A Disclaimer: Romance?

Hello, Fire Enthusiasts. Today I would like to talk a bit about romance, or perhaps a lack thereof. You see I have been using the word with regard to my forthcoming novel, and am unsure whether or not I actually should. I suppose we could talk about ad campaigning, and there’s certainly some truth in that. However, on the other hand I run the risk of ticking some readers off if they think there’s some bed-hopping or hot and steamy action going on. Let me set the record straight right now. There isn’t.

On the other hand, the condition of the heart is at the very forefront of the story. Two main characters have had their hearts broken by the separation of death. One took the wrong road in reclaiming what was taken away from them; another simply did nothing but attempt to allow the wound to scab over enough to face tomorrow. The plot of the novel takes us on a journey to see whether love might have its day...

“A dollar and a half for your thoughts,” Anne asked, catching me in mid-thought. She held her glass of wine in her right hand and lightly swirled the remaining contents.

“What?” I asked, glancing over at her smiling face.

“A penny for your thoughts sounded a tad cheap, so I thought I would up it for inflation and cost of living.” She sat back. “You were grinning just now. What were you thinking about? Something good?”

“I don’t know,” I lied, and then spooned the last of my dessert into my mouth. I fought the urge to lick the bowl. It was that good.

“Yes, you do!” Anne said. “You’re a terrible liar.” She set her glass down and folded her arms across her chest. “Give it up, mister!”

I glanced at Jason, who was watching the exchange with a curious look on his face, then back at Anne and shook my head.

“Must have been something good,” Anne said, refusing to let it go.

“Do you two need me to leave the room or something?” Jason asked.

“No!” I said, perhaps a little too loudly. A twinkle sparkled in Anne’s eye, so I kept my eyes off her. I suppose that made me even more suspicious-looking.

From my peripheral vision, I saw her stand and grab the plates to take to the kitchen. Leaning to my ear, she whispered, “Hmm?” and I knew I hadn’t heard the end of it.

“You know she’s never going to let that go, right?” Jason offered in a whisper when she left the room.

“I was afraid of that,” I mouthed to him.

“Good luck,” he mouthed back.

He got up from the table just as his mother came back to retrieve the fudge, strawberry and caramel toppings to put away. Fearing being alone with her, I quickly jumped from the table and followed Jason. For the next few minutes I was his shadow, and when he made a move to leave, I grabbed for his shirt, keeping him beside me. As if sensing this, Anne sent her son upstairs to get showered. I turned to him, feigning panic. He just grinned and waved melodramatically at me. When I turned back around, Anne was waiting for me with a devilish grin.

“Hi,” I said sheepishly.

“Hi there,” she replied. “How’s it going?”

“Fine.” We said nothing for a few moments. I snaked past her and began setting up to wash the dishes.

“That’s all you’ve got?” she asked. “After I went and made all of this food.”

“I told you it was fantastic!” I said without facing her. “Are you kidding me? I haven’t eaten this great in years!”

“Thank you, but that isn’t what I wanted to hear.” I could hear her move to the counter by the refrigerator and pour herself another glass of wine. “I want to know what you’re hiding.”

I filled one side of the sink with soap and hot water and bided my time while I attempted to think of a possible response. I filled the sink with dishes. “Why don’t you go sit down and relax?” I offered. “I’ll clean the kitchen.” I was stalling and we both knew it. I still couldn’t look at her.

“No, thanks. I’m fine right here.”

I felt myself growing embarrassed now as I anticipated her reaction. Perspiration formed on my forehead and it had nothing at all to do with the hot water I stood over.

“My, you are turning a bright shade of red,” she said before sipping from her wine.

“Please, Anne,” I pleaded, still not looking at her. “You don’t want to hear this.”

“Apparently I do.” I didn’t have to turn her direction to see her grin. Her voice said it all.

I sighed, utterly defeated.

“Come on,” she goaded me.

“I was wondering what it might be like to be Jason’s step-dad,” I said at last.

“That’s it? You don’t want to be with me. You only want to hang out with my kid?” Slowly I looked her way. She was grinning just like I suspected and kept her eyes on me over the top of her wineglass.

“Don’t be silly,” I said and looked for something to throw at her. A dish towel came in handy. I quickly grabbed it and tossed it her direction. She moved out of the way, but it would have missed her to her left anyway.

“I thought you were good at baseball. Jason said you were.”

“My throws are not usually that poor - only when I’m terribly distracted.” I sighed again, leaning against the sink and shaking my head at this incredible turn of events.

“What?” Anne asked. She lowered her glass and put on a more serious look, although still quite pleased with herself.

“Are you sure? I mean, are you really sure that you want to…”

“Oh, I’ve agreed to nothing,” she interrupted. She bent over and retrieved the rag from the floor, then approached me. I clammed up when she got close, but didn’t move an inch.

“Relax,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure you were interested. Now I know.” She laid the towel upon my head. “Now, hurry up and finish the dishes.”

