R.L. Mathewson's Blog, page 11
December 15, 2014
A Christmas Party From Hell
A Christmas Party from Hell
“Tell me again why we’re going to this thing,” Trevor said, rubbing his hands roughly down his face as he sat there, praying that someone, anyone would call him with an emergency that would save him from having to go to this thing.
“Because it’s going to be fun,” Zoe said cheerfully for the benefit of their children who were all sitting in the back glaring at their mother for making them do this.
“I didn’t want to say anything, but,” Sebastian started to say only to pause with a heavy sigh, “I can’t go because this conflicts with my religious beliefs.”
The smile on his wife’s beautiful face disappeared and her eyes narrowed to slits as she slowly turned around to face her son. “You can’t go to a Christmas party at your school because of your religious beliefs?”
“Yes,” Sebastian said with a firm nod.
“You’re Catholic so how exactly does going to a Christmas party conflict with your religious beliefs?” she demanded.
Sebastian didn’t miss a beat as he said, “Because it’s stupid.”
“Because it’s stupid?” Zoe repeated, seeming at a loss when it of course made perfect sense to him.
“Yes, I don’t believe in attending things that are stupid,” he said with a straight face that made Trevor lock his jaw and avert his eyes from the rearview mirror, afraid that he’d laugh if he looked at his son right now and wrecking what appeared to be their one and only chance to escape this nightmare.
“I see,” Zoe murmured thoughtfully before she asked, “And do you believe in getting an allowance.”
“I’m a devout believer.”
“Then I suggest that you get your cute little butt out of this car, get in there, laugh, smile and be joyful or I’m going to have to abstain from giving you your allowance for the next ten years!”
“That’s sacrilegious,” Johnny hissed in outrage on his brother’s behalf.
“It is what it is,” Zoe said, opening her door and climbing out as he sat there, contemplating doing something that would probably end with divorce, but right now as he watched the stick thin janitor they were trying to pass off as Santa Claus walk past his car he was willing to risk it.
He glanced at the rearview mirror and met the determined gaze of his children and with a nod, they all agreed that the risk was worth it. He moved his hand to put the SUV in drive when Zoe opened his door, reached over him and pulled the keys out of the ignition.
“I’ll just walk home,” he said, determined to do whatever it took to avoid this party.
“You do that,” she said, stepping back and opening the back passenger door and gestured for the children to get out.
With their eyes narrowed on their mother, they did just that. Knowing that they were good and truly fucked, he climbed out of the car. For a minute he considered making a run for it, but he couldn’t do that to his children. He also couldn’t tell the kids that they didn’t have to go. He loved his wife and would never undermine her authority in front of the kids so he was going to have to suck it up and go, but not without making his terms clear.
He leaned down until his mouth was by Zoe’s ear and whispered, “After we put the kids to bed you’ll have five seconds to strip naked and get on your hands and knees with your ass up in the air to make up for this shit.”
“Fine,” she said with a shrug and what sounded like a smile as she gestured for the children, who were now including him in their glare, to go inside where a night of hell awaited them all.
*-*-*-*
“Please tell me that you’re kidding,” she said, rubbing her temples as she watched the Donna, the head of the PTA, nervously lick her lips as she took a cautious step back away from the table where up until five minutes ago, she’d been selling slices of pizza.
“I guess we didn’t order enough,” she said with a smile and a shrug as she gestured towards the long line of disappointed parents and children. “We weren’t expecting this big of a turn out so we only ordered a dozen pizzas.”
“I see,” she said, but she wasn’t really listening. She was too busy looking around, searching for something that would save them all, but unfortunately for everyone, all the baked treats and bags of stale popcorn had already been sold.
She stepped away from the line, trying to keep it together. She had to find her children and husband and get them out of here and to a restaurant before they ended up doing something that was going to get them another featured spot on the ten o’clock news. She glanced around the large cafeteria searching for her husband and children, but they weren’t here.
Trying to stay calm, she pulled her phone out and called Trevor, but thirty seconds later she was shoving it in her back pocket and freaking out a tad bit. She should have made sure they’d eaten before they’d left for this party, but stupidly she thought there would be plenty of food here to hold them over. She’d been wrong. So wrong…..
Forcing herself to act casual, she walked into the hallway and…….frowned when she realized that there was no one else in the hallway. She looked to her right and spotted all the abandoned carnival games that had had long lines of children waiting for a turn to win a piece of candy when she’d passed through the halls ten minutes ago. Now, balls, rubber ducks, Ping-Pong balls, candy wrappers, apples and Christmas ornaments littered the once busy hallway.
Swallowing nervously, turned to the left and found the same carnage left behind. An eerie feeling passed over her as she turned around to ask one the many people hanging around the cafeteria doors what happened only to stumble back and mutter, “Oh God, no,” when she spotted her seven year old daughter Jessica standing twenty feet away in the middle of the cafeteria……alone.
Somehow she found the strength to take those ten steps that would bring her back in the cafeteria. She looked around, but there was no one else. In less than a minute the nosy cafeteria had been abandoned, leaving her daughter and the remains of more than two-dozen plates of half eaten meals and snacks littering the tables and floors.
“W-what’s going on here?” she asked Jessica, doing her best not to show her fear, because as she’d learned from watching Dr. Phil and animal shows, showing fear was the quickest way to find herself in a horrifying situation with no way out.
“Nothing,” Jessica said with a smile as she walked over to her and took her hand. “Let’s go find Daddy and the boys.”
“Okay,” she said numbly as she allowed Jessica to turn her around and almost screamed a bit hysterically when she spotted her husband and boys standing in the hallway, all of them watching her and……smiling….they were smiling.
“Having a good time, sweetheart?” Trevor asked with a pleasant enough smile, but there was something in his expression that terrified her.
“Y-yes,” she said, swallowing nervously as she walked back into the hallway and as discretely as possible, looked around. “Where is everyone?”
“Gone,” Sebastian said ominously.
“The party’s over,” Mathew said.
“It was magical,” Johnnie added.
“I see,” she said as she allowed Jessica to lead her to the school’s front entrance. “Did you have a good time?” she asked hollowly, dreading their answer.
“Yes, mother,” they said as one, “we had a wonderful time.”
© Rerum Industries, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved.
December 8, 2014
Black Friday-R.L. Mathewson Chronicle
Warning: This Chronicle is intended for adults 18 years and older.
Black Friday
An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle
“No,” Jason mumbled into his pillow, wondering when his beautiful, yet obviously crazy, wife was going to give up and go away.
“Please!” Haley begged, readjusting her grip around his wrist before she tried to pull him off the bed, again.
