Samantha March's Blog, page 5
February 24, 2015
Happy Release Day: The Marrying Type by Laura Chapman
You are cordially invited to read Laura Chapman’s new novel, The Marrying Type!
Always the wedding planner, never a bride, Elliot Lynch is famous for orchestrating the splashiest weddings in Charleston, South Carolina. When her father’s sloppy management practices leave them on the brink of bankruptcy, Elliot will do whatever it takes to save the family business. When asked to appear on “The Marrying Type,” a reality TV show about the people behind the scenes as couples exchange I dos, she says yes to the invasion of privacy (and the hefty paycheck that comes with it).
With a camera crew capturing every detail of her life, Elliot faces her most challenging contract yet: planning a wedding where her ex is involved in every part of the process. Add in a lazy assistant, liquor-loving bridesmaid, and rival planner encroaching on her turf, and Elliot’s wedding season goes from high-end to high-stress.
Forced to confront her past, Elliot must live out her troubled present on national TV if she has any hope of saving her future.
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You can add The Marrying Type to your to-read list on Goodreads and enter to win one of three prize packages by participating in this Rafflecopter:
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About the Author
Laura Chapman is the author of The Marrying Type, Hard Hats and Doormats and the Autumn and Tuck series, which appear in Merry & Bright and A Kind of Mad Courage. A native Nebraskan, she loves football, Netflix marathons, and her cats, Jane and Bingley. Until she fulfills her dream of landing a British husband or becoming a Disney princess, you can find her in a bar penning her next novel.
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February 23, 2015
CLP Blog Tours Novel Spotlight: Absinthe Doesn’t Make the Heart Grow Fonder by Holly Kerr
Today I am featuring an excerpt from Absinthe Doesn’t Make the Heart Grow Fonder by Holly Kerr for CLP Blog Tours! My review will be shared soon on Chick Lit Plus – and let’s just say I want you to read this book 
Be sure to check out the big $50 Amazon gift card giveaway at the end of the post!
About the BookWhat would you do for your friends?
What could be more fun than celebrating your fortieth with your three BFF’s?
Josie sets off with Lana, Poppy and Meredith for an evening celebrating her birthday with the best intentions. Dinner, dancing and a little drinking.
A little more drinking, in a few questionable locations. It’s good to catch up with the girls. But then…
Josie realizes her husband isn’t cheating on her, but Poppy won’t talk about the fact that her husband is. Lana won’t talk about her ex, Ted and Meredith is trying to hide something.
The secrets start to come out.
And then something bad happens.
Secrets can really ruin a friendship.
Book Excerpt
How far would you go for a friend?
“You’ve got something there,” I told Lana, pointing to where she had something stuck between her teeth. We stood outside the door of Thrice restaurant, waiting for Poppy and Meredith to show up, or at least for the throng inside the door to move to allow us to get in out of the cold.
Lana worked the seed with her tongue. “Got it?”
“No, still there.” The height difference between Lana and I was so extreme if I stood on my tiptoes, I was still only thisclose to being eye level with her mouth. Not that I often felt the need to examine her mouth but it would be nice not to continually have to crane my neck to speak to her, or dislodge foreign objects from her teeth. We were both to blame; Lana was a tall, big-boned woman and I was vertically challenged.
“Get it for me,” Lana urged, thrusting her chin down. With a flick of my nail, I extracted the tiny black seed and showed it to her. “Thanks.” With a glance over my shoulder, her usual cheerful expression darkened. “Shit, I can’t believe she brought him!”
I glanced behind me. Poppy was walking towards us with what might have been an attempt to smile, but came across as more of an awkward grimace. From the outside, Poppy and Kent Carter were the true definition of a golden couple – happy, wealthy and beautiful. On the inside, things were very different.
“He’s not staying,” I hissed, through my own forced smile.
“I can’t talk to him. Or her. I have no idea what to say to her,” Lana confessed.
“Just act like nothing’s wrong.” I spun to greet them and hoped my smile could pass for genuine. “You made it!” To cover the strained gaiety, I hugged Poppy but then after a brief pause, I had to hug Kent as well.
“Happy birthday,” Kent said.
“You’re not allowed,” Lana said, her rude tone offset by a playfully pointed finger at Kent. “Girls only.”
“You won’t let me play with you for even a little bit?” Kent wheedled, the only man I knew who could make whining sound attractive. “I’ll sit quietly. I’ll be good.”
