THE STARLIGHT MOTEL
Amy Craig
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
BLURB:
Experienced muralist Kada took charge of her family's Palm Springs motel to give her mother time to grieve. As a grant deadline approaches, Kada must convince her mother to manage the motel so she can return to her art. Late in December, Kada encounters a horseman approaching the property. Dane, the reserved son of a local farming family, is a loyal workaholic with limited spare time or experience outside the valley. When lightning startles his horse, he lingers at the motel and stirs up Kada's emotions about leaving the desert oasis. Wary of mixing business with pleasure, she struggles with her attraction. As New Year's Eve approaches, will the cowboy convince her to chart a new course?
Excerpt:
Kada’s cry of delight bounced off the casita walls. Looking up from the desert pavers, he watched her launch herself into an older woman’s arms. The pair grinned, and their smiles shone brighter than the swaying patio lights. Staying back, he leaned against an adobe wall and watched Kada and Mrs. Ritchie greet each other. The pair did the hug-shake mother-daughter thing he never understood. In twenty years, Kada would be just as beautiful as her mother. She soaked up her mother’s presence like a drought-stricken plant. He envied their connection. His mother gripped him hard, examined him, and spun him back into the world to do good work.
“Just look at you, runnin’ around the desert like Pops.” Ms. Ritchie gripped Kada’s long, black hair and rubbed it between her fingers. “If I hadn’t seen you for myself, I wouldn’t have believed it. I thought you would stay in Los Angeles, but here you are, the queen of the desert!”
He cocked his head and imagined Kada tearing into a sourdough loaf over drip coffee. She would look at home on the winding streets wearing a wrap-tie dress, but he preferred her stained jeans.
“I thought I would stay in Los Angeles, too, but you needed me.” Reaching to the side, Kada shifted into her father’s arms.
Lean by most standards, he sported the small belly that developed from a desk-bound lifestyle.
“Hi, Daddy.”
He kissed her forehead. “Princess. Good to see you.”
Easing off the wall, Dane figured he could slip back into the cantina, take his salad to go, and sink into one of Walter’s tales. The old cowboy had plenty of stories about what went wrong when a man took his gaze off the land.
Interview with Amy Craig
Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
I read according to my mood. Sometimes, I choose cowboy romances and sometimes I choose whatever my book club picked. Man, they have strange tastes, but it’s always a lively discussion!
How do you select the names of your characters?
I use placeholder names depending on character archetypes. As the story coalescences, I choose more appropriate names. In THE STARLIGHT MOTEL, the female lead has a pretty unique name. Her given name is Cicada, but people call her Kada. Since she’s an only child, I can imagine her mother’s nervousness to hear everything with her pregnancy was going to be just fine.
“When Mom was pregnant with me, she said the first day she felt me kick, the cicadas chirped at Horsetooth Reservoir. When she returned home, I kept my kicks to myself, and the silence bugged her. The day the obstetrician confirmed everything was fine, she heard a cicada buzzing outside her bedroom window.”
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
Yes, but I won’t ruin the fun!
What was your hardest scene to write?
When Kada and Dane wander into the mountains to explain a flash of light, they stumbled on an abandoned animal. Assuming the animal’s prior owners loved it, I wanted a backstory that would explain its abandonment. Anything that painful must have been a tough decision!
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
Most of my books are standalone. THE PENINSULA and THE CREVASSE have character overlap, but they stand on their own. A corporate mafia series has three books, the first two being SYNDICATE RISING AND REMAKING A MAN. The third book, BROKEN BODYGUARD, comes out in August.
What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
A few years ago, a news story about a San Francisco mural caught my eye. The 455 Hyde Street murals, collectively known as Le Papillon, tell the story of San Francisco’s urban beauties. Monarchs fly toward the California Poppy, and the artistic process behind creating the mural captured my attention.
Fictional muralists often undergo significant personal growth ("The Murals" by William Bayer, "The Lacuna" by Barbara Kingsolver, or "Shadowshaper" by Daniel José Older). As they create their murals, they confront personal challenges, heal from past traumas, or discover new facets of themselves. Unfortunately, this process is too long for contemporary romances. Baby, we’re falling in love in a week!
As I imagined a muralist in THE STARLIGHT MOTEL, Kada came into focus. Crowd-funding fails to lead her toward her next installation, so she helps her family run a Palm Springs motel. The question is, why does she love it? How do art and caregiving overlap?
What inspired you to write THE STARLIGHT MOTEL?
When my husband and I relocated from California to Louisiana with our black lab/shepherd mix, we drove through Palm Springs, and the agricultural influences amazed me. I always thought of Palm Springs as a 1950s Hollywood resort, but its character goes deeper than Sinatra and desert sands. Don’t get me wrong, those aspects are part of its identity, too, but I wanted to explore the farms and single-story motels dotting the windswept highways.
Also, Kada has more than one identity. She’s a devoted daughter, a artist who needs to regroup, and a caring, compassionate woman who walks the line between responsibility and self-sacrifice. Dane’s not about to let anyone push him around, but what has he missed by being so hardcore?
Can you tell us a little bit about what you have planned for the future?
THE BROKEN BODYGUARD comes out September 3, 2024. It’s the third novel in a Romantic Suspense/Mafia Romance/Corporate Romance series called the Sun Valley Mafia Series. Working with two publishers, The Wild Rose Press and Totally Bound, means release dates occasionally overlap! In THE BROKEN BODYGUARD, which can be read as a standalone novel, a corporate bodyguard finds himself protecting a stubborn cowgirl and untangling windswept land politics in Patagonia, Argentina. Every time I read it, I want to return to Patagonia!
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in THE STARLIGHT MOTEL?
Kada has the credentials and the experience to create great works of art, but most motel guests treated her like anonymous staff. Hearing someone describe her as a muralist validates the tiny flame she keeps alight on dark nights. She’s an only child from Wyoming, but California adventures define her life. She always keeps the motel’s vacancy sign lit because her family and her grandfather’s legacy depend on her. How could she tell them no?
Dane owns the farmland beside the motel. He had an idyllic, hard-working childhood alongside his brother. Imagine a long, tall drink of water laced with long-winded family stories, home baked cookies, and deep-seated pride. He knows he’s got it good, but has he kept his focus too narrow?
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
The character banter is always my favorite part of writing. Banter between romantic leads is a staple in romance stories because it adds layers to the characters, enhances their chemistry, and makes their relationship more dynamic and engaging. Also, they always have the perfect comebacks! Don’t we wish we had them, too?
Incorporating this element into romance stories makes the relationships feel more realistic and relatable. Readers recognize and appreciate the authenticity of characters that communicate in familiar ways. I can’t promise all my jokes will make you laugh, but I’m hoping for a smile!
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Amy Craig lives in Louisiana with her family and a small menagerie of pets. She writes contemporary romance and romantic suspense featuring intelligent heroines. In her spare time, she plays tennis and expands her husband’s honey-do list. Before writing, she worked as an oilfield engineer, project manager, and incompetent waitress. For more information and giveaways, visit www.amy-craig.com or follow her on social media channels.
Connect with Amy Craig
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7 comments:
Thank you so much for featuring Amy Craig and THE STARLIGHT MOTEL today.
I like the cover art. Sounds like a good story.
I hope you enjoy THE STARLIGHT MOTEL and the allure of finding love beneath the desert skies! Happy Wednesday... settle in for a weekend read!
Looks like a good book.
Fabulous cover
sounds like a fun one
I like the cover, looks nice
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