“I’m not going,” he said, easily pulling his hand free so that he could place it beneath his pillow and out of grabbing distance from the small woman that he was obviously going to have to look into having committed.
“Please!”
“No.”
“But-”
“Get Zoe to go with you,” he said, turning onto his side away from her, hoping that she took the hint and let him get back to sleep.
“I want you to go with me,” she said with a little sniffle that would have had him rolling his eyes if he hadn’t been so damn exhausted.
“Not happening,” he muttered, wondering when the woman that he loved and adored would stop trying to drag him out of the warmth of their large, comfortable bed so that he could go stand outside for four hours in a line full of psychotic woman willing to freeze their asses off to save a couple of bucks.
“Then you’ve left me with no choice,” she said firmly seconds before she-
“Oh, this is just fucking sad,” he said with a sigh as he felt her throw herself across his back.
“Either agree to go with me or I’m not moving,” she said, sounding smug, which just made it sadder….so much sadder.
“Fine with me,” he said, satisfied that she was finally giving up and allowing him to get some sleep on his day off.
There was a long pause before Haley said, “I didn’t want to do this, but I’m afraid that you’ve left me with no choice.”
“Uh huh,” he said around a yawn.
“If you don’t get out of the bed and take me to the store right now I won’t cook for you for a month,” she threatened, rather adorably.
“Then I’ll just get take out or go to my mother’s house for dinner,” he pointed out, turning over onto his side and away from the woman determined to drive him out of his mind.
“Fine, then if you go with me I’ll cook whatever you want for a month,” she offered and as tempting as that offer was, it wasn’t enough to get him out of this bed.
“No.”
“Sex?”
He snorted at that, because they both knew that she wouldn’t be able to hold out on him for very long. She loved sex almost as much as he did. Besides, he knew all the ways to make her want to-
“If you get out of bed right now I’ll make you two bowls of buttercream fros-”
His eyes shot open and he was out of that bed and in the shower before she could finish that thought.
*-*-*-*
“How’d she get you here?” Trevor asked, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Buttercream frosting,” he said, taking a sip of his hot cocoa as he ignored the trio of angry soccer moms trying to push past him again. “You?”
“Yankees tickets.”
“You’re bringing me,” he said, leaving the fact that would beat him within an inch of his life unspoken since they both knew that he was going.
“You buying the beer?” Trevor asked, pointedly ignoring the trio now trying to push past him.
“Deal. You driving?” he asked, shifting to the left so that his arm was pressed Trevor’s when the smallest of the trio tried to squeeze past them.
“I figured we’d ask your dad to drive,” Trevor said, pressing in tightly against his arm to help block the psychotic woman who was now groaning and grunting as she shoved against them.
“Are you boys okay?” Zoe asked, not bothering to look up from the flyer that the store employees had handed out an hour ago, which had set the crowd off to near riot levels.
He’d never seen anyone go nuts over a flyer before, but these women had shoved, punched and bitten everyone around them in order to get their hands on one of these flyers. While everyone around them, including his wife, had gone nuts over the flyers, he’d stood there snapping pictures and taking videos along with Trevor.
It was just pathetic to see adults act like this over a few sales, he thought, taking another sip of cocoa and shaking his head in disgust.
*-*-*-*
“Are you getting this?” Zoe asked.
“Every last second of it,” Haley said, still not sure if she should be horrified or laughing her ass off.
“Do you think we’ll need bail money?”
“Without a doubt,” she murmured as she watched her husband, who up until an hour ago had been a rational human being, tackle Trevor to the ground, tear the crockpot out of his cousin’s hands and take off at a dead run towards the sporting section only slowing down just enough to drop the box in her carriage and tell her, “Guard it with your life, woman!”
“You bastard!” Trevor shouted, dragging himself to his feet and shooting the crockpot in her carriage a murderous glare before taking off after his cousin.
“You want to see if they have microwaves left or follow them?” she asked, calculating the battery life left on her phone.
If she did this just right, she should be able to record another hour of video before the guys were either dragged off in handcuffs or got the crap kicked out of them by the little old woman with the walker they’d pissed off over a stack of hand towels and who was even now slowly shuffling past them, a look of determination on her otherwise sweet face as she followed after Trevor and Jason. The baseball bat that she had sticking out of her basket was a little concerning, but Haley figured that the little old woman would probably settle for knocking one of the guys down with her walker and kicking them with one of her orthopedic shoes before she reached for the baseball bat.
“Microwaves,” Zoe admitted with a shrug. “I’m kind of getting bored watching them.”
“Me too,” she said, putting her phone away.
“You son of a bitch! That was my food processor!” they heard Jason yell from somewhere in the store.
The little old woman seeking revenge paused and with her eyes narrowed, shifted direction and heading for the home appliance section.
“Do you think that they have any more of those Lindt chocolate Santas?” Zoe asked around a yawn as they waited for the old woman to shuffle back past them.
“I think I saw a display of them over there,” she pointed towards the toy section just as Trevor ran past them. Well, more like flew past them as Jason tackled him before he could drop the food processor in Zoe’s carriage.
Zoe nodded, ignoring her husband’s pleas for help. “We should get some for the kids.”
“And some chocolate cherries for Grandma,” Haley said, pushing her carriage in that direction only to pause long enough for the little old woman to shuffle past them once again.
“And some truffles,” Zoe said, kicking a discarded package of toilet paper out of the little old woman’s path.
“Thank you, dear,” the little old woman said, giving Zoe a warm smile as she reached for the bat and headed towards where their husbands were now wrestling on the floor by the teapot display.
“You’re welcome,” Zoe said as they headed towards the chocolate display. She really hoped they still had some of those chocolate Santas. They would be the perfect stocking stuffers for the kids.
© Rerum Industries, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved.
The 2014 R.L. Mathewson Chronicle Collection is now complete and will be available starting Monday, December 8, 2014 at iBooks, Amazon, B&N and many other fine online book stores.
The collection includes the chronicles that have not yet been published for the remainder of this year.
The New Year's Eve Chronicle for this year will not be in this collection since it's part of the 2015 collection.
Black Friday
An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle
“No,” Jason mumbled into his pillow, wondering when his beautiful, yet obviously crazy, wife was going to give up and go away.
“Please!” Haley begged, readjusting her grip around his wrist before she tried to pull him off the bed, again.
“I’m not going,” he said, easily pulling his hand free so that he could place it beneath his pillow and out of grabbing distance from the small woman that he was obviously going to have to look into having committed.
“Please!”
“No.”
“But-”
“Get Zoe to go with you,” he said, turning onto his side away from her, hoping that she took the hint and let him get back to sleep.
