Meet Nancy Jardine

I'd like you all to meet my friend Nancy Jardine. We met online—although I wish we could visit with her in person today because that would mean a field trip to Scotland. Yay! Alas, we'll have to make do with meeting and greeting her here. I just found out Nancy and I have something in common besides being authors. We were both teachers, although she was at it a lot longer than I was. She taught 11-12 year olds for many years then finally gave up the profession in the autumn of 2011 to spend more time writing. She’s been enjoying a dabble in different genres and has completed a historical romance, and three contemporary romances- two of which are what she calls her history/mysteries. She’s also written the first of a time-travel series of novels for children aged 9-12 years, and a family saga is her current work in progress.

Nancy lives in the picturesque castle country of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, with her husband who feeds her well—that’s very good or she’d probably starve! Reading, ancestry research, and participating in exciting events with her family are the only things that drag her away from the keyboard just now. Working in her large garden, she tends real flowers and now grows spectacular weeds which she’s becoming very fond of!

I knew we were kindred spirits when she mentioned the weeds. Please welcome, Nancy Jardine.

Hi, Diane. I’m jumping with joy today since I’m finding my launch tour for TAKE ME NOW (published by The Wild Rose Press), very exciting. I’m so pleased you invited me to visit you…and hope you don’t mind, but I just had to bring my friend Aela Cameron with me. Aela’s champing at the bit to meet your readers. She’s desperate to tell you about the interview she had with Janey Campbell, a reporter from the Lanera Weekly, just a few days after starting her temporary job with Nairn Malcolm. Aela? Why don’t you tell Diane how you got to be interviewed by the local reporter?

Aela: Oh, that was quite funny, really. It was a very impromptu and very casual interview. Well, it would be considering it was held down at one of the local pubs in Mariskay. 

Nancy: What a strange place to be interviewed. How did that happen?

Janey was with her boyfriend, Ross, who works at Nairn’s boatyard. I’d met Ross earlier that day when we went down to check out an order for a high profile yacht. To cut to a short story he recognized me and we started to chat. Janey jumped in right away about the interview, and the rest is history.

Nancy: What kind of questions did Janey ask you?

Aela: Well, the interview went something like this…

Janey: It would be great if you could tell me how you first got to know Nairn Malcolm.

Aela: Okay, Janey. I can easily do that. Isn’t the man a stunner? But no-one in the world could have called him handsome on that first day. You know, the day when I first clapped eyes on him?

How can anyone not call Nairn Malcolm handsome? I’ve met him, and those mesmerizing blue eyes of his are amazing. He always talks to you as though you are the only person in the world he wants to talk to.

Yeah! A great salesman, is Nairn Malcolm! He does have the dreamiest eyes, doesn’t he? And he’s got that ruggedly good-looking thing going for him. In normal circumstances he’d be the most attractive guy I’ve ever met, all six and a half feet of him. Oh, my! Can you imagine what it might feel like to be enveloped by all those muscles of his? Wow! But, my imagination’s getting the better of me. That’s not what he looks like at all, right now. He had a motorbike accident less that a week ago.

Ahh. My editor only just heard about that. So, you’re saying Nairn was pretty bashed up?

Bashed to bits. Although I couldn’t help but see there was one striking man below the mess. He’s just my type of guy, all rugged- even if he is arrogant, and demandingly bossy!.

Did the two of you hit it off immediately?

No way! He didn’t think too much of me when I laughed off his injuries. He thought I was far too flippant. I’m sure I was the last person he wanted to be sharing an office with.

That doesn’t sound very subtle. How did you manage to get this temporary job?

Me, subtle? I’m the proverbial foot in the mouth job. I could tell he didn’t want to hire me at first but, you know…Oh hey! You’re a reporter for the local newspaper. You’re not worming it out of me so easily. You’ll have to go to Nairn himself…or better still, buy the book, and read all about it.

Did nobody else want to work for him?

You’re the local here. You already know that Nairn’s got a lot of different businesses to run, but he couldn’t get anyone for his Personal Assistant job. I’ve been told nobody he interviewed wanted to live at his castle.

What? They didn’t want to live in Garvald castle? That’s hard to believe. Nairn did a fantastic job of restoring it a few years ago. He used almost exclusively local labor to give lots of local island guys a job during the winter months. How come there wasn’t a queue of candidates beating down the doors to get his job?

