Category Archives: Novels
Sneak Peek of Nine Steps to Sara
Nine Steps to Sara is coming along well, and I’ve only got one more scene to write before the grand finale. Here is the proposed cover art (thanks Cap’n for the design!) for the book. I thought I’d share a little taste from chapter one. Please keep in mind that this is a rough draft and not the polished final version. 
*****
“Repeat after me, I am Sara J Darling; millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht.”
The corner of Sara’s mouth tilted up into a faint smile as she conjured images of Elmer Fudd going through psychoanalysis to cure him of his rabbitosis. “I don’t own a yacht.”
“You could own a yacht…” Joanie’s green eyes darted to the dark window for a brief squint before they returned to regard Sara steadily. “You don’t know.”
“That’s true, I suppose,” Sara allowed, leaning back against the supple leather seats of the chauffeured Mercedes. Despite the fact that the car was at least thirty years old by the body style, it’d obviously been kept in mint condition and still impressed the hell out of her. It was the first time she’d ridden in a car that cost more than her college education and for sure was the first time she’d been driven around in the back seat unless she counted the time she took a cab to the hospital on the night Jack was born (but somehow, she didn’t think that fell into quite the same category).
Joanie had a good point though, she had very little understanding of her inheritance so far, only that it was big enough to earn her a plane ride and an all expense paid trip to England in style, and there was a manor house somewhere in the countryside with a family history she knew nothing about. After the year she’d had, it hadn’t taken more than thirty seconds to decide to go check it out, especially when her best friend offered to come along for the ride. Still, Joanie’s excited speculation had spilled into the ridiculous after so many hours spent traveling.
“Why would I have a yacht? It’s a land locked estate.” Probably. There could be a lake, she supposed. If she hadn’t been so excited to get the heck out of town, she might have asked a few more questions. As it was, she had a vague sense that the estate was somewhere in the south, but that was about it.
Joanie waved her hand back and forth, unconcerned with logic. “So? England is basically an island. It’s like a nothing commute to get to the water.”
A snort came from the front seat, and Sara looked up to catch a flash of the driver’s grin. “I’m not too sure about that,” she murmured, looking out the window, but she couldn’t penetrate the gloomy fog apart from the occasional glimpse of an empty paddock or a copse of dark trees. “We’ve been driving an awful long time.”
“You’re telling me, I shouldn’t have had those drinks on the train,” Joanie muttered, shifting in her seat. “Excuse me, driver?” she leaned forward, bright auburn hair glowing as it caught in the dashboard lights. “How much longer is this gonna take?”
“Just until we arrive, Miss.”
Moonsong is out in Print!
After a bit of a technical glitch, Moonsong, (my werewolf paranormal romance) is available in print through Amazon.com!
Thanks to everyone who helped vote on the cover choice, it came out sooooooo pretty!
Here is a little sample to whet your appetite:
Amelia has just come to live with her Grandmother and cousins, Scarlett and Chase after finding out her family is descended from a long line of werewolves (or shifters, as they like to call it). She’s looking for some answers on the upcoming gathering she’ll be expected to attend that night.
“Chase?” Amelia stepped out into the back yard, not quite sure how to find him.
“Did you have a nice time shopping?”
It took her a moment to find the source of the voice, but she finally located him around the corner, leaning against the side of the house. There was a swimming pool set into a natural rock formation she’d missed on her first look at the grounds that morning. “Apparently I needed a party dress, so…”
“You bought a party dress?” he started laughing, nearly losing his balance as he fought to catch his breath.
“What’s so funny about me buying a party dress?” she frowned; not liking being the butt of whatever joke tickled him so much.
“Nothing… it’s just ah… you’ll be a little overdressed,” he straightened, still chuckling.
“What do you mean overdressed? I thought there was a party going on tonight?”
“There’s a gathering, not exactly your chips and dip kind of affair. It’s a little more… au naturale if you catch my drift,” he gave her a pointed look.
“You mean…”
Trip to Olympia
We take one or two short vacations a year because I hate to travel and don’t like to go too far from home. Here is a recap of our recent trip to Olympia, WA.
Day One – It’s a bright, sunny day, perfect for a road trip. After an unscheduled trip to the dr’s office, we’re on the road only about a half hour behind schedule, not too shabby. We’re off on the road to Olympia with a tank full of gas, and I’m excited to see the miles per gallon gauge go up as soon as we hit the freeway.
1st stop – we’re completely derailed from our careful schedule by the lure of chilidogs at Wienerschnitzel, not even an hour into the trip. Neither one of us is particularly hungry, but we agree, it’s worth the stop since it’s a rare treat.
