All Bags Go to Cleveland by C.S. Hale

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Welcome to It's Raining Books. Any weird things you do when you’re alone?

Depends on who you ask. Writers would nod their heads and go, “I do that all the time.” I stay in my jammies unless I need to leave the house. I talk to myself. Um, other than that I think I do what most people do - watch TV, have a beverage or two.

What is your favorite quote and why?

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” Albus Dumbledore

I love this quote because it talks about courage and showing our heart. It doesn’t matter if you are as talented or as skilled as someone else. They may be letting their talent go to waste while you are pushing yourself ahead. It’s the scolding I would have expected the Hare to get in the story of The Tortoise and the Hare.

Who is your favorite author and why?

Can I take two authors to a desert isle?

In a way this is apros pro as my eldest son stopped by this summer, wanting to borrow the Harry Potter series. I may have given him all of them but Prisoner of Azkaban because I only had one copy and would have mourned its loss if it was never returned, and I may have lied to him about not finding it…

But if I could take just one author, I would take Katherine Kurtz. No other author has made such a huge impact on my life - who I am, my world view. I even named my oldest after two of her characters. I found her Deryni series just after I started Junior High. She had created a new genre, blending fantasy and history. I identified with the Deryni who were different (though I didn’t have their magic) and were persecuted, hiding who they truly were. The quote I almost went with was one of hers, “Humans kill what they do not understand.” I feel like Kurtz took who I was and spread it across page after page and not just with the 16 book Deryni collection. Pieces of me showed up in the Adept series and other books of hers, as well. Isn’t that why we enjoy the authors we do? We see ourselves, the pieces hidden and denied, in the pages of the book.

What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?

The most important, and most difficult to achieve, is the ability for the author to be invisible. The reader gets lost in the book and isn’t even conscious of turning the page. They are shocked when they look down and see that they’ve read a hundred pages or it’s now 1:30am and they were going to stop at 11pm. I had that happen to me with Stephanie Meyer’s The Host. I loved what she had done, how she had created such intense emotion in one scene, and I got it out to study it so I could try to do something similar in the scene I was writing. I was shocked when I stopped reading because instead of just that one scene, those three or four pages, I’d gone 100 pages beyond it. It’s the lucky author that can get everything perfect when they first start writing. You can learn all the rules but figuring out how and when to apply them is tricky. I needed more deep POV in Cleveland, where the character’s thoughts and impressions are on the page almost as if they are writing the story. My critique partner Bethany is a master at it, so I asked her what she does, how she approaches it, and she answered, “I just sink myself into the character and write what they are experiencing.”

But it’s not as easy as that. I picked a couple of paranormal rom com to read while I was working on Cleveland and there was so much deep POV, so many comments from the protagonist, in one that it interrupted my own reactions. I’d have to stop reading so I could finish my thought. Good writing knows when to add in that character response to deepen yours and when to keep silent because they already know what you will be thinking there.

Where did you get the idea for this book?

Cleveland was born at a writer’s conference where I was seated next to agent Andrea Brown’s husband. We had been talking travel and he asked, “Why is it that when your luggage is misdirected, it always goes to Cleveland? Why do all bags go to Cleveland?” I remember exactly where I was - driving in a roundabout - three days later when the answer hit me like a clap of thunder - gremlins. But in this case it was a blond bombshell of a gremlin who no one would suspect and she hated her powers.

Angela Grimalke appears more blonde bombshell than the gremlin she is. But there is no denying her supernatural truth after her clumsiness gets her fired from her modeling career. Forced to work for her family’s upscale airline, she spends her days slinging luggage and wishing her parents would get off her back about finding a nice gremlin guy to settle down with.

Relationships were the last thing on her mind, not that her family would accept that.

For Dave Ford his frequent business travel made it next to impossible for him to find a woman who could tolerate his chaotic schedule. Which is why he appreciates Angela. Neither of them are looking for love, but Dave feeds Angela's addiction for chocolate while she provides him with the chaos to keep him on his toes.

However, as Angela’s parents bombard her with a parade of "eligible" gremlin men at their weekly family dinners, she finds herself torn between who she longs to be and her family’s expectations. Will she give in and live the life of magic they want for her? Or risk it all by to confessing to Dave that she isn’t human?

Read an Excerpt

“You owe me.”

Angela glanced up from her computer screen. Dave Ford stood in front of her. The blood drained from her face. “Do I?” She raised her “helpful” smile.

“Yes.” Dave handed over his passport and put the Louis Vuitton garment bag on the scale. “Last time, you sent my bag to Cleveland.”

“The system isn’t perfect,” Angela said, punching Dave’s information into the computer. “Things do happen sometimes.”

“You control the system. I think you owe me a glass of wine for having to find a tailor at six a.m. I had a nine o’clock business meeting and just my jeans and sweatshirt.”

“Hmm. By that reckoning, I think I’d owe the tailor for having to get you a functional suit so quickly at that early hour.”

“I tipped him £100. Least you can do is buy me a glass of wine in return.”

Angela lifted her gaze. Dave—all six feet of him with his fabulous hair— had a hopeful expression on his face.

“I’m not in the habit of buying strange men alcohol.”

Dave stuck his hand out. “Hi. Dave Ford. Business traveler.” Angela laughed. “All I’m asking for is a glass of Malbec. Or maybe pinot noir. Small price to pay in comparison to my having to fight off jet lag via acupuncture.”

“Acupuncture?”

Dave shrugged. “It was early for the tailor. His aim wasn’t quite what it could have been.”

Angela dipped into Dave’s mind. The tailor had stabbed him a couple of times. And Dave was playing with her. He wanted to see what she’d do.

About the Author:Catherine “C.S.” Hale has been writing fantasy since she could hold a pencil. When not holed up in a comfortable corner writing all her books out by longhand, she can be found somewhere by the sea, enjoying tea and pastries.

Website: http://www.cshalebooks.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CatSHale
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorcshale

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FVDJL54

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