FIRST PAGE FRIDAY: Sly's Surrender by R. Renee Vickers

 First page:

Jake had been waiting on his barstool for an hour already and had started to lose patience with his date. Oh, he knew she’d come eventually, she always did. Even with knowing Sly’s usual M.O., he never failed to show up on time, because he knew the one time he decided to be late would be the one time she’d be on time. He sighed and checked his watch again. How much longer would he have to wait?

He called Tony over with a hasty jerk of his hand. The bartender rolled his eyes and shook his head. Tony was a man in his mid-fifties with gray hair—what was left of it. He wore a white dress shirt under a black vest. The only thing he was missing was the black armband reminiscent of the style at the turn of the twentieth century. Sly told him once that Tony had been tending bar there for thirty years, which could explain his gruff attitude. Jake never had any problems with the old man but thought he had a funny way of treating paying customers. After a minute or two, Tony begrudgingly set a fresh glass of soda on a clean little napkin and sternly eyed his teetotaler.

“Hope she’s worth it, boy,” he said with a grunt and a little too much emphasis on boy, as far as Jake was concerned. Jake watched the back of the bartender’s shiny head as he turned to tend to his more lucrative patrons.

He sighed again and glanced at the door. Still no Sly. Yeah, she was worth it, but it didn’t mean he had to enjoy complying with all her demands. Abstaining from drink was one of them. He had to admit that her reasoning was sound; how could she be in control if he was drunk? And, of course, waiting for her late ass all the time was another.

The more Jake thought about her controlling nature, the more agitated he grew. Why the hell did he subject himself to this . . . this . . . her control? It’s not right that she makes me jump through all of these ridiculous hoops, he thought as he glanced at Tony, who, simultaneously, gave him another disgusted look and shook his head. Jake’s blood boiled. That’s it, Jake thought, I’m not going to take this anymore.

Bio:

Born in Florida but raised in various towns in New England, R. Renée Vickers now lives in a small town just outside of Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband and children. And although work and family life leave her little free time, she spends every available moment indulging in her favorite passion, writing.

Buy Links

https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/364/Sly%27s-Surrender

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-sly039ssurrender-644616-147.html

Blog:

http://museampoule.wordpress.com/

Social Networks:

https://www.facebook.com/muse.ampoule

https://twitter.com/#!/MuSeAmpouLe

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5359850.R_Renee_Vickers

MAKE MINE EASY MONDAY with author, Rose Anderson

Don’t you just love this time of year? Remove the consumerism -- that rush to buy gifts with money the shoppers don’t have. Take out the trappings and the hard sell angles that make people crazy enough to use pepper spray to buy an XBox. If you listen, you’ll hear quiet. All of nature is settling in for the deep winter to come.

The shorter days, with their dark mornings and early evenings, extend the quiet of the night. We’re inching toward the shortest day of the year on December 22nd. The sun is moving to its lowest and weakest point in the northern hemisphere until it barely appears during the winter solstice. There’ll be only nine hours and twenty minutes of daylight in my area that day. This is the turning point of the year. The romans called it Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. After the winter solstice, the light will grow stronger and brighter to a full twelve hour day on the spring equinox in late March.

Though it’s months away, spring can take its time coming. Growing up in Chicago I got used to my seasons being defined and coming in fours. I relish the cold grip of winter because to me this is the introspective time of year. In my country home, the cold air slips through the nooks and crannies and brings a desire to simmer a pot of homemade soup or to bake a pie or make bread just to add a little warmth to the house.

It’s time to dress the little dog in her hoodie, and I can’t help but smile. The big dog takes the cold in stride. Both dawdle on their walks these days as cold air and frosty ground make scents and smells keener. The deer, coyote, and fox all come close to the house now. The big dog takes that in stride too. The little dog is outraged at the audacity of the wildlife. She patrols from window to patio door lest the outdoor offenders even think about coming inside. Her hoodie makes her look tough and ready for action.

I’m a very warm sleeper, the sort who kicks off the covers all night long. I laugh when I tell friends I’d be comfortable sleeping naked on an ice floe, but it’s true. I prefer the bedroom window open in winter. When I was a teen, I’d leave my window open wide and snuggle into my linens with my dog at my feet. My room would get so cold I’d have frost on my doorknob in the morning. I don’t do that anymore. My husband would be too uncomfortable.

I love when he gets into bed before me. I especially love his gasp as my cold skin comes in contact with his. It’s payback, you see. As an undergrad at night school all those years ago, he drove our old beater of a Datsun back and forth to school, 63 miles one way and 63 back, three days a week. There was a small hole in the car’s floor and the heater barely worked. I’d be in bed by the time he came home frozen.

Living in an old farmhouse without heat on the second floor bedroom was my alternative to the open window. The ice cold room with the breath stealing cold bed was heaven to a warm sleeper like me. It didn’t take long to warm the space between the covers with my body heat and I’d listen to the sound of the far off train whistle carried on the cold night air. When my husband returned home from school, he’d strip down and slide under the covers then press against me to thaw. After the initial shock, we’d melt together. I loved it.

