Sweet Saturday Sample

This is an excerpt I thought was for a certain story only to disciver it's nothing of the sort but the start of a new WIP which *may* turn out to be a spin-off from my Gasquet Princes series.  It's all getting very confusing! :-)

Today was the first anniversary… her mind skittered still unwilling to return to the darkest moments of her life— The knock on the door the sombre-faced police officers who didn’t need to say a word to relay their information.



The approaching bridge disappeared from view, swamped by a kaleidoscope of bitter, futile memories.


Hadn’t she left the flat to escape them, she demanded silently. Hadn’t she demanded, a year ago, her husband stay in bed ‘for one more day’?


Yes, she had! And had he listened to her? Of course not, when had Allan ever stopped long enough to listen. To consider her fears, her needs, her love. And why, she asked herself as she ran into the shadow cast by the bridge, why had she ever thought herself in love with the arrogant bastard?


She’d seen him daily for a year before he spoke to her other than to pass over his order for coffee and a bagel on his way into work. She’d lived for those moments, dreaming that one day his smile would connect with hers. That one day his heart would hear the excitement and desire when her own childish heart beat out its delirious tattoo of longing.


Tall, and the sight of his blond hair falling across his forehead and one eye, turned her stomach to mush each morning. His broad shoulders offered false promises of strength and security, his lying, laughing eyes had her believing him when, one day, out of the blue, he’d asked her out because she was so pretty and he couldn’t get her out of his mind.


Gullible, gullible, gullible fool that she’d been.

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A-Z Challenge Day 17 - Q

Q is fo Quotes

Today is another and obvious day for some more quotes, so without further ado, here we go...






If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.  Betty Reese

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.  Aristotle

Everybody is somebody, but nobody wants to be themselves. Gnarls Barkley

There ain’t no rules around here. We’re trying to accomplish something.  Thomas Edison

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.  Henry David Thoreau

Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible.  Javier Pascual

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Reinhold Niebuhr

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.  Albert Einstein

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.  JFK

Always forgive your enemies - Nothing annoys them so much.  Oscar Wilde

To an adolescent, there is nothing in the world more embarrassing than a parent.  Dave Barry

Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Raising kids is part joy and part guerilla warfare. Ed Asner

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.  Buddha

There are around 1700 participants this year and you'll find a list HERE 

A-Z Challenge Day 8 - H

H - is for Hunk

so sit back and enjoy, and perhaps tell me chich is your favourite and why. :-)

So there you have it for today :-)

There are nearly 1900 participants this year and you'll find a list HERE

A-Z Challenge - Day 6 F

 

F is for Funny

So I went looking for some of the funnier quotes out there online.

Do you have a favourite quote you'd like to share?

 

The only reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.

(http://www.coolfunnyquotes.com/)

"Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the world together."
(http://www.coolfunnyquotes.com/)



The road to success is always under construction.
((http://www.coolfunnyquotes.com/)




A selection from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_funny.html

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.

