Six Sentence Sunday!

Hosted by Six Sunday.

The following 6 are from my Historical Novella set 1808: England. Although this novella may seem sweet, think veiled deception! It's really very risque.

Her Favoured Captain.

A tentative smile creased his face and something stirred within her as it never had before, and out of her depth, floundering in his honesty, words flowed from the heart. “Fondness has been far from Ned’s thoughts for a long while,” she said, eyes drifting to his ship at anchor. “And you, back then . . . a soldier too?”

   
  “Lieutenant, in his majesty’s Royal Navy.”

      
Her eyes levelled on his again, and something about them implied him genuine. “Then why are you now a buccaneer?”          

Below is the book trailer for "Her Favoured Captain".

To see entries by other participants go here.

Romantic Friday Writers - Challenge No. 9.

For this, the 9th RFW Challenge "Forgiven", I settled down to write this last night at nine o'clock and finished it at nine-forty-five. You'll get the gist of it, I feel sure. The whole cameo is conducted via cell-phones.
Characters: Tess is Amy's sister, and a colleague of Max: both doctors.
Amy is Max' wife.
Max is absent.
Sonia is Max secretary.
The unknown girl a nurse.

“Max just isn’t the sort of guy to play around.”

       “She’s barely out of nappies, Tess, and I’m fifty-five. Worse, it’s our silver wedding anniversary, and here I am all tarted up for dinner out and Max has just rung to say he’s running late. He’s sending a taxi and said he'll catch up with me at the restaurant as everyone else will be doing.” There was a long pause: Bloody cell-phones and dead spots. “Can you hear me?”

       “Yes, I hear you, Amy. Max wouldn’t get involved with someone younger than Kate.”

       “Why does he go out of his way to drop this girl off at night then, and leave extra early in the morning to pick her up? It gets worse. She’s pregnant, and guess what … she’s dumped her boyfriend.”

        “Doctor confidentiality and all that, how could anyone know the girl’s pregnant?”

        “News travels fast in hospitals, especially when a certain person is seen at onsite pharmacy, a pregnancy test kit discreetly requested. Then she and Max leave together that evening and are spied parked up outside a GP’s surgery.”

        “Oh.” Yet another long pause.  "It isn't what you think.”

        “But he was seen, and evidence as proof. It was Sonia’s day off and she snapped them on her cell-phone and sent me the pic. ”

        “Blast Sonia. The truth is, this girl has had her eyes on Max for months. But, she doesn’t know the full facts about you and Max, nor about Kate. Believe me, he stupidly looked on this girl as a surrogate Kate, and like the trusting fool that he is he was utterly blind to her advances. He’s finally wise to his mistake, but Max is sometimes too nice for his own good, which makes him a great doctor if slave to compassion. Naturally, he wants to let the girl down gently, and he’s desperate for any help he can get in this quarter.”

        “You knew about this girl?”

        “Forgive, me please. I wanted to save you from unnecessary heartache.”

        “Forgiven, Sis, because I’ll need your shoulder to cry on, later. It's at times like these I miss Kate so much. She would have been twenty next Thursday.”

        “I know, and Max misses Kate, too: dreadfully.”

        “He never talks . . . We never talk about her.”         

        “He will tonight. Trust me, I know, and you haven’t been told. O.K?”

        “O.K., and my taxi's here.”  

400 words!

I've clinched a publishing contract! - How shall I celebrate?

Right then folks: how to celebrate having signed a publishing contract for "The Billionaire's Dilemma: Twin Mistresses"?

Does anyone remember reading a snippet (blogfest) in which "Lost" a lion cub featured? Well, this is the novel and it's scheduled for release July 2012. Naturally, by the time the hero meets "Lost" she's nine-months old and all muscle, but, being as he's an ex-cavaleiro (Portuguese bullfighter) Allessandre is not afraid to face Lost with little more than golf club to hand. Exciting stuff.

Actually, I have sort of celebrated this publishing deal by self-pubbing a historical novella to Kindle. See my writer profile blog for details and tell me what you think re self-made book trailer.

Book Trailer & Challenge No. 8 - "Lies!"

Even though I dreamed up the theme "Lies" I found it quite hard to come up with a piece that had any romantic elements. "Lies" is a tough one, because there might be hurt along the way even if romance the end result, and this is the opening to a romance novella. 

When would life again be simple?

       Damn it, he just couldn’t erase the image of her leaning on the top rail of the paddock; her attention solely transfixed on the horses and ponies, a swathe of poppies dancing in gentle breeze beside her. 

       She hadn’t come to kiss him goodbye, and she’d never missed doing that before. Had she known, known then that he’d lied?  Why hadn’t he got off his damned Ducatti and strode across to her, swept her of her feet and hugged her?  But no, he’d glanced at his watch and running late had set off with nothing more than wave of hand.

