Tag Archives: Janice Horton

CentreStage with Janice Horton ~ Visiting the City of the Dead

Welcome to CentreStage!

CentreStage showcases fantastic authors from around the world. These authors might tell you about their lives, their writing, their favourite shoes or their workspaces. In short, about anything relevant to their inspiration and happiness. Today, it is my tremendous pleasure to welcome back the one and only Janice Horton!

Only last week, this blog took part in Janice’s Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party in honour of the launch of Janice’s latest work, How Do You Voodoo? And today, Janice has promised to let us in on some of the nitty-gritty of her research… Take it away, Janice!

Outstanding Bravery in the Name of Research: Get Ready to Be Spooked!

Hi Nicky and Happy Halloween – or should that be Spooky Halloween…?

Hi Janice, and a Happy Spooky Halloween to you to! It’s so exciting to have you back here today telling us all about your very daring research for How Do You Voodoo! Hats off to you, I don’t think I’d be this brave! (I’m easily spooked!)

*Janice laughs*  There is nothing better than a good spook, is there? I’ve popped along today to tell you about my romantic and humorous Halloween novella How Do You Voodoo? and to tell you about the spooky time I had writing it. You see, a central scene in the story takes place in a very spooky place, the Necropolis in Glasgow – a cemetery otherwise known as The City of the Dead!

Nicky says: Is this the bit where I get spooked?

The City of the Dead is the burial place of over five thousand people, mostly from the Victorian age.  In those days, when Glasgow was a very important and wealthy port, the rich merchants were basically trying to outdo each other in death as well as life, by commissioning hugely expensive and architecturally fancy mausoleums and monuments as their gravestones. Now, all these years later, they are mostly neglected, wonky, covered in lichen and in a bad state of disrepair. This of course, together with a hanging Scottish mist, all adds to the spook factor!

Nicky says: I bet it does. Did you say something about showing us for real?

*Janice whips out a stack of photos and slithers them nonchalantly across the table.* These are some of the photos I took there while researching a scene for How Do You Voodoo? See what I mean!

Nicky says: Goodness, I wouldn’t want to go there at night-time! But the photos look stunningly eery and haunting (not to say haunted), the perfect backdrop for your story. Fabulous, thanks for sharing. Now tell us more about How Do You Voodoo?…

About How Do You Voodoo?

How Do You Voodoo? is a humorous contemporary story about a loveless fashion model called Nola Nichols, who thinks being beautiful is a curse; that is until she is cursed and her looks begin to fade just a week before the most important photo shoot of her career. Nola rejects all rational explanation on what might be causing her lost looks and decides she has to find a way to get uncursed. This imaginative quest takes her from the Caribbean to Glasgow’s own City of the Dead. Along the way, she finds herself taking part in a rather unconventional funeral, involved in a voodoo ritual, reveals one or two unrests in her own past and falls madly in love with a doctor. Erm, that would be a witch doctor, right…?

Nicky says: Awesome. I have this on my Kindle and can’t wait to get reading!

About Janice Horton

Janice Horton lives in Scotland and writes contemporary romance with humour. Her novels ‘Bagpipes & Bullshot’ and ‘Reaching for the Stars’ are both Amazon Kindle bestsellers. Her latest title ‘How Do You Voodoo?’ is a romantic novella for Halloween and is out now for Kindle at just 77p or 99c!

Visit Janice’s Author  Blog; Follow her on Twitter @JaniceHorton; or Like  her Author Facebook Page

Janice is a Featured Author & Associate Editor at Loveahappyending.com

Find her ebooks on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

So, dear reader: How Do YOU Voodoo? Has this totally captured your interest? Brilliant!

Have you considered writing a novella? And what excites you about reading them?

How do you #Voodoo? The Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party with @JaniceHorton

It’s Janice Horton’s Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party!

Congratulations to Janice as she celebrates the launch of her Halloween novella, How Do You Vodoo!

Loveless fashion model Nola Nichols thinks being beautiful is a curse; that is
until she is cursed and her looks begin to fade just a week before the most
important photo shoot of her career.

Nola rejects all rational explanation on what might be causing her lost looks and decides she has to find a way to get uncursed. This imaginative quest takes her from the Caribbean to Glasgow’s own City of the Dead. Along the way, she finds herself taking part in a rather unconventional funeral, involved in a voodoo ritual, reveals one or two unrests in her own past and falls madly in love with a doctor. Erm, that would be a witch doctor, right…?

How Do You Vodoo is out now ~ and it’s FREE today (26 October), what are you waiting for?

To honour the occasion, I’m taking part in the Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party so here goes…

Nicky’s Rocking-Ever-After Spell

Banish the worry, dry the tears, do away with your deepest fears
Welcome the love, the light, and the precious one
I’ve touched the stone and I will rock on

To banish the worry, dry the tears, do away with your deepest fears
~
Collect one worry stone on a new moon at midnight and put in the freezer until the next full moon
~Climb the highest Scottish mountain to collect thirteen dragon tears; put in the freezer next to the worry stone until the next full moon
~Write a list of your deepest fears and add them to the worry stone and dragon tears in the freezer (remember to use waterproof ink!)