So with cold wind howling outside and in, I think I’ll bake an apple pie.

~~~

Hello, I’m Rose Anderson, the author of scorching romances Dreamscape and Hermes Online. You can find me about anywhere these days. Here are several of my links. I’d love if you’d stop and say hi. :)

My blog: http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

My page at my publisher's site: Siren-Bookstrand_RoseAnderson   

My book trailers:  MusesWritingTablet

Yes I tweet, let's be friends! @roseanderson_  (notice the _  at the end) 

And we can be friends here too! Google+ Circles (I'm not on Facebook)

You’ll also find my many small satellite blogs on various author sites. My books can be found at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Books-a-Million and dozens of online booksellers too.

MAKE MINE EASY MONDAY with author, Mandy Harbin

If you like reading books with romantic and mythical elements to them, then I have the perfect young adult series for you. Season’s Change is a four part series about a teenage girl who discovers on her seventeenth birthday the mother she’d thought long dead is actually alive and coming back for her on her eighteenth birthday. Each book covers a season and follows our girl through the next year of her life while she learns to understand and accept the mysterious changes that are happening to her.

And of course it has hot guys who want her. One guy, Don, has been the guy she’s been drooling over for as long as she can remember. The other guy, Chrys, is new in town but has some secrets of his own.

The series starts with the book of Summer, and it holds a special place in my heart because it was the first book I ever finished. And I still remember the feeling of actually typing the last line in the book and knowing I’d done it. Like many writers, I’d started several different books but never saw them through completion for one reason or another. But when I started this series I knew it would be different.

I get my ideas from practically everywhere. Listening to music can make me feel a certain way and then the brain will start going down paths before I realize I’m even daydreaming, which turns into brainstorming. I also have vivid dreams of my own that I use snippets of or in their entirety. Several of Season’s dreams in this first book were dreams I’d actually had—with little or no changes—before the writing phase even started. It’s hard to say what the driving force was behind me writing this series, but I do remember feeling passionately about wanting to write a book with a heroine in the main role. I was a fan of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, and really liked the idea of a chick who could be or become strong through her own means, yet still feel the vulnerability of everyday life. This is how Season came to be.

After months of playing scenarios out in my head and then gradually working my way to writing out storylines and outlines, I researched Greek Mythology off and on for about six to eight months before I even started writing the book itself. Funny thing is, though, when I started writing, I’d only written about ten pages and stopped because I’d come across one of the Percy Jackson books and literally felt deflated. It was another six months before I decided that I’d put too much energy into my research over what was now years of contemplating storylines for all books, writing character bios, and doing all the grunt work to not finish what I’d started. I had a story I wanted to tell, and I was going to tell it. Even if I was only writing it for myself.

When I finished the first book, I immediately drafted the second book. Then I immediately drafted the third book. I was so passionate about the story, I didn’t want to stop to start editing and polishing the first book. It wasn’t until I’d finished the third and had written the outline to the fourth that I figured I needed to clean up the first book and step away from the series for a breather before I wrapped it up. While I was “breathing” I’d written, and published, several adult romance books. It wasn’t until I started getting acceptance offers on my other work that I revisited Season’s world.

And those Percy Jackson books? Still haven’t read them or any other young adult book that I felt might’ve influence my story. I freaked for nothing. Silly. I know, right? But I did finally cave and read the Twilight series last year… after New Moon was already out on DVD.

So there you have it. A glimpse at how Season was created and why. I really hope you all enjoy this series. I’d love to hear what you think.  You can like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or check me out on Goodreads. I’m all over the interwebs. And if you like it, please leave a review. Readers rely on what others think to help make decisions (I know I do when I decide to purchase a book :P). 

Go to mandyharbin.com to learn more about Season's Change and all Mandy's books!

FIRST PAGE FRIDAY: Cat Grant's Once a Marine

Discharged under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, former Marine major Cole Hammond is struggling to find a new identity. But PTSD casts a pall on everything, and his hard-nosed, homophobic father can’t even bear to look him in the eye. To top it all off, he’s pretty sure he’s flunking out of law school. 

Marc Sullivan is a kind, sensitive romance author-slash-waiter with a thing for men in uniform. Cole’s not wearing his anymore, but there’s no mistaking the warrior Marc meets in the diner one rainy afternoon. Cole’s sexy smile and Carolina drawl prove irresistible, but Marc’s played this game before, and he always loses. Once a Marine, always a Marine, and if there’s one thing Marc knows about such men, it’s that they all leave him in the end. It doesn’t help that Cole’s practically closeted in public, or that he refuses to seek treatment for his PTSD.

