Author Spotlight: Sinclair Jayne Brings a Touch of Autumn Magic

I love it when my dear editor and fellow Tule author comes to visit. Sinclair Jayne is such a remarkable storyteller that any new book from her goes immediately onto my TBR. The Southern Love Spells series has kept me intrigued and delighted. I can’t wait to read A Kiss of Southern Magic, which releases today from Tule Publishing.

Sinclair Jayne has loved reading romance novels since she discovered Barbara Cartland historical romances when she was in sixth grade. By seventh grade, she was haunting the library shelves looking to fall in love over and over again with the heroes born from the imaginations of her favorite authors. After teaching writing classes and workshops to adults and teens for many years in Seattle and Portland, she returned to her first love of reading romances and became an editor for Tule Publishing. She has written and published over 25 novels. Married for over twenty-four years, she has two children, and when she isn’t writing or editing, she and her husband, Deepak, are hosting wine tastings of their pinot noir and pinot noir rose at their vineyard, Roshni, which is a Hindi word for light-filled, located in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Shaandaar!

Website | Facebook | Instagram | BookBub | Goodreads | Threads 

~*~*~*~

Thank you, Nan, for inviting me back to your Snippets Blog. I always have a fun time chatting about books and what inspires me to write a theme or character.

A Kiss of Southern Magic is book four in my Southern Love Spells series where I indulged myself writing a personal love letter to a place I have never lived but still feels somewhat like home. My series explores the relationship between the adult Maye sisters of Belmont, North Carolina. Belmont is a real town outside of Charlotte where my husband grew up after immigrating from India as a ten-year-old. During our marriage we traveled to Belmont at least a couple of times a year for visits and special events so I know the town well.

When I was brainstorming where to set my series, I could have chosen any southern state and made up a town, but I wanted to keep Belmont because for me it had such a strong sense of place, history and memories built from my twenty-eight years of regular visits to my in-laws. Many of the homes, neighborhoods, businesses, history and geographical features are real, and yet, I took a lot of license—especially with the Catawba and South Fork Rivers. And I probably moved Goat Island, and condensed the distance between Belmont, Cramerton, and McAdenville. Yes, I can read map, but I really wanted a river where the train tracks are, and since one of the fantastical parts of being an author is imagining myself with superpowers to world build and move things around, I had a blast.

Besides, (me trying to justify magicking geography), this series is my first exploration of magical realism (which is now trending as speculative fiction, but I prefer the former name—more romantic). I had so much fun creating the Maye history (based on an amalgamation of a few local families with deep roots), but I invented the family secrets and scandals—so all that’s on me because I love drama. I had a rather tame and sane childhood, but a melodramatic nature so I somehow want to traumatize my characters so that they can walk through fire and be gloriously strong, warm, and glowy as they chase their dreams and find their HEA.

What I loved so much about writing this series was exploring the dynamics between sisters who were close as kids, but drifted and now that they’ve come back together, they find a new way of being in their own skin and relating to each other. As I developed the series and wrote, I felt the closest to the youngest—Chloe, in A Taste of Christmas Magic, book one, and yet this last book—A Kiss of Southern Magic, which explores the eldest sister, pediatrician Sarah Maye’s new beginning and love story—was the easiest to write. I loved her calm elegance, her self owns, and her quiet strength. Hope you enjoy Sarah’s story!

GIVEAWAY! I always wanted a sister growing up so this series felt like a way to write a different past for myself.  Do you have siblings—were you close growing up and/or are you close now? A print copy of A Kiss of Southern Magic and a $10 SB card and some southern themed reader swag for a randomly chosen responder.

I hope you are enjoying autumn in your hometown—I love burnt orange, cinnamon, sienna, and almost any shade of yellow–and are happily gearing up for the holidays. Here’s a gorgeous shot of our vineyard, Roshni, as autumn takes over.

Thanks and My Very Best to You,

Sinclair Jayne

A Kiss of Southern Magic

She’s given up on love, but her matchmaking sisters have a scheme. He’s a single dad needing a fresh start and a touch of magic to help his little girl…

Pediatrician Sarah Maye moved back home to Belmont, North Carolina years after being widowed, but everything’s changed. Her family’s hit by scandal, her sisters are loved up, and her beloved grandmother has passed. Feeling isolated, Sarah searches for a new purpose—a way to honor their grandmother’s legacy of giving. When the man her sisters tried to set her up with enters her clinic holding his sweet daughter’s hand, Sarah grieves for all she’s missed.

Single dad and history professor Luke Raimy is new to town with a short-term contract and a burning determination to create stability for his daughter as he builds a meaningful career. He’s mortified when he arrives at his daughter’s wellness check to see the elegant woman whom he thinks recently hit on him.

The timing and so much more is wrong, but can a little girl and a possibly enchanted cook book make it right?

Kindle | B&N Nook | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play