Em's Turn

Four Songs that are helping with my NaNoWriMo story

Sons of Evenmore: Blood to Blood

Enjoy!!!

Releasing Tomorrow - Karenna Colcroft: With My Heart

Releasing Tomorrow

Jupiter Garden Press Link

Find Karenna Here

BLURB:

Merit Hartwick and Cole Dellany have worked to build a relationship in the months since Cole’s apology for bullying Merit in high school led to love. But Cole is having a hard time adjusting to city life after the small town in which he and Merit grew up, and Merit’s responsibilities to his ballet troupe and the classes he teaches are taking time away from Cole. After an argument the two agree to see other people, but will their relationship survive?

With My Heart

There’s a country music song called “Dancing Away With My Heart” which caught my attention a year and a half ago or so. The song is a reminiscence about dancing with someone at a high school prom and wondering where that person is today.

That song gave rise to a story, as songs often do for me. I wanted to write a male/male romance, a sequel to a male/female romance I’d written about a year earlier called You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This (which is also based on a country song), and “Dancing Away With My Heart” fit what I wanted to do. What would happen if the dance at the prom was part of a prank perpetrated by bullies? And what if one of those bullies tracked down the person on the receiving end of the prank to apologize?

That story, Dancing Away, was released in August 2012, and sold enough copies to go into print. But since it was only a novella, it couldn’t go into print by itself, so my publisher, editor, and I discussed my writing a sequel. And that sequel, With My Heart, releases tomorrow! 

EXCERPT:

At lunchtime, he gave in and called Merit, hoping Merit would answer this time. He did so within seconds and sounded happy when he said, “Hi, Cole. How was your night last night?”

For a moment, Cole considered not telling Merit about Derek. But he couldn’t stand being dishonest. “It was okay. Went out for drinks with a guy from work.”

“Just drinks?” Merit sounded guarded.

Cole opened his truck door and got into the vehicle, giving himself a semblance of privacy for the conversation. “Yeah, just drinks. I didn’t want anything more. You and I are still together, aren’t we?”

“Of course we are.” Merit hesitated slightly as he spoke, unless Cole was imagining it. He hoped he was. Hesitation might have meant only that Merit wasn’t in a place where he could talk much, or it might mean something Cole didn’t want to think about.

Something along the lines of Merit hooking up with another guy the night before.

“What did you do after rehearsal last night?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

“I went out with a few others.” Merit hesitated. “Look, we’re seeing other people, right?”

“Just tell me.” Cole couldn’t help snapping. He didn’t want to be angry with Merit, but he refused to sit there and let Merit get away with not being completely honest. “You were with someone else last night.”

“Yeah.” Merit exhaled loudly. “Yeah. I kind of figured you were. I mean, I tried calling you and you didn’t answer.”

“I didn’t get a call from you.” Cole felt as if his heart was coated with ice. Merit had fucked someone else. After all the promises they’d made to each other and all the time they’d spent building their relationship, it had taken nothing for Merit to say “Let’s see other people” and then do exactly that.

He should have hung up right then, but some perverse part of his brain wanted to know what had happened. “I checked my phone all night, and I tried calling and texting you. You were the one who didn’t answer.”

“I know.” Merit paused. “I wasn’t in a position where I could answer the phone.”

“Yeah, I can imagine what position you were in,” Cole snarled. If Merit hadn’t phrased it that way, Cole might have been able to keep his temper. But now he didn’t see the point in bothering. Merit had had some other guy’s dick up his ass and he wasn’t even trying to soothe Cole’s feelings. Cole didn’t need the shit. “Fuck you, Merit. I figured at least you might wait a little while before you acted on the seeing other people bullshit, but you went out the same fucking day. Good for you. Hope he’s good in bed.”

“Wait.”

Cole held the phone away from his ear, thumb poised to disconnect the call, but the pain in that one syllable from Merit stopped him. He wasn’t about to stop being angry, but he couldn’t hang up. “What?”

“I’m sorry.” Merit sighed. “I know. Lame. And I didn’t do anything I should need to apologize for, since we agreed to see other people. You’re angry and hurt, though, and that’s what I’m sorry for. I never meant to upset you.”

“You should have thought of that before you fucked someone else.” Cole paused as a realization sank in. He had been right to be worried about the way some of the dancers looked at Merit. “It was someone from the troupe, wasn’t it? You always say you never had time to really meet anyone else because you’re so busy.”

