InspyRomance blog

Today, I’m blogging over at InspyRomance to give you a glimpse on how I planned my Savannah Sweethearts series to focus on pairs of siblings.

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Do you like to read books in which the characters are interconnected, e.g. in a community or church or family? Do you like to read a series in which each book features a sibling, a cousin, best friend, or someone in the family?

I thought I’d share with you a glimpse of how I planned Savannah Sweethearts, my longest series (which I completed last year), and how I put the families together. I picked this series for today’s blog post because it’s Christian beach romance, and it’s summer time in the northern hemisphere. Summer and beach vacations seem to go together.

When I first plotted and outlined my Savannah Sweethearts series about 6-7 years ago, I had concocted the idea that I would write two books per family group. I had only planned for six books, but somehow ended up with eleven, including a prequel.

The Wei siblings appear in Books 1-2. I thought it would be interesting to feature two Asian American siblings in a Christian romance.

In Know You More, Heidi Wei captures the heart of her church pastor, Diego Flores. Years ago, they met at the University of Georgia, before Diego graduated and went to seminary to answer the call of God to be a pastor. Some years later, they reunite at Riverside Chapel in Savannah, where Diego is now Heidi’s pastor.

Question #1 for you: Do you know anyone who stays in graduate school for years, earning degree after degree, but never leaving the university?

In Tell You Soon, Heidi’s brother, Aidan Ming Wei, falls in love with his colleague’s sister, Sabine Hu, a real estate agent who is selling his beach house for him. It’s a tiny cottage, but the backyard leads to the Atlantic Ocean. Can you imagine selling such a house? But Ming needs the money.

Question #2 for you: Do you like to vacation on the beach?

The Dupree siblings appear in Books 3-4 of Savannah Sweethearts. They come from a multiracial family that owns the multi-billion-dollar Hot Dupree hot sauce company based in Louisiana.

In Draw You Near, Abilene Dupree is the secret billionaire who doesn’t flaunt her wealth. Instead, she takes up a job as an art teacher in Savannah and lives in a very small townhouse with her cat, Bradley. There she is, minding her own business, when a rich London tourist walks into the picture. He has bought a painting of hers, and now he wants to know more about the woman in the painting. Will Abilene tell him?

Question #3 for you: Do you like to travel to other countries?

In Cherish You So, Abilene’s wheelchair-bound older brother and CEO of the family business comes to town to visit his sister. Because Abilene is pregnant now with her first child, she has to be careful with her cat. Abilene’s church friend, Nadine Saylor, agrees to feed the cat and clean out his litter box. And that’s how she meets Dante Dupree again, whom she hasn’t seen since Abilene’s wedding.

Question #4 for you: Do you like cats or are you more of a dog person?

Somewhere in the middle of the series (Books 5-6), I took a side trip and wrote two books about people who returned to their hometowns. The characters attended the same church, so there was continuity there. And then I went back to more siblings and cousins for the rest of the series.

In Books 7-8, I decided to feature Indian Christians living on Tybee Island. The cousins both attend Riverside Chapel.

In Kiss You Now, Priyanka Patel has an interesting job at the Savannah Senior Living Resort. She is a people walker. Do you know what that is? Have you ever heard of this type of job? While doing her job, she meets the great-grandson of one of the senior residents. Hunter Jacobs is an “author in some distress.” That is to say, he has writer’s block and can’t write a word.

Question #5 for you: What oddball/strange jobs have you heard of or have done?

In Find You Again, we meet Priyanka’s cousin, Dr. Roger Patel, who runs that retirement resort where she works. Roger’s story is a long time coming because he is first mentioned in Book 1 of the series. Roger has a secret he’s been hiding for years, and no one at church or in his Sunday School class knows. The secret shows up at his door one day, and he turns to his trusted friend, firefighter Cheyenne Endecott for support in this friends-to-lovers romance.

Question #6 for you: How easy is it for you to forgive someone of his/her dark secret?

Finally, it’s the holidays. In Books 9-10, I featured the Untermeyer family. Mrs. Untermeyer has three children, but only two are in this series.

