I’ve Been Influenced!

Happy Friday! It’s time for the MFRW 52 week blog hop for 2018!!  YAY!

This week’s prompt: A Book That Has Influenced My Life.

Which one to choose?  That’s the thing about readers, we sometimes read excellent books that impact us! Maybe I should make mine in list form.

1. The Bible – I was raised in a denominational church that my Grandfather founded, that had my dead relatives names on the stained glass window. I never read the Bible then, it was my parent’s religion. However, when I was in college, I was greatly influenced by an important person in my life that told me I should read it for myself. You want violence? Romance? Betrayal? Heartbreak? Disease? Pestilence? War? Love???? It’s all there. Seriously, go read Song of Solomon sometime – hubba hubba! I read it from Genesis to Revelations.  I read it like a history of mankind book. I cried, I laughed,  I connected. It guides my daily path. I made the decision for Christ just a couple weeks after New Year  in 1985 and have never looked back.
2. The Four Agreements – I’m not forsaking my faith here, so don’t even go there. I have issues with a lot of things within the Christian community, namely that many are judgmental, discriminating and have lost their love for humanity. They are all about the religious practices,  us four and no more, the bless me club. It’s the very reason why Mother Theresa’s selfless sacrifice was such a tremendous act. These are things that I personally have grievances with. Because, at the end of the day, we need to be kind to each other and love one another. We are instructed as Christians to Love GOd with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind and to Love our neighbor as ourselves. Many people forget that last part and it is grievous. So anyway, I absolutely agree with the four agreements. No pun intended. I have a page in my journal that is the four agreements to remind myself often. I feel they help me be at peace with myself and keep the compassion towards others.
3. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Literally changed my view on reading from the forced reading required at school to reading for pleasure!
4. The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Silmarillion – the epitome of reading pleasure.
5. Outlander Series – OMG! Have you ever seen these books? They are huge – like War and Peace huge. I read the first one in like 2 days,  then raced back to the library and checked out the rest of the series. This book or series of books, jerked me out of a pity party slump where I was feeling useless as a writer, had had a long string of rejections on books and the only thing selling was magazine articles.
6. Harlequin romances – I don’t even remember the titles I’ve read so many. The first one I read when I was maybe fourteen. It was OK, but, I didn’t really like it. I read a lot of Stephen King and Ann McCaffrey back then. However, when I was in college,  I found the stack at the college library that held the paperback Harlequin novels. It (reading a romance) was my reward for completing an assignment, doing good on a test, not spending money I didn’t have, . . . I used lots of excuses to go get yet another ‘cheesy romance’ book as my dorm mates would say. Meanwhile, they would spend hours watching daytime soaps that I never got into. (It was many years later while nursing my daughter that I discovered Nathan Fillion was on a soap – then you betcha I watched that one! Something about Buchannon’s??)
7. The Worst Romance Book I ever read – This may sound strange,  but yes it really did change things for me. I have the book. It’s written by a well-known author, whom I’ve met in person and is a lovely person.  Makeover on the front stoop in the ten minutes she waited. She started off with long blonde hair, crystalline blue eyes, khaki trousers, and a red polo as described in the previous two chapters. Then when the man answered the door, she wore snug straight leg jeans, a soft angora sweater, her Ginger swing bob made a perfect arch as she turned to face him with her green eyes. WHAT?  This book launched me on my writing endeavors. If this crap could get published,  surely I could get published! I finished the book,  but it took me a very long time.

So once again I didn’t exactly follow the rules.  They are more like guidelines anyway, right?

 

Go check out what the other authors are saying, you can find that list here: MFRW BLOG HOP

Write on my friends, write on!

Version 3.0 – Author #MFRW

Happy Friday! It’s time for the MFRW 52 week blog hop for 2018!!  YAY!

This week’s prompt: What I would do If I couldn’t be a writer.

Who is the evil person who thought up this prompt???  This is the stuff of nightmares! Are they a horror writer? Was it Stephen King? OR  maybe it was a descendent of H.P. Lovecraft.

