I am very excited about this one because it concerns an initial story idea I got from watching local news reports about the presence of the FLDS religious compound and the number of illegal aliens and drugs coming across the border south of Phoenix. After spending some hours on the phone with Big Mike talking about our characters, what they would be for a living, and how they would become embroiled in border and religious activities, we worked on putting together an outline, a timeline, and characterizations we could both follow along with.

That kernel of an idea I had so many months ago turned into a real nail biter of a suspense novel with, surprisingly, very little romance. This is something new for me. Yeah, when I started writing before Big Mike’s input, I was already adding romantic scenes. When the collaboration truly started, these scenes no longer made much sense so they were all deleted, for the most part. But I’m not complaining; I think the end result is incredibly good. Another bonus? Without the sex scenes this is one book I can be comfortable sharing with DMIL and my pastor’s wife.

Hopefully the next news we have regarding Whispers of Innocence is good news regarding publication.

Now, who will play the part of the heroine, Micki Lewis, in the movie? She looks like Scarlett Johansson so that’s a good choice. And the hero, Drake Elliot? I picture him looking like Dr. House but Big Mike modeled him after Sam Elliot.  That actor is a bit too old to play the part but Hugh Laurie might be perfect…

I use Google Alerts to let me know any time something is posted on the internet with my name and/or the titles of my books. My present this morning was a review of Veil of Deception from You Gotta Read Reviews. Shira, the reviewer, gave our book a “You Gotta Read” rating – the highest possible. She says:

Veil of Deception made me feel as though I were a part of this close knit community. I was the neighbor that got to peek into the lives of my neighbors sight unseen. I got to call them a best friend, a sister, or a brother. I felt their joys, pain, and anguish. I wanted to meddle and give my opinion every once in a while. I loved Danielle. She was such a strong woman that lived with a secret that haunted her for ten years. I felt that Hawk needed to stand up to his sister in law and tell her what he honestly thought. I enjoyed this book because it flowed. Even though there were two authors, it was very seamless. I enjoyed being a resident of Spenser Lake even for a few hours.

For Big Mike and I, this review is confirmation that our long months of work on Veil of Deception paid off. Yes, it was difficult at time, and even frustrating, but the experiment was a success. I know one of Mike’s biggest fears is that the reader would be able to tell the difference between our two writing styles but this was unfounded.

Now if we can just get our current collaboration, Whispers of Innocence, finished we will both be happy! If anything, I think it will be even better than Veil of Deception but we’ll leave that up to the readers.

Little Candy

Right now Veil of Deception is published as an e-book. If you prefer the print edition, you will have to wait a few months.

Did you get an e-book reader for Christmas? If so – lucky you! I’m still waiting for mine (after two years)… Veil of Deception would make a great first upload to your e-reader. At only $6 this is a real bargain.

We invite you to read the excerpts posted here. Ready to buy Veil of Deception? Click on this link to be take directly to the Champagne Books store.

As the book gets reviewed by various sites, we’ll share those with you. We don’t have any official reviews yet but initial comments are that readers are loving it! We hope you do, too.

Big Mike & Little Candy

Our power was out for nearly 24 hours and it was an experience to say the least.

We piled blankets on the bed (being spoiled by our electric blanket) and even let the dogs snuggle in to keep us warm. The next morning was the worst. With temps in the 20s (it could have been colder and I was thankful for the snow and clouds that provided some insulation), it was hard to get out of bed and start moving around without a way to warm up. My husband braved the cold and retrieved a camping cook stove from the shed outside so we could make coffee via candlelight. I huddled inside layers of clothing, a snuggie, a blanket, two pairs of socks, and a pair of gloves while I sipped my coffee and we worked a crossword puzzle when the sun came up. We had no hot water so we warmed up a pot on the camp stove to clean up.

Luckily our power came back on that night and we didn’t have to suffer for too long.

What did this experience teach me? For one, it was actually kind of nice not to have the television going, or have to worry about getting on my computer to work, or even having to cook a meal (we warmed up leftovers on the camp stove instead). We talked a whole lot more, and took the opportunity to do some uninterrupted reading. Our cell phones were running out of juice, too, so we couldn’t call anyone (although I did send a couple texts to let my loved ones how we were doing). Although I like to write about those old days in the West and portray them as romantic, I now have a better idea of what it was really like.

For another thing, we learned to be more prepared and went out and bought a generator. It’s hard to survive without heat when temps dip well below freezing and approach zero. We can do with just about anything else, but lack of heat can kill ya.

