Snippet Saturday – Endings

snippetsaturdayAnd so yeah, the world was supposed to come to an end yesterday but…we’re still here. That meant, I actually HAD to go Christmas shopping.

Damn the Mayans!

🙂

Endings come in all varieties… Permanent. Temporary. Forced. Gradual. One-sided. Relationships. Jobs. School. Friendships. Life. Years. Sometimes an ending is very sad and sometimes it’s worthy of celebration. There are those of us who fight endings, as well…

Then again, there’s the fun kinda ending… Like, for example, a tirade.

Snippet: (from my story, Small Town Famous in the Cowboy Lust anthology)

Cowboy Lustweb

“What’n the hell were you thinkin’, Bethann?”

“I was thinkin’ that little bitch better keep her hands off of my man.”

Tommy sighed and tried so hard not to smile. He needed to stay stern with her. “You can’t go ‘round town totin’ your shotgun like that. You shoulda known the sheriff would lock you up.”

She scowled. “He only caught me ‘cause it was his precious little princess I was aimin’ at. Well that and someone called him. When I find out who, you better believe I’m gonna to tan their hide. ‘ll be lucky if I don’t fill with it buckshot.”

Tommy shook his head at the woman behind the black iron bars. She sat on the bench on the far side of the cell with her arms crossed over her chest and her right leg crossed over her left, just a swingin’. Bethann was spittin’ mad.

He’d been in love with her all his life and she with him, and never once in all their eighteen years together had she ever acted like this.

He slid his arms through the bars and linked his fingers. “Why are you so jealous all of a sudden?”

“Jealous? You think I’m jealous?” Bethann stood faster than lightning and stomped her way across the concrete floor to stand nose to nose with him. “Jealous ain’t got nothin’ to do with it Tommy Martin.”

“Then what does it have to do with? What’s gotten into you?”

She tilted her chin in defiance, but it was just for show. “You like her, and I’m tired of her sniffin’ around what ain’t hers. Time for her to go back to wherever it is she came from.”

If Tommy hadn’t seen it for himself, he would’ve never believed it. Bethann Pritchard was pouting. “I like ever’ body, baby.” By her deepening scowl, that didn’t even come close to appeasing her.

She kicked out at one of the bars. “But I see how you look at her.”

Tommy reached up and pushed his cowboy hat back on his head. He wanted to make sure he got a real good look at his woman during this conversation. He also wanted to make sure she could look him in the eyes without any hint of shadow or obstruction. “And how do I look at her?”

Bethann dropped her gaze to the floor and dug the toe of her scuffed boot into a divot in the floor. “Like you want her,” she mumbled.

He eyed her skeptically. “Uh huh. Is that all?”

Her head whipped up so quick Tommy nearly had to take a step back. “Is that all? Ain’t that enough?”

“Well, in all honesty here, I was expecting a little more than that. That’s not enough for you to go carryin’ your daddy’s double barrel down Main Street in the middle of the day, scarin’ the nice folks.”

“Every single person in this town knows me, and I didn’t scare anyone. Well, except for her. I don’t like the way you look at her ass in those little cut-off shorts and those tiny shirts. It’s a wonder she wears anything at all. There’d be more left to the imagination if she were naked.”

He contemplated her, his back teeth gnawing on the inside of his cheek, his mind doing everything it could think of to keep him from smiling. “So, is it that you’re jealous because I look at her ass, which is kinda hard to miss when she puts it in my face, or is it because you wish you were still that young?”

“You son of a bitch.”

“Your eyes are a bit more green than usual, babydoll.” From the look on his lover’s face, Tommy was pretty damn glad to have the jail cell bars separating them. Where Bethann’s temper was concerned, he knew a blessing when he saw it, and her not being able to get a hand on him when he made his confession was a definite one.

Before he opened his mouth again, he made sure to take a few steps away from her grasp. “I’m the one who called the sheriff.”

“You what?” Her body went perfectly still and her voice had dropped low, menacing.

He would pay for this when she was released and they got home. The narrowing of her eyes told him that, but he’d already known it the second he placed the call. “I called him and told him he needed to come get you.”

“You? You had him put me in jail?”

Even though her eyes had narrowed and she was still speaking in that low tone that scared the bejesus out of everyone who knew her, he wouldn’t show fear and he wouldn’t back down. “I did.”

