Jana Richards...A Really Good Week

My first novella, “Burning Love”, is scheduled for release with The Wild Rose Press on January 20, 2010. I call it “paranormal lite”. The story is partly about two angels who work in Heaven’s Relationship Division, matching mortals with their soul mates, while wearing the fashions of dearly departed designers. Well, actually only angel-in-training Angelica has a penchant for designer clothes. Her supervisor Hildegard is a no-nonsense, tweed-suit and sensible shoe wearing angel who likes to play by the rules. They team up to match mortals Iris and Riley, a rather unlikely couple, if you consider matching a fireman with a girl prone to setting fires unlikely. Creating a successful match between Iris and Riley is Angelica’s last chance; she’s made a mess of every other job she’s been given in Heaven. Can Angelica and Hildegard, also an unlikely match, work together to give Iris and Riley their happily ever after? Here’s a short excerpt:

Riley looked into her beautiful blue eyes and her smiling face and did the only thing he was capable of doing at the moment.

He kissed her.

Maybe later, he told himself, when sanity returned, he’d think of a hundred reasons why pulling Iris into his arms, holding her snug against his body, and plundering her soft, sweet mouth was not a good idea. But for now, right now, as she wound her arms around his neck and made tiny sounds of excitement deep in her throat, it felt exactly right.

Heaven. Having Iris in his corner made him believe everything was possible.

He stepped backward toward the stairs, pulling Iris with him, intent on taking her upstairs to his room. He suddenly tripped, nearly losing his balance. He glanced behind him and saw the object he’d stumbled over. A set of luggage sat next to the stairs, still bearing tags from the retailer.

“What the hell is this?”

Iris kissed his neck. “I’m sorry. I should have taken them up to my room.”

Iris had bought new luggage for her trip. Her plans hadn’t changed.

She’s leaving me.

The thought acted as effectively as a bucket of cold water tossed over his head. What was he doing? She was leaving in three weeks and didn’t plan to return. The calendar in the kitchen reminded him of that every day. Why start something that would only lead to heartache?

He’d already lost too many people in his life.

And Riley instinctively knew that if he let himself get close to Iris, let himself love her, a part of him would not survive when she left.

Writing this novella was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work, and I’m grateful to The Wild Rose Press for taking me on. After many rewrites and much polishing, I was thrilled the week I got the email from my editor confirming the decision to publish “Burning Love”. But that wasn’t my only good news that week.

About 4 or 5 years ago I answered a call for submissions from Chicken Soup for the Soul. They were looking for stories about cats, and since I’ve lived with cats most of my life, I had a few stories. I sent them in, and heard some time later that they weren’t going to use any of my stories for the current project, but they would hang on to them if a similar project arose in the future. I chalked it up to experience and promptly forgot about it.

Fast forward to May 2009. A couple of days after I received my email from my editor at The Wild Rose Press offering me a contract for “Burning Love”, I got another email from the Chicken Soup people. I almost deleted it, thinking it was junk mail. Luckily I didn’t. They were offering to publish my story in their new book “What I Learned from the Cat”. My story “The Great Hunters” is #9 in the book and is published under my legal name. The lesson I take from this adventure is that when it comes to writing, you can never give up. Your next sale may come when you least expect it!

To celebrate the release of “Burning Love” I am running a contest at my website at www.janarichards.net Answer one of the questions on the contest page and be entered in a draw to be made on release day, January 20 at midnight. And to celebrate the release of “What I Learned from the Cat”, I have a second contest on my website. Tell me the name of a beloved cat, past or present, and a little about why they were so special to be entered in a draw for a copy of the book. Please check out “What I learned from the Cat” and other Chicken Soup stories here. http://www.chickensoup.com/cs.asp?cid=newbooks Thanks!