Excerpt from The Look of Love

This is the second book in my Forest Ridge Series. 

If you like hot firefighters here's a book for you.

You may purchase at www.roguephoenixpress.com

 

Excerpt from The Look of Love by Rosemary Indra.

As the meeting drew to a close, some of the firefighters headed for the stairs in the back of the room. A few stragglers hung back to talk in small groups. The room felt overly warm and Scott didn’t know why anyone would want to stay late. Usually he stayed long enough to have dinner and listen to the new business then he’d slip out the back door. Tonight Penny had him cornered into participating, a maneuver which surprised and annoyed him. He felt obligated to postpone his departure to make her happy.

“This should be a piece of cake. The banquet is on Valentine’s Day. We just think of Valentines and sweethearts. It shouldn’t be too hard. A few meetings beforehand and we’ll have everything planned out,” she clarified.

He listened to her explanation and figured with his lack of interest, she’d just give up and do the job herself.

They’d known each other for over a year, he admired her dedication to the department as a medic and firefighter. Her enthusiasm was the first attribute that caught his attention. Yet he realized there was a lot he didn’t know about Penny. She had a take-charge attitude he’d never noticed before and it suited her. Penny’s gaze compelled him to focus on her brown eyes again. Tonight they looked different. Brighter. Happier.

“Okay,” he agreed. “I guess if we can fight fires we should be able to do this. Right?” he asked hoping he sounded more confident and enthusiastic than he felt.

She opened her notebook and picked up her pen. “What comes to mind when you think of Valentine’s Day?”

The word ‘love’ unexpectedly burst into his thoughts and it ticked him off. A word he no longer believed in or used since his ex-wife carelessly stomped his heart into the ground.

“You mean like hearts, candy and those silly little fairy things with bows and arrow.”

“That’s good. But they’re not fairies they’re cupids.” He could tell by the stern tone of her voice she was losing patience with him. After jotting some notes on the white sheet of paper, she looked up at him. “I’ve never been to the Sweetheart Banquet, but I’ve been told it’s the highlight of the year for the firefighter’s loved ones. So we have to make this year’s extra special. Think of all the support the families have given, especially during the arson fires.” Her voice softened and he knew it was important to her to make the evening extraordinary.

For a month the department had fought one fire after another, all started by the same arsonist. Scott’s sister, Abby, helped captured their firebug through her drawings as a professional sketch artist. He was proud of all the work both his sister and Mitch did to find the suspect. The arsonist almost cost Abby her life when he kidnapped her. Penny was right; they all deserve a wonderful banquet.

“So what else would you do for a loved one?” Penny tapped him on the arm with her pen.

She leaned toward him; so close her perfume invaded his senses. Scott froze. The fragrance reminded him of summer rain on a rose garden. He leaned closer and inhaled. “Roses,” he said without thinking.

“You’ve got something there. What if we give every woman a single rose? That’s very romantic. Since the banquet is on Valentine’s Day, we should order them ahead of time.” She added to her notes.

Mesmerized by her movements, he watched as her fluid handwriting graced the paper. Her hands appeared as smooth as silk. She added tiny hearts instead of bullets at the front of each statement. Her drawing fascinated him, and he knew he could sit for hours watching her doodle. A tingling sensation ran down the length of his neck as he watched her write down their ideas.

Suddenly finding it difficult to breathe, Scott pulled on his collar, feeling it tighten around his throat. He felt uncomfortable talking about love and sweethearts with Penny. Working together they’d become close friends. He didn’t want their relationship to change. She was a full commitment, marriage type of person, and he wouldn’t have anything to do with of either. He looked from Penny’s heavy boots to her hair styled in a ponytail. She was definitely a fellow firefighter, not a sweetheart or lover.

Rogues Angels Present: Check In Day. How Was Your Week?

It's Check In Day.

Time to pay the piper! How did you do? How much did you write? Did words explode on your WIP?

This is the Rogue's Angels weekly check-in. Every Thursday we encourage the Angels and visitors to let us know how their writing is going.

How well are you doing?

Had problems this week? That's ok. Just sit down this coming week and write. Whatever you do, don't let difficulties from the week before get in your way this week.

Every word is one word closer to the finished product.

I've had a pretty good week. Just finished galleys for Sweet Misbehavin', wrote one scene for my WiP  Storm's Passion and have sent photos to my cover artist for my WIP. Oh, and I finished my character charts for WIP. Yay! Now I have to figure out what picture to use. Hmm...

Happy writing.

How was your week?

Rogues Angels Present: The Mason Dixon Line by Linda Morris

Please welcome Linda Morris author of The Mason Dixon Line.

If you leave a comment you will be entered to win... See below. Don't forget that comment!

Linda will be awarding a $50 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

The Mason Dixon Line

by Linda Morris

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. What or who inspired you to start writing?

