With exaggerated mutiny...

This is one of my favorite scene's from...

LUCKY DUCKS

     In two fluid strides Kasen was at the small, round table injecting them with suspicion. "What the hell are you two up to?" Before either could formulate a response, he bit into Riggs. "I know what you're up to." He moved on to Claire.

     Before he could zing her, she zinged him. "Riggs and I are having a clandestine affair, you pinhead." She cranked up the volume. "He was about to ring my bell right here in this coffee shop."

     Kasen's eyes turned a murky shade of blue.

     Riggs threw a blanket on the inevitable fire. "As fun as that sounds, Claire, you might want to rethink the fib." He chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "Kasen will toss me into a wood chipper if I touch the love of his life."

     "Love of his life? Ha!" The concept made her tremble but Claire was determined to stay in control. With exaggerated mutiny she slurped an overlarge sip of coffee. Oww! Oww! Oww! The coffee scalded her tongue and possibly gave her taste buds third-degree burns. Foolish and stubborn, she swallowed the coffee and tipped her chin. Her defiance was short-lived when their eyes met again. For a few remarkable seconds she saw beyond the shadowy depths of his anger, and detected...pain?

 *If you'd like to experience Claire and Kasen's story, you can find it at:

The Wild Rose Press

Amazon

www.authorjanromes.com 

If he wanted to play this silly game...

A fun snippet from:

 

THE GIFT OF GRAY

 

(Alexis is filling in as a masseuse at her friend's matchmaking ranch for busy professionals to make some extra money. Gray is an overworked advertising executive that has paid big bucks to meet the woman of his dreams. Neither of them counted on meeting the one person who would turn their life upside down.)

 

 

Goose bumps coated her arms, and the chill was enough to snap her out of the lust haze. The bastard was doing a striptease of sorts, and while it thrilled her, it also ticked her off. If he thought he could turn her on and get lucky, he was dead wrong. "When you're done dillydallying with your clothes, hop on the table and let's get this thing underway."

 

Gray's laugh was hearty and filled with more confidence than any one person should have. "Do you have to be somewhere?"

 

Anywhere but here. "Just get moving, pokey." Mild insults wouldn't get her in trouble with Tish and Jeb, and it would keep her interest for him at bay. Hopefully.

 

Gray stepped out of his boxers and Alexis tried not to look at the forbidden zone. She handed him a warm towel. To her dismay, he dropped the towel at the end of the massage table.

 

Okay. If he wanted to play this silly game of look-at-me, then game on.

 

 

The Gift of Gray is a fun, heart warming story about finding love when you least expect it.

 

If you'd like to read more, you can complete Alexis and Gray's journey to love at:

 

The Wild Rose Press

 

Amazon

 

Barnes and Noble

 

...and many other retail venues

 

 

 



He was still being a wildebeest!

I wanted to share a little bit of Claire and Ian with you -- 

LUCKY DUCKS

Air in. Air out. Simple. At least breathing was supposed to be simple. But the sight of Kasen Isaak coming toward her with an unyielding look of annoyance made her breath catch somewhere between her lungs and windpipe.
 

The closer he came the more she felt like she was going to choke.
 

"Good morning, Miss Stone."
 

A night's sleep obviously hadn't improved his disposition. He was still being a wildebeest. The urge to be surly back was knocking at her door. Actually, it was pounding. She tried to ignore it with another pep talk. Put on your big girl panties and deal with it. She snickered inwardly at the thought of her panties -- ducks again today. Although these ducks were wearing colorful hats with matching plumes instead of sunglasses like they were yesterday. The days-of-the-week ducks were a moving-away gift from her best friend, Ginny. They were supposed to be lucky-ducks. So far the luck part hadn't kicked in.
 

Even though her breathing still hadn't leveled out she managed a reply. "Good morning, Mr. Isaak." She bit her bottom lip and then offered him a cheery grin.
 

Kasen narrowed his eyes.
 

Zing! Nothing irks a sour person more than a smile.
 

"Follow me." He spun about and heavy-heeled it toward his office.
 

Her father's comment about Kasen having a chip on his shoulder surfaced. Pfft. The man had more than a chip of wood setting there. He had the whole darned tree. But she wasn't responsible for putting it there and he shouldn't be goading her to knock it off.
 

