Posts Tagged ‘Beauty and the Ballplayer’
When BEAUTY AND THE BALLPLAYER finaled in the RWA® Golden Heart contest in 2011, I was floating way beyond Cloud Nine.
Now, my manuscript is a full-fledged book, released today by Turquoise Morning Press, and I find myself back on Cloud Nineteen … maybe even Cloud Twenty-Nine. Y’all already know numbers are not my strong suit. (That’s why I chose to work with words for a living instead of earning the big bucks as an engineer.)
The short blurb: After finding herself alone and pregnant at the advanced age of thirty-two, Meg Malone plans to avoid men — until Condors catcher Matt Thatcher throws her plan a curve.
You can find BEAUTY at the Turquoise Morning Press bookstore, as well as at Amazon, Smashwords and All Romance Ebooks.
If your favorite e-tailer isn’t on the list yet, check back. It should be available at IBooks, B&N, Kobo, Diesle, library and subscription channels within the next week or two.
For some folks, St. Patrick’s Day is an excuse to get drunk on green beer and eat corned beef and cabbage without guilt.
Now, I like a hearty meal of corned beef and cabbage as much as anyone, but I don’t do beer — green or otherwise. Like Meg, the heroine in BEAUTY AND THE BALLPLAYER, I prefer the taste of mixed drinks.
St. Patrick’s Day reminds me of my visit to Ireland. In 1992, my sophomore year of college, I spent spring semester studying at Harlaxton College. We had classes Monday-Thursday, with Fridays reserved for either class field trips or the start of long traveling weekends. Spring Break offered two trips: Paris for the first half and then Ireland.
Our Irish tour took us to many of the country’s popular tourist spots. In a movie theater in Dublin, a friend and I took in “The Commitments.” (The rest of the group opted to watch Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves in “Point Break,” but Amy and I decided it made more sense to watch a movie about an Irish band.)
Another of our stops was at Blarney Castle in County Cork.
Naturally, while I was there, I had to kiss the Blarney Stone. Who could pass up the opportunity to touch lips to the same stone kissed by heads of state, Hollywood hotties and millions of others?
Legend has it that kissing said stone imbues the kisser with the power of persuasion … the gift of gab, if you will.
Even then I knew I wanted to be a writer, and I’d been practicing so long I doubted I needed help in the persuasive writing department. Still, if kissing a stone would give me extra polish, I didn’t want to squander the chance.
When I saw what was involved in the kissing, I almost chickened out. It’s not as simple as leaning into a wall and puckering up. Oh no. The stone isn’t that easy to get to. You have lie on your back and grip iron handrails, levering yourself over the edge of the wall. A castle employee holds you by the waist to make sure you don’t fall.
I thought I had a picture of myself kissing the stone. I remember it well, down to the maroon paisley shirt and brown fanny pack I wore (1992, remember?). However, when I looked in my photo albums, I couldn’t find it. You can see pictures of others doing the deed at Wikipedia.
Photo or no, I’ll certainly never forget that kiss. It may well be the most frightening and exhilarating smack of my life.
Writers, take note!
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Today must be the day for motivating thoughts, because this Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog post also has me thinking: What I really want to say on Twitter by Liz Talley.
I’m pretty sure that’s what every author really wants to say on Twitter (and everywhere else), but can’t. “Look at me! Look at me!” gets really old, fast.
An endless stream of RT’s of fellow authors’ books, all at once — bang, bang, bang — also doesn’t cut it. That’s why I use Buffer to space out my tweets.
Liz also talks about planting butt in chair to write the next book, which is something I need to get back to doing. With releases coming from TMP in March and April, as well as plans to self-pub in June, I haven’t written any new words in too long. Been self-editing BLIND DATE BRIDE and prepping for the release of BEAUTY AND THE BALLPLAYER and SLIDING INTO HOME (formerly Untitled Book 3).
Speaking of SLIDING INTO HOME, I don’t think I’ve shared the cover on my blog yet. Look for it later this week.
At least Saturday’s plot group meeting got my creative juices going again. I now have some ideas for a fourth Love & Baseball story, thanks to some brainstorming with the NARWA crew. I’ll be back to banging out new words in no time.
Hi, all. It’s been a while since I’ve jumped in with a My Sexy Saturday post. But with BEAUTY AND THE BALLPLAYER set to release in mid-March and SLIDING INTO HOME in mid-April , it’s high time I get back in the habit.
Blog hops like this are a fun way to share info about a new release, don’t you think?
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!
BEAUTY is my newest release, but it’s far from a new story. It’s the manuscript secured me my first (and only) RWA Golden Heart finalist title, way back in 2011. (Wow 2011 seems like forever ago …) It’s the second book in my Love & Baseball series, and the only one set in my adopted hometown of Flagstaff. The Arizona Condors are in Flagstaff for spring training. Matt, the team’s catcher, is feeling every one of his 28 years now that the manager has added a rookie catcher to the roster.
Here are seven paragraphs from the opening scene, in which Meg, who just that morning discovered she’s pregnant, and Matt meet in a bar. What’s a pregnant woman doing in a bar, you ask? Drinking 7-UP and commiserating with her coworkers, all of them glad they’re still employed after a fresh round of layoffs at the ad agency where she works.
Hard to say which of them is having a worse day, eh?
***
After enduring his appraisal, Meg had no qualms about completing one of her own. She slid her gaze from the tuft of thick, chestnut hair poking through the back of his burgundy-and-white cap downward, over his golden-brown eyes, straight nose and smiling mouth. She took in his toned arms, broad chest, tree-trunk thighs and—oh my.
Perhaps he had good reason for his arrogance. She jerked her eyes back to his face. After they’d mentally stripped each other, it didn’t feel right to not know the man’s name. She extended her hand. “I’m Meg.”
He eyed her outstretched hand and his lips lifted again. She grinned back as she rescinded her offer. He was right. They already knew each other too well for a mere handshake.
Awareness jolted through Meg when he rested a hand on her knee. “Matt.”
“Well, Matt, I’d like to say it’s nice to meet you, but I can’t say that to the guy who took my table.” She shifted ever so slightly, hoping to break the strange hold he had over her.
Matt chuckled. “Would it help if I told you I’ve had one hell of a day?”
BEAUTY AND THE BALLPLAYER, coming from Turquoise Morning Press in March 2014.
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