Greetings loyal readers and friends. This afternoon, I am highlighting my three short romances
from MuseItUp Publishing.
First is Love Delivery.
I chose the excerpt for this contemporary romance because I feel it
shows you, the readers, something about my main characters Ann and Tom, as well
as introducing some of the conflict which hinders their budding romance.
Next is Lady In Waiting.
The excerpt I chose for this historical romance gives a glimpse into my
main character Mabriona and introduces the first of the major obstacles in her
romantic life, Prince Blayne. This
excerpt also gives the reader an idea of the complex relationship between
Mabriona and her cousin, Princess Alana.
Finally, I offer the excerpt for Mirror, Mirror, a time travel romance. In this excerpt, you will meet my main
character, Lindsay, as she awakes to find herself in the fifteenth century…a
far cry from the 21st century in which she lives. Lindsay is suddenly aware of how
different life here actually is from the Renaissance Faires she loves so much.
I hope you enjoy these brief glimpses into my stories and will
follow the links provided to MuseItUp Publishing’s book store. Thank you all for visiting today.
EXCERPT, LOVE DELIVERY
“Here it is,” he said, steering her to a quiet corner. Candles lit
the table. A bottle of red wine stood open. Tom held the chair for her and then
sat close so their knees touched. “Would you like a glass of wine?” he asked,
reaching for the bottle.
“No thanks,” Ann said. “I don’t drink.”
Tom poured a glass for himself. “Here’s the menu.” He handed it to
her.
“I know what I want.”
“What’s that?”
“Fettuccini Alfredo.” Ann shook out her napkin and placed it on her
lap.
“This chicken dish is good,” Tom said, pointing to an item on the
menu.
Ann grimaced. Is he a control freak? I already told him
what I want. “I don’t eat meat.” Her voice sounded harsh in her own ears.
“Ah, well, okay, then. Fettuccini Alfredo it is.” Tom called the
waiter and ordered the Alfredo for Ann and a spicy chicken dish for himself.
I guess we don’t agree on everything after all. He drinks and eats meat, too. I hope he doesn’t drink a lot.
Maybe we weren’t made for each other. Not knowing what else to do, Ann took
a sip of water and smiled.
Tom smiled back. “You’ll have to come meet my cats one of these
days. Tyra, a gorgeous, long-haired black female, is my bathroom kitty.
Whenever I’m sitting in there, she has to be in my lap. There’ve been times
when my pants have been around my feet, and she’s curled up in my underwear.
“Then there’s BeeBee. She’s a Siamese. When I first got her, I
thought she liked to cuddle, but it turned out she was just scared. It took me
a long time, with lots of persuasion, to get her to come close to me. Finally,
I was able to pick her up. I had her in my arms, and I put my face down to
smell her fur. Suddenly, she turned and bit me on the
nose.
“I think my favorite, though, is Loki. He’s the smallest of the
bunch. He has allergies, and if I don’t get him to the vet for a shot in time,
he loses his fur on his rear quarters, right by his tail. He loves to ride on
my shoulders. Looks just like I’m wearing a fur collar.
“Then there’s the two new ones, they’re the kittens. They haven’t
developed personalities yet. You should always get two kittens instead of one,”
Tom said when the food arrived.
“Why?” Ann asked. Her face hurt from laughing at Tom’s cat stories.
Mittens never did any of the things Tom’s cats did.
While she ate, Tom continued to share funny stories about the cats
and kittens. “Kittens play with each other so you don’t need to play with them.
You can just sit back and watch them. When I have kittens in the house, I don’t
even turn on my T.V. set.” Tom twirled pasta on his fork. He lifted the fork
halfway to his mouth and stopped. “Looks like we have company,” he groaned.
Ann turned. Maria and a curly-haired blond child entered. Ann
watched Maria’s smile turn to a frown. Maria pulled the child toward their
table. Ann gulped. Now what? Can’t she
leave us alone? How can Tom and I ever get to know each other if she’s always
showing up? She pasted a false smile on her face and clutched her napkin
tightly.
“So you decided not to listen to me,” Maria spat at Ann.
“Daddy!” the little girl cried, holding up her arms.
“Hi, Kitten,” Tom said, scooping the child into his arms. He gave
her a bear hug, and she giggled. “I want you to meet my friend, Ann. Ann, this
is Kitten.”
“Hi, Ann. Daddy calls me Kitten, but you can call me Catherine.” The
child put her arms around Tom’s neck and hugged him.
“Hello, Catherine,” Ann said, finding her voice.
“At least you could have gone somewhere else, Tom. We always ate
here,” Maria accused and pushed Tom’s shoulder.