She scowled after him. He didn't like her. She didn't like him. So what was the point of working there? He was going to try to trip her up, and she was going to try to keep her balance. Grr.
 

Trailing behind him trapped his scent in the small space between them. Claire instinctively inhaled the heady fragrance of musk. Mmm. Scent messed with her senses - her common sense would go by the wayside and things that were supposed to make sense didn't. Like now. She enjoyed the smell of the guy who most likely had plans to bind her to a chair and shine a flashlight in her face to see what she'd learned overnight. That visual made her snort out loud.
 

Kasen glanced over his shoulder.
 

There was absolutely no way to explain the inadvertent noise, so she smiled instead. His eyes thinned even more.

 

The wildebeest took several more loud steps...



** If you'd like to immerse yourself in the rest of the chaos that Claire and Kasen find themselves in before they finally get their happily-ever-after, you can find their story at:   (click on the links below)

The Wild Rose Press
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
...And many other retail venues

Special note:  Lucky Ducks is also an audio book. You can buy it on iTunes or Amazon via Audible.com

www.authorjanromes.com




 

One false move...

Happy to share a small snippet from -

STAY CLOSE, NOVAC!

 

 

 

Adrenaline pumped through Jessi with as much velocity as gale force winds and she got an instant headache. While she rubbed her temples she did some erratic pacing from the back door to the front door to the bathroom, waiting for the slightest sound that would indicate she was under siege. The same helpless feeling that plagued her in New York had returned. The only difference was instead of being surrounded by millions of New Yorkers, she was isolated on a lonely stretch of beach where no one would stumble across her until the stench of decomposition attracted attention. A worse thought played across her mind – what if Ian and the fancy pants thug turned her into a shark snack? Oh God! She thought about her parents. While they drove her up a wall with their constant bickering, she still loved them and didn’t want them to suffer the pain of losing their only child.

Well, she wouldn’t go down easy. She wrung her hands and tried to come up with a brilliant plan.

She needed an equalizer.

A quick rummage through the kitchen drawers produced a mountain of plastic spoons.  Great. Ian Alexander and his accomplice better watch out. One false move and they’d be pulling plasticware from their ribs. Jessi groaned.

 

 

If you'd like to read more about Jessi and Ian, you can find their story here:

 

Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

'Of course you're capable, knucklehead...'

New excerpt for ONE SMALL FIB...

Enjoy!

 

 

(This is Allie Blue's first encounter with billionaire, Kiptyn Thomas) 

 

 

 

 

     The dark-haired, thirty-something billionaire appeared oblivious to anything except moving through the narrow aisleway with his carry-on.

 

 

     "Please. Let me help you." Allie reached for his bag.

 

 

     His head snapped up and gray-blue eyes hooked onto hers. "I'm quite capable."

 

 

     Of course you're capable, knucklehead, but I have orders to pamper you. Allie dug her teeth into her bottom lip.

 

 

     Kiptyn Thomas settled into his seat without buckling his seatbelt, and Allie wondered if fastening it for him was part of the pamper-package. She shook the thought away. No way. She was not reaching across a broad-shouldered man to secure his seatbelt.

 

 

     "Would you like something to drink, Mr. Thomas?"

 

 

     He hawked her name tag, and in a voice deep with gravel and authority, he said, "You're new."

 

 

     Allie instinctively slinked back a half-step.

 

 

     A momentary ember of interest fired in his eyes, and Allie continued to smile while gritting her teeth.

 

 

     "Having to tell a different person every week what I want or what I need is getting old." His dark, bushy brows dipped together so tight they formed the letter V. "I like things to stay the same. I fly to San Francisco on Monday and return to New York on Wednesday. I want the same plane, the same seat, and the same flight attendant. Is that too much to ask?"

 

 

     A little obsessive-compulsive there, bucko. Allie had listened to the other attendants complain about this gem. Funny how they failed to mention he was also neurotic. "I totally understand," she chirped like his imposing attitude didn't bother her in the slightest. "What would you like to drink?"

 

 

     "Scotch. And stop saying totally. I hate that word."

