Six Sentence Sunday, 9/2/12

At last, my News of Awesome can be told: I sold a novella to Entangled! It's the New Year's Eve story I've been excerpting here at Six Sentence Sunday. (Although, for the curious, you can't go back and look for the old posts--Entangled prefers no excerpts be posted until release day, so I took them down.) Tentatively titled, What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?, it will come out in December. Entangled is super-hot right now and I can't believe I sold to them. Squeee! I'm so excited!
In the meantime, here's another bit from my Playa del Carmen story, Love to Love You. This is in the heroine's POV as she talks with the hero. She's just told him he shouldn't play dumb about how to handle women -- he's a smart guy with a successful business:

"I'm a smart guy in some ways," he allowed with a nod. "But there are different kinds of smart. Also, there are different kinds of stupid," he said with a rueful laugh. "And I definitely have the kind of stupid that makes women unhappy."

He really believed it. He was good-looking, successful, and smart, and he was certain he didn't have what it took to maintain a real relationship.

For more Six Sentence Sunday, go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, Aug. 26, Love to Love You

Hello, my loves! Yes, I've got some good news to announce soon, but I'm still waiting on the Ts to be crossed and the lowercase Js to be dotted before I can spill the beans. Let's just say that when I got the happy news, I may have spontaneously begun singing the theme to "The Jeffersons." (Dating myself with that one, I know.) And that just goes to show how excited I was, because I. Never. Sing.
Anyway, here's my six from my WIP, Love to Love You. My hero and heroine are, well, shacked up in a room in Playa Del Carmen after getting to know each other while sightseeing at a Mayan ruin:

"I'd like to spend the rest of our time together with you, in this room, as much as possible. Are you okay with that?"
"What about sightseeing?" she asked, a slow smile curving her lips.
"I've got a number of sights to show you, baby," he said with a suggestive lift of his eyebrows.
"Anything that can compete with Mayan ruins?" she teased. She'd already seen the sights he was talking about, and frankly, they put pre-columbian artifacts to shame.

For more Six Sunday snippets, go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, August 19

Taps fingers . . . I might have some very good news to share soon, Six Sunday-ers! Can't spill the beans yet, though, so in the meantime . . .
Here's a little dialogue from my contemporary WIP set in Playa Del Carmen. I'm tentatively calling it Love to Love You. The heroine, Ally, and her best friend are visiting the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. Her friend in particular is interested in the giant natural well that was once used for human sacrifices:

"The guidebook says that when the well was dredged years ago, they found bones of hundreds of men, women, and children in the water, along with pottery, copper, bells . . . all things that were used in their religious ceremonies."

"And I thought having to sit through a full mass every Sunday when I was a kid was a pain," Ally said.

"We had it easy."

"I don’t know about that. Remember Father Lopez? His penances were basically the South Chicago equivalent of a human sacrifice."

This well and its grisly history is for real, BTW. Here it is:

 

For more (probably less gruesome) Six Sentence Sunday goodness, go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, Aug 12

Welcome, Six Sentence Sunday-ers! This is another tidbit from my WIP, a vacation fling story set in Playa Del Carmen. This comes from the very beginning of the story, when my heroine, Ally, is trying to escape the cloud of gloom hanging over her. Ally has cared for her ailing grandmother for years, and the elderly woman died six months ago. This trip is supposed to be Ally's reintroduction to the larger world, but it's not going so well. Ally and her friend are sunbathing by the pool at their hotel:

Flamingos and scarlet macaws dipped their heads to drink at the nearby fountain, and the occasional slow-moving iguana wandered between the chaise lounges. One approached and fixed Ally with its unblinking stare, so she offered it the maraschino cherry from her drink. Testing it with a cautious swipe of its tongue, it deemed her offering acceptable and retreated under a nearby table to devour its prize.

This was paradise. She ought to drink her cocktail and savor the beauty of the place.

She couldn't.