       O.K., so he’d sort of said his goodbye at breakfast: her cornflower blue eyes following his every movement. Something in her expression throughout had implied distrust at every word uttered from his mouth, her raven hair tumbling over her shoulders and petulant air about her. And, when she’d left the house she’d looked remarkably unconcerned about his going. But to just stand and not even watch him leave, as though he merely motoring into the village for the morning paper when in fact he would be away for months It all made him feel a worse rat than usual. 

       Damn and blast it, he couldn’t let her coolness get to him. He had an important business meeting. He needed to be focused on matters at hand not have his mind wandering to Anna Marie, not when he had Caroline to pick up on the way. But then again, Anna Marie had every right to be mad at him. He’d promised so much one way and another and delivered little or nothing, bar for lavish gifts that always seemed to delight her.      

       What of Caroline, though, and how would Anna Marie react if she knew there was someone else?

       He knocked on Caroline’s door, sense of guilt weighing him down.

       The door opened in a flurry, Caroline’s ever provocative smile teasing the senses.           

       “Nick, lovely to see you back. You didn’t call.”

       “I had things on my mind.”

       Oh God. When would the lies end?  When would he finally be able to tell his daughter the truth about himself?  Anna Marie deserved so much more from him than that of absentee father, and of being left with his aged parents. 

386 words.

To see work by other participants go here. 

And please, take a look at this book trailer!  This is my meagre attempts at a book trailer for my novella "Her Favoured Captain". 
Be kind, please, I'm a novice at this game.  
"Her Favoured Captain" is now published and available on Kindle at Amazon.

The Amazon link can be seen top right side-bar.
If you look at the bottom left corner of cover image you'll see a motif: RFW. There's a reason for this and I'll explain more, later, on a RFW set-aside page.

Romantic Friday Writers 7th Challenge & MC Blogfest!

If you're here looking for my entry to the MC blogfest, it's directly below the RFW Challenge!

For the RFW Challenge No. 7, I’ve snatched a snippet from my historical novella ‘Her Favoured Captain’.

Brief: Emerald, distraught, has rushed down to the creek and to someone she hardly knows but has come to trust, implicitly! But things are not as she has expected . . .

Why had her buccaneer deserted her so cruel, set sail, and not a word? They had agreed to meet again late afternoon, and if nothing else she would have pleaded to sleep a while in his arms if not able to sail away with him. Now, now she had to go back and face Ned and Moorby. Barely able to raise herself from her knees, a sleepless night had most certain taken its toll alongside dread of a fate worse than death.

       She retraced her footsteps, heart leaden. The bridge reached she sat upon the steps, tears flooding. How had it come to this? How could Ned be so irresponsible in gambling away the house, the estate, when already mortgaged beyond their means? What evil influence had possessed him, driven him to drink and to reckless carding?  Once a loving brother, now a monster, she neither knew him or understood this brother returned from war a hero, when so weak in other ways. Two years of Ned back at Penhavean, the estate coffers emptied and the life they had known slipping from their grasp.

       Sound of horses hooves and wheels stole her attention, for a carriage most certain on approach to the bridge and coming from the house. Could noon have passed, and Moorby on his way as threatened? Surely not, for it could not be more than half eleven and time enough to meet with the earl’s demands. She had to do something, any thing to save Penhavean and Ned from ruin. If not, her future would be more uncertain than before. At least as Moorby’s wife her status that of a lady would be retained, and as Ned had said, provide a son for the earl and take a young lover if you despise the old man that much.

         To be so uncertain as to who would be waiting upon her return to the house, quite daunting. If it was Ned she feared his wrath, but he could not hurt her any more than he already had. If Moorby, she would have to surrender herself to him. He might think of her as his, for he would have her body. Part of her heart, though, would forever remain at Penhavean Hall, the greater part at sea. No matter her buccaneer’s desertion he had unknowingly stolen her heart.

       Oh, how love hurts. . .

396 words!  To see other participants entries go here.

      

 This blogfest is kindly hosted by the lovely Elizabeth Mueller.

Right, the object of this blogfest is “How to Connect with Your MC”. In other words, a couch therapy session, as in, interview disguised as therapeutic bonding!

***

Hi, I’m Tara, a character in a contemporary romance, and the idea of being interviewed by my author sounded kind of wacky to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are things I kept from her, not intentional for my part, just hadn’t thought them worth revealing. But anyhoo, the question session started something like this: see what you think!

Question 1:  What is your greatest fear?

Tara:  “I have a secret, simple as that. If ever it’s exposed my true identity will come to light.”

Question 2:   What is your biggest accomplishment?

Tara:  “Oh, that of my second greatest love, stage design. It landed me a job on Broadway.”

Question 3:   What is your biggest regret?

Tara:  “That I didn’t go with Rick. If I had, at least I’d know whether he’s alive or dead, presupposing I survived the air crash.” (tearful moment) “No body has been found with the wreckage of his aircraft, and it’s weeks since it was discovered on a remote beach in Brazil”

To see other participants in this blogfest go here.

While you're here, don't forget to check out other listed blogfests: see banners in sidebar!