 

 

     "Yes, sir." Ack. The reality that she had to mollycoddle this privileged philanderer for six long hours made her want to strap on a parachute and jump out over Newark. Or really get in his craw by saying totally every chance she got.

 

 

     Before she hurried to do his bidding, she shot him a congenial smile that said, "Relax, enjoy, I'll be right back." But she made sure her eyes said something different: "Get a life" and she looked directly at him so he could hear what they were saying.

 

 

     On her way to the service area, she questioned the sanity of that look. Why couldn't she ward off the urge to bite back? She pulled in a breath because she knew the answer -- because she was missing the putting-up-with-crap gene, that's why.

 

 

 

 

Available from:

 

The Wild Rose Press

 

 Amazon

 

Barnes and Noble

 

 



'Well-built, shoe-loving, she-devil...'

A LITTLE SNIPPET OF LIGHTHEARTED, ROMANTIC SUSPENSE...

(from:)  STAY CLOSE, NOVAC!

            Ian dabbed his lip with alcohol. He hadn’t counted on starting his day by falling off a ladder. Fortunately, the wound was nothing more than a bloody scratch. One good thing came of the mishap – Jessi Nordstrom. Wow! She was an eyeful. A disturbing eyeful. Not in the usual way. Instead of soft curves, she was muscular. Small chested. Thin but defined arms. Strong thighs and calves. A tight little butt.

He chuckled at the bead of anger she’d laid on him with violet eyes. Truthfully, he’d never seen eyes quite like them. Maybe they were colored contact lenses. Regardless, she was ready to slice and dice him with them until she discovered his injury. The second she homed in on his lip, she softened. And he liked it. More than liked it.    

“Dammit, man, you’re not here to get chummy with the first woman to cross your path.” In fact, he wasn’t there to get chummy with any female. Women were the devil. Instantly a vision of his ex-wife popped into his mind and the f-bomb slid from his lips the way it always did when he thought about her. The well-built, shoe-loving, she-devil who dumped him a year ago for their millionaire neighbor turned his life upside down. Ian groaned. Thinking about Rachel made his chest hurt – probably some long-distance pricking from her damned pitchfork.

His gaze drifted to the bungalow next door. Jessi Nordstrom admitted a love for shoes and clothes too. Ian curled his lip and imagined the brown-haired, violet-eyed beauty with horns. She most likely had a pitchfork she was dying to use too.

 

 

Available on Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Close-Novac-ebook/dp/B0080MKMTE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368038843&sr=8-1&keywords=stay+close%2C+novac%21

 

 

Death Benefits! Catchy title, amazing author! Interview with Sharon Saracino!

Today I welcome author, Sharon Saracino, to my blog! I've read her book, Death Benefits, and loved it so much that I just had to have her on my blog! She's agreed to an interview!

So pour yourself a cup of coffee (or beverage of choice) and enjoy getting to know Sharon!

When writing, Sharon, do you require quiet or do you listen to music?

I know that a lot of writers develop playlists that help to inspire them or put them in the mood for the piece they are working on. While there are songs that might hit the mood for me, I can't listen to music while I'm actually writing...I have a tendency to sing along and chair dance...it's not pretty. Just saying!

What genre(s) do you write?

I'm currently wrangling a contemporary romance, (which you do so well!) but as a rule, most of my writing incorporates some paranormal or supernatural element. I really like being able to bring an alternate reality or weave some myth or legend into the story.

What is your typical day like?

Hmmm...typical day...up at 4:30 a.m., check email, read the paper, check in on Facebook and Twitter, then head out to work by 5:45 a.m. Spend eight hours saving the world, or trying to clear my desk (they're the same thing, right?) then blow out of there by 2:30 p.m. if all goes well. Home to park my butt in front of the computer, check email, check in on Facebook and Twitter, indulge in a little shameless self-promotion, occasionally provide sustenance for the family, then either read or write for a couple of hours.

When you're not writing, what do you like to do?

I love photography and genealogy. I like to cook. Mostly I love to read. There are so many wonderful authors out there whose work I love and admire; there really aren't enough hours in the day. I honestly believe that you can't be a writer unless you are also a reader. There is so much to be learned from great writers who really know how to develop characters, build a clever plot, and put together awesome, awesome stories. To read is to grow.

