{Blog Tour & Giveaway} The Traveling Man (Traveling #1) by Jane Harvey-Berrick (@JHarveyBerrick)

Title: The Traveling Man (Traveling, #1)

Author: Jane Harvey – Berrick

Release Date: January 27, 2015

Genre: Contemporary Romance

I was ordinary. Nice. He was extraordinary. And he wasn’t always nice.

Moody and difficult, brilliant and beautiful, Kes scared me and he protected me. He could be incredibly hurtful and incredibly thoughtful. He wasn’t perfect, but he was perfect for me. He challenged me, he took me out of my safe little box and showed me the world could be magnificent. He was everything I wasn’t.

Aimee Anderson is ten when the traveling carnival first comes to her nice little town. She doesn’t expect her world to change so completely. But meeting Kestrel Donohue puts her life on a different path.

Even though she only sees him for the two weeks of the year when he passes through her home town, his friendship is the most important of her life. As a child’s friendship grows to adult love, the choices become harder, and both Kes and Aimee realize that two weeks a year will never be enough.

Aimee Anderson always dreamed of a life more colorful than her own.  She thought that all of her wishes had come true when the carnival finally comes to her dreary hometown in rural Minnesota.  With its bright lights and cheerful sounds, it thoroughly intoxicated her. But the boy she encountered there with the torn jeans and silver eyes would haunt her forever.

“To me, the carnival promised a world of magic. I’d never been anywhere in my life, never even left Minnesota. But carnie people, they had homes with wheels and could go wherever they wanted. They weren’t stuck in a small town, dreaming of the world beyond.”

Kestrel was born to be a performer.  He can fly through the air, breathe fire and bring a crowd to its knees – but Aimee can see the vulnerable boy beneath all of the bravado.

Torn apart by circumstance, when they finally find each other again their passion quickly engulfs everything around them.  But they are no longer the carefree children that they once were. Can they ever find a way to turn their summer love into one that lasts forever?

“Do you know what I dream about? My dream would be to die looking at the lights on the Ferris wheel. When I get old, when my body has given up, that’s what I want to see. And in that dream, you’re standing next to me.”

Tears rose in my eyes. I’d been trying to get closer to him my whole life. Was he finally letting me in, just as I was leaving?

The Traveling Man is a feast for the senses!  I was immediately drawn into Aimee’s world and experienced everything right along with her.  I felt her longing, her passion, her devastation and her conflict. 

Jane makes it so easy to fall head over heels for Kestrel (Love that name!) and all of his dark moods.  He is honestly one of her best heroes yet and after this story, the next installment – The Traveling Woman – is now one of my most anticipated books of 2015…

Exclusive Excerpt - 

Kes returned a minute later with Brian’s BMX. According to Jen, it had been her ex-husband’s early mid-life crisis gift to himself, but one that he hardly ever used.

Kes adjusted the seat to accommodate his longer legs, then left it resting against a tree. Then he levered off his boots and socks, and whipped off his t-shirt.

Every set of female eyes was focused on him, and I wasn’t the only one who had to reel in my tongue.

The whip-tight body he’d had as a teenager had morphed into something amazing. You could count every muscle of his abdomen, which I did twice, because I lost count the first time. The V-shaped ridge that disappeared into his low slung jeans was advertised by a line of dark hair pointing down from his navel. Then he stretched his arms above his head, making his muscles dance and ripple. When he rotated his hips, I wasn’t the only one having a hot flash.

Obviously these were his warm-up exercises, but honestly it was the closest thing I’d ever come to watching porn.

Jennifer seemed to agree.

“Holy shit!” she whispered. “To think that you’ve slept with that!”

“Believe me,” I hissed out of the corner of my mouth, “he was hot as a teenager, but now…”

I was lost for words, but I think Jen understood because she nodded, following his every movement from behind her sunglasses.

“He moves like a dancer,” she sighed. “It’s a waste having him covered up in leathers all the time when he’s riding his motorcycle.”

I had to agree.

Kes wandered over smiling. He looked happy and relaxed; very different from the tense, angry man I’d met again less than a week ago.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” he said. “Those kids look like a tough audience.”

