Spicing Things Up NBtM

Blurb:

Tyne Newsome promised to help Daphne Ferris pick up the pieces if her professor boyfriend dumped her. Tyne is a hottie chef with no intentions of committing to anyone. He has big plans for his future. Daphne owns a stained glass shop and spends most evenings eating dinner with her parents. She prefers safety and solitude, but Tyne keeps bumping her out of her usual routines. He's not someone she can ignore. And soon, they find that they complement each other so well, they're both pushed to places they've never been before.

Excerpt:

Tyne zipped down the inside staircase and stopped to glance at Daphne’s shop in the dim light.  Most people didn’t move at four-thirty in the morning, for good reason.  When he returned later this afternoon, would the shop be decorated with dangling crepe paper and balloons?  The professor she’d been seeing was supposed to be a free man today.  All he had to do was sign his divorce papers.  Patrick could finally ask Daphne to marry him.  Nothing Tyne would celebrate.  The man was as exciting as porridge, but Daphne thought she’d be happy with him.

         

On his way out the door to his Jeep, he inhaled the crisp, clean Fall air.  It perked him up, cleared his head.  Driving down Main Street with its brick buildings, striped awnings, and old-fashioned street lamps, he saw Maxwell step out of his bakery to snag the morning paper by his door.  Another early riser.  When Maxwell saw Tyne’s orange Jeep, he raised a middle finger and grinned.  Tyne laughed and returned the gesture.

Judi, thanks so much for stopping by. How did you get started writing?

After I had my second daughter, and I was knee deep in diapers, my husband surprised me by signing me up for a continuing education class at our regional IPFW campus called Writing For Fun and Profit.  I’d never written anything but essay papers in college, but he said I needed to get out of the house, meet new people, and find something that was just for me.  Little did he know, writing is addictive.  It started as a hobby and I just kept getting more and more serious about it.  And he loved it and thoroughly supported me…year after year.


What was the inspiration for your book?

I’m hooked on writing, but I’m hooked on cooking, too.  If they took off cooking shows on Saturday morning, I might go into withdrawal.  So, I decided I wanted to write a romance about a hottie chef who comes to Mill Pond to perfect fusion cooking before he leaves to open his own restaurant.  Only once people come to Mill Pond—a small town in southern Indiana near a university and a national forest—they rarely leave.  And once Tyne meets Daphne, a local stained glass artist, he’s not sure he wants to.



What’s the one genre you haven’t written in yet that you’d like to?

Horror.  I’ve tried.  I can write dark fantasy, but horror?  Not so much.  I used to subscribe to the magazine Cemetary Dance so that I could study how other authors did it, so that I could do it, too.  And I’d faithfully write short stories and send them to Richard Chizmar, who must be the kindest editor in the entire world.  He’d always send back the reasons he couldn’t buy my work, and I’d always try to make it darker, until finally he sent me a note that perhaps, just maybe, I was too optimistic to write horror.  And the funny thing is, I was pretty sure he was right!



Are there any genres you won’t read or write in? Why?

A good friend of mine—Les Edgerton--writes noir.  I read his, because I think he’s a topnotch writer, but it’s not my thing.  It’s hard for me to connect with characters who don’t much care about themselves or anything else.  


What are you up to right now? Do you have any releases planned, or are you still writing?

My fifth Mill Pond romance, FIRST KISS, ON THE HOUSE, will come out June 27.  It was a fun book to write.  I hope it’s as much fun to read.  Then my sixth romance, SPECIAL DELIVERY, will be out in November.  They all take place in Mill Pond.  I grew so fond of that town and its people, I’m going to miss them when I move to a new series. 

Alright, now for some random, fun questions. Favorite color?  

Red.

Favorite movie?  

The Thirteenth Warrior with Antonio Banderas.  

Book that inspired you to become an author?

Agatha Christie’s mysteries.


You have one superpower. What is it?

Blasting enemies with magic.


You can have dinner with any 3 people, dead, alive, fictitious, etc. Who are they? 

Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth George, and Stephen King.  But If I can’t bring my writer friends, who love them as much as I do, I might as well crawl in a closet and hide.


Last question: Which of your characters are you most like and how/why?  

Oh boy, I’m not exactly like any of them or I wouldn’t be able to write them.  It would give me the creeps.  But I’m probably the most like Daphne in SPICING THINGS UP at the END of the book.  My friends don’t call me Mrs. Chicken for nothing.  I’m not very gutsy—never jumped off the high dive board at the community pool.  And I’m pretty happy living in my own little world, but I do love people and cooking for them.  Hmm, maybe I’m more like Tessa in COOKING UP TROUBLE.  She’s close to her family and plays it SORT of safe.  Okay, I’d pick Tessa.

That’s all from me, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by!

Thanks for having me!  Great questions.

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Author Bio and Links:

Judi Lynn lives in Indiana with her husband, a bossy gray cat, a noisy Chihuahua, and a parakeet.  She loves to cook and owns more cookbooks than any mortal woman would ever need.  That’s why so much food sneaks into her stories.  She also loves her flower beds, but is a haphazard gardener, at best. 

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