SSS-FB 10-02-13

This week I am continuing from where I left off last week in my Valentine Rom Com, The Wrong Target which is avaialable at Amazon, UK kobo

My hero, Ryan Thomas, is confronted by his rebellious daughter Sheila who's been excluded from her high-class school for bringing a dangerous weapn to school by my heroine, Tina Blackberry.  We know from last week Sheila is not a happy camper...

Her words collided with his heart. Would she turn out like her mother, always wanting things her way? It sounded like his little girl almost hated him. Did she expect him to throw his weight around and demand her reinstatement in school?

Words, he mused, carried the weight of expectations. They had equal power to create great joy and intense sadness.

You can find more offerings over at the new FB group Six Sunday Sentence

Sweet Saturday Sample

Sweet Saturday Samples strikes again :-) Thank you to everyone who comes by, I appreciate your suppport and comments.

As retailers gear up for another Valentine's Day I thought I'd share the original, sadly discarded, opening to my first Valentine novella, The Wrong Target.

Every so often there are days that start badly, and continue to go on downhill, and today I’m having one of those days. 

I often think humans assume Cupid’s life is one big laugh.  Well, I’m here to tell everyone it’s not.  And if I get it wrong this time, ‘They’, as in ‘the Powers that Be’ have threatened to remove my wings.

My boss instructed me to target this guy Sam Brown. “And make sure you don’t screw-up this time,” he said.

Of course, I blame Murphy’s Law for missing my target last year. They weren’t too pleased with the outcome.  The guy married the wrong woman. So you see, I had to get it right this time. 

 Until last year I used my own discretion, unfortunately because of my error, this year’s Valentine orders came down from Above. I’m Cupid, you see, and I’m supposed to shoot arrows at the good folk down on Earth so people will find their true love. But, as I said, today day started out bad and went downhill faster than an avalanche.

“You are to target Ms. Blackberry. I mean, come on, we all know a Blackberry is a kind of phone-thingy humans can’t do without these days, don’t we?  So I asked. after all, I don’t want to go targeting the wrong person, do I?

“This Ms. Blackberry, where do I find her?”  Well, you can imagine my surprise when They told me she’d be in school. For a moment I couldn’t help wondering whether we were targeting children this year.

“No, she’s the headmistress at this elite co-ed school in the south of England.”

I grinned. Sitting at her desk all day, she’d be an easy target.

“And her soul-mate?”  I asked.

“Sam Brown, the English teacher.”

I mean, I had my bow all set up, the arrow sighted on Sam’s heart, and what happens? This stranger storms into the Blackberry’s office and walks right in front of Sam just as I let my arrow fly… and I hit the wrong target… again.

The guy was as mad as a hornet before my arrow hit, but boy, did he blow right after. I thought he’d take off into the stratosphere.

You can imagine the thought of returning home didn’t appeal to me, but hanging around that office, as I’m meant to, appealed even less to me. Believe me, I skedaddled as fast as my tiny wings would carry me. They would have my hide anyway!

So you see, against all the rules, I didn’t hang around to find out what happened. Perhaps one day, if I ever meet one of you, someone can tell me.