“Yes, dear,” I said from inside the dish towel.

“Practicing already?” she asked as she stepped out of the room. “I like it.”

Is it romantic? I believe it is. Should it be considered a romance, albeit one of the paranormal kind? We’re two weeks away from discovering what the readers think. So far, the returns have come in favorably, as the following review demonstrates:

“This is an amazing book. I found it hard to put it down. Throughout the book I felt tearful, happy, terrified and surprised by a few twists. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good ghost and/or romance story...” My thanks to “Angelbear” for the review. I appreciate it more than you can know.


Seeing Ghosts is set to release on Monday, June 3rd. If you can't wait, the book is already available. *evil grins* I quietly posted it on Amazon a week ago so I could proof it. I guess I'm terribly sneaky that way. ;)


We'll talk soon.

Blog on Fire Award & Embarrassing Questions

Greetings, Fire Enthusiasts. I come before you this week to share with you more embarrassing tales and anecdotes about myself. Well, perhaps not, but that’s what typically happens when I do this.

A couple of weeks ago, my buddy, Kelly Polark, bestowed the Blog on Fire Award to yours truly. Yes, I know. We can take that quite literally on this blog. Now there's lots of fire! Anyway, Kelly's a great lady, and a true rock n’ roll rebel, as Ozzy might suggest. Therefore, I do whatever she tells me to do. Now, when she fulfilled the obligation for this award on her blog, she combined it with another. Since I just recently shared some random things with you good people, I thought I would simply follow Kelly’s lead and do as she did.

So, here goes:

1) Do you think you are hot?

A) Wow! Picture me staring back at you silently, my eyes blinking twice as in a cartoon. Truthfully, I was a late-bloomer. I was a skinny, jeans, rock n roll t-shirt kind of guy. I didn’t date in school until the end of my high school career. I’m comfortable with my looks now, but never really thought much about them and still don’t. I’m more of a personality guy. I’m the guy with the good attitude who will keep you laughing. I’m 42 now. The only women who think I’m hot is the above 50 crowd amongst my employees.

2) Upload a picture or wallpaper that you are using at the moment.

A) Currently, I have two avatars that I am using. The first one is my “official” author picture from nearly two years ago now. Are you getting sick of it yet? God knows I am! I usually grow out the beard during the holidays. Last year, my wife asked whether I was planning on doing that again. I replied that I wasn’t, because seeing the author photo made me feel as if I had worn it all year. The other photo is a shot of flames. I think it’s cool. As much as I might like to change one of both of these, the budding marketing person within me realizes that you have to assist your customers by changing very little, if anything. Doesn’t it drive you crazy in the stores, when you look for the packaging that you are accustomed to, only to realize that nothing is familiar any longer because the packaging has changed?

3) When was the last time that you ate chicken meat?

A) Interesting question. This is easy because I could eat hamburger every day of the week, but with chicken I find myself tired of it after twice a week. At the time that I penned this post, I had last eaten chicken at an event in town. My wife and I went down there. I had ribs while she had the chicken. We shared, of course. The weather was nice and there was a relatively famous jazz band there.

4) The song that you listened to most recently?

A) This one is tough for me to answer because I have a jukebox in my head which plays continually. As you might have gleaned from this blog, I listen to a wide array of tunes, leaning mostly toward hard rock. Although I am currently listening to some Incubus (Thanks, Tara), Chickenfoot and Superheavy (Yeah, I’m surprised, too), what I have playing in my head right now is “Closer to the Edge” by 30 Seconds to Mars. And not the shorter radio single, either. I hate short versions of songs with a deeply-seated passion that burns like a well-fed industrial furnace... *calms self* Sorry. What were we talking about again?

5) What were you thinking of as you were doing this?

A) *laughs* Well, it wasn’t like I was writing this post while at work, hoping against hope that my employees wouldn't come by the office, disturbing me with their needs and questions, and keeping me from finishing this… ;)

6) Do you have nicknames?

A) *laughs again* Yes, I do, but none that I would like to share with you. *sticks out tongue* Okay, okay. I give up. First of all, I write my stories as James Garcia Jr. because that is what it reads upon my birth certificate. I also do it out of respect for my dad. All of my friends, however, call me Jimmy. Now, I couldn’t possibly leave you before giving you something juicy, so I will leave you with the following. Since you only know me from the words that I leave you with each week, or perhaps from my fiction, you most likely have no idea that I can throw a fit. J Some years ago, thanks to some whining that I was doing about who-knows-what, one of the ladies at work began calling me Jimmy-Sue. Some of the other ladies took that and ran with it, and to those great friends of mine (Brenda, Cheryl, Debbie & Liz *waves*), I have been Jimmy-Sue ever since.

Will I come to regret having told you this? Perhaps. As I mentioned above, I may not be “hot”, but I try to be fun.

We’ll talk soon.