“Besides which, I just said I went out with some of the other dancers after rehearsal,” Merit pointed out. “So yes, it was someone from the troupe.”

“Don’t tell me who.” He had no idea whether Merit had been about to do so, and he didn’t want to take the chance. He spent enough time with Merit’s fellow dancers that he refused to risk the visual should he encounter Merit’s fuck-buddy.

“I wasn’t going to,” Merit said. “Cole, I won’t tell you not to be angry. You feel how you feel, and I’d probably feel the same way if I were you. But I didn’t do this to upset you.”

“I know. It’s just a side effect.” Cole rolled his eyes. He couldn’t think of anything even remotely nice to say at the moment, so he didn’t try for long. “You did what you did, and as you said, you weren’t betraying me or anything because you decided we should see other people.”

“You agreed.” Merit’s voice was hollow.

“What else could I do?” Cole bit his lip, unwilling to let fly with the words that came to mind. Some things would be even less forgivable than Merit’s not-really-cheating. “I can’t talk about this right now, Merit. I don’t want to think about it, and I have to eat lunch and get back to work.”

“Can we see each other tonight?”

This time, Cole couldn’t help a snarky retort. “You don’t have a party or something?”

“I don’t have anything to do except try to fix what I’ve obviously broken with you.”

Confessions:

As we all know I'm so far behind on my NaNoWriMo - not because I'm a slacker - but because for some strange reason I decided to publish Sons of Evenmore before the two series which precede it. Why did I do things arse about? Because I'm an idiot that's why. I should have finished the other two series first.

• Pack Matters
• Watson Falls

In some ways doing it backwards is easier as I already will know how it ends. but when I have cross over characters enter each others series. I have to go back and take notes. As asinine as it seems - and believe me it is - I've had to make a combined notebook so I can cross check everything so I don't screw it all up.

Damn!

Day 1 of exercises are over and done with, and let me just say that I hate push-ups... There is no way in hell that my body can do them in the shape I'm in... I got through three... I'm supposed to do 10 reps of a set of 3 Push-ups wit 60 seconds in between each rep... so not going to happen - I think they're something I'll have to work myself up to. On a brighter note: I could do the rest of the exercises... not great with the balancing ones but I did them.

Now I'm off to get some more of my NaNoWriMo done - Sons of Evenmore: Blood to Blood.

Busy as...

Why is November always so fricken busy that I always end up falling behind on my NaNoWriMo? I have no clue either, but I vow in the next couple of days I will catch up and stay on track...

I dismantled the double bed in the spare room and replaced it with a single bed and trundle that converts into a double bed when needed... much more space in the room which has become my closet.

I start on my diet and exercise routine tomorrow. So I'll keep you all informed on how I'm going - everyone needs a support group and you've all just become mine. I have exercises and a diet to follow... I might find the diet a bit hard to follow as I don't eat some of the ingredients - but I'll make do. 

As the saying goes - I'll never know unless I try.

The new nutritionist took some measurements:

• Shoulder Circle = 130cm
• Waist = 103cm
• Weight = 105.2KG (231.92lbs)
• Height = 168cm

Book Review...

 MM Good Book Reviews

Good or bad I will let you choose. Though I would like to say that many of the things that have taken place in this book have really happened inside my family...unbelievable as it seems. I did change names and places so my family stays partially hidden. 

Book 2: Beautiful Goodbyes does in fact start where this book leaves off... though Book 2 is not about Ray & Viv even though they are still very present in the book, and book 2 is not a HEA. I can't even class it as a HFN it's more a filler book so what happens in 3,4, & 5 make more sense.

Woo-hoo! Contract signed.

This morning I woke up to the best surprise in my inbox... A Contract waiting to be signed with MLR Press for the The Lines of Marsden: Living in Shadows... I can't wait for you all to read the next instalment of Michael Marsden's life. I should start edits in just over a month. I now have to fill in blurb forms and cover art requests.

I'm also staying on track with NaNoWriMo - The Sons of Evenmore: Blood to Blood. I've just started writing chapter four.

Dang it - I just took the bins out to the curb to be emptied and got attacked by ants and bitten all under the ball of my left foot. Fricken hell, it hurts like a bitch... I'm allergic to ants. So now waiting and watching as my foot swells up (not deathly allergic which is a good thing.)