Aloha to Jillian Chantal and SURFER BRIDE

Surf's Up!  The North Shore's Pipeline continues to deliver the challenging waves.  Check out the Surf News Network for daily reports on wave conditions!  This is the perfect time to welcome romance author Jillian Chantal as she celebrates her upcoming release,  SURFER BRIDE.   From Jillian's bio,

Jillian Chantal is the nom de plume of a lawyer moonlighting as a writer of romantic fiction. She has PRO status in the RWA and is an active member of the Gulf Coast Chapter of the Romance Writer’s of America where she currently serves as treasurer and chairman of the 2012 Silken Sands Conference.

Her first novel was published November 23, 2010 by Siren-BookStrand. It is called Solo Honeymoon.

Her second novel to be released is called Surfer Bride and it is with Siren-BookStrand as well. It will be released digitally in February 2011 and in paperback in September 2011.

Her third release, due to be published in July 2011, is called Redemption for the Devil and it will be published by Desert Breeze Publishing.

Kim:  You are nth lawyer turned writer I have met. Do you all have a secret society of romance readers at law school? How did law school and even your practice prepare you for writing and publishing?

Jillian:  The funny thing is, we don't. My particular law school has a few writer graduates. Most write crime type stories and I do as well. Mine just happen to be romances. The first couple I wrote were pure romance but then I decided I wanted to draw on the things I learned in law school as well as my early legal career and made the change over to stories with a criminal element to them. I like the faster pace of those stories.

Most of the lawyers I know use the writing as an escape from the day to day work. Law school also teaches discipline and the ability to stick to something for a long time. My first published book is actually non-fiction. A bankruptcy manual. It’s in its 6th edition. It is much more fun to write about kisses and hunky men than the Bankruptcy Code.



Eureka coastline
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Kim:  Referencing your Friday Facts about Eureka, when did you discover that "you found" your passion to write? How did you translate that passion into publishing (i.e., who or what helped you get published)?

Jillian: I wrote my first story that I shared with someone in the 5th grade. It was about Miss Salt and how she fell in love with Mr. Pepper. They married and he went to medical school and became Dr. Pepper. My teacher loved it and printed it for the first grade kids. I knew then that I wanted to be published some day. Fast forward through college, marriage, law school, two kids, building a career, etc. I always kept a journal but no real story-writing. I finally had the time in 1998 to start a thriller. I was about eight chapters in when my laptop died. Made this horrendous noise and died. Never to be revived. It gutted me and I couldn’t bring myself to start again. Until the summer of 2007. I found myself writing a story and it rekindled the joy of putting words to paper. So, I guess my Eureka moment came then. I kept quiet about it until I joined an RWA chapter in March of 2009. They encouraged me to submit my work and I did.

Kim:  Tell us about SURFER BRIDE - its inspiration and is story.

Jillian:  Surfer Bride has two inspirations. One is the song by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show called, "Sylvia’s Mother"- I was listening to it and the idea for a story about a woman that had been dumped by the love of her life came to me. She’d moved on and was engaged to be married. The lyrics to the song are the mother keeping a man from talking to a woman and the mom tells him the woman "is marrying a fellow down Galveston way" and she won’t put her daughter on the phone. The first scene of Surfer Bride is the heroine’s best friend (Avery- who was named for the mother in the lyrics- Mrs. Avery) not letting the man talk to her friend and her telling him she’s leaving to marry someone else. He knows this and that’s why he’s calling. To stop her.

The second inspiration for this story is somewhat autobiographical. My first love dumped me over a rumor that I had kissed another guy. A guy that he had no idea was gay. I used this as a plot point in the story. Nothing else about the characters is real- all the stuff in the book is totally from my head. I made the heroine a surfer as I live near the beach and have a surfer son. I’ve always wanted to use his lingo and love of surfing in a story. I’m a skier but am not coordinated enough to surf myself. LOL!

Kim:  What's next for Jillian Chantal?

Jillian:  I have a historical coming out from Desert Breeze Publishing in July. It takes place in 1920 on an ocean liner in the Atlantic. The hero is a member of the Irish Republican Army during the time of the Irish Revolution.

I have two novels out on submission now and I’m working on a cozy mystery as well. Not quite sure about that one but it’s a change from my norm and has been a fun challenge so far.

destination360.com

Thanks for having me here today. This is a wonderful blog. I’d love to give away a Live, Love, Surf magnet to a commenter.  You can find me here:

Website:  http://www.jillianchantal.com/;
Email:  JillianChantal@gmail.com
Book Strand:  www.bookstrand.com/jillian-chantal

Mahalo, Jillian, for joining us at SOS Aloha! To enter the giveaway,

1.  Leave a comment about Jillian, bankruptcy lawyers turned romance authors, and/or your favorite water sport.

2.  This giveaway is open to US residents only.  Comments are open through Saturday, February 26, 10 pm in Hawaii.

3.  If you are a new to SOS Aloha (US or international), I would like to share Aloha with you. Send your mailing address to sos.america@yahoo.com for a Hawaiian treat!

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii



Ah, a great lead into Hawaii Five-O.  In the opening scene of Episode 15, local surfer Kono (Grace Park) is teaching NJ transplant  Danno (Scott Caan) how to surf.  Their lesson is interrupted by a tsunami warning.  Thus the episode is aptly named, Kai e'e - Tidal Wave:

Kai means ocean

e'e means to climb on

In real life, California native Scott Caan is an avid surfer whereas Canadian born Grace Park had to learn to surf to play the part of Kono.

I may write quite a bit about Alex O'Laughlin, shirtless but serious as Steve.  But I also appreciate Scott Caan's witt and charm as our beloved Danno!

Hawaii Five O images from cbs.com.