For more Six Sentence Sunday, go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, August 5

Glad to be back--I missed Six Sentence Sunday last week due to vacation. This is another tidbit from my Playa Del Carmen-set WIP, which I retooled and am now happier with. It's a conversation between my workaholic hero Andrew and his best friend Ben:

"Why can't you be a normal human being?" Ben asked, shaking his head. "You know, work eight or nine hours, hit the bar on the way home, go out with a girl once in a while?"
"I go out with girls," Andrew said.
"You meet pretty girls and bang them. That's not the same as going out with them."
"Jesus, what are you now, my mom?"

You can check out more great Six Sunday-ness here.

Six Sentence Sunday, July 22

This is a continuation of my story set in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. The heroine, Ally, is trying to work up the nerve to go talk to two good-looking guys at a cabana bar. Her traveling companion is her best friend, an attractive model who has a boyfriend back home. Ally wants her friend to approach the guys with her, but her friend wants no part of it and has urged Ally to approach the guys on her own. Ally's just a tad insecure for that:

When her beautiful friend accompanied her, few guys looked twice at Ally.
On the upside, if she went over there to chat these guys up by herself, she would have their undivided attention.
On the downside, if she went over there to chat these guys up by herself, she would have their undivided attention.
She wasn't fat, she knew that much. She just wasn't skinny. Her doctor had once described her as a "strong, solid woman," which made her feel like a cross between a dairy maid from a Thomas Hardy novel and a roller derby chick.

For more snippets, go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, July 15

Here's a tidbit from something new I'm working on, a contemporary set in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, at a destination wedding. It's giving me fits, so who knows what will become of this one. Here's a bit of dialogue I  like, though. The bride is trying to fix Ally, the maid of honor, our heroine, up with the best man, but she's more interested in Andrew, another member of the wedding party. Andrew knows about the fix-up and can tell she's tepid about it, so he asks her what she thinks of the best man:

"I just met him, obviously, but he seems nice," Ally said.

"Oh, come on."

"What?"

"You don't describe a guy you're interested in as 'nice.' 'Nice' is the lady at the flu clinic when you're a kid. She lies and tells you the shot won't hurt a bit, and then gives you a sucker after you scream your head off."

For more Six Sentence Sunday, go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, June 17

Some very good news: I sold BY HOOK OR BY CROOK! Yay-uh! My comic contemporary romance with gangsters will be published by The Wild Rose Press. The contract is signed but I don't have a release date or any other info. In celebration, here's a snippet from that book. My h/h, Joe and Ivy, are in a remote cabin, on the run from gangsters, when they hear an ominous noise outside and realize they may not be alone:

Joe disappeared into the bedroom. A minute later, he came out, tucking a handgun into the back waistband of his jeans.
"You have a gun?" Ivy was shocked. "Why did you bring a gun just to help find my sister?"
"It comes in handy in case I need to shoot somebody," he said, his expression grim.

For more Six Sentence Sunday, go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, June 3

And now, for something completely different. . .
I'm finishing the revision of my historical western, Nobody's Bride, but out of nowhere this week, I got a good idea for a novella that might work for a couple of New Years' Eve-themed anthologies out there. The bad news: The first deadline is mid-June. So, I'm going to try to write this in a couple of weeks and roll the dice.
In this scene, my hero and heroine are stranded together, snowbound on New Years' Eve:

“Are you flirting with me?” he challenged.
“Maybe.”
A dimple appeared in his left cheek. Whoa, he was adorable. If her mother hadn’t raised her right, she’d be tempted to lean forward right now and explore that cute little indentation with the tip of her tongue. Maybe she would, later -- she couldn’t rule it out.

I'm having fun with this one. For more Six Sentence Sunday, go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, May 27th

Happy Memorial Day weekend. (And for those of us in Indy, Happy Race Day!) I've got a very long six sentences this week. Just some description from my historical western, Nobody's Bride. This comes when the heroine, Maddy, realizes her time on the Chisholm Trail with the hero, William, is coming to an end, never to be repeated:

She loved the open air and the smells of clean wind, sunbaked grasses, and stirring cattle. She loved watching the wildflowers change with the season and seeing the bees bumble from one to the other, gathering nectar. She loved the dip and sway of the wagon, the broad backs of the oxen pulling in tandem, and the dusty score across the prairie that marked where ten thousand cattle had trod already this summer, and twenty thousand more would tread before winter came. She even loved the thick choking dust, the mud of the river crossings, and the sound of crickets and grasshoppers sawing away at their instruments late into the night.

