So Tell Me, Rose Buds...What Do You Think? by Margo Hoornstra

Hi There Fellow Rose...Buds and Important Others,

With a new title coming out the end of this month, October 29 to be exact, it's promo time for me. As part of my getting the word out plan, and at Jannine's suggestion, I've secured a spot at Just Romantic Suspense, November 7-8. This is what I'm sending in. Tell me what you think.

"Nothing is working for me anymore. I quit."

Flouncing into the living room from my home office down the hall, I plopped on the couch, arms crossed over my chest in true body language style, to protect myself and shut down any argument.

Across the room in his favorite recliner, my husband glanced up. "You know you don't mean that."

Obviously, he hadn't received the body language interpretation memo.

"This time I do." I held myself tighter.

He didn't seem to notice. "Really?"

"Yes. Really."

"Okay, I'll bite. Why?"

"Nothing's working." I hate when I have to repeat myself with him. "My contemporary romance series about women millionaires is going nowhere. I'm not excited about it."

For the next few moments he sat there, quietly letting me fume. Then... "How about this? I see a woman in her apartment, alone and confused. She's just lost her job and doesn't know what to do next. Enter an undercover cop who needs to run surveillance on a resident across the street, and her place is the perfect vantage point."

That was all I needed to hear...

What had started as a short story about an old, abandoned colonial house was morphing into a full length romantic suspense novel with a cop turned bounty hunter hero and an unsuspecting and wrongly accused ex-con out on probation. My hero had a friend and colleague still on the force, who helped him out now and then with 'inside' information.

Fleshing that one out, eventually titled ON THE SURFACE I got the idea for a Brothers In Blue series, four heroes who met at the police academy to become life long friends.

From there, I went on to the suggested unemployed heroine and undercover cop and eventually, ON THE FORCE was born.

Here's a sneak peek.

Losing her job and reputation is nothing compared to the prospect of losing her life

Top notch CFO Sydney Raines is devastated when her coveted job working for a high profile conglomerate is yanked out from under her. Determined to restore a mangled reputation, she finds her second chance when the owner of an upscale art gallery hires her as his personal assistant.

Straight arrow cop Vince Miller is assigned to crack an international art theft ring. Working undercover, he never counted on meeting Sydney Raines, let alone falling in love with her.

Then an unexpected twist in the case reveals the identity of a serial killer, along with the shattering realization that Sydney could be the psycho’s next victim.

*******

“It would have compromised the assignment.”

After she finished the sentence for him, he nodded. “Exactly. The feds were involved. I couldn’t do anything but keep quiet. Those guys don’t take kindly to having civilians interfere in their operations.” 

“Interfere? Really?” Her tone deepened to one of disbelief. “And after the feds left the case?”

He took a moment to swallow. “We…you and I…never seemed to have the time.”

“That is so lame, Vince. In all the alone time we did spend together the past couple of weeks.” A fast breath huffed out of her. “You couldn’t take five minutes?”

“Five minutes wasn’t going to cut it. We’ve been at this a lot longer right now, and nothing’s been resolved.”

“You couldn’t even try?” Tears moved up to tinge her voice. Even as she clamped her mouth shut, her chin continued to tremble.

“It’s not that I didn’t want to. Didn’t think about it a lot.” He lifted an arm toward her then, thinking better of it, let it drop. “You were always so busy with your new job.”

“Seriously? You not being able to tell me the truth was my fault?”

“No. Of course not. I’m not saying that at all.” Pressing his lips tight, he again broke eye contact. “It’s no one’s fault you had responsibilities. Out of town business. The reception Curan had you put on.”

“You could have been honest with me. Not used me the way you did.”

“I never used you.” He pulled in a breath as he looked up at her. “It was my job, Sydney. I was just doing my job as I’d been instructed.”

“Certainly you were. You’re not a magazine reporter, you’re a cop. One who was working undercover to bring a man to justice who, by your own admission, never did anything wrong in the first place.” With both hands at her sides, she drew them into fists she relaxed, then clenched tight again.

Vince lifted his chin, half expecting her to clock him with a well‑aimed right hook. “That’s not exactly how it is.”

ON THE FORCE is Book 2 in the Brothers In Blue series.

