Category Archives: Novels
The Touch Is Now Available in Print!
Again it only took about a month after it was released as an ebook but it’s available to purchase through Amazon.com.
So, to celebrate, here’s another excerpt from the book that takes place right after Lexi finds out her niece Chloe has disappeared:
There were more cars in the driveway this time when she got to Allie’s house. In addition to Gabriel’s Towncar, there was a red Dodge Charger and a regular black and white police car next to her sister’s white Volvo. No one stopped her from approaching the front door though, and she let herself in without knocking. “Allie?”
Almost immediately her path was blocked by a plain clothes policeman, his badge visible on his belt the way Gabriel wore his. Closer to her age, he was good looking with blonde hair and blue eyes. Clean cut, but there was a sarcastic tilt to his smile that one didn’t normally associate with ‘cop’. “Whoa, where did you come from?” he asked, hands up to block her view into the living room.
“Allie called me, I came right over.”
“How did you even get in here?” he looked over her shoulder through the sidelight window.
“Well, it’s not like you guys are running crackerjack security or anything, I just walked right in.” She’d been hoping to see Gabriel, but apparently she had to run the gauntlet before she’d be given admittance.
His eyes lit upon her gloved hands and widened slightly in response. “Oh, you’re the sister.”
“I see my reputation precedes me,” she gave a tight smile. Of course Ryan would have mentioned her, why was she even surprised? Idly she wondered what made it into his report… “I’m Lexi, and you are?” she offered her hand, trying to play nice.
“Detective Tim Cooper.” He took her hand with an appraising smile and Lexi got the feeling he was checking her out more than was strictly necessary. “Well, I guess we can all pack up and go home now, no need for us detectives with you on the case, right?” he smirked.
Lexi let go of his hand. So, that was how it was gonna be, was it? “Might as well. It’s not like you guys got anywhere when Neil disappeared,” she replied tartly. “Do you mind if I go see my sister now?”
“Ouch… Ryan was right about you, you’re feisty,” he chuckled, stepping out of the way. “Be my guest.”
So she was feisty, was she? Again Lexi wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Stepping past the younger detective, she spotted Allison on the couch, twisting a tissue into tiny shreds as she talked to Gabriel quietly. “Allie, I came as quick as I could, how are you holding up?”
“Oh good, good you’re here,” Allison clung to her in a hug the moment Lexi sat down. “You’ve got to help me find her Lexi; I don’t know what else to do.”
“I’ll do everything I can,” Lexi promised, barely sparing a nod for Detective Ryan. “How long has she been gone? When’s the last time you saw her?”
“Hey, who’s running this investigation, you or me?” Gabriel interrupted; a trace of annoyance visible on his face.
“That all depends, are you guys gonna do something this time?” Lexi retorted, instantly regretting it as soon as the words left her mouth. She wasn’t helping anything by jumping down his throat. “I’m sorry, please go ahead,” she added softly, sitting deeper on the couch.
Detective Cooper took a position against the wall behind Ryan, the look of vague amusement still playing on his features. Something about it irked Lexi. Whether he found her amusing or not, shouldn’t he at least pretend to care that a little girl was missing?
Mercy for the Wicked
Despite work seriously kicking my ass lately, the new book is going well, I’m just about 48,000 words into it and so far, Adam has hijacked it twice, changing my outline to suit his purposes. I have to say, I like his ideas better than mine, and I hope you will too. 
Here is a little taste:
All I knew was that I dreaded the moment it would end, because I knew each time we parted it would be harder to say goodbye. So I concentrated on making a memory to last me through those times when we’d be apart, savoring every touch of his hands, every brush of his lips, every breath that mingled with mine until finally he pulled away, pressing his forehead to mine.
“I hate to say this, but…”
“You have to go,” I nodded slowly, but neither of us moved to part just yet. “You can’t keep doing this to me.”
“I know,” Adam sighed, fingers tracing over the curve of my jaw.
“I have a life. I have a boyfriend.” Inside I dared him to challenge me about it, claim me as his, but his face just darkened.
“I know.”
Disappointed, I pushed a little harder. “You can’t expect me to wait around for you forever; taking whatever crumbs you toss my way when you feel like it.” But I would, I knew that about myself and I felt like shit for it, because it wasn’t fair to Ben and it wasn’t fair to me.
“I know.”
A furrow appeared on his brow and I wasn’t sure he was even listening to me anymore. “Will you stop saying you know? Can’t you give me something to hold onto? Some kind of hope? Or is this it? You’re leaving me here until you’re good and ready and when you do take me out of this place, things go back to the way they were? You in whatever forsaken corner of the world you’re holed up in, and me…”
“Shut up for a minute, I’m thinking,” he muttered absently and my eyes closed as I tried to reign in my temper. Sweet Jesus, why did I bother?
