Good Morning fellow Weekend Writing Warriors,
I apologize for the added step this morning, but due to a long list of issues: personal, virtual, physical, and digital, I have not been able to participate in 8Sunday for a month…I am happy to be back on board the WeWriWa train, but for now I have ask you to take one extra step – to view and comment on this week’s snippet, please visit me at the To Catch A Fetch blogspot page.
Thank you!
I decided to change my selection for today’s snippet at the last minute. It has been a devastating week across America, from terror in Boston to explosions in Texas. Here in Chicagoland we’ve had major flooding, some roads are still closed near me…that is nothing, of course, when compared to the rest—and I send up a word of thanks for my family and my home…I hope all my fellow Weekend Writing Warriors are safe, warm, dry, and with the people they love. That said, my original snippet just didn’t seem right for today, so I’ll save it for next week. For today, here’s a moment from the epilogue of To Catch A Fetch, part of a letter Devyn writes after receiving a ghostly visit.
The part of me that remains a skeptic is not sure she actually did visit, Ronan thinks it may have been a dream—I’m okay with it either way.
Speaking of dreams, I’ve been having a slew of them; wild, crazy bizarre dreams full of people I used to know, people I’ve never met, and faces that seem vaguely familiar. Pregnancy dreams, I suppose. A lot of pregnant women say they get them.
I’ve also heard lots of women describe the moment they see their baby for the first time. Many of them say it’s like seeing an old friend. They look into their newborn’s eyes and think, “Hello again, I remember you.”
I understand that feeling now.
Perhaps there is no time a good book is needed more than in moments of tragedy and despair…not just to escape reality, but to find hope, and the small sweet pleasure of a happy ending. Take a break from the world and read some more snippets by visiting the WeWriWa homepage.
And new this week, I am joining in the FaceBook Page: Snippet Sunday. After all, I do call myself a multitasking maven. Be sure to swing by and check out even more snippets!
Good Morning fellow Weekend Warriors! Today’s 8 is from early in To Catch A Fetch, when Pam, Devyn’s boss, announces she is getting married…to a man named Rick Ashly.
Pam glared at her from across the sofa and growled, “Don’t you ever call me ma’am again.”
Devyn laughed, “I don’t know, it might be better.”
“Better than what?” Pam got to her feet, pillow at the ready.
“Better than being called Mrs. Rick Ashly,” Devyn said, mischief tugging at the corners of her mouth.
Pam narrowed her eyes and took aim.
Devyn dodged the pillow and snickered, “At least you know he’s never gonna give you up…he’s never gonna let you down.”
A muscle twitched in Pam’s cheek, “That’s Astley, not Ashly you know.
Ignoring the correction, Devyn grabbed Pam’s hands and crooned, “Never gonna run around and desert you.”
Hope you enjoyed it! Do you know anyone with a name that sounds like someone famous? (I can’t help but think of the Michael Bolton bit from the movie, Office Space)
Be sure to visit the WeWriWa page to check out some other snippets!
And on the subject of Rick Astley, from time to time I do game reviews for UbiSoft as a member of the Clever Girls Collective. Over the holidays I reviewed JustDance4…which includes the song referenced in today’s snippet. It’s hard not to laugh while dancing to this song, especially since the JD4 character dances while wearing orange underoos…but we also experienced some screaming, due to a surprise that pops up in the background of the game:
Good morning fellow warriors! It’s a sad truth, but today is that nasty day we lose an hour…and there’s never enough hours in the day to write as it is!
Today’s snippet, another from To Catch A Fetch, is all about the truth. Last week you got a peek at the moment our hero, Ronan, explains where he grew up (and our heroine doesn’t believe it). Before she discovers the truth and prepares to eat some crow, the following is her initial reaction…and his reaction to her reaction (did you get all that?)
Ronan’s attitude infuriated her. “Look, if you don’t want to tell me about your background, fine, just say so. You don’t need to lie to me.” She pushed back her chair and dumped her cereal in the sink, suddenly not hungry.
She rinsed her dishes out and turned to find Ronan still sitting at the table, watching her. When he spoke, his voice was low, the words dropping into the morning air with heavy finality. “Devyn, I will tell you this only once. Whether or not you choose to believe me is up to you. I never lie—I may not always tell you everything, but whatever I do tell you, rest assured it is the truth.”
Just for fun, I’m including a video for one my favorite songs about lies. (This band also has a very famous song about truth – can you name it?)
Thanks for reading! And if you’re not a fellow WeWriWa participant but would like to read more, check out this week’s linky page for other great snippets.