I laughed. “Tell me about it. Sometimes third grade is more like crowd control than teaching.”

“I’ll need my assistant for this show,” he reminded me with a wink.

He held out his hand, and I could have sworn that I heard my sister sigh.

Kes strode to the center of her backyard and yelled out, “Who wants to see some magic!”

“Me!” all the kids screamed loudly.

One by one, he invited the kids to come and have coins and toys and carrot sticks appear out of their ears, out of their pockets, even out of their noses, which was really gross but funny to watch their shocked little faces. Then he did the same with the moms: conjuring up cell phones and wristwatches, and in one case a wedding ring. He winked as he passed it back to the astonished woman.

I had no idea that Kes had those skills, such magic in his hands. I wondered what else I didn’t know about him.

He started off juggling with a soccer ball and a football, telling jokes the whole time. I watched for his nod, then tossed him the watering can. Soon he was juggling four mismatched items, and then five, then six. The children’s mouths were open and their eyes bright with amazement. They all laughed when Kes tossed the watering can to me and I dropped it. Yes, let’s all laugh at the clumsy person.

After that, I was officially resigned as Kes’s assistant and the kids all took turns at throwing odd for things to him to juggle. He never missed once, even when their throws were nearer his knees than his chest.

By now, Kes was really sweating in the formidable summer sun. But instead of looking disgusting like anyone else would, it made his smooth skin gleam, and I couldn’t help following the drops of perspiration as they tracked down his broad chest, disappearing into that loose waistband.

Finally, he grabbed hold of Jen’s bicycle and started showing the kids wheelies and various balancing tricks. Of course, it was slower and less sensational than his stunt riding, but I think it connected with the kids better because they all rode bikes themselves. What they couldn’t do was somersault off them like Kes, or do handstands on the seat and over the handlebars. It was like watching an Olympic gymnast perform in your backyard. I had no idea he was so flexible—and my mind went straight to the gutter.

He finished with a flourish, cartwheeling off the bike, which brought a round of applause from the adults and whoops and cheers from the kids.

I hoped that none of them tried to copy him at home, or there would be an epidemic of broken bones in the neighborhood.

Then he flopped down on the grass and let the kids jump all over him. I bet some of the moms would have liked to jump all over him, as well.

“Oh my God!” gasped one mom, her hands fanning her face. “Does he do kids’ parties?”

“Forget that!” said her friend. “I want him for my party!”

I watched him playing with the kids, listening to each of them, making everyone feel special. I realized with a pang, but no sense of shock, that I was in danger of falling for him again—and there was no safety net for love.

An Interview with Jane Harvey-Berrick - 

1.  In 5 words, please describe your ‘Romance Writing Style’

Characters, details, learning to love

2.  Do your leading men come from any place in particular? Dreams? Movie stars? Your partner? Past partners?

Real life guys plus a large dollop of imagination.

3.  What do you do in your down time?

What’s down time? Um, I write, a lot. I walk my dog on the beach and hope to ogle hot surfers.

4.  When you walk into a book store, where do you head first?

Biography.

5.  Why did you decide to write romance novels?

I started writing FSOG fanfic. People kept telling me to write my own stories. So I tried it, and fell in love with writing all over again.

6.  Who, if anyone, has influenced your writing?

Well, EL James, I guess, because her story unlocked something inside me, making me want to write contemporary romance, too. But for writing style, I admire the way Jane Austen could put across a character’s personality with a few, well chosen phrases. Masterful.

7.  What research did you have to perform to back up your story? Any research which really opened your eyes or gave you new respect for a topic or profession?

I read a lot of blogs about people working in carnivals – what life on the road is really like. I also downloaded lists of carnie-speak, but I didn’t use much of that as I would have spent forever explaining it all.

I’m doing a lot of research on stuntmen, too, for the sequel.

8.  What is your method for writing a book? A certain amount of hours every day? A certain routine? Are you character/story builder or an outliner or some other method?

The ideas come from different places, so sometimes I have just one scene in mind, and have to work out a plot from that; sometimes the whole story comes to me in one go.

