Jacqueline C. Thomas - Romance Novelist

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The Lake Michigan Affair is Now Available!

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Today is the official launch day for the Lake Michigan Affair! The book is available on Amazon in paperback and Amazon Kindle. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the book over the past ten days. In case you missed the ten-day countdown, you can find the description of the book below:

Rosalie fell into her life, a life she didn’t want. She met Richard, her brilliant surgeon husband, and fellow Catholic as a teenager. One night in the back of Richard’s car, her fate was sealed, to be Mrs. Richard Russo. Her strong Catholic family, where faith dictates all actions, left Rosalie no other choice but to marry Richard, a man who she did not love.

Rosalie’s life looked perfect from the outside, the brilliant surgeon husband, a tight-knit Catholic community in Chicago, and friends. One evening in the halls of the Field Museum, she meets the man who will change her life forever, Catholic Bishop Sebastian Cole.

The Lake Michigan Affair is a story of a woman finding true love, learning who she is, attempting to flee an abusive marriage, and ultimately risking it all to be with the man she loves. Set in a tight-knit, Italian-American neighborhood on Chicago’s Northside, tradition, religion, and culture collide. The Lake Michigan Affair looks at love, not what it is supposed to be, but how raw and powerful it can be and the force it has on the lives of Rosalie’s community.

The Lake Michigan Affair Ten Day Countdown: Fact #5- I Wrote The Lake Michigan Affair as a Practicing Catholic

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I want to share this fact for a few different reasons because I think it is important information. I’m not the first romance writer to set a story between a member of the clergy and a parishioner; there’s the Priest Series by Sierra Simone, and The Original Sinners Series by Tiffany Reisz. I mention these two in particular because they were also written by self-professed Catholics. And while both books are graphic, super dramatic love stories that certainly push the envelope, they are done in a respectful(ish) manner.

In my telling of Rosalie and Sebastian’s story I wanted to tell a love story where hearts connect first. Sebastian struggles with his feelings for Rosalie, and the commitment he has for the Church. Rosalie deals with her own feelings in this book, having broken her marriage vows with no less than the Catholic Bishop of Chicago. I set out to create a love story that while sexy, is sweet and as respectful as one can be in this situation.

Without getting too personal, I also wanted to set Rosalie’s life in a more conservative religious setting. I wanted to show the perils that I witnessed of a woman’s lack of agency in more conservative religious settings. I witnessed this situation happen to countless friends who were pushed into marriage young, and then spent the next decade or so having children one right after another, sometimes not by their choosing, but led by their religion. I have countless friends who went through this only to realize in their mid-thirties, that the church had pushed them into their lives, and while they thought they had agency, their current situation was the cause a lifetime of indoctrination. In this community, I witness first-hand how the number of children one had determined social status.

While I witnessed first hand some of the ugliness and sexisim that is held within more conservative religious communities, I did not write this book as a cautionary tale or as some sort of vendetta. I simply wrote a love story about two human beings who fall in love with each other against some pretty significant challenges.

Cover Reveal: The Lake Michigan Affair

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There she is……

We all judge a book by its cover, it is one of the things that piques our interest to read the back of the book or the inside cover and find out more about the book. It’s that first image or illustration that calls to us. In romance it’s usually pretty easy to tell the subset of the genre (RomCom, RomFantasy, Period piece, etc.) from the cover. The cover is meant not only to set the mood to but give you a good idea of the book. That is what I’ve tried to do with the cover of The Lake Michigan Affair.

The priest’s collar represents Sebastian, the Catholic Bishop of Chicago. And yes, I know a Bishop usually wears something different but in the book this is what Sebastian wears (not sharing spoilers). Pivotal points of the book are set along the Lake Michigan shoreline near North Avenue Beach where this picture was taken.

I knew when I finished my first draft of this book that this is what I wanted this cover to look like. It is so wonderful to see it put together. I hope it piques your interest!

The release date for this book is set for April 14th, 2023.

It’s the Little Things

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A perfect Sunday, starts with a boozy, indulgent brunch, followed by an afternoon out in the sun with a good book, and then an evening with a nice glass of wine and jazz. It really is the simplest things that make me happy these days. If California has taught me anything so far it is to slow down, and live with intention. (Yes, you can insert your eye roll here). Our move out West came quickly, at breakneck speed. I’d just started my job search, was in the middle of writing a book, and settled when opportunity came knocking. I am so grateful I was wise enough to realize that opportunity may not come again, so I grabbed it and held on for dear life.

I drove across the country, and started our new life in California by myself. My husband stayed behind with our children and closed up our lives in Chicago. I spent almost four months by myself, for the first time in my life. I didn’t know another soul out here, but I kept going. I look back at that time now, and I am amazed that I made it though what was one of the most difficult, unbearably stressful, and grit riddled experience of my life. Don’t get me wrong, living in California, as wonderful as it is, (and yes it really is wonderful) has it’s challenges too. I try to remind myself, to slow down, take in the scenery, absorb as much as I can of this gorgeous place, after all it’s all just writer’s fodder.

I actually started a new romance book set in LA this past winter. I paused midway though to work on something else and have now come back to it. It’s the first novel that I’ve ever written that is set in LA. I could drone on about the importance of place, but I won’t. All I will say is that find a place that makes you happy and your creativity will flow. Slow down and take the time to savor life, experiences, tastes, friends, good books. You’ll be so much happier and so much more creative.

So here’s to the little things that bring happiness….

All at Once!

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Last week I posted an update about life, where I’ve been andy why it’s been a little quiet here on the blog.

