Guest Blogger Vonnie Davis
Welcome, Vonnie! The floor is yours!
Kat, thanks so much for having me here today. I've been looking forward to our visit.
I read once where the learning curve of a writer is continual. How true.
As I flip through the pages of my debut book, I wince in a few spots. I've learned so much since I wrote those lines. Thank goodness for online classes and workshops.
Silly me, I thought that all I had to do was tell a story. I could do that. Right? I mean I knew how to write. I'd majored in English, with a concentration in technical writing as a non-traditional student, at Penn State. I was in my mid-forties when I first enrolled. I also tutored foreign students on how to research and write their papers, using APA or MLA standards, depending on their majors. Later I worked as a technical writer. Grammar, sentence structure, literary tropes—I knew them all.
What I didn't know was the craft of writing.
Point of view, character arc, conflict resolution, just to name a few.
Still, learning is so much fun that my journey—my continual journey, I might add—is a delightful one.
I'm retired now and married to an author. We've both had books released within the past month. Talk about promotion madness! Calvin's book, The Phantom Lady of Paris, is set in the City of Light in 1968. Calvin lived there for a year, during that era, while on sabbatical so his prose is peppered with the flavor or Paris.
Storm's Interlude is set somewhere I've never been—the hill country of Texas. Heck, I've never even been on a horse. Thankfully, those old research skills served me well, for my book deals with modern cowboys, nurses and how a serious illness can affect a family. This is a story that flowed out so quickly, I seriously thought it couldn't be any good. Previous books I wrote took at least a year as I wrote and rewrote chapters. This book was birthed in three months and sold in two weeks. Gee, maybe I was editing the life out of my stories. No, I think I was still climbing that learning curve, panting and struggling with every improvement.
Here's the blurb of my book:
Nurse Rachel Dennison comes to Texas determined to prepare her new patient for a second round of chemo. What she isn't counting on is her patient's twin brother, Storm Masterson. Despite her initial attraction, Storm has two things Rachel can't abide: a domineering personality and a fiancée.
Half Native American, with the ability to have "vision dreams," Storm dreams about Rachel for three nights before her arrival. Both are unprepared for the firestorm of emotions their first encounter ignites. Ultimately, it is Rachel's past—an abusive, maniacal ex-boyfriend—that threatens to keep them apart…and Storm's dreams that bring them together again.
I'd like to share an excerpt. Storm and Rachel meet in unusual circumstances along a dark country road. Storm, who's on his way home from a guys' drinking bash held at their old swimming hole, is on foot and Rachel is driving a Beetle convertible.
He nodded and then his attention shifted to the back of her car. "You a gardener? See you got plants on your backseat."
"They're herbs. Healing herbs for a new friend who's sick."
She thought she saw a flash of pain in his eyes. His hand slowly moved across her shoulder to her braid, sending shivers down her spine.
"You've got mighty long hair. Guess braiding it keeps it outta your eyes while you're driving with the top down." There was a quick smile, white teeth flashed and dimples winked.
Rachel swallowed. Dimples. He just had to have dimples. If she didn't soon get away from this man with his muscles, his deep voice and those prominent dimples, she'd be nothing but a puddle of femininity on the front seat of her new car.
He raised the braid, looping it around his fingers before letting it fall. "Bet all that tawny hair is glorious when it's loose."
She blinked twice. Just how was she supposed to react to that remark?
"Anyone ever tell you you've got full, sensuous lips that make a man wonder? I've seen those same blue eyes before, too. Been driving me crazy, in fact." What the heck was he talking about? He curved his large hand around her neck. The rough calluses on his hand and fingers sent shivers up and down her spine. Her eyes connected with his and her mind took a momentary joyride on one of those adjustable mattresses—she'd have to set it to firm. Her eyes dropped to his lips. Oh, yeah, most definitely firm. She imagined sex with him would be wild and passionate.
His voice deepened as he groaned, "I have a feeling I'm going to regret this, but I'll be damned if I'm going to live the rest of my life wondering..." Ever so slowly, he leaned toward her. Dear God, was he going to kiss her? Her heart rate jumped into triple-time and a flock of crazed butterflies started dive-bombing in her stomach. Oh yeah, he was definitely going to kiss her—and crazy, or not, she was definitely going to let him.
Dark powerful eyes slid from her mouth to her eyes. "If you say no, I'll stop." Her tongue slipped out and wet her lower lip. He evidently took it for the welcome it was and captured her lips.
Firestorm—his kiss, gentle nips at first, quickly turned potent and fierce. He tasted of spice, whiskey and beer. There was a faint smell of lime-based cologne mingled with the dank smells of creek water. Her toes curled in her pink sandals. Oh God, she was in big trouble. Thank goodness she'd taken her hand off her gun or she'd have shot her car dead.
Heat flooded into every cell of her being as his lips and tongue gave and took. Begged and commanded. Whispered and roared of more male potency than she'd ever experienced. He groaned and pulled back just a tad, his eyes heavily hooded with desire. "Like I said, that was a mistake. Madness of the full moon." With his Stetson still firmly held in place, he kissed her gently on the forehead and stepped away from the car into the darkness.
Visit my at my blog sometime. www.vintagevonnie.blogspot.com
My website is www.vonniedavis.com
Buy links for Storm's Interlude:
http://amzn.to/pkkcLq -- Amazon
http://bit.ly/rcCIMa -- The Wild Rose Press
http://bit.ly/pb9DQd -- Barnes and Noble, Nook only
Thanks for joining us, Vonnie and for sharing that fantastic excerpt from Storm's Interlude.