~Cupid~

~~~~~~~
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What is the strangest thing you've done in the name of research?

Today's Alternative Read blog hop question is  provided by author: Victoria Blisse  QUESTION:What is the strangest thing you've done in the name of research?

It's not that I don't enjoy research, more a case of not being vry good at it.  I tend to get so wrapped up in the pursuit for answers, I have been known to forget the original question!

Now when that happens during a conversation with a member of the local constabularly, it does nothing for your credability! LOL

Fortunately for me, I knew the officer and we both had a good laugh about it!

The importance of 'The First Kiss'

Mention the word 'kiss' and it evokes memories in everyone. 

Mention Cupid and everyone thinks of February 14th!

Be we Cupids work all year round.

So while getting our targets together may seem easy to the innocent bystander, ensuring they stay together may depend a great deal on the kind and quality of their kisses. 

Kissing in Western cultures is a fairly recent development and is rarely mentioned even in Greek literature. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of greeting, affection, respect, love, and passion. Depending on the culture, relationship and context,  may carry a different social significance.  The French are renowned for kissing the fingers, whie embracing each other the Mediterraneans' kiss each cheek, to name just two of the most obvious.
In the Middle Ages it became a social gesture and was considered a sign of refinement of the upper classes while in China rubbing the nose against the recipient's cheek is a sign of affection. 

There are so many different kind of kisses there just isn't space here to begin listing them, so I won't!

But do you remember your first kiss?  You know the one I mean.  The one between you and that first 'someone special'?

On January 10th 2011 The Guardian.co.uk posted an article asking that question.
They say that according to Sheril Kirshenbaum, a scientist at the University of Texas, a first kiss is likely to be one of your most vivid memories.

Sadly I must be an exception, or else the kiss was so unmemorable it never rated even the vaguest memory! As an author of romance that’s a shameful admission, but true.  As an author of romance I wish I’d written Judy Garland’s line of 1939 "Twas not my lips you kissed, but my soul."

This so represents what I search for when writing.

In my short Valentine novella, The Wrong Target, published by eTreasures as part of the Cupid’s Gone Wild anthology and still available at http://www.etreasurespublishing.com/  and http://tinyurl.com/6ys4h6a there is explosive emotion between Tina and Ryan all the way through the story, but their first kiss does not come until near the end of the story.
It may have resulted from a challenge from my heroine to my hero, but indeed, that kiss reached their souls and sealed their future.

 BLURB:
Headmistress Tina Blackberry and business tycoon Ryan Thomas can't control events after Ryan's daughter steals his coveted golden arrow and takes it to school, But put Cupid on the job and nothing can go wrong, or can it?
Excerpt:
“Goddamit,” he exploded, “Can’t you stand still for one second? I have something to say, but I can’t while you’re jogging round the room.”

She halted toe to toe in front of him. “You have me dismissed from a job I loved, because I upheld the safety of my pupils, and still have the audacity to stalk me to my holiday destination and demand I listen to you because you have something to say?” Flapping her hands at her sides, she spun away and back again, planting her hands on the chair arms, she pinned him in his place and snarled, “Let me tell you something. I’ve come here to enjoy myself and your presence isn’t part of my plan.”

“What is your plan?” he demanded.

“To get laid!” Astonishment pushed her away from the chair, her eyes wide, her lips curved up in a defiant sneer. “I intend to find myself a man and screw the living daylights out of him. And,” she paused deliberately, “I don’t need you for that.”

To find more information about Sherry Gloag's other books, The Brat and Duty Calls -

visit her webiste and blogsite at




Website: www.sherrygloag.com
Blogspot: http://tinyurl.com/68oomm6




and other places online:-
Duty Calls – http://tinyurl.com/4rxo5sw
And The Brat, her debut novel - http://tinyurl.com/5spkumm
The Wrong Target - http://tinyurl.com/5vadzhq

The Wrong Target available in February

The Wrong Target ~

a short story a part of the

Cupid's Gone Wild anthology

 released by eTreasures

in February.

Blurb:
Headmistress, Tina Blackberry, and business magnate, Ryan Thomas, can't control events after Ryan's daughter steals his coveted golden arrow and takes it to school, But put Cupid on the job and nothing can go wrong, or can it?

Excerpt:-
“You’ve got to admit, Tina, it’s a bit spooky.”
“Spooky?” Her wandering attention snared, she looked from the food choice in front of her to the man at her side. “What are you talking about?”
“The arrow! I mean, it’s not as if the head is embedded that deeply in the wood. If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you’d glued it in for a joke, but you’re not that sort of woman.”
The unintended insult slapped at her composure. On top of the day’s combined incidents, it nailed her morale to the floor.
“Not that sort of woman? What kind of woman do you think I am?” Casting a dark glance at her companion she snatched up the first sandwich in front of her and plonked it on her tray. “On second thought, Sam, I’m not interested.” She moved down the line, picked up the biggest plastic beaker and held it under the cola dispenser. Tonight the rights and wrongs of too much caffeine intake failed to concern her as she carried her tray toward the till.
“Got it out yet?” The cashier grinned while she stabbed a finger at the keyboard, waited for the cash drawer to open and handed over the change.
Had the news spread all over the school? Of course it had. She shook her head, too afraid to unleash her mounting temper on the unwary woman and strode over to the only vacant table in the room hoping Sam wouldn’t follow her.
Before she finished her drink, it occurred to her she’d neglected to arrange additional security for her office until someone released the arrow.
Tomorrow she’d look into the possibility of using a chain saw.