He’s Such a Nice Guy – for NYCMidnight’s Flash Fiction Challenge

“Good morning, gorgeous,” I could hear the familiar voice calling from the front of the shop.

Steve always stopped by with something fresh from the farm to share before the day got busy. I sat the tea-pot on the hot plate and went out to say hello.

“What’s fresh today, my friend? Tomatoes, cucumber, little green onions?”

“I thought I’d drop by with something special,” Steve smiled.

It was a full and genuine smile that crinkled a bit around blue eyes glittering with mischief. A sweet exotic fragrance was just beginning to fill the shop when Steve presented me with a huge bunch of star-gazer lilies.

“It’s certainly no watermelon,” I gasped and greedily snapped them from him.

I could happily paint myself in bright orange pollen to be able to bury my face in a bunch of star-gazers.

“What brought this on,” I asked

“Nothing much, really,” Steve continued to smile. “The sun was shining, the surf was up, and I felt like sharing a bit of the Creator’s handiwork with you today.”

To say the least, Steve was anything but typical. Sure the sun bleached long hair, deep tan, and lean body fit in just fine on the Pacific Shores boardwalk. But, he was also a bit of a hippie and ran an organic produce store next to my surf shop. His store’s success was due more to his magnetic personality than anyone’s particular desire for fresh green beans. Everybody loved the philosophical purveyor of produce. There was never a shortage of women next door, which certainly was a good excuse for the guys to come in and browse through the boards and gear in my shop.

Something in his demeanor was different, more intense, that morning. I felt drawn to him. He put his hands about my waist and pulled me close to his side.

“Danielle,” he whispered, “close up the shop and run away with me for the day.” His suggestion was warm and sultry on the back of my neck. “The day is going to be incredibly beautiful. If you step out on the boardwalk, you can hear the song of the surf. Why stay indoors, doing what we can do any day? Carpe Diem, Danielle. Let’s seize today and live the way the Creator intended, in tune with His creation.” He sealed the suggestion on my skin with a velvety kiss.

The thought was so powerful, I was nearly breathless. I turned in his arms to face him.

“But, Steve,” I started to object, but he covered my mouth in his and kissed the life out of the objection.

Releasing the kiss he backed away only as far as the ends of our noses. “I have fresh mangos and strawberries, dark chocolate, and champagne. Come lay on the beach and celebrate the day with me,” he purred softly against my lips.

My body began to give in to the deep caressing strokes he ran along my back. My lips fell again upon his and a consuming passion ignited.

Then a sharp angry whistling noise began assaulting my ears. Steve walked in the door just as I lifted my chin from my palm.

“Good morning, gorgeous. Daydreaming so early?” He was carrying a small crate of mangos. “I wasn’t kidding yesterday when I told you about my mango tree,” his smile caused the skin around his eyes to crinkle.

It was then that I realized it was the tea-pot screaming, about to boil over. I scurried back to take it off the hot plate.

“I need to get back to the store, Danielle. Come by for lunch later,” he called as he set the brass bell above the surf shop door jingling on his way out.

“He’s such a nice guy,” I thought to myself. “Someday I should tell him what all the daydreams have been about.

Flash Fiction Round One Up and Running!

My first writing assignment from NYCMidnight’s Flash Fiction Challenge is a romance set in a surf shop with at least a mention of a pot of boiling water.  At least I’m starting off in my comfort zone.  But then again, not sure how that will stretch me as a writer.  Lots of ideas are flowing.  I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going.

For you Twitter addicts, check my feed.  There’s lots of conversation going on.

Flash Fiction Challenge

Let me tell you, I LOVE a good challenge.  I’m really excited to take this one on.  Several months ago I spotted a Facebook Ad for the Flash Fiction Challenge by NYCMidnight.com.  It looked like a great way to stretch myself and have some fun.

Well Saturday is the big day.  The first challenge will be issued at Midnight, Zero Hour, Saturday morning.  I am so jazzed to give this a go!

The idea is to write something short, quick, and hopefully dead-on brilliant.  All of the participating writers will have 2 days to complete a 1,000 word story based on an assigned genre, location, and object.  I can tell you right now that the 1,000 word maximum will be the hardest part of the challenge for me.