Today I wanted to follow up on what I’m writing, and reading. Before I left from Chicago, I got a full manuscript request for a piece that I finished most recently named A Band-Aid Kind of Love. The tagline for it is:

Noelle’s running from a terrible dark family secret. Joe drives an Uber to flee from the nightmares from war. Neither are looking for love, but the chemistry is undeniable. When a horrific tragedy strikes, how do 2 broken people find their way through?

I was so busy with the move and life moving a million miles an hour that when the response came back, I wasn’t expecting it. Nor, was I expecting the answer which was not an outright no. The agent provided some suggestions, and said to circle back with another revision. Holy shit! So that’s what I did. In my crazy writer brain, I thought that changing the perspective from 3rd person to first person was how to incorporate the feedback, it wasn’t. I didn’t realize that until about 20K words in to the revision. This was a real facepalm moment, but a real eye opener too. I took a step back looked over the suggestions again, and got to work. It took me the better part of the summer, working on my lunch breaks, nights and weekends, while orchestrating a cross country move to get this revision finished. It took me longer to re-write the book than it did to originally write the damn thing in the first place, lol. BUT, what is there now is incredible. Taking that constructive feedback, and listening to it, the agent was so right. I reached out to resubmit the piece and I’ll let you all know how that goes. No matter what happens, this is a better book from this process, and changed how I write.

I also read a lot this summer during the move when my brain couldn’t actually form words and my fingers ached from typing. I read a lot of Colleen Hoover who is having a moment, Go CoHo! I also picked up an incredible series by Karina Hale, the first book is called Dirty Angel, about a woman who is kidnapped by a cartel in Mexico. This book is on fire. I found it at the Ripped Bodice in Culver City, Ca. I also read the Sinner Series by Seirra Simmone this past summer…woah! I think that series falls more into erotica, but it’s a wild ride.

As the holidays passed, our first in our new city, inspiration started to pop. I began working on a new project! I’m past the 40K word mark and it is going well. Interestingly enough though, right before the move I was working on a different project and I got stuck, like really stuck. With the move, I put it out of my mind. Then on Saturday afternoon, the song Claire and Eddie came on the radio by Kings of Leon. This song was the inspiration for this story. Just like that, the solution to the story, and the third act was there! I figured it out. I raced home, to tell my husband who, bless him, has learned to just go with inspired Jackie. There was only one hang up, I never jump from project to project. I am a one at a time kind of girl. But I couldn’t help myself. I figure if the idea is there, go for it. So I jumped projects for the first time ever and am finishing up last year’s book. Oh man, the romance in this one…. swoon worthy!

Eventually, I’ll get back on the querying bandwagon again, but while the muse is there and the words are flowing, this girl is going to keep writing!

I Finally Made it to Half Moon Bay!

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The View from David’s balcony…….

A few years back I wrote about the importance of place. I was reading my first work, Fat Tuesday by Sandra Brown while I happened to be visiting New Orleans. In my years of travels I’ve been able been lucky to experience the feeling and cultures of other cities and towns.

When I wrote my first novel, Sailing in Silicon Valley, I wrote about a place I’d never been to. I asked friends and family about the area and pieced what I could from the internet. As I did multiple re-writes I swore each time, that the next time it would be in Half Moon Bay, California, where a good part of the book is set. For a lot of reason, that didn’t happen.

So at the urdging of those around me I finally booked a trip to Jackie’s first book land. I rented an incredible Air B&B further down the coast, and set off for the land all things David and Naomi. Years back I’d traveled to the Napa by myself but it had been quite a while since I’d traveled alone. My week away was to decompress and relax after the two most stressful years of my life thus far.

I also wanted to make the most of being where my first book was set. I arrived late on a Sunday evening and as I drove south from the airport in San Francisco, I cut over to Highway 1 to cruise along the Pacific, and right through Half Moon Bay. I was driving where the characters in my book would drive. (Side note here: Yes, I know my characters are not real, but ask any other author about their characters and they’ll go on like they’re family members. It’s an author thing!) As I crested tall hills the sunlight was the most beautiful golden yellow color, and suddenly there was the Pacific Ocean. I had finally made it to Half Moon Bay!

As I drove, I tried to take in every little detail, and stay on the road at the same time. I was mesmerized to be somewhere I’d written about, researched, and discussed constantly as I wrote. Originally, I’d tried to stay in Half Moon Bay but it didn’t work out and I ended staying about an hour south of there at my own (rented) beach house on the coast.

I fell asleep each night to the sound of the ocean as my characters would have, and I walked on the beach like they would have. What an experience!

Falling asleep to moonlight over the ocean and waking to the waves at dawn.

I took one whole day and drove around Silicon Valley. I went to Apple because I think that is most like the company in the book. I had a fancy coffee in their gift shop, and then wandered around Stanford for a bit. I had a decadent lunch in Palo Alto. The whole thing was like living pages in the book and it was incredible.

Very Silicon Valley…. At Apple HQ

I’d love to gush on about how it recharged me as a writer, and I started or finished a new work, but the truth is… I wrote a little and nothing of consequence. But this trip wasn’t about that, it was about resting and recharging. I did however read an incredible romantic comedy, on the balcony overlooking the ocean. It was so good I read it in one day! The book is called The Optimist by Sophie Kipner. I seriously could not put it down. It is laugh out loud funny, and I usually am not a big romantic comedy reader but this one was a treat!

Reading snack with a view…. yes please!

I am currently querying, and looking for representation for Sailing in Silicon Valley. Not matter what happens, this book will always hold a special place in my heart because it was my very first novel. It will now hold a special place because it was the catalyst for this incredible experience. Seriously, if you have the opportunity to experience something like this, do it! I only wish I would have went while I was still re-writing.