Tom moved Catherine to his other knee and glared at Maria. “Do we
have to fight in front of Kitten?”
“Hey, Mr. Nice Guy, you’re the one who left us, remember?”
Removing Catherine from his lap, Tom stood up and faced Maria.
“You’re creating a scene. Why don’t you leave before things get ugly?”
“Maybe you should have thought about that a long time ago.” Maria
poked Tom’s chest with her finger.
Ann watched in fear. Only moments ago, she and Tom were enjoying
dinner. Maria’s face now looked hard and dark. She swore at Tom and poked him
again. Then she shoved him on the shoulder.
Tom grabbed her hand. Maria spat at him and reached up, clawing his
face with her other hand.
“I hate you,” she screamed, grabbed her child, and ran out crying.
Tom turned to Ann. There were bloody scratches on his face. Ann
dipped her napkin in her water glass and dabbed his cheek. “I’m sorry, Ann, I
guess this spoiled dinner.”
This
is never going to work for us, not as long as Maria is in the picture. Ann
nodded her head. “Sure did. I’m not very hungry now. I think I’d better just go
home.”
EXCERPT, LADY IN WAITING
Mabriona assisted Alana down to the common dining hall as was her
duty. The big room was warmed at
both ends by huge hearths. In
honor of Prince Blayne’s arrival, the boards had been scrubbed until they
gleamed. Warm, fresh-baked loaves
of bread graced each table, and the delicious aroma made Mabriona’s mouth water
as they entered the room. Jars of
honey mead sat within easy reach of all.
Pewter bowls piled high with fresh picked apples and pears were artfully
placed. Serving wenches waited, poised, with huge pots of steaming porridge.
King Cedric already sat at the upper table with Prince Blayne at his
right hand. His face lit up with a
smile when Alana and Mabriona approached.
His voice boomed as he greeted his daughter, “Here she is, the flower of
my life.”
Mabriona’s breath caught in her throat as her eyes met
Blayne’s. As Alana had feared, the
young prince was dark-haired with eyes the color of jet, his stature
kingly. Broad shoulders and
well-muscled arms nicely filled out his deep purple brocaded doublet. A full
beard of coarse black hair covered his cheeks and chin, but what stopped
Mabriona was his smile. Never
before had she seen someone’s face light up like the sun rising on a summer’s
morn. Yet, this was what came to
her mind. Clearly, Blayne’s smile
was meant for her, but why?
He stood and walked toward the women. “Princess Alana,” he said, bowing before Mabriona, his
glance speaking words of heat and passion.
“Oh no, Your Highness,” Mabriona said, blushing. “I am Princess Alana’s lady-in-waiting,
Lady Mabriona.” She felt Alana
glaring daggers at her and quickly curtseyed to hide her embarrassment. Alana
made it clear earlier she wasn’t attracted to dark-haired men, why is she so angry? It isn’t my fault the prince was
confused. Alana looked down at the floor before glancing up at the handsome
prince.
“Forgive me, Lady Mabriona.
I’ve made an unthinkable error.”
Prince Blayne bowed again and then turned to Alana. “Your Highness, your beauty should have
made it clear to me you are my intended.”
Mabriona’s heart sunk.
She saw Alana’s cold look as Blayne bowed and took her hand to kiss. She
knew then that Alana hated him, yet Alana would marry him as her father
decreed. It was unfair, but
Mabriona was already wise enough to know she couldn’t change her lot in
life. Alana would marry the
handsome prince and live happily ever after, and she would remain the
ever-faithful servant catering to Princess Alana’s every wish.
Blayne grasped Alana’s elbow and led her to the table to sit beside
him. Yet as Mabriona watched them, Blayne’s gaze slid back to her, lingering as
if he could imprint her image upon his soul. Her knees felt weak, and Mabriona quickly took a seat at the
far end of the board. Her heart
beat rapidly in her chest. What
was happening to her? Prince Blayne was not the first man to have caught her
eye, yet he was certainly the first to have affected her so she could barely
breathe. Unobserved and
temporarily forgotten, she watched the couple. Just as she suspected, Alana kept her nose in the air and
cringed each time Blayne looked at or touched her. King Cedric would get an earful as soon as Alana got him
alone, of that Mabriona was certain.
Her heart bled for the handsome prince.
She looked up to see Alana motioning furiously at her. She went to the princess and bent near
her. “Yes, Princess?”
“Get me out of here, now,” Alana whispered harshly.