“Why?”

“It’s his daughter you’re jealous of and his daughter you brought the shotgun outta hock for. You’re out of control.”

She sneered. “You don’t know the meanin’ of out of control, but you just wait. When I get outta here, I’m gonna—”

God, she was full of piss and vinegar and there wasn’t a woman on the planet who could hold a candle to her. He was so whipped. “No. This will be resolved while you’re in there. I’m done walkin’ on eggshells with you whenever another woman is in the same three feet of space I am. We’re gonna settle this here and now.”

end Snippet

Now, while I get some much needed writing in, you should take some time to visit the following blogs for more Endings…

Rhian Cahill
Myla Jackson
Caris Roane
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
HelenKay Dimon
Shiloh Walker
Delilah Devlin
Eliza Gayle
Lauren Dane
Felicity Heaton
TJ Michaels

~lissa

Mark Your Calendar For Malachi’s Word

January is a long time away. We don’t like to think about January because that means we then start realizing just how close the holidays are and those always make us shudder. However, for anyone looking forward to my new m/m cowboy series, The Bar Next Door, you have to start thinking about January. Just bypass November and December because the holidays are going to come whether we want them to or not. Sometimes it’s best to face our fears head on anyway…

Malachi’s Word, is the first book in this new series. The release date is January 6, 2013. I am working on the cover art and blurb forms so in the next few months, we’ll have a hot cowboy cover to look at. A hot male/male cowboy cover to look at…

So, mark your calendars…

I’m sure you have your calendars marked for November 6, 2012, too right? For the print release of Twisted Up? If not, we need to have a conversation. There will be a blog tour, however, not at the blogs who’ve said they don’t want me on their blogs, but there will be a blog tour. There will be giveaways of print copies, coffee bowls and Cowboy Blend coffee, neon green rope… We will be having fun with this release.

As well, there is some cross and collaborating promo between myself and the fantastic Mandy Roth. Well, not Mandy as Mandy, but Mandy as Kennedy. We’ve decided to hook up and have some fun with her upcoming book…

and…

Y’all see the potential there, right? Woot!

I’ll keep you informed. For now, just get those calendars marked… We’ve got work to do and things to look forward to. I love you y’all for sticking by me. There aren’t enough words to say how much.

~lissa

Snippet Saturday – Author’s Choice

Choices. So many choices.

I seem to be in a bit of a mood so, let’s go with something a little different…

This snippet is from something new I’ve just turned in and that I’m now waiting on an answer from my editor. It’s called Malachi’s Heart (I’m not sold on the title yet either) and it’s a M/M Contemporary Western…

Snippet:

Last call at the Bar Next Door. In about an hour, Malachi could go home. Eli would handle the end of clean-up, per their deal. Malachi would open the bar and Eli would lock the door at the end of the night.

Last call. Much as he loved the bar, he sometimes loved leaving it just as much. Especially tonight. Danny was here again and almost too drunk to sit steady on the barstool and way the hell too drunk to stand, walk, or drive himself home. When he was sober, he was Daniel. All grown up and hotter than fire, tempting every man and woman with his crooked smile, his whipcord frame, and his bright green eyes. When he was drunk though, as he seemed to be more often than not lately, he was Danny. All grown up and acting like a teenage kid, full of angst and sadness.

“C’mon Danny. Time for you to go.” Malachi ‘Mal’ Rhalston picked up Danny’s half empty glass of whiskey.

“Hey asshole. I wasn’t done with that,” Danny said, louder than necessary with Mal standing right in front of him. Mal held up the glass and and swirled the amber colored liquid against the sides.

“This? You weren’t done with this?” Mal looked at it. “It is a bad idea to waste such good whiskey.” He downed it himself in one swallow, feeling the burn all the way to his soul. Danny wasn’t the only one suffering over anything, but he always liked to think he was. Selfish prick.

“I was right. You are an asshole.” It was said without heat or rancor, only a weariness that hurt Mal to hear.

Mal smiled his typical bartender smile. It wasn’t one he usually gave Danny being they were best friends and all, but right now, it was all he could muster. “Never said I wasn’t.” He wiped down the bar in the immediate area of Danny. The man never wore cologne, but had a spicy, earthy scent all his own that Mal would know anywhere. He didn’t know if anyone else could smell it and it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that he could, that he knew Danny so well… He mentally shook himself and focused his attention once again on Danny, on his face. “So, what had you in here tonight tyin’ one on?”

