Tag Archives: excerpts

Snippet Sunday: The General’s Wife: Sam and Pat

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I think this might be my last General’s Wife snippet for Snippet Sunday* for a while. The book is now with a copyeditor. (Thanks to P.T. Wyant for catching that typo last week! I hate typos! Go nuts copyeditor!) I’m hoping to release it by this November (cross fingers), so maybe I’ll do some more snippet teasers just before then.

In an earlier post, I had alluded to Pat and Sam being “very close buddies” which, of course, is a euphemism. Wait – what? They like each other? Aren’t they the heroes for our heroine Clara? Let’s just say I like to mix it up a bit with my writing and I have a soft spot for the bisexual beta hero. Continue reading →

Snippet Sunday: The General’s Wife: Sebastian

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I missed last Sunday’s Snippet Sunday because I was indulging my love of things Roman by visiting the Getty Villa in Malibu to see the exhibition “Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome,” as well as to just experience the villa, one of my favorite places to visit when I was a child. The idea of an ancient Roman villa in Southern California is simultaneously awesome and crazy. My traveling companion had already been to Italy once this year, but I haven’t been for quite a while and really want to go back. It was a very pleasant day. And, heck, while we were in the area, we went to the Getty Center as well. A day full of art!

So, back to Snippet Sunday*, my revision of The General’s Wife, and the introduction of a new character. Today we meet our tertiary hero, Lieutenant Sebastian Hawkins, who, despite his being a minor character, plays an important role in our heroine Clara‘s life. Continue reading →

Personal Reflection: On Beauty, Reading, and Writing

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This week’s blog post begins with an exhortation from the delightful Mandy B., The Well-Read Wife:

I see this advice to writers a lot. I see it coming from readers, bloggers, and other writers. It does seem to be fairly common in the romance genre, both textual and visual, to have beautiful heroes and heroines and I am terribly guilty of it, but for my own personal reasons. Continue reading →

Snippet Sunday: The General’s Wife: Pat

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I missed last Sunday’s Snippet Sunday due to day-job-related craziness, plus going to see my dad for his 88th birthday. Highlights of the visit included explaining the difference between erotica and porn, and showing him the Kindle app on my smart phone. Makes me wonder what the world will be like when I’m 88 as far as cultural norms and technological achievements…

So, back to Snippet Sunday*, my revision of The General’s Wife, and the introduction of a new character. Today we meet our main secondary hero, First Lieutenant Patrick Hamilton, or Pat. Continue reading →

Snippet Sunday: The General’s Wife: Sam

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One thing I really like about Snippet Sunday* is that it forces me to look at my work and ask “do I really want people reading this?” I’m using it as a vehicle to introduce readers to characters in The General’s Wife, which I am revising. This week I’m introducing our hero Sam. I like Sam, so I want his introduction to be satisfying.

Your first thought is, “Wait–what? Who is this ‘Sam’? I thought Mr. Bridgers was our hero?” To which I reply, “This is erotica. We have one villain and multiple heroes.” Continue reading →

Snippet Sunday: The General’s Wife: Annabella and Redmond

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For today’s Snippet Sunday* I’m taking a slight detour from Clara’s storyline. I write multi-character historicals where everyone, including secondary and tertiary characters, have a bit of fun, and The General’s Wife is rich in such characters and their, uh, “fun.” Today we meet Lady Clara Strathmore’s American lady’s maid Annabella Rogers and her beloved Redmond Moncrief. Redmond, also an American, is the groom in the Strathmore stables. The two young lovers must keep their relationship secret from our villain, General Strathmore. Continue reading →

Snippet Sunday: The General’s Wife: Mr. Bridgers

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The General’s Wife is erotica in the sense that it is Clara’s sexual journey. It is also a romance (or historical erotic romance, really), but more on that in another post.

Trapped in a loveless marriage, our heroine Clara develops a crush on a man who works with her husband. Paul Bridgers is an unlikely hero. For today’s Snippet Sunday*, I’ve chosen a passage where Clara goes out of her way to meet “Mr. Bridgers” — as she calls him — in the village near where she lives. Continue reading →

Snippet Sunday: The General’s Wife: Strathmore

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Below is a snippet from The General’s Wife, which I am revising. Our villain, General Strathmore, is introduced.

I’m trying out a feature called Snippet Sunday, which is promoted on Twitter as #SnipSun, #SnipSunday, or #SnippetSunday, and on Facebook, as well as on various blogs (just type Snippet Sunday in your favorite search engine and see what comes up!). Authors post just a snippet — six to ten sentences — of a recently released novel, a WIP (work in progress), or an older manuscript that’s being revived. Lots of different genres are represented — romance, mystery, thriller, sci fi, fantasy, erotica, and more. Continue reading →

Works in Progress: General’s Wife, with excerpt

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Warning: long excerpt ahead…

As I stated in a previous blog post, I’m revising my first book, The General’s Wife. So far, I’m just over halfway through what I call a “first pass” revision, in which I seek to clean up the point-of-view errors and prettify the text. I’ll do several more revisions based on my editing checklist. (One literary fiction friend told me over coffee one day that every novel needs to go through at least nine revisions. Oh my. That’s a lot. But, um, okay.)

I thought I might post an excerpt so those (dozens!) of you who have actually read General’s Wife can see what I’m doing here. The ideas underpinning the plot are all still there, it’s just the wrapper that has changed, and in this excerpt, the sensuality has been heightened. Continue reading →