A warm welcome to Mary Calmes visiting us today to talk about her new release “Forging your Furture”

Mary talks to us about the importance of a best friend and she also offers a fantastic giveaway!

Welcome Mary 🙂

Jin’s best friend and why it was important

Everybody needs a best friend, some more than others. I’ve been blessed in my own life to have a small circle of wonderful ones and a few that have been with me for 30 years, (which reveals more about my age than I’d like), but it’s the truth. They’ve been there for the ups and downs and without them; I’d have been in trouble. I think it’s so important for all my character to have that one person they can turn to, who will offer them a hand up while also being honest when needed. With that said, I think the one character who needed a best friend the most would be my werepanther, Jin Church.

When I first created my werepanther world I wanted to make sure that I still had the idea of fated mates but I also wanted them to be as real as possible even though they were paranormal creatures. That meant that real-life cat dynamics couldn’t be ignored. Big cats don’t mate for life and so because of that, I needed a way to make sure that Jin, and Logan (the semel, the yang to the yin that is the reah), would have a reason to be life-mates while still being cats. So because only the semel and reah were special, the world would still be full of regular cats but I got to preserve the best of the shifter tropes.

Because my main character was so special, I originally felt that he would be a loner, in his own head, without anyone else. When I wrote the first chapter of Change of Heart back in 2009, it was all in Jin’s mind: his loneliness, his man-pain, (as Tere Michaels calls it), his choices and his memories. But the more I wrote, the more I realized that it was first, a gigantic info dump, and second, he could not be as ready to love and trust if there was not someplace that he had been treated to that in his life. And it wasn’t enough that he has been treated well as a child, it still needed to be with him. He needed a friend.

When I gave Jin his best friend Crane Adams, he received a person who called him on his bullshit, who supported him completely, who protected and loved him and who was more than anything else, loyal. It was also important for me to have Jin’s best friend love him but to have never been in love with him. Crane and Jin have a bromance, but never anything more. But they have to love each other dearly as over the course of the series some decidedly horrible things have happened to Crane. On the flip side, he’s has had a ringside seat for all the excitement and without Jin; he never would have found the love of his life, Yusuke. I know Crane would certainly say that being the best friend of Jin Church has been a privilege. Let’s hear it for having a best friend through thick and thin.

TITLE: Forging the Future

SERIES:  Change of Heart #5

AUTHOR: Mary Calmes

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 180 pages

BLURB:

Jin Church is back where he started, alone, wandering, and uncertain of his path. It’s not by choice but by circumstance, as he remembers he’s a werepanther… but not much else. He knows one thing for sure—he needs to find the beautiful blond man who haunts his dreams.

Logan Church is trapped in a living hell. His mate is missing, his tribe is falling apart, and he’s estranged from the son he loves with all his heart. His world is unraveling without his mate by his side, and he has no one to blame but himself.

If Jin can regain his memory and Logan can overcome the threats to his leadership, then perhaps they can resume their lives. The question is: Is that what they want? Back to the same house, the same tribe, the same troubles? They can choose from various roads leading to their future… or they can forge their own path.

Check out Amber’s review on Forging the Future HERE!

Mary Calmes lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband and two children and loves all the seasons except summer.

She graduated from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, with a bachelor’s degree in English literature.

Due to the fact that it is English lit and not English grammar, do not ask her to point out a clause for you, as it will so not happen.

She loves writing, becoming immersed in the process, and falling into the work. She can even tell you what her characters smell like.

She loves buying books and going to conventions to meet her fans.

www.marycalmesbooks.com/

www.marycalmesauthor.com

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/index.php?cPath=55_191

Mary graciously is giving away a copy of Forging the Future to one Lucky reader!

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