To welcome the light, the love, the precious one
~Gather stardust and summon Northern lights on the next night of the next full moon
~Pick a single white rose by the light of the next full moon
~Collect a moonstone by the light of the next full moon

BY THE LIGHT OF THE NEXT FULL MOON…

Remove the worry stone and dragon tears and list of your deepest fears from the freezer. Crush with the biggest hammer you can find while reciting the first line of the spell, and place resulting worry, tear and fear dust in cauldron.

Sprinkle the worry, tear and fear dust liberally with Northern lights and stardust. Stir well using the single white rose while reciting the second line of the spell.

Touch the moonstone and throw it high in the air, aiming to land in cauldron. Aim carefully. If you miss, your spell is void.

After (and only after) the moonstone has landed safely in the cauldron, recite the third and final line of the spell. You are now allowed to turn up the music. Congratulations: you will rock ever after!

About Janice Horton

Janice Horton lives in Scotland and writes contemporary romance with  humour. Her novels ‘Bagpipes & Bullshot’ and ‘Reaching for the Stars’ are  both Amazon Kindle bestsellers. Her latest title ‘How Do You Voodoo?’ is a  romantic and humorous novella for Halloween and out now!

Visit Janice’s Author  Blog; Follow her on Twitter @JaniceHorton; or Like  her Author Facebook Page

Janice is a Featured Author & Associate Editor at Loveahappyending.com

Find her ebooks on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Now it’s your turn to party and make up spells ~ Join Janice on Twitter, be part of the action with #voodoo

CentreStage: Janice Horton wows the male of the species with her latest novel!

Welcome again to CentreStage!

CentreStage showcases fantastic authors from around the world, introducing in particular my fellow featured authors at loveahappyending.com as well as fellow authors in the Sapphire Star Publishing family.  In this new, exciting feature, these authors might write for you about their lives, or their writing journey, or anything else that matters to them.  Every feature will be different in format and flavour, so watch out for a variety of stories and tales.

Today, it is my honour and my pleasure to host a fellow Loveahappyending.com author, namely the amazing Janice Horton! Welcome Janice–and I look forward to hearing about an event that really moved you just lately!

Janice writes: RomCom for Men…!

An amazing thing just happened. My latest eBook, a contemporary romance novel entitled Reaching for the Stars has received its seventeenth review on Amazon.co.uk!

You may understand that I’m pleased – it was a very complementary review – but why was it amazing you ask? Well, you see, it was from a man.  Now, there is no reason why a man should not read and enjoy this novel – as it does have a strong, topical and a humorous storyline, which is told in part from a male point of view.

It’s about a man, after all. A disillusioned and media stalked celebrity chef who has just won his third ‘star’ at the same time as losing his third wife. An irony lost on no one, least of all the infamous chef himself.

But you see, this particular male reader (having at first confessed to downloading ‘Reaching for the Stars’ by accident and reading it anyway) said he really enjoyed it and has since also downloaded my previous novel ‘Bagpipes & Bullshot’. He entitled his review ‘Romcom for Men’.

Well, to say I was delighted is an understatement because here at last was a man who didn’t think that reading a book with a romantic thread in it was not for him, and by posting his review has singlehandedly exploded the myth that my books (about relationships) are written exclusively for only half the population.

And it’s not just books, mine or otherwise, that get those misleading gender genre labels. Take movies for example; even the ones labelled War/Crime/
Action/Adventure usually have a strong thread of romance in the storyline. So why market Romance exclusive as ‘Women’s Fiction’?

Thank you to my lovely male reviewer. You not only moved me with your generosity in taking the time to put up such a wonderful review – you also made my day. RomCom for all!

Hear, hear! I couldn’t agree more! What a fabulous occasion, Janice, I am thrilled and I share your excitement about ‘wowing’ the male of the species.

Let’s find out more about Janice Horton

Janice writes romantic and descriptive novels with humour. Look out for her Amazon bestselling Bagpipes & Bullshot and latest novel Reaching for the Stars. Janice is a regular blogger and you can find her on Twitter and Facebook. When not writing novels, Janice writes lifestyle articles and has had work published in national and international magazines and regional newspapers. She has also been involved in BBC Scotland’s ‘Write Here Write Now’ project. She is a member of the Romantic Novelist’s Association and an Associate Author and Editor at Loveahappyending.com. Janice will be speaking at the Loveahappyending.com Summer Audience Event in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, on the 16th June 2012.

You can find Janice’s books on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

A big Thank You to Janice for visiting CentreStage today and sharing her fabulous anecdote! 🙂

Now then… calling all men! Are you a closet RomCom lover?  I know at least some of you are, because I know you’ve read Janice’s book and a few of you have read my book, too… but will you own up here?

Calling the ladies: what do you think about genres? Why shouldn’t men read romantic comedies?  And you, do you read crime? Horror? Do you read them out in the open, or in secret?  Let’s have the genre/gender discussion, see what shakes out!