411 on Books, Authors & Publishing

What was your inspiration for this book? What gave you the idea to write it?

Inspiration comes to me from many places – literally as well as figuratively. In 2014, the good Lord decided to plop into my head the idea of a woman inside a Christmas wrapped box outside of a hotel room.  He does this to me all the time … especially when I’m driving and can’t jot it down until a red light.  It usually starts off with one or two words or a simple idea. 

The Christmas Mistake started off as a one line pitch from out of nowhere.  It sat in the back of my head for years while I worked on other novels.  Then, the characters started demanding my attention.  By that I mean that I would daydream about scenes, and they would swirl around my brain until I wrote them down.

In December of 2017, I had shoulder surgery.  I watched a lot of Christmas movies.  So much that I was inspired to get this story written.

As for particular chapters (or scenes), I write like I’m watching a movie. I take a lot of pictures when I go places, and I use these to help describe those places in my novel.  Sometimes, those pictures spark other ideas either for the story I am working on or for a new story.

The Christmas Mistake was super fun to write, and at first I was going to write it all from Carina’s perspective.  Then the idea hit to do one chapter in her point of view and then the next chapter to rewrite from Rad’s viewpoint. That really stretched my writing skills!

The setting for The Christmas Mistake is New Orleans and Baton Rouge.  As I live in the latter city, it makes it easier to describe places around town. Additionally, adding local lore and traditions give flavor and authenticity.  For instance, in The Christmas Mistake, I incorporate everything from dinner at The Court of Two Sisters in New Orleans to Mardi Gras Baton Rouge style.

Now grab a cup of hot chocolate and your favorite blanket because it’s time to get cozy on the couch with a sweet holiday romance story – The Christmas Mistake.

Enjoy!

The Christmas Mistake
Josephine Templeton
Publication date: December 1st 2020
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Dressed in nothing but Christmas lingerie, Carina has a bellhop deliver her in a gift box to her fiance’s hotel room, but the last thing she expects when she is unwrapped is to see a sexy stranger in holiday boxers who looks like he just stepped off a magazine cover – definitely NOT her fiancé! How in the silver bells was she delivered to the wrong room?

As the owner of a small flower shop, Carina’s surrounded by romance on a daily basis. Her workaholic fiancé has been distant for the past several months, so she decides to drive from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to surprise him on Christmas Eve. However, that distance between them has brought loneliness, and the mere thought of the sexy stranger plucks at her mistletoe. When she discovers the reason for her fiance’s lack of attention, will she put him on Santa’s naughty list and take the stranger for a sleigh ride?

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Author Bio:

Josephine Templeton has six published novels that range from historical romance to urban fantasy. She has been to numerous conferences, including Heather Graham’s Writers for New Orleans, as well as a former member of Romance Writers of America.

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411 on Books Authors and Publishing News Guest Post

If you had to compare this to any book out there, what would you say this like? Or is it a combination of a few books? Or is it like nothing we may have read before?

Hey! Thanks for hosting me today.

It’s so funny you asked this question, as I was recently discussing this very thing with a librarian recently. I was trying to figure out what Outfoxed could be compared to.

We both drew blanks. Well, I drew little hearts all over the sheet of paper I was using, as I couldn’t think of anything, so I doodled. I doodle hearts and roses to make myself feel better when my brain fails to produce a satisfactory answer.

Doodling didn’t help me, as we were discussing comparisons to help me connect with readers who might like this book. The problem is simple: we aren’t aware of anything out quite like it. I came up with one comparative, which is this:

For fans of Twister… with a magical… er… twist. (I’m going to my room now, and I will come out after my assigned hour of punishment is over.)

It’s a genre twister.

I’m going back to my room now.

My comparative is really bad, and I’m sorry.

But seriously, that’s exactly what it is: it’s a genre twister. I take some modern elements of urban fantasy, I toss in the action-adventure of supernatural suspense, and I fling in a hint of slow burn paranormal romance. Then I add in a pissed off Mother Nature, a quadrant named the Alley because it’s predominantly what we know of as Tornado Alley in our society, and a lot of tornados. A lot of them. It has an element of storm chasing to it, but with a magical twist and unreliable meteorology. (You’ll find out more of why it’s unreliable in the book.)

Sprinkle in a villain in the background, a heroine who isn’t sure how the heck she became the heroine of this story (she wants off the ride now, if you please), and a hero with morals almost as twisted as the latest funnel cloud to say hello to Tulsa.

I just can’t think of anything quite like it. Most urban fantasy systems don’t break up the United States, instead doing ‘secret society’ or something similar, where I’ve flat-out integrated the magic system—and doing so early enough in history to change how technology developed as a result. 

I can’t even mish and mash good books from various sub-genres to get something almost like Outfoxed. I read a lot, but… I just haven’t seen anything quite like this, which is part of why I wrote it. I can think of one book that integrates storms really, really well, which is Resenting the Hero by Moira J Moore. It has storms, and it has storms in a really interesting way. It does not have storms in the same way I use them in Outfoxed, but it’s the first (and only) fantasy book I can think of. It’s also hilarious, and I quite enjoyed the story!

I recently found out there were more books in the series than the first one, so I’ll be reading them at a later date to see if they live up to the first one for me. I have my doubts because I loved the first one that much.

But at the end of the day, Outfoxed is for those who want something a lot different in their urban fantasy/supernatural suspense.

I hope you enjoy the read!

Outfoxed
R.J. Blain
(The Fox Witch, #1)
Publication date: November 3rd 2020
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy

Death is a way of life outside of the safety of Inner Tulsa, and Jade means to keep flipping Mother Nature off until old age claims her. With one eye always on the sky, the last thing she needs is a pack of bounty hunters out for her living head. With no idea of why anyone would want her, her wits might keep her free, assuming she can resist the charming lures of Sandro, one of the men out to claim her as his own.

Left with the choice of being the evening snack of a tornado or taking shelter with the bounty hunter, she does what she does best: she lives on the edge.

Striking a bargain with the handsome bounty hunter buys her another day of life, but it also dumps her into the heart of a sinister plot, one meant to enslave the residents of the storm-tossed city—and the others brave and foolish enough to call the Alley home.

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Author Bio:

RJ Blain suffers from a Moleskine journal obsession, a pen fixation, and a terrible tendency to pun without warning.

In her spare time, she daydreams about being a spy. Her contingency plan involves tying her best of enemies to spinning wheels and quoting James Bond villains until satisfied.

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