didn’t walk out of the water. She thought maybe he was on a boat
that the fog hid, until it swirled clear around him and there was nothing but
water beneath his feet. Snapping her mouth shut, she squinted and watched as he
came towards the shore. Having hallucinated more than enough, she
turned abruptly and walked back towards the little cottage. Clearly
she still needed a lot more sleep.
Can you please share with us a little
about yourself?
I live in a little place called Stayner, in
Ontario Canada. Four of my five kids
live with me (we have a huge house), all I’m happy to say are quite old enough
to fend for themselves. My youngest is
thirteen, so I’m close to surviving that
stage of parenting. I love having the
kids close most of the time it’s like having all of your best friends with you
all the time, they hardly ever make me go ‘mom’ on them now. It’s lots of fun.
Have you always wanted to be an
author?
I think I
always did, I wrote constantly – even after I became a mom and was raising five
children. It wasn’t until 2009 I
actually sent some of that writing in though.
Can you share with us your typical
writing day. Is there anything you have to have while writing?
I am presently taking a much
needed hiatus from “work” after four years of running myself to a state of
exhaustion so I am thrilled to be able to have entire days just for
writing! For seven years all I wanted
was more time to write, I’ve got my chance now and don’t know how long I will
be able to so I’m not wasting it.
Even with this new freedom, I’m
strictly sticking to a schedule as much as I can between finally being able to
spend time with my family.
After everyone has gone to
work/school, I am at my desk by 9 and work until 11:30. This is usually
answering emails, interviews or promotional necessities. From noon until 1, I go over what I wrote the
day before and then from 1 until 5 I write.
After dinner time I usually take some time with the kids and then later
in the evening, it’s just me, a pen/notebook and my characters.
And yes, I have to have a drink
while I’m writing. It’s weird but true. Whether it’s coffee, water… it just has
to be there even though I usually forget to drink it.
What would you say is the most
challenging or rewarding part of writing?
The part I find the most challenging
is the promoting part. I can talk about
anything but myself, so it’s really the most difficult part for me. The most rewarding part is of course when
readers like what I’ve written. Without the readers I would just be a crazy
person telling myself stories that are trapped in my head!
Can you please tell us about your
latest book?
I don’t
want to say too much because I tend to get carried away and tell too much but This Ring was one of those stories that
came to me when I should have been focusing on the story I was actually working
on. The characters intrigued me, a
modern day woman and a man from the seventies that was cursed and has been
basically in limbo and unseen for almost four decades. Let’s just say it was interesting working
all of that out on the pages. ;)
How did you come with the idea for
this story?
The entire idea came from a
misted over lake.
Several times a year I go up
North to a peaceful lake and stay in a cozy little cabin, it’s my time to
escape and regroup. If I get up early
enough I’m treated to the view of the lake at dawn. At this time of day the mist starts to rise
off the lake and it can strike you as anything from haunting and eerie to
breathtaking and mystifying. I have so
many pictures of this taken from various aspects around the lake its crazy, but
I could look at them for hours.
It was during one of the first
few times I was there, I went out in the canoe later in the morning and the
idea of a woman seeing a man walk up out of that mist came to me. By the time I was back on shore I knew his story
and practically ran back to the cabin so I could jot down a few notes to remind
myself later on.
After that I just had to figure
out why the woman was there in the first place and all the little details.
Can you share with us your current
work in progress?
I am
presently writing the second book in the Animal
Trilogy – Scent. The first book, Heart, was about wolf-shifters. This one is all about tigers and it is one of
those stories that keep surprising me.
Here is the
trilogy blurb:
Three women without knowledge
of their true heritage...
Three
men that have waited for their mate all of their lives...
Hearts
and tempers collide with wild passions and animal instincts in the
Animal
Trilogy
Who are some of your favorite
authors?
There are so many great authors out there… My top
three faves would be Nora Roberts, Christine Feehan and Sherrily Kenyon, but
the list is endless. I love reading.
Do you feel that any of your favorite
authors have inspired your writing style?
They have in the way that
opened doors for authors to change the rules.
They showed no fear in putting the unexpected (previously unaccepted)
down on paper. I think without them we
would all still be reading safe contemporary stories.
Open your book to a random page and please
reads us a few lines.
As her eyes focused through the misty
dawn glow she dropped the cup to the sand beside her shoes. It
looked like a man; only he wasn’t quite solid looking. Which, she
knew was crazy. Men didn’t walk out of the water. She thought
maybe he was on a boat that the fog hid, until it swirled clear around him and
there was nothing but water beneath his feet. Snapping her mouth shut, she
squinted and watched as he came towards the shore. Having
hallucinated more than enough, she turned abruptly and walked back towards the
little cottage. Clearly she still needed a lot more sleep.
What is in your To Read Pile that you
are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for?
Oh that’s
easy to answer. Right now sitting on my desk staring at me is Sherrilyn
Kenyon’s Styxx. I can’t wait to read it,
but I won’t allow myself to even open the cover until I’ve finished my current
WIP. I’m so mean.
Have you ever used anyone from your
real life encounters in any of your books?
Yes and
no. I am a people watcher in general, so
I tend to take little pieces of things I see and make a mental note to figure
out how to work that in somewhere in my writing, but so far I haven’t based a
character on any one person.
What was the most surprising thing
you learned about yourself while you were writing?
That I’m very disciplined. That may be odd, but I’ve always been
happiest when I’m multi-tasking (I’m a very high energy kind of person that
doesn’t sit still very well at all) and didn’t think I could sit and JUST write
until it was finished.
Jacqueline Paige
lives in Ontario in a small town that’s part of the popular Georgian Triangle
area. No one has ever heard of Stayner,
so she usually tells people she lives “near Collingwood” and no, she doesn’t
ski at Blue Mountain or at all, in fact she’s not even fond of snow.
She began her writing
career in 2006 and since her first published works in 2009 she hasn’t
stopped. Jacqueline describes her
writing as “all things paranormal”, which she has proven is her niche with
stories of witches, ghosts, physics and shifters now on the shelves.
When Jacqueline
isn’t working at her ‘reality job’ or lost in her writing she spends time with
her five children, most of whom are finally able to look after her instead of
the other way around. Together they do
random road trips, that usually end up with them lost, shopping trips where they push every button
in the toy aisle, hiking when there’s enough time to escape and bizarre things
like creating new daring recipes in the kitchen. She’s a grandmother to four (so
far) and looks forward to corrupting many more in the years to come.
Jacqueline loves
to hear from her readers, you can find her at www.jacqpaige.webs.com , www.jacqpaige.blogspot.ca or http://magicseasonsbooks.blogspot.ca
Thanks for having me here today!
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