He ignored the couple walking by, even with their obvious attempts to get his attention. “That’s Kent Carter,” the woman said excitedly. “From Dragon’s Lair. I bet that’s his wife.”
“Who knows?” the man replied. “He’s got women all over the place.” I thought for a moment he was going to push through us to fist-bump Kent with a gesture of male approval and the admiration in his voice brought a pained expression to Poppy’s face.
I took her arm to move her closer to me, with her back to the street. “Sorry, Kent. My birthday – my girls. I said no to Duncan and I’m saying no to you. Just Poppy tonight. And Lana and Meredith, of course.”
Author Bio:
Holly Kerr writes contemporary women’s fiction/chick-lit/romance and doesn’t particularly enjoy talking about herself in third person.
Her books include Coming Home, Unexpecting and Absinthe Doesn’t Make the Heart Grow Fonder. She lives in Toronto with her husband and three kids. She doesn’t consider herself a typical chick-lit writer since loves everything about Star Wars, Harry Potter, Joss Whedon and has a thing for superheroes; however a story about falling for a superhero might be interesting for her to write. When she’s not writing, she likes to play in the dirt in her garden and enjoy a glass of wine while cooking, although she’s trying to cut back while she’s training for a marathon.
If you require more information about Holly and her books feel free to visit her website or follow her Blog. At times she discusses the craft of writing but usually she muses about her life and what’s she reading, writing or watching. Holly hopes you enjoy her books and she welcomes a chance to interact with her readers, but not in any creepy way. A simple comment “Hey, I really like/don’t like…” would be a lovely way to begin a conversation.
Amazon Author page: http://amzn.to/1BpwpVA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HollyKerrAuthor
Twiter: https://twitter.com/hollykerrauthor
February 19, 2015
A Questionable Friendship Turns 1: Win the Audio Book!
My third novel A Questionable Friendship turns one today! I can honestly say this date totally slipped my mind, and if it weren’t for my Timehop app, I probably would have forgotten! Poor, neglected third child! To celebrate the anniversary, I have a handful of download codes for the audio book of this novel, to be redeemed via Audible.Com. To enter, just use the Rafflecopter below and I will choose winners after the weekend. Thanks for all the love you have shown A Questionable Friendship throughout the year!
Brynne Ropert and Portland Dolish have been best friends since being paired as roommates in college. Seven years later they are now 25, married, and living in Maine – but the two women couldn’t be more different. Brynne finds fulfillment in her life as a wife, mother and owner of a small cafe and bookshop, but is struggling to expand her family. Portland is still coping with her mother’s death during her childhood, and her marriage is unraveling before her eyes. Portland envies her friend’s seemingly stable and easy life while Brynne doesn’t understand the growing distance between them and cannot begin to guess what secret Portland is hiding about her husband and crumbling marriage. While one woman feels shut out, the other enters into a web of lies to protect herself.
A Questionable Friendship explores what really makes someone a true friend, a support system, a sister. How much trust goes into a friendship and when is being a friend not enough? Brynne and Portland’s story will attempt to answer those questions, and show that happily ever after isn’t in the cards for everyone.
Audible.Com Link: http://adbl.co/1zq6ZS2
a Rafflecopter giveaway
February 11, 2015
Sidelined: Two Week Lifestyle Change
Sidelined: Two Week Lifestyle Change
Over a year ago, I started feeling pain in my upper right arm. I didn’t recall injuring it (feeling any popping, cracking snapping, falling on it, etc) and it wasn’t an intense pain. Just a dull ache. As the months went by, sometimes it felt worse, sometimes it didn’t bother me at all. Last year May when I went to get my blood drawn from a new provider, I mentioned the pain I had off and on. She chalked it up to a pulled muscle, and that was all. I assumed I was being over-dramatic, and moved on.
About two months ago, the pain started to get really bad. About a month ago, I could tell it was really affecting my arm, and the strength I have in my arm. A lot of you know I practice yoga daily, and while positions like handstands or backbends weren’t bothering me, if I did anything that caused me to rotate my right arm, it hurt – a lot. Then I started to notice daily that the dull ache wasn’t going away, and even doing normal activities like putting my purse on my shoulder were bothering me. I decided to see a new doctor, and try to figure out what was the cause of this.