Mabriona offered her hand, and Alana rose from her place. Blayne looked up, catching Mabriona’s
gaze. His eyes sparkled, and a
smile spread across his face. He
bowed his head slightly. He openly
flirted with her. This could not
be happening. If King Cedric saw
the interplay, what would he think?
Blayne was the intended of Alana. Things could not get any worse. Her thoughts tumbled like the bones the
guards threw when they played at betting games.
EXCERPT, MIRROR, MIRROR
“Fool-born child! Watch
where you are walking. The master will have your hide for getting mud all over
his clean shirts.”
Someone pulled her ear—hard—and Lindsey yelped with pain. She was tugged up into a kneeling, then
standing position, before she opened her eyes. She realized in the first moment she was no longer in
Oregon.
“Where is your cap? If
the master sees you with your hair hanging down all over your face, he will
switch us both.”
She stared wide-eyed as a large, buxom woman bent down, picked up
dirty white shirts from the ground, and thrust them into Lindsey’s arms.
“‘Tis not here. Take my extra one.” The woman grabbed Lindsey’s hair, balled it, and shoved it
into a long, sleeve-like cap, which came to Lindsey’s forehead and fell down
around her shoulders. Balancing
the load of shirts with one hand, she felt the cap. Not a shred of her hair was showing.
“Um, thanks,” she said.
“Well, donna be thanking me now. You just watch what you be doing next time, clumsy
girl. Now march back into the
washhouse and get the mud off those shirts. When you have finished, hang them out to dry. Then get you
into the kitchen and help cook with dinner.” The woman brushed her hands off; then she smoothed her apron
and marched through a courtyard toward a large stone house.
Dumbfounded, Lindsey stood where the woman left her. She looked down at herself and saw she
still wore her second-hand clothes from St. Vincent de Paul’s. Her feet were bare. Then she noticed
the woman walking away from her was also barefooted. Despite the muddy courtyard, the air was warm and so was the
soil. But where am I? As she looked around, the structure of
the buildings reminded her of pictures from her British History course in
college.
In the opposite direction from which the woman took, Lindsey noticed
a path leading to a small outbuilding.
Smoke rose from a chimney.
She trudged back to the washhouse, opened the door but stepped back
outside when her eyes began to tear, and the heat blasted her face. Do
people actually work under these conditions? With the door opened, some of the smoke and steam cleared,
and she was able to see a large wooden tub sitting on metal legs straddling hot
coals. Lindsey dumped the load of shirts into the tub, picked up a stick and
stirred the load in the water.
Before long, her muscles ached, and she had blisters on her hands. Once
the tears began, there was no stopping them. Until this point, she hadn’t thought much beyond putting one
foot in front of the other. She
collapsed on a small overturned crate and with head in hands, had a good cry.
With red, puffy eyes, and stuffed nose, Lindsey looked up when the
door opened. A wizened old woman
leaning on a cane shuffled in. She
looked at Lindsey with questioning eyes.
“Is it really you, Mistress?” she asked.
“What do you mean? Who
am I supposed to be?” Lindsey responded between sobs.
The old woman began to dance.
“It worked! It worked!”
Lindsey wiped the tears from her eyes with the bottom of her
skirt. “What worked?” she asked,
realizing this woman might know what happened.
“Why
the summoning I did for Mistress Prudence. So you’re the one, eh?” The old woman pinched Lindsey’s cheek and turned Lindsey’s
face from side to side to get a good look. “Well you do look like the young Mistress.
When are you from, then?”
“You did say when, not where?”
“Of course. I know
you’re not from now, foolish simpkin.
I brung you here.”
“This morning it was 2011.
I’m not sure what year it is now.”
“‘Tis the year 1421, and you need to get busy, little missy. You need to get the Master to accept
Prudence as his bride. Soon as you
do, we can send you back from whence you came.”
Lindsey stood and looked down at the little woman. “Just how do you
propose I do that? Who is this
master, anyway?”
“Why, he be the master of the house. He loves our Prudence, he does, but his father wants him to
marry for money. He’s just
distraught our Master is. I wager
you be a smart woman. You can get our Master to marry you. I canna help you anymore,
but I’ll be watching you.” The
crone turned and shuffled toward the door.
5 comments:
The covers are so beautiful. I have both books, plan to read them, just need some quiet time.
Great excerpts... very tantalising.
Hi Joylene, thanks for the support. Let me know what you think when you read them! Rosalie, glad you enjoyed the excerpts.
I enjoyed your excerpts too Penny. I loved Mirror Mirror and wished it could have gone on longer. Looking forward to reading the others
Hi Wendy, thanks. Other people suggested a longer version, too. Maybe one of these days. Do me a favor and post a review? Thanks.
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