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Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Jackie Ashenden: Here’s To Fate


Hi everyone! My name’s Jackie Ashenden and I write sexy, gritty contemporary romance.  I’m here today to talk about opportunities. About how a road that you thought was a dead end, can suddenly open up into a whole new series of directions. And it starts with my book, Never Seduce A Sheikh.

A couple of years ago, before my first book was accepted for publication, I decided I wanted to write something a bit different.  I'd always liked the idea of sheikh books – there's something of a fairy tale about a mysterious alpha king, who was also a warrior at heart, that I really liked.  So I wrote this book with a very dark sheikh hero and I sent it off to a certain publisher in the hope that they would like it as much as I did.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. Although they liked the book, it wasn't right for them and since there weren't any other publishers who wanted sheikh books, I disappointedly sent my sheikh hero to languish in the bowels of my hard drive, never to be seen again.

Or so I thought.

Fast-forward a couple of years and a couple of months to San Antonio in July of this year, where I was at the Romance Writers of America conference and where I met with the wonderful Jane Porter. In the process of chatting about various heroes we'd written, I told her I'd once written a sheikh.  To cut a long (and no doubt boring) story short she said she'd love a sheikh story for Tule and would I send it to her.

So I hauled my dark sheikh out of his PC  dungeon and sent him off. And Jane read it and she loved him and he's now starring in Never Seduce A Sheikh, part of the International Bad Boys series for Tule.

I never thought he'd get his day in the sun and if I'd never gone to San Antonio and met Jane, if I'd never chatted to her about writing, he never would. But I did. And isn't fate a wonderful thing?

What about you? Do you believe in happy meetings that lead to good things? Random chances that can turn into opportunities you thought you'd lost? Do you believe in fate?  Leave a comment for a chance to win a $10 Amazon giftcard plus two of my contemporary ebooks – Taking Him and Having Her!


***Jackie's winner is Kimberly V!  Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing details!***

8 comments:

Janine said...

I really do believe in fate and random chances turning into happy endings.

Laney4 said...

Yes, I do. I wrote a letter to a woman years ago to thank her, because I would not be happily married with children to my husband, had it not been for her.
When this woman moved in at the end of our street, I began babysitting for her when I was 14, and she gave me a reference to get my first summer job in town, which led to my next summer job in town. I got a job when I graduated college because the employer knew that same woman from their local Kinsmen Clubs. When that job fell through with the advent of computers (and last one hired is first one fired), I walked in to a business to leave my resume, and THAT manager knew the same lady because he too was involved in the local Kinsmen Club. While at that job, my prospective husband came in to make regular payments, and we got talking. 34 years later, we're still going strong....

Lil said...

Yes, I absolutely do believe in fate. My marriage came about because I happened to decide to go travel before settling into a career, but while away I was offered a job and then met my now husband at that company. I am leaving out all of the other tenuous details but it was a strange twist of fate.

erin said...

Weeelll... I don't believe in fate, but I do believe in making the most of your opportunities :) Congrats on the upcoming release!!! thanks for sharing :)

Kimberly V said...

Yes, I believe in it all: fate, random chances, and happy meetings.

Mary Preston said...

I do believe in happy meetings, not sure if that is fate or not.

girlygirlhoosier52 said...

There is always the random issue but in addition, the generous factor!

Alina P said...

I believe in random meetings turning into more, but not in fate. Everyone makes his own destiny with the choices he picks :)