Blind Speed Dating #52 (Adult)

Title:  POSITIVELY ANONYMOUS

Genre:  New Adult Contemporary

Word Count:  56,000

Query:

Small town waitress Tanya Rivers has just received unthinkable news: she’s HIV positive.  Unable to accept responsibility for the mistake that infected her, she tries to avoid scrutiny by keeping her diagnosis under wraps.    

Even in 1993, Boniface, IL –located east of St. Louis and south of everywhere exciting—has remained untouched by an epidemic decimating the rest of the world.  That’s what Tanya thinks, until she begins attending a local support group.

The participants are surprisingly diverse, and at first Tanya isn’t sure she has anything in common with them.  As she begins to understand their difficulties and relate them to her own experience with AIDS, Tanya feels more comfortable with her new acquaintances than her lifelong friends.  The group helps her cope with the disease, even as her mysterious behavior confuses those closest to her.  

Between regular meetings and crippling side effects from the medications keeping her alive, Tanya fears it’s only a matter of time before someone uncovers her secret.  The question is: how can the people she cares about come to terms with the illness she refuses to acknowledge?        

First 250:

My name is Tanya Rivers and I’m HIV positive.  That’s how it will all begin.  Say you’re HIV positive, and most people here need a moment to figure out what you mean.  Use the word AIDS and there’s instant understanding, not to mention fear.

Then again, HIV has different connotations.  Maybe you’re on medication, handling your disease to the best of your ability.  No longer a total risk to society. Having AIDS—especially in 1993 in small town Boniface, IL—means you’re dying.  Horribly, in most cases, a drain on the health care system and a burden to everyone around you.  Nobody wants to think about that.

For the past week, I’ve been doing my best not to.  Strange how that length of time spans both an eternity and the blink of an eye.  If it weren’t for my nosy best friend Delia, I could go on pretending.  Instead, I’m forced into a different charade, where I have to act like I’m done with the first stage of the grieving process.

I’m late for an important meeting, stuck in the kind of traffic Boniface only has when I need to be somewhere.  Behind the wheel of my old Chevy, I can’t do much more than adjust the volume on our one good radio station and curse the drivers inching through the light on the edge of downtown.

Downtown always reminds me of skyscrapers and crowds and stores, things I’ve only seen in Chicago or St. Louis a handful of times.

Blind Speed Dating #51 (Adult)

Title: TO CATCH A FETCH

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Word Count: 90,000

Query:

When real estate photographer Devyn Cartwright stumbles across the path of a bare-chested and barefoot Ronan Evans, she knows one thing: the man has secrets. Okay, maybe two things: he's also effin' hot.  So when he offers her the job of her dreams, Devyn—both her lust and curiosity piqued—accepts. Not long after making her deal with the devil she learns a third thing about Ronan: the hot, secretive man is also batshit crazy.

Ronan isn't crazy—he's a ghost hunter. His job is not so much to hunt ghosts down, but rather, as he puts it, "to catch and release." A member of The Society, an ancient order devoted to the study and protection of the spirit world, Ronan uses his paranormal abilitiy to aid souls trapped between the physical and spiritual realms. Lately though, his main occupation is to stop a group of renegade hunters. Called Poachers, these ex-hunters attack trapped souls. They devour a spirit's integral energy—sucking the being dry until nothing is left. Ronan has sworn to do everything he can to put an end to the Poachers and their horrific practice.

His efforts lead him to an abandoned Pennsylvania estate, and a mouthy photographer with hair like moonlight. From the first moment he sees Devyn, Ronan knows there is more to her than meets the eye. He senses an aura about her, the kind one feels when near another person with paranormal abilities. If true, it’s his responsibility to recruit her for the Society. He decides more observation is needed, but admits his decision is not altogether altruistic…after all, it’s hard for him to be objective when other parts of him are, well, hard.

Even though the attraction is undeniably mutual, Devyn does her best to deny her feelings. After all, what kind of sick, messed-up woman desires a man with enough nuts in his noggin to host his own cocktail party? The problem is, the more Devyn gets to know Ronan, the less nuts he seems. If Ronan is sane, Devyn can ditch her guilt for lusting after a crazy person. However, if he's sane, she must accept he could be right about her...and his belief she has paranormal abilities too.

Smart, sexy, and a little spooky, TO CATCH A FETCH is The Ghost Whisperer meets The Black Dagger Brotherhood and recently placed first in the paranormal category of the RWA Heart of Denver's Molly Contest.

First 250:

Devyn Cartwright stood on the porch steps of the abandoned Victorian house and inspected her future. Opportunity hadn't knocked, it had handed her the damn key. Now, as the last fragments of dusk died away, she clutched the home’s antique key in her hand, its engraved edges scraping the sensitive skin of her palm.

 The heavy oak door opened on silent hinges that belied their age. Devyn stepped inside and heard the door snick closed behind her. She reached out to feel for a light switch along the foyer wall. Layers of thick shadows cloaked the rooms to her right and left, making it difficult to discern more than the most basic outlines of cloth-draped furnishings.

 Lots of cloth-draped furnishings. Her pulse jumped. Some women went crazy for purses or shoes, but Devyn’s obsession was houses, specifically nineteenth-century homes and period furniture. The lure of an abandoned mansion was temptation enough, but the fact it was rumored to be stuffed to its rafters with authentic pieces made the house too good to resist. She had taken one look at the vintage key in her boss’s hand and canceled her last photo shoot of the day.

Maybe I should have asked a few more questions before hauling ass out here—like did the house have working utilities? Her fingers brushed against the rounded edges of a modern light switch and she sighed with relief.

Several futile flicks later she muttered her third favorite curse word.