And lastly, I learned to appreciate my husband a whole lot more. He was the one who got up in the freezing morning and ensured we at least had a hot cup of coffee to drink. He kept me as warm as he could and even trudged through the snow to take care of the chickens. He was my rock; my strength to get through the hardship.

In a funny way, the loss of electricity brought us closer together and made us thankful for everything we do have instead of dwelling on what we don’t.

–Little Candy

I see, so you do believe in dragon slayers when its cold outside (g). BM

I take exception to this because not every woman has a dragon that needs to be slain. There are many of us who are perfectly self-sufficient. For many years, I lived in a very rural setting all by myself and got along just fine; other years I lived in the big city by myself and never felt threatened there, either.

While I can understand Big Mike’s take on the “male role”, it just doesn’t always apply.

There are many things a woman can do to keep herself protected. She can learn self defense, she can buy a gun or a taser, she can own a big dog, and she can get a home security installed for ultimate peace of mind. In fact, Home Security Family offers home security systems for free when signing up for an ADT security monitoring system; if you sign up today at their ADT Security website, you receive a $100 rebate. What could be simpler?

None of these things requires a man in her life. Yeah, men are good for a few things, but they don’t always have to function as our protector. Some of us can take care of ourselves just fine, thank you.

And BTW, we don’t all worry about our butt looking too big…

Women are composed of circles and men are composed of squares. A simple concept we can explore a bit further.

A woman’s life is comprised of a myriad of different roles – wife, mother, the maintainer of the household, an employee (or boss), a creative type, and all the other things we women do and are. Some of us enjoy working on crafts; others like to go hunting. Some love cooking; others love yard work. Whatever the woman’s interests and strengths, she is usually expected to be the one in the household who takes care of lots of different things – paying bills, making sure everyone in the family is fed, taking care of kids and pets, etc.

The center circle is the woman herself. Around her, and overlapping that central circle, are additional circles where she places each of her responsibilities. One circle represents employment, one is children, one is personal time, one is for relationships with friends, one is the family mediator, etc. All of them overlap. So, when a woman comes home at the end of a long, hard day at work, this circle of work is still influencing the other areas, such as family and children. She can’t push one circle outside the arrangement; instead it influences everything else.

Men, on the other hand, are represented by a square. Their additional squares of SEX, employment, hobbies, family, kids, whatever, are all lined up outside that center square. When the man comes home after a hard day at work, he can jump from that square and into the square that represents his family life or sitting comfortably on the couch to TV. Gone are thoughts of the job square, or anything else that doesn’t have immediate significance.

That is why men and women think differently. It’s why women have been so often attributed the old line about, “not tonight, dear, I have a headache”. It’s because we can’t keep those other circles from affecting our mood. Have you ever broken up with a man only to have him ask you for sex one last time? That’s his square personality at work. The sex square is the largest and most powerful and the one he jumps into most often, regardless of what other emotions he just experienced!

So thanks, Sheryl, for explaining it in a way that makes sense.

He made me realize just how different our minds think, and the difference in our writing styles.

I sent out a blanket email asking for help with a tag line for my next Champagne Books release in October, FULL THROTTLE. I included a blurb about the book to give everyone an idea of what it is about:

Samantha Roberts partners with her cousin to run Dr. Doug’s Mobile Dyno, a motorcycle testing and performance tuning business. Spurned by an ex-fiancée and resolved to taking care of her aging father and his medical problems, romance is the last thing she’s looking for while expanding her business is at the top of her priorities list.

Along comes opportunity in the form of Linc Montgomery, a tough, business-savvy, ex-Harley racer and new owner of Full Throttle Custom Cycles in Phoenix. Linc is used to having gorgeous women fall at his feet. When he meets Samantha and agrees to contract her dyno services, he quickly realizes she isn’t one of those brainless bimbos he normally dates before carelessly tossing aside.

The challenge is on for Linc as he sets out to seduce Samantha just to prove he can. However, he doesn’t plan on the interference of his ex-wife and her ex-fiancée – both of whom serve to make him realize that along the way, his ‘love her and leave her’ seduction scheme causes him to fall head over heels in love. But it isn’t so easy to convince Samantha she belongs to him.

Now, Big Mike thought this was just a terrible blurb. However, he writes suspense novels, not light romances like this is supposed to be. He wanted to hear something about the heroine’s inner demons and how the hero would slay her dragons. Yes, Samantha’s got some inner demons, but that’s not the focus of this book other than how it relates to her sex and love life!

