Press release:
Visitors to Kilwin’s Chocolates, Fudge & Ice Cream in downtown Asheville often spot the colorful book covers framed on the wall. That’s when to their surprise, they discover that husband-wife shop owners Tom and Marcy Gallagher are writing romance novels when not working on a vat of double dark chocolate fudge.
“It’s a great reaction,” confides Marcy, “when I tell them, ‘Oh yes, we write novels, and you can actually star in our books.’ ” Under the pen names Marcy Thomas and Thomas Marcy, the pair has in fact produced half a dozen novels any couple can star in at YourNovel.com.
The publishing company, based in Raleigh, is the brainchild of another husband/wife team, J.S. Fletcher and Kathy Newbern, who write as Fletcher Newbern. Said Fletcher, “Our company’s actually celebrating its 25th year, and it’s been our absolute delight to work with the Gallaghers for 15 of those.” Newbern added, “Each year we release a new book, and this year’s is a rip-roaring hoot penned by Thomas Marcy. I promise, you’ll laugh out loud.”
Like all 50+ titles available at YourNovel.com, the new Wild West Love Fest can be personalized for any starring couple with more than 25 details using an easy, online form –WWLFreleaseArt.jpgincluding not only their names but eye and hair color, where they live and work, best friends, favorite music, sweet nicknames for each other, even their perfume and cologne. And, to make it fun, each book comes “wild” or “mild” in terms of romantic interludes.
In this latest novel, the starring couple rides horses into the Colorado mountains for a romantic picnic but are suddenly transported to the Wild West, circa 1870. They’re confronted by notorious pistol-packing outlaws, a love-sick gunslinger, a half-witted bounty hunter, a bevy of bodice-busting saloon girls, a less-than-ethical newspaper man, a quiet-but-wise Native American, a not-so-wise but good-hearted lawman and a group of townsfolk straight out of central casting.
Said Thomas, “You can’t believe how much fun it was to come up with this story line. It’s an idea Marcy and I had been bouncing around for a few years, but when we settled on it, the writing just started to flow.”
Newbern said, “All the Kilwin’s fans in Asheville really have us to thank at least in a small way. Our relationship with the Gallaghers started when they lived in Florida, and Marcy won a trip to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. We sponsored a romance writing contest for our 10th anniversary, and her story was selected for the resulting anthology Celebrating Romance. The trip was her prize, and Tom actually was the one who pointed the contest out to her.”
Marcy adds, “We fell in love with Asheville, and my sister had a successful Kilwin’s franchise in Florida, so we decided to take the plunge and here we are.”
Here are other titles the pair has available through the personalized romance novel company:
• Rome: Diamonds, Danger and Desire is a sexy European adventure, where the starring male takes on the role of a lifetime — secret agent — or does he? He and his special lady look the part, too, zipping along Rome’s crowded streets in a cool Ferrari and hanging out with mysterious types, including a sultan who plans to purchase the world’s most perfect diamond.
• Treasure Seekers is set in tropical Ft. Lauderdale, where the starring couple embarks on a treasure hunt promising adventure and riches only to and learn about life’s most precious treasure.
• Heart of the Keys set in Key West provides intrigue and romance thanks to an 1848 love letter that holds a secret known only to a wealthy businessman with ill intent. An unusual gentleman enlists the aid of the hero and heroine to help foil an unsavory scheme.
• Shore Thing 2 (a collaboration with Fletcher Newbern) features four personalized short stories set at Huntington Beach, CA, known as Surf City USA; Lake Powell, UT; South Beach in Miami, FL; and on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas.
• Season’s Greetings, Season’s Love is set in the Town of Harmony where the winter holidays are a time of enchantment and celebration.YourNovel’com’s titles are available year-round priced from $11 to $125. Most popular are paperbacks starting at $39.95. With more than 50 titles available this “season of love,”YourNovel.com has made it easy for customers to narrow the choices via its categories pages, such as Beaches and Cruises.
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