Once a month, I like introducing you to author friends of mine and one of their books. Today, I’m excited to introduce a lady I met while going to a writers conference several years ago. I lived in Houston, she lived in Dallas, but we connected through our ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) membership and found out we were both going to a conference in North Carolina. We arranged our flights so that we could both transfer in Atlanta, and we’ve been friends ever since.
Let me introduce you to Marji Laine and her recent novel, AIN’T MISBEHAVING.
AIN’T MISBEHAVING delves into the depth of life from the perspective of a shallow, sheltered woman. Annalee Chambers has been raised to pay attention to all aspects of society, particularly the appearance of success. Being cultured and socially-educated, she’s not really prepared to work in one of the poorest sections of town. And she’s really not expecting to find such joy intertwined with such poverty.
Having my story set in my hometown of Dallas has some fun aspects. I got to handpick the homes for the main characters and the locations for the after-school program. And even now when I drive past some of those places, I get all excited about the story again.
For instance, I chose a particular building downtown to be CJ’s (the hero’s) condo. It’s in One Arts Plaza. This condo was for sale when I was writing the book so I was able to download actual pictures of the place including the view from its southeast facing patio. You’ll laugh, but I don’t drive by that building without looking up to the 18th floor and half expecting to see CJ standing there.
AIN’T MISBEHAVING goes much deeper than only the setting, though. It was written a number of years ago, so many that I
barely remembered the storyline. But when I started editing, I was moved to tears again and again. These characters are so real, and I would love to meet them!
I hope you’ll enjoy AIN’T MISBEHAVING and watch for Annalee and CJ to have an extra special cameo part in Book 2 of the Dallas Duets, PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ.
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Marji Laine writes about hope and redemption. In addition to Ain’t Misbehaving, she is the author of the Grime Fighter novella series and the full-length novel, Counter Point. In addition, she is the executive director of Write Integrity Press and its non-fiction imprint, Pix-N-Pens Publishing, and she hosts a monthly radio talk show called Publishing Laine.
Learn more about this fun lady here.
And don’t forget to check out her latest book here!