But like any good Marine, Cole’s willing to fight for what matters. And like the characters in Marc’s stories, he’s certain that if only they try hard enough, together they can find their own happily ever after.

First Page

November, 2009

The second he walked into the diner, I nearly dropped the stack of plates I was carrying. Six foot three at least, with long, long legs encased in jeans worn almost white across the front of his well-muscled thighs. Dripping wet from the freezing November downpour, he unzipped his rain jacket and pushed back the hood. Oh, holy Christ. Lush lips, strong chin, cheekbones that could slice through a rare steak. Nordic-god blond hair in a military buzz cut that instantly made the crotch of my jeans tight. Good thing I had my apron on. I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose and kept staring.

I wasn’t the only one. Terry’s hand froze momentarily over the cash register as our new arrival gave her a quick nod, grabbed the sports section from the front counter, and headed for the nearest empty table. He didn’t seem to notice us both gaping at him, or maybe he just didn’t care. Drop-dead gorgeous guys like him were probably used to it.

“That’s what I call a tall, cool drink of water.” Terry handed her customer his change and shut the register with a bump of her ample hip. “And lucky you—he just sat down in your section. Unless you want to take your break now?” She flashed me a toothy grin.

“Nice try,” I fired back with a wink. I put my armload of dirty dishes in a tub under the counter and grabbed a mug and a pot of coffee before making a beeline back to Mr. Tall-and-Hunky’s table. The shitty weather had scared away most of the usual Sunday morning crowd, so for once I didn’t get waylaid refilling cups.

Tall-and-Hunky glanced up as I approached. He looked about thirty, with nice eyes—pale blue, but not the least bit icy. Smiling, I gestured toward him with the mug. “Hi, I’m Marc. Would you like some coffee?” He nodded. “Did you want some juice this morning as well, or maybe some water?”

Once a Marine can be purchased by clicking this link: http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/once-marine

Find Cat Grant on the web:

Author Name: Cat Grant

Email address: bittermint2007@gmail.com

Website URL: http://www.catgrant.com

Blog URL: http://catgrant.blogspot.com/

Twitter: CatGrant2009

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cat-Grant/123354784391947

Goodreads Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1912055.Cat_Grant

FIRST PAGE FRIDAY: Andrea Speed's Pretty Monsters: Josh of the Damned, #1

Josh knew the night shift at the Quik-Mart would be full of freaks and geeks—and that was before the hell portal opened in the parking lot. Still, he likes to think he can roll with things. Sure, the zombies make a mess sometimes, but at least they never reach for anything more threatening than frozen burritos. 

Besides, it’s not all lizard-monsters and the walking dead. There’s also the mysterious hottie with the sly red lips and a taste for sweets.

Josh has had the hots for Hot Guy since the moment he laid eyes on him, and it seems Hot Guy might be sweet on Josh too. Now if only Josh could figure out whether that’s a good thing, a bad thing, or something in between. After all, with a hell vortex just a stone’s throw away, Josh has learned to take nothing at face value—even if it’s a very, very pretty face.

First Page

The first time the hell vortex opened in the Quick-Mart parking lot, Josh very seriously considered quitting his job. But all that came out of it was a lizard guy, and all it did was amble inside, buy a bag of chips, and leave. All the monsters, while ugly, seemed nicer than his late-night human customers, and Mr. Kwon offered him hazard pay, so he stayed on.

Besides, it wasn’t all bad on the night shift. For instance, right now he was looking forward to the return of Hot Guy.

Of course it was a super hot night, still eighty degrees around midnight, and the air conditioner had to pick now to die. Josh peeled off his polyester work smock and put his nametag on his t-shirt, hoping Mr. Kwon wouldn’t suddenly show up and demand he put it back on. It breathed like a trash bag.

His latest customer was an obviously stoned guy buying a wheelbarrow full of snacks. Not only were his eyes glassy and red, but he reeked of pot smoke, making Josh wonder if he’d spilled the bong water. Pot Guy left and someone else came in. Josh leaned over the checkout counter, hopeful, but it wasn’t Hot Guy, just a lizard guy.

“Guy” in a generic, gender free sense of the word, of course, because Josh had no idea how to tell if they were male or female. Maybe they didn’t even have genders. He didn’t know how to ask without being a rude bastard, and there was a chance he wouldn’t understand the answer anyway.

The lizard guys were all tall, and this one was no exception, at least six foot five and so broad across the shoulders it could barely fit in the aisle. They had all your basic equipment—two arms, two legs,

a recognizable face—but their mouths were huge, they had no nose, and their scaled skin ranged in color from moss green to primer gray. This one was a kind of greenish-gray, like his roommate that time he got food poisoning.

Pretty Monsters can be purchased by clicking this link: http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/pretty-monsters-josh-damned-1

Find Andrea on the web:

Email address: aspeed2@gmail.com

Website URL: http://andreaspeed.com/

Blog URL: http://andreaspeed.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/aspeed

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrea-Speed/161826617217710

Goodreads Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3020553.Andrea_Speed