I’m so excited about the release of my new book, EVERY OTHER NEW YEAR’S EVE.  This is the first in a new series, the “Any Time Now” trilogy.  Each love story in this series is going to be complicated by an element of … oh, let’s call it “time magic.”

In the first book, Paige meets Will on December 31st in a bar she’s never noticed before—which is odd since she lives less than a mile away.  It’s a great place, but it doesn’t make much sense.  People are wearing fashions from bygone decades and there’s not a song on the jukebox after 1979. Somehow, though, this quirky venue is the perfect place to fall in love – too bad it only exists every two years on New Year’s Eve.

As I was writing all the scenes that take place in this magical place, I kept hearing the jukebox songs in my head.  Naturally, I had to create a Spotify playlist for the soundtrack of the bar—and the book.

So here, my friends, is a little something for you.  Play it this New Year’s Eve with a glass of bubbles. 

EVERY OTHER NEW YEAR’S EVE Playlist

Feels Like the First Time – Foreigner

Bad, Bad Leroy Brown – Jim Croce

Dreams – Fleetwood Mac

You’re The First, The Last, My Everything – Barry White

Let’s Stay Together – Al Green

Paradise By the Dashboard Light – Meat Loaf

Disco Inferno – The Trammps

All Out of Love – Air Supply

Let’s Get It On – Marvin Gaye

Knock Three Times – Tony Orlando & Dawn

I Will Always Love You – Dolly Parton

About the Author.

There are only three things Michelle Dayton loves more than sexy and suspenseful novels: her family, the city of Chicago, and Mr. Darcy. Michelle dreams of a year of world travel — as long as the trip would include weeks and weeks of beach time. As a bourbon lover and unabashed wine snob, Michelle thinks heaven is discussing a good book over an adult beverage.

Shelli Stevens’ CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AND COWBOY NIGHTS is out now! Check out her Pinterest board and Playlist below:

Shelli’s playlist:

1. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? by Nancy Wilson
2. When You Say Nothing by Alison Krauss
3. Ready to Run by Dixie Chicks 
   
4. White Christmas by Celtic Woman
   
5. Don’t You Wanna Stay by (with Kelly Clarkson)
   
6. Purple Snowflakes by Marvin Gaye
   
7. She Don’t Break by Josh Abbott Band
   
8. Cowboy Take Me Away by Dixie Chicks
   
9. Peter Pan by Kelsea Ballerini
   
10. Just a Kiss by Lady Antebellum
    
11. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Diana Krall
    
12. I Could Use a Love Song by Maren Morris
    
13. Love Is Looking for You by Miranda Lambert
    
14. Stand by Rascal Flatts
    
15. Forever And For Always by Shania Twain
    
16. You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift
    
17. Wide Open Spaces by Dixie Chicks

Shelli is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author who read her first romance novel when she snatched it off her mother’s bookshelf at the age of eleven. One taste and she was forever hooked. It wasn’t until many years later that she decided to pursue writing stories of her own. By then she acknowledged the voices in her head didn’t make her crazy, they made her a writer.

Shelli is a true pluviophile (lover of rain) and currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters. She writes various genres of romance, but is most known for her contemporary series such as Holding Out for a Hero, The McLaughlins, and A is for Alpha. She’s a compulsive volunteer, and has been known to spontaneously burst into song.

Can I tell you a secret? Writing is…well, personal. If you’ve read any of my books then I’d say you got to know me, the writer, a little better. How, you ask? Of course there’s my voice. That’s what’s on the page, but there’s also what inspires me, what I’m interested in and maybe a little (thematically) of what I’m going through. Things like fighting injustice, the healing power of love, finding courage and creating family where you find it…all of these ideas and the exploration of them have wound through my books and continue to evolve, just like I do.

My new series, Band of Brothers, definitely falls into that ‘creating family’ category for me, because soldiers (ie: these former Navy SEALS) who go to war together are bonded like family ever after—but they’re not actually family. But they are. Know what I mean? Yet, once their service is over, what then?  That’s what really interested me. How do they heal and pull their lives together afterward? Find each other again? Maybe more importantly, find love? It’s no coincidence that the idea for this series came up for me just after my husband and I made a major move across country to be closer to our grandkids and found ourselves leaving behind the familiar, starting over and facing the challenging prospect of making new friends and a home in a new place.

Also, right about the time I was plotting this book, I watched (for the hundredth time) Audrey Hepburn’s classics, Roman Holiday and the fabulous Breakfast at Tiffany’s, (because you can never watch them enough) and I suddenly knew I wanted to write a twist on these two stories of secrets, hidden identities and the longing to fit in somewhere. And if you look for it, you’ll find my current favorite theme in both of these movies. Never seen them? Gasp! Please, put them on your must-watch list. You’ll thank me later.

The hero of my new book, ROAD TO YOU, is Noah Mathis—a bit of a mystery even to his brothers. Never one to fit in completely, he made a choice long ago and has to live with the consequences of that choice now. He’s got secrets. In Marietta, Montana for the wedding of one of the brothers, Noah’s accidental encounter with journalist-at-loose-ends, Gemma Wade, will turn his secrets upside down and change both of them forever. And while there’s no actual runaway princess in this book, rest assured, there is definitely a happily ending. And maybe…a cat.

This Band of Brothers series is really hitting me in the feels and I hope it’s doing the same for you. Like the town of Marietta with its wonderful people, this group of ex-warriors are family to each other. With each book we are learning more about what makes them tick.  So please, pull up a chair, grab a cup of tea and enjoy!

