Love on a Killer Cruise ~ TEASER!!

A little teaser for you all from one of Sarah's dates. As it turns out not every date could be really bad.

*Unedited!
 

“So, Tanya told me that you didn’t want to know anything about me before the date. I’m curious, why is that?”

“I know Tanya too well, in less than ten minutes she will talk you up to the point I would expect to see you on the cover of some GQ magazine as well as published in a medical journal or something like that. She likes to talk things up sometimes, especially if there is a certain outcome that she wants.”

He gave me a smile that made me want to lean over the table and bite his lip softly. “GQ? Really? I think I would look better on the cover of a romance novel if you ask me.”

Romance novel huh? Makes me wonder what Tanya had told him about me. “Maybe. So tell me Eric when you are not spending your time inspiring to be on the cover of a romance novel, which I would love to know what kind of romance it would be by the way, what do you do?”

His laugh was deep and rich sounding. “Um. Let’s see, any of subgenres would be fine with me, but nothing with S&M in it. I was thinking of more of one with a girl with wind blown hair in my arms and my shirt hanging open, more that one with me in a pair of black leather shorts with a gag ball in my mouth.”

Funny, I like that. “Well then, no gag ball it is, but I think you should rethink the black leather shorts could be a good luck on you. A great look if you have nice tight, rounded… rear end to fill them with.”

He leaned on the table and looked at me as he took a drink. “If you are asking about my backside you could just reach over and touch it. Just so you know though, turn about is fair play; you grab mine and I will have no other option that to give yours a little squeeze.”

If I thought it was hot in this little coffee shop before it was even hotter now. I was felling something that I hadn’t in a long time. It was putting a smile on my face and making me tingle inside. Maybe I should have ordered and iced coffee and not the hot latte. I needed a cold shower or to bring this conversation back down a few notches.

“To answer the other question I work construction. Nothing fancy, but I like it. You?”

“I work for a publishing company. I get to sit and read all day. It’s fun to get a sneak peak at books that will come out as well as read some things that most people never see.”

“You like to read a lot then I take it. I do as well.”

We sat there talking for over an hour. It was easy and extremely flirtatious at times. We had a lot in common, from music to movies and television shows.

“So have a I passed the test?”

I looked at him confused for a second before I asked, “And what test is that?”

“The one to see if you liked me enough for a real date. I’m guessing that coffee was just to make sure that you were not wasting your time with me tonight. It was good move on your part and I will tell you that I was thinking that there is a Jazz bar that is not to far that you would enjoy. They have some great drinks. Wanna take a ride with me and have a drink and a dance or two.”

“Sounds good. Your car or mine?”

He stood up and took my hand into his. “Mine.”

We were at the Jazz club with a drink in hand twenty minutes later. The music was sexy and filling the air around us with an electrical charge. I finished my third martini before he was able to convince me to go out onto the dance floor with him. He held me close as we danced and his moves were perfect. After an hour of dancing, laughing, and a couple more drinks we could not keep our hands off each other. He gave a wink and bowed his head toward the door. I bit my lip for a second and then grabbed my purse and his hand leading the way out the front doors and into the night air.

We were just a few feet from the car when he pulled me in close and kissed me. I leaned into him felt that spark that comes with a first kiss. Every other kiss with a man might have a spark, especially when you are in love with them, but it is never like the first one. Sharp and warm, thick with something that could never be described with words. That first taste, so intoxicating it makes you forget everything around you and every fear you have ever had. It comes with a want and a need that takes over everything. It was long and genital, full of a kind of passion I had not felt in so long that it almost made a tear come to my eye.

He pulled away slowly but I wasn’t ready for that first kiss feeling to end so I moaned and bit his lip a little. Then the kiss was hot and heavy. One of his hands was in my hair and then his mouth was on my neck and he was nibbling and caressing me with his tongue. I was ready to rip his pants off right there in the parking lot. I only snapped out of it when I couple guys got out of a car close by and laughed telling us to. “Get a room.”

