So, one of my readers, Lynda, emailed me and asked if I was no longer doing Snippet Saturday. Well, for the month of May, I’m not. Most of you that have been with me for a while know how utterly busy May is for me. You know my mother comes to visit for two weeks (whereupon there is a lot of drinking done by me), both my of my kids celebrate birthdays in May, there are two weekends of NASCAR racing that I MUST attend so… It’s a hectic month for me and I needed to take a break from Snippet Saturday.

Which brings up another point. I don’t blog near as often as I should. Even if it’s just Man Candy, I know I need to put something up for y’all.

I also know how much y’all are wanting new books to come out. I’m wanting new books to come out. For those of you that do not know yet, I have turned in Twisted Up, my cowboy book, to my Samhain Publishing editor. She said it would take her a few weeks to read and respond. If, by chance, she doesn’t like it or want it, I’m not yet sure where I will send it or even if I will send it. I am looking into self-publishing some books and I’ll tell you why…

If Samhain likes my book and wants to contract it, we are looking at probably the end of the year before it could come out. That’s a long time. They may tell me it can’t come out until next year… Which, I have to say, I would likely do something else with it.

Any Loose Id book I turn in will likely not be out until the end of the year or next year, as well. And those books wouldn’t hit Amazon or Barnes and Noble for MONTHS after.

Ellora’s Cave, a little brighter picture there with releases, but the distribution prices KILL me.

I love my publishers, but I have to take it all into consideration. I know that my loyal readers and fans will buy my books no matter where I publish and I can’t thank y’all enough for that. Believe me, y’all mean as much to me and my books mean to you. Of course, none of this means that I’m not working on the next race car book, or the next book following Ink Spots. I am working hard on all sorts of books.

At present, I am working on a short book titled Trouble In The Making. It is a reunion story about a guy I went to high school with. Again, this I am considering for self-publishing. I will be able to control things myself and get it out in a relatively short amount of time. After which, I am going to be, hopefully, working on the third Blue Jeans book about Blue and Cort.

I am sorry that I had to take a break from writing a while back. Writing is something I love and adore, but it was not loving and adoring me back. I needed to step away and let it work itself out. Now that I am writing again, I am loving it more than ever and I have grown as a writer. However, I know taking that little break has cost me place and position and calendar dates and likely some readers.

The writing is better, more fulfilling, easier to manage now. I have enlisted the help of some friends for advice and just general venting when it’s needed. These women have been invaluable to me.

And I told Lynda that I would post a snippet from Twisted Up for you and so I shall. Below. What I need you to remember is that it is unedited, unproofed, and any issues you find will be taken care of in edits. So, please don’t hold it against me…

Twisted Up snippet:

Ella rolled over and spied the rather large cup of coffee. As she looked at it from her position on the bed and then inched up closer on her belly, she realized it wasn’t a cup at all, but a soup bowl with a handle. She wondered for a moment if it would be considered ‘Texas size’?

“What a sweet, wonderful man,” she intoned aloud to the empty room.

Sitting up, she propped a pillow against the solid wood headboard and reached for the coffee. From her current angle, the bowl wasn’t much smaller than the tray it sat on. There were two shot glasses of creamer and a spoon as well. She couldn’t have been more touched and the sudden emotion that clogged her throat and made her chest ache …

She blinked her eyes rapidly, swearing she had something in them before actually picking up the cup and one of the shot glasses. Emptying one, she swirled the cream through the coffee and tasted, screwing up her face at the still too strong flavor and emptied the second shot glass of cream.

Yes, a bowl, giant cup, huge mug required four full ounces of cream instead of just two. She took a sip and let the caffeine and sugar do their magic on her still tired and not quite awake system. As she became more aware of things, the silence in the house being the biggest thing. Where was he?

Being that his bedroom was a loft, no sound came from downstairs. It didn’t surprise her that nothing had awoken her while she slept being as tired and worn out as she was. She also had to take into account that her limbs had been like jell-o after sex and orgasms. She felt the aches now though.

However, the silence was beginning to make her nervous. She didn’t know why exactly. She was used to being alone and it had never bothered her before, but for some reason, maybe because she was in a house that wasn’t her own, she didn’t have that same peace that solitude usually brought in its wake.

She slid her leg over to the side of the bed he’d slept on and it was cold as ice. He must have been up for a few hours and looking around, she didn’t see a clock anywhere, but she did see her purse sitting in a ladder back chair in the corner. Her suit case sat against the loft railing. She’d bet her laptop bag was somewhere around, too and if she looked on the floor beside the bed … Yep, her bunny slippers sat there, waiting for her feet to slide on in.

