Monday Excerpt: Undercurrent

Just a short excerpt from Undercurrent. I want all 4 Beachy books finished before I publish them but it looks like my summer 2015 target date is likely!

Excerpt:

Monday Update: Sink or Swim

OK, changing things in a story that's already written is hard! But it makes it so much better and I love what I've changed. It's just slow going. Still aiming for a summer 2015 release in e-book and print.

Excerpt from Undercurrent coming in a couple weeks! Want to get it edited first.

Monday Update: Undercurent and Sink or Swim

Heavy into editing for Undercurrent. Next up is Sink or Swim for serious editing to match what I've done in Undercurrent.

Excited for this series and will post an excerpt soon! I love Mason, he's so romantic but also very determined and dedicated to his work. And Laurel is also dedicated and focused.

I have a feeling Sink or Swim will require:
80s TV show watching

• Serious fleshing out of secondary characters
• A medium-sized reworking of the main plot
• Chocolate
  

Monday Update: Undercurrent

Originally Undercurrent was going to be a 10-15,000 word short. Now it's ballooned (and in a very, very good way!) into a 30,00 story with a slow burning tension and as much hot sensuality and sex as I can put in and still call this a romantic suspense.

I'm enjoying my rewrites on this, and when I say rewrite what I really mean is I'm starting this story from scratch and writing fresh. I have a really great sense of Laurel and Mason now, with the 2 middle stories finished or mostly finished and that's really helping me with this first story in the series.

Monday Update: Something Beachy

Something Beachy:

• 4 story series
• Set along California's coast
• Laurel and Mason are FBI partners
• Each story is connected not only through Laurel and Mason but through the mystery

This was originally a 3 story series but I wanted to start the first, Sink or Swim, in a different place and came up with Undercurrent, which was supposed to originally be a very short prequel to the Something Beachy series. I'm doing extensive rewrites on the stories I have finished and hope to start publishing sometime this summer!

Monterey wine and vineyards

My Beachy Suspense novels take place around the Monterey area of California in a fictional tourist town called Nightshade Bay. I did research on the city of Monterey, looked at their website, searched pictures of their beaches, things like that. Then made up my own town.

Picture from world-guides.com

At dinner with some friends a few weeks ago, we ordered wine, a delicious (and not-too-acidic) red from Monterey.

Ack! There are vineyards by Nightshade Bay!

Of course I knew that: California has Napa Valley, and to the north there are vineyards in Oregon and Washington, I mean I've had Californian wines! Never occurred to me that there were vineyards near Monterey and that my characters would no doubt try a bottle or 3.

And there's a wine festival. Now I'm not sure how a couple in a romantic suspense trilogy is going to make it to a wine festival in between solving murders, fraud, kidnappings, more murders, and corruption, but I'm sure as hell going to try to get them there!

I did decide against putting in a certain wine, however. I'm sure they're all great, but I won't be name-dropping.

No tattoos

Or why my Marine Special Forces don't have tattoos despite my love of them on a man.

When I searched tattoos on special forces I found a military forum (you have to sign in to access it) that very specifically said:

There is a lot of misconceptions out there about this subject -mainly due to movies and television shows. Having a "Unit identifying Tattoo" is frowned upon and greatly discouraged at all levels of Special Operations....especially in SEAL and SF units. SEAL's and SF guys have tattoos -I see more and more tattoos on younger guys in the units -BUT not "Unit Identifying Tattoos".

Which makes a whole lot of sense! What if they're captures while undercover? If the guy has a tattoo then that cover is totally blown. No hiding the fact that you're special forces then.

Monday Musings

I have survived the weekend! I swear, I need to time manage better. Alas, that'll never happen until I have a live-in maid and can write full time. Move over James Patterson! (WARNING: This New York Times article on him is enlightening and only slightly depressing for those of us who aren't him.)

Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?!

It's summer, or nearly so, and the weather is warm and sunny. I love it. Beach weather! The question is what do you do to stay cool? What are your favorite summer activities?

Reading, I hope...are you a book person or an e-reader? Sure, I love books, the feel and ease of them, but an e-reader allows you to bring a bunch without the weight! And when you're done, you delete if you don't want to save them. No more wondering what to do with those paperbacks. Or hardcovers, as the case may be.

Where'd the summer go?

Anyone else blink and it's gone? I hope everyone had a great one, even if it always is too short. And that you really do get a 3-day weekend this Labor Day.

I plan on going to the beach, even if it is mobbed. Generally, I don't like crowds. All those people jostling for the same place, wandering without looking where they're going...not for me. But it's supposed to be gorgeous this weekend, and it is the so-called last weekend of summer. But that might be a consumer gimmick. Eh, maybe I'll go next weekend, too. Just because I can.

As for writing, yes, I'll write. Sordid Games, maybe get back to poor Morganna's story. Something.

Weather

I enjoy writing and don't mind doing so anyplace I can. If it's raining, I like the sound of it beating on the ground or my roof. If it's sunny, I like being outside to enjoy it. Given a choice, I'd chose outside every time. Given the freedom, I'd own a nice house on the beach and spend my days and nights on a deck absorbing the sights and sounds of it all. My laptop goes everywhere, it's a wonderful thing.


The East Coast is inundated with rain this week, and in between other mundane things life requires (laundry, dishes, sleep), I managed to enjoy both the rain and finish about 1500 words on my new story. I decided against Til the End, but have yet to come up with a better title. I did manage to name everyone, though. Big accomplishment there!

Beach days

I adore the beach. And except for the sand in my laptop, so does my muse. After work I'm off to the beach to relax and have boardwalk food to inspire the senses. I can't wait, but it's a long time before 5 pm.