In Wish You Joy, Amy Untermeyer cannot believe that her mother sold 51% of their Christmastown holiday decorating company to a stranger. Amy rushes home to figure out if there has been a trickery in the family business. However, the sale is legitimate, and Amy ends up having to work with her business partner, the very single Cyrus Theroux, in this office romance.

Question #7 for you: If you celebrate Christmas, how early do you prepare for the Christmas season?

In Call You Home, Amy’s adopted brother, Chef Isaac Untermeyer, comes home to Savannah for Thanksgiving. One thing leads to another, and he ends up working for his nemesis, deaf Chef Piper Peyton, who owns the famous Piper’s Place on River Street. While they have known each other since high school, a vendetta has separated them for twenty years. Will they get along in Piper’s hot and busy kitchen?

Question #8 for you: If you celebrate Thanksgiving, how far do you travel for the Thanksgiving holidays?

Well, that’s a glimpse into my author thoughts when I planned the Savannah Sweethearts series. What do you think? Feel free to comment. One random commenter will be entered to win a copy of Know You More, which kicks off the series I used as an example today. The giveaway ends on August 10, 2020 (Monday).

Have a wonderful summer!

In Christ,
Jan Thompson

Today I’m blogging at InspyRomance about national holidays. Check it out!

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Archived:

Tomorrow is the USA Independence Day commemoration, also known as Fourth of July. There are fireworks and barbecues, and if you’re in the southern USA, they’re usually accompanied by a hot and humid summer’s day.

This national holiday had me thinking about other national holidays around the world. Of course, each country has its own national holidays. While the USA does not celebrate Boxing Day, many countries also don’t celebrate Thanksgiving Day. And then there are those holidays that are universal. They’re in almost every country, it seems.

I googled and found out that the two most popular national holidays worldwide are New Year’s Day and Christmas. Are you surprised by that information? While New Year’s Day seems to be always secular, Christmas can be celebrated in both secular and religious ways, as we know. What about those Hallmark Christmas movies? Apparently they begin in June and go all the way through December. It seems that the Christmas shopping season also begins early with year-round Christmas shops. And then we have the ever popular Christmas in July book promotions. Do you enjoy those?

My Christmas book, WISH YOU JOY (Savannah Sweethearts Book 9), begins in July, right in the middle of a hot Savannah, Georgia, afternoon and the story continues through Thanksgiving and Christmas when it’s pretty cold (according to me).

 

What about books that you’ve read? Do you enjoy reading books that center on national holidays such as the Fourth of July celebration, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and so forth? If you have read those books, feel free to mention them. In my own books, I have a mix of everything. Even though I don’t do a big deal theme of parades, for example, I do include things like fireworks over the river and what would give my readers a sense of place, time, and setting in my stories.

And we’re back to the question of the day. What are your favorite national holidays in your own country? Please mention the country you’re in so we can have some context. Does your country celebrate an event that other countries don’t? Or do you celebrate many of the days, such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day. In Japan, they even celebrate Children’s Day.

If you’re in the USA, what are your plans for the Fourth of July weekend? Are you grilling tomorrow?

Have a happy summer, everyone!

Today I am blogging over at InspyRomance. I decided to do a character interview with Piper Peyton, the star of the last book in the Savannah Sweethearts series. Check out the blog post:

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Piper speaks only American Sign Language.

 

BLOG ARCHIVE:

Do you like to read character interviews? 

Today we’re going to revisit one of my Savannah Sweethearts main characters, Piper Peyton, who is the chef-owner of Piper’s Place in Savannah. Piper Peyton’s restaurant has appeared in every single book in the series, since the days of the prequel, Ask You Later. However, I didn’t get to her story until the eleventh book, which is the very last book in the series.

Feel free to comment on what your favorite character interviews are. Or maybe which characters (of any book by any author) you would like to see interviewed.

Everyone who comments will be entered into a drawing to receive an ebook copy of the first book in the Savannah Sweethearts series: Ask You Later. This 45,000-word novel is also the prelude to its spin-off series, Vacation Sweethearts, and a sister series, Seaside Chapel. This giveaway ends on June 10, 2020 (Wednesday).

