The Never Finished Book - My Dark Little Secret

 

They whispered to her: "You cannot withstand the storm."

She whispered back: "I am the storm."

I started a book - a romantic suspense-back in 2014.

Yes, you read that right. 2014. More than six years ago. And it’s languished on my computer, getting a quick titivation here and there, but never actually being finished. I have excuses—at least four of those years have been a nightmare for many reasons too depressing to note here. But I have finished other books that have been published, made headway on several others. But this book? I felt like calling it Dark Depression, rather than Dark Revenge.

One simple problem that I have never, in all my writing career and all my completed books, come across before.

I COULDN’T GET THE ENDING.

 Then, strange as it sounds, I woke up in the middle of the night a few nights ago, and I just KNEW what the ending should be, made some notes, and I’m about to sit down and get that in gear. It will require a fair bit of rearranging of events, but yes, it looks like Dark Revenge will be finished and available for sale sometime soon!

So, the moral of this story is never give up on an idea. You’ll never know how close I came to deleting all the files for this book because seeing them every time I started to work, seeing all those stunted, unfinished pages, was undermining my writing.

Now I feel like the elves in Snow White – hey-ho, hey-ho, it’s off to write I go!

You can visit some of my finished books at https://tinyurl.com/yyb5uz8r

Saturday’s Snippets: Happy Valentine’s Day: Legends and Book Deals

@GlenysOConnell


I’d love to send everyone a huge bouquet of flowers to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day! Here are a few tidbits about St. Valentine that I wanted to share for fun – you can check out more on hhtp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day

* Roman soldiers were not allowed to marry, but St. Valentine carried out wedding ceremonies for some soldiers with their sweethearts – and got himself imprisoned for it.

* He is said to have cut out parchment hearts to give to the soldiers and others he helped, to remind them of God’s love.

*He was accused of ministering to Christians, when Christianity was forbidden by the Romans and its followers were persecuted.

*When he was in prison, legend says St. Valentine healed the sick daughter of one of his jailers. He was to be executed, and before going to his death he is said to have written to the girl and signed the letter ‘Your Valentine’ .

* The tradition of exchanging candies, cards, and gifts on February 14th started in 18th century England during the Romantic Era, as a way of proclaiming one’s love.

* The busy, business-minded Victorians took the tradition from handwritten notes to commercially manufactured Valentine’s Day cards.

* Sadly, even though we love the hearts, flowers, cupids, and candy, whether the legends are true is a moot point. There were a number of saints in the Christian Church with the name Valentine, and we’ll probably never know whether the saint we celebrate actually existed or is a myth created by the actions of several martyrs.

Even so, here’s wishing everyone a wonderful Valentine’s Day. And remember, you don’t have to have a sweetheart to celebrate – celebrate yourself by doing something nice for the day!

And as a little gift from me, you can get my two romances, The No Sex Clause and Judgement By Fire, for just 99c each for a limited time! And don’t forget, you can get a bundle of ten great stories, including my Saving Maggie, for just 99c, in Running to Love, from Crimson Romance. Enough to bring a smile to any Valentine’s face!

Saturday Snippets–The No Sex Clause, Free eBook!

@GlenysOConnell

Yes, I come bearing a gift! First off, many thanks to all the people who downloaded last week’s free ebook, my romantic comedy, Marrying Money. Love you all!

Next up, here’s the second free eBook I promised. This one has a Christmas theme and a very feisty heroine who has reached a point in life where she re-examines her life and her past – and finds true love and friendship where she least expects it. The book is The No Sex Clause (but don’t let the title mislead you!)

Here’s the blurb:

Anna Findlay needs a man.

Anna has gone from being the bullied Mouse in a small town high school to the perfectly groomed and wealthy author of a pop psychology book on sex.

When her publicity agent talks her into going to her high school reunion at Christmas, there are two problems - Anna hated high school, and she has no one to go with. So, in her own pragmatic style, she hires an escort from an agency - a move that will change her life forever.

Anna finds herself revisiting her past and learning that she has never been comfortable in any of the personas she has invented for herself.

It takes falling in love - and Christmas - to show her that all she needs do is be herself.

The No Sex Clause is free from Saturday, the 20th of December, until Wednesday, the 24th, on most Amazon Kindle sites such as Amazon.com Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk

And while you’re on Amazon, pop over and take a peek at my latest romantic suspense, Another Man’s Son, from The Wild Rose Press Lobster Cove series

May your holidays be merry and bright!

Saturday’s Snippet–The No Sex Clause

Today’s Saturday Snippet is from The No Sex Clause, a book I had a lot of fun writing and hope you’ll enjoy reading!

BLURB:

Anna Findlay needs a man.
Anna has gone from being the bullied Mouse in a small town high school to the perfectly groomed and wealthy author of a pop psychology book on sex. When her publicity agent talks her into going to her high school reunion at Christmas, there are two problems - Anna hated high school, and she has no one to go with. So, in her own pragmatic style, she hires an escort from an agency - a move that will change her life forever. A serious case of mistaken identity lands Anna in the company of media mogul Jed Walker and the dreaded reunion turns into a sexy comedy of errors.
Anna finds herself revisiting her past and learning that she has never been comfortable in any of the personas she has invented for herself. It takes falling in love - and Christmas - to show her that all she needs do is be herself.


EXCERPT:

But she didn’t have time to consider the implications because a large warm hand closed on hers, and she was pulled away and came to rest against a solid wall of masculine chest. In the split second between Bob pulling her towards him and Joey letting her go, Anna felt like a bone trapped between two slathering dogs. The idea infuriated her almost as much as all this blatant male attention thrilled her. So this is what all the other girls experienced, day after day? What must it be like to float through your teenaged years knowing you were admired and desired, instead of being a Mouse who was, when she got any attention at all, just the butt of jokes.
She turned the flare of anger on to her escort, needing to release the awful feeling on someone’s head. “What do you think you’re up to?” she whispered savagely. “I was enjoying talking to Joey..”
“You didn’t look like you were enjoying it,” Jed told her, playing along with the Bob persona, “In fact, you looked like a mouse who’s realised she’s the snake’s dinner.”
And, dammit, that great ape of a football player looked like he was enjoying being draped all over Anna just a little too much! Jed wondered where that thought which had suddenly bounced into his head came from, but he was distracted by Anna dragging on his arm.
“Come over here with me – we need a quiet word,” she said, smiling up at him seductively while her eyes burned with a very nasty looking fire. Uh, uh – he’d obviously annoyed her by pulling her away from the football playing gorilla… A delighted grin lit up his face.
“You can just wipe that grin off your face. I want to talk to you in a quiet spot, nothing else….” Anna growled.
“Aw, shucks, I thought maybe you wanted to make out like all the other kids are doing...”
Anna glanced around. The first quiet corner she’d spotted to have a little chat with her escort just happened to be littered with bodies, entangled with each other, two by two, all hidden in the relative privacy afforded by the heavy velvet curtains of the stage. Her face burned. Of course she remembered this corner – a must at all high school dances, a spot where chaperons pretended to turn a blind eye on the grounds that kids kissing in the dance hall were less likely to get into anything more serious elsewhere.

The No Sex Clause is available in print and eBook on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, and other Amazon locations. Like a signed print copy? Email the author at glenysoconnell @ gmail .com (no spaces) for details!