“I want you to go with me,” she said with a little sniffle that would have had him rolling his eyes if he hadn’t been so damn exhausted.
“Not happening,” he muttered, wondering when the woman that he loved and adored would stop trying to drag him out of the warmth of their large, comfortable bed so that he could go stand outside for four hours in a line full of psychotic woman willing to freeze their asses off to save a couple of bucks.
“Then you’ve left me with no choice,” she said firmly seconds before she-
“Oh, this is just fucking sad,” he said with a sigh as he felt her throw herself across his back.
“Either agree to go with me or I’m not moving,” she said, sounding smug, which just made it sadder….so much sadder.
“Fine with me,” he said, satisfied that she was finally giving up and allowing him to get some sleep on his day off.
There was a long pause before Haley said, “I didn’t want to do this, but I’m afraid that you’ve left me with no choice.”
“Uh huh,” he said around a yawn.
“If you don’t get out of the bed and take me to the store right now I won’t cook for you for a month,” she threatened, rather adorably.
“Then I’ll just get take out or go to my mother’s house for dinner,” he pointed out, turning over onto his side and away from the woman determined to drive him out of his mind.
“Fine, then if you go with me I’ll cook whatever you want for a month,” she offered and as tempting as that offer was, it wasn’t enough to get him out of this bed.
“No.”
“Sex?”
He snorted at that, because they both knew that she wouldn’t be able to hold out on him for very long. She loved sex almost as much as he did. Besides, he knew all the ways to make her want to-
“If you get out of bed right now I’ll make you two bowls of buttercream fros-”
His eyes shot open and he was out of that bed and in the shower before she could finish that thought.
*-*-*-*
“How’d she get you here?” Trevor asked, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Buttercream frosting,” he said, taking a sip of his hot cocoa as he ignored the trio of angry soccer moms trying to push past him again. “You?”
“Yankees tickets.”
“You’re bringing me,” he said, leaving the fact that would beat him within an inch of his life unspoken since they both knew that he was going.
“You buying the beer?” Trevor asked, pointedly ignoring the trio now trying to push past him.
“Deal. You driving?” he asked, shifting to the left so that his arm was pressed Trevor’s when the smallest of the trio tried to squeeze past them.
“I figured we’d ask your dad to drive,” Trevor said, pressing in tightly against his arm to help block the psychotic woman who was now groaning and grunting as she shoved against them.
“Are you boys okay?” Zoe asked, not bothering to look up from the flyer that the store employees had handed out an hour ago, which had set the crowd off to near riot levels.
He’d never seen anyone go nuts over a flyer before, but these women had shoved, punched and bitten everyone around them in order to get their hands on one of these flyers. While everyone around them, including his wife, had gone nuts over the flyers, he’d stood there snapping pictures and taking videos along with Trevor.
It was just pathetic to see adults act like this over a few sales, he thought, taking another sip of cocoa and shaking his head in disgust.
*-*-*-*
“Are you getting this?” Zoe asked.
“Every last second of it,” Haley said, still not sure if she should be horrified or laughing her ass off.
“Do you think we’ll need bail money?”
“Without a doubt,” she murmured as she watched her husband, who up until an hour ago had been a rational human being, tackle Trevor to the ground, tear the crockpot out of his cousin’s hands and take off at a dead run towards the sporting section only slowing down just enough to drop the box in her carriage and tell her, “Guard it with your life, woman!”
“You bastard!” Trevor shouted, dragging himself to his feet and shooting the crockpot in her carriage a murderous glare before taking off after his cousin.
“You want to see if they have microwaves left or follow them?” she asked, calculating the battery life left on her phone.
If she did this just right, she should be able to record another hour of video before the guys were either dragged off in handcuffs or got the crap kicked out of them by the little old woman with the walker they’d pissed off over a stack of hand towels and who was even now slowly shuffling past them, a look of determination on her otherwise sweet face as she followed after Trevor and Jason. The baseball bat that she had sticking out of her basket was a little concerning, but Haley figured that the little old woman would probably settle for knocking one of the guys down with her walker and kicking them with one of her orthopedic shoes before she reached for the baseball bat.
“Microwaves,” Zoe admitted with a shrug. “I’m kind of getting bored watching them.”
“Me too,” she said, putting her phone away.
“You son of a bitch! That was my food processor!” they heard Jason yell from somewhere in the store.
The little old woman seeking revenge paused and with her eyes narrowed, shifted direction and heading for the home appliance section.
“Do you think that they have any more of those Lindt chocolate Santas?” Zoe asked around a yawn as they waited for the old woman to shuffle back past them.
“I think I saw a display of them over there,” she pointed towards the toy section just as Trevor ran past them. Well, more like flew past them as Jason tackled him before he could drop the food processor in Zoe’s carriage.
Zoe nodded, ignoring her husband’s pleas for help. “We should get some for the kids.”
“And some chocolate cherries for Grandma,” Haley said, pushing her carriage in that direction only to pause long enough for the little old woman to shuffle past them once again.
“And some truffles,” Zoe said, kicking a discarded package of toilet paper out of the little old woman’s path.
“Thank you, dear,” the little old woman said, giving Zoe a warm smile as she reached for the bat and headed towards where their husbands were now wrestling on the floor by the teapot display.
“You’re welcome,” Zoe said as they headed towards the chocolate display. She really hoped they still had some of those chocolate Santas. They would be the perfect stocking stuffers for the kids.
© Rerum Industries, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved.
The 2014 R.L. Mathewson Chronicle Collection is now complete and will be available starting Monday, December 8, 2014 at iBooks, Amazon, B&N and many other fine online book stores.
The collection includes the chronicles that have not yet been published for the remainder of this year.
The New Year's Eve Chronicle for this year will not be in this collection since it's part of the 2015 collection.
November 30, 2014
The First Chapter from The Game Plan: The Next Neighbor from Hell Novel
Release date: 12/27/14
On pre-sale now at iBooks
Chapter1
“I love my wife.”
“Yes, but-” Jodi started to say only to get cut off once again before she could explain why she desperately needed to be released from her lease.
“I love my wife,” Trevor Bradford, her landlord and a man that she suspected was as close to committing murder as she was, stressed for what had to be the hundredth time since he’d arrived at her apartment five minutes ago.
Jodi released an exasperated sigh as she shifted in her seat and tried to think of another way to explain to the large, and basically decent, man that if he didn’t let her out of her lease ten months early that she was very much afraid that she would end up killing his cousin with her bare hands. Since she was pretty sure that a full confession would only come back and bite her in the ass later, she decided to go with a more subtle route to get out of her lease.
