Sky Daughter excerpt

Sky Daughter was my first paranormal. It's set in the mountains of Idaho, a region that is somewhat isolated. There are actually three entities trying to control the mountain community-- one isn't human. One of the humans is using techniques used by many dictators, but the other has been exploring control of the supernatural-- or so he believes.

Maggie has returned to her grandfather's mountain, which is currently nothing like the Waltons. She meets Reuben when he is trying to steal fuel from the service station where she works. He had come to this beautiful but dark region to relax and do some fishing. He didn't count on being kidnapped. 

So a love story, a cultural exploration that is as current today as it was when I wrote it in the early '90s, and the possibility of real spiritual power-- of the negative and positive sort. I did research on the supernatural exploring the sorts of things some claim to have experienced with no explanation. I'm doing more of that right now for the future paranormal, suspense romances ;). 

Excerpt from Sky Daughter:

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    How far would they hunt him? Had they manufactured evidence that they could use against him outside of Farley, something that could bring him back however far he ran?  They had everything that identified him. They could prove he was him better than he could right now. What could they make of that if they wanted to do it? Were they already using his credit cards? It all came back to the bigger question. Why had they taken him? Would whatever was behind this be enough to put him in a real prison if someone wanted?
    “I need to find out why this happened.”
    “Worry about reasons later. First get down the mountain.”
    He shook his head. Maybe I can’t run from this. Maybe it would follow me.”
    “Have you heard the definition of paranoia?”
    He smiled. “Clinically?” Then he laughed. "You call it an inner voice and think it comes from God. I call it gut instinct, and it comes from surviving.”
    “Surviving will come easier for you elsewhere.”
    “Something is going on up here, Maggie. I know it.”
    “And you think you can find out what without being killed? Heck, I don’t even know that something is going on at all, but if I believed as you did, I’d get out of here fast.”
    “Maybe I learned something which led to whatever followed.”
    “And maybe you didn’t. Maybe the reason isn’t all that unique,” she said.
    “Like what?”
    “Could you have offended someone that night? Did you flirt with a woman at the bar? Maybe irritate her boyfriend enough to hit you over the head?”
    “You are kidding, right?”
    “A lot of mountain men would look with keen disfavor on some handsome Easterner coming in and trying to take away one of their women.”
    He gave a snort. “I don’t even flirt with women in the city.”
 

Bound for the Hills excerpt

 I am into the final edit for the seventh Arizona historical romance due out this month, Bound for the Hills. So far so good :). It's a little different than the others, but does carry on some familiar characters. I always think of my books as novels as much as romances. As a novel, it stands up fine, hopefully also as a spicy romance ;)

This excerpt is in the edit mode; so may change by the time it is actually published. Image above is Willy as she arrives in Payson, a strange world indeed for a lady from San Francisco.

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   Mr. Gibbons also had worried at a woman going off by herself to live in a lonely cabin. He had tried to convince her that Payson had lovely cottages. “Why not one of those? If not those, there were places that would give you privacy heading east along the Tonto Rim. At least then, there’d be those passing by if you ran into trouble,” he’d said.

   She had smiled and insisted she needed a more remote location and finally he had told her of this one. “Jared Smith had it built but his wife hated it.”

   “It was poorly built?”

   “Beautifully built, as pretty a cabin as I’ve seen, but it was so far from everyone else. Oh, an occasional miner might come through but otherwise, she felt she’d go insane being so alone. She tried. You can tell that by the shrubs she planted but it just wasn’t home to her.”

   It had sounded perfect to Willy and she’d smiled and asked for lease papers.

   “I will draw them up with an option to buy. That will ensure that you don’t have someone buying it out from under you.”

   “Thank you. I didn’t know it was for sale.”

   “It has been for someone with cash.” He had handed her the papers. “I hope you are notifying your family where you will be,” he’d said as she perused them before signing.

   “My family is all gone on now, Mr. Gibbons.”

   “Then friends.”

