Lisa Chalmers's Blog, page 12

Hot Summer Romance Giveaway Blog Hop

 

Blog hop grand prize: Two grand prizes. #1 is a Kindle Fire. #2 is a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate.

My blog giveaway: One ebook copy of the 5* reviewed

IF TOMORROW NEVER COMES in the winner’s choice of format.

Winner announced on my blog July 22nd. To enter leave your email address or way of contacting you in the comments.

 

What better way to beat the hot summer heat of Los Angeles then to be chased by a deadly demon? Not exactly what my heroine Arabella Hayes thinks, but she’s about to find out there could be a benefit she never imagined when her ‘bodyguard’ Ryder McKinnon finds an interesting way to distract her.

Dark Intent excerpt:

She was about to cross a narrow alley when a leather covered arm reached out and pulled her inside. Instantly a hand covered her mouth, blocking out any sound that dared to escape muffled and barely recognizable. She struggled as best she could, channeling all her emotions into fighting off the attacker when she was spun around after delivering a swift pointed elbow to his ribs.

Ryder.

She stared wide-eyed at her would be attacker. “You son of a…” she looked at him rubbing his chest, no doubt trying to get circulation back. He was lucky she hadn’t managed to bring up a fireball or he’d really be in a world of hurt.

Before she could utter another word, she found herself pushed roughly against the brick wall. With his hand back over her mouth and his body pressing hers against the coarseness of the crumbling brick, she felt the urge to lift her knee to show him what exactly she thought of this little stunt. That is, until she heard the slinking sound further down the alley that didn’t quite sound human let alone demonic. Alarm filled her as she stared up at him, her body tense, becoming more rigid than a statue as the sound grew louder. What she’d give to be anywhere but there at that moment, her world, her life, anything, to be somewhere else. As if sensing her rising panic, his grip on her tightened. She ignored the jolt of electricity that even the slightest bit of contact with him created.

 

He was only slightly aware he was crushing her as he kept her pressed up against the hard brick wall but he’d heard definite movement. A sound he hadn’t been able to identify so he’d followed his instincts and thrown her against the wall, covering her body with his in an effort to protect her. Her soft seashell pink tongue darted out and licked the top of her dry lips, fear etched clearly in her eyes. “What?” she whispered, her eyes locked nervously on his own, like she couldn’t quite bring herself to look around him to see what could be there.

He knew the way he was acting, she was probably afraid it was Svatos himself.

For all he knew, it could have been. But he wanted to meld the two of them into the shadows, hoping the smoky quartz he carried in his pocket would help shield them from prying eyes. If it was a tracker who’d dropped in from above, they should be okay. It would take a cursory look around and then seeing nothing, if the crystal worked, take off again and try to pick up their trail outside on the streets.

His gaze locked on Arabella, alarm filled her eyes, asking a silent question, is that what I thought it was? He gave a small nod and immediately she tensed, her body more rigid than a statue. He concentrated on listening to the sound at the end of the alley, whatever it was seemed to be aware someone was listening as the movement had stilled to nonexistent. He couldn’t risk opening his senses, since it would be like sending a flare out into the air, giving off their location and putting them in deeper danger. He dropped his hand away from her mouth. “Shhh…” The sound was barely audible, but he needed Arabella to stay as silent, as still as possible to not draw any extra attention their way. The best thing to do was distract her. Maybe not holding her hostage against the wall would help her relax a little, he could see the vein in her neck jumping with the frantic rhythm of her heart beat.

His gaze locked on her lips again and he saw a question flash in her eyes as he dropped his head lower, his lips brushing teasingly against hers.

 

His lips were surprisingly soft but firm, as if he was desperate to keep her distracted and keep her from making the wrong move, which would actually be any move at that point. She was afraid to even breathe, that the small sound of her gasping for breath would alert whatever was at the end of the alley to their presence.

Every emotion began to fade away as she began to give herself over to the kiss, the feel of his lips, his hands on her back. Her hands fisted in his shirt, drawing him closer and closer as the kiss deepened—a move she wasn’t sure who started, but Booyah for whoever had. It was the first time she could ever say she found a man intoxicating, her eyes tightly shut as she felt him lift her off her feet, bracing her against the wall. She didn’t care that the hoodie she wore had ridden up in the back and that the coarse brick was rubbing against her skin. All she cared about was the man pressed deliciously close to her, the one who was ravaging her mouth with a passion she hadn’t known he’d possessed.

Vaguely she became aware he slowly lowered her back to the ground as he broke the kiss. Her lips felt deliciously swollen, slightly bruised even and she could taste a hint of the cinnamon gum he’d been chewing.

