Tangled Memories—Even books have history by Jan Scarbrough

We all have a history, don’t we? Good times and bad times. Happy times and sad. Well, books have a history too. Updates, new names, re-edits, new covers are some of the ways self-published authors can change their books. But before the advent of self-publishing, we had to go the traditional route (as some authors still prefer). 

Tangled Memories, a book of my heart, was originally called Window of My Heart. It had a good run in RWA’s contest circuit in the 90’s, culminating as a 1994 Golden Heart finalist in Romantic Suspense/Gothic. Before that happened, a fellow author pulled me aside after I failed so terribly in 1993 and taught me about plotting. (This was one of my first books, after all. I was still learning.) I swear after I got into the groove of this book, it wrote itself.

After being a finalist in the Golden Heart, I couldn’t sell the book to a traditional publisher. You know, the dreaded rejection letters. I did “sell” it to a brand-new e-book publisher. What? In 1999, there weren’t any e-book readers to speak of. So, of course, my book, now called Tangled Memories, didn’t go far.

Over the years, Tangled Memories hopped from publisher to publisher: Imajinn, Wild Rose Press, Turquoise Morning Press. By this time, e-books were in style and readers could read e-books on their phones! Finally, in 2016, I got my rights back and self-published Tangled Memories after a re-edit, update, new blurb, and new cover.

Tangled Memories remains one of my favorites. In it, I switched my heroine from present day to Medieval times. Today, I see this done by many writers—the dual-timeline novels. I don’t know if I was ahead of my time, or if it simply worked for the story I had to tell.

You can grab a copy for your summer reading pleasure for 99 cents at most e-book stores. Sadly, the paperback is not on sale.

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After losing his wife, Dr. Alexander Dominican is determined his infant daughter will not grow up motherless as he did. Offering sensible, kind kindergarten teacher Mary Adams a marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution. The widow’s husband left her with a mountain of debt. For Alex, paying it off is a small price to pay for his daughter’s happiness. Until his sensible new wife begins to lose her mind.

On the day of their marriage, Mary starts having frightening hallucinations of medieval England—visions that feel more like the memories of woman who lived centuries before. More terrifying, someone—or something—is stalking the new mistress of Marchbrook Manor. Could it be one of the sinister servants? Or Alex himself? Alex is reawakening hidden desires and longings in Mary, but until she can untangle the web of nightmares and secrets, she can trust no one. Not even Alex.

Alex has no idea he’s unleashing a destiny that’s taken him seven hundred years to fulfill.

If Alex and Mary are to salvage their future, they must first unravel centuries of…Tangled Memories.

Timeless: A Ghostly Adventure by Jan Scarbrough #RomanceGems

With Halloween approaching, I thought I’d tell you about my one and only ghost story. It started with a cover for inspiration. The original cover showed a man and a woman, probably in love, and a little girl in the background. Of course, I thought, the child must be a ghost!

I needed a character who could communicate with my little girl ghost. Enter Jeff Halstead, the hero and my reluctant medium. I call him reluctant because he’s not sure of his spiritual gifts.

When Beth Abbott receives a surprise inheritance from her birth mother, she travels to the family’s nineteenth century mansion in Old Louisville, now a bed and breakfast and run by Jeff. And guess what? They have a history together that they know nothing about, but our ghost does!

Writing the story was an adventure, because I needed to do a bunch of research to make it all come together.

I pulled out a couple of books from my library: Haunts of Old Louisville by David Domine, and The Great Louisville Tornado of 1890 by Keven McQueen. I wanted to use information from both books as inspiration and background for my story.

I went to the Internet for other research. It’s strange what a novelist needs when writing, and the Internet is a handy place to find that information. Some of the things I researched were Baxter Square Park (Louisville’s first park), a party game called Flip Cup, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the events of September 11, 2001. I also researched a hill in Louisville’s Cherokee Park where people sled in the winter. It is called “dog hill.” I investigated carriages from the 1890’s and period clothing.