My diagnosis – Biceps Tendinopathy. Sounds scary, right? Basically I have tendonitis in my bicep muscles. Not quite as scary when you put it that way. The doctor told me it is a lingering injury, which explains why after a year I’m still feeling the effects. The scary part though, is that I failed the rotator cuff test (holding my arms out, thumbs down, and he pushed on them; my right arm immediately fell), so I’m not in the clear yet. He ordered me to have no upper body workouts for two weeks, gave me a sheet of exercises for my right arm, and after those two weeks if my arm doesn’t feel better, I need to have imaging on my arm to look for a rotator cuff tear. That scares me. So I’m doing my best at staying off my arm or putting any pressure on it. That means my yoga workouts have become extremely different, as I can’t do a basic sun salutation, and my handstand practice has come to a complete halt. But I want to be as sure as I can that if after two weeks I don’t feel better, I’m not wasting time and money (and my mental health) on getting the imaging to look for tears. It’s definitely going to be a lifestyle change these next two weeks, not just with yoga and my workouts, but life in general. The doctor advised me to sleep hugging a pillow and not sleeping on my right side (which I usually sleep on). The past few nights have been odd having a pillow with me and trying to get comfortable on my left side. I’m trying to use my left hand more with simple things – pushing open doors, reaching high for items, even carrying my purse on my left side. Of course, I’m right-handed, so I have to be extra conscious of what I’m doing. It’s a little frustrating, but I know not to ignore an injury. I’m upset that I let myself get brushed off last year when I thought something was wrong, but I can’t change that now. I just have to give it a rest for two weeks and then evaluate from there. I’m pretty terrified it’s going to be a rotator cuff injury. If I need surgery and lose my right arm function for an extended period of time, that’s my job we’re talking about that I won’t be able to do. But before I get too wrapped up in the what if’s, I just have to take these two weeks to be careful, complete my exercises, and hug a pillow at night. And hope for good news.
February 2, 2015
#CoverReveal: The Marrying Type by Laura Chapman
The 8th title from my publishing company, Marching Ink, will be releasing on February 24! Today, I am taking part in the cover reveal for Laura Chapman and her women’s fiction/chick lit novel The Marrying Type. We are so excited to bring you this story – soon!
Always the wedding planner, never a bride, Elliot Lynch is famous for orchestrating the splashiest weddings in Charleston, South Carolina. When her father’s sloppy management practices leave them on the brink of bankruptcy, Elliot will do whatever it takes to save the family business. When asked to appear on “The Marrying Type,” a reality TV show about the people behind the scenes as couples exchange I dos, she says yes to the invasion of privacy (and the hefty paycheck that comes with it).
With a camera crew capturing every detail of her life, Elliot faces her most challenging contract yet: planning a wedding where her ex is involved in every part of the process. Add in a lazy assistant, liquor-loving bridesmaid, and rival planner encroaching on her turf, and Elliot’s wedding season goes from high-end to high-stress.
Forced to confront her past, Elliot must live out her troubled present on national TV if she has any hope of saving her future.
Add the Book on GoodReads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24766966-the-marrying-type
About the Author
Laura Chapman is the author of The Marrying Type,Hard Hats and Doormats and the Autumn and Tuck series, which appear in Merry & Bright and A Kind of Mad Courage. A native Nebraskan, she loves football, Netflix marathons, and her cats, Jane and Bingley. Until she fulfills her dream of landing a British husband or becoming a Disney princess, you can find her in a bar penning her next novel.
Connect with Laura!
Also from Laura Chapman:
Travel Tales: Bahamas, Sandals Royal Bahamian
If you follow me on social media, you’ll probably have seen the recent pictures of my trip to the Bahamas with my husband. As I’m writing this, we received seven inches of snow in Iowa, and more is falling. Um…take me back, please! Last year my husband and I took a late honeymoon in February to St. Lucia and stayed at a Sandals resort, and while there we used their Soon Come Back program and rebooked for the Bahamas in January.
My first experience with Sandals was just okay. You can read my full post, but I wasn’t overly impressed with what was supposed to be the most luxurious resort around. I was a little hesitant to go back, but they have a great rewards program (and I’m all about earning rewards) and the rate we got for booking so early made it totally worth it. And I’m so pleased to say our trip was amazing.
