This Book For Free

Laced with Magic
by Barbara Bretton
Paperback, 352 Pages
List Price: $15.00
Published in 2009
ISBN-10: 0-425-22752-9
Publisher: Berkley Trade

Guest Post:

Confession: I’m an eavesdropper. An avid, shameless eavesdropper who likes nothing better than to not only listen in on your conversation but take notes while I’m doing it. The truth is most writers are eavesdroppers. We can’t help it. Put us in a public place, any public place, and we’ll zoom in on conversations four tables away with radar-like precision. Nobody’s safe. We’ll eavesdrop on family, friends, and total strangers with equal enthusiasm and one day down the road we’ll probably use bits and pieces of the things we heard in our stories. Don’t worry. You probably won’t recognize yourself but you’re there, hidden away inside a character or a situation, transformed by time and imagination, but the essence is still there, pure and intact.We stopped by our local diner for lunch the other day. My husband enjoyed a Greek omelet and home fries while I enjoyed a good conversation.

The two women were sitting opposite us, completely unaware that I was almost falling out of my seat with writerly curiosity.  One of the women was a curly-haired blond in her mid-fifties dressed in white pants and a bright pink surgeon’s scrub top. She wore tiny gold hoop earrings, no makeup, and a fistful of rings. Her friend was an African-American woman of about the same age who was dressed in jeans, a black t-shirt and a huge pin-on button with the words “Ask me about my new grandson,” and a photo of an absolutely cherubic infant.

The scrub-topped blond said, “So I told her, ‘Girl, get off Fantasy Island. Your hero ain’t about to ride up and take you away.’”

“Amen, sister,” said her friend. “The only place he’s taking you is McDonald’s.”

And yes, that will probably make its way into a book some day.

One of my favorite eavesdrops happened a few months ago down in South Jersey. We were on our way to Maryland and stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall diner for breakfast.

Five bearded, long-haired men were sitting at the counter. They all sported t-shirts with skulls and crossbones on them, a motif that was repeated in the multiple tats on biceps and forearms. Of course I almost fell out of our booth, trying to hear what they were saying. What if they were planning to hijack the diner or take us all hostage the way that guy did years ago at the diner inJericho on Long Island? (He made everyone in the diner strip to the skin. Talk about total humiliation on a Saturday night. I mean, you’re in a neighborhood diner surrounded by your dentist, letter carrier, and next-door neighbor who hates your guts enough as it is – what will happen once she sees your cellulite?)

This was going to be good, I thought. This was going to be big. I took a quick glance around the room, plotting our escape in case the worst happened. I was almost afraid to find out what they were saying but since when has fear ever stopped a nosy writer? I leaned closer. I held my breath.

And then I started to laugh.

Those scary Jersey Shore Hell’s Angels were talking Twitter!

Now get out there and start listening. You never know when you might hear your next story idea.

Barbara Bretton is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than 40 books. Her most recent title, Laced With Magic, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. She currently has over ten million copies in print around the world and have been translated into twelve languages in over twenty countries.

Barbara has been featured in articles in The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Romantic Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Herald News, Home News, Somerset Gazette,among others, and has been interviewed by Independent Network News Television, appeared on the Susan Stamberg Show on NPR, and been featured in an interview with Charles Osgood of WCBS, among others.

Her awards include both Reviewer’s Choice and Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times; Gold and Silver certificates from Affaire de Coeur; the RWA Region 1 Golden Leaf; and several sales awards from Bookrak. Ms. Bretton was included in a recent edition of Contemporary Authors.

Barbara loves to spend as much time as possible in Maine with her husband, walking the rocky beaches and dreaming up plots for upcoming books.

You can visit Barbara’s website at www.barbarabretton.com, her blog at http://bmafb.blogspot.com or connect with her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/barbarbretton.com.

Giveaway:
Thanks to Dorothy and Barbara Bretton
Open worldwide. No PO Boxes please.
One (1) winner on September 18.
Winners will be announced within a week after deadline. Please make sure to subscribe to this blog’s feed to find out if you’re a winner. Please contact me within 1 week of posting the winners, or I get to pick another winner.

+1: Blog or link to this contest on your sidebar.
+1: (for each link) Tweet, stumble, or facebook this contest. Make sure to leave me link where I can find it.
+1: Visit Barbara’s website at www.barbarabretton.com, her blog at http://bmafb.blogspot.com and tell me something interesting about her.
+1: (unlimited, but have two different people between your comments) I found this game in my favorite BB. I don’t remember exactly who started the game, I just scrolled though tons of post, but couldn’t find it. Anyway, it’s called non-sequitur comments. Check out how to play here.