What advice can you offer aspiring writers?

I'm not sure I've been in the game long enough to give advice, but I guess the most important thing I've learned is to actually write. That may seem obvious, but you can't re-write, revise, or submit anything if you never get it down. I wasted years telling myself that 'someday' I was going to actually finish a book and seek publication. One day I realized that I wasn't getting any younger and 'someday' was going to be here and gone if I didn't stop dreaming and start writing. I also can't say enough about joining writer's groups. I've found other writers to be the most supportive and encouraging group of people out there. Take classes, hone your craft. Whether you've written one book or one hundred, there is always something to learn.

What is your writing routine like?

Oh! You're serious, aren't you? Honestly, I don't really have one, I just fit in writing time wherever I can. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Are you a plotter or pantser?

Total pantser! I wish I could be more of a plotter. Having an actual direction in mind at the start would probably eliminate many of those pesky and painful periods of banging my head against the wall. But for some reason, it just doesn't work for me. I may try to work out a more organized system for myself at some point, but at the moment I just go with the flow.

You are planning a fun book signing. Can you share the details?

I will tentatively be signing at O'Donnell Winery in Berwick, PA sometime in June. I'll be posting details on my website and my Facebook author page when they become available. There may also be chocolate involved. Books, wine, and chocolate...how can you go wrong?

Can you share tidbits from your new release? Perhaps the blurb and an excerpt?

My debut, DEATH BENEFITS, released from Whiskey Creek Press on May 1, 2013. It can be found on their website, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Blurb:

Max Logan's insecurities have consumed her to the point that she has allowed them to skew her perceptions of people and circumstances. She has grown progressively more bitter, sarcastic, and solitary since her divorce and feels as though she has spent a lifetime getting the short end of the stick through no fault of her own; still she trudges on. Things can always get better, right? Of course, it's hard to cultivate optimism when she finds herself dead; the victim of D.I.E. (Death in Error) caused by an overeager Grim Reaper in Training. She brokers a deal to be sent back to Earth as a temporary substitute for the Superintendent of Spiritual Impediment. Can a girl who can't recognize her own problems rectify the issues of the living impaired? Or will she discover that concentrating on their issues gives her a new perspective on her own?

An excerpt:

     Sir Chicken Caesar still hadn't moved, nor did he so much as twitch when I tossed my damp tee shirt over him after I peeled it off my sticky body on my way into the bathroom. He has his priorities; sleep being one, food another. I probably fell somewhere near the bottom of the list, only slightly above hairballs.

     I stripped down to my thirty-five year old birthday suit, avoiding the full length mirror on the closet door, and yanked open the top dresser to peruse the underwear selection and simply savor the delicious coolness of AC on damp, bare skin. Steak on the patio did not seem to demand Victoria's Secret, then again, nothing in my life these days did, and serviceable cotton Granny panties would be far more practical in the heat. I grabbed a pair from the top of the pile and added shorts and a fresh tank from one of the laundry baskets near the bathroom door. One for clean clothes, one for dirty. Guess which one had the bigger pile? The only household chore I love more than laundry is standing on a chair in the living room and letting the ceiling fan whack me in the head repeatedly.


Thanks so much for having me today, Jan! It's always fun to visit with a wonderful friend who also happens to be a talented author and a funny, funny girl!

Thanks so much for the sweet comments, Sharon, and for sharing a snippet of your amazing talent with us!

** If you would like to continue reading, DEATH BENEFITS, you can find it by clicking any of these three links:

Whiskey Creek Press - http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1108&zenid=cf59bb72c2bba2c2f7f3e6a1f03a3d71

Amazon -  http://www.amazon.com/Death-Benefits-ebook/dp/B00CLRRHUG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367606571&sr=8-1&keywords=death+benefits+by+sharon+saracino

Barnes and Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-benefits-sharon-saracino/1115232793?ean=2940016583129


** Here's how you can follow Sharon --

Website:  http://SharonSaracino.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sharon-Saracino-Author/309710765720741

Twitter: @SharonSaracino

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7073851.Sharon_Saracino

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Sharon-Saracino/e/B00CLXDNYO/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0