Janette Rallison & CJ Hill Books

You know how I suggested to my writer friends that we write a series of hot cowboy brothers romcoms–and then they (mostly meaning Melinda Carroll) took the suggestion seriously, and the next thing I knew, we were all traipsing around Bisbee doing research?

I admit it was the most fun I’ve ever had writing a book because my friends were involved and actually cared about my plot and characters. (Usually my friends and family get that glazed-eye look when I talk about my work in progress.)

Although, I still think it’s funny that we decided on cowboys (and I thought: This will take a lot of research, but if we’re all doing it, it will be easier) and then Melinda immediately said, “My brother left the ranch and is a banker.”

Ruth followed with, “My brother left the ranch and is a vet.”

Torsha said, “My brother does a lot of high adventure packages so I’ll mostly be writing about that.”

Kelly said, “I think my brother will be a teenager, in case I want to write my story as a young adult novel.”

And I was like: Wait, am I going to be the only one researching bull artificial insemination, sale lots, and how much profit you make per cow?

Yes, yes I was.

So after that series was done, Melinda said, “Let’s write a Christmas romcom Fake boyfriend series with sisters.”

I knew it was a little hard to make fake boyfriend plots work–because really, how many legitimate reasons are there for lying to your friends/family about having a boyfriend–but I love my friends, and it’s fun writing with them, so I said, “Sure.”

We came up with a terminally ill grandma whose greatest wish was to see her granddaughters in relationships and on their way to settling down.

And Melinda almost immediately said, “My sister refuses to have to have a fake boyfriend so my story will be about an office nemesis.”

Well played, Melinda. Well played.

But mine is about a fake boyfriend/fake fiancé. And it is funny, if I do say so myself. ( I know that sounds like bragging, but you have to realize that I never know if a book will be funny when I sit down to write it. I just have to hope that along the way, magic happens and my brain comes up with something funny.)

If you would like to be on the review team–meaning I send you a free copy and you agree to review it on Amazon–let me know. The review doesn’t have to be that long. Amazon accepts a couple of sentences. The review doesn’t have to be five stars. It should be your honest opinion.

Email me at jrallisonfans at yahoo.com and give me your email address.

Here’s the working blurb

One little lie can spin so wildly out of control.

Scarlet’s grandmother wants her to bring her boyfriend home for what may be her grandmother’s last Christmas. Which wouldn’t be a problem…if Scarlet actually had a boyfriend.

Scarlet’s sister came up with a bit of fiction about all of them having boyfriends in order to make Grandma happy and is prepared to provide a fake boyfriend for Scarlet. She’d totally pass, but her cousin Jane is bringing her boyfriend too—Scarlet’s ex.

Yeah. Her rich, arrogant, all too sure of his own charms, ex-boyfriend. That guy.

There’s no way she’s showing up solo to face him.

Scarlet is stuck, last-minute, with Liam, a man she’s never met and knows nothing about.

Maybe it’s Liam’s extreme hotness that muddles Scarlet’s mind, but she has a hard time keeping certain facts straight—like his profession, and the fact that he’s not really her boyfriend, so she’s not supposed to kiss him.

And not keeping her story straight will land her and Liam in all sorts of trouble.

An Unexpected Boyfriend for Christmas is a sweet, romantic comedy that will have you laughing, swooning, and turning pages. Also, it will make you want to hug your grandmother. You should do that.

I decided that one way to deal with the Godmothered situation is to get my series out to more people, so I’m making all three books free for three days. Here are the descriptions and the links.

An incompetent fairy godmother. What could go wrong?

Some girls steal their sister’s clothes. Savannah’s sister steals her boyfriend. Yea, that was a really bad day.

After such a dramatic breakup, Savannah needs a true prince–and fast, because the prom is only weeks away.

But looking for love can be a Grimm experience.

Enter Chrissy (Chrysanthemum) Everstar: Savannah’s gum-chewing, cell phone–carrying, high heel-wearing Fair Godmother. Showing why she’s only Fair―because she’s not a very good fairy student―Chrissy sends Savannah back in time to the Middle Ages, first as Cinderella, then as Snow White.

Being a fairy-tale princess is so not what it’s cracked up to be.

Finally, Chrissy sends Tristan, a cute guy in Savannah’s class, to the Middle Ages to turn him into her prom-worthy prince.

He and Savannah must team up to defeat a troll, a dragon, and the mysterious and undeniably sexy Black Knight.

Laughs abound in this clever fairy tale twist from a master of romantic comedy. Start this bingeworthy series today!

Click here to get My Fair Godmother free!

Be careful what you wish for—at least when your fairy godmother is in training.

Tansy Miller has always felt that her divorced father has never had enough time for her. But mistakenly getting caught on the wrong side of the law wasn’t exactly how she wanted to get his attention.

That trip down to the prison was really not her best moment.

Enter Chrysanthemum “Chrissy” Everstar, Tansy’s all-too-teenage fairy godmother. Chrissy is still training, so Tansy’s three wishes don’t exactly go according to plan.

And if mistakenly bringing Robin Hood to the twenty-first century isn’t bad enough for Tansy, being transported back to the Middle Ages to deal with Rumpelstiltskin certainly is.