But in terms of writing discipline, I’ll do a minimum of four hours a day, forcing the words out, but if it’s really flowing, I’ll be at the computer from 7am to 10pm with breaks to eat and walk my dog. I can be very single-minded – it drives my husband to distraction.

9.  How do you get past writers block or distractions like Facebook?

Nothing distracts me when the writing is flowing. If I feel blocked, I got for a walk with my dog – that helps incredibly.

10.  Favorite book from childhood.

I used to love to read Westerns, but one single book? Tricky … ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ had a huge effect on me. I was about 9 when I read it.

11.  What’s on your desk? Can you see your desk? Describe what you see when you look around.

I keep it pretty tidy. I have my diary, a dictionary, to-do list, phone, handcream and throat sweets (I’m getting over a cold).

12.  What's the weirdest thing you've Googled?

I worry about that. I imagine the CIA keeping tags on me because of my schizophrenic googling, but really it’s all for characters in books – honest! Okay, um, here goes: how to rob a bank, how to make lead look like gold bullion, boys talk in locker rooms, how to get rid of a boner during a sports massage (for guys, obviously)

13.  What is your favorite line from any of your books?

“I love you, I have always loved you, and wherever I go after this world, I will always love you. Sempre e per sempre” Sebastian in ‘The Education of Caroline’

14.  Do you believe in love at first sight?

Yes.

15.  What do you do when you are not writing?

Read, walk, swim, surf.

16.  What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?

I was told I was a child abuser. Isn’t that horrible? Because in ‘The Education of Sebastian’ the relationship is between a 17 year old who’s nearly 18, and a 30 year old woman. What you don’t get until you read it is that emotionally, it’s the teenaged Sebastian who teaches Caro about love. That comment made me feel ill, then I decided to ignore it.

The best compliment – someone had a quote from my book ‘Lifers’ tattooed on them. That will be with them for the rest of their life. Wow!

And another was that a woman decided to call her son ‘Sebastian’ because she loved the character in my books. That moved me to tears.

17.  Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?

Jane Austen. Always. Still does.

18.  Is there a certain type of scene that's harder for you to write than others? Love? Action? Racy?

I work hard to make sure that love scenes don’t sound repetitive, but I don’t find them hard to write. I thought I would, but I don’t!

19.  How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?

Really important. I can change them several times before they sound right. Usually not the main characters, it’s usually minor characters.

20.  What was the hardest part of writing your book?

Not having enough time to write everything that I want to write.

21.  What did you want to be when you grow up?

A journalist, but I found out I preferred making things up!

22.  Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

I like to learn new things when I’m researching a book – that’s part of what makes it interesting for me. I loved reading about life as a carnie, and I read up all the details of how to breathe fire and eat fire – that’s a real science to it, which isn’t very unsurprising!

23.  What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?

Well, I started writing fanfiction because I wanted to rewrite FSOG from Jason Taylor’s pov. Ever since then, stories won’t leave me alone. I have a list of 30 or 40 stories that I could start writing tomorrow if I had the time.

24.  Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead character from your most recent book?

An unknown. I want to be immersed in the story, not the actor playing them.

25.  Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?

99% I have the outline nailed down before I start. I often write the ending first.

26.  For your own reading, do you prefer ebooks or traditional paper/hard back books?

Ebooks. Love LOVE my Kindle.

27.  What book/s are you reading at present?

‘Sempre’ by JM Darhower

28.  If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it have been and why?

‘Persuasion’ by Jane Austen, because it’s the perfect story of love second time around. But she never got to polish the way she usually did because she became ill and died before she was truly happy with it. All the more reason to treasure it.

29.  What advice would you give to your younger self?

Relax, it’ll happen. And that hot surfer guy who flirted with you and told you about building his dream home, don’t let him leave without your phone number!

30.   How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?

I’m still evolving. I don’t ever want to stop learning.

More About Jane - 

I lived in London for over 10 years and have a love affair with New York. It's only since I have moved to the countryside, that the words have really begun to flow.

I live in a small village by the ocean and walk my little dog, Pip, every day. It’s on those beachside walks that I have all my best ideas.

Writing has become a way of life – and one that I love to share.

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