All About Charming Alice, a contemporary romance from J. Arlene Culiner

Please help us give a warm welcome to J. Arlene Culiner. She is with us this week to share her Contemporary Romance, All About Charming Alice. Welcome, J. Arlene! We are thrilled you are here to visit us and we all can not wait to hear more about  All About Charming Alice.

Q&A with J. Arlene Culiner:

Where is your favorite place to write?
I don’t have a favorite place, but I do have a favorite time. I like getting up very early in the morning when everyone else is sound asleep and the world seems a calmer place. This is a secret time, when the ideas come easily.

What inspires you as an author?

Stories. I love hearing stories. I like it when people tell me their secrets; I like discovering how people really feel, and how they live. These personal stories make life interesting, and give me all the insight I need to create my characters.

Why do you write romance and why your genre of romance?
I write non-fiction as well, but that demands a lot of research. I need the lighter side of writing to balance that out — stories where people meet and fall in love. I write romances with older heroes and heroines because these are people who have seen much. They have experience, are mature, and bring depth to a story that younger protagonists can’t. Also, I write realistic romance. I want people to see that love is always out there and there is hope and magic for everyone.

What are you working on next and when can we expect to see it?
I’m working on a collection of six historical romances set in Blake’s Folly, the semi-ghost town in All About Charming Alice, and my other book in this series: Desert Rose. I hope the book will be ready for publication in the next few months.

What would you do if you couldn’t write?
Go crazy, I suppose.

How do you spend your free time?
Who has free time?

Do you listen to music when you write?
I need silence when I write. When there is silence, you can hear what your imagination is telling you. If you listen to songs, you’d end up repeating the lyrics, or picking up on someone else’s tale.

How do you, your friends and your fans encourage you when you need a pick-me-up?
I go for a walk. I live in Europe where the ancient unpaved green roads crisscross every country, go from one village to the next. Following in the footsteps of those who passed for thousands of years, puts things into perspective.

All About Charming Alice: Romance in Blake’s Folly

I’d like to tell everyone about my contemporary romance, All About Charming Alice. The story is set in Blake’s Folly, a semi-ghost town in the Nevada desert. My heroine, Alice Treemont, is a rather prickly character. Once upon a time, she was a Hollywood actress; these days, reclusive, and independent, she prefers rescuing dogs and protecting snakes. My hero, Jace Constant, is a writer from Chicago, and he’s not crazy about deserts, dogs, or snakes, but he is determined to find out more about Alice, to charm her. Why not indulge in a lighthearted affair while he’s in the area? But neither Alice nor Jace expect love to come galumphing over the horizon.

Blurb:

Alice Treemont has given up hope of meeting the right man and falling in love. Living in Blake’s Folly, a semi-ghost town of rusting cars, old trailers, clapboard shacks and thirsty weeds, she spends her time cooking vegetarian meals, rescuing unwanted dogs, and protecting the most unloved creatures on earth: snakes. What man would share those interests?

Jace Constant is in Nevada, doing research for his new book, but he won’t be staying long. As far as he’s concerned, Blake’s Folly is hell on earth. He’s disgusted by desert dust on his fine Italian shoes, and dog hair on his cashmere sweaters. As for snakes, he doesn’t only despise them: he’s terrified by them. He can hardly wait to get back to Chicago’s elegant women, fine dining, and contemporary art exhibitions.

So how is it possible that each time Alice and Jace meet, the air sizzles? That she’s as fascinated by him as he is by her? That they know their feelings go deeper than raw desire? Still, it looks like this relationship is doomed before it even starts.

In need of juicy gossip, the other 52 residents of Blake’s Folly have decided Alice has been alone for long enough. The attraction between her and Jace is obvious, so why worry about essential differences? If you trust in love, solutions do appear. But don’t those solutions call for too many compromises, too much self-sacrifice?

 Published by Fire Star Press

Links for All About Charming Alice:

Excerpt from Romance in Blake’s Folly:

Jace rose to his feet and, in that languid way of his, crossed to the doorway where she stood. Alice was a tallish woman but, still, he towered over her. Casually, stretching out one arm, he rested his hand on the doorframe, just a hair’s breadth above her head. He was close, so close. His body was supple, strong and—yes, she had to admit it—warm, fragrant. The heat of him reached her over the few inches separating them and she ached to curve into it. Aura? This man was a flesh-and-blood heat wave.

The strange, tingling excitation was flowing through her again like thick port wine. She lowered her eyes, refusing to meet his gaze, although she knew he was, once again, examining her minutely.

“And I want to take the room.”

“Look, you don’t need my room,” she said, desperation evident in her tone. “There’s a perfectly reasonable motel the other side of the Winterback Mine, out in the direction of Logan. Actually, it’s far better equipped to take in tourists than anything you’d find here in Blake’s Folly.”

“I know. Rider Motel. Air conditioning, closed circuit television.” His smile was wry. “That’s exactly where I’ve been staying for the last three nights. And over and over again during those three nights I remembered Blake’s Folly and the ‘room to let’ sign on your wall. And the more I thought about it, the more appealing it got.” He paused, let his eyes wander over the faded wooden framing, over the settee on the veranda. “Right here, it feels more like home.”

That wasn’t it, she knew. That wasn’t even part of the truth. He was back because something hot and wonderful shimmered between them. Did she fascinate him as much as he did her? Possibly. Although she hadn’t done anything to encourage him, not even once. It would have been hard to find anyone less friendly than she’d been.

Still, there was something about him that touched her, something that had nothing to do with raw desire. Was it the warmth in his eyes? A quirk to his lips that promised humor and understanding? Or was it just plain magic, the magic that happens when the right female meets the right male.

J. Arlene Culiner’s Social Links:

 

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