The biggest difference this year was our room category. Last year we had just a basic room, very small, tiny bathroom, no balcony, etc. This year, we booked in a butler suite. What a difference. First, at the airport we were picked up in our own private car, instead of shuffling on a crowded bus or van with several other vacationers. Then, we got to check in not in the lobby with several other people as well, but our butler gave us a quick tour while walking us to our room, and we did the check in process there. When we checked in at the lobby last year, it took probably over an hour. This time, it was just a few minutes and we were off to enjoy our vacation. Our room was nice and big, but the best part was outside we had a little table on a balcony where we ate most of our breakfast and lunches, and then a pool right there as well. So when we wanted to get in the water but didn’t want to deal with crowds at the resort pools, we could stay right in our room. That to me really was the best feature. Our butlers were great. We were given a cell phone so we could contact them if we needed anything – dinner reservations, room service, questions about…anything! If we are to go to a Sandals again, we will definitely be doing the butler service.
As for the resort, it was a lot smaller than St. Lucia, but I found it to be nicer. More updating, that’s for sure. We didn’t get to all of the restaurants, as we really utilized our butler service and outdoor balcony for lunch, but we had dinner each night at a restaurant, and I really surprised myself by trying new foods. I had lobster, which was delicious, shrimp and fish, which I’m not a big seafood eater at all, plus calamari and mussels! That had a hibachi restaurant where I tried sushi (can’t say I’ll crave it, but it was good!) and we were able to dine at Gordons on the Pier this year, which is a restaurant exclusively for butler-service clients (or else you have to pay for your meal, it’s not a part of the all-inclusive). That restaurant, as the name indicates, is on a pier, and our table was right near the water so we could watch the fish while we ate, and it was very romantic as well. There were two large pools on the resort, one a quiet pool and one a party pool, where music was always playing and often times they had entertainment going. There was a nice gym, plenty of water activities, but one of the best features I thought was the private island. The second day we were there we took a short boat ride out to an island owned by Sandals, and there was a pool, hot tub, restaurant, and of course, the beach! Our butler got us a great little cabana by the water and it was a nice change of pace from the resort. Also, we got to snorkel via Sandals. In St Lucia we had to book an excursion tour, and it honestly was a lot of fun. We went into little towns along the way, got a fun boat ride, and of course, snorkeled. This year, since we could snorkel with Sandals and there wasn’t an extra charge, we took our excursion money and went to Atlantis for a day.
Atlantis was interesting. We did the pass for the tour and the aquarium, as the water park was extremely expensive. The aquarium was pricey enough, and while we both enjoyed seeing the fish and sharks and eels and more, I’m not positive it was worth the money we paid. Still glad to say that we went to Atlantis and got to see the mega-resort, but I think we were both expecting more. On the day we went to Atlantis we also took in the Straw Market in downtown Nassau, which was quite the experience. You couldn’t pass by anybody without them trying to talk to you, put their creations on you ( I can’t tell you how many bracelets I wore in a short time frame) and it was really overwhelming. I honestly probably would have bought more if I could have time to look at what was there, instead of being forced to look at something or try something I was interested in. We didn’t buy a whole lot in the Straw Market, for that reason. But in the downtown area there are plenty of other tourist shops that are much more laid back, and we did many of our purchases in those. Getting around that day was easy. $1.25 each way per person on their bus, and it picked us up and dropped us off right at Sandals and then the bus stop was easy enough to find in the downtown area. We were able to get a taxi without any trouble to Atlantis also, for $4 a person each way. So great experience, and since I don’t know if we’ll ever return to the Bahamas I’m glad we got it in, even though it wasn’t quite what we imagined.
So, there you have it! We met some really fun people while down there as well who welcomed us into their large group instantly (congrats to the Calhouns!) and we made some amazing memories together. Oh – and I got in some beach yoga, of course! I love this picture of being photo bombed, and the scenery was too pretty not to
We didn’t rebook this year as we don’t know where 2015 will take us, but I’ll be sure to blog about my next adventure! Anyone else have fun trips planned for the year?
Off to enjoy this crazy snowstorm – and dream I was back in the ocean!
January 16, 2015
When A Friendship Ends: It Mattered To Me
This post has been on my mind for a while. I’ve debated writing it because I was afraid I was going to come off as pointing fingers or trashing someone, but after a recent conversation with my best girlfriend, I decided to take a bit of a different direction. Same story, but different approach. Let’s just dive in.
My wedding day (September 7, 2013) was the last day I spoke to my maid of honor. Our friendship started during our freshman year of college, and stayed strong throughout fights, breakups with boys, serious health issues, and even moving away from each other. About three weeks after getting engaged, I asked her to be my maid of honor. I stood up for her in her wedding, and she had been my best friend for seven years, was the one who nudged me to accept a date from my now husband back in college, and we had been through…life together. I thought she was someone who would always be around.