That thing was back in her eyes again making her blink rapidly to get it out.

She lay in his bed, drinking the coffee he’d made for her, feeling the aches in her body and the light ache in her neck where he’d held her down. It felt like a bruise and she’d be curious to see if there was one, but she doubted it. He didn’t squeeze hard enough but the slight tenderness when she touched where his thumb had been … She smiled.

God, she loved the way he pinned her down, held her. It was possession of her.

They’d toyed with some light control play over the months of meeting. He’d tied her up, but so loosely she could get out with little more than a twist of her wrist. He’d spanked her a bit, enough for it to sting, not enough for it to mark. But the kiss before she’d left the room the last time to head home had been tender and rough by turns, possessive and freeing, too. He’d pushed her up against the hotel room door and gripped her throat in his hand, pressing his body so hard into her that it had lifted her up on her toes.

She’d felt his hold on her all the way home that day and every day since. She had no idea what she was doing here with him now, what pipedream she might be living or buying into. Sure, they’d gotten along well and they had a sexual chemistry that defied anything in her previous experience, before and including her ex.

Those feelings, those desires, those pleasures were things her life had been missing since she’d married and she hadn’t realized it, hadn’t realized exactly what she was missing, what her mind and her gut had been trying to tell her before she walked down the aisle …

Justin had shown her, had opened her eyes. First through words, then through actions. She’d hadn’t ever imagined she could have a life with him, and she still didn’t know if it was possible. There were questions and obstacles and their ages and …. How much did all that baggage matter? He knew her shit, all of it. She knew his too, or at least most of it. And she knew if she brought up the age difference to him, he’d tan her hide until she couldn’t sit.

They’d never discussed the … she had to count it out on her fingers, the ones not holding the coffee … ten or eleven year gap between their birthdays, but it hadn’t bothered her before and she couldn’t think of a reason for it to bother her now, other than maybe because she was in his bed, all the way in Dallas because he’d gone to get her and bring her back.

And that he’d gone to Birmingham for her …. He’d been right though. She wouldn’t answer him with more than general statements. She wouldn’t talk to him about personal stuff anymore. She kept putting him off about how she was really feeling, what she was really thinking and their friendship, their relationship was worth more than that. He’d always allowed her and encouraged her to talk about anything and she’d shut him out. The only choices he’d had was to either let her be or show up on her doorstep.

But she’d never thought he’d actually take the latter option. It wasn’t like she’d said ‘put up or shut up’. No, she hadn’t said anything at all and in his mind, she was worth trying to salvage something.

No guy had ever come after her, ever chased her, ever thrown her over his shoulder like a caveman. No guy had ever brought her coffee in bed.

“Damn,” she whispered.

She flipped back the sheet and slid her feet into her slippers before setting the coffee down on the tray. She felt a little nervous walking across the loft naked, but that was the only way to get to the bathroom and then her suitcase. Besides, if anyone walked into the house that wasn’t Justin, well, they’d sure get an eyeful.

Once some necessities were taken care of, she got dressed in one of only two sets of casual clothes she packed. One set consisted of a pair of brown slacks, a pair of bronze sandals, and a creamy white camisole with a short sleeved matching, light weight sweater with pearl buttons. The other set was a pair of yoga pants and top for her daily sessions of yoga and pilates. Beyond that, she didn’t pack for anything other than work or sleep.

She had no idea what to do, what to put on to go looking for him, but standing there naked looking down into her suitcase wasn’t helping. Making up her mind to don the brown pants and white sweater outfit, she quickly went back to the bathroom for a shower before getting dressed. She wrapped her towel dried hair up in a pony tail and brushed her teeth, debating on whether a little make-up was called for or not.

“Gonna have to get you some boots for around here. Can’t have you walking in sandals and heels all the time.”

She yelped and her hand flew to the flesh over her heart. She hadn’t heard him coming, hadn’t heard … Her gaze immediately began to take him in. Damn, he looked good all dirty and sweaty in faded jeans that looked about worn through in all the right places and a dark blue t-shirt with faded writing on the front. A tan cowboy hat was plastered to his head and his brown boots were scuffed with dirt and scrapes and well worn. He was every inch a cowboy. “What about bunny slippers?”

“Nah, we’ll save those. You like to wear those when we fuck.”

His outright crudeness should have probably shocked her, but it didn’t. “Yeah okay. Plus, don’t want to get them dirty.”

“No more than they already are after last night. Probably made the poor bunnies blush.”

“Eh.” She shrugged. “They’re bunnies. They’re used to such things.”

He grabbed her by the waist and hauled her up against his sweaty, dirty body. “They better not have seen any action before us last night.”

Have a great day, y’all!

~lissa