Groucho Marx

Be obscure clearly.
E. B. White

There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
Henry A. Kissinger

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Anton Chekhov

Every man dies. Not every man really lives.
William Wallace

Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.

~~~

You'll find more information about the following books at http://www.sherrygloag.com/

    




There are nearly 1700 participants this year and you'll find a list HERE

Tuesday Tales - Night 26th March

Another Tuesday Tales rolls round, and this week's prompt is 'Night.'  So I have dipped into my Regency WIP again, and come up with a bit on introspection on Julian's part, this time.

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

The starlit night sky drew Julian’s attention.

Destiny? Did it exist?

Even as a child, Deborah caught his attention. Admittedly as one he’d looked on most of the time as a pesky kid who trailed after her elder brother and his friends. In retrospect, she appeared to spend more time away from her classes than attending them, and yet, the woman he was learning to know was bright, intelligent and kept her wits about her in a crisis.

Oh, he’d known about her mother’s death in childbirth, but at the time he’d failed to consider the impact it had on Deborah’s life within the household. Her need to abandon the schoolroom to take over her late mother’s duties simply hadn’t occurred to him. The stability and the support she’d given her siblings, when grieving herself, was probably never fully appreciated at the time by them or her late father. In retrospect, her life had not been an easy one, therefore to expect a meek and accepting bride would be a big mistake on his part. On the other, and a purely practical level he need never worry about the running of his home when put into his wife’s hands.

With her loyalties so obviously given to her existing tenants he wondered how they were going to achieve that.

Six Sentence Sunday

Thank you to everyone who leaves comments, and visits every week.

Today I am sharing more from of my Valentine Story about the brother, Henri, of the hero, Liam, in my current novella, From Now Until Forever, published by Astraea Press.

“I have not been unaware of the burden you have carried since my heart attack a year ago. Combining your own commitments with those you took over while I recuperated would have felled a lesser man.”

Feeling the heat burn his cheeks, Henri shifted in his chair.

The past twelve months had been tough, and for the last six, his advisors almost competed with each other in counselling him to slow down unless he wanted to occupy his father’s hospital bed.

“I am also aware you have ignored their advice to cut back. So I am decreeing that of this moment you are on indeterminate leave of absence.”

You'll find plenty more great offerings at Six Sentence Sunday

“When there is an original sound in the world, it makes a hundred echoes.”

“When there is an original sound in the world, it makes a hundred echoes.”

John A. Shedd

Words are a bit like this.

One of the gremlins that so often slip through the editing net while preparing a manuscript for submission to a publisher is what is termed ‘echoes’ by the editors who plough through those lucky enough to make it onto the editors piles.

‘Echoes’ is another word for ‘repetition’. And it is surprising how many times ‘echoes’ creep into your work.

It may not be the same word that echoes through the whole story. You may find certain words litter several chapters and then the echoes change in the following ones.

Today I was working through a particular chapter searching out two words. ‘Season’ and ‘children’. ‘Season’ turned out to be under control, but ‘children’? In one particular page the word was everywhere. In almost every sentence.

And the horrifying thing was I’d ‘read’ over the echoes several times and only discovered them when I went in and used the ‘find’ facility.

Some echoes are permissible, but too many, and they simply become an annoyance that disrupts the writing flow, and pull the reader out of the story.

As I use all these awesome gadgets within the program and other software available I give thanks I do not have to struggle through the days of the typewriter, and my respect for those authors rises with each mistake my computer ‘gadgets’ discover and correct.

From Now Until Forever

Six Sentence Sunday

Best wishes  for 2012 to you all.

Thank you to everyone who leaves comments, and visits every week.  

What better way to start the New Year than to start with a new story? So  Today I am sharing the opening six lines of my Valentine Story about the brother of the hero in my current novella, From Now Until Forever, published by Astraea Press.

Henri Pierre Gasquet hesitated before knocking on his father’s office door. They’d shared breakfast together less than an hour ago and talked over many things, including Henri’s killer schedule for the next several months. The king had given no indication of the need for a formal meeting this morning. With a fatalistic shrug, he knocked, waited a second, then turned the handle and entered the room.

“You wanted to see me?”
Henri waited for his father to indicate he sit before dropping into the chair in front of the king’s desk.

You'll find plenty more great offerings at Six Sentence Sunday

Happy New Year