*shudders*

If I couldn ‘t be a writer,  I would probably have pursued teaching as my second career choice. I worked as a civil servant for the department of defense,  my degree is in cartography. Back in those days,  I was firmly convinced that science was where the money was at,  and only pure genius writers could earn a living actually writing.

Well the years start coming and they don’t stop coming
Fed to the rules and I hit the ground running
Didn’t make sense not to live for fun
Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb
So much to do, so much to see
So what’s wrong with taking the back streets?
You’ll never know if you don’t go
You’ll never shine if you don’t glow

I digress. . . but, All Star seriously sums it up. Getting on the career track, following the ruts, doing the things you think you are supposed to do and then somewhere down the road you run out of gas, and look around and realize this isn’t where you wanted to be.

I was late in the game to allow myself to pursue my dreams of writing. I don’t know,  I guess with my upbringing and the push for success, I didn’t allow myself to chase dreams. I was already labeled a daydreamer, and I resented that my mom said it with an air of disdain.

Yes, I have mother issues. I’m dealing with it!

So, after Ellie version 2.0, stay at home mom left me with time to read, time to do crafts, sew, crochet, . . .did I mention read????  I read voraciously.  I read to my kids.  My eldest daughter’s favorite book was Moo Bah, LALALA. I can recite it from memory.  My youngest daughter’s favorite was Goodnight Moon. I can also tell that one from memory.

When we ran out of books to read before it was time to go back to the library, or we had exhausted our home library I began making up stories to tell them and they liked mine better! It gave me the boost I needed to pursue my writing aspirations.

About that time,  an opening came up at our local paper to write an opinion column.  Trust me, I have an opinion! LOL

When both of my kids were in school, I started substitute teaching at their school. There were certain parts of the substituting that I really enjoyed. So if I couldn’t write, I probably would have pursued teaching science at the junior high level.

I’m sure it would have paid better, and set my husband’s mind at ease. He tries to be supportive,  but the unknown factor of writing is whether or not people will buy your book.

Money isn’t everything, but it sure helps out to pay the bills and buy groceries! Hence I keep the dayjob as mortgage loan officer until my books fly off the shelf!

It could happen!!

 

Never say never!  It’s the beginning of a new year,  a time to dream and let your hope rise! What would you do if you couldn’t pursue your dreams? Would you vet your creative interests in another direction or shelve them?

So here we are with Ellie version 3.0 – author, editor, mortage loan officer, blogger – doing what I love, trying to manage my time effectively to get the things done!

Go check out what the other authors are saying, you can find that list here: MFRW BLOG HOP

Write on my friends, write on!

My Favorite Bit of Writing #MFRW

Guess what? MFRW is doing a 52 week blog hop for 2018!!  YAY!

TO kick things off for the new year,  this is my first week post for that blog hop.

The prompt is: Week 1: Favorite thing I’ve written (and why)

Sometimes I  take off running with these prompts only to find that I went in a totally different direction than everyone else participating in the bloghop.

So, let’s first address the obvious qualifier – the favorite thing I’ve written that’s published.

Roxy Sings the Blues – ultimately this is a tale of overcoming insurmountable obstacles, a tale of triumph. It also has elements of romance, intrigue, and a few bits of humor.

The reason this is my favorite over my other published book, Red Wine & Roses, or 30 DAys of Sass is that I feel I  worked very hard on fully developing the characters in this one. I spent a lot of time trying to capture the emotional punch and I feel I nailed it!

I think my writing has improved greatly from my first book, and I hope that I continue to improve as time goes by.

Now the less obvious, more obscure point that my brain seems to gravitate towards first –  my favorite bits that I have written and as yet is unpublished.

*Clears throat*  You’ll have to excuse me for a bit while I gush.

I am excited about my Realm Wars series. It started with Faere Guardian, the first draft was a Christian fiction that lacked . . . everything. I had to change so many things to fit into the Christian bookseller’s association guidelines for publication,  that much of my story was lost.