Check back with me over the weekend and I’ll share with you what I came up with for the first challenge.

The Adie Sturm Mystery Series – Pleasure and Peril in Paradise

Murder/Romance Author, Anastasia Amor

If you are at all like me, then you love to curl up on a rainy day with a book that will take you on an adventure   How about an escape to a tropical paradise, something truly exotic?  Ever wish you could dive crystal clear Caribbean waters and visit a coral reef?  How about dancing away a sultry tropical night with a handsome lover?  Well, my dear friend, Anastasia Amor, has given us all that and so much more in her Adie Sturm Mystery Series. 

We meet Adie for the first time in “A Corpse for Cozumel.”  Adie is trying to escape the miserably cold Canadian winter for a research trip to Cozumel, Mexico.  Before she can take flight a man is found murdered and her best friend has become the prime suspect.  The odd circumstances of her friend’s life lead to clues in beautiful Cozumel.  The closer she gets to the answers, the more Adie’s own life is in danger.  To complicate matters, an old flame reemerges like a god from the sea and a new flame seeks to stir Adie’s deepest passions. 

When Adie returns to Cozumel with a tour group in “Days of the Dead,” danger continues to follow her every step.  This time it is the owner of the travel agency she works for who is not only suspected of murder but in mortal danger herself.  Adie has to tread carefully to protect herself and the people around her.  But, not everything about this trip is strictly business.  Adie still needs to sort out her own feelings for two drop dead gorgeous men.  Will she let herself fall in love with the dreamy Wolf DuLac?  Or will Adie give into the decadent charms of the steamy Diego Alvarez? 

In the third book in the series, “The Curse of the Carnaval,” Adie returns once more to Cozumel for a friend’s wedding.  Before the first toasts can be made in honor of the happy couple, Adie is being considered as the prime suspect in the brutal murder of one of the other members of the wedding party.   Adie is in the worst trouble of her life and, despite her misgivings, she must seek the help of the very powerful and very sexy Diego Alvarez.  Nothing would make Diego happier than to claim Adie for his own, but Adie has managed to fall completely for Wolf.  Now she must sort out the mysterious murder of a man that nearly everyone hated, keep herself out of a Mexican jail, and wind up with the right man in her life. 

There is so much to love about this series. Particularly, I found the characters to be charming and real. Anastasia Amor seems to have captured the personalities of people I would be proud to call friends. Adie Sturm is certainly a lovely woman of fearless passion, but she’s still real enough to deal with unfortunate hair disasters caused by helmets and humidity.  Then there’s beautiful Cozumel.  Ms. Amor has captured the sights and sounds of this vacation destination in vivid detail. 

I’m especially excited to share this series with you, because I have it from Anastasia herself that there is a fourth adventure on the way.   This time the azure waters of the Caribbean off the coast of Cozumel hold danger for divers.  Adie will somehow find herself  in the middle of a dive gone horribly and mysteriously wrong.  So, kick back, relax, and let Anastasia Amor take you on the vacation of a lifetime.

Gone Too Far South – A Guest Post for the Real Housewives of Oklahoma

Some great girlfriends of mine have given me the great honor of being the very first guest to post on their blog.  I had to share a little of what I wrote for them with you.

I bet none of you would have ever guessed that there is a way for a Southern girl to go TOO far south. But it seems that’s just what I’ve managed to do. Honey, Texas just THINKS they’re a whole other country. It’s a wonder I don’t need a passport down here in Palm Beach County, Florida! Heaven help me, I know I need a translator. And half the time the translator is needed to make other people understand this SOUTHERN girl!

What cracks me up most about these people are the true locals. There is a tiny minority of people who where actually born and raised here in South Florida. Some of them mistakenly believe that due to the extreme southerly location that they are southern. But if you try to get them talking about fried okra and shellin’ peas they look at you like you just walked off a spaceship from Mars. I miss home an awful lot sometimes, y’all.

A friend of mine from Texas (I know, I know, but bless their hearts they’re still southern) sent me this list of “Southern-isms” that helps me get through those homesick days.

