One Magic Moment by Marie Force

We're off to a great start this week at the Wet Noodle Posse. Please help me welcome Contemporary Romance Author, Marie Sullivan Force! You can learn all about Marie at her website.

Have you ever experienced “a moment,” one in which you were acutely aware, as it was happening, that you would never forget it? Sometimes it’s about falling in love, other times it’s an instant of crystal clear clarity.

I had such a moment two years ago, the first time my then-eleven-year-old daughter stepped onto the stage in a middle school production of High School Musical. Playing Ms. Darbus, the stern but comical drama teacher, she tore up the stage collecting cell phones from her wayward detention students as her mother’s mouth hung open in the audience. Despite sharing the stage with ten of her peers, she owned the scene. Chills chased up and down my spine as time slowed, the crowd around me disappeared, and I realized I was witnessing raw, pure talent—the kind that someone either has or they don’t, the kind that can’t be taught or acquired.

When I “came to,” I wondered if it was an aberration, one amazing scene to be followed by mediocrity. Those fears were soon put to rest. In scene after scene, she continued to produce sheer magic. Of course, I thought, every parent sitting here is thinking the same thing: my kid is special. But at intermission people we knew and many we didn’t sought us out to say the same thing: “Oh my God, your daughter is amazing! She’s stealing the show!” Even the director expressed amazement. “Wow,” he said. “I didn’t see any of that in rehearsals.” Watching that first show, I had a very distinct feeling that I was seeing her destiny, and I’ve never forgotten it.

In my new book, Love at First Flight, my hero, Michael Maguire, experiences a similar moment of clarity the first time he lays eyes on Juliana Gregorio in an airport gate area. Even though he’s engaged and thinks his life is all set, he takes one look at Juliana and knows with every fiber of his being that she’s “the one” for him. The feeling is deep and visceral and profound. And he knows if he acts on it, lives will be changed, hearts will be broken, and not for nothing, the object of his instant affection will think he’s a lunatic.

Ryan Sanderson, the hero of my first book, Line of Scrimmage, was a true alpha in every sense of the word. Michael is a true beta. He’s quiet and loyal and dedicated and sincere. It would never occur to him to be unfaithful to his fiancée, even if she and her manipulative parents are on his last nerve. So when he meets Juliana and has an instantaneous reaction to her, he files it away but doesn’t forget about it. Later, when he has the opportunity to act on it, he never loses faith in the love-at-first-sight reaction he experienced. Despite having good reason to give up, Michael trusts that first instantaneous gut reaction until he gets the happily ever after he deserves. By the time I finished writing Love at First Flight, I was more than halfway in love with him myself!

Oh, and my daughter? She’s since been the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, Frenchie in Grease, and was recently cast in her first leading role as Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web.

Have you ever experienced a moment like Michael’s or mine? I’ll give away a copy of Love at First Flight to the commenter with the best story.

Love at First Flight will be available July 1, 2009. Pre-order your copy NOW!

Labels: Love at First Flight, Magic Moment, Marie Force

posted by Theresa Ragan @ 3:49 AM 23 comments