***
Ah you gotta love a man with a plan, right? And Adam definitely has a plan… Too bad Mercy doesn’t follow instructions particularly well.
Dream Casting – Angel of Mercy
I think most writers have specific types in mind when they start crafting characters. I know when I start to flesh out my leads in particular, I start by coming up with a list of attributes, is she kind? Spunky? Sarcastic? What color hair does she have? Is she an only child? Does she get along with her parents? The more detail I can drill down, the richer the character ends up. Being a visual person, I almost always end up picking an actor or actress in my mind that I associate with the character, down to the bit players who just show up in one scene. It makes it much easier to keep everybody straight in my head (actually I cheat, I keep a spreadsheet of names, who they are and who they look like). You can’t help but think – if they made a movie or tv series out of this story, who would play so and so? In the spirit of this, here is my dream casting of who would play everybody in Angel of Mercy.
Mercy – Amelia Warner – a pretty obscure British actress who I think is beautiful and spirited
Sam – a younger Jude Law, pre-Talented Mr. Ripley. I came across a couple of pictures of him taken by the paparazzi and he was a little ruffled and baffled looking, it really caught that part of Sam’s clueless personality
Adam – Ian Somerhalder because let’s face it, he could play this character in his sleep and he’s just a sexy beast
Ben – Mark Rufalo – he has that every guy quality that’s easy to overlook sometimes, but he can be so charming!
Parker – Bradley Cooper – because he can play an ass and still be pretty to look at
Matty – Justin Long – I think he could pull off the slacker brother so well
Daphne – Amanda Seyfried – with that long blonde hair and blue eyes, she has that wide eyed innocence that I associate with Daphne
Weatie – Jeremy Sisto – I can totally picture him playing an intense, scruffy looking scumbag
Nathanael – Matthew McFadyen (go see him in Pride and Prejudice as Mr. Darcy) – He has the intensity to look really pious and thunderous
Walter (the bouncer at Eden) – Marc Blucas – he’s got the muscle and all American looks to be a sweet guy that just doesn’t ring Mercy’s bell
Rachel (the nurse) – No idea what her name is, but the red headed nurse from “While You Were Sleeping” was who I pictured, it was probably on TV or something
Jilly (waitress at Eden) – Kristen Bell – because I love Kristen Bell and I like to incorporate her whenever I can. 
Mariah (Adam’s wife) – Morena Baccarin – a la Inara from Firefly, because I could see her tempting an angel to fall from grace
Cephas – Badger from Firefly, because I love the accent and he plays a great baddie
Mimsy – one of my own cats! Because she’s so cute and curious and her squeaky sounds are like nothing I’ve heard from a cat before.
Did I miss anybody?
(I’d love to hear it, by the way, if any readers had a specific person in mind when they read the story as well!)
Angel of Mercy Is Now Available In Print!
Well it only took about a month after it came out as an e-book, but Angel of Mercy is finally available in print through Amazon.com. And seeing as how I’ve been meaning to post an excerpt from the book, this gives me a good excuse to get one up.
This is fairly towards the beginining of the book, Mercy has spotted her mysterious blue-eyed stranger and has followed him home. (kids at home, never try this!)
This was crazy. I was in a bad part of town, following a guy who may or may not be real, into an unfamiliar building… to what end? Still, I found myself pressing the elevator button, toes tapping with impatience for it to arrive. The car was empty when it stopped on the ground floor, and I stepped inside and pushed the button for the third floor. The ride was short, and the elevator doors opened to reveal… nothing. Just an empty hallway. So what was I supposed to do now? Start knocking on doors? Not exactly a safe prospect in any neighborhood.
I was just about to rethink heading back to my car, when two doors down, a little boy, maybe eight years old emerged; his arms loaded down with trucks that he unceremoniously dumped onto the hallway floor.
Bingo.
I had never been one to approach strangers of any kind, remembering what my mother instilled upon me since birth. At that moment, I was hoping this kid’s mom hadn’t been quite so strict.
Approaching the boy hesitantly, I gave him what I hoped was a harmless looking smile, not in any way predatory. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
The boy didn’t look up, he was too busy lining his trucks up into two meticulous lines, facing each other.
Undeterred, I forged on, nothing to lose. “I’m looking for a friend of mine, he lives on this floor but I forgot which apartment is his.”
Still no reaction from the kid; maybe he was deaf? More likely the cars were just that much more interesting than I was.
“He’s tall, with blonde curly hair and blue eyes, he wears a long brown coat most of the time, have you seen him?”
“You mean the magician?” the boy asked without looking up.
