Ute Carbone's Blog, page 33

#8Sunday#SunSnips: Bring on the Wrecking Ball

I'm currently touring cyberspace with Superman.. That was a fun sentence to write. Anyway, in honor of the Searching for Superman blog tour, I'm offering up a little bit of one of my favorite scenes from the book. A wrecking ball has shown up unannounced, ready to tear down the Rialto Theater.  


Conrad stood at attention and put the hand of his unlinked arm over his heart. “You’ll have to put that ball through my chest before I allow it to touch a brick on my theater.”“Don’t tempt me,” Hard Hat said as she climbed back into the crane cab.Stephanie admired Conrad’s resolve, but the woman’s move shook her nonetheless. Death at the hands of a wrecking ball was not an end she envisioned for herself and certainly not before her thirtieth birthday. “You don’t think she’s going to do anything stupid, do you?’“She wouldn’t dare.” Conrad, Stephanie noted, had gone chalk white.


Please visit Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday for some great bits and pieces.
Searching for Superman is a light sweet and funny romance. Read more about it HEREThe Superman Blog Tour is HERE

#8Sunday#SunSnips: Bring of the Wrecking Ball

I'm currently touring cyberspace with Superman.. That was a fun sentence to write. Anyway, in honor of the Searching for Superman blog tour, I'm offering up a little bit of one of my favorite scenes from the book. A wrecking ball has shown up unannounced, ready to tear down the Rialto Theater.  


Conrad stood at attention and put the hand of his unlinked arm over his heart. “You’ll have to put that ball through my chest before I allow it to touch a brick on my theater.”“Don’t tempt me,” Hard Hat said as she climbed back into the crane cab.Stephanie admired Conrad’s resolve, but the woman’s move shook her nonetheless. Death at the hands of a wrecking ball was not an end she envisioned for herself and certainly not before her thirtieth birthday. “You don’t think she’s going to do anything stupid, do you?’“She wouldn’t dare.” Conrad, Stephanie noted, had gone chalk white.


Please visit Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday for some great bits and pieces.
Searching for Superman is a light sweet and funny romance. Read more about it HEREThe Superman Blog Tour is HERE

The August Reading Trail

It's August, time for the last installment of the summer reading trail. This month, I'm offering up the opening of Love Letters, the second story in the Lilac Hour trilogy.
You can read the selection  HERE
And check out all the great summer reads HERE

The Lilac Hour is a collection of three sweet romantic stories.


Three Generations of Women          
Three Loves Meant to Last Forever

The Lilac Hour: Sara has been widowed longer than she was married. Now in her eighties, she discovers that anything is possible in the lilac hour.

Love Letters: Maggie rediscovers the letters that her husband Jake wrote long ago. Can she rekindle the passion that was once theirs?

The Road Not Taken: JoAnne meets an old love at Target. Has she made the right choice in choosing her husband David?


 

Searching for Superman, The Tour.

I'm taking Superman and going on the road! The cyber road, that is. The Searching for Superman tour starts today, with lots of stops along the way.
Here's the schedule:


July 29: My Devotional Thoughts   July 30: Rose & Beps Blog   Aug 1: Coffee Beans & Love Scenes   Aug 2: The Divas of Desire   Aug 3: It's All About the Romance!   Aug 4: Musings And Ramblings   Aug 5: Sharing Links and Wisdom   Aug 6: Musings of a Writing Reader   Aug 7: Crystal's Many Reviews   Aug 8: Brianna's Bookshelf   Aug 9: Triad Literary   Aug 10: deal sharing aunt   Aug 11: Salacious Reads
 

#8Sunday#SnipSunday: The Road Not Taken

The Lilac Hour, my short story trilogy, was recently released. My snippet this week are the first lines of the third story, The Road Not Taken.



Who would have thought the past could find you at Target? I was in the small appliance aisle, coffee maker in my arms, staring at the other models featured and wondering what difference it could
possibly make to my life or David’s, when I heard his voice behind me.
“Jo?” I would have known the voice anywhere, the hint of gravel mixed with a smoky kind of sadness that seemed to carry the world. I spun around, coffee maker still in hand, and there he stood, Seth O’Connor, like a consignment from my past dropped off at my feet. He hadn’t changed much in the decade since I’d seen him last. Same heartbreaking brown eyes over hair that was just this side of messy and clashed with the camel hair coat, the tie poking out under the collar, the neatly pressed slacks and polished brown oxfords.
I was rendered speechless and stood open mouthed as   Seth took the coffee maker from me and put it into my empty cart.


