Title Rewrites of the Heart
Author Terry Newman
Genre Paranormal romantic comedy
Publisher The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb
JJ Spritely, romance author, writes characters that jump off the page. Figuratively, that is. She never expects them to make a literal leap off the page and smack dab into her world. But Alex Zurich and Blake Teesdale do just that. And they’re on a mission to help JJ write her own personal love story with a man she recently met, Kennedy King Cooper.
A history professor, Cooper doesn’t see the value of romance novels and he has even less regard for those who write them. Until he meets a woman who haunts his thoughts.
There’s only one small snag in Alex’s and Blake’s plan…okay…two rather large snags. JJ wants nothing to do with Cooper. The other snag? Alex and Blake aren’t able to return to the pages of their own book.
Will JJ ever write her own love story? And will it be with Cooper? Will Alex and Blake return to the pages of their own book?
Excerpt
Now, she had two unwanted, hell, unbelievable, guests in her house. Now, she was being told they were “stuck” in her world. She wasn’t even sure she believed they were real. Yet, there they were.
“Isn’t getting together with Kenn Cooper worth it, if it does nothing more than get us out of your life?” Blake asked, getting back to the point they unceremoniously dropped yesterday. “It’s obvious you two were made for each other. Even in the all-too-short meeting you had.”
“Please, aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves?” She turned from the computer. It appeared getting any writing time in was going to be difficult. “And no, I cannot see how we were made for each other. I’d say we’re more like polar opposites.”
“Let’s just stop for a moment and examine that phrase ‘polar opposites’,” he said. He rose from the loveseat and placed his index finger to his lips.
“Just what exactly does that mean? It could refer to the North and South Poles, in which case you and the professor have more in common than you think.”
JJ and Alex looked at each other. “Is he always like this?”
Alex smiled. “You tell me. You created him.”
“I’m having a problem dealing with this. Up until yesterday the two of you were only alive in my imagination. You weren’t physically living in my office. No offense.”
“None taken.” The couple looked at each other to ensure they were in agreement on this one. Apparently, they were.
“But now, suddenly you literally pop up out of nowhere claiming to be characters from my book. You can see how this would skew a person’s view of the world. Fictional characters are just that, fictional. They only reside in a person’s mind. They just don’t spring to life one day on a whim.”
“Claim? Claim?” Blake took several steps toward JJ’s desk. “You said we ‘claim’ to be characters from your book. You don’t believe us?” He waved his arms, his hair dancing around his head. He certainly resembled the hero of her book, she thought, staring in amazement at the similarity.
“Who do you think we are if we aren’t from your—I mean, our—love story? Where do you think we came from?”
She didn’t need this. Hell, she hadn’t even had her first cup of coffee yet. Surely even they had to admit this situation was at best a bit bizarre. At worst, it was totally unbelievable. How many more times did she have to try to process this?
They appeared frighteningly real. Perhaps she should visit a psychiatrist? She rubbed her temples.
“Coffee!” Blake suddenly and loudly announced as if it were the start of a race. “Coffee. That’s what’s missing from your morning. Let me make us, uhm, you, your morning coffee. You’ll feel one-hundred percent better once you get that ole java flowing through your system. I know I’ll feel better.”
She waved her hand motioning him to go. He bounced out.
“I’m confused,” she confessed as she looked at Alex, now on the loveseat. “If you two didn’t leave, what did you do last night after I left?”
“Stayed in here, read some books, surfed the net, took turns sleeping on the loveseat.”
She pursed her lips tightly. “I guess I just assumed that once I left, you would, well, go away. I assumed you were the result of my thoughts. Like a dream or a hallucination triggered by a lack of sleep and overwork. Either way, I just thought you’d go away.”
“If it’s any consolation,” her heroine said, “I thought once you left the room, Blake and I would do just that—leave the room, too. I figured we’d just float back into our world again.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I’m not sure how these things work. While coming to help you was a great idea, I guess it was one we didn’t think through. And I didn’t think returning to our world would be so difficult.
“And I know you have troubles of your own, with us just showing up uninvited, but I’m a little worried I may never get back to my world. I admit we really haven’t investigated all avenues yet. But quite frankly, we made this journey on a whim. At some level I even doubted leaping into your world would work. But it did. And here we are.”
She bit her lip and added, “I’m not sure about anything at the moment.”
She gazed at the forlorn Alex. Yes, that’s how she had envisioned her in one scene when Blake tells her they could never be together, that they weren’t right for each other. It actually made her feel guilty for creating that emotion in her heroine.
“I hope you don’t think I’m saying this because you literally gave me my world, but I really love it there. It’s not that I don’t love you, but…”
She fully believed Alex was about to cry. The scene really touched her.
“We’ll get you back,” she promised her. “There must be a set of rules that could provide us with guidelines of what to do. In the meantime, we’ll try to make you as comfortable and as at home here as we can. Okay?”
Alex shook her head meekly, like a little kid who had just been consoled over a loss of a toy by a parent.
“Coffee for all.” Blake burst into the room, carrying a tray of three cups, milk, and sugar. His hair flipped outrageously from side to side as he jauntily stepped into the office. “I found some biscuits—oops, you guys call them cookies—for breakfast.
“But the food situation is looking a little pitiful down there, Ms. Spritely. I know you don’t want to hear this, but we do need to eat. We may be fictional characters, but it appears we’re equipped with some very real needs. And one of them is food.”
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub)
Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rewrites-of-the-heart-terry-newman/1142841043?ean=9781509246533
Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Terry_Newman_Rewrites_of_the_Heart?id=9FmqEAAAQBAJ
Author Biography
Two things you should know about me: I have an offbeat sense of humor and characters are constantly talking to me, trying to get me to tell their stories. Other than that, I’m a normal person.
I’ve spent most of my adult life writing in some fashion, from small-town reporter, to editor-in-chief and ghostwriter for a national natural health publishing firm. The last decade and a half I’ve worked as a freelance writer, penning ebooks that range from starting a doula services business to Native American herbs.
I’ve finally took the plunge to fiction after pushing oh, so many doubts aside. My first novel with The Wild Rose Press, Heartquake, won a 4.5 crowned heart review with Ind’tale Magazine.
All my books are set in fictional towns in northeast Ohio, where I grew up, and I write about things I love—like coffee.
I have a daughter, a son-in-law, and a grandpuppy and live in North Lima, a real town in northeast Ohio with all my characters. Yes, it does get crowded.
Social Media Links
Facebook: Terry Newman
Twitter: @tnewmanwrites
Instagram: terry.newman.31521
TikTok: @terrynewman614
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60574351-heartquake?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=99H2V7dnWm&rank=1