Hah! No queue at all, from what I’m hearing. Nairn only had a handful of candidates, before me. They liked the idea of working for him, but they wanted to permanently base themselves in London, and you know that isn’t suitable for a whizz-around like Nairn Malcolm.

So you won’t be working at the castle all the time then?

No way! Even after only a few days I’ve learned he’s always on the move. All over the place: and I’m so excited about it. Can’t wait to get started on our travels. We’ll soon be going to London, Barcelona, Paris, Oman…the Caribbean…and loads of other places.

So, you don’t mind being on a Scottish island… and traveling the globe really appeals to you?

Absolutely! That’s the perfect bit of the job. As a gal from Vancouver, the Scottish island climate doesn’t bother me at all, and since I adore flying and sailing, the job is totally heaven for me. Now, of course, he doesn’t just need office assistance. His little accident means he needs someone competent to ferry him and his plaster casts all over the world…and that person is ME!

Did it take Nairn long to realize you were the best candidate, then?

You know, that’s a whole new scenario. You’ll just have to read those pages to find out more…though I will tell you, I could get to like that guy a lot.

So, do you see yourself as being his assistant for quite a while?

Never.  This is just a temporary job, for a few weeks, before I head back to Vancouver…

Diane: I think my blog was hijacked by characters in a novel. LOL This was fun. I always enjoy meeting new people. Nancy, I hope you'll give us a bit more about your book, TAKE ME NOW.

Nancy: Here's the Blurb:

Nairn Malcolm’s looking for the impossible. He needs a highly skilled, enterprising aide who’ll be at his beck and call 24/7. No ordinary Jane Doe will do. He doesn’t expect the only candidate who drops in at his Scottish castle for an interview to be so competent…or so stunning.

Aela Cameron’s got exactly the right mix of talents to satisfy all Nairn Malcolm’s needs, and more. She loves the jobs he needs done, adores his castle, and finds his frenetic lifestyle energising. But she’s only looking for temporary: not to fall in love with the man.

Can Nairn convince Aela she’s tailor-made for him in every way…and not a passing fancy?  

To begin with, though, I’d like to give your readers a little taste of what Nairn was like on the day Aela first set eyes on him.

Excerpt: 

Unadulterated vigor oozed from every last bit of him—overall a dangerous concoction. Something stirred way-down-low inside Aela again. He was a real honey, and the bee in her wanted to be very sticky.

Her mind whirred. The man bore a vague resemblance to the ruggedly handsome thirty-two year old Nairn Malcolm of the internet photograph, but would the blonde limpet in the recent celebrity snapshot want to curl herself around this forbidding wreck of a man? Aela thought not. She wondered, though, if his blank expression was caused by current circumstances, or if this was his normal demeanor, since he hadn’t been smiling in the photograph either.

With the high granite wall as his backdrop she could easily imagine this man lording over the castle, ruthlessly challenging any invaders to his domain. Taking any woman he wanted? Now there was a thought she was happy to entertain. A tiny smile broke free. Tamping down her crazed imagination she re-assessed him.

What had the guy been doing to get himself in such a state?

Who was he?

TAKE ME NOW was released by The Wild Rose Press on the 3^rd August 2012.

Diane: Nancy, where can we buy TAKE ME NOW?

TAKE ME NOW is available at:

   Wild Rose Press  Print: http://bit.ly/MrlI8x  and eBook http://bit.ly/MQJXvw  

   At Amazon.com:  eBook http://amzn.com/B008RZR012

   Link to YouTube Book Trailer video: http://youtu.be/stDC4Yhm2r0

Diane: Cool video. They really do go all over the world. I'm sure our visitors will want to know where to find you on the Net and if you have any more titles.

Blog: http://nancyjardine.blogspot.com

Website: http://nancyjardineauthor.weebly.com

http://facebook.com/nancy.jardine.56

Twitter:  @nansjar

Currently available to buy:

MONOGAMY TWIST by Nancy Jardine (history/ mystery novel with a good dash of romance) is currently available in print and ebook

The Wild Rose Press: http://bit.ly/wOpGbT   Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/ynu0t0   Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/wwaGCv   Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/AuMbii

Link to YouTube Book Trailer for Monogamy Twist is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJVzbrkJQzA

Coming soon:

THE BELTANE CHOICE by Nancy Jardine

A full length historical novel will be published by Crooked{Cat}Publishing on the 31^st August 2012, in eBook formats, the print version following on the 26^th October.

Diane: We'll check your website for more details on THE BELTANE CHOICE. In the meantime, Nancy, it's been great having you here.