That fairy tale is so much creepier when it’s happening to you.

Tansy will need the help of her blended family, her wits, and especially the cute police chief’s son to stop the gold-spinning story from spinning wildly out of control.

With romance, magic, and suspense, My Unfair Godmother is the sort of laugh-out-loud, feel-good fairy tale that both teen girls and their mothers will love. (In other words, hide it from your daughter until you’re finished…)

Click here to get My Unfair Godmother for free

A fairy godmother can be a dangerous thing.

Some people bomb singing auditions. Sadie throws up on live TV during hers. So yeah, there’s no way she’ll ever be able to face strangers again, let alone the people at her high school.

Her performance on America’s Top Talent is so bad it earns her a fairy godmother through the Magical Alliance’s Pitiful Damsel Outreach Program. Enter Chrissy (Chrysanthemum) Everstar: Sadie’s gum-chewing, cell phone–carrying, high heel-wearing fairy godmother to save the day—or perhaps make it even more horrible.

Wishes are, after all, unpredictable things.

Sadie finds herself thrown back in time to be first the Little Mermaid and then one of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Wishes are permanent, and if Sadie wants to get back to her home, she’ll have to strike a magical bargain—one that involves stealing a goblet from a powerful fairy queen.

Worse yet, Sadie has competition from a handsome thief with an invisibility cloak. He may not only steal the goblet, he may make off with her heart too.

This laugh-out-loud fairy tale retelling combines romance, suspense, and magical twists that will make readers wish they had their own fairy godmother. (Or at least the hot guy in the story. Don’t accept a fairy godmother. Just don’t.)

Click here to get My Fairly Dangerous Godmother for free

Just wanted to let you all know that my book The Cowboy and the Girl Next Door will be available for preorder in a few weeks. (Due out May 1st) And no, that picture isn’t the cover. My author friends and I are currently involved in an epic quest that may involve making our attractive acquaintances pose for pictures next to horses.

Seriously, the world of cowboy photos is bleak.

My writer’s group had finished and a few of us lingered on way past the time we should have gone home. (Just like every month.) This month we were bemoaning the fact that our various books with complicated plots were so hard to write and yet got us no respect from agents/editors/readers.

“We should all just write a series of hot cowboys,” I said. “Readers love hot cowboys.” (Something readers and I have in common.)

“We could have a family of brothers and all write one brother’s story,” someone suggested.

And Melinda–I remember it was her–said, “Okay. Let’s do it.” Then she started planning a trip to Bisbee for the next month so we could all get a start on our stories.

And I was like: Wait, I was just complaining. I didn’t mean to start a new series. 

But of course, I didn’t say that, because I was the one who suggested it in the first place. And besides, it sounded fun.

I knew writing a book where the main characters were ranchers would take research, but all books do, so I wasn’t that concerned because I was going to have my friends there to help me research. We would learn together.

When we got to Bisbee, Melinda announced that her brother worked at a bank and only did the ranch’s books on the weekends–thus getting out of researching things like how to deliver a calf and figuring out when you plant alfalfa. Ruth declared that her brother was a vet. Thus abandoning the other brothers right out of the shoot.

By the way, my brother, Landon, has not forgiven Ethan for abandoning the ranch and only forgives Dillon, Melinda’s brother, because he comes home on weekends and thus can have dialog with my characters for part of the time.

Jaxon, Torsha’s brother, we all agree is the most fun character. Think wise-cracking-playful-scoundrel. I’m not sure why he ends up with all the good lines in everyone’s novels, but he does. We all love Jaxon. My book is the first in the series and I’m a little afraid readers are going to like Jaxon better than Landon.

But anyway, that is why I’m researching subjects like whether you’re supposed to leave bulls in with your herd for year-round breeding (they call it servicing, just in case you want to throw around some rancher lingo) or whether it is better to breed for only a three-month window so you have all your calves in the spring. I spent an entire evening reading the pros and cons about that.

I know about sale barns, feedlots, the benefits of AI, obscure breeds of cattle that are more desert resistant–Criollo. (But none of the ranchers seem to carry them. Don’t ask me why.) the problems with newer model tractors (You can’t fix them yourself because of the computer software and it’s ridiculously expensive to have your tractor towed to a dealer) grazing rates, water pumps, the process of fixing a fence, how much one of those circular bales of hay weighs (800 lbs) and two different ways to castrate bull calves.

And I’ve still only scratched the surface.

I’ve got a lot of details to fill in still. That said, the book is coming along great. I’m almost done with the first draft.

Is there life after Slayers? Well, my kids are still buying me dragon things for Christmas, so maybe not. (And I still need to tweak some typos/little things in several of the books, so it still doesn’t feel like I’m done.) But I’ve had grandkids here since mid-December so I’m not getting a lot done. (I’m using my storytelling skills playing LOL dolls with my granddaughter, though.)

But I do have 100 pages done on a cowboy romance. So there’s that to look forward to. Just saying.

Oh yeah, and my son has a book coming out on March 17th and I’ve been helping him with that. The book is adorable, and it will sell way more copies than mine. No really, these are happy tears I’m crying.