I won’t get into the full story of what happened before our wedding day, because that’s where I’m afraid finger-pointing will come into play. But to understand a bit of the back story, there were a few issues that came up before the wedding between me and my maid of honor. Each one left me very confused, and feeling like maybe she didn’t care about the wedding, her role in it, or me. We had one serious conversation about it after my bachelorette party took a turn for the worse (way, way worse) and I thought after that incident everything would get back on track.
September 7 came and went in a flash. It’s amazing how fast a day that started at 5am for me and didn’t end until after midnight could go by so quickly. There was nothing that stood out to me about our wedding that led to it being the last time I spoke with my maid of honor. She gave an amazing speech (rapped it, to be precise), I remember her often fetching me drinks throughout the night, and I think we danced together – though most of the day like I said was a huge blur. But after that…nothing. My phone calls and text messages started to go ignored and unanswered, invites to go out were ignored, and I never heard a word from her. She and her husband were supposed to join me and my new husband on our delayed honeymoon in February, but those conversations were never spoken of again. I started to feel extremely upset, and talked often with my husband and good friend about what was happening. Both of them encouraged me not to give up. This was my best friend. Something had happened, but she would come around. Just keep trying.
So I plugged away, every so often shooting her a text message only to get silence back. On Christmas Day of 2013, I realized she had un-friended me on Facebook. Then, I got pissed.
I was losing a friendship for reasons completely unknown to me. What had I done? What I had I done that could be so terrible to deserve a friend cutting me out of her life with seemingly no remorse, no sadness? And to have it be centered around the one day that I am supposed to look back on and cherish and have all these amazing memories – but now I remember it as the last day I hugged my best friend. I have to look at my wedding pictures that she’s in the majority of them and am left wondering what in the hell happened. It hurts, and it hurts a lot.
Early January, I sent her a Facebook message questioning the unfriending situation and laying all my feelings out on the line. Asking for an opportunity to grab lunch and talk this through, explaining how terrible I felt about whatever could have happened to have our friendship end like this; it was a short novel. Her response back? “I am not emotionally ready to talk to you yet, but I wish you a great life.” Seven years of friendship. Snapped like that.
Because we have some mutual friends, I have seen her on occasions at weddings and other events. Each time, she ignores me. There has never been a polite smile my way, a drunken “can we talk” or any sort of acknowledgement that we know each other. And that makes my heart feel likes it breaking. I still to this day (14 months later) have dreams about her. In some, we’re best friends again. In others, the night of my horrendous bachelorette party takes place again, but with different endings. But the point is, I feel racked over losing my best friend. I want to know what could have happened, what honestly could have brought this about. The last time we were out for a birthday party and I saw her and she ignored me, I ended the night sobbing to my friend about how could she be so callous, so cruel. How did I mean so little to her that no matter what happened, what was said, what she thought could have taken place, could she just clip me from her life, so neat and tidy. I am still destroyed over the loss of what I thought was such a wonderful friendship. But what makes it so much worse, was that it doesn’t matter to her. She never gave us the opportunity to right whatever the hell was wrong. She never even tried.
I might never know what happened, what she thought happened. But at least I know that our friendship mattered to me. I had a friendship for seven years of my life that meant so much to me. I think that’s special. And I can be confident that I tried. On my end, I know how hard I tried not only to not lose that friendship, but to make our friendship special during the years I was able to call her my best friend. I just have to remember that moving forward, and when I think about her. It mattered to me.
December 31, 2014
Bring It On, 2015
Ah, the countdown to 2015 is officially on! Fair warning with this blog post – I am super sick while writing this, so I apologize in advance for any ramblings, misspellings, or plain “this doesn’t make sense” moments. But I’ve abandoned this blog for so long and it was a goal of mine to get started again in 2015, so I’m sticking to it!
Looking back, 2014 sure was an interesting year. I celebrated not only one year of marriage with my husband, but also our pup’s first birthday and 1 year “gotcha day” with her. I traveled to St. Lucia, Las Vegas, and saw my first game at Lambeau Field. I left my full-time job at a hospital and turned books into my full-time career. Marching Ink published two new titles, one being my novel A Questionable Friendship. And I also started a new venture with my best friend, and we have a lot to look forward to in 2015. There were a lot of great, fabulous, amazing things about 2014, but of course, there were some bad parts as well. Fights with friends, feuds with family members, not seeing my mom which breaks my heart, a bad haircut decision, illnesses…but let’s not focus on those. Like I said, 2014 was all around a pretty fantastic year. A year that I will remember, that is for sure.
