Six Sentence Sunday

Here's my first contribution to Six Sentence Sunday from my newly released 'His Leading Lady'. To save her twin sister's career, Jess is pretending to be Lora who's gone missing. She's just been out for the evening with Kyle Drummond, the director of Lora's new show in the West End:

Kyle tightened his arm around her and Jess closed her eyes, not to relax but to try to think straight and to work out just how she was going to extricate herself from what seemed to be the inevitable sequel to all this.

She couldn’t say she was tired, not when she’d made such a fuss about wanting to stay at the club, but there were limits to what she was prepared to do ‘for Lora’s sake’ and going to bed with Kyle Drummond was definitely way beyond the limits.  If that was what he expected, then she would have to admit to the whole pretence, even if it ruined everything for tomorrow's TV interview and Lora’s contract.

When the cab came to a standstill outside Lora’s apartment, she eased herself away from him but couldn’t stop herself from looking round at him. 

“God, I want you,” he breathed, his voice husky.

She stared at him, sure that he must be able to hear the sudden frantic pounding of her heart. 

'His Leading Lady' available from www.whiskeycreekpress.com

Love Hurts

This is my first contribution to the "Romantic Friday Writers" Challenge, where contributors have to offer 400 words on a specific subject.

This week's subject is 'Love Hurts' and this is an excerpt from 'His Leading Lady' when Jess has learnt from her friend that Kyle had been in a relationship with her twin sister:

Jess closed her eyes in an effort to absorb everything Alison had said.  Part of her identified with Lora’s anguish but the other part was a total confusion of thoughts and feelings about Kyle. 

“I’m so sorry, Jess.”

The sympathy was too much.  Tears blinded her eyes as she looked at Alison again.  “It’s okay.  You had to tell me.  But –”  She swallowed hard, then wiped away the tear that had trickled down her cheek.  “I’ve made a total idiot of myself, haven’t I?  Allowing myself to become another notch on Kyle Drummond’s bedpost.”
  
“No.” Alison’s face creased with concern.  “No, you mustn’t think that.  Kyle isn’t – doesn’t – Look, when you’ve been in the West End for a while, you get to know which directors and agents sleep around.  And Kyle isn’t one of them.”
  
“I’m not sure that makes me feel any better.  If you’re right, and he doesn’t, then Lora must have been pretty special to him.”

“I suppose so,” Alison conceded.  “And there was a lot of speculation about them as a couple.”

“So where does that leave me? He asks me to take over Lora’s role in Token – and Lora’s role in his bed too?”  She clenched her fists. “What a total fool I’ve been!”

“You fell in love with him.  What’s wrong with that?”

 “What’s wrong?” Jess echoed.  “Alison, she’s my twin sister.”  She paused for a moment, remembering.  “When we were about fourteen, we made a pact that we’d never go after the same boy.  All right, this isn’t a teenage thing.  This is a man, but my sister’s in love with him.”

“You didn’t know that.”

“No, but he did.  He should have told me, he should have been honest about it.  But he wasn’t.  So maybe for him I’ve just been a substitute.”

“Not necessarily.”

Jess shook her head.  Anger had started to replace the shock.  Anger at Kyle for being dishonest, and anger with herself for having been duped so easily.  “It doesn’t really matter, does it?  Because that’s it – end of story.”  She tried to ignore the wave of agonising pain that washed through her.  Tried to concentrate on the anger instead.  

“So what are you going to do now?”

“I want to go home.  Away from all this.”  Hot fury consumed her and she banged her fist on the table.  “I told him I didn’t want to be part of the West End theatrical scene.  Now I know I was right.  This kind of life isn’t for me.”

(From ‘His Leading Lady’ published by Whiskey Creek Press, June 2011) www.whiskeycreekpress.com

5* Review for 'His Leading Lady'!

So excited - Celia Yeary gave 'His Leading Lady' a great review and 5 stars!
http://paulamartinromances.webs.com/

Writing the Ending First

"I always write my last two paragraphs first. For me fiction is a fantastic journey but I need to know where I am going and what my destination will be.”

Quote from Victoria Aitken, author of 'Mary Bennet's Chance' - a change from the Darcy/Elizabeth spin-offs!

http://www.derryjournal.com/lifestyle/move_over_jane_austen_there_s_a_new_girl_in_town_1_2792652

I LOVE the idea of writing your ending first.

Then and Now

I'm a guest with Hywela Lyn today and am talking about the differencesw between writing in the 60's/70's compared with now.

Writing and being published were very different in the days BC (before computers)!

Check it out at http://www.hywelalyn.blogspot.com/

A New Blogfest!



The group blog I belong to, Heroines with Hearts,
has just gained its 100th follower. 

To celebrate, we're holding our first blogfest.

Question: What's a blogfest?
Answer: It's a fun way to meet other bloggers, and maybe increase your own followers.
You 'sign up' and then, on the appointed day (in this case, July 24th), you write a blog on the selected topic and post it on your own blog.  You then try to visit and leave a comment on other participating blogs.

Question:  What's the selected topic?
Answer:  Tell us about the first 'adult' (as opposed to children's) book you ever read.  Was it a classic or did you have to hide it from your mom?

Question: How do I join in?
Answer: click HERE to go to the information and sign-up page.

Hope you'll join in the fun!  

Today is New Computer Day...good or bad?

Do you like getting a new computer or do you hate it? 

I have mixed feelings.  My 'old' computer was nearly five years old and had become so slow, with frequent 'seizing up' when I had to crash out and restart. I also had a keyboard where half the letters had worn away.  But at least it was familiar. 

Now I have, not just a new machine, but a different Windows version, upgraded I.E. and Office Professional 2010.  My computer expert installed everything for me, and and it's all working perfectly (fingers crossed!).  He's transferred all my docs and pictures, even my list of bookmarks (or 'favourites').  It's super-fast and doesn't struggle to load a new pages or post a message.  The new keyboard shows all the letters and I have a nice non-reflective screen.

I know I should love it, but now I have to think about tasks which I previously did automatically.  Where's the website address?  Where are the drop-down menus?  How do I turn the sound on or off? And why do I keep hitting caps lock instead of shift?  Why do some pages not have scroll bars at the side?

I'm sure I'll get used to it in time, but is it a sign of age that it takes me longer to adapt to new things? Or maybe it's a case of preferring to cling to the familiar rather than embark on new learning curves?

Technology moves on so quickly these days; my 16 and 22 year old grandsons move with it as fast as it changes, but I guess I'm from a generation where things didn't change for the sake of change, which seems to be the case these days. 

In the 'good old days, you bought something and it lasted!  You didn't have to upgrade or replace it.  You had it mended if it went wrong.  Nowadays you get rid of it and buy a new one, since it's often cheaper to do that than to pay someone to fix it.  My mother had the same vacuum cleaner for over 40 years.  Things were made to last in the old days.  But now?

In the last 20 years, I have had about 6 new computers (my first one didn't even have Windows and I remember using DOS commands!).  Maybe that's some indication of the speed of technological progress - and I HAVE adapted, honest I have! 

I'm not anti-progress - but I do sometimes question the very rapid changes.   Is it change simply for the sake of it?  Is it necessary?  Or is it due to the greed of the manufacturers?  Does Microsoft introduce new versions (e.g. of operating systems or Office) because they are necessary or simply because they want everyone to rush out and buy their new version - and therefore make older versions obsolete??

Or am I just becoming a grumpy old woman??  (don't answer that!)