HelenKay Dimon's Blog, page 30

Snippet Saturday

Today’s topic is love scenes. Yeah, it’s actually hard to pick just one of those. Since WHEN SHE WASN’T LOOKING comes out in a few weeks, I decided to give you another peek.

Jonas sat at his dining room table and tapped his pen against the wood. The rhythmic clicking soothed him. Exhaustion tugged at every bone in his body, but he fought it off. He needed answers. Courtney needed answers.

As if he conjured her up, she slipped into the room. She’d showered again and the dampness still clung to bottom of her hair. Her sweats balanced low on her slim hips, teasing him with a sliver of skin between the edge and the bottom of her body-skimming t-shirt.

This time she wore glasses. The thin dark frames gave her a naughty librarian look.

He hadn’t been kidding when he said glasses were sexy on a woman. Or maybe he just thought it and forgot to actually tell her. Either way, he believed it.



“You dream about being a drummer?” she asked with a wide smile.

“What?”

She made exaggerated google eyes at his pen. “Can’t place the beat, but I’ll probably hear that sound in my sleep.”

“Sorry about that. One of the hazards of being a bachelor and living alone.”

“It’s okay.” She sat in the chair perpendicular to his with one leg tucked under her. “I doubt I’ll actually sleep no matter how quiet you are.”

And he’d almost fallen asleep pouring his coffee. “After all that’s happened, how could you not?”

She shrugged as she drew a random pattern on the table with her finger. “I don’t need that many hours.”

“Need? It’s about how good it feels.”

She glanced up at him. “Oh, really?”

“Soft, warm.” He saw her breathing slow and heard the soft puffs of air leave her mouth. “After it’s over, your body is restored and ready to go.”

Her finger stalled. “Are we still talking about sleeping?”

Not even a little. “Sort of.”

The chair creaked when she flopped against the back. “About this attraction.”

That woke him right up. “I’m impressed you opened that topic.”

“I’m not wrong about…well.” She swung her leg around in a circle. “I thought-”

“It’s taking all the control I have not to get up and bend you over the table. Does that answer your question on how I feel and how mutual this is?”

Her body froze. “Pretty much.”

“So?”

“You’re not my type. I’m guessing I’m not yours.”

He leaned back until the front two legs of his chair left the floor. “Wrong.”

“You like the bookish girls?”

She had no idea of her appeal. For the first time, he understood she lost more than her family that awful night long ago. He wondered if she realized how hard she was on herself. “I’m into the strong and pretty type.”

“Do I fall into that category?”

“You’re the star of it.”

____________

Remember to check out the other authors’ snippets:

Megan Hart:Read in bed!

Rhian Cahill

Eliza Gayle

Mandy M Roth

Mari Carr

McKenna Jeffries

Myla Jackson

Taige Crenshaw

Shiloh Walker

TJ Michaels

Lauren Dane

Lissa Matthews

Zoe Archer

Countdown

I’m on a countdown until the release of my May Intrigue, WHEN SHE WASN’T LOOKING. Lori at I Just Finished Reading has a very nice review of the book. This is my favorite part:

I liked the smart characters, the romance was great if incredibly fast, and I adore Dimon’s writing style, her voice, and the fact that her heroes come across as real. They are exhausted, they get hurt, and they manage to rely on their women, knowing that they are also super smart & capable.

That is exactly what I was going for, so I loved that she got that from the book. Yay!

At Genreality

I’m at Genreality today talking about what happnes the few days after the deadline is over.

The Visual Version

I just finished and turned in a book that will come out October 22nd from Carina Press. It’s tentatively called LEAN ON ME and is related to last year’s novella, IT’S NOT CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU. Here’s a visual for you:

Cassidy

is experiencing a string of bad luck and returns home to Holloway, West Virginia to regroup.

She runs into Mitch, a guy who had a thing for her in high school

and after much wrangling and chasing, she ends up staying at his house (because she has no money and nowhere else to go).

She is a professional climber

and he’s a business dude who hates heights (he never wears suits but the photo is good).

These two are in for a ride.

Saturday Snippet

Today’s topic deals with villains. I have a few of those. Since WHEN SHE WASN’T LOOKING comes out in a few weeks, I thought I’d highlight a baddies from that one. Here is a scene with the first of several bad guys.

She turned to see what had him swearing. “I don’t see-”

“Where did he come from?” Jonas’ hands tightened on the wheel. As he started shouting, his knuckles turned white.

She watched in horror as a truck with a huge front grill barreled right at them on her side of the car. It appeared out of nowhere, gobbling up branches and dragging them under its tires.

She sat down hard in the seat facing forward and dropped the gun to the floor. With her arms locked, she balanced her palms against the dashboard. “Move!”

“I see it.”

“He’s going to hit us.”



“Get down!” Jonas turned the wheel sharp to the left. The car bobbled as tires spun, kicking up mud and squealing in protest.

Just as the traction grabbed, the truck smashed into the back passenger side. Metal crunched as the doors crashed in and roof buckled with an ear-splitting thunk. Her body rocked in her seat until the belt dug deep into her skin.

