Charlotte O'Shay then and now

I have a special surprise for my visitors today. I'm hosting Charlotte O'Shay with her new release FOREVER IN A MOMENT. Charlotte has been a guest on so many blogs, I decided to ask her for something different. I asked her to write a letter to her twelve-year-old self about her future as a writer.

Hi Sandy,

What a pleasure it is to appear on your blog. I’ve taken you up on the opportunity to write a letter to my 12 year old self.

Yikes.

Here goes…

Dear Charlotte,

(I know that’s not our real name. I’ll explain in a minute.)

I am you from the future and let me answer some questions that obsessed me/you/us at age twelve. 

1.      The boobs never get bigger.  

2.      We never get taller than five-two. 

Okay now that’s out of the way, don’t worry. Everything is good here in the future. Better than good.

We are an author! 

So it ended up being really cool reading all of those books in bed with lights out and borrowing everything we could get our hands on at the library. Being a nerd is okay. Yes, we are a nerd. Reading is cool. And writing is even better. No. Really. We are a nerd. 

You know all of those romances we read? All of the Regencies and Harlequins and Mysteries from Avon and Dell we devoured? They formed us as a writer. 

Books kept us company and gave us an escape from:

• Algebra & Geometry (don’t ask)
• Law school exams
• Illness & Medical treatment
• Nursing babies 

Because being the middle child of seven is no joke, you will feel intense pressure not to try to earn your living as a writer, which we know in our heart is who we are. So yeah, get a real job after college. You’ll need to make some money because—rent.

Important note: take that interview your best friend got you, the one for a paralegal job, that year after college when you need to save money, and you’re unsuccessfully trying to avoid law school. 

Take that job, and when you get there, pay attention to the cute guy you meet, the one whose hair is already starting to gray, the one with blue eyes, big dreams and a hole in the floor of his Nova. It’s okay. Trust me. He’s the one. 

So definitely everything turns out okay.

One important thing. Start submitting your work to publishers sooner. Yes, the stories you’ve been writing in those notebooks. DON’T BE SCARED. So what if they say no? And guess what? They don’t. Don’t waste your time worrying about what people think. Write what you want. From your heart. 

Keeping writing as a side hustle during work and babies. Make time for it. Feed your soul. 

Your soul mate and your kids will understand. Go get our dream. 

And yes because we had a legal career before we started writing spicy romance, we use a pen name. That’s me keeping boundaries between the two professions. But maybe with the benefit of this letter, you’ll decide you don’t want to use a pen name.

That would be very cool.

xoxo

E

Now, to tell you about FOREVER IN A MOMENT:

A stormy encounter...

Samantha DeMartino's Christmas wedding is two weeks away when her fiancé calls the whole thing off. Word on the street: his cold feet are being heated by an old flame. With her well-ordered world in complete disarray, Sam's friends convince her to go on her honeymoon—alone. A week at a charming Vermont inn away from the city and her demanding corporate career could be just what she needs to figure out her next steps.

Between his twenty-four seven work schedule on his family's dairy farm and teaching tourists to ski, Jed Armstrong's too busy to think about how lonely he is...until Sam sings her way into his life during a Christmas blizzard. Now he has to figure out a way to convince her to stay.

Can a vivacious city girl find forever with a reclusive farmer? Will her secret keep her from trying?

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Here's a sample:

She brushes a wisp of strawberry blonde hair back from her eyes and says, “What can I get you?”

“Sam Adams, please.”

“Anything else?”

“Um, the pizza burger, medium rare, thanks.” And because I’m so virtuous, I order a side salad instead of fries.

In seconds my beer is in front of me, and as I take my first sip, she asks the now ubiquitous question. “You must be the person Jed picked up on the side of the road.” More a statement than a question and it could’ve been stated in a friendlier way but since it’s essentially true, I nod, ignoring the undercurrent of you are dumber than a rock in her tone.

“Yes. I’m Sam DeMartino.” My hand is on its way out to clasp hers, but she isn’t offering. I put it back in my lap as I endure a very thorough once over. A feeling of déjà vu sweeps over me. This is the same way Krystal Harris, Ben’s ex and present lover looked at me the one and only time Ben and I ran into her in the city several months ago.

This woman’s blue eyes are judging me, all of me, from my recently purchased, I’ve never skied before, jacket, to my long hair, crazy with static electricity, to my, expensive but worth every penny, boots to the little Italian-gold hoops in my ears. I straighten in my seat and purse my lips. Yep, she totally meant that ‘on the side of the road’ jab.

She completes her inspection, and I resist the urge to ask if I passed muster. She says, “Karla Payne. I’m a very good friend of Jed and the Armstrong family.” She gives me a brief nod and a marginal smile before moving along the bar to help another customer.

Mkay!

~~~~~

Author Charlotte O’Shay was born in New York City into a big family and then married into another big family.

Negotiating skills honed at the dinner table led her to a career in the law.

But after four beautiful children joined the crowded family tree, Charlotte traded her legal career to write about happily ever afters in the City of Dreams.

Charlotte loves to challenge her heroines and heroes with a crisis and watch them figure out who they are while they fall in love.

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