Thank you to everyone who has shared my path during 2011.
I treasure your gifts of 'being' a part of my life.

And wish you all,

all the best for 2012

"Remember today, for it is the beginning of always. Today marks the start of a brave new future filled with all your dreams can hold. Think truly to the future and make those dreams come true."

unacknowledged

Sweet Saturday Sample

Thank you to everyone who visits every week and to those joining us all this week. Click here-> Sweet Saturday Samples to enjoy many other fabulous excerpts.

This week I'm sharing another snippet from a first draft of another short paranormal WIP, ~ Wolfman.

The force of its inner rage rolled across the intervening space, threatening to buckle her knees.

White-knuckled, she clutched the top of the barrier and watched the distant wolf glance toward the fascinated visitors before refocusing on the dominant male and his family.

Somehow she wasn’t surprised to see the lone male heading for the perimeter near where she stood. He ignored the interest of the rest of the pack as he drew close.

The intensity in his eyes caught and held her attention. She froze. Only the animal in front of her mattered. Broad shoulders rippled beneath his grey and silver fur. It reminded her of her husband’s shoulder-length mane of silver-blonde hair. Was the wolf’s fur soft like Alex’s hair, or coarse to the touch? Where had that thought come from?

Alex! Her heart’s silent cry filled her head.

“I’m here, Jen. I need your help to get me out.”

Jen swung round and searched the crowd. Why couldn’t she see him when he sounded so close?

SPOOK-A-LICIOUS:WHERE BOO-KS DEVOUR YOU BLOG HOP TOUR (OCT 17-24)

SPOOK-A-LICIOUS:

WHERE BOO-KS DEVOUR YOU

BLOG HOP TOUR (OCT 17-24)

1) HAVE FUN!!!

2) INVITE ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!

3) THIS TOUR STARTS: Monday, October 17, at Midnight (Arizona Time)
THIS TOUR ENDS: Monday, October 24, at Midnight (Arizona Time)
Winners will be drawn and posted October 25th! ***

4) MEET AND MINGLE WITH ALL THE AUTHORS & BOOK PAGES! EXPERIENCE A NEW DESTINATION AT EVERY STOP! PARTICIPATE IN EVERY BLOG CONTEST AND BE ENTERED FOR CHANCES TO WIN MULTIPLE PRIZES! EVERY BLOG VISITED IS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO WIN!!

5) PARTICIPATION AT ALL BLOGS IS RECOMMENDED, BUT NOT REQUIRED. REMEMBER, THE MORE BLOGS YOU HOP, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING PRIZES. EVERY AUTHOR & BOOK PAGE IS WAITING TO MEET AND INTERACT WITH YOU, SO PLEASE BE SURE TO SHOW THEM SOME LOVE!

6) DID I MENTION TO HAVE FUN? WHOO! HOO!! HERE WE GOOOOOOOOOOOO!***

Authors & Book Pages have full discretion to choose an alternate winner in the event any winner fails to claim their prize(s) within 72 hours of their name being posted or after notification of win, whichever comes first. Anyone who participates in this blog hop tour is subject to these rules***

Read on to learn more about the giveaways and link to other participants

Borley Rectory-Essex (1862-1939)- The Most Haunted House in Britain



Borley Rectory, reputed to be the most haunted house in the UK was built in 1863 by Rev. Henry D. E. Bull.
In 1939  a fire  raised the rectory to the ground in mysterious circumstances.
The most popular story to the background of Borley was that in 1362 Benedictine Monks built a monastery on the site which would later hold the rectory.
 
Legend told of a nun from the Bures convent, 7 miles southeast of Borley falling in love with a monk from the monastery. They had decided to elope to be together, but the elders discovered their plans. A friend of the monk was to drive a carriage to help them escape. On the fateful night they were captured by the elders. The coachman was beheaded, the monk hanged and the nun was bricked up alive in the walls of the vaults beneath the rectory. Their ghosts have haunted the site ever since.
 
Henry Price made it his life's work to investigate the reupted hauntings and the following links will give you more information.
http://www.ghost-story.co.uk/stories/borleyrectory5.html
http://www.ghost-story.co.uk/stories/borleyrectory4.html
http://www.ghost-story.co.uk/stories/borleyrectory4.html
 

The wall writings that appeared were investigated by many of the different occupants over the years.

The Borley rectory writings on the wall is one of the most interesting manifestation of the famous Borley rectory haunting, which was probably the first case of ghost hunting in history. They believed the writings had come from a young deceased catholic woman who wanted her body to be discovered and receive a proper Christian burial ceremony. She was trying to communicate with Marianne, wife of the Reverend Lionel Foyster, the couple living in the rectory in October 1930. We can read "Marianne... please help get" and "Marianne light mass prayers". Marianne wrote that she couldn't understand some of the writings.

You can learn more about them HERE

GIVEAWAYS

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1st Prize ~ PDF version of Duty Calls

2nd Prize ~  The Brat Book Mark

3rd Prize ~ Duty calls Book Mark

OFFICIAL LINKY LIST FOR SPOOK-A-LICIOUS: WHERE BOO-KS DEVOUR YOU: BLOG HOP TOUR (OCT 17-24)

Congratulations to the winners and my thanks to all who visited this blog-hop.

Six Sentence Sunday

As always, my thanks to everyone who stops by. I appreciate your company and your comments.