2nd stop – it’s a well known fact that I have a bladder the size of a thimble. So even though I went at the last stop, we stop again in Kelso at a Target and a new theme is born. This is the week of the Avengers mini action figures. You know those little mystery figures you can buy at the store for $2.99 and you have no idea which figure you get until you open it? We decide that every time we stop at a store that carries them we’re going to buy one until we get the complete set, or get bored with the premise. This stop gives us:
3rd stop – rest area. I just can’t resist these stops. They’re clean, there’s lots of nice green grass and trees to look at if you want to stretch your legs and best of all, easy to get in and out of. Two minutes later we’re back on the road.
Olympia here we are!!!
It’s still about three hours before we can check in to the hotel, so we stop off for a look at Danger Room, the coolest comic book shop in town. Besides the two Serenity books we get, they have a bunch of free comic books left from Free Comic Day and we load up. Now it’s on to Cascadia, where they have milkshakes so good, we have been drooling over them for a whole year since we were last there. We step up to the door and see a sign – new ownership – uh oh. It all looks the same when we get inside, but opening the menu we find there has been a complete overhaul. No more 6 kinds of french fries (the spicy fries and garlic fries were the best!) and no more specialty burgers (I liked the Sarape one which had guacamole, pepper jack cheese and enchilada sauce). Instead there are different burgers and you can even get some rare ones like buffalo burgers (as in the animal, not the hot wings sauce). The milkshakes are still fantastic, but overall, it’s a disappointing trip.
Still can’t check into the hotel so we stop off at Burial Grounds coffee for a mocha.
We pull into The Phoenix Inn about a half hour before check in time, but they let us in anyway with some very friendly service. We get the same room we always get, mostly because I love the bathtub out in the middle of the room. A little bit of a rest and about 1000 words for Nine Steps to Sara written and we’re out to the Black Bear Diner and the tri-tip steak is so good!
After dinner it’s on to Target for another mystery figure, this time it’s Tony Stark:
Then it’s back to the room to rest and relax and unfortunately not get any more writing done. Tomorrow is the old fashioned wooden boat festival, and we’re looking forward to exploring all the tents and wares!
Pretty Witches Promo
The continuing saga of my promotional trail continues! I have to say, trying to run a free promotion on Barnes & Noble and Amazon through setting a book to free on Smashwords was a total bust. Angel of Mercy
That brings us to my upcoming paid promotion through Kindle Nation Daily. Tomorrow an email blast goes out for Pretty Witches All in a Row
Nine Steps to Sara is coming along well, though I always lose my perspective in the middle of it. It’s only when I get to the first read through that I have any sense of whether or not it makes sense and flows well. That said, I’m on vacation, and it was hard to stay on target yesterday! I only got about 1k of writing done instead of the 2k per day minimum, but I’m okay with that. We only take a few days off like this twice a year, so it’ll be okay if the book gets finished a few days behind schedule.
In the meantime, I’m having a wonderful time on vacation, and taking lots of pics, so I’ll be posting a blog on that later on. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there, I hope you have a fantastic weekend!
May is Here!
May rang in with a bang with an unexpected boost to sales (for no reason that I can figure), The Avengers opens this Friday, it’s time for a new monthly resolution, and I’ve started my new book Nine Steps to Sara! Whew, that’s a lot for one update!
First of all, can I just say again – The Avengers opens this Friday!!!
Okay, I’m better now.
For the month of May, I’m proud to report I still haven’t cheated on any of the previous month’s resolutions. If you remember, I’ve given up fried food, fast food, baked desserts and started exercising 5 days per week. So what to give up next? Well, sadly, I’m not seeing a whole lot of movement on the scale yet, and I know why. There are still waaay too many delicious things out there for me to eat too much of! So, for May, my resolution is to start tracking what I eat again in an online food diary. I’ve done it before with great results, but I was reluctant to get back to it because it’s so tedious! But, I know it’s good for me, so as of yesterday, I’m tracking every single thing that goes into my mouth, including the sugarless gum (which is still 4 calories per stick, 
).
Nine Steps to Sara is coming along well, beginnings are always hard for me on the first pass, but hopefully I can find the right creepy/entertaining vibe I’m going for.
Let me think… what else is going on… Moonsong
That’s about it for me, guys. Oh, but have I mentioned, The Avengers is opening this Friday?
Moonsong is now available online!
My new werewolf paranormal romance Moonsong is now available for sale on Amazon.com
I’m already deep in plotting mode for my next book Nine Steps to Sara which is a spooky thriller set in the remote English countryside.