“I need to be released from my lease, because your cousin is an asshole and he’s making my life a living hell,” she explained in a calm and efficient manner, neglecting to mention that she’d already thought of twenty-nine different ways to kill the large and annoying bastard.
For a moment Trevor didn’t say anything as he studied her from across the small eighteenth century country kitchen table that she’d inherited from her great Grandmother Rose. His eyes narrowed on her in an accessing manner as she did the same to him, refusing to be intimidated. When it became obvious that intimidation wasn’t going to work, he tried another tactic.
“Which cousin?” he asked, feigning ignorance as he leaned back in his chair. Jodi just barely bit back a wince when the chair creaked in protest at having to support such a large man. If she had to guess, she’d have to say the man weighed well over two hundred pounds and every last ounce of him was pure muscle. She really wasn’t sure how much more abuse her poor chair could take before it finally cracked under pressure.
It would probably depress her for a day or two to lose such a treasured item, especially since she couldn’t afford to replace it even with a cheap knockoff from Wal-Mart on her new salary. Then again, if it meant getting out of the lease from hell and away from the most annoying man on earth then she would just have to suck it up and deal with the loss, she decided.
“You know which one,” she bit out, knowing damn well that he knew which one of his cousins was driving her to the point of no return.
“There are five of them renting apartments here,” he said, not sounding happy about that fact, but not willing to make this easy on her. “I’m afraid that you’ll have to be a little more specific.”
Granted, all of his cousins that rented here seemed to be arrogant bastards, but only one of them was a complete asshole. The rest of his cousins amused her and yes, they could annoy the hell out of her, but not to the point where she was contemplating murder. That reaction was reserved solely for one man and one man alone.
Danny Bradford.
It was actually kind of funny, because before she’d moved here, she’d thought of herself as a pacifist. Just the thought of a puppy whimpering or accidentally hurting anyone’s feelings would have had her hitting a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and had her sobbing hysterically to a Lifetime movie. Before Danny Bradford she’d never gotten truly good and mad. She’d never even held a grudge before she’d met him. She usually let things go pretty quickly and didn’t waste her time on nonsense, but that all changed the day that she moved in and met the bastard living across the hall.
Then again, a lot of things had changed in her life over the last few months and some of those things might be influencing her reaction to Danny Bradford. But, she was pretty sure that even if she hadn’t been dumped the night before her wedding, lost her job at the museum, been forced to take a job as the town librarian, humiliated in every way imaginable by her ex that she would still be developing an all-consuming hatred for the man living across the hall from her.
He was arrogant, cocky, a jerk, too good looking for his own good, a jerk, an asshole, really annoying and did she mention that he was a jerk? It seemed as though he lived to screw with her. It was bad enough that she had to deal with all the crap that he put her through, but that damn cocky smile of his that he wore while he did it just pissed her off in too many ways to actually count. She hated that smile, but probably not as much as she hated the man, but it was a close second.
“Danny,” she bit out, glaring at the man as she silently dared him to continue sitting there pretending that he didn’t know that his cousin had been having a heck of a time making her life a living hell. He knew, oh, he knew. A week didn’t go by that she wasn’t forced to call him and explain as calmly as possible that if his cousin kept up his bullshit that she would be forced to kick him in the balls to wipe that cocky smile off his face.
Normally when she was forced to make those calls, which made her feel like a tattletaling child, Trevor would listen for all of ten seconds, sigh heavily and hand the phone over to Zoe, his wife and the unofficial manager of all the rental properties that they owned. Trevor usually only got involved as a last resort or if his wife was too exhausted from taking care of the couple’s children to muster up the energy to deal with tenants. Actually, she preferred to deal with Zoe, because she would listen, sympathize, and after Jodi finished getting it off her chest, the short plump woman would give her a hug, tell her to hang in there and walk across the hall and slap Danny upside his head.
Then with a satisfied sigh, Zoe would smile and go, leaving her to deal with Danny, that damn cocky grin of his, and the knowledge that she’d somehow just set down a challenge for him. Every time Zoe paid him a visit, he always upped his game to drive her insane.
Like last week when she’d been forced to complain about Danny getting her placed on another restaurant’s delivery banned list, Zoe had come right over, this time not bothering to see her first before she knocked on Danny’s door. When Danny opened the door while eating her hot wings, she’d like to point out, Zoe sighed, reached up and slapped Danny upside his head.
Instead of getting pissed like she would probably be if someone kept slapping her upside the head, Danny had simply shrugged it off and picked up another hot wing. Just as he was about to take a bite, Zoe snatched the wing and the takeout box out of his hands, scowled up at him for all of ten seconds, turned around and stormed off.
That’s when Danny finally reacted.
It was also the moment that she’d really wished she hadn’t chosen to come out of her apartment to check the mail. Before she could move to make an escape, Danny glared accusingly at her as though she’d been the one who’d stolen his, well, technically they were hers since she’d ordered them, hot wings.
He didn’t say a word as he closed his door. He didn’t need to say anything, because that glare had said it all. She’d spent that night tossing and turning in bed, torn between apologizing to save herself from his bullshit, shrugging it off while trying to tell herself that there was nothing to worry about, and getting good and mad at herself for obsessing over something so stupid. When the alarm clock forced her to drag her butt out of bed the next morning she’d wanted to kick his ass as well as her own for wasting the entire night lying awake worrying instead of sleeping.
Thirty minutes, a lukewarm shower, and three cups of burnt coffee later, she’d still been kicking herself for her own stupidity as she’d left her apartment and mentally prepared herself for the next ten hours of dealing with meetings, committees, story time with the kids, craft hour and a book vendor event. All thoughts of the hectic day that awaited her slowly evaporated from her thoughts when she’d caught sight of the five-foot high cinderblock wall that surrounded her parking space where her car had been parked the night before.
It was at that point that she realized that she needed to either move or find a good defense attorney. Sadly, with the current state of her finances a good defense attorney was out of the question and so was moving, she’d realized. She couldn’t afford to break her lease early and she didn’t have enough money to cover the first and last month’s rent for a new apartment.
Since she didn’t have many options available to her at the moment, she decided to try and talk her way out of her lease. Actually, she’d been hoping to have this conversation with Zoe, because she was pretty easy going and probably would have let her out of her lease without a fight. If Trevor hadn’t overheard their phone conversation an hour ago, she was pretty sure that she’d already be looking at other apartments.
Unfortunately for her, he did overhear it.
He scrubbed his hands down his face as he muttered, “I’m going to kill that fucking bastard.”
“If you do that I’d be willing to stay,” she pointed out, helpfully.
