Tuesday's Tales ~ Hill

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales  

This week I'm sharing the opening of a new longer-than-short,-short-story.

 

I love getting your feedback and find it very helpful during revisions ;-) 

 

Jack and Jill went up the hill…

 

D. I. Rebecca Greyson tapped her pen on the photograph in her hand. What was she missing that an old, and long forgotten, nursery rhyme popped into her head?

Had young Jackson Farraday climbed up the hill?

If so why?

Why would a four year old, alone, climb up the steep slope to the popular beauty spot that overlooked the city?

“We’ve talked about going up there…” Lucy Farraday had told Rebecca the previous day, not long after she’d reported her son, Jackson, missing. “All of us, for a picnic in the summer. Jim and I,” she’d added in a soft voice, her drenched eyes turned vaguely dreamy, “used to go up there a lot.” A reminiscent smile tugged at her lips and pink tinged her cheeks. “It’s possible Jackson was conceived up there.”

 

Thank you for reading this week's offering, 

there are lots more amazing reads at  

Tuesday's Tales  

Tuesday's Tales ~ Abrupt

 

Welcome to Tuesday's Tales  

 

Once again, many thanks to all those who drop by each week. I also appreciate, and often act upon comments and suggestions left.  Many thanks.

 

My story continues on from last week. Norma has decided to start on the broken mirror she found up in the attic and had just removed the backing panels. ~~I am also using NaNo to continue with this story. :-) 

 

“You mentioned something about a mirror?” Norma set the panels on the ground and crossed to the bedside. “I had no idea you had so many in the house.”

“You always had good instincts.”

It was true, whenever something was lost people came to her to ask if she knew where they should look, and more often than not she steered them in the right direction. Something else Norma had taken for granted until she started school. Quickly she’d learned to shrug her shoulders when her friends asked for help to find things.

Now she fluffed up the pillows, added a couple more and helped her grandmother to sit up and covered her shoulders with a shawl before sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Why do you say that?”  Norma found her grandmother’s searching stare a bit disconcerting. “Is that the mirror you were talking about?”

“It is, although when it was put upstairs it was not broken.”  Her grandmother’s eyes darkened when she studied the bits and pieces on the floor. “What did you find?”

“Nothing yet. I only just dismantled the frame and took the back panel away. I thought it was one piece of plywood, but it’s not, is it?”

 “No. Your grandfather replaced the original backing with two thinner pieces.”

“Why?”

“Never mind the backing pieces.” The abrupt demand had Norma swivelling round to look from the broken frame to her grandmother.

“Okay,” she said, and dropped to her knees and reached out for the remnants of the frame. A tinkling sound, as she rose, halted Norma’s intention to lay the pieces of frame on the bedcover.

In the dwindling sun rays she saw the glitter of a small silver object and reached out for it. A key? Picking it up, she turned it over in her palm before staring at her grandmother.

“Give it to me.” Her grandmother reached out her hand, her eyes no longer gentle, her lips not thinned in pain, Norma acknowledged, but in fury. “Your grandfather was a good man, but rarely changed his mind once he’d come to a decision, and—” she snatched the key out of Norma’s hand. “— in this case he was plain wrong.”

Thank you for reading this week's offering, there are

 lots more free reads at  Tuesday's Tales 

 

 

 

FREE everyday during July

His Chosen Bride

(published Astraea Press)

is the second book in the

Gasquet Princes series.

Blurb:

Prince Henri Gasquet is happy to let his father, the king, choose his bride for him until he meets Monica Latimer.

Monica Latimer is not prepared to risk letting any man close enough to learn about her Gift. A gift that normally has men running for the hills when they find out about it.

Excerpt:

She lost track of time until the flames caught her attention once more. They flickered from orange to gold, to silver, to white.