She wished he’d give her a moment to stand there, let the blood return to flowing through her entire body and not just certain parts of her anatomy. Her legs felt like jelly and she wasn’t sure she could maintain her body weight for a few more seconds. Evidently though, Ryder was far from a mind reader.

“What was that?”

*****

Check out more great blogs on the blog hop for more chances to win here

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Vacation what vacation?

Well it took about a week from sending the book to the editor for the haze in my brain to clear enough that I feel human again. Still not sleeping though. Guess that’s a hangover of working through the night and sleeping in the day on the book.

In typical workaholic fashion, I haven’t taken a lot of time off. Already been trying to find a cover for one of my Christmas ideas. I saw one that I kind of liked, but the cover model had red hair and so far, my heroine isn’t a redhead. I did get one more cover ordered for Winning Bid, an old idea of mine that’s been sitting in the revise pile for quite awhile.

Other than that, almost done with the book trailer for DARK INTENT. Do you know how hard it is to find a photo of a back of a redheaded woman? Darn near impossible. I did find some nice shots of alleys though. Can’t find a decent dagger photo either. Still need to find one or two of those. Besides that, I did a rough mock up of the print cover for If Tomorrow Never Comes. Love the way it turned out.

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What a surprise

I went to update the link for amazon.ca and noticed a little something on the page I hadn’t before..

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #28,896 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#68 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror >  Ghosts

Insert a few moments of blankly staring at the screen with my mouth literally open till it finally registered.

So I had to screenshot my delightful moment:

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New If Tomorrow Never Comes Excerpt

From chapter six, a little snip of Josh and Gabriel in IF TOMORROW NEVER COMES.

Gabriel waited till the door shut behind them to turn to Josh. “You need to cool down.”

Josh wanted to punch a wall. Throw something. Hit something. Anything to get this anger out of his system. So much for that rest in peace line. There wasn’t any peace and he certainly didn’t want to be resting. He wanted to be alive, back to his life with the people he loved most.

He didn’t want to see Gabriel’s attempt at understanding, or listen to him trying to rationalize things. There wasn’t anything rational about keeping him there, holding him hostage while the woman he loved suffered without him.

And she was suffering.

He didn’t care if they didn’t see it. He did. He knew her. He knew everything about her. Every movement, every nuance, every little quirk. He knew she was dying inside. She was trying so hard to hold on, but every day part of her slipped away, longing to be with him.

Gabriel moved in front of him, clearly trying to get him to speak.

He felt that pull in his chest. Avery. He could hear her voice, low and mumbling, distorted just enough he couldn’t understand her words, but her pain ran through him stronger than his own.

“Josh…” Gabriel began, “I found a place for us to go…”

Josh waved him away. “I just need some time on my own right now.” He caught the worried expression on his friend’s face. “I’m fine, what trouble can I get into anyway?” he argued, not wanting to hear an answer.

“If you’re sure.” Gabriel hardly sounded convinced.

Josh started to walk away. “I am.”

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Forgetful Me

I’m in full deadline mode with this one going to an editor the second week in July. My mind is literally mush. I can go upstairs and forget what I was looking for. The best is opening a new tab and having no clue what webpage I wanted to go to. That one is happening way more than I’d like to admit to

On the plus side, I now have two lovely new covers. One for my women’s fiction and one for my young adult. No clue when I’m going to do anything with them, as after I take a mini vacation after I send this one off to the editor I’d like to take a week or two off and then my Christmas idea is sitting there waiting to be finished. I was originally hoping to publish five books this year and it looks like it could wind up just being three. Have to see how things go.

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Deleted Scene #2 from If Tomorrow Never Comes

Blake made his way through the sports bar to where Alec waited. He’d only been back in town a few days, but Avery hadn’t been far from his thoughts. He worried about her night and day. She’d replied to the few texts he’d sent, but there hadn’t been much there. Just a few words each time that basically let him know she was alive and doing okay, but he wanted to know she truly was, that it wasn’t just words on a screen. Josh had loved her so much that Blake would feel he’d let his brother down if something ever happened to her.

“How’s Avery?” he asked as he reached the table.

Alec looked up from his menu. “She’s up and down,” he admitted as Blake took a seat in one of the empty chairs. “I really wish she wasn’t alone.”

“I think we all agree on that,” Blake said. “Maybe I’ll go by later, make up some excuse. Have you seen her lately?”

“No. I thought I’d give her some space. I know Taylor’s been going over a lot.”

“I haven’t seen her since I took the ring over,” Blake said, his fingers tapping against the menu in front of him. He looked at his younger brother. “You hear anything from her after that?”

“Nothing,” Alec frowned and pulled his coffee closer. “You’d think if she opened the ring, she would have called one of us, wouldn’t she?”

Blake shrugged, but he’d had the same thoughts. He set the menu back down. How could he focus on food? It seemed like everything had been in a daze for the last few weeks. Some part of him had expected a bit of it to fade away by now, at least a miniscule little bit, but it was the same as it was from the moment he found out.

 

Josh sat in the empty chair at the table, unable to hide the smile on his face as he listened to his brothers. He wished they would see him. Know he was there. That he was able to share with them the fact that he should have been engaged by now. That the perfect ring he’d searched so long for now had a permanent home on Avery’s left hand. Instead, he sat there, wishing they’d sense him, feel him, hell, hear him somehow. Just give him some acknowledgement he really was there. Just a tiny bit of hope that he wasn’t so far removed from everyone he cared about. “I’m glad she has you guys looking out for her. I know you’d never let me down.”

 

A coolness swept by Blake, noticeable enough that he thought someone had brushed by him. He turned his head . There was no one nearby, yet the feeling lingered. He narrowed his eyes but saw nothing behind him. The rational side of his mind was ready to dismiss it as nothing more than a trick of the imagination. An unexpected blast of stronger than usual air conditioning,  yet some part of him knew it wasn’t.

Alec waved a hand in front of his face. “Yo, Blake? You still here?”

Blake jumped at the sudden motion, and shook his head in embarrassment. “Sorry, I guess I just zoned out there for a moment.”

Alec gave him a quizzical look as the waitress stopped by the table and refilled their coffees. “It’s okay. Did you hear anything I said?”

Blake nodded, but he hadn’t really. He’d been too busy trying to make sense of what he’d felt. They went back to their conversation, but his attention slipped away again when Alec started mentioning store names and checking out websites on his cell phone. He nodded at a crib Alec showed him and took out his own phone, pretending to be in on the search for the right nursery décor, but honestly that was the last thing on his mind. As he saw the way Alec was suddenly throwing himself into this project, he realized that the zoned out expressions they usually wore when they were together were slowly fading away, yet still present. One of these days they’d need to talk to one another, to let out all their feelings, but for now it was too soon to press anyone into talking. He wasn’t sure if he was even ready to talk about how he felt, like a piece of himself had been ripped away without warning. A piece that he needed to function.

Alec lifted his head from his cell phone and smiled as he kept typing away. “Crib bought.”

“Don’t you think we should have at least taken a look at it in person?” Blake questioned.

Alec slapped him on the back. “That, is why there’s a little thing called a return policy.” He smiled as he set his phone down and reached for his coffee. “What do you say I call our favorite blonde and see if she’s available for lunch?”

“Yeah, you calling her isn’t obvious in the least.”

“Hey, who out of all of us has been called her best friend? Last vacation I was the one who headed out with her every morning for breakfast.”

“That’s because you were the only two who didn’t go fishing every single day. And seriously, that four a.m. wake up call every morning was miserable. I should have stuck back with you two.”

“So should I call her?”

“I think we should give her a little space.” Blake hated saying the words, but he had a feeling if they kept crowding her, she’d just pull herself away, the last thing he wanted to see happen. She needed to know they were there for whenever she needed them.

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Deleted Scene:

Since I couldn’t come up with a good idea for a blog post, I thought I’d share a deleted scene from IF TOMORROW NEVER COMES. This was fairly early in the book, between Avery and her best friend, Taylor.

***

Avery had spent the last day and a half in a fog, barely aware of what was going on. It seemed every time she opened her eyes someone new was sitting in her room keeping an eye on her. Blake. Alec. Their mother Linda at one point. She even vaguely remembered a phone call with her own  parents from on board their cruise ship, she’d passed the phone back to Blake before passing out again, or at least it felt like passing out. There was also a notion of thinking Josh had been beside her at one point, but she knew that had been nothing more than wishful thinking on her part.

When she rolled over and opened her eyes, she found her best friend Taylor asleep in the arm chair, a blanket wrapped around her as she dozed curled up in a ball, her dark hair piled in a messy bun on the top of her head. “Tay?” she whispered. Sunlight pushed its way through the curtains. The clock was still unplugged so she had no idea what time it was or even what day. “Taylor?”

Her best friend yawned, her eyes fluttering open. “You’re awake.” She smiled at her sleepily.

“How long have you been here?”

Taylor stretched and pulled her cell phone off the nightstand, checking the time. “I came in around seven. Blake went to bed. It’s two-thirty now.” She moved over to the edge of the bed and sat down. “You okay?”

Avery shook her head. “No.”

“Dumb question huh?”

“No.” Avery tried a weak smile. “Where is everyone?”

“Guessing Blake and Alec are around somewhere. They haven’t left. Linda’s been in and out. I’ve been here off and on.” She looked down at the cell phone in her hands. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up, I’m sorry, Aves…so sorry…” she glanced at her. “I wish I’d been able to be here…”

“It’s okay. You’re here now.”

“I am and if you need me, anytime, I’ll be there okay?” Taylor wiped her eyes. “Are you hungry? I promised your mom I’d make sure you were eating.”

Avery sat up, contemplating the mere thought of food. It didn’t make her feel sick. That was a positive sign. “Maybe in awhile. I’m good right now.”

Taylor stood up. “Oh, we put your cell phone on mute.” she walked to the dresser and picked it up. “Linda left you a couple messages, she thought you probably wouldn’t remember what you talked about…so…”

Avery took the phone. “My mind is pretty blank right now.”

“That’s what we all thought…so one order of toast coming up and I’ll be back.” She gave her a hug. “Love you, Aves.”

“Love you too, Tay.” She squeezed her best friend tight for a minute. She watched her leave and slunk deeper in bed. She propped herself up against the pillows and scrolled through her messages. She clicked on Linda’s. She had vague memories of her being there being there the day before and spending some time with her, but what was said was nothing more than a hazed blue. The messages were a reminder she was coming by that afternoon to pick some things up for Josh.

Immediately the lump in Avery’s throat grew as she reread the message again. She barely noticed Taylor sit down on the edge of the bed, setting the tray with the toast down beside her.

EIN Success!

Just called & got my EIN number, my one major thing off the to-do list. Apparently after 4am mountain time is a great time to call, because I got through and had my number in about eight minutes. Probably would have been shorter if I hadn’t had to double check the spelling of my last name.

All she asked was if I had the form in front of me and we went through the numbers from the different boxes. Beyond easy.

 

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Sneak Peek Sunday

 

 

Welcome to my first foray into Sneak Peek Sunday. Here’s six paragraphs from IF TOMORROW NEVER COMES out now.

 

Josh was already in the kitchen when she walked in. Her eyes still held that familiar sleepiness to them, and he knew she wasn’t anywhere near fully awake. He reached his hand out to touch her as she passed by him to grab a glass from the cupboard. He watched in awe as his hand went right through her, a pins and needles feeling rushing up his arm.

“They’re on their way to tell her,” Gabriel said from across the room. He tilted his head and studied Avery for a moment as she went about her morning routine in the kitchen, completely unaware of the scrutiny she was under. She pulled the bag of whole wheat bread from the bread box and took out two slices, setting them in the toaster. “She’s very pretty.”

Josh nodded, fighting back his tears. “She’s beautiful.” He followed her around the kitchen, just needing to be close to her as she poured herself some juice and checked the phone on the charger. He didn’t even care there was a stranger there, watching everything, every movement he made. Every movement she made. He just wanted to be there for her, even if she’d never ever know he was there when her world fell apart.

She checked the toast in the toaster, taking it out just before it burnt and the fire alarm above the kitchen door would go off. They really needed a new toaster, he thought absently as she set the toast on a plate. The peaceful silence was interrupted by the sharp ding of the doorbell, and Josh jumped. He wanted to reach out, to stop her from going to the door, to freeze her right in that moment in time, but he couldn’t. There was no way to shield her from finding out what had happened.

The doorbell rang a second time.

Someone’s impatient.

 

 

***

To check out other author’s on sneak peek Sunday, click here

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Sparks…

are probably not a good thing, unless they’re the sparklers you light up around holidays.

Unfortunately, yesterday I got the bad ones. Pretty blue in color though. For the last week, I’d been having problems with my laptop switching from power adapter to battery and not going back, it’d drain the battery, shut down and then…nothing. It wouldn’t charge. I’d check all the connections, move it, plug it in somewhere else and then the blue light would turn on and it would start to charge. I’d googled. Its an older laptop and it seemed like maybe it was a connection and possibly the motherboard. Scary, scary thought.

Even scarier what the cause really was.

The night before I shut it off and set it down and noticed a red light. I thought probably just my eyes and thought nothing of it. Booted it up last night and it immediately went back to battery power. I checked all the connections, seemed fine. I turned the power block on its side, it had worked the night before. This time I got a funny static sound. I picked the block up. Static sound again. Turned it to the side, and bright blue sparks began to show from the cord. Immediately shut the computer down, unplugged the cord. Picked the block up again, still sparks. Waited. Unplugged it from the machine and went to take a better look. A nice wear right through the cord right up near the power block, if you touch it, you can feel that the wires have actually separated.

Kinda scary. Out of all the times I’ve checked the cord, I’d never noticed it.