He chuckled as he leaned back in his chair and she did her best not to cringe when the chair creaked in protest, again. “I like you, Jodi. You’re never late with the rent. You keep your apartment clean and you don’t cause trouble, but I can’t let you out of your lease.”
“Why?” she asked, her shoulders slumping in defeat.
“Because if you move out, my wife will just move another one of my asshole cousins in here,” he said with a heavy sigh.
“Well, they couldn’t be any worse than Danny, so-”
“Believe me, they are,” he said, cutting her off as he sat up, causing the chair to creak ominously with the movement. “What if I reduced your rent by a hundred bucks a month?”
“To stay?” she asked, tempted to say yes and give in.
She didn’t have much money in the bank and even though she actually did make a decent salary, she didn’t have much money at the end of the month once the bills were paid. Fifteen thousand dollars in debt had been her ex-fiancé’s lovely parting gift for her, one that she couldn’t seem to return and she desperately wanted to return that lovely gift. She’d been foolish when she’d agreed to open a credit card account in her name for him, and even more foolish for giving him access to her bank account, which he’d drained, legally according to the police department, mere hours before he broke the news publically to her that he couldn’t force himself to marry her.
“Two hundred?” he offered, sounding a little desperate.
“Wouldn’t it be cheaper just to let me out of my lease?” she asked, struggling with the urge to say yes and make things a little less tight financially for a while even if it meant putting up with Danny Bradford for ten more months.
“Three hundred bucks,” he said, not asked, she noted.
“Three hundred dollars?” she repeated, sure that she’d misheard him.
“Deal,” Trevor said with a firm nod as he stood up and headed for the door, leaving her sitting there struggling to figure out what just happened.
“Wait, what deal?” she asked, scrambling to get out of the chair and rush to the door and block it before he could make his escape, but sadly, her short legs just couldn’t manage it.
Trevor had the door open and was halfway down the hallway before she managed to catch up with him, well, get within ten feet of him anyway. “Wait!” she said, hoping that he’d stop long enough so that she could figure out what just happened.
With a sheepish smile, he did, but her relief was short lived as he walked towards her and then kept walking. Before she could ask him what he was doing, he was pounding on Danny’s door. Seconds later, and unfortunately before she could make it back to her apartment, Danny, wearing only jeans and looking fresh out of the shower with damp hair, a towel around his shoulders and his large muscles glistening beneath the hallway light, opened the door.
Having a really bad feeling about what was coming, Jodi took a step back, hoping to get to her apartment before-
“Ow!” Danny said, rubbing the top of his head. “What the hell was that for?” he demanded. His glare shifted away from his cousin and landed on her just as she’d reached her door and was about to sneak inside her apartment where she planned on hiding until it was time to go to work in sixteen hours.
“Stop being an asshole,” Trevor said with a satisfied grunt before he turned around and headed for the exit only to pause and throw over his shoulder, “You still coming to dinner?”
Danny’s eyes never left her as he answered, “Yeah, what time?”
“Six,” Trevor said, continuing towards the door and leaving her to deal with his asshole cousin. “Bring dessert!”
Danny didn’t respond and Trevor didn’t wait for him to as he opened the door and stepped outside, leaving Jodi in a rather awkward position.
“Tattletaled on me again?” Danny asked in that deep voice that made her toes tingle.
It also reminded her of just how much she hated him.
Because of him she hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep all night. Now she was tired, cranky, admittedly bitchy, and had to work on re-writing a proposal for the library renovation that had taken her a month, in fourteen hours, without pay. All because the Town Council didn’t feel that the first proposal properly conveyed the importance of the library and its staff, meaning she had to figure out a way to bring the budget for library renovations down by ten grand or start looking for a new job when they were forced to close the library.
“For your information,” she bit out, taking a step towards him and pretending that he didn’t have more than a foot on her as she glared up at him, “I was asking to get out of my lease. Not that it’s any of your business.”
For some reason that seemed to amuse him, because his scowl was instantly replaced by that smug grin of his that her palm was itching to slap off his face. “Trying to run away from your feelings for me, Tink?” he asked, bringing her rage to a whole new level.
“Did….,” she started to say, only to force herself to take a deep breath before she did something that would involve that defense attorney that she’d already decided she couldn’t afford. “Did you just call me Tink?” she asked with barely suppressed rage.
Oblivious to how close he was to certain death, Danny merely shrugged as he grabbed the towel from around his shoulders and dried his face and chest. “Mmmhmm.”
“That’s not my name,” she bit out, her eyes narrowing on that towel as she thought of a whole new way to get rid of the bastard.
“Well,” he said, pausing to rub the towel against the back of his head, “it really should be.”
“It’s not,” she snapped, knowing that if he called her Tink one more time that she would-
“As much as I’d love to stand here and chat with you, Tinkerbelle, I have somewhere to be,” he said with a wink as he shut the door, leaving her standing there, seething with rage and making her wonder how she was going to get through the next ten months without killing him.
© Rerum Industries, Inc. 2014 All Rights Reserved.
November 22, 2014
Tall, Silent and Lethal: A Pyte/Sentinel Novel
Synopsis and excerpt from the 4th Pyte/Sentinel Novel
Never again......
Christofer lives by those words while Cloe would rather die by them........
Too many years living on the run, of always being seen as nothing more than a monster and a freak, has left Christofer cold and distant. He hates his life, his fate, but he's made promises and nothing on earth will stop him from keeping them....
Except for the woman that invades his world, takes him by surprise, aggravates him, gives him hope and makes him wish that things could be different, but they can't.......
Not unless he's willing to risk everything.
Cloe doesn't need anyone, doesn't want any complications, but things quickly change when she accepts a job that destroys her world and brings her the one thing that she never thought she'd find again....
Peace.
Excerpt:
“Oh my God, you’re insane,” Cloe said, sounding frustrated as she rubbed her hands down her face.
“Most likely,” he agreed, not because he really thought that he was insane, but because arguing with her right now wasn’t possible, not with her straddling his lap.
He’d be the first one to admit that this hadn’t been one of his best ideas, but he hadn’t been left with much of a choice, not with the damn woman trying to leave every other second. When he’d picked her up to stop her from leaving, he’d considered tossing her in his closet or in his bathroom. He’d planned on keeping her there until he was able to talk some damn sense into her, but the reminder that she didn’t like enclosed spaces or feeling trapped had him making a last second adjustment to his plan.
“Let me go,” she demanded.
“I’m not holding you,” he pointed out, technically not lying since he wasn’t holding her.