Thanks so much for having me here today! I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I could remember. I've always been a reader and made up stories in my head since I was a kid. My sisters were quite a bit older than I was and moved out when I was still very young, so I grew up like an only child in some ways. My neighborhood didn't have many other kids either, so books were my friends and playmates a lot of the time

2. What elements are necessary components for this genre.

A happy-every-after ending, of course! Characters you can relate to are another must. Notice I didn't say that the characters have to be likable every second of the day. We all mess up and make mistakes in real life, and I think a good character has to do that too. New Adult is probably more open to this than regular romance. The characters are young and still trying to figure themselves out, so I think readers are more forgiving when they screw up.

3. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?

This is a sequel to my Amazon bestseller Melting the Millionaire's Heart, and the heroine of this book, Carolyn Hart, is a teacher's aide in that book. The character of Mason Dixon is based on a combination of my husband, my son, and Dav Pilkey, author of the Captain Underpants books. (Yes, you read that right.) Mason is a creative, smart guy who grew up with special needs when that wasn't well-understood, and has a big chip on his shoulder regarding schools and teachers as a result. Obviously, when he finds himself falling for a teacher's aide in a special-needs school, there's a lot of conflict.

4. What expertise did you bring to your writing?

For this book, I bring the expertise of having a child and husband with ADHD who allow me to write a realistic character with those issues. Mason has a combination of smarts, creativity, and attitude that are very familiar to me! 

5. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

I have a Mexico-set vacation fling romance called Nice Work if You Can Get It coming out from Swoon Romance later in 2014. I'm also working on a series of contemporary romance set on a small-town minor-league baseball team.

6. Can you give us a sneak peek into this book?

Sure. Carolyn Hart is a beautiful girl who grew up wealthy but is having a lot of trouble transitioning to the real world. She's changed her major a million times, dropped out of school, and has stumbled into a job as a teacher's aide at a special-needs school. She loves the job, even though it's low-paying, but she has so many debts due to her love of pretty things that she can't imagine sticking with it. Then she's thrown together to work on a fundraising project with Mason. He isn't rich, he doesn't like her at first, and he's nothing like the man she's ever pictured herself with, but he might turn out to be exactly what she needs.

7. Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?

I do have several critique partners who read everything I write. A good CP is worth her (or his, because one of my CPs is a guy) weight in gold. When you send a book to several CPs, you realize that this stuff is subjective and not everyone is going to agree. But a good CP can explain why something is not working and often make you see their point of view. They can be invaluable in pointing out problems you never would have been able to spot yourself.

8. When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?

I wrote throughout my twenties and submitted a few short stories to literary magazines, but never anything serious. I also had a lot of manuscripts that tipped over and died after about 70 pages. I started my first romance in 2007-2008 and sold it a couple of years later. That was Forget-Me-Not. My husband has been the biggest cheerleader and supporter of my work. I probably wouldn't be published without his support.

9. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)

The worst advice hands-down was from my father, who told me, "Don't spend a lot of time on this. That way, you won't be too disappointed if it doesn't work out." If you're going to give writing a shot, you have to spend a lot of time on it! It's like saying "I know you want to play in the NBA someday, but don't waste a lot of time on basketball practice." You can't master anything without effort and practice. The best advice I ever got, and I got this from interviews with many well-known writers, including Nora Roberts and Stephen King, is, "Finish the book!" You can't go back and fix it if you don't finish the book and have something to fix in the first place.

10. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

Somewhere in the middle. I make up GMC charts as Debra Dixon outlines in her great book, "Goal Motivation Conflict: The Building Blocks of Good Fiction." These keep me on track and keep me from wandering all over the place. I also create a list of major plot points I need to hit, which gets more detailed as I write. But I can't really write to a tight outline because then it starts feeling dead and scripted to me.

11. Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?

Mason! I love him more than any character I've ever created, and my beta readers have responded to him so positively too! He's very real, very flawed, but ultimately loving and so caring toward Carolyn, who needs him so much.

Carolyn Hart has excelled at one thing her whole life: looking good. She's always had the beauty, the style, and the attitude to turn heads. But making her own way in the world turns out to be a lot tougher than getting electing homecoming queen. She has no idea what she wants to do with her life, her credit card balance is becoming self-aware, and her love life is DOA. And now her boss at Horizons, a school for kids with special needs, has given her an unwelcome assignment: to work with a cartoonist to create a kids' book as a fundraiser for the school.

Former troubled kid Mason Dixon would do anything for the aunt who took him in after his parents gave up on him. But when he offers to illustrate a kids' book as a fundraiser for her pet cause, he winds up taking on way more than he bargained for. The gorgeous teacher's aide he's assigned to work with challenges him at every turn and makes him wonder if there's any line he won't cross for her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Got a pen?" Mason asked her.

She rifled through her purse. "Yeah, here. Why?"

"Thought I'd do some drawing. Waiting is boring."

"We've been waiting like thirty seconds."

"And I've been bored for thirty seconds. I'd rather draw."

She watched him stroke his pen across his napkin and frown when the pen's nib tore the paper. "This napkin sucks. Got any paper?"

She dug through her purse again until she found a long receipt. "Sure." She handed it over.

He eyed it. "You blew two hundred and fifty-six bucks at Victoria's Secret?"

"Hey, I gave it to you so you could draw, not criticize. No judging!" Flushing, she grabbed for the receipt but he held it out of her reach, grinning. He was cute when he smiled. Damn him.

