The Time Traveling Matchmaker by Janie Emaus 💕 Behind the Scenes, Book Tour and $50 Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (Time-Travel Romance)

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In The Time Traveling Matchmaker, love takes on a new meaning when soul mates are brought together through time and space.

Like every goal-oriented twenty-something, Jessica Singleton, an aspiring filmmaker, is obsessed with finding her future as quickly as possible. What she doesn't know is that the future is obsessed with finding her, too. Renn Porter, an agent with Time Traveling Matchmaker's Inc, blasts back in time - and into her life- in order to transport Jessica to the soul mate who has paid for this service...in the future. But things turn dangerous when it's revealed that Renn has been sent after his own soul mate.

Caught between two times, Jessica and Renn must struggle to stay alive. Falling in love is the biggest risk either of them has ever taken - because, as they are destined to learn, the very existence of Time Traveling Matchmakers, Inc. rests in Jessica's hands.

This book took approximately fifteen years to sell. Not that I worked on it exclusively, but the idea was born around 2005 at a writer’s conference. I heard a news story about a girl who had disappeared and thought, hmm, maybe she was picked up by a Time Traveling Matchmaker and brought to her soul mate.

I shared the idea with my conference roommate who encouraged me to write the story and began plotting.

It started off as a New Adult (NA) novel. In that first version, Jessica, my protagonist, had graduated high school and was figuring out what to do with her life. It also had alternating chapters, from both Jessica and Renn’s, point of view.

During my revisions, critique partners suggested I make Jessica a bit older, and Jess agreed. She told me no one needs to meet their soul mate until they know themselves better. Since Jess was now twenty-nine, Renn demanded to be in his thirties and suggested I tell his story through communications with Central Match and journal entries.

This new structure worked for me. Who am I to deny my characters their rights?

I came close to selling the book several times and then finally in 2020, I sent it to The Wild Rose Press. My editor offered me a contract after reading the first chapter.

Not only has the story changed drastically from inception to publication, but my hair has turned white, my grandchildren are now old enough to read the love scenes and streaming has nothing do to with water.

My main motive for all my writing, is to leave my readers with a smile on their face and laughter in their heart.

Ever was a word that didn’t do well alone. It goes much better with happily and after. The way my life used to be. The way I thought it never would be again after David, and then along came Renn. And the world opened up, even better than before.

His lips. His touch. His eyes. His voice. There wasn’t room in my mind for thoughts of anything else.

It didn’t matter that he claimed he came from the future. Maybe he did. So many things in this world defy logic. Especially love.

Please, God, bring him back to me.

My stomach growled. I opened the fridge again and picked up the healthiest looking apple, one without any bruises.

The apple tasted sour. I spit the skin into my hand and tossed the whole thing in the trash. The fabric in my pocket grew warm.

“Jessica.”

I spun around. Renn leaned against the wall, his trench coat open to expose a silky blue shirt. His lemony scent drifted into the room.

“It’s you,” I said, stating the obvious and feeling foolish for doing so.

His smile filled me with lightness.

“It’s me,” he said, as if he’d just returned from the store. In fact, he held a bag of donuts.

Donuts! He vanishes out of the bathroom and materializes out of thin air the next day with donuts?

A second later, the bag fell to the ground, and I was in his arms, kissing him. Putting the ever back into my life.

Janie Emaus believes when the world is falling apart, we’re just one laugh away from putting it together again. The Time Traveling Matchmaker is her debut adult novel. She is also the author of the blended holiday picture books, Latkes for Santa Claus, and the forthcoming Matzo Balls & Easter Eggs. Her essays, stories and articles have been published in numerous magazines, anthologies, and websites. In 2016 she won an honorary mention in the Erma Bombeck Writing competition. To learn more about Janie visit her at www.janieemaus.com.