For example –  the list of words NOT allowed is lengthy.  I couldn’t use Angel for my character’s name and I didn’t want to change her name,  she is paid to screw things up for Kyle and throw incredulity on his name and mess things up between Kyle and Lindsey.

Then I wrote Faere Warrior: Passion’s Price.  OK,  I may have ventured off into the erotica little too deeply for this one to be mainstream, but the essential tale of the McIntyre brothers has to be told.  I will probably give this a heavy edit and make it more mainstream friendly.

Then of course, there is the sister – Brigit. Faere Mage is filled with antics of the up and coming Druid mage, and the Faerie Realm underlying meddling in human affairs. We can’t forget the original brothers Robert, Ian, and Alistair who is the first generation McIntyres.

How did they become keepers of the realm? Who are they protecting? DO they work for the FAE? Do the FAE work for them?  

Come on, I know you’re interested!

I submitted the trilogy (Books 2 through 4) for publication to three different publishers. My social media coach at the time read it and said – “Well, it doesn’t suck!”

LOL  But, with the myriad of questions thrown at me, I was able to answer them all. This was a problem though, because she then told me that I need to tell the backstory that ties them all together, and unites the greater story that is going on. SIGH  I had spent a week cutting out the backstory and paring it down to a reasonable length.

This is why it is yet unpublished.  However, I plan to change that this year. I will have the first book written and revised some time this year. I have to check my calendar in order to get a definite deadline. (Don’t worry,  it’s on my todo list!) Books 2 through 4 are already written,  they may need a few tweaks but for the most part are already complete. Also, The Blood Key – the novella I have been working on will be released in an anthology-  I HOPE!

Fingers crossed that I make the cut! If not,  I will still release it as a short available for my readers.

I’ve shared a few snippets in the past from this series, and I feel this is some of my best writing. When you feel like you’ve done your best,  then it’s easy to pick that as your favorite!

Realm Wars writing has been in the zone. Red Wine & Roses had bits in the zone,  but not the entire thing. Same for Roxy,  more of it was in the zone,  but not all of it.

Realm Wars is the type of stuff I love to read – paranormal fantasy, urban fantasy, epic fantasy type stuff. I’m probably not going to be writing the epic space odyssey, well maybe not.

I’m pretty proud of the world building I’ve done in this series as well. I keep saying series and as of yet, not one book is released.  BUT,  when I get the covers nailed down,  and the first book completed, books 2 through 4 will not be far behind. Books 5 and 6 may take me a while,  but I already have my outlines.  I promise not to pull a George R. R. Martin! Unless of course someone buys the film rights and pays me handsomely to produce an epic saga of Realm Wars, paying me royalties and megabucks up front.  Then I’ll finish the last two books in the series from an island oasis in the Caribbean!

Never say never!  It’s the beginning of the new year,  a time to dream and let your hope rise!

IF you want to check out what the other authors are saying is their favorites, you can find that list here: MFRW BLOG HOP

Write on my friends, write on!

Weekend Writing Warriors

This week my snippet will introduce the third character in Roxy’s saga. You’ve met Roxy, the main character that begins the tale with heartbreak. You’ve met Luke, her fiancee who gets himself into hot water. This week you are introduced to detective Devon Miller.

So, I joined this group, Weekend Writing Warriors.

HOW IT WORKS

It’s simple and fun. Sign up on the linky list with your name, blog url, and email address on Mondays, 8:00 AM EST. Each week, the list remains open until Saturday, 11:59 PM. Then on Sunday, post 8 to 10 sentences from a current writing project, published or unpublished. Visit other participants and offer opinions, critiques, support. Writers hanging out with writers, a good time with a great group of people.

~~~~~~~~~

8 sentences –  I can manage that, can’t I?  That sounded like a challenge and I was off!

Yes, it’s late in the year but what the heck! Maybe this will turn into a regular thing.  I ‘ve been thinking I should share more snippets anyway. So here goes:

~~~~~~~~~

 

“Two males. Looks like meth heads, but we need to find out what’s going on. This is the fourth time this month that homeless guys have shown up dead. I’m putting you two on the case. Check with Dickerson in narcotics, see if he has any leads.”