Excerpt From The Touch
Here is a little excerpt from my new book The Touch. The scene is between my two main characters, artist Lexi Morgan and Detective Gabriel Ryan, in her kitchen after doing a little sleuthing together into her brother in law’s disppearance.
***
“Okay seriously, this has been bugging me all day; do you always wear the gloves?”
“Uh yeah, pretty much, unless I’m in my room.”
“Are you a germophobe or…”
“No, not exactly. I told you, I wear them for protection.” Lexi turned away to pour out the coffee, using the simple act as a way to buy her some time. This was what she’d been hoping she could avoid at least a while longer until he had a chance to know her a little better. But then again, there was a good chance she wouldn’t see him again, wasn’t there?
“Protection from what?”
Setting the mugs down on the counter, she went back for the milk and sugar, avoiding his eyes for the moment. “I get… impressions from things I touch. The gloves keep me from constantly picking up distractions every time I touch something, so I can function,” she said simply.
“Impressions,” he repeated.
In for a penny, in for a pound. “I can see things when I touch them. Sometimes it’s brief images; sometimes quite a bit more depending on how much they’ve been handled and if there was a particular association with them. It’s just something I’ve always been able to do and it’s more of a nuisance than anything else, trust me there are things you don’t want to know about how your food has been prepared,” she went for a smile, “hence the gloves.”
Gabriel stood there, the mug frozen halfway between the counter and his mouth. “You see things… like visions?”
She could tell from the way he looked at her that he was skeptical at best and seriously doubting her sanity at worst and Lexi struggled to explain it in a way that didn’t make her sound completely whacko. “It’s like… I get images of things, places the object has been, who’s been handling it, what they were thinking at the time. If it’s something they’ve held for a long time I can sometimes even see the person and what they’re doing now.” Was she just digging herself a deeper hole? “There are layers to it; once you figure out how to peel them away, then you can look farther and farther back into its history. I’ll tell you what, give me something of yours and you’ll see if I can really do what I say I can or if I’m just a little balmy in the brainpan.” Sometimes that was on the only way, to give an actual demonstration. Even then, some people assumed it was a parlor trick.
“Okay,” he seemed willing to play along at least. Pulling out his wallet, he fished out a business card and handed it over.
Accepting it with her left hand, she pulled off the right glove with her teeth revealing her pale, smooth hand. Drawing in a long, calming breath before she touched it with bare skin, Lexi let the images wash over her for a good few minutes, taking it back as far as she could before her eyes popped open. “So when I touched it, I could see the last time you pulled out the card next to it to give to Monica.” Not that it would prove anything to him since she’d been standing right there when it happened. “Before that, I saw when you put it in your wallet to begin with and beyond that I could see where the card was shipped from, stuff like that. Nothing too interesting, but if you gave me something more personal I could probably pick up more.”
Gabriel’s head canted to one side as he studied her, obviously trying to decide if he could take her at her word. “Where was I when I put it the card in my wallet in the first place?”
“In your bedroom, I think. There’s a blue comforter on the bed and a big brown chair in the corner of the room with a bunch of clothes hanging on the back of it. The blinds were open, but I couldn’t see much of what was out the window because you were looking at your wallet. Oh and the bedside table, it has…two drawers and it’s a dark brown, I think they call it espresso, with silver handles. ” Lexi struggled to recall every detail she could about the room.
His eyebrows climbed skyward and she could tell she’d been accurate in her description of the room. “So you get these visions from everything you touch? What would happen if you touched me?” Gabriel extended his hand, palm up towards her.
Lexi withdrew her hand instinctively, cradling it to her body and then away with a little gasp as she picked up something from her jeans without being prepared for it. “I don’t…” she paused to take a calming breath, giving him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, I don’t touch people,” she tried to explain, reaching for the coffee mug with her gloved hand before realizing that she hadn’t added milk or sugar yet. Instead she hurried to replace the cotton glove, instantly feeling more at ease once it was covered again.
“Ever?” he blinked.
“No, not for a long, long time,” she replied in a subdued voice.
“Why, what happens when you touch a person?” Gabriel frowned, dropping his own hand back to the counter again.
***
The Touch is available now through amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com
The Touch is here!
The Touch is now available as an ebook on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com! It’ll be out in print in a couple of weeks
I just got my final proof copy for Angel of Mercy so it should be available for purchase in print in the next couple of days.
And now to decide if I want to spend my time on marketing for both books or working on the sequel to my The Fallen series, Mercy for the Wicked?
I’ve also been toying with the idea of writing a little bit of serial fiction to post here on the site. Sort of like the chapter updates I do for fanfiction.net but probably with original characters. Maybe some small spoilers for Mercy for the Wicked, I haven’t decided yet.