Granted, he did have his arms resting along her thighs and his hands on her hips, ready to stop her if she tried to climb off his lap, again, but he really didn’t think that counted as holding her. She’d be flipping out a hell of a lot more if she really thought that he was holding her in place. So, since she was only straddling his lap and glaring at him, she clearly didn’t feel trapped.
“Really?” she asked, cocking a brow in disbelief as she tried to move off his lap only to have his hold tighten on her hips, keeping her in place before she could do more than lift her ass.
“Really,” he said, settling back on the love seat, relaxing even as he tightened his grip on her hips.
“You do realize that this is considered kidnapping in most states,” she pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest as she narrowed her eyes to slits on him, no doubt trying to come up with a way to escape his hold and get out of the house before he found another way to stop her.
“You’re the one that has me trapped on this couch,” he explained innocently with a shrug, knowing that it would piss her off.
So, when she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths in an obvious attempt to calm down, he couldn’t help but smile. She definitely made his normally tedious life interesting, he thought as he leaned in and fucked up his plans to convince her to stay without having to resort to chaining her to the house.
He kissed her stubborn little chin and nearly groaned from the contact. It was such a simple, innocent kiss, but it had him wanting more, wanting her. She felt so good in his arms, too damn good. Christ, he wanted her, he realized with a pained groan. He’d do anything to have her, to touch her, to hold her, to have her in his life…..
Hell, he just wanted her.
Knowing that he was close to fucking this up and making her want to leave for good, he pulled back and-
Somehow found himself leaning forward and kissing the tip of her nose. As he pulled back, admittedly not to do the right thing, he realized that she was watching him through half hooded eyes and that her breaths were coming a little faster than normal. Releasing his hold on her hips, he raised his hands and gently cupped her face, barely aware that his hands were trembling as he lightly caressed her cheeks.
“Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?” he whispered as he ran his thumb over her bottom lip.
“Is this another attempt to get me to stay?” she asked, sounding breathless as she leaned into his touch as though she couldn’t help herself.
“God yes,” he whispered, gently pulling her closer as he moved in and pressed a soft kiss against the corner of her mouth.
Never again......
Christofer lives by those words while Cloe would rather die by them........
Too many years living on the run, of always being seen as nothing more than a monster and a freak, has left Christofer cold and distant. He hates his life, his fate, but he's made promises and nothing on earth will stop him from keeping them....
Except for the woman that invades his world, takes him by surprise, aggravates him, gives him hope and makes him wish that things could be different, but they can't.......
Not unless he's willing to risk everything.
Cloe doesn't need anyone, doesn't want any complications, but things quickly change when she accepts a job that destroys her world and brings her the one thing that she never thought she'd find again....
Peace.
Excerpt:
“Oh my God, you’re insane,” Cloe said, sounding frustrated as she rubbed her hands down her face.
“Most likely,” he agreed, not because he really thought that he was insane, but because arguing with her right now wasn’t possible, not with her straddling his lap.
He’d be the first one to admit that this hadn’t been one of his best ideas, but he hadn’t been left with much of a choice, not with the damn woman trying to leave every other second. When he’d picked her up to stop her from leaving, he’d considered tossing her in his closet or in his bathroom. He’d planned on keeping her there until he was able to talk some damn sense into her, but the reminder that she didn’t like enclosed spaces or feeling trapped had him making a last second adjustment to his plan.
“Let me go,” she demanded.
“I’m not holding you,” he pointed out, technically not lying since he wasn’t holding her.
Granted, he did have his arms resting along her thighs and his hands on her hips, ready to stop her if she tried to climb off his lap, again, but he really didn’t think that counted as holding her. She’d be flipping out a hell of a lot more if she really thought that he was holding her in place. So, since she was only straddling his lap and glaring at him, she clearly didn’t feel trapped.
“Really?” she asked, cocking a brow in disbelief as she tried to move off his lap only to have his hold tighten on her hips, keeping her in place before she could do more than lift her ass.
“Really,” he said, settling back on the love seat, relaxing even as he tightened his grip on her hips.
“You do realize that this is considered kidnapping in most states,” she pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest as she narrowed her eyes to slits on him, no doubt trying to come up with a way to escape his hold and get out of the house before he found another way to stop her.
“You’re the one that has me trapped on this couch,” he explained innocently with a shrug, knowing that it would piss her off.
So, when she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths in an obvious attempt to calm down, he couldn’t help but smile. She definitely made his normally tedious life interesting, he thought as he leaned in and fucked up his plans to convince her to stay without having to resort to chaining her to the house.
He kissed her stubborn little chin and nearly groaned from the contact. It was such a simple, innocent kiss, but it had him wanting more, wanting her. She felt so good in his arms, too damn good. Christ, he wanted her, he realized with a pained groan. He’d do anything to have her, to touch her, to hold her, to have her in his life…..
Hell, he just wanted her.
Knowing that he was close to fucking this up and making her want to leave for good, he pulled back and-
Somehow found himself leaning forward and kissing the tip of her nose. As he pulled back, admittedly not to do the right thing, he realized that she was watching him through half hooded eyes and that her breaths were coming a little faster than normal. Releasing his hold on her hips, he raised his hands and gently cupped her face, barely aware that his hands were trembling as he lightly caressed her cheeks.
“Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?” he whispered as he ran his thumb over her bottom lip.
“Is this another attempt to get me to stay?” she asked, sounding breathless as she leaned into his touch as though she couldn’t help herself.
“God yes,” he whispered, gently pulling her closer as he moved in and pressed a soft kiss against the corner of her mouth.
March 30, 2014
The R.L. Mathewson Chronicles
Hello :)
It's been a while since I popped in here. I just wanted to swing by and give everyone an update.
I am currently working on the next Pyte/Sentinel and NFH books. I also have a little side project going on to help aspiring authors. I don't have any release dates as of yet, but I will keep everyone updated as more information becomes available.
I also wanted to let everyone know about The R.L. Mathewson Chronicles. Every Sunday around 8pm I publish a chapter length story about characters that I've already written so that the readers can continue to enjoy their favorite characters as well as see where life takes them. I also post updates, sneak peeks and teasers in the Chronicles.
A little warning though, the Chronicles are meant for adults, 18 and older so I ask that if you are not yet 18 that you please wait to visit the site.
The Chronicles are posted in the Blog section and if you would like automatic notification of when the next Blog is posted or information about the next book release, you can subscribe to the site and you will receive an email.
The website is, www.rlmathewson.com
This week's blog is at, R.L. Mathewson Chronicle
Thank you,
R.L. Mathewson
It's been a while since I popped in here. I just wanted to swing by and give everyone an update.
