Picture This
Page 32
“Oh.” Celia’s stomach knotted. “For how long?”
“Six weeks.”
“Oh,” she said again. “Well, we have a few days, anyway.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m saying it’s good I got back now—we’ll have a few days together before you go.”
Niall dropped the sound machine back into the bag and left it at his feet. He pulled Celia to him. “Uh-uh. I refuse to be without you one more minute. What do you say to coming to California with me? What’s your schedule like?”
“Hm. I’ll have to check my calendar.”
“Your exhibition at Bowen Farms isn’t till December.”
“How did you know?”
“I’ve been in touch with George and Casey.”
“Have you, now?”
He nodded smugly. “And with Ray, of course. As a new member of the Marsden Arts Center board of directors, it’s my duty to work closely with him on next year’s schedule. Which, by the way, includes the second annual Night of the Shooting Stars. Which we have to go back for, if you’re up for it. But we’ve got a whole lot of time before next summer.”
“You are filling my calendar up right and left, Mr. Crenshaw.”
“That’s the plan. For a very, very long time to come, I hope. The rest of our lives, even.”
Dear Readers,
Hi! Thanks so much for checking out Picture This! I had a blast writing this, and I hope you enjoyed reading it.
It’s hard to believe it’s only been a little more than a year since Kensington published my first book, By Design. Since then, it’s been crazy hectic. Last year, I fired off one book after another—Unscripted came out only two months after By Design, and the first Marsden novel, Down on Love, only four months after that! But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I like to keep busy, and if I can get these characters out of my head and onto the page to share with others, so much the better!
Writing Picture This was a new adventure for me. If you’ve read my previous books, you’ll know that I tend to make each of them very different from the others, just for variety’s sake. That’s why By Design is set in a midsize city and features an insecure heroine, but Unscripted is set in the entertainment industry in LA—and main character Faith is anything but insecure! Then, after spending months in Southern California (only in my head, alas), I thought, “What’s the opposite of that?” The answer, of course, was a small town in the Catskills, and Marsden, NY, was born.
Staying in one place for two whole books, adding more details to Marsden and fleshing out all the characters in town, was a whole lot of fun, I have to admit. But I should take a moment to explain something: I’ve been asked often about Marsden and its residents—if the place is based on where I live and the people on my neighbors. I’m going to take this opportunity to clear that up!
- Yes, I live in a small village in New York State, but no, Marsden is not my village. Not at all! It is completely fabricated, although I pulled details for the setting from several New York towns: Oneonta (my beloved college town), Woodstock, Naples, and Saratoga Springs, as well as Amherst, Mass.
- I never include real people in any of my books, so no, the people of Marsden are not my real neighbors. Except for one. I’m not telling which one, but it’s a very minor character.
- One exception to my “no stealing from real life” rule: My village does get yarn bombed. The owner(s) of the yarn shop are the prime suspects, but nobody’s talking.
- My village is blessedly free of any arguments about wind farms, although if you travel a few miles away, where the hills get higher and the gusts are correspondingly stronger, the battle heats up. A lot.
Here’s one more bit of trivia from Picture This: Celia’s grandmother is named Holland Leigh as an homage to the way my son mispronounced some lyrics from “Puff the Magic Dragon”: Instead of Hanah Lee, he always sang “Holland Lee.”
That’s about it for now; hope to see you again sometime soon. Perhaps reading a third Marsden novel? We’ll see!
I love to hear from my readers. Please feel free to email me at: Jayne.Denker@gmail.com
Best wishes,
Jayne Denker
eKENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
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New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2014 by Jayne Denker
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
eKensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
First Electronic Edition: July 2014
ISBN: 978-1-6018-3287-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-60183-288-7
ISBN-10: 1-60183-288-5