But most of all, she loved to look over and see William riding point, sitting so naturally in the saddle that he looked like a part of Arion, and they weren't horse and rider any more, but some mythical beast that combined the two, like something out of a storybook. She loved his holler and the sweep of his arm that set them moving in the morning, and its reverse that brought them to a halt at night.

As always, you can find more great snippets here.

Six Sentence Sunday, May 20th

Another tidbit from my contemporary, By Hook or By Crook. Joe and Ivy wagered on a game of pool. When she won, she got to claim her prize: dancing together to the old Aaron Neville tune,  "Tell It Like It Is." In this scene, they're on the dance floor of a tiny bar and the sexual tension is rising.

"You should tell it like it is, Ivy." She could barely hear his hoarse voice over the music, but she understood him loud and clear. "Do you want me?"

His honest question demanded an honest answer. She swallowed and decided to be braver than she felt. "You know that I do," she returned, unable to look away.

For other Six Sentence Sunday selections, go here.
And if you want to hear Aaron Neville's swooningly romantic "Tell It Like It Is," go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, May 13

Happy Mother's Day! Between a Mother's Day event and some work I have to do for the day job, I won't be commenting much today. I'll be back next week though!
Here's another tidbit from the contemporary I'm shopping, By Hook or By Crook. Ivy and Joe (an heiress and her security consultant) had a romantic dalliance while stranded in a mountain cabin during a blizzard. Now that they're free, Ivy is trying to put the genie back in the bottle again:

"Now that we're back in the real world, I think we ought to try to put things between us on a more professional footing once again," Ivy said.

"The real world? I didn't know we'd ever left it. Tell me about this distinction. Why is this motel parking lot the real world, but a cabin an hour or so away magically isn't?" His jaw had that pugnacious angle that it took on when he made her life difficult, and Ivy sighed.

For more Six Sentence Sunday, go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, May 6th

I've been excerpting Nobody's Bride for a while, but for the heck of it, I'm giving you six sentences from By Hook or By Crook, the comic contemporary romance I'm shopping around. (And by the way, I finally finished the first draft of Nobody's Bride and have been in revision mode all week. If anybody's interested in being a beta reader for my western historical with a tormented hero and a sassy heroine, let me know in the comments.)
Anyway, back to By Hook or By Crook. In this scene, hero Joe has just returned from a casino gaming floor. He's checking out heroine Ivy and contrasting her to the scantily clad women he saw in the casino:

Somehow none of them had Ivy's elegant but very real sensuality, with her little heeled sandals and her subdued dress. She had left her legs bare, and if he wasn't mistaken, they had a slight sheen. He realized she'd caught him staring when she cleared her throat.

"Are your legs . . . sparkling?" he managed to ask, feeling like an idiot but wanting to explain since he'd been caught leering.

"My body lotion has a little bit of glitter in it," she said with a trace of diffidence. For some reason, she didn't seem mad at having caught him staring.

For more Six Sentence Sunday goodness, go here. 

Six Sentence Sunday, Apr. 29th

Another snippet from my western WIP, Nobody's Bride. I'm finally reaching near the end of my first draft on this one. 

This is my hero getting a gash stitched up after they've been attacked by bandits: 

Liquid warmth trickled down his temple and he realized the stitches had made fresh blood well. He heard a moan from the other side of the fire and wondered at it, but didn’t have the strength to look up. He felt the sustained tug of the thread being pulled through the hole in his skin. Finally the pressure stopped, leaving him just the agony.

Hopefully Maddy had knotted her thread good and tight. He’d hate for his head to come unraveled like the toe of an old sock.

For other Six Sentence Sunday snippets, click here.

Six Sentence Sunday, Apr. 22nd

From my historical western WIP, Nobody's Bride. I'll leave you to figure out what the H/h are doing: 

He gripped her hand and wouldn’t let her pull away.

“No!” she said in a panic. “It’s a sin!”

“I hate to tell you, honey, but everything we’ve done tonight is a sin. What’s one more?”

