Sherry Morris's Blog, page 8

Unchained Melody 4

“Robert, I’d like you to meet my fiancé, Susan Cervini.”Susan offered her hand. He held it and kissed her cheek. Brandon Cervini’s widow. Sure. Well, good for you guys. I hope you have a long and fruitful marriage.”Johnny said, “And this is her cousin, Melody Utley.”Robert kissed her cheek and said, “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Utley.”Susan and Johnny were snuggling together, letting a gaggle of chatty Irish women tourists passed by. Their snuggling invariably was Johnny all but humping Susan from behind. “So, you live around here?” Robert made small talk with Melody, shouting over the traffic.“I’m just visiting my cousin now. Not really sure where I’ll be settling. I’ll figure that out once I get a job.”‘What line of work are you in?”“Nothing. Anything, anything at all. I worked at a Day Care Center, and a seashell shop.” “A seashell shop in New York”“No, Florida. I’ve got a bit of a wanderlust.”“Well, the bookstore down the block has a ‘now hiring’ sign in the window. in case you’re interested.”“Which way?”
“Come on, I’ll escort you. That is if you don’t have plans…”

Unchained Melody 3

Brooklyn, New York
Melody sucked the last of her milk out of the carton and dumped her dinner trash in the orange receptacle. She placed the hard plastic tray on top of the others. Her cousin, Susan, and her fiancé Johnny were nuzzling near the door, waiting. Melody inhaled and rolled her eyes. She didn’t want to have to listen to them again tonight. It was hard enough sleeping with a pillow between her legs and a baby doing somersaults inside of her.Johnny held the door as she and Susan left McDonald’s. As he let the door go, he said, “Hey, Gibb, what’s up?” to a gentleman in a dark suit with a skinny tie. His dark hair kissed the tops of his shoulders and the beard seemed only a couple weeks old.“Hi Newman, good to see ya.”“When’d you get back?”“’bout a month ago. I got a medical discharge from the Army National Guard.”“What’s wrong?”“The truck I was riding in turned over in a mortar attack. Screwed my back. Literally. Got a rod and screws in it.”“Aw, man, I’m really sorry. How bad does it hurt?”“I know it’s there.”“So are you going on light duty in the fire department then?”
“Nah, I’m up for disability pension. Just waiting on the paperwork to go through. How you been, man?” He sized up Susan, and glanced at Melody.

Engaging on Twitter

Today I have 37,000+ Twitter Followers. It's gotten to the point I have so many Notifications in my timeline overnight and throughout the day that I can't scroll through them all (Windows 8 doesn't help). That bothers me knowing someone might have commented to me or sent me something they think I'd like and I don't see it and they are ignored. I hate being ignored, and don't want to do that to anyone. I was at least Favoriting comments if I couldn't respond, so at least the person knew I saw it.

I'm now getting more than 100 new followers most days and it's all I can to to follow them back. I think I'm missing some. And again, I don't want people to feel they didn't make the cut. I used to be selective in whom I followed but I've loosened up and try to follow back almost everyone.

Now I understand why celebrities don't follow back or engage with the public on Twitter. There isn't time! They get hundreds of thousands of followers, it's impossible.

I've got my content and promo and advocacy tweets automated now. I do tweak them trying to get a good mix to entertain and inform people with. I hope nobody feels like my whole timeline is "Buy My Book" and "You Have Skin Cancer, Fool".  In a good week I might sell one book, so my real purpose is to get people daydreaming by putting my little novel lines out there. And I want everyone to realize they might be susceptible to skin cancer and take preautions, even if they are young, black and careful.

So I'm going to stop fretting about missing followers and comments since it's out of my normal human being control. Instead I'm going to finally relax and engage and get exited and enjoy my virtual pals.

Unchained Melody 2

Derrick carried a white wooden bed tray into the room. He placed it over Zander’s lap. “Take your pills first. Wash them down with the juice.”“What fruit makes red juice?” Zander screwed his face up as he popped three different medications in his mouth and washed it down.“Drink it all.”He downed the tart liquid and put the jelly glass down.“Cranberry-raspberry. Good?”“No.”“The physical therapist will be here at nine. Hurry up and eat and get in the shower.”“Don’t you tell me what to do. Maybe I don’t wanna take no shower.” Zander picked up his apple crumb pie and gobbled it with his hands.“She’s kind of pretty. Don’t you wanna smell good for her? You won’t be a cripple forever you know.”Zander swallowed and gulped his weak coffee. Derrick never made it strong enough.Mary, the physical therapist, was a cute little Filipino babe. He’d of course imagined her helping to make him forget all about his fractured pelvis.Zander licked his fingers and picked up the explanation of benefits. Queens Radiology Associates. Queens, New York. Susan. Melody was hiding out at her cousin Susan’s house.
Zander moved the tray aside and said, “Don’t just stand there, get the walker over here.”

On Writing and Romance

N & W 611 in Manassas, VAOn Writing:
Busy, bustling week. Found a fourth 5 Star review for INAPPROPRIATE on Amazon. It really boosted my lackluster feelings about me writing books that apparently only I want to read. Thank you to all readers who take the time to post reviews. Personally, I will not review a book that I feel deserves less than 3 stars, but only because it hits close to home and do unto others.

I held a poll to help me select which of four old works-in-progress to serialize on my blog. The page got a thousand impressions and two votes. So the winner is the romance, Unchained Melody, the sequel to Fully Involved Fire. I've posted the first page and will post another page every Wednesday. I've got it all set up through the end of July. If it's a hit, I'll keep it coming.