Pain raced up her arm as she watched Jonas struggle to keep the car upright. Then the world spun around her. Her stomach rolled in time with the car when it turned over. She screamed until she lost her breath.

When the rocking stopped, she lifted her hands and they fell until they hung in front of her. The dashboard pressed up against her knees and her vision blurred, cutting in and out. Something clicked in her neck when she turned to look at Jonas. His eyes were closed with his arms bent underneath him. Blood covered his eye and ran along his forehead.

They were upside down.

His first name floated through her mind. “Jonas?”

She whispered through a scratchy throat just as footsteps thudded around her. She couldn’t make out the direction but her stomach plummeted at the sound.

She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, a face popped up outside the broken window next to Jonas’ head. A scream raced through her but she swallowed it. “Who…who are you?”

The man with the blond military-cut hair and chin stubble smiled. Feral heat radiated off him. “It’s time to go.”

“Why?” She felt underneath her stomach for the abandoned gun. Stretching out her hands, she touched it but it danced off

her fingertips.

The man smacked his hand against what used to be the bottom of the car. “You’re worth a lot of money, and I intend to collect.”

“I can’t move.” She looked at Jonas’ holster – empty – then her gaze skipped to his face. His eyes were open. Dark and furious he stared at her. She tried to read the look and decided he needed time. She focused on the attacker. “I think I’m injured.”

“You can slide out or I can come get you.”

____________

Remember to check out the other authors’ snippets:

Megan Hart:Read in bed!

Rhian Cahill

Eliza Gayle

Mandy M Roth

Mari Carr

McKenna Jeffries

Myla Jackson

Taige Crenshaw

Delilah Devlin

Shiloh Walker

TJ Michaels

Lauren Dane

Shelli Stevens

Jody Wallace

Grumbly

I just read a book that had a few issues for me as a reader. I thought I’d share.

1. I hated the heroine. No, really, hated her. I’m not one of those who needs a romance heroine to be perfect. I actually want them imperfect. In fact, I get grumbly when romance reviews forgive the nasty hero anything he does but take issue with a heroine for being human. I tend to think the term TSTL (too stupid to live) is thrown around far too often in relation to heroines when it really doesn’t apply [pet peeve alert]. I think the main issue in this book was her lack of a believable character arc. She started out unlikable, which was fine, but I didn’t really get a sense of any redemption or growth. That made the HEA hard to buy.

2. The secondary storyline, which happened to be between two males, was pretty awesome. It actually overwhelmed the main romance for me. I did that thing where I flipped pages looking for the secondary romance and wondering when it would be on the page again. That’s never a good sign for the main romance.

3. In that secondary romance, there is a scene where all is lost. It’s basically a deathbed scene. Much to my annoyance, this huge emotional plot point resolved off the page. The reader finds out because the main characters are told the secondary romance people are fine. I had the “What the hell?!?!” reaction followed by flipping the final pages to see if the book returned to the seconday romance before it ended, but no…

This is clearly one of those cases where I wanted to rewrite the ending of a book so that it fit my vision. Yeah, I know that’s wrong. It’s not my book. But still.

Genreality

I'm at Genreality today talking about the best and worst writing advice I've ever gotten. Stop by and say hello.

Fictional Tragedy

While I don't have a burning need to see the movie Titanic again, I do continue to be fascinated by the true-life stories of the ship. Apparently the fictional stories about tragedies also still resonate with me. I know that because I saw a review for Charlotte Rogan's new book, THE LIFEBBOAT, and wanted to try it. Check it out:

Grace Winter, 22, is both a newlywed and a widow. She is also on trial for her life.

In the summer of 1914, the elegant ocean liner carrying her and her husband Henry across the Atlantic suffers a mysterious explosion. Setting aside his own safety, Henry secures Grace a place in a lifeboat, which the survivors quickly realize is over capacity. For any to live, some must die.

As the castaways battle the elements, and each other, Grace recollects the unorthodox way she and Henry met, and the new life of privilege she thought she'd found. Will she pay any price to keep it?

And I like the cover. It gives me the willies, which is perfect for the book's subject matter.

Some News!

I can finally announce some sale news. Some of you have asked if I'll be writing more books for Carina Press. The answer is…yes!! I've already announced that I'll have a book out in October. I will also have a Christmas story in an anthology with Jaci Burton and Christi Barth – wahoo!!! The holiday anthology (you can buy my book as an individual novella or as part of the anthology) will be out in December. The books are related to each other and to my Christmas novella from last year, IT'S NOT CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU.

So, the series looks like this (please excuse the lack of official titles):

*IT'S NOT CHRISTMAS WITHOUT YOU – Austin & Carrie's story

*October release – Mitch (Carrie's brother) & Cassidy's story

*December release – Spencer (Austin's brother) & Lila's story

The October and December releases will be set back home in my fictional town of Holloway, West Virginia. If you need a visual image for what Holloway looks like in fall, I give you this:

New Status

I am up and around and feeling much better. Thanks for the emails, comments etc wishing me well. The stomach flu sucks, by the way. I'm also almost caught up for the writing days I've missed – wahoo!!! And I'm blogging at Genreality today. Come say hello.