All Bags Go To Cleveland

 ALL BAGS GO TO CLEVELAND

by CS Hale

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

GENRE:  

 

paranormal romantic comedy

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

BLURB:

 

Angela Grimalke appears more blonde bombshell than the gremlin she is. But there is no denying her supernatural truth after her clumsiness gets her fired from her modeling career. Forced to work for her family’s upscale airline, she spends her days slinging luggage and wishing her parents would get off her back about finding a nice gremlin guy to settle down with. 

 

Relationships were the last thing on her mind, not that her family would accept that.  

 

For Dave Ford his frequent business travel made it next to impossible for him to find a woman who could tolerate his chaotic schedule. Which is why he appreciates Angela. Neither of them are looking for love, but Dave feeds Angela's addiction for chocolate while she provides him with the chaos to keep him on his toes.

 

However, as Angela’s parents bombard her with a parade of "eligible" gremlin men at their weekly family dinners, she finds herself torn between who she longs to be and her family’s expectations. Will she give in and live the life of magic they want for her? Or risk it all by to confessing to Dave that she isn’t human?

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

EXCERPT

 

 

Focusing on the sparks of energy skittering along her fingers, she sent her magic into the printer. Angela might look like the cover model she’d once been but no one would guess that Windsor’s check-in counter was currently staffed by a pair of gremlins. Dave’s day—or rather night and morning—were about to become a little more exciting than he’d imagined. Dave would have a nice, relaxing flight to London while his garment bag went to Cleveland.

 

She tamped down the tendrils of guilt rising in her gut. It needed to be done. It was this bag or some mishap not of her choosing. Besides, who in their right mind would check a Louis Vuitton garment bag? First class contained specially built closets in which to hang them. She searched Dave’s thoughts again. 

 

Where have I seen her before?

 

Angela snapped right back out and jerked her head down. She attached the claim sticker to his boarding pass and handed it to Dave, keeping her focus on the counter. Hopefully, her smile hid the panic now whirring in her chest like the engines that would take Dave across the Atlantic. “Enjoy your flight, Mr. Ford.”

 

“Always do.” With a small salute, Dave headed toward the security queue. What were the chances he’d be so cheerful in the morning?

 

A Word With the Author

What would we find under your bed? Dust (I have hardwood floors. I hate them.), a backup down-filled pillow still in the plastic zip bag it came in, and a hat box containing my tea cup collection. I currently don’t have any place to display the tea cups, but they are gorgeous so I should probably think about changing that.

What was the scariest moment of your life? My scariest moment was my first cab ride in NYC. It was January and it was snowing. The cab driver was whipping down the street, weaving in and out of cars, doing at least 50. With it snowing hard and a good 3 to 4 inches of wet slush on the road, he had zero room for error. I literally had my eyes closed as I hung onto my seat and prayed for God to spare my life. Neither Megan or I could initially walk up the steps to the Metropolitan after the cab dropped us off. Our legs were shaking too badly.

Do you listen to music while writing? If so what? Usually not. I will if I’m trying to capture a certain feeling in a scene. I listened to Jennifer Ann’s cover of “Mad World” for hours while writing Fall From the Moon, and I happened to write a very emotional scene in Rise From the Ashes on a flight back from London. I stumbled across “Acceleration of Time” by David Neuve on BA’s music stream and played it over and over, tears wetting my notebook (I write all my first drafts longhand in a notebook) until the scene had been captured. Cleveland was much more upbeat. I got to listen to Lady Gaga and other club music, though I did throw in Katherine Jenkins and Andrea Bocelli with “Time to Say Goodbye” (Con Te Partiro), as well as some Christmas music.

What is something you'd like to accomplish in your writing career next year? Besides being a writer, I am also an elementary teacher. As we’ve been asked to do a hybrid model this year, I am somehow supposed to do four full days in the classroom as well as manage five days of distance learning. Writing was hard enough to squeeze into the school year when I had just my five days of classwork to manage. I am usually working 12 to 15 hours a day, nearly 7 days a week just to keep up with the grading and lesson plans with “normal” school. I have given myself permission to go slow on my first draft of Ghost Chilis Are Real so that I don’t have a complete mental breakdown. As long as words are trickling onto the page, that will be a success.

How long did it take you to write this book? Um, I kind of hate to admit this, but All Bags Go to Cleveland was a three year journey. And then it spent another five years in a drawer. My intention for this year had been to work on book 3 in my Bánalfar series, but I had put Astrid through a lot of emotional trauma in books 1 and 2 and couldn’t face fixing that and COVID, so I pulled Cleveland out of the drawer. It needed a heavy round of editing on my part before I sent it off to my editor as my writing skills have vastly improved during Cleveland’s resting time. So three years to write the first draft and get it into shape to query, a year sitting in an editor’s “maybe” basket at Penguin (did I mention my writing has improved?), five years in a drawer after that rejection letter, and then April thru July this year doing edits before it headed off to my brilliant formatter.  My life is insane but I love to create something out of nothing (I cross stitch, too), so I just keep plugging away at stories until they are told. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Catherine “C.S.” Hale has been writing fantasy since she could hold a pencil. When not holed up in a comfortable corner writing all her books out by longhand, she can be found somewhere by the sea, enjoying tea and pastries.

 

Website: cshalebooks.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CatSHale

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorcshale

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FVDJL54

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

 

  

 A randomly drawn winner will receive a $50 Amazon/BN GC:

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway