#sixsunday Six Sentence Sunday- Those Lips

 (click above image to read MORE Six Sentence Sunday excerpts)

(Check out more by looking up hashtag #sixsunday on Twitter)

Welcome Sixers.

For those who might not know here's what 6 Sentence Sunday is all about-

Pick six (6) sentences from anything you like (it can be from a Work in Progress (WiP), something you recently sold, something you hope to sell or even something already under contract and available for purchase – and don’t worry, Six Sentence Sunday is for published AND unpublished writers). Then post them on your blog on Sunday. That’s all there is to it!

You can add yours link to their official list by signing up before midnight the Saturday beforehand.

Heading back into my currently unpublished contemporary romance, Love by Design.

Love by Design

Jasmine Galloway sees beauty in all things but it’s not a thing of beauty when she meets Derrek Martin, a shallow, arrogant playboy celebrity. When her sister Juniper, a blockbuster actress, recommends her interior design business, Décor Dreams, to Derrek, it’s sure to be a disaster. Jasmine is uncertain she can hold her tongue and get the job done, but she takes it, never one to let her opinions of others stand in the way of professional success and she’s not about to let some pretty boy win her over whose ego is as big as his blockbuster movies. It isn’t long before Derrek’s gentle, affectionate manner and country boy charm gets the better of her. She curses herself for allowing the tabloid fodder to contaminate her impression of a man who might well put his designs on her heart.

Derrek Martin counts himself lucky his acting career took off shortly after his arrival in California. Even more since his parents’ deaths left him the guardian of his little sister. The new house is nice, but it needs a woman’s touch before he brings Paige out from Indiana to live with him. He knows his reputation in the tabloids depicts him far from who he really is, but he has never met with a more chilly reception than the moment he meets Jasmine Galloway, Interior Designer to the Stars. He’s sure she has read everything bad ever published about him and disregards all the good. His private life is simply that, private. Derrek intends to keep it that way—until he meets Jasmine.

Her blatant dislike for him pushes a button no one else ever has and Derrek finds he’s desperate to prove that he isn’t what the tabloids make him out to be. More than that, he’s determined to make her his leading lady, but will an ex with a secret steal the spotlight away?

****

After thoroughly enjoying the KFC buffet, at Derrek's urging, Jasmine finds something else at the table that looks edible...

Derrek watched her with those sparkling blue eyes from across the booth, clearly reveling in the fact that she enjoyed the meal.

“Good, huh?” Derrek looked up as he sipped his tea through the straw.

God, those lips.

Jasmine tried not to stare, but found it more difficult when the faint memory of her dream the night before surfaced. A chill ran the length of her spine and she shifted on the squeaky vinyl seat with an unaccustomed awkwardness.

If you missed previous Six Sunday posts from Love by Design and would like to check them out, look at the top of the page in my pink tabs for SSS Posts where you can easily find links to each previous post. 

#SCENTsational Saturdays- The Way to a Man's Heart- Pineapple Upside-down Cake

The Way to a Man's ♥

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

Since October is my husband's birth month, I'll share his favorite dessert- Pineapple Upside-down Cake.

My recipe is a spin off of the Betty Crocker box recipe-

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 can (20 oz) pineapple rings in juice, drain juice and reserve it

1 small can crushed pineapple, drain juice and reserve with other

Maraschino Cherries, destemmed, drained

1 box Yellow Cake Mix

Vegetable oils and eggs called for on cake mix box

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350º (325º for dark or nonstick pan). In 9X13, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Arrange pineapple rings on top of that, add in drained crushed pineapple in surrounded empty areas. Place cherries in center of pineapple rings. Press gently into brown sugar.

Use reserved pineapple juice and enough water to measure 1 1/4 cups. Make cake batter as directed, substituting the pineapple juice for water. Pour batter into pan and tap pan a few times on counter to knock out air bubbles.

Bake 40-45 minutes (42-48 for dark or nonstick pan) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife around side of pan to loosen cake, then place heat-proof plate upside down on pan and turn plate and pan over. Leave for 5 minutes so brown sugar topping drizzles over cake, then remove pan. Cool 30 minutes (though my husband loves it fresh and warm out of the pan). Serve warm or cool, store covered in refrigerator.

Note- I've found, that due to the use of fruit and fruit juices, the pineapple with sour the cake if it's left out or if it's not eaten within a couple of days, so eat that baby up!

Have a SCENTsational Saturday!

Friday Spotlight- Meant to Be by @karenstivali #TMPress @FictionWitches

click image above to check it out on Amazon

Sometimes you’re already committed to the wrong person when fate finally brings you the right one.

When NYU professor Daniel Gardner’s career-obsessed wife convinces him to move to the suburbs, he hopes it’s a first step toward starting the family he longs to have. Instead of domestic bliss he finds his neighbor, Marienne Valeti. She loves her freelance design job, but must contend with a growing sense of isolation created by her husband’s indifference. A penchant for good books, bad movies, and Marienne’s to-die-for brownies sparks a powerful bond between them. Passion simmers, but they resist its lure, surrendering only in the seclusion of their minds. Their friendship helps them weather every hardship, from divorce to widowhood, leaving them both secretly wondering if it can survive a first kiss.

About the Author-

Karen Stivali is a prolific writer, compulsive baker and chocoholic with a penchant for books, movies and fictional British men. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking extravagant meals and serving them to family and friends, who never seem to mind the excessive quantities she tends to prepare. She attributes her ability to multitask to the fact that she rarely sleeps, which gives her more hours every day. Prior to deciding to write full time Karen worked as a hand drawn animator, a clinical therapist, and held various food-related jobs ranging from waitress to specialty cake maker. Planning elaborate parties and fundraisers takes up what's left of her time and sanity.