Two years ago, I interviewed Heidi Wei-Flores from my series, Savannah Sweethearts. Her story is told in Know You More (Savannah Sweethearts Book 1). If you missed the interview from July 2018, you can check out the interview here:

Heidi Wei-Flores: Character Interview

When the blog post was published, I was still writing the series. In August 2019, I finally published the last novel, Call You Home. Clocking in at over 96,000 words, this is the longest book in the Savannah Sweethearts series and tells the story of two chefs in one kitchen. Chef Isaac Untermeyer happened to be dining that night before Thanksgiving when two of Piper’s chefs quit at the same time. Piper reluctantly hired him on the spot.

At that time, Piper was too busy trying to save her restaurant to accept any interviews. However, since all is well now, she has decided to sit down for this interview. How nice of her! She says she’s doing me a favor because I’m her biographer, but she is sure that I don’t know everything about her. Oh really?

I usually drive to Savannah as it’s only about five hours from where I work. Piper’s Place is on a very busy part of River Street in Savannah, which has a very long history of its own. In fact, the restaurant is housed in a historic building. Tourists are usually everywhere. So I park several block away and wear my hiking boots to walk to Piper’s Place.

Since the restaurant is open twenty-four hours, there is no lull. The chefs work in shifts, and they are always busy. I text Piper as I arrive, and the maître d’ takes me upstairs to Piper’s favorite table on the third floor overlooking the promenade and the Savannah River. Today is a cloudy day but there is no rain. Sometimes it rains out here. I see a riverboat that still hosts the Riverside Chapel church. I take a few photos and wait for Piper and Heidi to arrive. I check my interview notes.

Did I just say Heidi? Yes. Since I do not speak American Sign Language (ASL), Heidi Wei-Flores is going to interpret for me. The way it works is this: I will ask the questions aloud, Heidi will tell Piper what I say, Piper will sign her answers, and Heidi will tell me what she says. I thought about emailing Piper the questions ahead of time, but I want to hear some spontaneous answers from her, so this is how we agree to do it. This way, Piper doesn’t know the questions I am going to ask.

I cannot believe Piper is feeding me a second lunch while I wait. It’s on the house, but I can’t eat too much since I had a late breakfast. But I order spaghetti and eat it up. Piper and Heidi show up with the dessert. I tell them I cannot eat any more, but the cupcake says, “Eat me!” so I oblige.

We are finally ready to start the interview, but you know what? I am stuffed with too much pasta and cupcake, and now I feel very sleepy and don’t feel like reading my prepared interview questions. So I decide to wing it and ask her only five questions that maybe her fans don’t know about. In a way, it becomes a conversation with Piper.

Me: Piper, the locals love your restaurant for the atmosphere, but more importantly, for the food. What’s your favorite dish in the restaurant?

Piper (via Heidi): You might expect me to say every dish is my favorite, and that would be true. I don’t put on the menu what I don’t want to eat. So yes, everything. However, I do like cupcakes. Here, have some more.

Me: Isaac said that he was surprised you hired him when he showed up, even though you two didn’t get along for years. Tell us more about your vendetta, if that’s all right to speak about it now.

Piper (via Heidi): Yes. It has ended a while back. Basically Isaac and I used to be friends in high school until he lost to me in a cooking competition. I won a scholarship to college and he wasn’t happy about it. We did not speak for twenty years until he showed up at my restaurant on the day my two chefs quit. I believe that God sent him, and I hired him because I was desperate. We sorted out our differences. You can read my novel to see how we dealt with it and reconciled.

Me: How is your herb garden coming along? What advice would you give someone who is a beginner at planting herbs?

Piper (via Heidi): I have herb gardens in two places now. One is at the greenhouse at a my mother-in-law’s Christmas tree farm, and the other is in my backyard. My advice for beginners is not to do too much all at once. I have to plant a lot of herbs because we use them in my restaurant. But if you just need a few sprigs of parsley or rosemary every now and then, you do not need a giant greenhouse for that. You can start by getting pre-planted herbs from the local garden shop, transfer them into pretty containers with the right kinds of potting soil, for example. Follow the instructions that come with the little seedlings and water them everyday. If you plant your herbs in containers on the deck or backyard, you can bring them indoors in the winter. Georgia has mild winters, but I still try to protect the plants all year round.

