Stage by Stage (Transita) [Paperback]

'"Warm, witty and down to earth, and a lovely curl-up-and-enjoy read. A sparkling debut from a talented new author." Liz Young'

Teaching full-time and acquiring all the oddball kids in the new intake are only the first of Beth's challenges when Alan leaves her after 25 years of marriage. She also has to turn her untidy Cambridge house into a B&B to make ends meet and then counteract the effect of regular theatrical guests on her stage-mad teenage children. Alan doesn't even have the decency to stay out of her life. Instead he makes disapproving incursions back in with his saccharine-laden new partner. But Beth's real worry is lodger Owen Pendragon - a character actor with wicked hazel eyes, a quirky sense of humour and a tendency to walk around her home sexily damp in his bathrobe. With attitudes and lifestyles clashing, will Beth and Owen ever find common ground? All they can do is to take things 'stage by stage'.

STAGE BY STAGE is the 2005 winner of the RNA New Writers Scheme Joan Hessayon Award administered by the Romantic Novelist's Association.

I loved writing this book! The seed of it germinated whilst I was chaperoning kids from my daughter's theatre arts class as they sung at the Cambridge Corn exchange. It struck me that a touring theatrical company was a tremendously self-contained unit - and I wondered what might happen if someone from within that world fell in love with someone from outside it.

From then on I plunged into research, losing myself in stagecraft books and gulping down great swathes of half-forgotten stage musicals. Only a tiny fraction of all this research shows up in STAGE BY STAGE, but I couldn't have written the book without immersing myself in it. Besides, I was having too much fun to stop.

At the centre of the story is Beth, a caring, dedicated, forty-something teacher whose husband walks out on her because he doesn't have enough of her attention. Determined not to alter her children's lives, Beth has to adapt and grow, whilst continuing to make sense of her decidedly odd new class. She advertises for lodgers, but gets more than she bargained for with the arrival of Owen Pendragon.

A cynical character actor who has spent most of his working life on tour, Beth's chaotic household isn't Owen's style at all. But their eyes meet, and there is a spark, and both of them are caught.

And that's it - the basic premise of any love story. That in order for love to grow, both parties must be prepared to change, to make sacrifices. Both parties have to trust, even when trusting is scarily like laying yourself on the line.

Do they do it? Well, what do you think? I am a romantic novelist, after all.

"That's it. Enough is enough. I'm leaving."

Beth's mouth dropped open in surprise. The row hadn't nearly got to that stage yet.

Teaching full-time and acquiring all the oddball kids in the new intake are only the first of Beth's challenges when Alan leaves her after 25 years of marriage. She also has to turn her untidy Cambridge house into a B&B to make ends meet and then counteract the effect of regular theatrical guests on her stage-mad teenage children. Alan doesn't even have the decency to stay out of her life. Instead he makes disapproving incursions back in with his saccharine-laden new partner.

But Beth's real worry is lodger Owen Pendragon - a character actor with wicked hazel eyes, a quirky sense of humour and a tendency to walk around her home sexily damp in his bathrobe. With attitudes and lifestyles clashing, will Beth and Owen ever find common ground? All they can do is to take things 'stage by stage'.

Jan Jones grew up in North London but now lives with her family near Cambridge. Her love of stage musicals comes from exposure to her parents' amateur dramatics productions at an early age. Jan has worked in the computing industry, set up and run a pre-school playgroup and is now on the committee of the Romantic Novelist's Association. She has had many short stories and poems published.