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Scottish Christmas Two is published

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The latest in the I Love a Scotsman series, SCOTTISH CHRISTMAS TWO, was just released on St Andrews Day! It’s a short sweet contemporary Scottish romance that follows Janey, the twenty something daughter of Beth from the first Scottish Christmas, as she overcomes adversities to fly from Boston to Edinburgh to spend Christmas Eve with Beth and Gordon and the rest of the MacKay clan in St Andrews. Do not need to read the first Scottish Christmas to read the second. However, soon I will be hosting a giveaway of audio versions of the first Scottish Christmas.

 
After the success of the first Scottish Christmas, I wanted to revisit the MacKay family but did not want to follow Beth and Gordon. They’re a couple. They’re in love. I did not have anything else to say about them, so I looked elsewhere. I had considered one of Beth’s coworkers, or someone else in the MacKay family, but Janey stood out. In the first novel, she was on the other end of a phone call with Beth, informing her mother in tears that her father was marrying his pregnant much younger yoga instructor and he was having a baby boy. That story appealed to me. I thought about the angst Janey must be experiencing, first her parents’ divorce, her father marries a much younger woman and is immediately a new dad (and I’m assuming more attentive to his new son than his older daughter), but her mother has married a man in a different country and moved across an ocean. She’d feel hurt, lonely, angry, abandoned. And that story appealed to me. Now what happens to Janey? When we find her at the start of the second Scottish Christmas, she ditched her long time boyfriend from the first Scottish Christmas, has a successful career but afraid of love. She saw what happened to her parents and does not want to follow their example. Until she is seated next to a handsome, charming Scot, that is!

 
Stay tuned in 2016, I have two rough draft Scottish novellas. One is set on a tour of the highlands a la Outlander and the other is set during the Edinburgh Festival of Arts. I had to research and interview stage lighting designers for the latter and create an itinerary for bus tour for the former. Fun!

 
Wishing everyone Happy Holidays and wonderful 2016.

Addison

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I Love a Scotsman series has begun!

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An amazing thing happened last December. I had seriously considered stopping writing.

I used to write fan fiction. Yes, I confess it. I wrote Harry Potter fan fiction in an alternative universe where Harry and Hermione were a couple , not Harry and Ginny or Hermione and Ron. To me, Harry and Hermione were an obvious couple. So, since JKR did not see it, I would write it. My personal favorite was a story called Magic and Misperceptions which was a redo of Pride and Prejudice from a Harry Potter universe. Harry was Darcy, a Quidditch star, not just the Boy Who Lived. Hermione did not attend Hogwarts, but was educated in France at Beauxbatons. They don’t meet until years after the war is over. They hate each other at first: Hermione thought Harry arrogant and Harry thought Hermione stuck up. Of course, those feeling change.

Why do I mention this? When I published my stories for free on fanfiction.net and Portkey, I could see statistics of how many people read them, from what countries, and they would leave reviews. I could interact with my fans. I enjoyed that. For the novel length stories, I would post a chapter a week and get feedback right away from readers. It felt like a community. And I did not feel that way with my romances. It seemed like my only readers were friends and family.

That all changed in December.

I had two holiday stories that became Amazon holiday bestsellers. One was in a holiday anthology with members of our local Silicon Valley RWA Chapter. The other was with my regular publisher and set in Scotland, my favorite country. I spent a year there when I was twenty and it seemed like every time I went there (which was a semi-annual event for the next ten years), I fell in love.  They both became bestsellers, and my regular publisher asked me to write more stories set in Scotland, hence the beginning of the I Love a Scotsman series. I’m getting reviews from people who are not family or friends. I’m rediscovering joy in writing. I just want to write stories that I would want to read: sweet, short and contemporary. An escape from the everyday. And I want others to read them too. And now, it’s happening.

I’m writing contemporary romances set in Scotland, a beautiful country full of men with accents that make my heart melt. I hope you enjoy them.

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Scottish Christmas is #20 holiday free fiction Amazon top 100 – free today!

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What a wonderful surprise! My standalone holiday romance short, SCOTTISH CHRISTMAS, is at number 20 in the kindle holiday free fiction list! I’m just thrilled to bits. Thanks everyone for downloading and hope you enjoy it.

 

Scotland is one of my favorite countries in the world with some of my favorite people in the world.  I wanted to write a contemporary romance that captured the heart of the country and its people.

 

If you have already read it, please post a review on Amazon or good reads

 

http://www.amazon.com/Scottish-Christmas-Addison-James-ebook/dp/B00PHH9FYS

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Another Christmas Romantic Comedy Short Story: THE BEST BAD CHRISTMAS GIFT

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The second in my Best Bad series was just published: THE BEST BAD CHRISTMAS GIFT.

