SEELIE KAY: Postcards from The Ledge: This week in The Loft: Author Janina Grey!

Joining me today in The Loft is contemporary romance author Janina Grey. By day, Janina guides domestic and sexual assault survivors down their path of healing and empowerment. In the wee hours of the morning, she hunkers down at her childhood writing desk, music streaming through her earbuds, as she brings her characters to life and creates their happily-ever-afters. Janina and her husband reside in a 113-year-old Mohawk Valley (NY) farm house with a few resident spirits and a very squawky murder of crows.

Author Janina Grey

S: Thanks for joining me today, Janina!

Why write romance?

J: I write romance to give people hope. To bring love into their lives. To give people an escape from all of the horrific headlines of domestic violence, murder, war, shooting, famine, drought, fires, flooding. The more love we bring into the world, the less room there is for sadness and sorrow and the more reason there is to keep believing love conquers all.

S: What attracted you to your current partner?

J: Ohhh, everything. My husband was conjured up during a night of full moon magic. He heard my call from across the miles and found me. Within a few weeks of getting to know one another as friends, I fell hard for his intense blue eyes, his laughter, his intelligence and nerdiness, his quiet strength, his soul-stealing kisses, his Pagan Spirit, and unquenchable desire to bring me happiness. I could go on and on, but you get it, right? All that made me realize that he was without a doubt absolutely and positively my ultimate happily ever after and one true love.

S: Wow. He sounds like an amazing man!

Do you have a "the one who got away story?"

J: My first love was my high school sweetheart. He was a year older than me, and I thought for sure he was "the one." After graduation, he went into the Navy and I went off to college. We promised to wait for one another. After all, it was only four years of waiting, right? But life has other plans. We lost touch, but I always held him close in my heart. We met again later in life, after my first husband and I had split. By then we realized we had grown into two very different people and there would be no way to work things out. We've stayed friends, checking in with one another periodically--especially around our birthdays--and that's a good thing.

S: It's wonderful that you had the chance to revisit the past and resolve the "what if?" Most people don't get that chance.

If you had to do it all over again, would you still choose to write books?

J: Absolutely. If I had any idea I could be as successful as I've already been, I would not have listened to the people who told me it was a silly hobby. I would not have put the business aspect of my writing career on hold for 20 years. I would have devoted every waking breath to selling the manuscripts that hid in boot boxes on my closet shelves collecting dust all that time.

S: I sometimes wonder how many great books are sitting in closets because the writers never received the support they needed.

What inspires your stories?

J: Besides my unquenchable need to prove love conquers all, my life inspires me to write my stories. Snippets of things that have happened to me to show up in one form or another in my books. Hearing other people's stories, and the relationships I've had--good and bad--all play into my make-believe worlds.

S: I think including bits of our own life experiences in characters and stories is unavoidable. However, I always find it amusing when someone thinks I based a character on them. They're always wrong.

What inspired "Love in the Forest?"

J: My first contemporary romance, "Ten Bucks and a Wish," was about to be released and my publisher asked me if I had anything else. I told her I had a paranormal/time travel story, a reincarnation love story, and a historical western romance. She wanted another contemporary romance. That weekend, while I was away at a writer's retreat, I locked myself in my room, pulled out my deck of Tarot--which I bring wherever I go--and plotted the entire book. The main characters, back story, every single chapter. And for the most part, I stuck to it. It was the best thing I have ever written to date, rivaled only by Book 2 of my Earth and Sky series, "Life is for Living," which is due out in 2022.

S: Is there anything special you would like people to know about "Love in the Forest?"

J: "Love in the Forest," Book 1 in the Earth and Sky series, is a contemporary romance with a pagan/paranormal twist. Brooke Meadows is a practicing witch--although she is still in the "broom closet"--who uses communication with the dead to heal loved ones struggling with their grief. This book hints at what life is like as a real witch, not the Hollywood version. There are no demon battles or fire shooting from her fingertips. She's down to earth, hardworking, loving, and kind. She just likes to dance and drum around a campfire under a full moon. But then again, don't we all feel like that from time to time?

Here's the blurb--

Step into the mystical and magical forests of Upstate New York, where Earth and Sky camp photographer Brooke Meadows has taken refuge from the demons of her past as she uses her ability to communicate with the dead to heal loved ones left behind.

Unable to cope with the loss of his wife and daughters three years prior, Josh Quinn, CEO of the number one dating site Quirkyflirt.com, is ordered by his board president to take a break from his Big Apple Headquarters. He finds himself at Earth and Sky Retreats, where confronting his grief has led him to experience a life-altering transformation and re-evaluation of reality.

Will Josh leave behind his fast-paced, high society life in the concrete mountains of New York City, for the magical, bewitching world Brooke reveals to him in the foothills of the Adirondacks?

Will Brooke acknowledge and accept her own journey of transformation and healing as she and Josh explore the winding paths and summits that lead them to find love in the forest?