I am currently working on the next Pyte/Sentinel and NFH books. I also have a little side project going on to help aspiring authors. I don't have any release dates as of yet, but I will keep everyone updated as more information becomes available.
I also wanted to let everyone know about The R.L. Mathewson Chronicles. Every Sunday around 8pm I publish a chapter length story about characters that I've already written so that the readers can continue to enjoy their favorite characters as well as see where life takes them. I also post updates, sneak peeks and teasers in the Chronicles.
A little warning though, the Chronicles are meant for adults, 18 and older so I ask that if you are not yet 18 that you please wait to visit the site.
The Chronicles are posted in the Blog section and if you would like automatic notification of when the next Blog is posted or information about the next book release, you can subscribe to the site and you will receive an email.
The website is, www.rlmathewson.com
This week's blog is at, R.L. Mathewson Chronicle
Thank you,
R.L. Mathewson
November 4, 2013
Truce: The Historic Neighbor from Hell is now available...
The fourth installment to the Neighbor from Hell series is now available at a iBookstore, Amazon, Kobo, B&N and several other online retailers.
Elizabeth knows what’s expected of her, perfection. She’s the daughter of an Earl and expected to marry well, say and do the right things with a smile on her face when inside she’s dying for a chance to escape. Thanks to an inheritance her godmother left her years ago, her chance will come with her next birthday. Her hopes of escape abruptly end when Robert, her childhood nemesis that she hasn’t seen in over fourteen years, comes back into her life and does everything he can to drive her out of her mind even as he steals her heart.
He hated her.
At least, he tried to hate her, but it was so damn difficult to hate someone that he couldn’t live without. He tried to ignore her, tried to focus on anything but her, but nothing worked. Somehow she made her way into his heart and started to make him want things that he never thought possible, made him smile and laugh even while she drove him out of his mind and started a legacy by turning him into…..
A Bradford.
Author's Note:
This is first and foremost a historical novel. This novel is written differently than the other Neighbor from Hell books. Truce is about a man who takes everything too damn seriously and can’t let go of the past until the woman that he would love to hate comes back into his life and brings out the Bradford within.
Elizabeth knows what’s expected of her, perfection. She’s the daughter of an Earl and expected to marry well, say and do the right things with a smile on her face when inside she’s dying for a chance to escape. Thanks to an inheritance her godmother left her years ago, her chance will come with her next birthday. Her hopes of escape abruptly end when Robert, her childhood nemesis that she hasn’t seen in over fourteen years, comes back into her life and does everything he can to drive her out of her mind even as he steals her heart.
He hated her.
At least, he tried to hate her, but it was so damn difficult to hate someone that he couldn’t live without. He tried to ignore her, tried to focus on anything but her, but nothing worked. Somehow she made her way into his heart and started to make him want things that he never thought possible, made him smile and laugh even while she drove him out of his mind and started a legacy by turning him into…..
A Bradford.
Author's Note:
This is first and foremost a historical novel. This novel is written differently than the other Neighbor from Hell books. Truce is about a man who takes everything too damn seriously and can’t let go of the past until the woman that he would love to hate comes back into his life and brings out the Bradford within.
June 22, 2013
Black Heart is now available
Happy release day :)
Black Heart, the first of the Cursed Heart Series if finally here. As of this moment it's been released by iBookstore, Smashwords and Amazon. It will hopefully be available at B&N later today as well as Kobo.
I hope you enjoy Tristan and Marty's story and if there are any problems, please don't hesitate to contact me, Rlmathewson25@gmail.com
-R.L. Mathewson
Black Heart, the first of the Cursed Heart Series if finally here. As of this moment it's been released by iBookstore, Smashwords and Amazon. It will hopefully be available at B&N later today as well as Kobo.
I hope you enjoy Tristan and Marty's story and if there are any problems, please don't hesitate to contact me, Rlmathewson25@gmail.com
-R.L. Mathewson
November 26, 2012
An announcement
Dear Readers,
This past summer I struggled with the decision to take a temporary retirement. It wasn’t something that I wanted to do, and I did everything that I could to put it off so that I could finish Checkmate. A few times, I didn’t think that I was going to be able to finish the book. I sat down and started an announcement similar to this one, apologizing for not being able to complete it. It was something that Christi and I had to discuss on a weekly basis. Every single day I live in pain. I have several non-life-threatening medical conditions that should have been taken care of years ago. Unfortunately, and for reasons that I am not going to go into here, I was unable to get those problems fixed back then. I know this is going to upset a lot of people that are waiting for the next book(s). I wanted to get two books out to you before I started having surgery. This is in no way goodbye. This is me taking care of what needs to be done so that I can have better quality of life for my kids and myself and get back to writing full time.
My game plan is to take as long as I need to get my medical and dental problems fixed. When I come back full time, I promise that I will make this up to you. Until then, Christi and I have discussed this, and we’ve decided that to keep myself distracted between procedures that I should write a few short stories and give some of them to you for free, as a thank you. We are going to let you choose what short stories that you want. The only rule will be no short stories for characters that I plan on writing a full length novel for, i.e. Jax, Kale, etc. Writing a short story is something that I will be able to handle to keep myself busy and will not require as much work and effort as a full length novel.
If you have any questions, please contact Christi. I will be back, and I just hope that you’ll greet me enthusiastically when I do. Thank you again for all of your support.
R.L. Mathewson
From Christi,
I understand that you all are disappointed to hear this. Believe me, it’s not even half of the disappointment that R.L. is feeling right now. She has put out 9 books in the last year, and we have all gotten rather spoiled :). I do ask for your support on this matter. R.L. is one of the most dedicated authors I know, and I’ve known a few over the years. She loves to interact with her readers, loves to hear to what you all have to say, whether it’s about her books or just life in general. Her health right now is top priority. She can’t give us more books if she’s too sick to write, and we ALL want more stories! I believe the short-story idea is wonderful and will be a lot of fun.
If any of you have any questions please email me at Christi@rlmathewson.com. I will read them and answer them as best as I can. I will still be a FB regular for her page :).
Thank you all so much for supporting this decision. It was a difficult one to make, a painful one to make, but sometimes life gets in the way and it needs to be dealt with.
-Christi
This past summer I struggled with the decision to take a temporary retirement. It wasn’t something that I wanted to do, and I did everything that I could to put it off so that I could finish Checkmate. A few times, I didn’t think that I was going to be able to finish the book. I sat down and started an announcement similar to this one, apologizing for not being able to complete it. It was something that Christi and I had to discuss on a weekly basis. Every single day I live in pain. I have several non-life-threatening medical conditions that should have been taken care of years ago. Unfortunately, and for reasons that I am not going to go into here, I was unable to get those problems fixed back then. I know this is going to upset a lot of people that are waiting for the next book(s). I wanted to get two books out to you before I started having surgery. This is in no way goodbye. This is me taking care of what needs to be done so that I can have better quality of life for my kids and myself and get back to writing full time.
