Author Interview with Jennifer Wilck: Home For the Challah Days

Turning the bitterness of the past… Into a sweet future!

Welcome to one of the August 23rd stops on the blog tour for Home For the Challah Days by Jennifer Wilck with Silver Dagger Book Tours (schedule linked.) Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for more excerpt features, reviews, more guest posts, and a giveaway! More on that at the end of this post.

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Author Interview

What do you do to unwind and relax?
I spend a lot of time with my family. We watch TV, play board games, and read. My husband and I like to go hiking on the local nature trails—well, he and I have different ideas of “hiking,” but we both enjoy getting outdoors and spending time together. We work on crosswords and other word games together—or we compete against each other to see who can get a higher score. I also love going to art museums and gardens. To me, the beauty I find there fills my soul and helps inspire my creativity.

How to find time to write as a parent?
My kids are grown now, so it’s a lot easier for me. But I started writing when my oldest was around seven years old and my youngest was five. I’d write in the evenings after they went to sleep. I was a stay-at-home mom, so I was lucky not to have to juggle outside employment. As they got older, I’d write during the school day or anytime they were out of the house. Now that they’re gone, I find I have to be more disciplined because I don’t have time constraints. Without the set amounts of time scheduled throughout the day, I find I have to be more self-motivated and create my own writing schedule in order to get the words down.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I’ve always loved to write and would constantly start stories as a kid. But I had a hard time with dialogue, so I rarely finished them. I think the first time I thought of myself as a writer was when I signed my first book contract. It was legally written on paper that I was going to have a book published, and it was then I knew I was a writer.

Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?
Oh, I’d be happy with any of them, but the one I can most easily imagine is my latest, Home for the Challah Days. It’s a cross between Gilmore Girls and Crossing Delancey, so for me, it’s easy to picture as a movie.

What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
I haven’t gone on any literary pilgrimages, but I saw the Virginia Woolf exhibit at the New York Public Library this spring. The exhibit was fascinating, with her handwritten journals, her book covers that she and her sister designed, and of course, the story of her life. It was interesting to read about her life and then to see her diary entries and her writings together.

About the Book

Home For the Challah Days
Holidays, Heart and Chutzpah Book One
by Jennifer Wilck

Published 22 August 2023
Harlequin Special Edition

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Page Count: 293
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

Turning the bitterness of the past…

Into a sweet future!

When big-city advocate Sarah Abrams returns home for the High Holy Days, she’s got a lot on her mind—especially whether to marry her perfect-on-paper boyfriend. The last person she wants to encounter is Aaron Isaacson, her first love and the one who broke her heart. But after Aaron and Sarah join forces to fight an act of hate, it’s clear that their deep connection never abated. If only they could forgive one another for the past…in time for a sweet new start!

From Harlequin Special Edition: Believe in love. Overcome obstacles. Find happiness.

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Excerpt

Aaron wiped the counter with a rag, scrubbing so hard he wouldn’t be surprised if he wore a hole in the old Formica. Easing the rag away from the superclean area, he placed a piece of wax paper on the counter and grabbed two slices of rye bread. The din of the packed deli faded into the background.

Sarah Abrams.

His stomach clenched. Of all the people to walk into his deli, he’d never expected her. He’d hoped at one time that she’d change her mind and decide this is where she belonged. Dreamed about her for longer than he’d like to admit—how her long, dark hair brushed his chest when she leaned over and kissed him, how her soft lips teased his, how her olive skin slid smoothly beneath his hands. He’d even broken an engagement with another woman because he couldn’t get Sarah out of his head. But expected? It had been ten years.

“I asked for pumpernickel,” the wizened old man complained across the counter.

Aaron looked at the sandwich, swore under his breath and threw the rye slathered in mustard in the trash.

“Gloria!” He shouted down the line toward an older woman with a brown apron covering her T-shirt and jeans. She patted the shoulder of the woman she was speaking to and strode over.

“Yeah?”

His six-foot frame towered over her, and she craned her neck to meet his gaze.

“Can you take over for me? He wants…” He turned to the customer. Age and disappointment conspired to make the old man resemble a shar-pei. Aaron shook his head and ushered Gloria forward. “Sorry, she’ll make your sandwich. And it’s on the house.”

Wiping his hands on his apron, he weaved through the staff behind the counter. When he reached his tiny office tucked in the back, he shut the door and sank into the rickety-wheeled desk chair. He ground his teeth until his jaw ached. Other parts of his body used to ache when he was around Sarah in high school and college. They’d been inseparable. Her smile, with the one tooth a little crooked in the front, brightened any bad day. Her husky voice soothed him. Now, though?

Disappointment simmered. She’d promised him forever and broken his heart, walking away from this town—from him—without a thought for the people she’d left behind.

About the Author

Jennifer Wilck is an award-winning contemporary romance author for readers who are passionate about love, laughter, and happily ever after. Known for writing both Jewish and non-Jewish romances, her books feature damaged heroes, sassy and independent heroines, witty banter and hot chemistry. Jennifer’s ability to transport the reader into the scene, create characters the reader will fall in love with, and evoke a roller coaster of emotions, will hook you from the first page. You can find her books at all major online retailers in a variety of formats.

Jennifer started telling herself stories as a little girl when she couldn’t fall asleep at night. Pretty soon, her head was filled with these stories and the characters that populated them. Even as an adult, she thinks about the characters and stories at night before she falls asleep or walking the dog. Eventually, she started writing them down. Her favorite stories to write are those with smart, sassy, independent heroines; handsome, strong and slightly vulnerable heroes; and her stories always end with happily ever after.

In the real world, she’s the mother of two amazing daughters and wife of one of the smartest men she knows. She believes humor is the only way to get through the day and does not believe in sharing her chocolate.

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Giveaway Alert!

$10 Amazon gift card

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