Archive for the ‘Stories’ Category
Hi, friends. How was your week?
My week—my second full week of being (f)unemployed—was spent waiting for my severance check and writing feverishly. I’ve been drafting a novella. On Friday, I crossed the 20K mark, giving me about 10K to wrap up the story. I hope to be able to divulge all the details soon.
Until then, let’s get to this week’s My Sexy Saturday fun.
Fall is officially here. With the change in seasons comes a new emphasis on holiday romance. Seems every time I check my tweet stream or Facebook feed, someone’s talking about their new holiday release.
Not to be outdone, my sexy 7 this week comes from my holiday novella, HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS. In this story, rockstar Cher Stanton reluctantly returns to small-town Indiana for some much-needed R&R. Things get much less relaxing when she bumps into high school crush Derrick Mullins, the one guy who never paid her any attention—or so she thought.
Here, Cher and Derrick are on their way to dinner. They stop to clear the air and she ends up kissing him.
****
Chalk up another one to missed opportunities.
Story of his life. One missed opportunity after another, starting with Cher. Med school— nope. Not going there. Being a paramedic was as close as he’d ever get, and it was plenty. Doctors dealt with way too much stress.
Seemed he wouldn’t get any answers from Cher unless he demanded them. He cleared his throat. “What was that?”
“What was what?”
His gaze locked on her mouth. “That.” He waved his hand between them.
“That kiss?” Her tongue darted over her plump bottom lip, leaving shine in its wake.
Shifting in the Porsche’s bucket seat, he nodded. “Yeah. That kiss.”
Like what you’ve read? Home for the Holidays is on sale for 99 cents at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo. If you prefer to read books on paper, grab the print version from CreateSpace.
Saturday again? Now that I don’t have a day job, the days are all running together.
Lucky for you—or maybe for me, I got an email reminder to sign up for My Sexy Saturday. This week’s theme? Love on the road … I think.
This week, show us the characters who who love each other so much that it doesn’t matter where they are, who they are, what they have or don’t have. Show us that these characters are going to stick with each other through thick and thin. These are the ones who just want to be with each other, love each other and always be together, no matter how long or short the time.
I’m sharing a snippet from TROUBLE IN PARADISE, a work-in-progress. This companion to BLIND DATE BRIDE, my June indie release, tells the story of Bethany and Cody, the friends that got Kari and Damien into the winners’ circle. They met the day of Kari and Damien’s bogus wedding…and ended up getting more wedding night action than the bride and groom, as Kari pointed out.
TROUBLE IN PARADISE picks up where BDB leaves off. Bethany, concerned that Cody is losing interest, convinces him to audition for the network’s new show, “Invitation to Sin,” a “Survivor” meets “Temptation Island” reality show she thinks will test his love for her. A reluctant Cody agrees, figuring Romance TV lightning won’t strike twice. But it does, and the couple flies to Bora Bora for a month to shoot the show. Little does Beth know she’s the one who’ll be failing all the network-manufactured tests.
Here, they’re strolling on a moonlit beach, away from the cameras, as they have a heart-to-heart about the day’s events.
****
When she tipped her head up this time, he saw laughter in her eyes. “You said we’re the sum of all our experiences, right?”
“I did.”
Her fingers hovered over the knot at her waist. “There’s an experience I’ve never had and I want to share it with you.”
Cody’s mouth went dry when she scrambled to untie her sarong. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”
The cover-up pooled in the sand at her feet, quickly followed by her bikini top and bottom. She stood before him, her milky skin glowing in the moonlight. “Guess.”
Cody gulped. “Skinny-dipping?”
“In the ocean under a full moon.”
TROUBLE IN PARADISE … coming soon to e-bookstores everywhere.
So much for attempts to post here on a regular schedule. I have many excellent reasons for slacking—some of which I plan to blog about in the near future.
For now, know I’m neck-deep in edits for BREAKING ALL THE RULES, my spring 2015 Turquoise Morning Press release.
Yes, I prefer to make edits by hand. Maybe it makes me a dinosaur, but I see things differently on paper. Besides, it feels more real somehow. I love the heft of a pile of manuscript pages.
There’s only one problem with editing this way: Sometimes—OK, more often than I care to admit—I can’t read my hand-written scribbles.
Ahem. The trick, of course, is to finish edits and get them back in my typewritten manuscript quickly enough that I can still remember what I was trying to say.
That’s the goal, anyway.
I’ve slowly been whittling down the to-be-edited pile. As of Saturday afternoon, it’s officially a shorter stack than the already-edited pile.
Progress!
It’s the small victories, right? I need a few of those in my life right now.
RWA14 was a blast—not that I doubted it would be. For me, it was a true road trip. Two of my chapter mates and I carpooled from Flagstaff to San Antonio (more on that soon). I caught up with friends old and new, and learned so much from the workshop sessions I attended. I went to so many marketing/social media sessions that my head threatened to explode.
One of the key points emphasized in many of them? You need a blog.
Umm … Does it count if I have a blog but post sporadically?
The experts’ answer, of course, is a big, fat “NO.”
So now that I’m back in Flagstaff, trying to resettle into what passes for a normal routine, I’m going to aim to blog more regularly. (How is it possible that my last post was in mid-June?) Blogging is heaped on top of all the Twitter/FB/Pinteresting things I should be doing—and none of them are as important as actually writing the next book.
Anyway …
It occurred to me that My Sexy Saturday is a great way to guarantee I post something fresh on my blog every week.
A quick refresher on the rules:
Post 7 paragraphs or 7 sentences or 7 words ONLY. The choice is yours. It can be from a WIP or something you already have published. Your post should be live by 9 am US Pacific Time on Saturday. Put those lucky 7s to work for you!
Here’s a snippet from my June release, BLIND DATE BRIDE. Who needs “Married at First Sight” when you have Kari and Damien?
***
Damien leaned across the table, and for a second, Kari thought he’d kiss her again. Her lips parted in anticipation. However, he merely turned her hand over, palm up, and ran his thumb over the skin at the base of her fingers. She watched it move back and forth, fast then slow, fascinated by the friction-generated heat.
His eyes never left hers, so she saw the instant his desire flickered back to life. Her thighs clenched as her body answered Damien’s call.
The dampness she felt provided a rude wake-up call. She clamped her knees together as she jerked her hand out of his grasp, ruthlessly reminding herself how badly her last run-in with lust at first sight had ended.
Seemingly undeterred, he grinned. “You ready to head to my place?”
“Y-your place?” Surely he wasn’t a mind reader.
“Or yours, I suppose.”
“My place?” This time, Kari’s voice came out in a panicked squeak.
Blind Date Bride is available now as an e-book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo, and in print at CreateSpace or Amazon.
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