Archive for the ‘Stories’ Category
Cheryl “Cher” Stanton is about to discover home is where the hunk is …
Today has been more than a year in the making, but I can finally say it, loud and proud: HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS is on sale. Just in time for the holidays, it’s available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
My indie publishing debut joins DIVA IN THE DUGOUT, which was released last month by Turquoise Morning Press.
The musician heroine of HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS leapt out at me, fully formed, last year when I read Carina Press’ open call for holiday shorts. I clearly saw the story’s beginning and end … I just wasn’t sure how she got from Point A (singing the blues because she’s forced to return to the hometown she couldn’t wait to get out of) to Point B (singing the town’s praises).
This being a romance, a man had to figure into the transformation. Enter Derrick Mullins, one of her two best friends throughout middle school and high school. Cher had always had a thing for Derrick—and even went so far as to put the moves on him on graduation night—but she left town on the 6 a.m. bus the next morning convinced he didn’t know she existed.
Nothing could be farther from the truth, of course. And now that Derrick’s no longer young and stubborn, he’s ready to pick up where Cher left off all those years ago.
I knew I wanted Cher’s hometown to be a small town, one a high-school girl with big dreams would find stifling. And I knew just the place: Langley, Indiana. I’d already written one story where Langley figured into the equation, so I had a clear picture of the town. Nestled in the Indiana cornfields, it had just one stoplight. A high school (Langdon High, Cher and Derrick’s alma mater), a barber shop and Dottie’s Diner (the town hangout) dotted the main drag.
It was the kind of place from which Cher couldn’t wait to escape. She returns only because her health demands she get some R&R, and she figures she can hide out at her folks’ house, so far off the beaten path that her fans will never think to look for her there.
And it works. She’s getting her much-needed vacation … until she runs into Derrick. Things heat up and Cher finds herself developing a new appreciation for her hometown.
Why set a story in a tiny Indiana town? Well, they say write what you know. I grew up in small-town Indiana. My high school was in Albion, which had one stoplight—at the intersection of state roads 8 and 9.
Langley is not Albion, but Albion is part of Langley. So are a lot of other small Indiana towns, places I’ve come to appreciate now that I’ve been gone from them for more than a decade.
I hope you enjoy Cher and Derrick’s story, and your stay in Langley. (I have three other stories set in nearby Willow’s Grove, including OPERATION SNAG MIKE BRAD, the manuscript in which Langley was born.)
Pick up your copy of HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It’s a real steal at only 99 cents.
DIVA and I are guest posting on Lynn Cahoon’s blog today. Stop by for the details of my call story and my advice for writers.
… For the news I’ve been waiting to share all week: My debut, DIVA IN THE DUGOUT is live.
It’s been a whirlwind from getting the call in July to seeing my first book available for sale. I keep pinching myself, expecting to wake up and find the last few months were all a dream.
But so far, it seems to be real. DIVA now exists in cyberspace. Type “Diva in the Dugout book” into Google and you get links to Smashwords, All Romance Ebooks and various blog posts I’ve written in the last few months.
Leave off the word “book” and the results aren’t quite as clear-cut, though. You get a Facebook page for someone called “The Dugout Diva” and the Sioux Falls, S.D., Canaries Dugout Divas. I suppose you can’t win ’em all.
The details:
Diva In The Dugout by Arlene Hittle
A Turquoise Morning Press VINTAGE CATEGORY ROMANCE #106 (and All Is Fair in Love and Baseball, #1)
Classic Romance, Heartfelt Happily Ever After
Can the Condors bad boy step up to the plate and knock out a home run for fatherhood? And if he does, will his daughter’s mamma be ready?
After a successful stint in drug rehab, Arizona Condors shortstop Dave Reynolds is still trying to outrun his bad boy reputation. When the team’s new owners tell him to shape up or be fired at season’s end, he vows to change. He doesn’t count on fatherhood playing a part in his transformation.
Melinda Cline makes a rash decision: take solace in the arms of a sexy-as-sin ballplayer whose name she tells herself she doesn’t want to know. Big mistake. Now, a single mom to a four-year-old, Mel strives to live as cleanly and quietly as possible. But fate intervenes and she comes face to face with the man who insists on being included in their daughter’s life. The attraction between them is still strong, but it may not survive Dave’s reputation or his attempts to do the right thing.
Release: October 18, 2013
Category: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary (Category-Vintage)
Rating/Heat Level: Sensual-Sizzle
Length: Novel, 51,000 words
ISBN: 978-1-62237-207-2
Ebook Price: $2.99
Digital Download – Available Formats – EPUB, PRC/MOBI, LIT, LRF, PDF
I started a mini blog tour Friday, chatting with J.M. Kelley about my book, where I do my best writing and the eternal debate: Print books or ebooks? Click through to see where I stand …
On Monday, I’ll be at the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood, talking about my trouble with the (learning) curve of a debut author. (No, I haven’t seen the movie yet, but it’s on my list.) And on Wednesday, Oct. 30, I’m guest blogging with Lynn Cahoon. We’ll talk about DIVA and the best writing advice I’ve ever gotten.
Want to get your hands on a copy of DIVA IN THE DUGOUT?
Find it at Turquoise Morning Press, Smashwords, All Romance Ebooks, Amazon. Smashwords will begin distributing to BN, Kobo, iTunes and other e-tailers within the week, my publisher says.
Check out these screen shots from the various websites:
All Romance Ebooks
Amazon.com
If you want to add DIVA to Goodreads, you can do that here.
As for me, I’m so excited, I doubt I’ll be able to sleep tonight. Time to go down copious amounts of carbs in an effort to knock myself out, because I have to drive 3-ish hours to Payson bright and early in the morning.
Can you feel the excitement? I sure can.
My debut romance, DIVA IN THE DUGOUT, will be up for sale at Turquoise Morning Press this week. To celebrate, this week’s My Sexy Saturday seven are from that story. (Yes, this time I’m using a snippet from the actual book, not something I cut.)
This moment comes at the end of a long, emotionally charged day, the day Dave and his daughter meet for the first time, under mamma Melinda’s watchful—and slightly green—eye. Mel’s having trouble reconciling how enamored Tara is with all things “Daddy,” in part because she, too, is still attracted to the man.
When Tara demands that Dave be the one to put her to bed and read her a bedtime story, Mel can’t resist peeking in. Touched by the sight of father and daughter together at last, her emotions are churning when she sits down on the couch with Dave.
***
When he reached out to brush her hair off her face, Mel reared back. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Dave’s grin flickered on in full force, and something else melted inside her. “Renewing our acquaintance.”
There had to be something wrong with that idea, but Mel suddenly couldn’t think what. She leaned into him, her lips parted, already begging for a kiss.
His lips settled over hers and his tongue swept into her mouth. Her senses swirled with the touch of his tongue until she barely noticed he was repositioning her onto his lap.
Mel’s body remembered. Her nipples puckered and her panties grew damp in response to the erection nudging through two layers of denim. Dave deepened the kiss. His hands settled on her hips, bringing the most intimate part of her more firmly in contact with him.
Caught up in old memories and new sensations, she didn’t object when he eased her back against the arm of the couch and started fumbling with the button on her shorts. She wasn’t thinking of Tara, just upstairs, or the fact that Luanne would arrive any minute.
She wanted—no, needed—this. Sex. With Muscles. She hadn’t had intimate relations with anyone since…since a disastrous reunion attempt with Bud when Tara was nine months old.
DIVA IN THE DUGOUT, out this week!
Popular Posts
Reading Alley