   She had few, who would care, but she had written to her best female friend. Holly was the reason she had even known about Payson and these mountains. The two had gone to university together. They had lost touch, but when she had decided she needed this experience, needed to get completely away from San Francisco, she’d written of her father’s death, where she intended to be, and that she would be writing a book—she hoped. She had not shared the rest of why she needed to find this respite, this total break from all she had known. Perhaps if they met someday, she would explain the rest. Half of what she was feeling she couldn’t even explain to herself.

   “Yes, I did. I trust that you won’t tell anyone where I am should anyone come asking,” she had said rising to leave his office.

   “Of course not.” He’d huffed a little.

   “If there becomes a problem where you feel I should know of it, please send a missive with Mr. Contrell who will be bringing me supplies twice a month.”

   “I am relieved at least of his returns to check on you.”

   “I am not a fool, Mr. Gibbons. There are reasons I need this level of privacy. Perhaps someday I can tell you more of them.” He’d nodded with a sigh.

Arizona Sunset excerpt

Arizona Sunset is the first book of what became the Arizona historical romance series. I wrote it in the early '90s but didn't do anything with it for twenty years. That might seem unusual to those who aren't writers, but if you are a writer, you write-- that does not mean you necessarily even want to publish. When I decided to become an indie writer, it was on the list of those I intended to bring out. I had no idea even then that Arizona Sunset would be the beginning of a series. 

It turns out the seventh in what I've called the Arizona historical romance series, will be out later in March. It is set in 1905 and carries on some of the earlier characters with new additions. Here is a snippet from a book that will always be dear to my heart for a host of reasons:

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     "It had its moments,” he said, nuzzling her neck. He needed a shave as usual at the end of the day. The bristle against her skin added to her excitement. She sighed.
        "Like with Lieutenant Gardiner?”
    She pushed off his hat as she ran her hands through his hair.
        He looked ruefully down at the hat on the floor. "You know how much that Stetson cost?”
       She heard the smile in his voice. "I'm sorry," she said. "Can I find any way to make it up to your hat?"
        "I doubt it."
        "I could pick it up and put it properly on its rack."
        He shook his head. "Not a good idea because to do that, I'd have to let you go, and I don't want to do that."
        She smiled, taking his hand into hers and nipping one finger. "You really had a good time?”
        “It had its moments,” he repeated, his eyes teasing.
        "Couldn't you see yourself living like that--like Ralph Reimer for instance?"
        "Maybe for some men that's all right, but for others it won’t work."
        "And which ones are you?"
        “Abby, quit trying to change what is. Life is how it is. Sometimes it’s too late to change.”
        "You can’t believe it is for you. You are a young man. You can change what you want. You have to know you cannot go on as you are.”
        “For awhile.”
        “And then what?”
    “There are no guarantees in life.”
        She felt the passion draining from her body. “Why did you marry me, Sam? What did you want?”
        “What do you think?”
        “If it had been just sex, you’d have taken me the first night. You could have. I couldn’t have stopped you.”
        "I don't rape women."
        "We both know it wouldn't have been rape, not then or now."
        "I did want you. Still do, but not if the terms are my pretending something I know isn’t so. I am who I am. Is that good enough for you or not?"
        “Are you saying you might want a life with me? A forever kind of life?”
        “If I did, would it change anything?”
        She couldn’t answer that. She had never thought she’d stay with Sam, never imagined a real life here. Or had she? “Well, whatever I want,” she said, “it wouldn’t be for much of a life if you go riding off all the time to rustle other men’s cattle. Someday you will get shot or caught and then what?"
        “I could go riding out in the hills here and have my horse fall and break my neck.”
        “It’s not the same.”
        “Isn’t it?”
        She felt angry and disappointed. She had hoped so much that things would change. She had told herself this was all for the moment. In her heart she had known from the beginning, from the time she had seen him in Tucson. She wanted more than she could ever have. It wasn’t to be. He didn’t want what she did. She felt so disappointed that tears welled up. She would not cry in front of him. She also couldn’t risk making a baby with a man who wouldn’t want forever with her. She wouldn’t leave herself a child to raise alone.
        “Good night, Sam.”
        She wished he would say something to stop her, would promise her things that could make it work, but he didn’t. He just let her go.