Karen has always been fascinated by the way people relate to one another so she favors books and movies that feature richly detailed characters and their relationships. In her own writing she likes to explore the dynamics between characters and has a tendency to craft romantic love stories filled with sarcasm and sexy details.

Karen has three erotic romance novels published by Ellora's Cave: Always You (September 2011, First Place Winner of the RWA Passionate Plume Award - 2012), Long-Distance Lovers (co-written with Karen Booth, March 2012) and Marry Me (June 2012).

Her first work of women's fiction, Meant To Be, released from Turquoise Morning Press on August 26, 2012. Its sequel, Holding On, will be published by Turquoise Morning Press on November 26,2012. A prequel to Meant to Be appears in the anthology Foreign Affairs (currently available).

To learn more about Karen you can visit her website karenstivali.com where she blogs original recipes, sassy commentary on The Bachelor, and tidbits about her journey in the writing world. Karen can also be found attempting witty banter on Twitter
http://twitter.com/#!/karenstivali

#TuesdayswithTaryn Welcomes Back @JudyAlter What's your #writing pattern? #mystery #author

Tuesdays with Taryn

Revisit with Judy Alter

Please help me in welcoming back mystery author (and fellow TMPer), Judy Alter as she shares with us about her writing pattern- Take it away Judy!

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What’s your writing pattern?

Lately an aphorism has been making the rounds on Facebook: “A writer never has a vacation. Life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.” I wholeheartedly agree, especially if you add marketing under the umbrella of “thinking about writing.” Writers can no longer just write. They have lots of other responsibilities to their careers—social media, writing guest blogs, planning launches and ordering bookmarks and flyers and ad infinitum.

What concerns me these days is the lack of actual writing time. I am retired and theoretically I stay home all day every day—plenty of time to write. In reality it doesn’t work out that way. I admire writers who sit at their desk every day, without fail, from six in the morning until noon or six at night until midnight. I simply can’t do it. Life gets in the way.

Last week I was on a writing spurt. I totaled about 10,000 words for the week. This week (and this is Thursday) I have not written one more word on that novel, though I have jotted down notes for future directions it will take—those three o’clock in the morning thoughts. Yes, I’m always thinking about it. But I’ve been writing guest blogs about Trouble in a Big Box, my newest Kelly O’Connell Mystery just now available. I’ve been co-editing a neighborhood newsletter—why do I have the sinking feeling that I will someday find myself editor, that this is a gentle way to edge me into that responsibility? I’ve been welcoming visitors to our church, either by email or phone call.

And then there are those pesky doctor appointments, the grocery store, and the like. Today alone, by nine-thirty I had been to the veterinary clinic, CVS pharmacy, the cleaners, the gas station, and the grocery store. And I really do try to do yoga every day—it keeps me from aching and other age-related problems (I admit I’m what they pretty much call a senior citizen, though there’s some debate about when that classification kicks in and I may not quite be there yet, depending on your point of view).

I also try to blog daily, and now that school has started, I have a first-grader every afternoon. He goes to school right across the street from my house, and we have snacks, do homework, and all that. I adore him and am glad to give the time, but it is about a two-hour chunk out of my day.

And social life. I am not a reclusive writer. I live alone, so my social life is important to me. This week’s schedule: guests for dinner Monday (this meant cooking, though not an elaborate meal); dinner at the local café with neighbors, a Tuesday ritual; Wednesday, a very special evening at a wine bar with my youngest daughter—just the two of us; dinner with a friend Thursday (we try to eat together and catch up once a week); potluck at my daughter’s house for her friends on Friday—they are lovely to welcome the old lady; and company Saturday night.

I chastise myself for not writing, but then another part of me argues that this is what retirement should be about—doing the things I enjoy. And much as I love writing, I cannot do it all day every day. After about a two-hour stretch, my brain frizzles, though I can on “good” days do two of those stretches. Those are the days I write 2,000 words of more. But it worries me that I write in fits and starts. Some part of my conscience says I should write daily—and last week I did set a daily quota of 1,000 words and met it. It’s just that went out the window this week, and next week isn’t looking a lot better.

I’m not sure I want my publisher to read this!

How about you? Do you have a better schedule than I do? Maybe if I gave up those afternoon naps….

Kelly O’Connell Mysteries

Police officer Mike Shandy says that Kelly O’Connell has a real talent for trouble. She maintains that she’s looking out for her daughters and her beloved older, inner-city neighborhood. He says she should let the police do their work and stay out of things. She argues that she would if they’d move fast enough and act on the tips she gives them. She has been vandalized, stalked, almost shot, almost asphyxiated, and faced an unwanted one-way trip to Mexico. Kelly is drawn into crime-solving by her curiosity, her compassion, and her outrage at injustice. Every time she thinks  things will settle down, life throws another puzzling crime in her direction.

 

Check out Judy's Kelly O'Connell Mysteries on her

Amazon Author Page

Review of Skeleton in a Dead Space-

An endearing sleuth, a skeleton behind the spice cupboard, and a fistful of subplots that will keep you guessing. A nicely done debut by an author to watch.--Susan Wittig Albert, author of the China Bayles mysteries

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You can also find out more about Judy on her website and you can meet Kelly O'Connell in the FREE short story "The Village Gaarden"~downloadable on Judy's site here in pdf.

Follow Judy on Twitter

Check out her writer's blog- Judy's Stew

and talk food at Potluck with Judy