Because the Rascal Flats song “The Broken Road” was another inspiration for this book, I thought you might want a soundtrack to hum along to. So, here’s the playlist that inspired me:

The Broken Road – Rascal Flats

**O (Fly On) — Coldplay**

Arrival of Birds & Transformation — The Cinematic Orchestra

Theory of Everything (Soundtrack)

Home– Passenger

Fix You—Coldplay

Yellow – Coldplay

Thinking Out Loud  — Ed Sheeran  (and basically, anything else by him)

Take Your Time — Sam Hunt

A Thousand Years– Christina Perri

All of Me—John Legend

One Day We Had Today – piano

Moon River –  Andy Williams

Barbara Ankrum has a thing for the West and has written both historical and contemporary romances, all set in that magical place. Twice nominated for RWA’s RITA Award, her bestselling books are emotional, sexy rides with a touch of humor. Barbara’s married and raised two children in Southern California, which, in her mind, makes her a native Westerner.

Books start in different ways, for me at least. Sometimes it’s a single situation or scene, and I have to build both up to it and down after it. Sometimes it’s an exchange of dialogue that pops into my head and I have to know who these people are and how they came to the point where this exchange happens. Sometimes it’s an image, a still or in video, that sparks something. Sometimes it’s hearing something said; I once got an entire book out of a conversation between a mother and her young son in the produce aisle of a grocery store.

But the one thing all of them have in common is music. Songs had always inspired stories, but it was somewhat belatedly in my career that I discovered that a “soundtrack” helped my mind set. And when I began writing more than one book at a time, that soundtrack became essential; it was the main thing that could shift my mind from one world to another. In the case of Whiskey River Rockstar, I already knew my heroine, Zee Mahan, from the previous books. But Jamie Templeton was a bit more elusive, and took some searching.

My actual writing music has to be instrumental, otherwise I end up tangled in the words of the lyrics instead of my own words. But the other songs set the mood, or define the character, or convey the whole feeling of the story I’m trying to tell, and I spend a lot of time with those songs until the book is done. In Whiskey River Rockstar, obviously given the title, music played an even more important part. Fortunately for me, I’ve long had a fondness for Texas Blues music before I even knew it was A Thing. But Jamie kept throwing a little more country rock into the mix, and when all was said and done I had a very interesting playlist for this book, which I’d like to share with you.

When I started thinking about this particular story, the first song that came to mind was one written by the inimitable and much missed Texan (Turner) Stephen Bruton, and performed here by someone who’s walked that road, my friend Hal Ketchum. If “Too Many Memories” doesn’t reach you, you need a break. From the opening that could be words spoken by my hero to the couplet “What makes you grow old, is replacing hope with regret,” that sums up life in ten words, this song personifies this story of a guy who chased one dream, but lost another.

Also, you can’t talk about this kind of music without mentioning the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn and Edgar Winter and others. But for me, my first taste of it was Delbert McClinton, and his joyous “Every Time I Roll the Dice.”

Once I had that set in my mind, I needed Jamie himself. I knew his mind, his heart, but what did he look like? How did he move, on stage and off? Did he talk to the audience? Joke with them? Flirt? I found those answers in, perhaps oddly, in a guy born halfway around the world from Texas: Keith Urban. The moment I hit this first video, I knew I had my rockstar. But I kept going through the others because one after the other, in my mind’s eye they were Jamie Templeton in look and voice. I confess it took me a while to narrow it to songs that represented the story in some way; Keith is so much fun to watch. And so here’s the rest of the playlist:

And for fun a live one:

Now that you know the genesis of the book, I hope you’ll enjoy the return to Whiskey River and Jamie and Zee’s story!

Author of more than 70 books, (she sold her first ten in less than two years) Justine Davis is a five time winner of the coveted RWA RITA Award, including for being inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame. A fifteen time nominee for RT Book Review awards, she has won four times, received three of their lifetime achievement awards, and had four titles on the magazine’s 200 Best of all Time list. Her books have appeared on national best seller lists, including USA Today. She has been featured on CNN, taught at several national and international conferences, and at the UCLA writer’s program.

After years of working in law enforcement, and more years doing both, Justine now writes full time. She lives near beautiful Puget Sound in Washington State, peacefully coexisting with deer, bears, a pair of bald eagles, a tailless raccoon, and her beloved ’67 Corvette roadster. When she’s not writing, taking photographs, or driving said roadster (and yes, it goes very fast) she tends to her knitting. Literally.

Want to hear the playlist that inspired author Kasey Lane to write Punk Rock Cowgirl? Listen below on the official Spotify playlist!

1. Wild Love – Elle King
2. Come Over – Sam Hunt
3. Broken People – Logic, Rag’n’Bone Man
4. My Love – Major Lazer, WizKid, Dua Lipa
5. Here Comes My Girl – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
6. Comeback Story – Kings of Leon
7. Never Be Like You – Flume, Kai
8. Come Unto Me – The Mavericks

For the entire Punk Rock Cowgirl Spotify playlist, visit:

http://spoti.fi/2FpEW3I

You can either click on the image below or listen to the playlist here.

1. Do That To Me One More Time by Captain & Tennille

2. Say You Won’t Let Go by James Arthur

3. Trashy Women by Confederate Railroad

4. Let’s Dance by David Bowie

5. Hey Pretty Girl by Kip Moore

Paula Altenburg lives in rural Nova Scotia, Canada, with her husband and two sons. Once a manager in the aerospace industry, she now enjoys working from home and writing fulltime. Paula writes fantasy and paranormal romance, as well as short contemporary romance.