 

Follow the adventures of Susan and Roger from their first date in THE BEST BAD DATE to a truly memorable present in THE BEST BAD CHRISTMAS GIFT.

 

Susan’s best friend, Terri, is at it again. First she bought Susan a date with hunky Doctor Roger Lane at a charity bachelor auction in THE BEST BAD DATE. Then she decides their romance needs some spice and she buys Susan a pair of pink handcuffs, and doesn’t take no for an answer. (note: the cover is rated R but the story is PG13)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Bad-Christmas-Gift-ebook/dp/B00H8XB5YW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386911337&sr=1-1&keywords=best+bad+christmas+gift+addison+james

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Post from July 2013: Where I’ve Been

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Here’s my post from my July 2013 GoodReads blog which is an update of where I’ve been the past 2 years:

 

What have I been doing this past year? What I haven’t been doing is writing. My personal life started turning into a Lifetime Television for Women movie so I focused on the Real World and writing took a back seat. I know one day I’ll turn all this drama and life experience into a novel. But not now. Too soon.

When I wrote my women’s fiction novel, I had the habit of waking up each morning at 4:45am, making a pot of strong English tea and writing until 6am when the family got up. My days aren’t as repetitive now and I got out of the habit. I live on the edge of the woods now and some days (most days) I’d rather take a walk than sit at my dining room table and write. But, this past week, things changed. I started writing a Christmas romance short story that hopefully will be published in an anthology with one of my publishers,and slowly, painfully, the habit of writing has returned.

During my writer’s block, writing was a source of guilt. I knew I should be writing but I just didn’t want to. There were so many other more fulfilling things to do. But writing always stayed in the back of my head, looming over my to do list. And even once I started writing again, I kept finding ways to procrastinate (like writing this blog!). It was hard, to be frank. That cliched phrase ‘like pulling teeth’ comes to mind because it was painful to sit infront of a blank screen and try to create, remembering how easy it was years ago when I did this everyday. Well, it finally came back. Last weekend, the words started flowing again, and I got that feeling that I used to have, that I had for years, that my characters were following me throughout my day, even when I wasn’t writing, and giving me ideas of how to plot the story or how they would react in certain situations, or giving me new plot bunnies to follow on their merry way. And I love it.

I’ve decided to focus on short stories and romantic comedies for a while. The women’s fiction novel on hold for now, but I want to brush off the New Adult (I need a new opening!). In the meantime, I’m glad I’m back. It’s good to be here. And hang on, there’s more to come. 🙂

 

UPDATE: the story I was working on when I wrote this blog became CHRISTMAS GLOVES, the short story that was just published as a standalone and in the CHRISTMAS ROMANCES VOLUME 2 anthology! I wrote 2 more short stories, one will be published on Dec 13th and the other hopefully will be in an anthology or as a standalone.

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Christmas Romances are Here! CHRISTMAS GLOVES

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I’m back!

And pleased to announce that two holiday romance short stories are published!

 

The first, CHRISTMAS GLOVES, is a holiday romantic comedy about a woman who has a last minute Christmas gift to buy for the guy she’s been dating for three weeks. And the mall closes soon. The publisher is Books to Go Now, and it’s also featured in the anthology, CHRISTMAS ROMANCES VOLUME 2

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Romance-Volume-Sharon-Kleve-ebook/dp/B00GU462B6

the stand alone:

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Gloves-Addison-James-ebook/dp/B00GPUXGHS/ref=la_B005EOQGWS_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386170723&sr=1-2

 

 

 

The Birth of CHRISTMAS GLOVES

 

I was given a prompt. Something like: last minute Christmas shopping and there’s a storm. That was it. Go for it.

I try to avoid last minute Christmas shopping. I cyber shop and live in California where there isn’t any snow. But I spent half my life in New England and imagined a situation where someone might be in a situation where she would need to shop at the last minute: that wonderful, exciting yet awkward period when you’re dating a guy, you’re monogamous but not sure if he’s monogamous, or you may both agree to be monogamous but not officially boyfriend and girlfriend yet. Then the holidays come and you’re not sure if you should exchange gifts or not. Being a survivor of serial monogamy (usually on a six month rotation), I am very familiar with that awkwardness of do you buy someone a present or not when a holiday or birthday arrives too soon in your potential relationship timeline.