Sergeant Brenner stood from his crouched position next to the bodies, flipping the body bag back over the victim’s face. “I want to know what they are taking, who they are buying from and the cause of death. I want a full tox screen and have Simmons report anything out of the order. Anything! Talk to some of the regulars at the shelter up the street.” He tucked his hands into the pockets of his black leather jacket, eyes downcast to the ground.

Excerpt from Chapter 3 of Roxy Sings the Blues.

That wasn’t so hard!

If you want to read more – you can get your own copy of Roxy now!

Be sure to check out the other author’s snippets as well!

Write on my friends, write on!

When Things Go Horribly Wrong

So, I joined this group, Weekend Writing Warriors. Let’s see if I can keep this up for 10 weeks to the end of the year!

HOW IT WORKS

It’s simple and fun. Sign up on the linky list with your name, blog url, and email address on Mondays, 8:00 AM EST. Each week, the list remains open until Saturday, 11:59 PM. Then on Sunday, post 8 to 10 sentences from a current writing project, published or unpublished. Visit other participants and offer opinions, critiques, support. Writers hanging out with writers, a good time with a great group of people.

~~~~~~~~~

8 sentences –  I can manage that, can’t I?

~~~~~~~~~

 Luke swallowed hard, raising his hand to his face, partially covering his open mouth. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he realized he had learned more than he had intended to. He played the video over again. They were healthy young men at the beginning, and in ten weeks, their appearance was so altered that their families wouldn’t have been able to identify their bodies.

 Maybe he was wrong, maybe there was some other explanation. This additive to the company product, a product that he had been using in his training, a product that was supposed to give him an edge in competition, had caused the deaths of these two young men. 

Something clicked inside his head. News reports about students missing. Discoveries of homeless on the riverfront that had overdosed on a synthetic drug.

Nervously, Luke took the micro-sized flash drive from the pocket of his lab coat.

This is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of Roxy Sings the Blues.

That wasn’t so hard!

Just click on the photo above to get yours now for only 99 cents!

 Go check out some of the other weekend warriors as well!

Write on my friends, write on!

First Love #MFRW

Welcome to week 42 of the 52-week MFRW blog hop – My First Love. Wow – do you realize there are only ten -TEN weeks left in the year??? Holy moly where did the time go?

My first love . . . hmmm. Does that mean the first man I fell in love with?  That would be my husband of 32 years, and we dated for 6 years before that.

Does it mean my first love as in God and Jesus? That should be all of our first loves, but I don’t really think that is what it is referring to in this blog hop. Although, if you are writing Christian romance for Steeple Hill, then I guess that would be a suitable topic.

OR does it mean my first love in reading? Sometimes I get confused as to what the intent was for these prompts, like the week about the open door, yeah I totally missed that one!

I need to think over a cup of joe while I sort this out in my head. In the meantime,  you can listen to this:

Alright, coffee consumed and I think I will share about my first love – my hubby. After all, our view about romance and how romance works is filtered through our own perceptions. I will be breaking a rule by sharing this because the hubs doesn’t like for me to talk about him, or us, on the blog.

I was fifteen years old when I was crushing on this gorgeous hunk. Muscles, oh my! Ripped abs, bulging biceps, but not too bulky. His voice – a deep rich baritone, think Lou Rawls!

His sexy grin sent shivers down my spine before he ever cast a look in my direction. He was the Captain of his football team, I was a band geek. I never thought in a million years he would even look my way and was speechless when he asked me out. Please understand, for me to be speechless is a feat!

He had a full head of thick luscious hair, and back in the 80’s, his hair brushed his shoulders. Our first 3 dates were Friday night – school dance, Saturday night – my school dance, and Sunday – a bowling outing with our youth group from church.

