About the Book

Book: Tracy: A Sweet, Quirky, Romantic Masterpiece (Book 6 of the Weather Girls Wedding Shoppe and Venue series. It can be read as a stand-alone.)

Author: Jennifer Lynn Cary

Genre: Sweet, Wholesome Romance (Retro)

Release date: October, 2024

Her heart can’t take more breakage…

…He’s been wounded enough

Yet they’re becoming best friends without ever having met.

Tracy Callahan has learned that relationships aren’t for her. The struggling glass artist puts up barriers to keep romantic entanglements from causing more pain. However, her feelings are growing for her roommate’s brother, despite having never seen him in person.

How can just his voice on the phone hold that much attraction?

Danny Mitchell left a large part of himself in Viet Nam and is learning how to navigate life back here in the states. It’s better to just avoid the public. As long as he doesn’t have to see anyone in person, he can pretend he’s his old self, and the caller on the other end of the phone won’t know the difference.

But Tracy is breaking through, resurrecting feelings he thought were dead and gone.

They might find a way to make a telephone relationship work. Unless meddling loved ones get involved.

When that happens, can Tracy and Danny’s friendship survive meeting face-to-face?

Or could there be something more than friendship in store for them? Maybe a God-designed masterpiece built from their broken parts?

Return to 1973 Kokomo, Indiana where the legend of the cardinal in the sycamore can still prove true love.

You will enjoy this sweet, quirky tale of hidden worth, because sometimes what we need is right in front of us.

Click here to get your copy!

Author Interview

1. What is your favorite part about writing?

That’s easy. Brainstorming. My writing friends have called me the idea queen. But I get energized talking about idea and what if’s and throwing everything, even the crazy stuff, at a seed of a plot. My problem isn’t too few ideas, it’s weeding them down. But doing that with friends? That’s the best.

2. Do you have a way to keep track of your story ideas?

Since my series is based on song titles from the 1960s and 70s with girls’ names in them, I probably have a method that doesn’t translate to other series. I didn’t start out to do it this way, but it sort of worked out. I made a list of all the songs I could find from the 60s and 70s with girl names and then marked the ones l thought would make good story titles. After the first couple (Judy in Disguise, Sylvia’s Mother) I noticed a cadence. So then I grouped the ones I liked so that every four has a similar rhythm, and I’m planning to eventually release them in boxed sets of four.

The first four would be the Class of ’72 (Judy in Disguise, Sylvia’s Mother, Runaround Sue, and Cracklin’ Rosie). The next four are just single names and boxed as the Class of ’73 (Ronnie, Tracy, Shilo, and Bernadette). Then the next four are phrases again labeled the Class of ’74 (Pieces of April, Take a Letter Maria, Walk Away Rene’, Julie Do You Love Me?) Though I have ideas and song titles to keep going for a long time, that’s twelve already, and I don’t want to get tired of it or start repeating plot twists. So, I might stop at that point. Keep in mind, I’ve only written through Shilo and plan to start Bernadette in the next week or so. I’m really projecting out here, and you know about man making his plans and all. 😉

3. How long does it usually take you to write a book?

When I first got started, I wrote all day every day. In 2020 I logged over half a million publishable words. I released six books and one box set that year. Fortunately, I’d banked a lot of drafts because 2021 turned out to be my nemesis. Starting with covid, then being diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, then a car accident that took the jaws of life to get me and my broken bones out, and all in a matter of six months. I had to put my writing aside. Just thinking became tough. It’s taken awhile, but now my goal is at least three books a year, four if I can swing it. If I work steadily, but don’t push myself to Craziville, I can finish a rough draft in about 6-8 weeks. That’s if the book is about 60,000 words. Moving up to 80,000 words might need another week or two. But I’ve learned to give myself grace. And others too. Life is what is going on while I’m trying to write and to be honest, it’s a little more important. I need to keep that in mind, give this looney business of ideas to God, and then trust He will help me get where I need to be when I need to be there.

