40 for 40 - Jane Porter

Today's special guest is Jane Porter. It's amazing to think that I met Jane when she has just had her very first  Harlequin Presents title - The Italian Groom- published. That was  back in 2001. But she's come so far since then.   I've lost count of the total number of her Presents titles that she's written in the intervening years - and then there are her women's fiction books, starting with The Frog Prince (2005) and coming right up to date with The Good Daughter (Feb 2013).

I first met Jane when she came over to the UK for an AMBA meeting and  sharing afternoon tea with her has always been one of the highlights of the times I've been able to get across 'the pond' and  attend RWA.  A couple of years ago I was able to return the favour and invite Jane to a dinner before the AMBA lunch. That was when I met her very new husband  Ty and see the great chemistry between them.

So, seeing as I asked my guest bloggers to write about weddings, anniversaries of meeting their partners, it's not surprising that Jane talked about Ty and her time of  'Flirting with Forty' - which has stopped being flirting and turned into  a ten year anniversary.

Welcome  Jane - 


I'm not a snow bird or a beach girl. I am, to be quite honest, incredibly unathaletic when it comes to skates, skateboards, surfboards, skis and snowboards. Anything requiring balance, edge, coordination, confidence, and speed is pretty much, not in my skill set.
 

Fortunately, my guy, a surfer in Hawaii, likes nerdy book girls that wear glasses.
 

We met when I interviewed him for a future book.  The book became Flirting with Forty, a bestseller, that then was turned into a movie in the US for Lifetime starring Heather Locklear.
 

Ty and I dated long distance for eight years—he in Hawaii and me in Seattle with my children—and we constantly were asked, ‘How does this end?’

It always puzzled me.  How does anything end?
 

One of the things learning to surf has taught me is that your surfboard will go the direction you face. If you look down, as you’re learning to get to your feet, you’ll fall. If you look straight ahead, point towards the beach, your board will straighten out and head in that direction.
 

But that’s not just surfing, that’s life. And so when people ask, ‘where will this go? What’s going to happen?’, I truthfully answer, I’m going with it as far as it will go.

Then later, when Ty and I were expecting a surfer baby of our own, people would ask if Surfer Ty is going to move to Seattle permanently, and I would say no.  We were just going to keep doing what we were doing, which is being together and then apart, and then together again.  We always find a way to get back to the other and sometimes we wait a month but it’s what it is, and it works.
 

How?  I don’t know.  I do know that like my book Flirting with Forty he changed my life.  He made it magical again. It was just like Mama Mia, the ABBA song,

Just one look and I can hear a bell ring

One more look and I forget everything

Mama Mia, here I go again.

My, my how can I resist you?

I couldn’t resist him that first year.  I was crazy about him, absolutely head over heels, and I’m still crazy about him and we’re heading towards ten years.
 

Oh.  And our second wedding anniversary.  You see we got married along the way, did a Vegas wedding with Elvis and it was incredible.  The best wedding ever with 83 guests cheering us on.

Ty’s and my relationship was never the one in my book.  It’s always been more complicated.  And harder at times.  But it’s better, too, because it’s real.  I’ll be fifty soon, and it’s awesome to look back and realize, that life wasn’t over at forty.  Life was just beginning.

Just one look…


Jane has generously offered to give away, to two lucky winners, a copy of Flirting With Forty and one of her backlist Harlequin Presents novels, along with fun JP goodies.  J

To be in with a  chance of winning this great giveaway, just answer this question – Jane says she’s not a snow bird or a beach girl – but perhaps a nerdy book girl – so her question is:

Would you consider yourself a snowbird, a beach girl or a nerdy book girl?

Leave your answer in the  comments section as usual.