He started laughing and pulled away slightly. “I guess we should take this to a more private place.”

“Your place or mine?”

“Mine. You are going to be mine, very soon.”

Yes I was, I really hoped that he lived close by.

Once we were in the car he kissed me again as he buckled my seat belt around me. He slipped in a caress to my breast as he did it, making several small soft circles. Once we were out of the parking lot he started touching my leg, caressing it higher and higher each time. My skin was on fire and all I wanted more of his touch. Every inch higher he went was not high enough.




AND thats all you get for now! Bwa ha ha ha! 

Hope you enjoyed it! 

~A 

Always Learning...

 

When it comes to being a self-published Author there always seems to be more learning to do. I decided to self publish in January; by March I was sure I knew everything there was to know about it. Not the case at all. I had no clue about a lot of things; and here it is six months later and I am still learning new things every day. Some days my head hurts and I spend more time doing research than I do marketing my book or writing, and other days I do more marketing than writing.

I was sure I could do almost everything myself on a budget of zero dollars, and then money would come pouring in!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, NO! First off let me say this, I am a writer, not an editor or a perfect grammar girl or a grand master of the English language. I am also a typo queen so an editor was a must have, and I lucked out with that one. I have a story (or two, or four, or maybe more) in my head that I want to get out there into the world for people to read and enjoy.

I never thought about looking for an agent and/ or sending it in to any publishing companies, mostly because I felt that it was better to go the solo route. (And maybe slightly because I didn’t want to even think of a rejection letter.) I spent hours looking things up online about HOW TO do it yourself from begging to end… and then I got TF back from my editor and I did edits, formatted to a tee, and bam I was off and running. Put it up on Smashword, then Amazon, then Creatspace. Boom - I have a book!!

I wrote TF in 2008 in about 7 months, then I set it aside for three more months before I started going over it again, changing this and that, looking grammar things up online, and adding a scene or two. And then I did it again, and again. I thought I had gone through it with a fine-toothed comb before I even decided to put it up on Wattpad in early 2011. I had started reading a few fan-fic things (Twilight! <3 ) on there and I loved the idea of putting this book I had written and done nothing with out there. (BTW- If you want the best Twilight fan-fic continuation go to bellasdiary.com and read Bella’s diary!)

So I signed up for an account and went for it. Chapter by chapter I went over it again and again before I sent it to an old friend from high school that would edit for me. It took a long time to get the story up (because I became pregnant… and so did my editor!). By the time I was five chapters away from the end I was getting very discouraged, I was not getting the reads I wanted, or votes, or any kind of feed back at all. Then I stared digging because I wanted to know why. Most of the things that I had read on there were fan-fic as I said and I was discovering that this was really what the people there wanted to read. It was in no way where my audience was at all. And you don’t even what to know the few romances I tried to read… people typed it out in “text” talk!! Now I like I said I am no grammar girl but that bugs me to no end. (Big shocker – I hate texting!!!!)

With this “revelation” I started thinking. I told a friend to do it and then someone said -why don’t you do it? It clicked, why don’t I!! I decided to finish TF on wattpad, leave up the last chapter for about a week (just incase there was someone I didn’t know was reading it that would want to know the end). The one big change I mad from Wattpad to publishing was the ending. I took over three thousand words off the end and changed it into the prolog, that was from a way different POV. Than I read over it again (for time number… twenty or so) and printed it out to physically give to my dear editor friend for all her finally notes. Reading it over and over was a HUGE mistake. I knew the book word for word in my sleep. The problem with this was that I knew what it SHOULD say, not what it did say. If there was a missing word or a misspelled word my mind saw it there or read it correctly. Never again will I write a book and read it that many times. I’ll read it after I am done, then give it to my husband to look over, then my mother, then maybe read it one last time – big maybe there; and THEN I will send it for the edit.