Me: How do you see yourself in five years? Will you travel some of the time with Isaac in his food truck?

Piper (via Heidi): Isaac is traveling less with his food truck because he’s also teaching at various local cooking schools. However, he has people working for him who will take the truck out to corporate parties, celebrations, events, and food festivals. I go with him when he’s at food festivals because he wants me to be his sous chef. If you want to know how we end up cooking together in competitions, you’ll have to read my book!

Me: You are active in the Deaf Community, and you hire both speaking and Deaf people in your kitchen. How do your speaking chefs and kitchen staff communicate with their counterparts?

Piper (via Heidi): In my kitchen, the speaking staff understand that ASL is a plus for them. Even in high school in Georgia, you can take ASL as a second language instead of a foreign language. All ASL courses they take are paid for by Piper’s Place. Everyone who wants to work here naturally tries to learn ASL because it’s a positive for morale. Even Isaac, who initially was not supposed to work more than a couple of weeks for me, also learned ASL. He has become quite proficient in it. Some may say that Deaf people should learn to speak English. However that is not practical for many reasons.

Our interview ends just as a plate of paella passes by our table. I have to tell you that it smells so delicious that I almost have a third lunch. I resist. After the interview, I walk down three flights of stairs and then several blocks to my car in an attempt to work off the many cupcakes I ate.

Unfortunately, by the time I reach my hotel to type out this interview to meet the deadline, I am hungry again. And I order a takeout from Piper’s Place. Of course, I order the seafood paella.

Readers, if you haven’t read Piper’s story, here is a sneak peek of it from Amazon. It’s also available to borrow via Kindle Unlimited. Happy reading!

Don’t forget to comment for a chance to win the prequel novel in my Savannah Sweethearts series. Ask You Later is the story of folk artist Leon Watts trying to get his sculptures displayed in Simon’s Gallery. If only he can get past the gallery owner’s daughter who has no appreciation for his type of art.

Have a blessed day in the Lord!

Today, I’m blogging on the InspyRomance website about mothers in novels and Christian fiction.

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ARCHIVED BLOG:

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day in the USA. We all have mothers, whether biological or adopted, so I thought maybe it would be interesting to talk about mothers in real life and mothers in fiction. Feel free to comment for a chance to win an ebook copy of Reach for Me (Vacation Sweethearts Book 2) in which Phoebe thinks about her adopted mother.

1. Do you look back fondly at the childhood days you spent with your mother?

What I remember the most about my mother is that she was always with us. Since she had her own business, she was able to stay at home with my brothers and me when we were little. It was very comforting to know that she was always there. After work, my father came home and ate dinner with us every evening. My parents were the stability that we needed growing up.

2. What are some of your favorite memories of your mother?

When I became a Christian, I realized that God had worked through my parents to provide for our family all through our growing years. Later in their lives, they too accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. So the best memory of all was to hear my mother and father pray to received Jesus into their hearts.

3. Do you like to read about novel characters’ relationships with their mothers?

What do you think? Have you read novels in which you find the book mothers endearing or overbearing? I write about many types of mothers in my fiction books, but I want to share about three types of mothers. So here I’m showing snapshots of how each mother appears in my books in two of my Christian beach romance series (Savannah Sweethearts and Vacation Sweethearts).

(a) Mothers who have passed away:

• In Ask You Later (Savannah Sweethearts Book 1), we are missing two mothers. Sophie lost her mother and so did Leon. In both cases, their fathers have remarried and they have to deal with their stepmothers.
• In Reach for Me (Vacation Sweethearts Book 2), Phoebe’s adopted mother died of cancer a long time ago. Will she find closure soon? This novel is connected to both Walk You There (Savannah Sweethearts Book 5) in a big way, and to Love You Always (Savannah Sweethearts Book 6) in a small way.