I was a goner from the first kiss. Man, can he kiss! The kind of toe-curling, knee popping, my insides turn to mush kiss.

This is one of my favorite photos of the hubs, taken long before we were married. He had been working on his car – a 64 Chevy Impala SS, you can see he’s inside the engine compartment and had been laying on the ground beneath the car.  He wasn’t too thrilled with my photography, but I just love this shot!

But, you know . . . true love is more than the physical relationship. We connected. We talked. We shared common interests while maintaining individual interests. He still loves sports, I don’t. I still love the creative crafty stuff, he is meh.

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We’ve had our share of ups and downs, highs and lows. This year has been a lot of lows, but through it all, he’s been my rock. I don’t know that I could have made it through all this cancer stuff if he hadn’t been my biggest supporter, encourager, hand holder, chauffeur, and above all, my best friend.  He was willing to shave his head with me for support!

He puts up with all of my quirks. I’ve put on a lot of weight since we first began dating and he’s rarely complained. If anything, he encourages me to be healthy and regularly tells me I can do it!

True love goes so far beyond the physical attraction, it’s difficult to put into words for the younger crowd. When you find someone who loves you and wants to be with you even though they know your flaws, your hang-ups, and every one of your bad habits. . . . that is true love and worth hanging onto.

This is the kind of love that inspires me to write love stories,  to write romance. This is what inspires me to face the next day when I’m tired of being a pincushion, tired of Dr’s offices, and tired of facing yet another change caused by cancer.

We aren’t wealthy financially by any means, but when I count my blessings,  I feel I am the richest woman alive to have found my Mister Right!

Sure, he has flaws. He’s human after all but they are easily overlooked when looking at the big picture. The big picture for me is a life full of happy memories,  two beautiful children, a loving home, and my best friend to grow old with!

I’m curious to see what the other authors have done with this prompt, so let’s go check them out.

1. First Love #MFRW	2. Is this Love (correct Link)
3. Is This Love	4. You Never Forget Your First Love
5. Love Was In The Air	6. Love (Or Maybe Just Hero Worship)
7. Call me a prairie vole	8. #MFRWAuthor. . . My first love
9. My First BOOK Love

Write on my friends, write on!

 

 

 

 

Weekend Writing Warriors

Behold – I do a new thing.

What can I say, my ADD got the better of me and I  jumped into another thing. Give me a break, ok? It’s been a crap year! I need more fun things in my life!

So, I joined this group, Weekend Writing Warriors.

HOW IT WORKS

It’s simple and fun. Sign up on the linky list with your name, blog url, and email address on Mondays, 8:00 AM EST. Each week, the list remains open until Saturday, 11:59 PM. Then on Sunday, post 8 sentences from a current writing project, published or unpublished. Visit other participants and offer opinions, critiques, support. Writers hanging out with writers, a good time with a great group of people.

~~~~~~~~~

8 sentences –  I can manage that, can’t I?  That sounded like a challenge and I was off!

YEs, it’s late in the year but what the heck! Maybe this will turn into a regular thing.  I ‘ve been thinking I should share more snippets anyway.

~~~~~~~~~

I gave myself a quick mental talk about facing reality and to stop being a hopeless dreamer as I took several deep breaths. One step into the doorway, all I could see was the curtain pulled around the hospital bed. Two steps, the end of the bed with feet visible beneath a white cotton blanket with the blue hospital name on it. Three steps and I was at the side of the bed, afraid to look down and recognize the woman in the bed as my mother. Tara was on the other side, her head down on the edge of the bed, holding a frail bluish hand.

My eyes welled with tears.

“NO!”

My body wracked with sobs as I lifted the other cold lifeless hand to my cheek. Tara lifted her head slowly; looking up at me with such a forlorn and lost expression, it broke my heart even more. I ran around the bed to her, lifting her from her chair as we sobbed together.

This is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Roxy Sings the Blues.