My game plan is to take as long as I need to get my medical and dental problems fixed. When I come back full time, I promise that I will make this up to you. Until then, Christi and I have discussed this, and we’ve decided that to keep myself distracted between procedures that I should write a few short stories and give some of them to you for free, as a thank you. We are going to let you choose what short stories that you want. The only rule will be no short stories for characters that I plan on writing a full length novel for, i.e. Jax, Kale, etc. Writing a short story is something that I will be able to handle to keep myself busy and will not require as much work and effort as a full length novel.
If you have any questions, please contact Christi. I will be back, and I just hope that you’ll greet me enthusiastically when I do. Thank you again for all of your support.
R.L. Mathewson
From Christi,
I understand that you all are disappointed to hear this. Believe me, it’s not even half of the disappointment that R.L. is feeling right now. She has put out 9 books in the last year, and we have all gotten rather spoiled :). I do ask for your support on this matter. R.L. is one of the most dedicated authors I know, and I’ve known a few over the years. She loves to interact with her readers, loves to hear to what you all have to say, whether it’s about her books or just life in general. Her health right now is top priority. She can’t give us more books if she’s too sick to write, and we ALL want more stories! I believe the short-story idea is wonderful and will be a lot of fun.
If any of you have any questions please email me at Christi@rlmathewson.com. I will read them and answer them as best as I can. I will still be a FB regular for her page :).
Thank you all so much for supporting this decision. It was a difficult one to make, a painful one to make, but sometimes life gets in the way and it needs to be dealt with.
-Christi
November 7, 2012
Responses
Hello :)
I popped on here tonight and saw that I had a lot of messages that I really should have responded to by now. The problem is that I don't come on GR as often as I should.
If you have a question or comment, please email me at rlmathewson25@gmail.com. You can still message me here, but you have a better chance at a quick response through email. I'm sorry about the delayed responses. I am working through your messages, but it might take me a few days to get to all of them.
-R.L.
I popped on here tonight and saw that I had a lot of messages that I really should have responded to by now. The problem is that I don't come on GR as often as I should.
If you have a question or comment, please email me at rlmathewson25@gmail.com. You can still message me here, but you have a better chance at a quick response through email. I'm sorry about the delayed responses. I am working through your messages, but it might take me a few days to get to all of them.
-R.L.
July 31, 2012
A Reluctant Announcement
This past December I announced that I was dropping the price of my books to $0.99 to make the books more affordable for everyone. At the time, I had a small following of readers and didn't really anticipate a need to raise the prices again. I promised that I would keep the prices low as long as I could afford it. Unfortunately, I never thought my books becoming popular would actually make everything more expensive.
When I started publishing, I did it on my own with absolutely no help from anyone. I edited my books, answered my own emails, handled Facebook, designed my own website, etc. Sometime later I started to receive help from Lieve with editing and the website. Maura came on board sometime after that and they helped me for free. Thanks to their help and a few other things that I figured out for myself, I was able to keep the price of the books down.
As word spread about my books, things started to skyrocket to the point where I needed a lot more help and I can't possibly accept help for free anymore. It's not right. I had to hire a Personal Assistant to help free up my time and she does a wonderful job. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be able to get more than a half an hour of work in a day. There have been a lot of unexpected costs that came along with the sales increasing that I have to cover.
For the last couple of days I've sat at my computer, looking everything over and trying to figure out what I could do to keep the price at $0.99 without risking financial problems for my family and doubling my workload. There's just no way. Without the backing of a publishing house I have to handle everything on my own. Right now the help that I have allows me to work. If I didn't have it, I wouldn't be able to write. It would be impossible.
I'm in the unhappy position of now needing to raise the prices to keep up with expenses and have enough time to actually continue to write. I will be raising the cost of each book to $2.99 to cover the cost of publishing, editing, help and the charitable acts that we do that I absolutely refuse to stop. This change will happen gradually over the next couple of weeks as each book is edited.
There are several of you out there that wrote to me, thanking me for the low price because otherwise they would not have been able to afford my books. I apologize for having to raise the price, but once again I have kept the price set as low as possible. This is not about getting rich, but meeting my financial responsibilities that allow me to write. For those of you who absolutely cannot afford the new price, email me or Christi and we'll see what we can do for you. I will periodically give out a book for free to make up for this price increase.
I apologize for the need to raise the prices. It's not something that I wanted to do or truly anticipated, but it is a necessity. I hope you understand.
Sincerely,
R.L. Mathewson
When I started publishing, I did it on my own with absolutely no help from anyone. I edited my books, answered my own emails, handled Facebook, designed my own website, etc. Sometime later I started to receive help from Lieve with editing and the website. Maura came on board sometime after that and they helped me for free. Thanks to their help and a few other things that I figured out for myself, I was able to keep the price of the books down.
As word spread about my books, things started to skyrocket to the point where I needed a lot more help and I can't possibly accept help for free anymore. It's not right. I had to hire a Personal Assistant to help free up my time and she does a wonderful job. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be able to get more than a half an hour of work in a day. There have been a lot of unexpected costs that came along with the sales increasing that I have to cover.
For the last couple of days I've sat at my computer, looking everything over and trying to figure out what I could do to keep the price at $0.99 without risking financial problems for my family and doubling my workload. There's just no way. Without the backing of a publishing house I have to handle everything on my own. Right now the help that I have allows me to work. If I didn't have it, I wouldn't be able to write. It would be impossible.
I'm in the unhappy position of now needing to raise the prices to keep up with expenses and have enough time to actually continue to write. I will be raising the cost of each book to $2.99 to cover the cost of publishing, editing, help and the charitable acts that we do that I absolutely refuse to stop. This change will happen gradually over the next couple of weeks as each book is edited.
There are several of you out there that wrote to me, thanking me for the low price because otherwise they would not have been able to afford my books. I apologize for having to raise the price, but once again I have kept the price set as low as possible. This is not about getting rich, but meeting my financial responsibilities that allow me to write. For those of you who absolutely cannot afford the new price, email me or Christi and we'll see what we can do for you. I will periodically give out a book for free to make up for this price increase.
I apologize for the need to raise the prices. It's not something that I wanted to do or truly anticipated, but it is a necessity. I hope you understand.
Sincerely,
R.L. Mathewson
