Please welcome talented writer, Susan B. James and her romantic comedy, time-travel, Time and Forever.
First let me share a little about the author. Susan writes second chance romances with a touch of magic as
Susan B. James and children’s books as Susan J. Berger. She writes older
heroines because she is chronologically gifted and enjoys creating characters
who remember that change is only on the outside. Inside our older shells is a
much younger psyche.
Susan’s other career
is acting. In 2016, among other things, she killed Kathy Bates on American Horror Story- Roanoke. In 2017,
among other things, she got stabbed by a pen on Future Man and played the
victim on Major Crimes. Karma? Her
first role in 2018 was playing a babysitter on the TV series, Lucifer. More to come.
In her debut romance, Time and Forever, two women in their
sixties inadvertently travel back to London in 1969.
Maybe This Time, the companion book came out in 2017.
Forty nine and single. London stage
star Jennifer is perfectly happy with her life. Until she’s accidentally time
traveled to 1988 and come face to face with her worst nightmare – her first
husband
Book description: Sherry knows what she wants for her 63rd birthday.
A second chance at love. Her best friend, Lorena doesn’t believe that’s
possible. But when a glitch in a Virtual Reality Adventure game sends them back
to 1969 London, anything can happen.
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Excerpt from Time and Forever:
Chapter 1
“Birthdays
bite,” Sherry muttered.
“Hey, in two
more years you’ll be sixty-five.” Lorena raised her glass. “Here’s to Medicare.
The best present ever.”
“Cute.” Sherry
stabbed Mr. Chow’s chicken satay with an ebony chopstick. “Do you ever feel like
something’s missing in your life?”
“All the time.”
Lorena expertly chopsticked a mixed water dumpling. “This morning I found my
car keys in the fridge under the cottage cheese.”
“I’m not talking
about senior moments. Heaven knows I have enough of them. I meant do you ever
feel you should be taking another path?”
Lorena glanced
around the celebrity-filled restaurant. “Jen Aniston’s waving at you. She
probably wants to know why Now and Then
is closed.”
Sherry returned
Jen’s finger wave. “Halloween tapped us out. We have to restock.”
Lorena smiled
back at Meg Ryan. “Ever since that piece on Entertainment Tonight you and your
vintage clothing store are more popular than me, and I’m the celebrity.” She
offered Sherry a dumpling. “Why would you take another path? You’re rich, thin,
and you’ve got a great business. What else do you need?”
“Someone to
share it with. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life alone.”
For a moment
Lorena’s eyes looked empty. She blinked and the mask returned. “There’s a lot
to be said for being alone. You get to eat crackers in bed and you have total
control of the remote. If you’re lonely, get a dog.”
“I feel like
there has to be more.” Sherry cursed herself for making Lorena think of David
and changed the subject. “I got a birthday card from Brittany and Bill.”
Lorena’s eyes
frosted over. “How are the Bimbo and the Bore? Still wildly in love with each
other.”
“Yeah,” Sherry
said morosely. “They want to get together for dinner.”
“Sherry, I get
you staying on good terms with Bill for the boys’ sake, but dinner à trois is going way beyond the call
of duty. Tell them you have a date with George Clooney and you’re too
busy to bother.”
“Yeah. Right.”
Sherry inhaled the marzipan aroma of her Almond champagne. Normally she never
had a second glass, but it was her birthday and she loved the feel of the
bubbles tickling down her throat and forming a pool of liquid courage in her
stomach. “You know what? I’m tired of having the only male companionship in my
life come from daydreams and romance novels. I want to be loved by a real
person. I’m thinking of trying online dating.”
“Are you crazy?”
Sherry rolled
her eyes. “I knew you’d say that.”
Lorena's sharp
tone attracted the attention of the diners at the next table. “Look! It’s
Marley, the secretary on Looking for Love,”
the woman informed her companion. She beamed at Lorena. “Hi, Marley.”
Lorena flipped
back her streaked blonde bob, and gave the tourists her trademark ditzy smile.
Both women
lifted their phones for a picture.
Lorena turned
back to Sherry and continued in a lower voice. “You just cued the horror movie
music in my head. When it comes to clichés, online dating is right up there
with the let’s investigate moment
where the heroine takes the flashlight and runs around the creepy house in the
dark.”
“That’s
ridiculous.” Sherry tried to lift one eyebrow and failed. “Lots of people are
finding great matches online.”
Lorena
shuddered. “Lots of people are not you. Honey, look at yourself. You’ve got
lollipop green eyes and a sweet smile that says Take me. I’m vulnerable. You’d be Little Red Riding Hood inviting
in the Wolf.”
“Stop that!”
Sherry hated fairytale comparisons. She’d been dealing with them her whole
life. “You’re putting me off and I want to be encouraged. I want a chance at
true love.”
Lorena passed
her hands over her glass. “I am looking into the future and I see . . . You and
a Corgi. It’s a perfect match.”
“I don’t want a
dog, I want a human,” Sherry retorted.
“I don’t get it.
You’ve gone twenty years without anyone. Why now.”
“I was okay
alone when I still had the boys at home, but now . . .” Sherry’s smile wobbled.
“Now there’s no one to hug me anymore. I miss being touched.” She saw the echo
of pain in Lorena’s eyes. Damn! She’d done it again. Sherry downed the rest of
her champagne. “The kids are off having their adventures. It’s time I had an
adventure of my own.”
“Why don’t you
start with a little adventure? One
which doesn’t involve the risk of coming home in a body bag.” Lorena pulled out
her iPhone. “There’s this place Darien, my trainer, told me about called, The Castle. They’ve got themed
restaurants, but their specialty is virtual reality adventures.”
Sherry shook her
head. “I’m not into video games.”
Lorena called
for the check. “Me neither, but Darien says this is different. It’s a virtual
world. And while you’re in it, you have the ability to walk around, eat food,
buy stuff, and do pretty much anything you would do in your actual life.” She
looked at the email on her iPhone. “A
world that seems so real, you won’t believe it’s virtual,” she quoted.
“What kind of
world?”
“Whatever you
want, I guess. Darien said he and Carl picked Los Angeles in the eighties.”
“Now that’s just
gross. Nobody in their right mind would revisit the eighties.” Sherry took the
iPhone and studied the email on the screen. “Any era? You know where I’d love
to go? London, 1969.”
“Why?”
“It was my first
adventure. I had a job with the Marketing Exchange for six months. London was
so alive and I loved the clothes and the music, and . . .”
Lorena leaned
forward. “How ‘bout the people? Any special person?”
Sherry felt her
face flush. She couldn’t tell Lorena about Jeremy. What would she say? I
once kissed a total stranger on the tube. And it was magical. “There
almost was, but it didn’t come to anything.” She handed the phone back to
Lorena. “I’m in. Let’s go to the sixties.” A bubble of fun coursed through her.
Or was it the champagne? “Two grown women going on a VR adventure. You think
this is the first sign of second childhood?”
“Honey, I never
finished with my first.” Lorena scribbled her autograph on the check. “Come on,
let’s go.”
Thank you for this opportunity.
ReplyDeleteBlessings!