Lost Love and Cowboys – Who Can Resist?

My friend Lucy Naylor Kubash joins me today with her post about her newest book, Will o’ the Wisp. Welcome, Lucy.

First off, thank you Elizabeth for having me as a guest on your blog. I always enjoy reading the posts, so it’s a pleasure to visit here today.

What happens when a man from the past suddenly appears on your doorstep? In Allison Delaney’s case, it’s at her horse barn, and the return of veterinarian Dr. Shane McBride presents a whole world of problems in Will o’ the Wisp, a contemporary romance with a touch of suspense and mystery. The idea for a story about a woman who lives alone with her child and is suddenly faced with some unseen danger first began as a short story many years ago. Eventually, it evolved into a full-length book, because there was so much more tell about Shane and Allison. Some incidents that occurred in my area of Michigan also helped me develop the plot that led to a longer story. Plus, I just really liked this couple and had to make sure that after ten years apart, they found their happily ever after!

While turning the short story into a novel, I often found myself arguing with the hero and heroine about the truth of the story. My decision to make the story go one way got turned around, when they took it off in the direction they wanted. That may sound strange, but it’s true that characters become so real they often refuse to behave the way the author thinks they should. I finally relented and let them do it their way. I think if I had fought them on it and tried to force what I thought should happen, the story would not have turned out as heartfelt and touching as I hope it is. While there were several scenes I found difficult to write, because they concerned characters finally learning the truth about something they had long believed, when I allowed myself to just follow their lead, Shane and Allison did a pretty good job of taking me along for the ride. I had to learn to let go and trust it would work out. It did!

I think my favorite part about writing a story is the dialogue. For me, it reveals the personality of a particular character, and lets me and the reader learn more about them. In this book, I think the way the characters speak portrays their life experiences. In writing their dialogue, I tried to show how different they all were, but most especially, it let me get into the head of a really complicated but really cute hero! Shane does become a hero in the best sense of the word, and by the end of the book, I probably loved him as much as Allison did.

When a story begins to take off, and I find plot ideas, descriptions, or bits of dialogue popping into my head at the most inopportune time (like when I’m trying to fall asleep), I’ve started to put those thoughts into the Notes app on my phone. Since it’s usually with me when I’m not at home, it has taken the place of notebooks. I still use them, too, but I find the Notes app pretty handy for not forgetting those thoughts you’re sure you will remember but that disappear in the blink of an eye, or when you wake up.

Here is an excerpt from Will o’ the Wisp, released by The Wild Rose Press on August 7:

The man who stepped from inside the truck was definitely not Doc. Tall, with shoulders stretching the faded fabric of his denim shirt and shiny black hair that glistened in the sunlight, he would have towered over Doc’s stocky figure. As he started toward the barn, she couldn’t see his face, but the easy swagger to his walk, the way he rolled his booted feet from heel to toe, spoke to her of things she thought she had forgotten. Had worked very hard to forget. Feelings she’d buried ten years ago. Uncomfortable, she dropped her gaze to her daughter who had come to stand next to Gypsy.

“Is he Doc’s helper, you think?” Lizzie scrunched her nose. “I don’t think I know him.”

Sudden awareness clutched Allison’s heart, giving it an extra beat, as if to prove the man walking toward her was still easy on the eyes but hard on the heart. He’d certainly been hard on hers.

It would stand to reason Doc might call on him to give a hand. But why does it have to be my barn that needs visiting this morning? Her heart thumped hard in her chest as Shane McBride came closer, stopped short, and tilted his head back to get a better look at her. For a second, surprise lit his eyes to the color of the sky, then, sticking his hands into his denim pockets, he shook his head. A slow grin touched his mouth. The mouth she remembered so well.

“Allison,” he said in his slow, sexy way. “I…wasn’t sure it was you who called.”

Her throat closed up, and she had to clear it twice to speak. “I left the message on the machine. Do I sound so different?” After ten years, she supposed she did. Ten years could rob you of a lot of things, a lot of memories, especially if the memories meant nothing to you.

You can find Will o’ the Wisp here: 

Amazon

Barnes and Noble  

Kobo

You can find me here:

Website:http://lucynaylorkubash.com

Facebook: https://facebook.com/LucyNaylorKubash

Twitter:https://twitter.com/LucyKubash

About the author:

I’ve been making up stories for as long as I can remember, starting with animal stories and graduating to an historical romance I wrote while in junior high school. In college, I took several creative writing classes, and when my children were small, I wrote and sold a number of short stories to Woman’s World magazine.

I’ve been a member of Romance Writers of America and Mid-Michigan Romance Writers for over thirty years and have written articles for chapter newsletters. I’m also concerned with animal welfare issues, and I write a monthly column called The Pet Corner, where I advocate for homeless pets and local shelters and rescue groups.

My husband and I live in southwest Michigan, near the sunset coast of Lake Michigan, with our dogs; Ace, a silly Terrier mix, and Foo Foo, a crazy Pomeranian, and two kitties, Zombie and Sandwich. We have two grown children and a number of granddogs. We love to travel, especially out West, where I’m always on the lookout for a new setting for my books.