Joey W. Hill | Singing and Dancing, Angels and Mermaids…

I’m sitting here listening to the soundtrack to Mamma Mia and thinking about why I love the movie so much. Yes, I could say it’s nowhere near as stunning as the Broadway production, and many of the casting choices had more to do with box office draw than singing ability. (I never thought an Irish boy could sing as badly as Pierce Brosnan – and I love Pierce!) And some of the scenes are more than a little silly. But you know what? I like it anyway. Heck, I love it. It’s a wonderful story of young love, while celebrating and acknowledging the gains/losses of getting older (and no, not talking about pounds – lol). It recaptures the excitement of having a wedding, and the setting is drop dead gorgeous. Throw in music and dancing and, my gosh, you have the ultimate feel-good chick flick.

While my recent release, A WITCH’S BEAUTY, is not quite so light hearted, it reflects my core belief that a story is most worth reading if, after an amazing array of daunting obstacles, love wins out. Mina is a sea witch whose life has sucked in so many ways most of us would have just quit. She has no reason to do otherwise – she is shunned by the mermaid world, and most angels believe she should be dead. But because she’s had so little to live for, she’s made surviving her reason for being. She’s too damn stubborn to fold. As the mermaid Anna said about her in A Mermaid’s Kiss (first book in series, but books can stand alone), Mina has had to fight so hard and “she is the type of person who won’t give up what she’s worked so hard to earn…she has a formidable contrary nature.”

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David is an angel who really shouldn’t be an angel. He’s human-born, he’s too young (only 30), but he has extraordinary depth of character and a wicked way with a pair of daggers. He actively seeks the responsibility of being Mina’s keeper when his Commander, the angel Jonah, determines she needs protection from the Dark Ones who want her dead. Oh, and he kind of wants an angel close to her in case she decides to choose a side for her power…and chooses evil. If she does that, David is charged to become her executioner, not her protector. But David has faith in her, and between Dark One attacks and the battleground of their own hearts, the two of them will be drawn together by the dark loneliness they both carry.

This book does have singing, and since the singing is all on the pages of a book, David has a beautiful voice (laughter). Being human born, he has a penchant for crooning Rolling Stones’ songs as lullabies, which Mina finds oddly enchanting. There are gorgeous settings of course, because with a mermaid and an angel, I wasn’t limited. They explore a shipwreck graveyard, go on a moonlit flight despite Mina’s fear of heights, and even end up in a Nevada ghost town (Mina shifted to human form of course).

No dancing, though. Have to leave that for the next in the series. However, let me offer a consolation. Make a comment on this blog, and we’ll choose a winner from them sometime after 12noon EST Friday, 1/16 to receive a signed copy of A Witch’s Beauty! Thanks for letting me blather a bit. You can read excerpts from all my books on my website, www.storywitch.com. I also have a newsletter with monthly contests, early sneek peek excerpts from upcoming releases or free short stories featuring characters from my books. Just send me an email through my guestbook link and I’ll get you on the list. May you have a wonderful 2009, with many great reads!

Joey W. Hill

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