Today's Special - - Nancy Northcott

It's always a pleasure to welcome Nancy Northcott back to the Romance Dish. Nancy's Light Mage Wars series is a contemporary fantasy romance series set in modern-day Georgia. Her latest installment in the series is a holiday novella titled Magic & Mistletoe. You can learn more about Nancy and her books at her website and connect with her online at Facebook and Twitter. 

Please join me in giving Nancy a warm welcome.

The Blank Page

by Nancy Northcott

Every December, I tear the shrink wrap off of the calendar for the coming year and flip through the pages. They’re full of beautiful photographs and blank spaces.  I already know some of the things that’ll be in those blanks--birthdays, holidays, and various appointments--but most of the boxes have nothing yet destined for them.  Filling in some every month will chart the journey of our year.

I’ve never been one to look at every day as the first day of the rest of my life.  That’s just too relentlessly upbeat for me.  But after a day or a week or a month that hasn’t gone well, turning to a new, blank page is a way to draw a line under what came before and start fresh.

A perfect example, and one many of us think about at this time of year, is weight loss.  When I worked as a weight loss counselor, I used to tell people not to get upset if they slipped up one day and totally blew their eating plans.  Getting back on track the next day, on the next blank page or box of the calendar, can help salvage the rest of the week.  It’s damage control, and I think it’s easier when there’s a new, clean page to be written on.

Some people make their new starts by listing resolutions.  I’m prone to overreach when I do that, so I’ve started making general plans instead.  There’s something about resolutions that feel rigid to me, as though a single slip-up voids progress.  Plans seem much more flexible.

This year, my plans are to lose weight, work out more often, declutter my house (surely a Herculean task), and weed my bookshelves (again, and more ruthlessly).  When I flip the calendar page to each new month, I’ll consider how I did with these the one before and what I need to do in the one ahead.

I also want to get back to the Okefenokee and to Brunswick and Savannah so I can do research for the Light Mage Wars.  I love seeing these places through the characters’ eyes and figuring out how my imaginary people will interact with these surroundings. 

There are other blank pages than the ones on calendars, of course.  Artists start with blank canvases.  So do needlepointers and embroiderers, though they use different kinds of canvases.  For a cook who loves inventing dishes, the blank recipe card waits to be filled.

Writers confront blank pages all the time, ones we need to fill with words.  Those pages are both invitation and challenge, and the words come more easily some days than others.

For me, 2016 will involve launching two new series, one historical fantasy and one romantic suspense, as well as following up on the Arachnid Files novella I released last year in the Capitol Danger anthology, and continuing the Light Mages series.  It’s looking to be a busy year, one I hope will be not only challenging but fun.

Do you make plans or resolutions?  Do they ever involve blank pages or canvases? What are you looking toward for this year?

Review - - WARRIOR

WARRIOR
By Nancy Northcott
Publisher: Rickety Bookshelf Press
Release Date: October 24, 2014

Will Davis is an archeologist assigned to investigate odd findings on a mysterious island in the Okefenokee Swamp. Dr. Audra Grayson and her team of college students have unearthed items that should never have been buried in this area. It's his job to discover if the items are real, and if they are, explain how they got there. In the process, he has to decide if Dr. Grayson and her team planted them, which, if true, would destroy several careers.

Audra Grayson has endured a difficult life. Orphaned at a young age, she grows up with her grandfather, until the shadow that lives in her head kills him. From that point on, Audra is passed around, avoiding human connections, dealing with the darkness that haunts her all alone. When the book opens, her career is in tatters, so finding Bronze Age weapons where they shouldn't be is the last thing she needs. She also doesn't need a well-respected and entirely too gorgeous archeologist invading her project and potentially destroying what little professional integrity she has left.

What I haven’t mentioned is that Will Davis is a mage. Mages are magical beings tasked with protecting normal humans (which they call mundanes) from the ghouls who would use them as breeders and for food. Ghouls have no redeeming qualities, aren't very clever, and do not have as much power as the mages. But they're trying to change that, and this is where the Light Mage War comes in.

Due to the magical elements, this series is categorized as paranormal, but I'm not a paranormal reader. Not because there's anything wrong with paranormals, but because there's something wrong with me. I’m practical to a fault, and can't suspend my disbelief long enough to enjoy them. But I can for this series. To me, these read as intense contemporaries, with the right amount of comic relief, that just happen to include magic.

As in the rest of the books in this series (and starting at the beginning when this was the Protector series), the romance is the focus here. The attraction was instant, but not insta-lust. Audra doesn't even flirt with Will. And though Will walks into her life as someone who could destroy what little positive she has left, they didn't dislike each other right away, which would have been an easy way for Ms. Northcott to go. I admire that choice.

WARRIOR has magic, action, and sex, but at its heart, it's a love story. Will has relationship issues, and Audra has a lifetime of disappointment and fear to overcome. In the end, he helps her heal, and she makes him a better man. As a reader, I can't ask for more than that. This book can be read as a stand-alone, but I do recommend finding the other books in the series, as all of these characters are worth getting to know.

~Terri Osburn

After more than twenty years reading romance, Terri Osburn put pen to paper to write her own. Seven years later, she's the bestselling author of the Anchor Island series of contemporary romance, with her new Ardent Springs series starting in May 2015.  You can learn more about Terri and her books by visiting her website at www.terriosburn.com.