But what does 2015 hold in store for me? Of course, everyone wants to know that answer. I plan on: traveling to the Bahamas, standing up for a friend at her wedding, meeting my cousin’s new baby, celebrating two years with my husband and two years with my dog. But I have a feeling 2015 could be a pretty big year. I have a lot in the works; book 4 is almost done with rewrites which feels amazing, but no matter what comes way, good or bad, I know it will be for reason and I need to remember to embrace that. I’m wishing everyone a safe New Year, a healthy 2015 and cheers to a new beginning. Let’s make it great.
December 23, 2014
Release Day: Give Your Heart a Break by Helen Peterson #ChickLit
Yay, the day is finally here! Marching Ink is releasing its 7th title today, from debut author Helen Peterson. This has been a labor of love for months now, but today is the official release and I couldn’t be more excited for my company and for Helen. I know how exciting it is to see your book for sale, especially your first one. CLP Blog Tours is hosting a release blitz tour today, so be sure to enter the giveaway below to win a 3 month subscription to Birchbox, where you’ll get a beauty box in the mail once a month for 3 months filled with goodies!
About the Book
Gorgeous? Check.
Wealthy? Check.
Sweet? Double check.
When Rachel Thomas meets Mason Conner, it seems she has found a man who is everything she’s ever wanted. After years of the single girl life in New York City, she’s due for some luck in the romance department. But with her less than stellar track record, Rachel can’t seem to let go of her past failures to fall too hard.
That is until Mason’s ex-fiancé reappears, determined to steal him back. With more than winning Mr. Perfect’s heart on the line, is Rachel finally ready to give her heart a break?
Author Bio
Helen is a native of Toronto Canada who went to college to pursue Marketing . She currently works at a bank as an administrative assistant but her love of writing and telling stories that others can relate to has helped her complete her first manuscript Give Your Heart a Break. Helen has always loved telling a story especially through song, Staring in all her high school musical theatre productions Like Oliver! And Anything Goes. Helen currently resides in Markham Ontario.
Connect with Helen!
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/AuthorHelenPeterson
Twitter: @HelenPeterson37
Find the Book!
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1zpFU5V
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23764139-give-your-heart-a-break
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/give-your-heart-a-break-helen-peterson/1120935368?ean=2940150199583
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/give-your-heart-a-break-4
Read an Excerpt!
I was opening up portfolios when Sydney appeared by my side. “There you are! Where have you been hiding all morning?” Her sugary sweet voice made my skin crawl. Why today?
“I’ve been here all day, Sydney. At my desk. You saw me this morning.” And gave a weirdly enthusiastic wave at me, which freaked me out. I was just waiting for this moment all day. She probably wanted to brag about her new boyfriend or some other mundane thing that I didn’t give a hoot about.
“Right, right. Anywho, I wanted to ask you something.”
She paused, just smiling and blinking at me. “Okay. What?” Was I walking into a trap? Should I run away?
“How is your relationship with Mason going?”
I forced a smile on my face, surely fake, and said, “None of your business. Do you have something important to talk to me about?” My patience was waning.
“Oh, I do,” she said, looking down at her fresh manicure, then back at me. “But it’s none of my business, right?”
“If you have something to tell me, please just spit out. I’m busy and tired and need to get this done before—”
“You’ll want to make time for this,” she said, cutting me off. I noticed then the devilish spark in her eyes. Oh, fuck. I started to get concerned at that moment.
“Fine. Tell me.”
“So, I was at Kittachai in Soho last night. Do you know where that is?” she asked.
I was familiar with the restaurant but had never eaten there. “I’ve heard of it.”
“Well, it’s a super fancy restaurant in the Thompson Hotel. Quite expensive. Anyway, I went with some guy who wanted to take me out. I didn’t really care for him much and I wasn’t going to go, but I am so glad I did.”
“Okay, and?”
“I saw your little hot stud dining with some supermodel hot blonde,” she said smugly. “And to tell you the truth, he seemed smitten with her.”
Before I panicked at what Sydney was telling me, I remembered Mason did a lot of dinners with clients. And since Bradley had called him on our drive back to the city, I assumed he was working through dinner when he didn’t respond to my dinner invite text last night.