This week I am again posting six sentences from my current WIP. Today's offering carries on from last week.

Unable to sit still a moment longer, Deborah jumped up from the settee and stalked towards her sibling. “You come here uninvited and have the effrontery to demand to see my books, and to interview Brandon, my estate manager.” Fighting her desire to smack him in the face she whirled away and back again. “You’re coming it a bit too strong, my lord,” she said with all the hauteur she could muster.

“I didn’t know it had come to waiting for an invitation before I could visit my oldest sister.”

Visit Six Sentence Sunday for more wonderful snippets

Six Sentence Sunday

As always, my thanks to everyone who stops by. I appreciate your company and your comments.

I am posting another six sentences from my current experimental Regency WIP.

 

Under no circumstances would she allow her pompous, if well meaning brother to interfere in her affairs now.

“Don’t be difficult, Deb. Brandon is waiting for me in the office, as we speak.”

“Do you mean to tell me, you have gone behind my back and contacted my manager without my knowledge?”

The dull red that crept from his neck to his face told its own tale.

“How dare you undermine my authority in this fashion?”

“Brandon contacted me.”

Visit Six Sentence Sunday for more wonderful snippets

Sweet Saturday Samples

Thank you to everyone who visits me every week and to those joining us all this week. Click here-> Sweet Saturday Samples to enjoy many other fabulous excerpts.

This week I'm taking a break for The Brat and sharing more of a short paranormal story that so far has failed to find a home.

A moth, a light beige moth, with fuzzy hairs on its head, ignored the solar lamps and settled on the cushion beside me. I smiled. Moths, butterflies and other insects fed and bred off the plants and flowers, birds nested in the boxes I set up, and used the shrubbery as secret pathways to their destinations when they didn’t want to fly. But faeries?

“Nah!” Even I had trouble with that idea. The moth launched into the dark, hovered, then settled on my knee. Its beady eyes staring straight into mine. If a moth could exhibit disgust, then I was witnessing the event.

“The trouble with humans,” an indignant voice huffed, “is that they can’t see beyond the end of their noses.”

Six Sentence Sunday

As always, my thanks to all of you who stop by and read my efforts. I always appreciate your company.
This week, I'm taking a break from offering snippets from my current novel, Duty Calls, available in paperback, ebook formats, kindle and nook.
Instead here are the opening lines of my first short story, Precious Treasures, published in 2009 by LASR
(editied for SSS)

From beneath her colour co-ordinated lashes she studied her ex husband; he’d broadened out and toughened up, money did that to a man. The sensual lips narrowed in a line of discontent, and his grey eyes resembled ash-covered ice chips, his bronzed skin had darkened from his sojourn in the tropics. Building exclusive resorts in exotic locations. She’d followed his meteoric rise to fame and fortune in the media, unable to avoid the zillions of pictures of him with a different woman welded to his arm each time. The coverage rose exponentially with his wealth.

Finally, she got real and stopped looking.

Click HEREto enjoy more SSS offerings

Sweet Saturday Samples

Thank you to everyone who visits me every week and to those joining us all this week. Click here-> Sweet Saturday Samples to enjoy many other fabulous excerpts.
This week I'm taking a break for The Brat and sharing more of a short paranormal story that so far has failed to find a home.

A cool breeze replaced the relentless heat of the day and I imagined the garden sighing with relief. I sipped my dry white wine and let the taste linger on my tongue before enjoying its slide down my throat. Only the solar garden lamps lit the deck-area. I’d left the indoor lights off, allowing the breeze to filter through the house before going indoors and locking up for the night.

This was the time I usually ‘talked’ through the events of my day with Gerald.

“That is just so weird.” Rachel exclaimed when she turned up unexpectedly, one evening. “He’s been gone for nearly two years now and you ‘talk’ to him every night!” She’d shifted to the other end of the rocker. “I suppose you’re going to tell me he ‘talks’ right back at you!” She didn’t quite snort with derision, but it was close!

“Sort of.” I admitted cautiously. After all how did you explain the ‘sort of knowing’ that settled after you vocally aired your thoughts and problems aloud to an empty garden?

“Like I say,” she’d moved back and given me a hug to take the sting from her words. “You’re seriously weird.” She paused for effect, “but I still love you.”

Sweet Saturday Samples

#3 Thank you to everyone ho visited last week and to those joining us all on the second week of the great new Sweet Saturday Samples please enjoy.
While The Brat is rated 'sensual' and PG, there is no violence or 'explicit' sex in The Brat. There is some background reference, without details, to child abuse.
This scene in my debut novel The Brat published by The Wild Rose Press follows on from last week.

* * *