That’s the story behind my new romantic comedy short story, CHRISTMAS GLOVES. Leila realizes that the man she’s been dating for three weeks will be driving her to the airport the day before Christmas – two short days away – and she should probably get him a gift just in case. She arrives at the mall with no idea what to buy, and ends up with the Plan A and Plan B gifts.

Anyone who’s been in a similar situation can relate. Here’s an excerpt:

 

 

What did she know about Nathan? She suddenly smiled, recalling a recent phone call. He was funny. They shared the same sort of quirky humor that made her feel uncomfortable with other people, but he got her The Monty Python references? Check. The Simpsons? Check. Freaks and Geeks? Check. Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Check again. UK Office? Yep.

Okay, that’s an idea. Find a store that would have memorabilia from those classic quirky TV shows.

Leila soon learned the Only Available On TV show had products that appeared in infomercials late at night, no Monty Python mugs or t-shirts.

“Do you have any Monty Python gifts?” Leila asked.

“Monty who?” the barely legal shop clerk asked.

“Monty Python. It’s a comedy show,” Leila tried again.

“Like a sitcom?” he asked.

“No, no,” Leila opened her mouth to speak again, and then realized Monty Python probably ended its run decades before this boy was created. “Never mind. How about The Simpsons?” Surely a TV show that was still on the air would be recognized by this waif.

Fish eyes were his visual response.

A woman already swaddled with three shopping bags nudged into Leila. “Sorry but I’m kind of in a rush here. And I know what I want. Where are those banana containers? They’re all gone from the shelf.”

The waif reanimated.

“That’s one of our best sellers,” he said, his face brightening.”I’ll check in the back.”

“Can you get me some artichoke pockets and the fish knife too?” the woman added, adjusting her bags.

“Those aren’t out there?” the boy asked from behind a wall.

“No. And a mustache trimmer,” the woman added.

“That’s not out there?” the boy asked.

“Yes, but I want grey, not black.” The woman turned to Leila. “Don’t you love this store? I do most of my Christmas shopping here.” She juggled her bags. “That’s why I save it for my last stop. Don’t need to carry it all around the mall.”

Leila smiled out of politeness as she looked at the woman, then scanned the shop full of items she personally found unnecessary. Future garage sale bargain bin items, she thought. Still..

“Do you have any gift suggestions for a guy about my age?” Leila asked the woman and immediately regretted it. The timing was unfortunate; just as the sales clerk handed the boxes to the woman, she looked at Leila and held the moustache trimmer close.

“You can’t have this,” she said. “There’s black ones on the shelf, my Bruce wants the grey one.”

 

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The Next Big Thing

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Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing by Addison James

I accepted the challenge from women’s fiction writer, Kerry Lonsdale, to complete the Next Big Thing challenge. (She’s fabulous, check her out here: http://kerrylonsdale.com/ )

What is your working title of your book?
The current title is FOR THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN. Not sure about that one. I did have SECOND CHANCES, but that title has been used a lot. Understatement. I attended a writer’s conference, and they suggested I check how many SECOND CHANCES titles that already existed on Amazon. I stopped looking after five pages!

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I traveled to the UK to see my three best friends. We had a wonderful night of drinking and laughter. I was married at the time but the marriage was unraveling when I realized my friends cared about me more than my husband. I took that thought and cranked it up a hundred degrees by adding a romance.

What genre does your book fall under?
Romantic Women’s Fiction.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
City councilwoman Cathy Brooks worked hard to be the best at everything: wife, mother, and employee, yet, one night with beer, cigarettes, and lowered defenses, came a life changing discovery: what she searched for had been there all along, but obtaining it would lead to a choice between safety and joy.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Agency.( Fingers crossed!)

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
About six months.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
David Nicholls’ ONE DAY meets BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
When I write, I just get this strong feeling that I need to write. I had an idea about a woman who realizes that she followed a certain path in life and it didn’t turn out the way she expected. I just kept writing and it went from a short story to a novella to a novel.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
The novel takes place between London and Boston, and present day and the 1980s when they first meet. If I had to choose a soundtrack, think 1980s New Wave.

These four writers who accepted the Next Big Thing blog challenge:

• From my RWA Women’s Writer’s group and my web page creator, Denise Alicea, author of CONSOLING ANGEL: http://denisealicea.org/
• From the Algonkian Write to Market conference: fellow Women’s Fiction author, Jaye Viner:
o http://writecastlesinthesky.blogspot.com/
From my publisher, Muse It Up publishing:
• Marie Laval, historical romances:
o http://marielaval.blogspot.co.uk/
• Kay Lalone, author of GHOSTLY CLUES:
o http://www.kaylalone.blogspot.com/

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