It joins ON THE SURFACE Brothers In Blue Book 1, which will be my Reader's Choice giveaway. Both books are published through THE WILD ROSE PRESS

So what do you think? How'd I do? Too much? Too little? Or just about right?

My days to blog here are the 11th and 23rd. For more about me and the stories I write, please visit my WEBSITE

If Only I Could Just Begin and Be #amwriting…Again by Margo Hoornstra

Brothers in Blue is my latest four book series from The Wild Rose Press. Brad, Vince, Adam and Luke are four heroes who met at the police academy and became lifelong friends. The drop out, the straight arrow, the movie star and the maverick; all have a passion to serve and protect, each in his own unique way.

On The Surface, Book 1 is released and available on virtual shelves everywhere.

On The Force, Book 2 is completed, submitted and Ally, my editor, LOVES the finished product. 

YAY!

Now it’s on to write and finish Book 3, On The Make. Right? Sit down and let my fingers fly as the story flows freely from my brain to page after printed page.

Yeah, I wish. For whatever reason, or reasons, I’m having a really challenging time getting started on this one.

I know quite a bit about the hero, Adam Hollingsworth aka Adam Pride, since he was mentioned in On The Surface and made an actual appearance in On The Force. He’s a police office by profession and, after moonlighting as technical advisor to the stars, becomes a super hero movie idol by chance. Adam’s at a point in his life where, while the adoration of fans is nice, it pales against the elusive dream of having a family of his own to have and to hold.

I know the heroine, Madison Clark no longer believes in heroes. Not after being widowed amid scandal and left with two adolescent boys to raise. Even the so called super hero who's come to town to make a movie. The one her oldest son, in desperate need of a father figure, seems to worship. The same hero who happens to arrive at various points in Madison's life at precisely the right time to save the day.

I know any kind of happily ever after fantasy is nowhere near being on either of these wounded souls’ radars. ***wink, wink***

I even have Madison’s evil villain ex brother in law all figured out, too, and waiting in the wings to spread his hate and discontent throughout Madison’s life. Then there’s Tina, a groupie gone mad to complicate Adam’s.

I also know how this one begins…

“Let us pray.”

Madison Clark dutifully lowered her head, along with scores of others in the huge, impersonal auditorium as memories of a previous, and similar, life changing event swirled. It was bad enough three years ago, when she’d had to bury her first husband with his sons, and hers, on either side of her.

Somehow, she’d gotten through it. Even when Dak, the sensitive one, sobbed so loudly during an acapella solo of Amazing Grace, it was nearly impossible to make out the lyrics. At eight, he’d been old enough to understand, and process the events that had happened since his father’s unexpected and lethal leukemia diagnosis. While not being able to make any sense of it at all.

She’d survived, even when older brother Cameron, stoic, silent and long suffering like his dad, didn’t move a muscle during the entire, grueling forty-five minutes of the service. Then got up and walked down the aisle and straight out the door of the funeral parlor without so much as a word or glance to anyone. She could hardly blame either of her boys for their reactions when they were thrust into the heartbreak of losing their father. The man who loved them more, much more, than life itself.

Now, a mere thirty-six months later, front and center in the jam-packed and impersonal amphitheater, she prepared to bury spouse number two. Though Dak and Cameron were a few years older and supposedly, more mature, this time they exhibited no more emotion than simple and detached boredom as the accolades went on and on and on for their mother’s late husband.

From then on, I’m pretty much stuck…for now.

If it’s always so gratifying to bring a book or books all the way to THE END. Why is it always so difficult to get started on the next one?

My days to blog here are the 11^th and 23^rd. For more about me and the stories I write, along with some free downloads, please visit my WEBSITE.

Inspiration to Write

I’m so excited! Love the new look. So happy to have all our new Roses! Welcome! Where Romance is Never Out of Season. This is going to be great! I love our new...everything!

So we are supposed to introduce ourselves. Let you get to know us. I thought about this for a while. I have decided to give you a little insight into what inspires me to write. Oh, I am like most I believe. I have wanted to write since I was a child. Got side tracked a tad with life in general, but I believe that everything we go through gets us to where we’re supposed to be. So, it just took me a little longer to become a writer.  