Since only two of my books sell, I'm revamping my promo efforts to focus on them. I'll still auto-promote the others with the stuff already in the Hootsuite and Jukebox hoppers, but not often. I've created three dozen new promos for INAPPROPRIATE and will make more.

I've begun refurbishing my book links to include more markets and international options. It takes a long time. I think the INAPPROPRIATE page links are looking smart now.

On Romance:
Had a two day whirlwind trip with my hunky husband. We saw an historic steam train, the Southern Railway 4501 in Radford, Virginia. Chased it. I videotaped it and we also enjoyed photos while it was parked. Lunch at Macado's which included sour cream and onion dip. Then we rode our tandem bicycle built for two on the Dora trail. That was awesome! A tree-lined canopy, high wooden bridges, horses, dog walkers and other cyclists. We drove into North Carolina for the night and the next day enjoyed the Lionel Factory Store, shopping at the Concord Mills Outlet Mall, lunch at a brick oven pizza joint, Tony Sacco's, and then we saw the hilarious movie Entourage before stopping at Jack in the Box for 20 tacos to bring home. We don't have that chain in Virginia.

My Inappropriate Book!

Like A Mini VacationBy Eclectic on June 27, 2015Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Loved this book. It was like candy for the mind. To read it you need to suspend disbelief and any detective tendencies. Just buckle up and hang on. The ride is all that matters.
I found the above review this morning on Amazon. It's rare I anyone buys one of my books and reviews are rarer. I'm used to gut kicking one star rants. Finally I have a book readers enjoy.

This is the last book I published. I stopped writing after this one. After a decade of rejections from New York literary agents and editors, I took this one straight to Indie publishing. I struggled with my long time critique partners, as always, and after I left the group because I had a day job and they refused to meet when I was available, they would not let me back into the group last year. Because I never took their advice apparently. That's not true. I took about 5% of their advice, but they didn't notice. They never liked my heroines, thought my casts were too large and I refused to follow the logical formula with my plots. I finished the book without them and had it edited by an editor pal. I sucked it up and made about 20% of the changes she wanted. Mostly grammatical. I did pare the cast down slightly but I refused to get rid of all the characters and sub plots and twists that would have streamlined the story and made it acceptable.

I now have four 5 star reviews on Amazon, and one 3 star for this book. And only one of them is from a friend. Strangers like my book! My kooky, convoluted weird muse has been accepted on some plain by readers. Halejujah!

I'm going to write a sequel. It was on hold because what was the point in writing another book nobody wanted to read. I'm so touched. And excited! Thank you readers.

If you'd like to read the first chapter, click HERE.

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Unchained Melody

This is the first page of a Serial Romance written by me for your enjoyment. More pages to come.


Las Vegas, Nevada
Zander squirmed alone in his double bed, clicking the remote control until he settled on a fly fishing tournament. He heard the screen door to his trailer slam shut, a muffled thump signaled his home health aide, Derrick had arrived and stashed his lunch cooler.
The vinyl hall floor squeaked under the large Polish man’s footsteps. He dropped a folded flyer and two letters on Zander’s lap. “What you want for breakfast? Cereal or pie?”“Pie and coffee. Do ya like fishing?”“Sure.” Derrick squeaked off toward the kitchen.
Using his teeth, Zander pried the staple on the flyer open then spit it onto the gold sculptured carpet. The community association listed activities for March. He breezed through it. The book club would discuss Hundred Dollar Bill. The garden club scheduled an expert on rockscaping. The Easter bunny was throwing a Victorian tea and egg hunt. The Saturday night movie would be Saturday Night Fever, Rated R. Adults only. Popcorn and soft drinks included. RSVP to reserve a space.That Nance lady that runs things didn’t start work until noon, he’d have to remember to call. Zander opened a letter from his health insurance company and tossed the envelope onto the rug.Jeeze, will it never end? Surely I’ve met my catastrophic deductible by now, and they shouldn’t be messing around nickel and diming me anymore.
Provider of Service: Queens Radiology AssociatesPatient’s name: Melody Service: Obstetrical Ultrasound

Zander read it over again. Finally a lead on his estranged wife. She’s pregnant! Damn it, she knows I don’t want no kids. How dare her. Sinking his head back into the pillow, Zander remembered that night in June. The Ecstasy that his pal Terrell hooked him up with. The video camera. 

Free Serial Story

I will post an original serial story on this blog with regular free installments. Please vote in the poll on the left for the story or stories you'd like to read:

Unchained Melody, a romantic suspense sequel to Fully Involved Fire. I pick up the story of the mirror romance triangle: Cousin Melody, her estranged husband. Zander, and her unrequited teen-aged love, Adam aka Mister Wright.

Resuscitated, a medical thriller mystery, based on my brief real-life job in a satellite hospital emergency room.

My Sister the Leprechaun, a fantasy I'm writing to cope with the unexpected loss of my beautiful sister, Beth, a way we can still to do all the things that can now never be.

Big Summer eBook Sale!

     
     
  
All of my eBooks (except THOUSAND DOLLAR PHARAOH) are on sale for 99 cents for a limited time. If you buy or already own my print books at Amazon, you can get the Kindle version free now
through the Kindle Match Book Program.

Click the large covers in the left margin for individual previews and store links or click below for my author pages in each store:

Amazon Kindle
Nook
iBooks
Kobo
Smashwords
All Romance 

Uphill Both Ways

I live in Virginia but not in the mountains. I'll never understand why my running routes always seem like they are up steep hills, both ways! I'm slow and it's hot. But I did it.