My New Kentucky Home…

By Jennifer Madden

In 2004, my husband was offered a job at Toyota. It sounded great. Wonderful money, competitive benefits. But it was in Kentucky. Four hours away from all my family. Literally, my mother lived five minutes away from us. It was traumatic to even think about leaving.

We decided that before we packed up the family and moved so far away, hubby should check it out first. So, he went down, rented an apartment, and live in Kentucky during the week, then came home on the weekends to see us. After a year and a half, we decided that it was time to move. We had been apart a long time, and things needed to change.

So, thank goodness for the internet. We found a chunk of land that we liked the look of, and it was within driving distance but out of all the congestion of the city. We bought the land and moved down. The house wasn’t what we wanted, but it would suit us for a little while.

We were very hopeful of what was to come. Until we met our neighbors.

The first lady we ran into was an older lady that lived adjoining the far end of our land. The very first thing out of her mouth was, ‘You all are Buckeyes?’ as if that was bad. I didn’t realize that we had moved to a state that was as passionate about their Cats as we were about our Bucks. 

A neighbor farmer was running cattle on the land, and we let him for several more months, but we finally asked him to remove them because they were tearing up fence. He didn’t appreciate that.

We also discovered a pot cultivation field hidden down in our woods. I’m sure somebody was upset they lost it.

Literally, I chased people off my land a dozen times the first year. Armed, of course. People actually wanted to argue with me that they had permission from the owner. Helloooo, I am the new owner. I slowly realized that there was a cultural reluctance to admit anything to a woman.

It was also an eye opening experience going into a SMOKING grocery store. You walk through the aisles and step on cigarette butts. The bread  tastes like ash.  For a lifelong non-smoker, it was a real shock.

For a long time, I was really set on not liking Kentucky, and I looked at everything negatively. I think because it was so different, and so far away from my family. Mom would call, and I could hear the sadness in her voice because she missed us.

But that distance also created an appreciation for the state I was in. I couldn’t run home every weekend, so I was forced to find other things in our area. Like the 5000 acre wildlife preserve literally a half mile away.  And the drive-in theater in Paris, twenty minutes away.  The operating soda counter in a department store, also in Paris.

Then there were the horses.

My gosh, for a horse crazy girl like I was, Kentucky turned into paradise. There were miles upon miles of black plank fence, and barns that I would be proud to live in. There are four public racetracks within an hour of me, and too many private ones to count. Ads in the paper for broodmare grooms, spindly legged foals every spring.  The list has no end.

I finally realized I was in horse heaven.

So, writing Second Time Around was easy, when I had so much wonderful material. And with my previous law enforcement experience, the two merged perfectly.

 I love Kentucky, now. Well, for the most part anyway. The smoke filled grocery store is still a turnoff, but it gives me a reason to range wider and find new treasures.

Lil Old Me…

by Jennifer Madden

I’ve been debating what to blog about, and thought I would maybe do a quick introduction and give you a little backstory on my life. And what led to Second Time Around, which is coming out in December. I was born in Ohio thirty-five years ago. Small town farm girl, pretty unremarkable. In 1994 I got a job at Longaberger Basket Company. It was in ‘Weaving School’ that I met my future husband. Actually, he came up to me, looked me in the eye and asked me if I plucked or shaved my eyebrows.

No lie. That was the first thing he ever said to me.

He topped that off by asking me how many kids I had. I was only nineteen at the time. When I asked him why he thought I had kids, he said, “Well, you’ve got big hips.”

Yep, I got Mr. Suave. Actually, in spite of how it sounds, he keeps me laughing. And I love him dearly. We’ve been married fourteen years now.

I left the basket company in ’98 and joined a fairly large central Ohio Sheriffs Department. I was a supervisor in the jail for several years, then a road deputy and eventually a school resource officer. I enjoyed the work, and felt I did have a positive impact on a lot of kids.

In amongst helping other people’s kids, I had two of my own. One boy and one girl, both true smart-asses through and through. I love them dearly.

In ’06 we moved to Kentucky for my husband’s job. For the most part, I’ve stayed home and taken care of my kids. And loved every minute of it. I’ve always loved to write, but never actually pursued it until I joined my local RWA chapter. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Second Time Around is my debut book set in Kentucky horse country, and pulls a bit from a personal experience I had with my husband. When I first started at the SO, somehow or another I managed to handcuff his belt loop as we were walking through kmart. I was off duty and don’t remember why I had my cuffs in my jacket pocket to begin with, but I did. And, of course, I didn’t have my handcuff key with me. He had to walk out of the store with my jacket tied around his waist.

I wanted to adapt the situation to where the heroine actually cuffed the hero. And lived to tell about it. Here’s the blurb:

Officer Shane Caldwell responds to a routine end of shift call with some annoyance, but when she tackles and handcuffs her ex-lover and the father of her son, things turn hot in a flash. Four years before, Quinn Scott disappeared to make his fortune, and she hasn’t heard a word from him. As his touch ignites old passions, Shane is torn between telling him about the son he’s never known, and protecting young Jackson’s heart from the man who walked away without a backward glance.

When Shane storms back into his life, Quinn isn’t surprised by the incredible attraction which sparks between them. He wants to take up where they left off, but years of lies and unexpected betrayals from family and friends endanger his Thoroughbred breeding operation and his dreams of a future with the woman he never really left behind.

Will old prejudices separate them again or can love grow stronger the Second Time Around?

I’m due to release sometime (hopefully) in December. Until then, you can find me at these places:

www.jmmadden.com

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