When I created the cover, way back in wattpad days, I spent hours looking on-line for free images that I didn’t have to pay to get and that fit what I wanted for the first impression then I found a photo of a statue of Romeo and Juliet somewhere in… Brooklyn maybe, anyway I popped that baby into Photo bucket and played with it for hours and hours. It was fun; I never really played with editing photos before that. Now I do it way too much. Then I had this blueprint style looking cover with this crazy and romantic looking font on it for the title and my name. I was pleased as punch and now I look back on it and think that it is awful!!!

When I knew I was really going to do it (self- publish) I sat down a mapped out these elaborate ideas of what I wanted it to be now. It needed to look professional and eye catching, romantic and beautiful. Then I was back on the web looking for the pieces I needed to put it together. Nothing is all I found. Then that wonderful person who said to “just do it” with the publishing said, “Why don’t you find a photographer and then put out an add on craigslist for the type of models you want. The photographer gets their name in the book – publicity, and the models will get the prints for their portfolio. You get what you want exactly.” Well the minuet they said it I knew who the photographer would be, she is a close friend and has done photos of my family as well as being around at family functions/ weddings. To top it off I knew who I wanted my cover model to be, I had met her several times and she reminded me looks wise of what I thought Abby looked like in college, but I needed a guy. So I asked if she would do it and if she knew a guy. Two weeks later we had a photo shoot. Thirty minutes later I had over one hundred photos to choose from that were different angles and lighting. I was almost overwhelmed with them all.

After narrowing it down to three I loaded them into my dear friend photo bucket again and started playing with fonts. Not here is where I would like to add that I read a lot of romance, well not so much anymore – with three kids, a husband, a house, writing, and marketing there is little time, I knew what caught my eye in the store. I knew what style of fonts were used for them – girly, yet bold and not so frilly you really had to look to read it. By the next day I had it and I was in love with it. I showed it to a few friends and they thought it was sharp also, so it was a go.

Then I showed it to my writing group, and I must say they are a great group of established self-published authors that had done it and seen it all. If I have any question about that area they are the place to go. I’m not going to lie – they were not impressed. They hated the lighting of it and how blonde my girl was. They hated that I used a “real” photo for it. Over all they thought I should chuck it and that my title should be big and bold along with my name. If it was only a thumbnail you should still be able to read it. I was sticking to my guns with the photo, it was what I wanted and it said what I wanted it to – young love with an angelic glow about it, that made you think of being in love for the first time walking through a park on a big sunny day and having him stop to pull you close and do something as innocent and simple as kissing you on the forehead. I remember those days and I am sure you do too! Anyway, I could see what they were saying about the bigger and bolder title and name. It made complete sense to me; I have seen those Nora Roberts novels that need nothing more than her name and a title on a pretty color. I would love to look like a big “somebody”… but I’m not… yet…lol.

I knew that I really had no interest in covering my photo with huge letters… wouldn’t that take away the “feeling” of fist love? So I decided that I would pull in another element of the book that is close to my heart and add a border of purple roses. Big bold letter and I was done.

Fast forward to about a month and a half ago, all great reviews!! The reviews were coming in slower than I thought but I also know how busy these girls are. Self-published authors would die with out them!! (And you make some great friends meeting them!)

Currently on top of being Mommy to three (my number one job), wife, house taker carer ofer, trying to market/get TF out there, and do research to learn more things… I try to find time to write (and maybe even breath and do something with friends, or even read- more than a children’s book).

So here I find myself trying to multitask and working to make myself a better self-published author. A new cover, one that is more like I wanted from the beginning, is in the works. The process is going slower than I would like, mostly because there has been a blockage from getting the original photo at the right level of pixilation to the person who is going to put it together for me. Although I am trying to be patient … it’s hard. I have gotten out a much better digital edition of TF and as soon as the cover is complete I will get to make a new actual book. A better and more beautiful version.

And I will continue to learn more and more, making the next novel and any that come after it better than the last.