(b) Mothers who exasperate their children:

• In Tell You Soon (Savannah Sweethearts Book 2), Mama Hu is the matriarch of the family. Eccentricity is the least of her worries, as we find out later in Once a Thief (Protector Sweethearts Book 1).
• In Wish You Joy (Savannah Sweethearts Book 9), Mrs. Untermeyer has hidden a big secret from her daughter for many years. When Amy finds out, it causes a rift in their mother-daughter relationship. Will they resolve it by Christmas?

(c) Mothers with genuine love for their family:

• In Know You More (Savannah Sweethearts Book 1), Diego is blessed with a loving mother who happily raised five healthy boys in the Flores family. His mother, in turn, is blessed with a loving husband who still loves her even as they’re approaching the twilight years of their lives on earth.
• In Cherish You So (Savannah Sweethearts Book 4), Dante’s mother is very understanding about his plight as a paraplegic and the prospect that he would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. In the same book, Nadine’s parents work through their issues with each other and are determined to do the right thing.

Those are just snapshots of some of the mothers in my books. Have you read any of the books above? What do you think of those mothers?

Tell us about some of the books you have read. Have the mothers portrayed in those novels made an impact on you? Do comment to be entered into a random drawing for an ebook copy of my novel, Reach for Me.

If you’re a mother yourself, I would like to wish you a very Happy Mother’s Day. May God bless your special day in every way!

“Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31:30).

Joyfully in Jesus,
Jan Thompson

 

Today I’m blogging over at InspyRomance about writing and reading during this time of global upheaval with the COVID-19 virus pandemic. Today is also the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, so I talked about hope in Christ. Check it out:

Reading and Writing Through a Pandemic

Stay safe, everyone!

PARTIAL ARCHIVE:

Are you staying at home due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic that is all over the world? Are you practicing social distancing so you can actively help flatten the curve to prevent a spike in the coronavirus disease in you county or state or country? (Look at me using all these new fancy terms I didn’t usually use in normal life!)

Readers, while you’re staying at home, are you reading new fiction books? Which contemporary Christian romance books are you reading or re-reading? 

“One silver lining for me is that I have missed my son since he left for college (university) two years ago. He only came home at spring breaks, summer breaks, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Since he is our only child, we were suddenly empty nesters, and just like that, motherhood became a long-distance thing for me. Unexpectedly, with his college campus closing and moving the rest of the semester online until this outbreak is over, we’re all in the same house again. I rather like that and thank God for an opportunity to be at-home mom again, even as my book deadlines loom.” – Jan Thompson, author of the Savannah Sweethearts, Vacation Sweethearts, and Seaside Chapel series

As you know, writing can be a lonely career in which writers have to spend time alone writing, writing, writing. My happy place is sitting at my desk and writing my books. So when the pandemic reached my country and everyone is told to stay at home… I mean, I’m already writing at home! However, schools and businesses also closed. So now everybody is really home. Our house cat is probably wondering why everyone is in pajamas, like it’s Christmas season! Except it’s coronavirus season…

As a Christian, I can look to God’s Word, which I am reading a lot during this time of social distancing and war against the COVID-19 disease that has attacked over 184 countries (and counting) worldwide (only the continent of Antartica is spared). Vaccines are still months away. Romans 8:37 comes to mind.

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37).

Praise the Lord that the biggest news of all is that Christians have hope and protection in God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Nothing can touch us unless the Lord allows it for a reason. God is also the Great Physician. I pray that He would heal everyone who is inflicted with the coronavirus disease. And that He will heal this world.

I think it’s God’s timing for this week to be our holy week, right when the coronavirus outbreak peaks in the USA. We have stayed at home on Palm Sunday, Passover, Good Friday, and now Easter Resurrection Sunday. It is a reminder to me that life is very fragile. All it takes is for someone with the disease to breath at you for your to risk getting COVID-19. However, we don’t live in fear because we have faith in Jesus Christ, our risen Lord who has conquered death!

Praise the Lord that Christ has risen indeed!

“Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:1-7).

Happy Resurrection Sunday, everyone! And stay safe!

Serving the Risen Lord,
Jan Thompson