This week’s snippet pays homage to the beginning of March, and my blog’s annual17 Days of Irish series. The hero from today’s book, To Catch A Fetch isn’t Irish – but he’s Welsh, and that’s pretty darn close (I would like to note book 4 in this series, To Bet A Banshee will be set in Ireland…though at the moment it is only in the proposal stage)
Anyways, the oddest thing happened one day while I was working on a scene for TCAF…let’s call it a bit of writing serendipity, if you will. Earlier in the book the heroine Devyn confronts the hero and demands to know more about him – who he is, where he grew up, etc…and when Ronan tells her he was born in a place called Snowdonia, she thinks he is pulling her leg. But no, as Devyn discovers in the scene below, Snowdonia is a very real place – and Ronan has been telling her the truth all along.
Now, the funny thing about this whole bit is I just made the name Snowdonia up. Maybe…probably…at some point in my past I had read or heard about Snowdonia, Wales and the information got filed away in the recesses of my brain…but I’d like to believe there is also the possibility the muse blessed me with a dash of serendipity. For I have to tell you, when I first discovered Snowdonia , Wales was a real place…that it actually existed in real life…well, my reaction to the news was pretty much on par with Devyn’s.
Devyn tossed everything on the table and started thumbing through the more colorful of the two books she had pulled on Wales. Images of mountains and valleys and picturesque stone castles flipped by, and she found herself slowing down to take time with each page and absorb the breathtaking Welsh countryside. Her eye caught the word Snowdonia, and she stopped, feeling slightly nauseous.
Snowdonia, Wales—the damn place even had a national park.
She felt like a complete idiot.
Scanning the page, she saw a reference to a website and flipped her laptop open. Devyn logged on to the library browser and typed in the address…yep, there it was, “Welcome to Snowdonia.”
Maybe, if I’m super lucky, I’ll take a trip to Wales one day (and write it off as a business expense, of course).
You can follow Devyn’s trail of research and visit the Snowdonia Wales info page for yourself.
And while you are at it, be sure to stop by the WeWriWa page to read more snippets from this week’s 8Sentence participants.
For this week’s eight, I’m taking you back inside To Catch A Fetch. In this scene Devyn and Ronan are driving through the Pennsylvania countryside on a gray morning. The time spent on the road softens Devyn’s resolve and she begins to ask questions about Ronan’s claim to be a ghost hunter. He uses the scenery around him to help illustrate elements of the paranormal.
Devyn studied the shaft of sunlight slanting through the break in the clouds. “How does the veil—assuming it exists—work?”
Ronan suppressed a grin, “Assuming that, I suppose the best way to describe the veil would be to call it a sheet of fog. Imagine that fog getting infused with a charge of energy.”
“Like static electricity?”
“Similar, but this energy current is unique to the paranormal. I know that word seems to freak you out Devyn, but all paranormal means is not normal, as in something outside the range of normal experience…this definition can cover a lot of things.”
“Yeah, like my Aunt Betty’s choice of hair color.”
I’m hoping for my own break in the clouds soon—To Catch A Fetch is a finalist in the Agent Blind Speed Dating contest hosted by Cupid’s Literary Connection. My entry (#51) is up now, but the contest does not begin until tomorrow. Only agents are allowed to comment on the entries. You can see a list of the agents who are participating and read the rules for the contest HERE.
Thanks for stopping by! I have a very busy Sunday ahead, but am looking forward to reading and commenting on many of my fellow Weekend Writing Warriors tonight while I watch the Oscars. If you’d like to take a look at some more snippets, visit WeWriWa for a list of this week’s “Eights.”
Today’s eight sentences are in honor of World Nutella Day (February 5th, which I believe is also National Pancake Day…at least, according to IHOP…oh, and yesterday Feb 9th – which was National Bagel Day. Did you get your free bagel?).
Ronan Evans, the hero of To Catch A Fetch, is a man of simple needs. However, one of the few creature comforts he insists upon is Nutella…and he always makes sure he has plenty on hand – as Devyn and her friend Pam discover in the following scene:
Pam stepped back to let Devyn peek inside the pantry. The shelves were bare, except for one, crammed full with jars of Nutella.
“So the guy likes Nutella, big deal.”
“So?” Pam eyed the rows of white-capped jars. “You don’t think it’s a little weird?”
“Not serial killer weird…just eccentric weird. I went to school with a kid who only ate lemonade and hot dogs.
And that’s this week’s 8! Please visit the WeWiWa home page to see a list of this week’s participants.
Break out the Chapstick and Mentos – it’s kissing scene time! Here’ s my entry in the Kissing Scene Competition, hosted by Cupid’s Literary Connection. The following is an excerpt from my paranormal romance, To Catch A Fetch.
