Trapped Under Ice
Today’s guest is MJ Schiller, whose new release is called TRAPPED UNDER ICE. I’ve read the first couple chapters, enough to know that MJ is a very cool girl and likely also a secret Choir Geek like me. Awesome! So I’m going to get out of the way and let her tell you about teenagers and life in Tornado Alley and TRAPPED UNDER ICE…
I saw a vanity plate today that said, “UNDR PD,” and I chuckled. Aren’t we all lady, aren’t we all? Having said that, I will admit that I am well-paid for my job as a lunch lady. My other job, as a mom, not so much. Still, the benefit package is phenomenal! Even with teens, I will get the occasional “I love you, Mom!” Only now it’s when I bring home the right kind of cereal or a box of Ding Dongs. (I often have one item on the grocery list. “Good food.” Apparently sometimes my shopping attempts fall short because “we never have any good food in the house!” is a common complaint.) Anyway, with four teens, one eighteen- year-old and sixteen-year-old triplets, I take those little love tokens I get when the groceries come in and treasure them.
But back to that license plate. It got me thinking about vanity plates in general. How can you sum up who you are in just seven little letters? Our plates say DONKEYS. This one has people shaking their heads. My husband’s name is Don, so some think it has to do with that. One time in a Wal-Mart parking lot I was even questioned by a man who raised donkeys for a living. Some people think we’re staunch Democrats. The truth is it’s a long and confusing story. But I’ll try to explain. One time we were staying in a hotel in Des Moines. There was nothing much on the TV but the kids were watching a story about this older man and his donkey that visited nursing homes on Animal Planet. The donkey’s name was Nicodemus. So we started calling the kids our little donkeys or Nicodemuses, or just Nicis, for short. Why? Who knows. But when it came time to get a new van and we needed plates and asked the kids what to put on it they came up with DONKEYS.
Seven little letters! Man! I have trouble keeping my tweets down to one hundred-forty characters! I can’t believe it when someone tweets and leaves like twenty-four characters left over. Think of what you could do with those twenty-four little characters! Being succinct is especially hard when you’re talking about something, or someone you love. Like my sizzling hot rock star character Chad Evans from TRAPPED UNDER ICE. He’s a long, lean rockin’ machine, with sexy facial hair and the kind of gravelly voice that makes a girl go wild. Sure, he has his issues. But who wouldn’t growing up the way he did.
But Beth changed all that for him. She respected him for the man he was. Loved him, despite his flaws. Accepted what he gave, and asked for nothing more. Which, of course, made him want to give her everything! But the best of what he gave, in Beth’s own words, was “That wonderful, heady feeling of being in your own private bubble together, of making love while the world went on without you, this was what Chad gave her for a second time, and she knew just how precious it was.”
So what would my character, Chad Evans’, vanity plate read? Easy. ROCKSTR. And Beth’s LNCH LDY. But that is what they do, not who they are. See. I told you it was hard.
Here’s an excerpt from TRAPPED UNDER ICE:
Chad rang the doorbell, nerves making him tug at his sleeves to straighten his shirt. Everything had to go just right tonight. Beth opened the door and light fell on the porch. “Damn!”
She laughed. “My, you do have a way with words.”
“Let me see this!” He whistled, stepping in and circling around her so he could get the full effect. Beth had on a longer emerald dress, with four straps crisscrossing her upper back before plunging downward and long slits gliding up her legs. Again, her hair was swept up, making her neck seem so much more inviting. He returned to face her, admiring her from the front. He laughed. “I’m sorry, it’s just…damn!” He shook his head.
“Oh stop,” she mumbled, her face flushing as she hit him with her handbag.
“I love the way you blush.” Chad touched her hot face and gave her a kiss.
When he pulled away, she blurted out, bubbling over, “I’m so excited. So where are we going?”
“Ah-ah-ah. Not yet. You need to wear this.” He pulled a silky, black scarf from his suit pocket.
“Ooooh. What kind of kinky thing am I in for?”
“You little vixen!” Chad gave her a sharp swap on the derrière. He positioned himself behind his date again and brought the scarf over Beth’s head to tie it behind her as a blindfold.
“What are you up to?” she asked coquettishly.
Chad leaned into that tantalizing neck, annunciating each word in her ear with a seductive whisper, “Try not to anticipate.” Then, unable to resist, he kissed her there.
She squirmed with delight. “Oooh. That’s so much better when I can’t see you.”
“Uhhh…is that supposed to be a compliment? ‘Cause, it doesn’t sound like one.”
“Oh, silly. You know what I mean.” She tried to reach for him. “I can’t find you to kiss you,” she whined in frustration.
“That’s part of the fun,” he teased, his voice now coming from in front of her. “Okay,” he continued, leading the way, “you need to take a step down onto the porch. Where’s your key?”
“In my bag.”
He took her handbag and locked the door. As he moved her toward the steps, another arm supported her on the right. “Wow, Beth! You look fantastic.”
“Thank you, Pete. So he roped you into this, too?”
“No rope needed. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
Chad shot his usually tightlipped bodyguard a warning look, which Beth, of course, could not see. After the two men got her safely in the limousine and closed the door, Pete commented, “If you don’t propose to her, I will.”
“Just you try it, old man,” he returned with a grin.
You can find TRAPPED UNDER ICE at Amazon, BN.com, the I-book Store, and other e-book retailers.
MJ’s Bio
I was born in the heart of Tornado Alley, and I’ve been a bit mixed up ever since. Not really, but I’ve always wanted to use that line. The medical community has established no solid connection between the place of my birth and my off-beat personality.
I was born in Overland Park, KS, grew up in St. Louis and graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a degree in English education. I left the workforce, however, when my kids were born. Unbelievably I now have an eighteen year old and sixteen-year-old triplets! Yes, I write to escape teenagerdom. Although I love them dearly. I also escape via rock concerts and karaoke. My first book, TAKEN BY STORM, was published by Crimson Romance last fall, and my next book, the second in the ROCKING ROMANCE COLLECTION, titled ABANDON ALL HOPE will be coming soon!
You can find me at www.mjschiller.blogspot.com, or MJ on FB, or Twitter.
So what does your license plate say, or what would it, if you had vanity plates?