Only a Southerner knows the difference between a hissie fit and a conniption fit, and that you don’t ‘HAVE’ them, you ‘PITCH’ them. I don’t know maybe it’s the tropical paradise vibe with the sun and sandy beaches, but I think it’s starting to affect me. I’ve been here nearly 8 years now and I KNOW I’ve pitched far fewer fits lately. Tell ya what, though, I can still spot a child’s hissie fit coming from a mile away.

Even Southern babies know that ‘Gimme some sugar’ is not a request for the white, granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty little bowl in the middle of the table. Oh my word, how many times did I hear my Grandmama say just that. “Come here, babe, and gimme some sugar.” Or better yet, how many of your children have had their sugar STOLEN while sitting in Grandma’s lap? Not much sugar gets spread around these parts, and I’m fairly certain that may just be what’s wrong with ‘em.

For more giggles and “Southern-isms” please stop on over at  www.theRHOK.com to read the rest of my post “Gone Too Far South.”

Pilate’s Cross – A Smashing E-Book

“’The X-Files’ meets ‘The Prisoner’ when John Pilate, his sarcastic imaginary pal Simon and lovely instructor friend Kate investigate the mystery of a murdered college president–a mystery with loose ends more than 40 years later. In too deep to wash his hands of the mystery, he risks death to get to the truth of what really happened in 1963 and why it’s just as deadly 40 years later.”

From Smashwords.com

John Pilate’s life is a total disaster. His wife, Samantha, left him. He’s recovering from throat surgery after a cancer scare. Unemployed, broke, and off his anti-depressants, he’s desperately in need of a second chance. But second chances aren’t what they are cracked up to be when a new job offers the opportunity to start over again. The tiny township of Cross is anything but the sleepy little college town it seems to be. The loose ends of a 40 year old murder/suicide are triggering some strange events. The crypt of a prominent family is desecrated, and the local mortician is beat within an inch of his life. An outsider with no chance of ever fitting in, John Pilate finds himself in deep and will risk his life to uncover the truth in this gripping murder mystery by J. Alexander Greenwood.

For me, Pilate’s Cross was a total winner. When I first read it several months ago, I was along for the ride with John Pilate, the title character. I was as in the dark as much as he was. Greenwood kept me guessing until the very end. I picked it up a second time to review and was thrilled all over again. Greenwood weaves a depth of detail throughout the book that can only be caught on a second reading once you know what’s really going on. Full of humor and oh-so-quotable quips, it’s a no-brainer e-book purchase.

The one shortcoming for me was that I can’t get it in print. I’m an old school book lover, and I will never let go of the joy of holding those lovely pages in my hands. Pilate’s Cross would certainly be a book I’d plunk down the coin to have it in print. But I can’t complain too much, thanks to Smashwords.com, I have it on my iPhone, and I can take it with me everywhere I go.  It’s also available on Sony E-Reader, BarnesandNoble.com, iBooks, and Kobo.com

Author J. Alexander Greenwood

Mr. Greenwood is currently putting the finishing touches on the follow-up to this thriller. Believe me, I will be clicking the option to buy Pilate’s Key as soon as it’s available. Hurry up Alex. I can’t wait to see what mayhem you bring to Key West!

A Family Legacy

In the wee hours of the morning of May 11, 2010 my last grandparent, Melba Elois Holt Genn, passed on into Heaven.  In honor of her I wanted to share a little bit of the family legacy that has made it’s way into my writing.

One of the central relationships in April Roberts’ life was her gypsy grandmother Irene.  Grandma Irene was a role model for April.  She traveled the country, seeing and doing things that April always dreamed of one day doing.  It was that spirit of adventure that April shared with her grandmother.

I open the book with April and her mother cleaning out the attic storage of Grandma Irene’s house after she had passed on.  The scene was loosely based on my own experience helping my mom and dad pack up the belongings of my Grandma Gladys after she passed away a few years ago.  Memories of coming across things that I used to play with as a child were vivid for me as I wrote.