A little background info to set the scene: Devyn Cartwright has been hired to do a photographic essay on a Victorian estate. With her lust for period homes and furniture, Devyn should be in heaven…but her lust for the home’s caretaker, Ronan Evans, is putting her through hell. Devyn tells herself Ronan is off-limits, and struggles to keep their relationship professional, going so far as to make a list of all the reasons why getting involved with Ronan would be a bad idea. But both Devyn’s reasons and her sense fly out the antique window when Ronan corners her and demands to know how she really feels about him.
“Devyn. Open your eyes and look at me. Please.”
She lifted her lashes, unable to resist the soft plea. His dark eyes searched her face for a moment. Then he smiled. A wicked, sexy, sinful smile that lit Devyn’s “Top Ten Reasons Why I Should Not Get Involved With Ronan” list on fire and left it in a pathetic pile of fluttering ashes.
“You want me, don’t you?”
Idiot man, he’s only figuring this out now? Devyn nodded. She wasn’t fooling him, and she certainly wasn’t fooling herself, so who was left to fool by denying the truth?
His smile widened at her assent, a hint of masculine satisfaction creasing the corners of his mouth. “That’s why you’ve been avoiding me, isn’t it.”
It wasn’t a question, but she nodded again anyway.
“Sweet, sexy, silly female,” he murmured, leaning closer. “Don’t you know what’s happening between us,” he paused and brushed his mouth against hers in a touch so feather-light, it barely registered as a kiss, “is unavoidable?”
Devyn whimpered at the feel of his mouth on hers. His words sank into her, loosening the knots she had tied around her emotions.
Ronan slid his hands around her waist, the rough, bare skin of his palms a shock of heat against her naked back as he lifted the hem of her shirt. For the space of a heartbeat, he rested his thumbs in the sensitive dip at the base of her spine. Then his fingers slipped lower, gliding over her lace covered bottom. He cupped her with his big strong hands and lifted her so she pressed against him, her lips on level with his.
This time there was no mistaking the pressure of his lips. Ronan’s tongue, hot and sure in her mouth, burned a path of need through her like a shot of whiskey. The taste of him flooded her veins and buckled her knees.
Devyn gripped Ronan’s shoulders for support. Drunk on desire, she broke the kiss to whisper the one coherent thought her mind could conjure.
“More.”
Ooops. Somehow I’ve managed to blow this before I even get started!
Lemme splain: last week I caught a tweet by writing buddy Shannyn Schroeder about signing up for something called 8SentenceSunday. Intrigued, I poked around to learn more. My poking (more clicking, actually) led me to the Weekend Writing Warriors website – a fresh social sharing writers’ project that launches, well – today.
Inspired by Six Sentence Sunday (who recently closed their virtual doors), the concept is simple, each week you want to participate, you sign your website/blog up on their Linky List. Then, come Sunday, you post eight sentences from one of your manuscripts. Anything pretty much goes, as the admins of WeWriWa say, “post eight sentences from something you’ve written, or something you’re writing, published or unpublished.” The only thing is it must be your own writing, and you must stick to only 8 sentences.
Oh, and there’s one other thing – you must post your sentences by 9am Sunday morning. And this is the part I screwed up. Today was one of those rare, glorious Sundays I actually stayed in bed til 9! (Well, I was up at 5:45 am to let the dog out, but I got to go back to bed – and stay there for more than five seconds – which is what counts.)
So here I am, late to the party, but promising to be on time next week. (I’ll just tell myself I have to have my “8 posted by 8.” It will be like setting my alarm clock earlier than I need to) Actually, it won’t be early, as the 9am requirement is in Eastern time…so I DO need to get ‘er done and up by 8. Thank goodness I have a dog who needs to pee before the crack of dawn.
The following eight are from my paranormal romance, To Catch A Fetch. Ghost hunter Ronan Evans is supposed to be working on convincing Devyn Cartwright – a woman with the ability to see ghosts – to join his team of supernatural researchers. Problem is, all he wants to do is convince Devyn to get in his bed. When fellow team member Claudia shows up to check on his progress, she calls him out for his lack of focus:
The smile disappeared and Claudia tapped her chin with a scarlet-tipped finger, the same shade as her lips.
Did women buy their make-up to match the same as they did with their bras and panties? Ronan had no idea where that errant thought came from, but once in his brain, all he could think about was the creamy lace of Devyn’s panties as he slipped one finger under the soft fabric to feel the softer skin beneath. He recalled the feel of her bra through her sweater, and his mouth went dry as he imagined the same pale shade of lace cupping her breasts.
Claudia kicked him in the shin. “Come back to earth, buddy.”
He blinked. “Am I that easy to read?”
Feel free to comment with your opinions and suggestions…and if you are interested in checking out what the other 50 or so writers participating today have posted, their links are available HERE.
Melonie Johnson 
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