That wasn’t so hard! Just a note, but Roxy is going to be on a countdown deal from October 18 through the 25th! Be sure to get your copy!

Write on my friends, write on!

Sparks of Genius #MFRW

Welcome to week 41 of the 52-week MFRW blog hop – My Blogging Inspiration.

Wow, what a loaded question. Where do I get my inspirations? The short answer, everywhere.

The more complicated answer: I have tried to work themes around different days, for example I’ve set aside Fridays for this blog hop. I tend towards Motivational Mondays, have posted Teasers on Tuesdays, Woman Wednesday where I have hosted many female authors, Thinking Thursday and Fun Fridays. Ironically when I tried to channel my ideas into specific ideas, my  creative juices came to a screeching halt.

Then there are the time issues,  like when I was undergoing treatment, the days I am still sruggling to function, the myriad of appointments, and other life demands.  I have  good intentions to blog daily,  but lately I’ve been doing good to post twice a week. By the way,  I sat at the computer for well over an hour with several stops and starts, erase, delete, type over for last week’s prompt.  My mind just wasn’t  in it. I couldn’t think of a single book quote to save my life and it wasn’t until it was time to log off and start on dinner that my friend Cathy suggested I google it. DOH!

Anyway, back to my inspirations. . . everything.  A post on Facebook,  something on the news, something  I saw while driving,  or most often that ‘spark of genius’ that pops into my head. LOL

I wish I could say that it was some deep thinking, brilliant thought process,  but most often it’s just what pops in at the moment.  Yes, on occasion my thoughts run deep but I don’t often share those, because I like to keep it light and fresh and those deep thoughts can be intense.

I enjoy blogging. probably more than I like writing books because they are short pithy posts, and I get them out of my system quickly.  Books take a loooooooonngg time and my ADD fights me every time. That and the perfectionist in me thinks  it has to be absolutely perfect before I release it to the world.  Meanwhile, I have twelve books completed and sitting in the files waiting for final edits. I am working on the next one, I’ve done final edits geting it in shape to send to my beta readers.

I may start sharing snippets again from that one, now that I have been in a good groove with my writing. Plus, looking forward to NANO next month to work on a new novella that ties into the universe of Faere Warrior.

One of the reasons I like to interview other authors is because I get inspired with their enthusiasm. Then I can write for a while longer. Selfish I know.

Comment below and let me know which of the topics you enjoy hearing about! Here are some other authors in the blog hop – be sure to check them out as well!

1. Sparks of Genius #MFRW	2. Why Do I Blog?
3. Perspective	4. Indescribable!
5. My Blogging Inspiration- Valerie Ullmer	6. Inspiration You Say?
7. The Thought Bubble Never Pops	8. Readers are my Blog Writing Inspiration
9. MJ Where’s the Inspiration?	10. Inspire Me!
11. My Blogging Inspiration is—Look a Squirrel!	12. Blogger, (N)hungry recluse
13. Inspired to Blog	14. #MFRWauthors week 41. . . my Blogging Inspiration
15. Narration or Imagination	16. My Heart’s not in It

Write on my friends, write on!

 

 

 

 

It Was the Best of Times #MFRW

Welcome to week 38 of the 52-week MFRW blog hop – The Best of Each Season.

From a romance author’s perspective, there are a few things that can be a plus to each season.

IF we go into the way back machine, back to when I got married, not quite as far back as the stone age. . . it was the thing to be a June bride.

I can see why brides choose each season and weddings aren’t just on Saturdays anymore. For the same reasons,  I can see why an author would choose a certain season to convey a mood or feeling throughout their book.

WINTER:

A chill in the air, frost on the window, those wonderful fur muffs, snow,  horse drawn sleighs or carriages, and blazing fires in a fireplace are all perks to even the harshest winter days.  I read a romance book that was essentially the couple being stuck in a cabin together for a few days after an avalanche.

