FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Beaver, PA – Prolific, award-winning author Abigail Drake returns to the literary stage with two new novels. She showcases her authorial flexibility with the heartfelt Love, Chocolate, and a Dog named Al Capone (Oct. 15, 2019), and the second installment of her South Side Stories with the spicy and spellbinding Hocus Pocus Magic Shop (June 21, 2019).
Fans of warm, contemporary women’s fiction novels will fall in love with Drake’s layered characters, vivid scenery and detailed storylines. She manages to weave magical elements into romantic storylines while still keeping her tales grounded in reality.
ABIGAIL DRAKE: Award-winning author Abigail Drake has spent her life traveling the world and collecting stories wherever she visited. She majored in Japanese and Economics in college, and is a book hoarder, a coffee drinker, a linguistics geek, and an eternal optimist. She writes women’s fiction and young adult fiction with smart, sassy, funny heroines, and she also enjoys blogging about the adventures of her mischievous Labrador retriever, Capone.
Abigail is the winner of the prestigious 2017 Prism Award for her book Traveller, and the International Digital Award for her young adult novel, Tiger Lily. In addition, she was named a finalist in the Golden Pen, the Golden Leaf, the Dante Rossetti Book Award, and the Cygnus Award for Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction. Learn more about http://abigaildrake.com.
More about The Hocus Pocus Magic Shop
When chemist Grace O’Leary finds a book of magic spells hidden in her Aunt Lucy’s run-down magic shop, the scientist in her itches to try them out. She mixes up a batch of love potions as a joke…and has to face the consequences when they actually seem to work.
Her dream of becoming a professor is in peril, and time is running out to finish research for her dissertation. She can’t handle any more distractions, but the magic shop is on the verge of closing, her aunt has become forgetful and confused, and a handsome reporter named Dario Fontana keeps sniffing around for a story. The last thing she needs is for him to find out about the love potions and expose her as fraud, but she begins to trust him, and the sizzling chemistry between them is soon too powerful to deny.
With her personal and professional life in chaos, and her budding relationship with Dario in jeopardy, Grace is faced with a difficult choice. Fixing what is broken means going against every logical bone in her body.
Can Grace learn to silence her scientific brain long enough to accept the truth about magic…and also about herself?
Abigail Drake | June 21, 2019 | independently published
paperback | 9781093510874 | $16.99
Women’s Fiction | Romantic Comedy
More about Love, Chocolate and A Dog Named Al Capone
Capone, the newly acquired puppy of Miss Josephine St. Clair, owner of Bartleby’s Books, is a literature loving Labrador. Obsessed with Jane Austen, and cursed with a terrible name, Capone hopes to change his doggie karma and prove he’s just as much a gentleman as the heroes in his favorite books…by finding the perfect Mr. Darcy for the lonely and bookishly adorable Miss Josie.
Unfortunately, the only men Miss Josie seems to encounter aren’t Darcys at all. They’re Wickhams, Churchills, and Willoughbys. Even worse, there is trouble afoot. Someone has been sabotaging Miss Josie’s business, and all signs point to her evil ex. Can Capone find a way to save Bartleby’s Books, help Miss Josie find her true love, and earn, at long last, a name befitting a true gentleman?
“Love, Chocolate, and a Dog Named Al Capone”
Abigail Drake | Oct. 15, 2019 | independently published
Women’s Fiction | Romantic Comedy
An Interview with ABIGAIL DRAKE
How do you manage to add magical elements to some of your romances while still keeping them grounded in reality?
If you look closely enough, you’ll find a bit of magic even in the most ordinary things. While writing “The Hocus Pocus Magic Shop,” I wanted to create a world on the edge of being magical, but still very much based in reality. My main character, Grace, is a brilliant chemist and also the direct descendent of a powerful witch. These two oppositional elements to her personality keep the story balanced. As much as her lovely, logical brain rebels at the idea of things like love potions and sorcery, in her heart, she knows that sometimes the truth isn’t always what it seems.
If you could create a supernatural potion, what powers would it have, and who would you give it to?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a truth serum that actually worked? If so we could give it to any person charged with a crime and know immediately if they are guilty or innocent. And we’d be able to make it mandatory for politicians and television pundits and anyone appearing on “The Bachelor” or “The Bachelorette.” Not only would it save a great deal of pain and suffering, we’d probably find out some very interesting information as well.
You have a blog dedicated to your dog; what inspired you to create a physical book involving a character like him as well?
I started my dog blog because my nieces, who live far away in Istanbul, wanted me to post daily photos of our puppy, Capone. I did as they asked, and also shared a short story about what crazy things Capone had done the day before. Soon, to my great surprise, Capone had a legion of dedicated followers from all over the world. I wrote “Love, Chocolate, and a Dog Named Al Capone” for them, and also because what could be more fun than writing a romantic comedy from a Labrador’s perspective?
What practices do you have to help hone your writing?
I joined a group called Mindful Writers and it’s been amazing. We go on retreats together, listen to guided meditations for writers, and spend a week in the woods doing nothing but writing and drinking lots and lots of coffee. It’s pure bliss.
What’s the most difficult part in writing romantic scenes?
To make a romantic scene feel authentic, an author needs to focus on the emotions involved and not simply produce a play by play analysis of the physical aspects of the scene. That being said, you also have to get the timing right. Too much intimacy too soon can ruin a good romance, and maybe the same could be said about real life as well.