Thanks for stopping by! For more great snippets, be sure to visit Weekend Writing Warriors and Sunday Snippets

For more on The Lilac Hour, please visit the Lilac Hour page at my website.http://www.utecarbone.com/index.html

#8Sunday #SnipSunday: Love Letters

Love letters is the second story in my short story trilogy, The Lilac Hour, which released just this week.
Here are the opening lines:


We buried Mama under the big oak next to Papa just as the lilacs came into bloom. It was  fitting, Mama being laid to rest at his side in the time of lilacs. I was so full of missing her that I felt my heart would splinter into a thousand tiny pieces, but I found comfort in the thought of  them together up there in the shade of those old trees, overlooking the bay. It tempered my grief ever so slightly, like a feather come to lodge in a dark place.
For the longest time, I would think it was her each time the kitchen door opened. I could see her carrying a bunch of lilacs. “Oh, that sweet smell,” she would say, “If only they could bottle it.” Or I would open the cupboard and expect to find all the cups right-side up, a habit of  hers that fretted me to no end.






For more great snippets, please visit Weekend Writing Warriors and Sunday Snippets

For more about the Lilac Hour, click HERE

The Lilac Hour book trailer

Here's the book trailer for my short story trilogy,  The Lilac Hour. I had wanted to use Billie Holiday's "I'll Be Seeing You" but couldn't get the rights to the music. I think this music works pretty well, though. The instrumental is done by Mike Strickland. It's called "Flying"

The Lilac Hour releases this week. For more on the stories, click HERE
Update--Download a copy from TMP HERE!!

Cover Reveal: The Lilac Hour

Kim Jacobs designed this beautiful cover for The Lilac Hour, a trilogy of short stories that will be released this week.

Three Stories
Three Generations of Women        
Three Loves Meant to Last ForeverThe Lilac Hour: Sara has been widowed longer than she was married. Now in her eighties, she discovers that anything is possible in the lilac hour.

Love Letters: Maggie rediscovers the letters that her husband Jake wrote long ago. Can she rekindle the passion that was once theirs?

The Road Not Taken: JoAnne meets an old love at Target. Has she made the right choice in choosing her husband David?

#8Sunday #SnipSun: The Lilac Hour

I've been busy writing and getting ready to launch new projects into the world. The Lilac Hour is the last, but not least, of four releases I've had this summer. It's a trilogy of linked short stories about three generations of women in a family. The first story, The Lilac Hour, is about Sara, a women in her eighties.
Here are the opening eight lines of "The Lilac Hour"

We called it the lilac hour. The name came from my Aunt Delilah, who had a jungle of  lilacs in her backyard near the harbor. Every spring, they would open their fragrant buds of deep purple and gentle pink. And so it was that I pointed out those same colors to Zeke as the sun  finished dipping deep into the bay and Zeke said, “Yes, the lilac hour.”
We were young then, Zeke and I, new to marriage and still a little reckless, and I thought the term highly romantic.
That spring, Zeke gathered lilacs, bushels of them, from Delilah’s garden and put the petals on our bed. Still dreaming, I awoke to the stubble of his beard grazing my neck and the delicious sweetness rising from those buds. I’ve never been able to pass a lilac bush without thinking of him, and the tenderness of early love.

The Lilac Hour will be released later this month. For more on the trilogy, click HERE

For more terrific writing snippets, please visit Weekend Writing Warriors and Sunday Snippets. 

Summer Sun Awards

Historical romance novelist Shehanne Moore felt there wasn't enough sun in her native Scotland this summer. So she designed this summer sun award.  The talented and  lovely Catherine Cavendish has passed the honor on to me.

To accept the award, I have to display the banner (easy peasy) and answer eight questions about my summer doings (maybe not so easy peasy, but here goes).

1. Favorite Song with Summer in the Title or the lyrics (hum a few bars and give lyrics here)
"Girls in their Summer Clothes" by Bruce Springsteen. I love this lyric:
Love's a fool's dance
I ain't got much sense
but I still got my feet

2. Favorite book about summer:
 Prodigal Summer isn't about summer per say, but it's a great book and it has summer in the title. Barbara Kingsolver writes eloquently about the environment and nature. 
 



3.  Favorite Summer movie:

The Sandlot. I watched this with my boys when they were kids. Lots of nostalgia. 

4. Favorite Summer memory:
There are far too many to chose from! From recent memory, my son's wedding last June and a wonderful long weekend spent in New York City a few years back that included some wonderful Broadway shows, fourth of July fireworks, and watching Derek Jeter hit his 3,000th single at Yankee Stadium.


5. Favorite summer destination:
Eastham on Cape Cod




6. What will be in your suitcase this summer
Besides the usual, my trusty Kindle Fire loaded down with more books than I could carry.

7. Likely Summer destination
We're staying close to home this summer, watching tomatoes grow in the garden and taking a few excursions to the beach.

8. What hottie would you most like to share the hot days and long nights this summer.
I'm a married lady, so of course I'll say my lovely hubby.  I do have a crush on Superman Henry Cavill. But that's a secret.

Okay, I'm all out of secrets.

I'm passing the honor to eight more wonderful writers. Go check out their blogs.

January Bain
Nikki Andrews

Karen Stivali
Cassiel Knight
Jude Johnson
Kathy Wheeler
Linda Rettstatt
Devon Ellington