A flurry of snowflakes masked the flames and for a second Monica watched the most beautiful, pristine snow-scene she’d ever seen. Her lips curved in longing. How she’d love to get a toboggan and slide down that slope. She knew where it was, and had done just that many times in her childhood, first with her parents and then, in clandestine manner, with her brother. Sneaking an old tin tray from the back of her mother’s walk-in pantry, she’d then grabbed Billy’s hand and they’d rushed out the back gate, heading for the lakeside track that led up into the hills.

Darkness, dense and thick with grief dropped over the scene. Startled and disconcerted by the strength of emotion emanating from the vision Monica shifted to her knees, ready to stand, when a voice, a deep male voice, sharp with fear called out her name.

“Monica!”

She knew she’d never heard the voice before, and yet—it was as familiar to her as the image she saw in her mirror each morning.

Help me, Monica.”

Desperate for more clues, she searched the darkness within the flames until it sputtered and faded. With a curse she jumped up and ran for the phone. With her outstretched hand hovering over it she halted and let her hand drop to her side once more. What could she say? What would the police or rescue team think of her if she called them and told them she’d seen a vision of a man in distress?

They’d laugh in her face and classify her as a lunatic. Well, maybe not. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d contacted them with positive information but something—an instinctive gut reaction told her what she’d seen this time hadn’t happened yet.

Read the Reviews: http://www.sherrygloag.com/hcb-reviews-n-comments.php

To get your Free copy please email

reviewcoordinator@att.net

* * * *

There's more information on Book One ~ From Now Until Forever ~ at

Reviews: http://www.sherrygloag.com/sizzling-books-review-08-01-12.php

Blurb:

For Prince Liam, families meant bad news, unwanted commitments, and the loss of his personal freedom. Love spawned white picket fences, slippers at the hearth with a wife and kids making demands, so why did those images disappear when he met Melanie Babcot?

Melanie Babcot fought hard to escape the horrors of her youth and vowed to remain single and free, so when paid to protect Prince Liam from insurgents why did her personal pledge fly out the window?

Excerpt:

Liam Fitzwilliam Gasquet stared in amazement at the blooming patch of red milliseconds before the pain exploded in his arm. Some trigger-happy idiot had fired in his direction. Indignation didn’t have time to take root before another bullet kicked the dust at his feet.

Not ‘trigger-happy’.

Intentional.

The rebels had found the fourth and youngest son of Jean-Phillipe Gasquet, ruler of the tiny kingdom adjacent to the Swiss border. When had they discovered his whereabouts?

With a reluctant sigh, he faced the truth of it. They hadn’t ‘found’ him at all. They’d followed him.

Please give a warm welcome to Pepper O'Neal

Hi Pepper,
I’d like to give a warm welcome to my friend, crit group member and fellow Black Opal Books author Pepper O’Neal today. Thank you for visiting The Heart of Romance this week. I hope you’ve had a great Christmas and that Santa filled your stocking with everything you asked for.

Please will you tell us a little bit about yourself?
You know, I’ve always hated that question because I never know what to say. Like most people I could probably talk about my life experiences for hours, but when someone asks me that particular question, my mind just goes blank. Okay, so a little about me? Well, I’m a full-time researcher, writer, and adrenalin junkie. I like my life and my fiction fast-paced and exciting. Having a doctorate in education has given me the opportunity to work in many interesting places, like Mexico and the Caribbean, where I’ve had some thrilling experiences, as well as made some wonderful friends, all of which have played a big part in my writing.

Why writing? What compelled you to write, and what is your favorite genre?
From the moment I began to recognize words on paper, I’ve been a voracious reader. Books have always been friends, especially during those awkward years we all go through. So it was a natural progression to writing. Also, with my Irish/Cherokee heritage, storytelling is in my blood. As to my favorite genre, I’m not sure I have one. I like novels that are fast-paced, exciting, and have strong romantic elements. At the present time, I have three books that will be coming out in 2011: Love Potion Two-fourteen, a romantic comedy; Blood Fest: Chasing Destiny, a paranormal romantic suspense; and Black Ops Chronicles: Dead Run, a thriller with strong romantic elements. So as you can see, I write across several genres.