“Yeah, so Mason has lots of dinners with his clients. So nice of you to drop by and . . .”
She cut me off again. “I thought that may be the case as well. But you might want to stick around and here this.”
Goosebumps rose on my arms. Where the hell was she going with this? My fingers itched to check my cell phone to see if Mason had sent me a text yet.
“I just happened to run into the girl in the bathroom. Crazy, huh?” So she ran into Mason in the huge city of New York and managed to be in the bathroom with this chick at the same time? A paranoid part of my brain was sending out warning signals. Was Sydney a stalker? What was going on here? “I started making light chit-chat, talking about my boring date, and yadda, yadda. I asked if she was out on a date and guess what she said?”
“What?” I dreaded her answer.
“She said she was!” Sydney practically crowed, her eyes sparkling with happiness. “What’s even crazier—she said her date was actually her ex-fiancé. Wow. Crazy, huh?”
I didn’t say anything, just sat there and felt sick as she continued on. “It was great talking to her. Her name is Emily and she just moved back from Washington, where she moved for a work thing, and now work has moved her back. So, she’s back and here and her and her ex—Mason—are giving it another shot. Isn’t that a special story? She’s beautiful, too. And funny and smart and really personable.”
My heart was breaking listening to Sydney talk. What the hell? His ex-fiancée was back in New York and he hadn’t told me? He was—seeing her again? Was the wedding back on? Why would he take me and my friends to his house in the Hamptons if he was dating Emily? And why was Sydney talking this girl up like she was the next Miss America? My head throbbed, but I forced the tears to stay in my eyes. I couldn’t show weakness in front of Sydney.
“Sorry, Sydney,” I said. “Mason’s told me all about his ex.” I stressed the word, trying to keep my voice calm. “So, you can move along now.”
“So you know all about her, huh?” Sydney was challenging me. “You know that they are getting back together then? Emily told me about how Mason is the love of her life and they’re working on their relationship. Funny, she didn’t mention anything about him having a girlfriend that was in her way.”
With that, she turned on her heel and flounced away. My fears were full blown. Mason having dinner with his ex. Her being back in town, period. Him seemingly not mentioning the fact he was seeing someone. Her wanting him back. A tear slipped down my cheek then, and I was grateful Sydney was long gone at that point. Off to torture another co-worker no doubt.
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December 9, 2014
CLP Blog Tours Novel Spotlight: Believing in Bigfoot by JC Miller
I am excited to host JC Miller on the blog today, and share an excerpt from her novel Believing in Bigfoot! Be sure to stop by CLP Blog Tours for all her tour stops and for a book giveaway!
Excerpt
Marble Mountains Wilderness Area
September 1, 1984
The Encounter
Ruth fished a red bandana out of her pack and swabbed her brow. She glanced up at the ridgeline where a ragtag stand of manzanita fiercely clung with twisted roots to bone-white granite. A hawk circled then settled atop a branch, keeping a lookout. The mountain swallowed what remained of the orange sun, and the hawk took flight.
Ruth’s back strained from her dad’s old canvas backpack, the one he’d taken on his fishing trips in the Sierras. It kept sliding down her shoulders. She called to her sure-footed friend, fifty feet ahead. “Hey, Meg! Help me with my pack?”
Meg backtracked, returning to Ruth. “Turn around,” she instructed. She adjusted Ruth’s straps, and then smoothed them over her shoulders. “There you go.”
“Thanks,” Ruth said. She cinched the backpack’s belt, just above her hipbones.
“Is that better?”
The bulk of Ruth’s pack rode higher, a bit more secure. “Yes,” she said.
“It’s a little too big for you.”
“Right,” Ruth said. “It’s my dad’s.” She envied Meg with her streamlined, lightweight pack, a recent acquisition from the hippie wilderness store.
Meg wore her flannel shirt, a hideous mustard color, like an apology for her effortless beauty. “Ready to go?” she asked.
“I’m ready,” Ruth said, imitating Meg’s smile. Still, she couldn’t help thinking, if they turned around now she would be home in time to catch Dallas.
Ruth continued her ascent along the steep, rocky path, Meg far ahead. After a while, she found her rhythm; it wasn’t too bad. For a good hour she zigzagged up the ridge, her lungs filling with crisp mountain air. Eventually they came to a meadow and the sun made a brief reappearance just as a pale sliver of moon rose in the East.