After all that, I put the book together, making it a Gothic romance with ghostly elements!

Dale Epley, my friend who is also a medium, said this about my book: Timeless is a beautiful love story that intertwines two different lifetimes, and Jan has done an incredible job of introducing reincarnation and numerous other “Spiritual gifts” that we all possess in a clear and concise way that will help you to understand the possibilities, even if they are not in your reality yet.

So, if you want a non-scary ghost story for Halloween, take a look at Timeless!

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*****

Every Day is Treat Day in October. To be entered in the random drawing for Timeless leave a comment with your email address written out (not as a hot link). The deadline for doing this is 2 days from now. I’ll draw the winners name on October 24, 2019 and notify the winner by email and by leaving a comment on this post.

By the way, in case you wonder why Authors give away books, it’s simple. We give away books to introduce new Readers to our writing. The best way to thank an Author who gives you a book is to post a review of the book. Just a few sentences saying why you liked the book is all that is needed! Do this, and we’ll adore you!

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Tangled Memories on sale in July at #Smashwords #RomanceGems

The 11th Annual Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale, takes place Monday July 1, 2019, through Wednesday July 31, 2019.

My book Tangled Memories is on sale during this time at a 50% discount only at Smashwords.

Tangled Memories is a special book to me because it was one of the first books I wrote, and because it became a finalist in the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart contest in 1994.

It then had a strange route to publication. I “sold” it to one of the first ebook publishers in 1999 before the advent of decent e-readers. That didn’t go so well, because technology hadn’t advanced enough for ebooks. Later I contracted with ImaJinn Books for a paperback version. Once I had my rights back again, ebooks were now gaining popularity, and I contracted with two ebook publishers for a while.

Today Tangled Memories has been revised and gone through another edit, and I publish it myself.

Tangled Memories is a gothic romance. Wikipedia has a big description of the history of this genre that goes back to 1764 and English author Horace Walpole’s novel The Castle of Otranto. Wikipedia calls my kind of gothic romance “new.”

Gothic Romances of this description became popular during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with authors such as Phyllis A. Whitney, Joan Aiken, Dorothy Eden, Victoria Holt, Barbara Michaels, Mary Stewart, and Jill Tattersall. Many featured covers depicting a terror-stricken woman in diaphanous attire in front of a gloomy castle, often with a single lit window.

These novels usually concern spirited young women, either governesses or new brides, who go to live in large gloomy mansions populated by peculiar servants and precocious children and presided over by darkly handsome men with mysterious pasts.

This is exactly what happens to my heroine Mary in Tangled Memories.

After losing his wife, Dr. Alexander Dominican is determined his infant daughter will not grow up motherless as he did. Offering sensible, kind kindergarten teacher Mary Adams a marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution. The widow’s husband left her with a mountain of debt. For Alex, paying it off is a small price to pay for his daughter’s happiness. Until his sensible new wife begins to lose her mind.

On the day of their marriage, Mary starts having frightening hallucinations of medieval England—visions that feel more like the memories of woman who lived centuries before. More terrifying, someone—or some thing—is stalking the new mistress of Marchbrook Manor. Could it be one of the sinister servants? Or Alex himself? Alex is reawakening hidden desires and longings in Mary, but until she can untangle the web of nightmares and secrets, she can trust no one. Not even Alex.

Alex has no idea he’s unleashing a destiny that’s taken him seven hundred years to fulfill.

If Alex and Mary are to salvage their future, they must first unravel centuries of…Tangled Memories.

So, if this description sounds interesting to you, snag a copy of Tangled Memories at Smashwords for a 50% discount.

BIRTHDAY WISHES

Before I leave, I need to say happy birthday to my favorite Beatle! Ringo Starr born today in 1940. And yes inquiring minds, I saw the Beatles twice as a teenager. Tickets were $5.50. I screamed and cried.

Photo credit http://dailyman40.com/

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