The Warden’s Lantern is written by Joselyn Vaughn.
Book Description:
Dark, creaking trees. Cracking thunder. A ghostly orb.
Barbara Milanowski couldn’t have picked a worse night for her amateur paranormal investigation, but she couldn’t let her longtime crush Elmer Derecho’s skeptism go unchallenged. When Elmer runs her off the road with his motorcycle and scolds her for being out in the inclement weather, her happily ever after drops with the barometric pressure and the loss of her keys and glasses. While spending time alone with Elmer was one of her fantasies, the dream date didn’t entail diving into the mud and untangling herself from a raspberry bush.
While trying to protect Barbara from the storm, his eyes are opened to all the things in his life that are missing. Elmer had gotten comfortable with his maps and pictures and chasing tornadoes after the fact. But Barbara reminds him of his forgotten zest for adventures, and ignites his interest in the Warden’s Lantern and for Barbara
While sheltering in a dilapidated guard house, Barbara and Elmer are drawn out of the protection by the Warden’s Lantern, the ghostly light Barbara had been trying to document. Elmer dismisses it as a trick of the electrical storm, but together they attempt to find the true source of the light. Will their shared talents solve the mystery and start a lasting relationship?
From the words of Joselyn, here is a little bit of info on her journey to writing and publishing The Warden’s Lantern:
The Warden’s Lantern was a strange journey. I had come across a contest looking for short stories and wanted to try one. It was going to be a welcome change from full length novels. Then I re-read the guidelines. It had to be a paranormal story and paranormal isn’t usually my thing.
I gave up the idea of entering the contest. Then my critique partner suggested writing a backstory for the ghosthunters in Hauntings of the Heart. The idea had merit and I started to wonder how they met. As the idea took shape, the deadline for the contest passed.
But I still liked the idea of a short story about Barbara and Elmer’s history. The story was going to be five thousand words, but it kept growing. My critique group would read a scene and we’d discuss what was going to happen next and more ideas would come.
The original story was going to be Barbara and Elmer out in the woods and seeing something unexplainable. Soon there was a motorcycle, a thunderstorm, and a prison. It ended up being four times longer than I originally planned. I love how stories grow on their own.
I live in the Great Lakes state with my husband, three rambunctious children and two barking Beagles (I suppose that is redundant.) When not suffering the woes of potty training three toddler/preschoolers, I enjoy reading, running (sometimes it’s fleeing the craziness at home), reconstructing clothing, thrift store shopping and surfing Pinterest.com. (I spend way too much time there and am getting all kinds of exciting ideas for projects for my husband to do. He is less than thrilled by this.) I love writing romance because I enjoy stories where everything works out all right in the end and the main characters have a happily ever after. My stories are set in small towns with quirky characters that take on a life of their own.
Joselyn, thank you for featuring your book on my site for my readers.
This is a quick and fun read! Joselyn’s short story is a great way to get introduced to her other great books.
The Warden’s Light is a cute story cleverly written. Interesting how you turned it into a story four times longer than planned. The Hauntings of the Heart is a book I fell in love with..sweet romance with a lot of clever funny lines.