At the edge of the meadow they entered the forest, thick with evergreens, tan oak and towering Douglas fir. The temperature dropped. As if someone switched the lights off, the sky turned charcoal. Up ahead, Meg was barely visible in the gray light. Ruth made out her silhouette—limbs swaying, backpack bobbing.
Meg suddenly stopped short. She scuttled down the trail to join Ruth. “It’s gotten so dark,” she said. The woman had a penchant for stating the obvious.
A dry wind rattled the leaves. “Yeah,” Ruth said breathlessly, aware of the forest canopy closing in on them.
Meg’s expression sobered. “What do you think we should do?”
“God, I don’t know. Do we have a flashlight?”
“Shit. I knew I forgot something.”
“Well, we’d better hurry up then, before it gets too dark to hike,” Ruth said.
But Meg did not budge. “I’m afraid it’s already too dark.”
Ruth’s stomach knotted. The backpacking trip had been last minute, a whim. She’d allowed Meg Drummond, a woman she’d just met, to talk her into it. Everything had been makeshift—her dusty hiking boots, borrowed sleeping bag, and crappy backpack she’d found in the attic. When she agreed to go, somehow she’d pictured Scout camp, the summer of her eleventh year. The squeaky top bunk and musty-sweet cabin smell, the crunch of pine needles underfoot. This was no Scout camp.
“I say we just keep going. It can’t be that far,” Ruth said, reaching.
“No. It’s a ways, yet. We’d better camp here, where it’s flat. We’ll get an early start in the morning.”
Meg’s implacable tone grated on her nerves, but Ruth relented. She followed Meg’s example, tossing her gear to the bare ground a few feet off the trail.
“This will have to do,” Meg said.
But it would not do. Ruth ached for her infant son, Sam. She couldn’t stop thinking about him back home with her father, a well-meaning man, whom she suspected had never once changed a diaper. Meg, by comparison, had it easy. Her toddler, Lily, was probably snuggled up with Ethan, one of those new-age husbands—practically a woman—who could be counted on to do dishes, fill tippy cups, read bedtime stories.
“Dinner is served,” Meg said passing Ruth a paper towel, some bread and cheese.
Ruth accepted Meg’s offering but vowed never to listen to her again. She saw it now: Ruth’s own neediness and longing for companionship had blinded her to Meg’s kookiness and naiveté. She finished off the dry heel of bread, wriggled into her sleeping bag and prepared to wait for daylight.
Meg flopped down next to her. “I’ve never seen it this dark. It’s so black. No stars—no moon.”
“Yeah,” Ruth said. “Total darkness.”
“Goodnight, Ruth.”
“Night.” For a long moment, Ruth lay still, listening to the quiet. Closing her eyes, her body settled. Like falling down a dark elevator shaft, sleep pulled her down, engulfing her in a thick, dreamless fog.
About the Book
Reeling from his failed comeback and ruined marriage, washed-out actor Ian James (née Isaac Janowitz) flees Los Angeles for a two-week respite in Northern California’s remote Marble Mountains—Bigfoot country. His time alone in the wilderness begins to peel away the layers of his Hollywood persona. After a fateful meeting with a beguiling woman, Ian begins to question his heart. In a moment of clarity, Isaac ditches his publicist and finds himself in Redding, living with invisibility at the Vagabond Motel.
Professor Ruth Hill is burnt out teaching photography at Redding’s Shasta College, eager for her upcoming retirement. But for unexplained reasons, despite weekly therapy sessions, her panic attacks have escalated. Her artistic slump persists. Looking back, she regrets a life without risk; looking forward, she dreads a meaningless future. Going over her proof sheets one morning, she stumbles upon a series of striking thumbnails, reigniting her passion and creativity.
Readers will root for Isaac and Ruth as they grapple with their chance encounter on the mountain and search for meaning in their repellent, yet intense attraction. Their paths do cross again, but when confronted with the possibility of enduring love, Ruth’s cynicism creeps in; Isaac’s self-defeating beliefs take hold. For these two damaged souls, it just may be too late.
Author Bio
JC (Jeanne) Miller, M.A., is an educator and founding member of JAM, an editorial-consultation team. An avid reader, aspiring traveler and table tennis enthusiast, she resides in Northern California.
Find JC!
http://www.jcmillerwriter.com/
Twitter: @JCMillerWriter
Find the Book!
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1saQW9o
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23251815-believing-in-bigfoot
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