The question becomes what inspires a story. For me it starts with an idea. What if? Then I let it blossom from there. I don’t use an outline. Can’t. My story doesn’t flow if it’s tied down. I love history. I guess it explains why I write historical romances.  

So then what inspired my paranormal book, Dream Walker? First, let me correct a misguided belief by my mother that it’s not her autobiography. No, she hasn’t read it because the heroine has her name. For whatever reason, she thinks I based, my heroine, Ramona, on her. The truth is unless my mother is a demon fighting superwoman that I know nothing about, it isn’t about her. I just happened to love her name (love her too).  

So my inspiration for Dream Walker? I love paranormal stories. There is nothing better than a good ghost story, but to be honest Dream Walker came about because of an experience I had.  

Have you ever had something happen to you that you can’t explain? Something that you couldn’t forget? I did. Once a long time ago after the birth of my daughter who is in college now. I’ll never forget it because it seemed so real. 

I remember my daughter was a baby, no more than six or seven months. My husband was home and I went down for a nap in the afternoon while she was sleeping. At that time a young teenage girl had gone missing in the state. A terrible situation. The police thought she had been abducted and taken out of state like another recent case. While I was sleeping, I had a dream, a terrifying dream. I remember it was in color. I have never dreamed in color before or since. I saw things, vivid things. I saw a young girl with her sister playing, smiling at me. I saw flashes of scenes of a man watching a school bus parked on the side of the road; I saw the girl riding a bike to a graveyard and crying by a grave; I saw a man calling that girl over to his garage. Then I saw a hand in the ground. It looked like I was in a cellar of some sort. Then I saw her and felt an overwhelming sensation of peace…

I woke up scared to death. My husband couldn’t calm me down. I told him about my dream. Everything. I told him I thought it was that girl that was missing. He told me (just like I thought at the time) I was concerned about the girl. It was natural to have a dream like that. The picture of the girl was all over the news. I went to work the next day and told a couple of co-workers all the details. How real it all seemed.

Let me explain something before I go on. I’m not from New England. At the time, I had only been up here a few years. I couldn’t tell you much about one town from another. Another fact, where I’m from we don’t have many cellars or basements, but if you did, it had a concrete floor, not necessarily here in the older houses of New England.  

A few days later the State police found the young girl’s body in the basement of her neighbor’s house. The young girl’s father had died the year before and she visited her father’s grave almost everyday. They believed that when she came home from one of those visits that her neighbor called her over to his garage. They found her buried in a shallow grave in his cellar. 

Okay. Okay. My husband explained it all to me. I had figured it out. He told me I watched too many cop shows. That’s all. Except it felt so different, so real. But what are you going to do? I think my husband was afraid people would think I was strange. So I didn’t say much about it after.  

Years later we moved to a different part of the state and I started a new job. For the first time I worked the overnight shift. One night on break we were talking about strange things that happened to us. I told my story. One of the girls I was working with told me that she knew the family it happened to. Did I know it happened the next town over to where I lived now? I didn’t, but I then I began to wonder. The dream seemed so real I could still picture it in my head. 

One day not long after, I was out shopping with my two youngest children not far from the town. So, I told them we were going for a ride. They asked for what and I told them. They laughed at me. Silly. I know. Basically, I was looking for what? A dream? Then my oldest girl asked me again what I was looking for. I told her again, a church with a road going down a hill to a graveyard. She pointed. “Like that?” Within minutes, I drove into a graveyard and up to a grave I had seen in my dream. Along side of that grave was another; the girl’s.

I don’t have an explanation for it. I don’t know why it happened, but I do believe something did. I’ve never had another dream like that. Sometimes I remember that sense of peace that overcame me at the end of the dream. Sometimes I think it was to let the girl’s mother know she was okay. If it was, I didn’t do a good job on that. I think the woman would have thought me a nutcase for sure. So instead I wrote about it. The inspiration for Dream Walker.  

Now you know a tid-bit about me that most don’t know. I can see my husband cringing now.    

 Jerri Hines is a paranormal-suspense/historical romance writer. She has two books out with Wild Child Publishing, Dream Walker and Patriot Secrets. Coming in January 2012, her first historical romance with Whiskey Creek Press will be to release. Join her on Facebook -Novel Works and follow her on twitter @jhines340.