I know you have been placed in several competitions you’ve entered, so please will you share your take on the value of competitions with us? I know you have won at least one of those competitions. Has winning had a major impact on your publishing prospects?
Contests can definitely help with both your writing skills and your chances of getting published. BUT you have to be careful. Contests can be expensive. Even though each contest only costs $15 or $20, those fees can add up. So if you’re going to enter a contest, read the criteria and make sure it fits your book. This gives you a much better chance of placing in the contest. Most contests give you feedback from the judges, so you get an unbiased critique of your writing. And if you’re lucky enough to be a finalist, putting that in your query letter can definitely get you more requests for your manuscript. Winning a contest isn’t a guarantee you’ll get published, but it does tell editors and agents that you’re doing something right.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
That’s a tough one. There are so many beautiful places in the world, it’s hard to choose. But wherever it is, it would have to have forests. I need the trees around me. I must have been a Druid in a previous life. I don’t do well in flat open spaces.

What is your favorite color, and why?
Rust. Because it’s earthy and peaceful, and it’s one of the few colors that looks really good on me. Of course, I was born in Oregon, and sooner or later just about everything rusts there anyway. 

I know you’ve had a busy writing year this year. Do you have a particular character who has influenced you more than any other?
In my novel Black Ops Chronicles: Dead Run, which is about a woman from a Mormon crime family, my four main characters are based on friends I made while working in Mexico and the Caribbean. Of those four, I’d have to say that Levi, a former CIA agent, probably influenced me more than any of the others. And he was a major factor in my writing the book, even though he’s not the hero of the story, and he doesn’t get the girl. He’s still bitching about that, too.

Are you a ‘pantser’ or a plotter? 
Oh, I’m definitely a pantser. In fact, once I get the characters and the story idea in my head, I sit down at the keyboard and just let it come as it will. My characters pretty much dictate the first draft, while I just type. Unfortunately, since none of my characters has ever taken a writing class or read a craft book, none of them know how to write. Which means once the first draft is done, I have to go back and fill plot holes big enough to drive a semi-truck through. 
ROFL

How much research do you have to do for your stories?
As much as it takes. Nothing makes me more frustrated than reading a novel and seeing information that I know is wrong. So I try not to do that to my readers.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Yes. Never give up. You have to keep trying, no matter how long it takes. If you don't have faith in yourself, your story will never be told.

You have a novella coming out in a Valentine Anthology with eTreasures in 2011, can you tell us where we can buy it and when it will be available?
Love Potion Two-Fourteen is a romantic comedy I did for eTreasures’s Cupid Gone Wild Valentine Anthology which will include five or six novellas. These novellas will be released the first two weeks in February, but I don’t have an exact release date for mine yet. Later in the week, I’ll be doing a character interview with the heroine of the story Kole, who’s a white witch in love with the cop who suspects her of fraud. I’ll try to include the cover art as well as a link to the publisher, but I’m told it will be available at all the usual outlets as well.

You also have a full length novel coming out with Black Opal Books in March 2011, please will you tell us a little bit about it? And please will you tell us where we can go to buy it? 

The book for BOB is Blood Fest: Chasing Destiny. It’s a paranormal(shifters) romantic suspense and has a release date of March 17, 2011. This book is a finalist in the Stiletto Contest. I’m doing a character interview with Roman, the hero, who’s half Lycan shifter and half Vampire. I’ll be posting the links with that one as well.




Do you have any more books in the publishing pipeline? And if so what, and when may we expect them/it? 
Yes, one of the books I mentioned before, Black Ops Chronicles: Dead Run. I’ve been negotiating a contract with a publisher on it, but we haven’t come to an agreement yet, so I don’t have a release date. The publisher who’s interested wants some revisions first. But I’m hoping it will come out sometime in 2011.

Thank you Pepper, for telling about yourself, your books and your writing. 

You can visit me at my website:  http://www.pepperoneal.com

Don't miss the opportunity to meet some of Pepper O'Neal's heros and heroines when she interviews them later in the week.