One of the key notions in the book is a little chest full of personal letters, memories if you will, passed from mother to daughter for several generations.  This passing of family legacy from mother to daughter is very real in my own life.  I have been very blessed with a sense of history and faith that has indeed been passed from mother to daughter for several generations now.  To this day I can still remember my Great-Grandmother Verda Mae, we caller her NayNay, sitting in her chair at my Grandmother’s house, telling stories, and listening to all of my stories.  In my mind, she was a living, breathing example of quiet strength and great faith.  She passed down much to my Grandmother, Melba, and my Mother.  Again, comforting memories of great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother all together talking and teaching and giving me the foundations of my own life.  I now have the responsibility and blessing of passing down all the things my grandmothers gave me to my own daughters.  I am so thankful to have a family legacy like this to give them.  It’s a little sad for me to think that they will not have the rich memories of time spent with their grandmothers as I had.

To be sure, the journey that I find myself on would not be possible without the trails the women of my family have blazed before me.

So, in honor of the memories of Verda Mae, Melba, and Gladys I will officially dedicate the completion of my novel, “Where Redemption Lies.”

♩♫ Yo ho, yo ho . . . . ♫♩

. . . A Pirate’s Write for Me . . .

I LOVE research!  I can read and read and read and NEVER learn enough.

Case in point, when I started reading up on pirate history and modern day treasure hunting for my novel, I spent weeks in the libraries and online.  I got every pirate, treasure hunting, and underwater archeology book I could find.  I even wound up buying a couple of books on the subject that I still refer back to for inspiration.

I am now an expert on pirates!  My mom laughed at me when we visited the Pirate Soul museum in Key West.  I was commenting on the display comments.  I tend to stuff my brain full of information until it oozes back out uncontrollably.

So what do I do with all the information I found?  Well of course most of it is now coloring how I am writing my novel.  But I actually read up on a lot of historic information that I’m not really using, at least not in the novel.

So, I started writing a fully historical novella, just because I like the subject matter.  I haven’t really decided what I might do with it just, yet.  I know there are some options for it.  But for now, I work on it from time to time to keep my mind fresh.  When I get bogged down in the novel, I can always change gears and work on the novella to get creativity flowing again.

Once I finish these two manuscripts, I think I will be digging into Scottish/Celtic folk-lore and history. And then there is the Italian Renaissance . . . and early American history . . .

Adventures in the Near Frozen South — From January 2010

What were the chances that we would wind up in Key West on one of the coldest days on record? None the less, that’s exactly what happened.

Mom and I were each curled up in a bed piled with blankets, and giggling at all the noises coming from the neighbors in the B&B as they tried to figure out how to keep warm in this drafty historic home.

Now that’s my idea of adventure! I was sitting mere yards from the marker of the southernmost point of the continental USA, and we had a wind chill of 43 degrees.

After trying to sleep in a frigid room all night, we found a Key Wester to brighten up our day.
Niki was our waitress for breakfast. As she seated us she smiled and asked, Would you like HOT coffee…. Or maybe cold orange juice?” We couldn’t help but giggle. Mom finally decided to have water. Niki smiled and teased, “with ice in it?”

Have to admit, when faced with the coldest day on record, might as well smile and have fun with it.
Niki says if you know of a nice man, she’s available.

Life IS a Journey

Sure, I know we’ve all heard that one.  But I do think it’s all about how you take it.  Are you going to be the type to grumble your way through life, impatiently asking, “Are we there yet,” until you take your last breath and arrive THERE, the end of the mortal journey? Or, will you slow down long enough to take in all the sights, sounds, and smells along the way, maybe even pause to converse with the people you meet along the way?

Now I’m no different than most people.  I have my days when I really want to blurt out, “Are we there yet??!!!” because for some reason I or someone close to me has yet to learn a simple life lesson.  And, then, I have my days when I really enjoy putting one foot in front of the other just to see where the sidewalk goes.

At this moment in time I have my mom to join me on the journey for a few days.  No matter what the weather, we are going to Key West to see whatever there may be to see.  I intend to take lots of pictures and soak up every experience I can.  I plan to turn the next couple of days into a couple of amazing chapters in the novel I’m currently writing.

Where is the journey taking you over the next few days?  Are you going to blaze through it and hope it’s over soon, or are you going to take the moment to really live?

Yes, Life IS a journey.  Let’s live it up!