“But that’s an especially bad one.”

To partake of more Six Sentence Sunday goodness, go here.

Six Sentence Sunday, April 15

Another snippet from my historical western WIP, Nobody's Bride. 

He eased his mouth from hers, thinking he’d slow things down by trailing a line of kisses along the weft of her jaw, but that only led to her ear: her beautiful, shell-like ear, pinkened by long days in the sun, beckoning his tongue to explore each whorl and hollow. He gave into the temptation, smiling slightly at her gasp when his tongue slipped deep into the opening. Hmmm, she liked that, if the way she tilted her head to give him better access meant anything. He let the roughness of his morning stubble graze against her cheek, savoring the contrast between her silky softness and his sandpaper rasp.
He took the lobe of her ear gently between his teeth, letting them scrape all the way down, and then pulling the tender skin back in his mouth to suck it.
Regretfully, he let it go, and then tipped his head against hers, taking a few deep breaths as he tried to calm his body.

For more Six Sentence Sunday goodies, go here. 

Six Sentence Sunday, Apr. 2nd

Okay, we had some heavy stuff last week. This week, a little fun. Here's another snippet from my western WIP, Nobody's Bride. Our heroine, Maddy, notices that William, our troubled Civil War vet, has a button missing from his shirt:

“Let me fix it,” she heard herself saying. “Rufus had a sewing kit in the wagon.”

“Don’t worry about it—some things, you just can’t fix.” 

Her eyes swerved away from the enticing sight of his bare belly up to his face.

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try,” she said softly. 

“As long as you don’t get your hopes dashed when the fix doesn’t take.”

For more Six Sentence Sunday fun, check out the other entries here.

Six Sentence Sunday, March 25

A snippet from my WIP, a historical western, Nobody's Bride. My hero is a tortured Civil War vet who has moved to Texas to work in the cattle business. The inescapable violence of the world he lives in often triggers flashbacks to his worst combat experiences. In this scene, after he's shot a deer for venison and now must butcher it, my heroine Maddy starts to realize the extent of his problem. I'll be interested in your honest reaction. Does this kind of "weakness," for lack of a better word, make you think less of a hero?

"From the wagon, Maddy watched him walk toward the deer, knowing somehow he was in trouble. Reluctance had been etched in every line of his body as he'd prepared to drop the deer. He'd done it efficiently and without delay, but after the shot rang out, she realized what it had cost him.

Now that he'd done the deed, she could see the dread in him as he slowly made his way to the dead doe. And when he bent over and emptied the contents of his stomach, her heart ached for him.

Something awful had happened to him during the war. "

For more Six Sunday snippets, go here. 

Six Sentence Sunday, Mar 18

For this Sunday, six sentences from my WIP, Nobody's Bride, a western. Not a lot of intro here--just a sensual hair-washing scene between hero and heroine before they get together:

His fingers splayed wide, moving deep to the roots of her hair, massaging her scalp until his palm cupped her head. One fingertip traced the rim of her ear. An accident? A tiny moan escaped her without her intent. The drugging motions of his hand stopped for a moment, and then resumed. She heard the splash as he dipped the pitcher once more, and then lifted it to rain warm water down on her head.
For more Six Sentence Sunday fun, go here.

Unofficial Six Sentence Sunday

I couldn't get my act together in time to register for Six Sentence Sunday, so here's my unofficial contribution. Next week, I'll get it together, I promise! And since this is unofficial anyway, I'm gonna cheat and post more than six sentences. (Shhh, don't tell anyone.)
This one is from By Hook or By Crook, my comic contemporary romance. I'm trying to sell this one now and one ed has requested the full MS, so wish me luck! The tidbit doesn't take much setup, just a little arguing between Ivy and Joe (H/H) early on in the book when she's caught him ogling a woman:

"I find it very predictable that the only part of her you seemed to find interesting were the two bags of silicone implanted in her chest."

That brought him up short, but only for a moment. "Really? You think they were fake?"

Ivy snorted. "Of course they were fake! Real breasts don't point due north, you know."

"Interesting. Still, breasts are breasts. I like 'em all, even if they are of dubious origin."