Shifting priorities, knuckling down, and doing whatever is
necessary to finish the book and turn it in on time. It is point of pride and
professionalism that I have never missed a deadline.
However, Mother Nature
threw a monkey wrench in the works with this book when she sent Sandy careening toward
NJ. We were very lucky and only lost one tree—it fell toward the backyard—and were
only without power for 10 days and the internet for 12…did I mention that my poor old laptop only works when it’s plugged in?
Yeah…this is my brain on deadline…OH…and
that it was right as my Virtual Tour for the first book in my Small Town Series
began? Yep…Mother Nature does have a sense of humor. So mid-deadline, I had to learn how to cope with Windows 8...but had a laptop that would work on battery-mode! Yay!
I love our darling grandbaby to pieces and babysit for him
when his momma and daddy are at work…right before the holidays it was insane!
Did I mention our darling girl is in retail? As you can imagine it was crazy-busy
here during the holidays…did I tell you that I hadn’t shopped for anyone since
I was busy babysitting and writing? LOL! You get the picture.
So…here I am with 7 days left to turn in the book and my characters
decide that they do NOT want to get with the program and follow my plan.
Characters usually know what they are talking about and I’ve learned not to
ignore their voices when they are yelling at me to go left when my synopsis
clearly says to go right. <sigh>
I’m crazy about the hero in book 3…former FDNY firefighter,
Patrick Garahan, moved to Ohio after a tragedy on the job makes it impossible
for him to stay. He is the second oldest of 7—4 boys and 3 girls…and has
cousins in Pleasure, Texas—that’s right dear readers: Tyler, Dylan and Jesse…and
cousins in Colorado…those handsome U.S. Marshals the Justiss brothers: Matt and
Ben.
Before I get back to Patrick and Grace and plead with them
to do things my way, I’ll leave with you the opening to Chapter Three:
The game
was on and her nephews were running around, screaming like little heathens.
“Watch out!” she warned as Danny nearly collided with the back of Patrick’s
knees, but the man seemed to have a sixth sense where little people were
concerned, and stepped to the side at the last minute.
Her
nephew tumbled to the grass, but got up like a shot, sporting a grass stain
that she knew her sister wouldn’t be able to remove without a fight. Two
minutes later Joey tried the same move on their honorary Uncle Pat and ended up
sprawled on the grass. Their delighted laughter lightened her heart, but the
added depth of the men’s laughter was music to her ears.
Grace
acknowledged that it had been too long in between visits home. She thrived
here, and maybe that was the biggest motivator to her looking for a job in the
city—she was afraid she couldn’t exist anywhere else…afraid that she’d lose the
tie to her family, like the one she’d already lost when her mother died
tragically.
She
needed to be the one to sever the chord in order to find out if Apple Grove was
her destiny…or if it lay somewhere farther west…in the big city. Grace was
Irish to the bone and had been raised to believe in fate, destiny, karma, and
the all-important Murphy’s Law, and knew she had to go.
Wisps of
her childhood dream teased at the edge of her memory…she remembered dreaming of
a tall and handsome man…smiling at children—playing with them. Her brain
struggled to pull the rest of the details from that long ago dream, but got
caught when questions filled her heart.
Had the long and winding road
brought her back to Apple Grove because of her dream?
Why had Patrick been here today?
Was it the Universe, or someone a
lot more down to Earth, who arranged their meeting again this way?
Was she meant to stay?
Her
thoughts circled around and around until she had no way of sorting them out.
“Hey?” a
strong callused had had a hold of her elbow. “Are you all right?” The warmth of
that hand snapped her out of it and down off the proverbial hamster’s wheel.
The
concern in Patrick’s gaze added to the warmth his touch ignited. He cared. The trick would be figuring
out whether it was caring about her as a person…or if was the something more
he’d hinted at when he’d gotten into her personal space earlier.
Grace
finally found her voice. “Yes. Fine. Why?” Was
I staring at you like an idiot? She sure as hell wouldn’t be asking him
that.
“You got
quiet all of the sudden,” he said. “When one of my sisters does that, it
usually means, she’s solving the worlds’ problems or worried about something.”
She
smiled. “How many sisters do you have again?”
He
grinned. “Three younger sisters.”
“Do they
have adorable freckles across the bridge of their noses like you do?” As soon
as the words left her lips, her hands flew to her mouth and her eyes flew open
wide. Dork!
Patrick’s
cheeks turned an interesting shade of pink. She’d embarrassed herself and
him!
Way to go making a great impression on the first guy who set off sparks inside
her in more than a year.
“I’ll
uh…take that as a compliment?”
She blew
out a breath. “I’m sorry…sometimes the words in my head sortof slip out of my
mouth.”
“So you
didn’t mean to bring up the fact that I’ve got freckles?” His tone was light
and his manner, endearing as he tried to get her to fess up.
“No,”
she said. “But since the cat’s out of the bag…they really are adorable.”
He
straightened to his full height, puffed out his broad chest and pounded on it
with a fist, saying, “I’m a man…men are not adorable.”
“Mommy
calls daddy, ‘dorable all the time,” Joey said, patting Patrick’s jean-clad
leg.
“Jeez,”
Dan hissed. “Nothing is sacred once you become a parent.”
Patrick
grinned and nodded. “I hear the most interesting things from my nieces and
nephews…out of the mouths of babes.”
Grace
realized that he’d glossed over the fact that she thought he was adorable, but
she knew he’d been touched by her words, if those intense glances he shot her
way every few minutes were any indication. Deciding to test her theory, she
took a step closer to where he stood and watched for a reaction. His body
tensed. Oh my!
For
whatever reason, this handsome hunk of fireman was interested in her—the
youngest of the Mulcahy sisters…the only one who doesn’t really know how to use
power tools or a plumber’s wrench. The black sheep of the family, the only one
who’d left home to make a life for herself…the only one who wasn’t wand slim.
Maybe he
was thinking about something else and it wasn’t a reaction to her nearness.
Needing to find out, she moved to stand beside him and touched his arm. The
muscles in his forearm jumped beneath her fingertips. She looked down at his
arm until she heard his sharply indrawn breath, then she glanced up and felt
her heart skip a beat watching the desire swirling in his amber eyes. Desire
for her.
Happy
Reading!!!
C.H.
C.H.
Looks like you're doing okay with theses two, despite their reluctance to follow the synopsis!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cheryl :) It's that feeling of complete and total panic when they veer off like this that drives me closer to the edge. :)
ReplyDeleteLove this post. Especially since I have a serious case of deadline brain at the moment and some characters who aren't cooperating. Sharing this online....
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the pre-deadline curveballs. All the best!
ReplyDeleteJust finished a manuscript of my own so I know all about "bookhead" and uncooperative characters. Crossing my fingers for you, CH!
ReplyDeleteWow! I love your covers. They say to me, "Pick me up and take me home."
ReplyDeleteAmelia
Good luck with your deadline, CH. I try to always have mine done way before deadline as much as I can because life gets in the way, but I definitely know about wayward characters too. Glad you got through Sandy all right and are back on track. That had to have been horrible without electricity and no Internet for so long. My Internet was down for 3 days because of recent storms and I know the world is going to end soon and I won't even know about it!!!
ReplyDeleteLove, love those covers and the excerpt! And I'm so glad I'm not the only author that has characters who mutiny against the synopsis and force their writers to tell the "real" story!
ReplyDeleteWhen would you like your super writer cape delivered...after all that with the storm, etc., you have earned it!