Writing: A Glimpse Into Ian Grant's Past

Sometimes you just gotta be silly.

Well, I do. People like my humor, but up until now my books have been halves: half humor, half romance; half humor, half history; half humor, half adventure. Although The Notorious Ian Grant looks and feels like a romantic comedy, I felt like ramping it up to the level of my humor blogs, just to see if it would work as well for fiction as it did in the newspaper, back in the day. I think it does. I could be wrong.

The blurb:

When infamous party boy and b-list celebrity Ian Grant learns his sister is marrying a cop, he abandons Hollywood and drives to Indiana. His plan: to make up for all those times he embarrassed his family, by taking charge of the wedding planning. So, Ian’s never planned a wedding … how hard could it be?

But Ian's past has followed along--and may be trying to kill him.

 

Ian Grant isn’t exactly a type A personality, although he has the looks for it. He’s Cary Grant with a Groucho Marx brain, and he’s not ashamed of it … even if he is ashamed of a "few" youthful indiscretions. Like dancing on Charlie Sheen’s car, drag racing Justin Bieber, and of course peeing on a bouncer’s shoes. (Ian still insists Bieber cheated.) These days Ian’s on a path to redeeming himself—he hopes—but his past keeps coming back to haunt him. Here's a snippet from early in The Notorious Ian Grant, in which he meets two residents of Hurricane, Indiana for the first time:

They stopped by the intersection, where the cop now stared daggers at Ian. “Here, me first.” Beth hopped down from the horse with ease and grace, and once she’d cleared Ian managed a dismount with none of either. As he stumbled away, the animal turned toward him and made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

“Good horsey.”

“His name is Honey,” the cop said, as she stepped around her patrol car.

“Really?” Ian looked back at the horse. “You hear that? All the other guy horses make fun of you.”

Honey turned his head away.

“Hey, I was kidding —“

Beth patted the horse’s flank. “It’s okay, Honey—he’s a scumbag.”

“Beth, sweetie …” Fran (the cop) hooked a thumb toward Ian. “What have I told you about picking up strays?”

“He says he needs to get into Hurricane.” Beth leaned in toward the woman. “His name is Ian Grant.”

“I don’t care if his name’s—oh.” Fran gave Ian an even closer look, if that was possible. “I’ve seen your jail book-in photos.”

“Was I smiling? Could you see my dimples?” Fran had long hair, secured in a tight ponytail, along with big brown eyes and high cheekbones that pointed toward a full Hispanic heritage. She probably had a nice smile. He almost regretted letting his agent talk him out of joining the cast of Lady Cop 3: Hollywood Vice, especially since his agent dumped him weeks later.

“You smiled, but the bloody nose and the missing tooth spoiled the effect.”

“They put the tooth back. See?” Ian gave her his most ingratiating smile, to no effect.

“Very nice. However, around here those trimmed stubbles are not in fashion.”

“I’ve driven for three days —“

“May I ask your reason for being here, Mr. Grant?”

Uh-oh. Official voice.

 

I love a good sequel.

Ian had better watch himself, because the girl he got a ride from is his future sister-in-law, and the cop is his future brother-in-law’s best friend. Too bad he doesn’t know that yet. That’s one of the fun things about Ian Grant: He really does want to do the right thing—but he just can’t seem to keep his mouth shut.

I wonder if Ian’s trickster spirit might have something to do with why my original publisher released the book a month before I was told they would? In any case, the updated The Notorious Ian Grant is available as print or e-book. It can be found in various formats at:

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F3KWHWK8

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Notorious-Ian-Grant-Audiobook/B0F27KVWMF

https://markrhunter.com/fiction

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25393144-the-notorious-ian-grant