“Same shit, different day.”

One thing Mal always admired about Danny was the fact that the man could be stinkin’ drunk and still speak without slurs or ripples in his words. Most men in the bar that got that blasted couldn’t string the syllables of their own names together, much less carry on an actual conversation. To talk to Danny, one wouldn’t know he was fifteen sheets to the wind aside from the lack of balance and the smell of his breath. “Which shit would that be? Job shit or man shit?”

Danny was working his own place a few miles outside town. It was something neither of them ever wanted years ago when they had a chance to own a ranch, but Danny had found a small one that needed a lot of work and he’d thrown himself into it.

“Man.” Danny spat the word with disgust and Mal wiped the bar again just to be on the safe side. “It’s always about a man.”

“Things not work out with that pretty thing you carted out of here the other night?” The glare Danny leveled at Mal would have frightened a lesser man. Mal wasn’t now nor had he ever been scared of Danny. Their friendship went back too far. They knew everything about one another. Danny, drunk or sober, wouldn’t hurt anyone unless it was to protect someone else and he sure as hell would never strike Mal.

“You should know the answer to that one.” Mal did know and secretly, whether it was the right thing or not, he was always glad. Danny always did do things the hard way.

“Then why do you bother?”

“Can’t have who I really want.” The words were miserably spoken, full of sadness and resignation. Mal understood exactly what it meant and felt like to want someone so much and not be able to have them. He’d been dealing with it most his life, but hearing those words from Danny… Well, it was the first time the other man had admitted he felt something for someone.

“You mean there is someone? A serious someone?” He desperately wanted to ask who the man was that had Danny all fucked in the head and drinking the desire away every night. He wanted to know who had been lucky enough to garner Danny’s romantic interest so he could help the guy get his head out of his ass. Danny was special and deserved someone just as… Mal should know. He’d always wanted to be the man Danny fell in love with.

“Where the hell have you been? Of course there’s a serious someone. You think I like fucking a different ass every other week? Damn, Mal. I thought you of all people would…  Shit. I’m outta here.”

“I’ve been trying to get your ass outta here for ten minutes.” At Danny’s confused looked, Mal laughed and hoped he’d pulled it off as nothing more than friendly. “Last call, remember?”

end Snippet

(a little man candy for y’all since there’s no hot cover)

Now, please have a wonderful Saturday and make sure to drop in on the other authors participating in Snippet Saturday:

Megan Hart:Read in bed!
Rhian Cahill
Eliza Gayle
Mandy M Roth
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
HelenKay Dimon
Lauren Dane
Leah Braemel
Shiloh Walker
Shelli Stevens

~lissa

Cowboy Lust

A few months ago, author Delilah Devlin put out a call for cowboy stories to include in an anthology from Cleis Press. These were to be short stories and after some thought, I decided to write and submit one. I spent weeks on the 4500 word story. I spent days reading, revising, reading, revising, reading, etc… to get it just right, to get it perfect enough. Delilah writes awesome cowboys. I don’t ever pass up on of her cowboy books. Ever. She’s an amazing author who I admire more than words. I was able to spend some time with her at the Lori Foster con over the summer and I sat enthralled whenever she talked. I learned a lot from her in just a short period, so when she put out this call, I knew I had to try.

It paid off, this taking a chance thing. My story, Small Town Famous, will be included. It’s about a couple, Bethann and Tommy, who have been together since high school, who live in sin, who love each other fiercely, who are rather well known for their public sexual escapades. When a new girl comes to town and dares to lay a hand on Tommy, all hell breaks loose in the form of a shot gun, Bethann behind bars, and Tommy all kinds of turned on. It was a fun little story, inspired by Miranda Lambert’s song, Famous in a Small Town.

The title of the anthology is Cowboy Lust and it will be available come Fall 2012.

Other authors include Cari Quinn, Cat Johnson, Delilah Devlin, Cheyenne Blue, and Charlene Teglia. For a full list of authors and for the full write up of the book’s introduction, click here to be taken to Delilah’s blog.

I am so excited!

Oh, and we have 23 days left before the release of Twisted Up!

Have a great Sunday!

~lissa

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