"Who said I was judging? That purchase actually sounds worthwhile." His lips curved and she had the oddest sensation he was imagining what she might have bought. "What was it? Two hundred and fifty bucks ought to buy a lot of lingerie."

She scowled. "You'll never see it, so don't worry about it."

"Oh, I don't plan on seeing it. But I can dream, can't I?"

"Is that the Mason Dixon version of flirtation?" She crooked one eyebrow. He didn't plan on seeing it? That was a first. No guy had ever come right out and admitted he had no shot at seeing her scantily clad.

Most men were optimistic that way, even if it was totally unfounded.

He looked down at the receipt and began to doodle, his cheeks reddening. "I wouldn't say I was flirting with you."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Linda Morris is a writer of contemporary romance. She writes stories with heart and heat, along with a joke or two thrown in. Her book Melting the Millionaire's Heart was an Amazon Top 100 Series Romance bestseller.

When she's not writing, working, or mommying, she's doing yoga, reading, working in her flower garden, or baking delicious things she probably shouldn't eat. She believes that there are two kinds of people: pie people and cake people, and she is definitely one of the former. Her years of Cubs fandom prove she has a soft spot for a lost cause. A beat-up old copy of Kathleen Woodiwiss's Ashes in the Wind was her gateway drug into the world of romance novels, and she's never looked back.

Linda loves to hear from readers. You can tweet at her (@LMorrisWriter), visit her on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Linda-Morris/130241710320644, or swing by her website at www.lindamorrisbooks.com

Please use the rafflecopter below to enter contest.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/1973353

Music and Writing

With or without?

 





Music has a very important role in my life and my writing. Songs take me back to memories and places I treasure. I can recall where and when I first experienced the music and the sensations I felt. As the saying goes, music soothes the soul of the beast.

When I'm stressed and can't quite get all my cats herded, I go into my 'office', put on my headphones and play music from the times I was happiest. My stress is less and I'm not apt to snap at those around me.

When I wrote my first novel, I had a particular set of CD's I popped into the player which would get me in the 'zone' to write. This continued through my second book but by the time my third book came along I found I had better concentration without the music.

Tonight, I reverted to listening to the music I love [Yeah Earth, Wind and Fire!] and found myself writing like crazy. Maybe I need to rethink listening to music when I write? Whatever it takes to get the book from my brain to the page!

I have numerous books I want to get finished this year and I need as much motivation as I can get.

What about you? Do you NEED music to write? Or clean house?

Dumb Struck

This is the view I wish I was looking at instead of the six to ten inches of snow currently covering everything in sight.

Why is it when I'm designated to blog my mind goes completely blank? If anyone discovers the answer, I'd love to know.

I'm curious as to what kind of hero most readers prefer to see in their novels. I  use bits and pieces of several different men I admire to make a composite hero. I want a lead male character who has some experience under his belt; attitude but not obnoxious, a sense of right and wrong and a bad-boy look.

He has to be gainfully employed and his life needs to be heading in a positive direction. His interaction with the heroine shouldn't be a 'slam-dunk'. They need to spar a bit and butt heads. A little spice always makes for interesting reading. If he's a bit of a bad boy but can choose to willingly change, that's not bad either.

What is your idea of the perfect hero?

Snow! and other thoughts

 

SNOW!

In the grander scheme of things, our measly five to ten inches of snow is minor. We're not trying to dig out from under several feet of the stuff as they are in the Midwest and East Coast. However, the Willamette Valley isn't used to dealing with this stuff. According to the weatherman on the station I watch, it's been nineteen years since there was this much mess.

I think I can live without it.

On to cheerier subjects...

I realize a Vampiress isn't what most would consider 'cheerier' but I have a method to my madness. The Mr. and I have been sucked into a television program on SyFy that I find fascinating, at the least, and mind-boggling. On Tuesday nights, a show called FACE OFF airs at nine in the evening.

The premise is a group of makeup artists compete for a prize of $250,000 and recognition from the hub of the movie business, Hollywood. They take an idea inspired by the producers and invent a creature that will wow the Oscar winning judges.

The participants have four days to make their idea come alive from simple sketch to three dimensional being. The characters should be able to pass the close inspection of the judges with the idea of withstanding a day on the movie shoot.

I noticed how like a writer these artists are. They take a one line 'suggestion' and create an entirely new being with a complete backstory to give the character some depth. If you have the opportunity to watch a show, give it a try. You'll get an education on how the insiders in Hollywood work and get to watch some amazing artists ply their passion.

Stay warm.

Sable Angel

Rogues Angels Present: Check In Day.

It's Check In Day.

Time to pay the piper! How did you do? How much did you write? Did words explode on your WIP?

This is the Rogue's Angels weekly check-in. Every Thursday we encourage the Angels and visitors to let us know how their writing is going.

How well are you doing?

Had problems this week? That's ok. Just sit down this coming week and write. Whatever you do, don't let difficulties from the week before get in your way this week.

Every word is one word closer to the finished product.

Finished first round of edits today and sent them to my editor. This week I worked on character charts for (my working title is 'Storm').

Happy writing.

How was your week?