“Perhaps my mother… No.” He sighed. “Why would she keep any photos of me? And where would she get hold of one? Come on. Let’s see if we can find out. I imagine she’ll go back to the house.”

“She may.” The solicitor studied the handle of his briefcase while Ben released the car locks, then settled back against the supple leather of the passenger seat.

“Anything left in the cottage after the funeral automatically becomes part of your
mother’s estate. If she attends the funeral, she no longer has access to the property once she leaves the cemetery. If she hadn’t attended, the ban on access applied at the start of the service.”

Ben swept his gaze from the road to the man beside him and back again. “That’s a bit ostentatious, isn’t it, for a woman with nothing to leave? Why the unusual stipulation?”

"Mrs. Kouvaris was…” Obviously choosing his words with care, Cranborne continued, “a complex woman.” The words dropped into a silence and left much to the imagination.

“So my mother left nothing to the child she took in after sending me to my father’s home in Greece?”

He swallowed the taste of bitterness in his throat.

“And nothing to this Miss Williams who cared for her for the past five years?”

“Quite so.”

“Do you know the identity of the child my…”

Ben hesitated. “The name of the child she replaced me with—do you know her identity?”

“No.” The man shifted in his seat. “I don’t think Mrs. Kouvaris ever bothered to find out.”

Six Sentence Sunday

Thank you to everyone who visited last week.  I appreciate your company and comments. 
This week's 'six' follows on from last week's.
* * *

“Widow? Cadmore never said anything about a wife. He introduced me to his sister. I told you he wagered his sister against my twenty thousand pounds.”

The remembered stench of the dingy room, stale beer, and dirty, sweaty bodies that fateful night pervaded Rafe’s memory. The single overhead bulb that failed to illuminate the far corners of the room hid the gray-faced stick of a woman who’d stepped forward when commanded.

Duty Calls is available ~ HERE HERE & HERE

Please visit my website to learn more, and read the reviews.

You will find other participants of Six Sunday Sentence HERE

Sweet Saturday Samples

#2 Thank you to everyone ho visited last week and to those joining us all on the second week of the great new Sweet Saturday Samples please enjoy.

While The Brat is rated 'sensual' and PG, there is no violence or 'explicit' sex in The Brat. There is some background reference, without details, to child abuse.


This  scene in my debut novel The Brat published by The Wild Rose Press follows on from last week.
* * *

The sound of crunching gravel brought his attention back to the reverend as the manapproached them. “Mr. Kouvaris.” The clergyman extended his hand and held out the sealed envelope.

“I am delighted to carry out this small commission for Miss Williams.” He looked over his shoulder to the open grave, then continued, “Please accept my condolences at such a sad time.”

“Thank you.” Ben took the envelope. What else could he say?

“By your mother’s request, there’s no formal gathering after the funeral, but you are welcome to join me and my wife at the vicarage.” His gaze encompassed them both as his arm waved in the direction of a large house overlooking the graveyard.

“Thank you, but I’m leaving for Greece this evening.” Ben wished himself gone, then wondered aloud, “How did you identify me?”

The clergyman had moved away but swung round with a puzzled frown. “Miss Williams pointed you out when she asked me to give you this.” He indicated the envelope in Ben’s hand.

“I see.” He didn’t, but kept his own counsel. 

"Thank you,” Ben repeated and, with Mr. Cranborne, headed for his hired car.

The man beside him voiced the question running through Ben’s mind. “How did she know who you are?”

How does a writer make marketing their stories easier on themselves?

This week's blog-hop question has been set by L. P. Robinson this week.  "How does a writer make marketing their stories easier on themselves?"

'By the seat of their pants,' would be the facetious answer, but the reality is, with a great deal of hard work.

Yes Facebook, twitter and other networking sites are essential to get your message across.  But stop for a moment and ask yourself, 'who is your target market?  Are you connecting with the 'right' people, the right targets?

The people you are looking for are readers.  And not just readers, but those who enjoy your genre.  You can have ten thousand followers, but if none of them are interested in what you write, then you are not focussing in on your target market. Consider, for a minute.  Where do you go when you want to buy a pair of shoes?   And if you are looking for a specific brand and style of shoes, yes, your choices narrow down, but you are more likely to find what you are looking for.  And if they enjoy your book they will spread your fame by the strongest promotional tool out there -- word of mouth.

And yet... you still need to think outside the box, find sites that have connections, however slight.  If, as I have in my current novel, Duty Calls, you have a character who has had cancer, then look around similar sites and see if you can blog for them, or give a talk.  This is not everyone's idea of a good day out.  I happen to be one of those. But if you have the savvy to target potential readers who may otherwise be 'outside' your normal marketing box, then give it a go.