His suggestions were very apropos for his books, but not for this one. And it also made me realize that since I am targeting purely female readers, they are looking for something in a contemporary romance that is far different from what a male reader would look for to pick out a suspense novel. My women beta testers loved the blurb and the whole idea of the book; men not so much.

Anyway, I’ve added one more sentence to the top of the blurb: “Phoenix is hot, but the bikers are even hotter”. And so far it looks like the tag line is going to be something along the lines of “A sexy romp of full throttle seduction leading to slow burning love” or “When Linc embarks on a full throttle seduction of Samantha, the last thing he expects is love to throw a wrench in the works “. I’m still working on it, though. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

His question was, “Why do you like having a man in your life? What does a man provide for you, outside of physical and sexual needs, that a woman can’t?”

Well, I thought I had it all figured out. But as I tried to explain, I soon realized that nothing I was saying really made sense. “You men are different than us women. You’re physically stronger. You’re built differently. If we were all alike, then we’d all be gay.”

As Big Mike pointed out, these are all physical characteristics. So they don’t qualify. He asked me to think about it and get back to him. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Men think differently. They try to solve problems, rather than just relate. This can be a great way to find a new approach to a problem, or give me an alternate insight.

Men are bigger and stronger (yeah, that’s physical again). *sigh* Just like Big Mike said in an earlier post about women being smaller and more delicate, men are bigger and stronger. There, I said it again. And it still holds true. I don’t need my man to be a dragon slayer, but I like touching the hair on his chest and the muscles in his arms when we lay together at night.

His strengths are different than mine. He is more outgoing and more social-oriented. He can build anything. I don’t NEED him to do these things, but the fact that he can works well with my weaknesses. I do the maintenance on our vehicles, am not bothered by spiders, and can certainly take out the trash. But it’s nice to have someone who can build a chicken coop or fix a leaking roof.

And if it were up to him to feed us, we’d be eating at Jack in the Box every night. I’m better at cooking and cleaning, as stereotypical as that sounds. But someone’s got to do it.

He sees things in black and white. I’m more of a gray area type of person. He’s more tactically oriented while I rely on cerebral insights.

My husband is a conservative Republican. I’ve always been a liberal Democrat. Since marrying him, I’ve come around to his way of thinking, for the most part. It just makes sense. We go to church together, and I’ve found a closer relationship with God. Another good thing.

Could a woman do the same things for me? Most likely, yes. But it’s neat to have my man do it instead. I can feel what I want to say, but for once, I’m having a hard time verbalizing it or even putting it down in words.

What do y’all think? Help a fellow female out here, would ya?

Big Mike took exception to the guy’s comments because he didn’t think it was realistic. Now maybe it’s because Mike was raised as a Southern gentleman and I was raised around men in an auto parts store, but we had a slight difference of opinion. Big Mike contends that the hero would never have stood by while this dialogue was going on, even if the woman was a complete stranger. Alas, but not all men are as chivalrous.

I can think of several instances where I’ve encountered a real jackass. I’ve had an ex-boyfriend slash my tires and throw a knife into the headlights on my beloved Chevy Camaro Berlinetta while I watched. In a previous post, I related how a manager of mine in the auto parts store pounded his fist on the counter mere inches from my face. I’ve been the target of many a raised fist (that luckily never made contact due to the man’s better judgment kicking in at the last minute). I’ve head crude comments when I was walking down the street, such as “Hey honey! Looking good! Want to come for a ride with me?” I’ve seen rude hand gestures, heard smoochy noises, and been subjected to unwanted touching and groping.

In none of these cases did some knight in shining armor come to my rescue, even when there were other men around. Nope, I was on my own.

I have to think I’m not the only one. Ladies, tell me if you’ve encountered a similar circumstance in your life.

He’s right.

But that doesn’t mean I needed an oh-so-gentle reminder.

Since I hate to be a slacker, I decided I’d better get busy posting.

The good news is that we are going forward on a brand new writing collaboration. As Big Mike likes to say, I am on top this time. So I picked the place: Arizona’s southern border. And my heroine: an investigative journalist. An the premise in a broad sense: drug smuggling and a fanatic religious cult based on the FLDS (the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, in case you haven’t heard of Warren Jeffs – who is now in prison – and his polygamist offshoot sect of the Mormon religion).

We are currently still hashing out the plot and the outline, but both of us are excited about the premise and the possibilities for action, suspense, and romance. I think you will be surprised at the hero Big Mike came up with, and I’m certain you will be more than a little surprised at what happens by the end of the novel.

So here’s to another successful writing venture, Big Mike. Cheers (clinking cyber champagne glass)… Now get off my case!