SPRING:

Fresh flowers,  bright green grass, lilacs, budding trees, warming temperatures –  I have been to beautiful weddings that took place in a botanical garden, surrounded by blossoms.  There is nothing quite like the smell just after a rain, with new grass and a light breeze.

SUMMER:

Less clothes! Swimming, beaches, swimwear – the perfect setting for a tropical romance, or stranded on an island together. Notice they are never on a northern island with Inuits?  Because that isn’t sexy! Stranded on a tropical island with shreds of what were your clothes, stripped down to bra and panties and maybe the shreds of a skirt, seeking shelter together in your make shift hut made out of banana leaves. . . I can picture this one now.

FALL:

Oh, the gorgeous colors of fall. My god daughter was married in September, with beautiful fall colors.

In my book Roxy Sings the Blues,  things come to a climax during the fall. I used to love hiking and plan to get back to it as I drop more weight. Roxy has an accident on a hiking trail that changes everything. If you close your eyes, you can almost smell the crisp crackling falling leaves after a  cold rain. This is the perfect time for mulled cider, that pumpkin spice cappuccino, and fresh apple pie! Food, after all,  is an aphrodisiac.

What appeals to you about each season?

Write on my friends, write on!

 

 

 

 

ROXY Release Day!

 

YAY!

I am very proud of this one. Not even so much the story, but rather the fact that even with BC, I have managed to get this one out before Penned Con.  I do love the story though.

The first time that Roxy appeared in my thoughts,  she broke my heart completely. With the help of the wonderful Karen Docter,  I’ve changed the story from memoirs of Roxy’s tragic life, to a story that unfolds with purpose.

So here it is:

Roxy Sings the Blues

BLURB:

Scars tell the story of a past. Roxy’s scars aren’t visible but they have carved her deeply and the pain they caused pours out through her music. If facing an uncertain future after losing her mother wasn’t enough, a failed relationship from the past returns to wreak havoc. Just when she was trying to build a new life for herself, the troublemaking ex Devon drags her into danger. Roxy sits in the spotlight of a pivotal investigation. Detective Devon Miller is hot on the case and stirring the embers of forbidden fires.

Will Roxy hit the right note to help her old flame solve the case in time or will she be left singing the blues?

Excerpt:

“Detective Miller, Detective Alvarez.”

Devon Miller nodded in acknowledgment. He hated these calls. He hated seeing veterans in the homeless shelter. It never made sense to him. “What have we got?”

“Two males. Looks like meth heads, but we need to find out what is going on. This is the fourth time this month that homeless guys have shown up dead. I am putting you two on the case. Check with Dickerson in narcotics, see if he has any leads.” Seargent Brenner stood, flipping the body bag back over the victim’s face. “I want to know what they are taking, who they are buying from, what the cause of death was. I want a full tox screen and have Simmons report anything out of the order. Anything! Talk to some of the regulars at the shelter up the street.” He tucked his hands into the pockets of his black leather jacket, eyes downcast to the ground. Hesitating as if he wanted to add something more, but then changing his mind. He added, “I want reports on my desk in the morning.”

Devon watched him walk away before bending to examine the body. He reached for a discarded straw in the pile of trash that the first body lay in. Using the straw, he opened the vics mouth, checking for missing teeth, foaming, anything. “Still got his teeth. That’s something.”

Alvarez stood with his hands shoved into his jacket. “This kid is too young to be here.”  He bent swiping the hair out of the eyes of the second body. “Both of them are. I’d lay odds that test results are going to be the same as the last guys. I think our best bet is going to be Dickerson. See if he knows who’s dealing the designer drugs down here and find out how bums can afford it.”

Buy Links:

Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/746975

Amazon -https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Roxy+Sings+the+blues

While you are there, check out my other books as well!

Red Wine & Roses

Quotidiandose: 30 Days of Sass

Going to celebrate with some sugar-free pumpkin spice cappuccino, and a slice of sugar-free carrot cake!

Then it’s time to get back into writing mode.

Write on my freinds, write on!