4. Where do you get your ideas for your books?

Let’s just admit up front, I have a crazy and fertile imagination. Yeah. I can remember in grade school getting in trouble for daydreaming. But the teacher would say something that would trigger a thought and the next thing I knew, I was off on a totally different topic. It got embarrassing at times. Once, in high school Spanish class, my teacher was from Panama and was explaining that her husband didn’t speak Spanish, and she was learning English when they met. It confused me and I asked how they worked it out since her husband was also deaf. He wasn’t. I had dreamed that the night before. So realistically that I didn’t remember it was a dream until after I’d made a fool of myself.

So, yeah, that’s the first part of the answer.

But the second part is, I start with a 1960s or 70s song with a girl’s name in the title. All the titles in this and my previous series were also song titles containing a girl’s name. That becomes the title of my book.

Then I try to picture her. What’s she like? What are her strengths? Weaknesses? What is the lie she believes? How does she need to learn to trust God?

Then I get to set up her foil, er, hero. And I ask the same questions about him. Often the song lyrics will give me clues or ideas. Sometimes just the title can be enough inspiration.

I mentioned a book I want to write, Pieces of April. I love that song but what was it all about? I knew that it had something to do with memories. Then came the what ifs. What if he gets amnesia and has these flashes of a girl? What if the girl doesn’t look like the woman who says she’s his wife? How can I add humor and lightness to this?

Now I’ve got some ideas.

I need to write one more book before I can write that one, but the longer it stays floating around in my brain, the more ideas I have to start with.

5. Do bits of yourself/friends show up in your characters?

Always. Everything gets filtered through me, my experiences, my passions, how I understand the world around me. So, I can’t not reveal parts of me or others I’ve shared life with. However, I’m careful, especially when it comes to others, to change enough so that it doesn’t reveal anything personal.

About the Author

Historical Christian Romance author, Jennifer Lynn Cary, likes to say you can take the girl out of Indiana, but you can’t take the Hoosier out of the girl. Now transplanted to the Arizona desert, this direct descendant of Davy Crockett and her husband of forty plus years enjoy time with family where she shares tales of her small-town heritage and family legacies with their grandchildren. She is the author of The Crockett Chronicles series, The Relentless series, and The Weather Girls trilogy as well as the stand-alone novel, Cheryl’s Going Home, her novella Tales of the Hob Nob Annex Café, and her split-time novels The Traveling Prayer Shawl and The Forgotten Gratitude Journal. Her current spin-off series, The Weather Girls Wedding Shoppe and Venue, contains standalones with a common thread.

More from Jennifer

Have you ever met characters in a story that stayed with you, even when they weren’t the main characters? That’s what happened to me after I wrote Runaround Sue. Sue’s brother and her roommate seemed to hit it off so well, and I loved those characters.

It only made sense to give Tracy and Danny their own story.

However, I will confess that I had planned to make a character named Tracy because of the song, “Tracy” by the Cufflinks. It’s such a happy, bouncy tune and I thought that fit Sue’s roommate.

I do need to add that I relied on a childhood friend for some Danny’s antics. At one point I was told that something he did wasn’t possible. The problem was, I knew it was because my friend, Maureen McKay did that very thing. Maureen had a personality like Tracy’s and determination like Danny’s.

A few years ago I was back in Kokomo for a special wedding anniversary party. I noticed a guy sitting at a table and went to talk with him. At that time, I was combing faces for someone I’d known back when I went to school there. He had that look, but as we talked, it was obvious we didn’t know each other.

A little later I told my cousin about that, and she said that he was ahead of us in school, but he had a younger sister who would’ve been about my age. I knew immediately why he’d looked familiar. He was Maureen’s big brother.

I searched him and his mother out quickly and let them know I remembered Maureen. I mentioned a few of our escapades. Then I told them that my husband and I had lost a son, and that the kindest thing anyone could say was that they remembered our Ian. So, for that reason, I wanted them to know I remember Maureen.

And that’s why Tracy is dedicated to the memory of my friend Maureen McKay.