Blind Speed Dating #50 (Adult)

Title: LIES OF THE BALL

Genre: Historical Fiction

Word Count: 87,000

Query:

She’s a runaway slave.

The man she loves has the power to destroy her.

Southern beauty Mercedes Albright lives in the prettiest plantation house Mississippi has to offer. She hosts the most beautiful parties in the entire South, and dances as though she were the belle of the ball. Mercedes is the most eligible bachelorette in town. And she has a secret that if ever found out, it would ruin her for the rest of her life.

Mercedes devises her own careful laid plans that put her in good standing with the wealthy socialites of Vicksburg. To her downfall, the man she falls desperately in love with is the man whose father sold her mother years before at the slave market. Mercedes was bought by another man and sent to live in another town.

Returning to the place of her birth, Mercedes has only one thing in mind: revenge on the family who stole her childhood and ripped her mother from her arms. She never intended to fall in love with her enemy. She never expected he would learn her true identity. Now, she’s on the run again, but this time, it’s for a different reason.

Lies Of The Ball is an 87,000 word historical fiction set during the Civil War era, based on true events.

First 250:

Tangled undergrowth and briars scraped at Mercedes’s leg and snagged her dress. The woods closed in on her, twisting and turning the overhead branches into ghostly silhouettes. Climbing vines wrapped around the swamp dogwoods creating a canopy above her, blocking even the small slivers of moonlight. Something slimy brushed against her arm and she clamped her hand over her mouth to muffle a scream.

Wood smoke filled the damp air and squinting her eyes, Mercedes made out the flames of a small fire sputtering through the thick brush. She began to run away but tripped on a half-rotted log and fell into a clearing. The men on the other side stood in a circle, spewing filthy words.

“He won’t run no more,” one man said, throwing his head back in dark laughter.

Shadows danced across the ground and looking up, Mercedes froze in fright. A slave hung from a rope.

Sparks flew up as embers fell from his kicking feet. His piercing scream sliced through the smoky air and bounced off the overhanging, moss covered branches. No crickets. No rustling leaves. Nothing but screams. Agonizing, sad shrieks of pain mixed with cries for help.

Mercedes curled into a ball. She pinched her eyes closed and pressed her hands over her ears to shut out the horrible sounds.

Trembling.

Suffocating.

Retching.

When she finished, a twig snapped behind her. The night stood still for a moment. A cold hand squeezed down on her shoulder and jerked her off the ground.

Blind Speed Dating #49 (Adult)

Title: PINNING THE MAP


Genre: Romantic Suspense

Word Count: 65,000

Query:

Erin Wilson makes careful plans and color codes her leftovers. She certainly doesn’t throw herself into risky relationships. But when her past fantasies flare to life in the smile of Professor Paul Gibson, Erin can’t help but reach for that tantalizing missed opportunity.

Paul turns her on, then turns her down, but invites her to go to Turkey. His rambunctious ward needs a watchful eye, and Erin has always wanted to travel.

However, when the plane touches down in Istanbul, trouble begins. Paul departs for the countryside, leaving Erin alone with her charge. Three year old Sam is a handful, but his estranged relatives and contentious inheritance prove to be bigger concerns, when a week meant for breezy sightseeing takes a sinister, unforeseen turn.

Sam disappears, and Erin must rely on an enigmatic stranger for help. Tariq Al-Rafeed is maddening, mysterious, and unnervingly handsome. He also has ties to the kidnappers.

In love with a man she can’t have, and drawn to a man she can’t trust, Erin might be headed for disaster. 

In the tradition of Mary Stewart and M.M. Kaye, Pinning the Map unites intrigue and action with stirring romance, setting it all against the beguiling backdrop of contemporary Istanbul.

First 250:  

Erin was mortified. Horrified. Epically humiliated. She was too embarrassed to move. Her backside smarted, her pride was demolished, and the shabby contents of her dripping tote were strewn across the library’s marble floor. A motley collection of damp receipts clung to the half eaten granola bar that had been her dinner. Dried up ink pens rattled past her mud stained mini pruning shears.

Erin closed her eyes, hoping that if she couldn’t see him, the man whose foot she had just impaled with her sodden leather pump would find her invisible too.

“Are you okay, hon?” A security guard rushed over in alarm.  “I told maintenance to put up a wet floor sign.”  Erin winced as the guard’s lug sole boot mashed the remains of her granola bar, trailing gooey residue and flapping receipts across the polished tiles. 

“I'm fine, I'm fine. Thank you,” Erin mumbled, her cheeks scarlet. Reaching for the battered paperback romance novel that had landed near her knee, she quickly stuffed the hero’s bared chest and the heroine’s heaving bosom back into the safety of her purse. 

“She should be asking if I'm fine,” remarked deep voice from behind. A strong arm swooped down to steady Erin while she got to her feet. “I could sue for assault, battery and broken toes,” the man’s voice continued, dripping with mock indignation.

Taking a deep breath, Erin turned and looked straight into a brilliant pair of merry blue eyes. A shockingly familiar pair of merry blue eyes. Erin’s heart vaulted to her throat.

Blind Speed Dating #48 (Adult)

Title: THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS SNUFFED

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Word Count: 82,000

Query:

Local artist and church choir soprano Dez Werner turns amateur sleuth when a former eco-terrorist is murdered at a popular burger joint. 

But in the not-so-average town of Amaia, Arizona, where the world’s master criminals have come to retire and “get away from it all”, Dez has her work cut out for her.  With a mob hit man turned restaurateur, KGB agent turned librarian and so many other former felons, an investigation suspect list consists of, well, the town phone book.  The only exceptions are Dez and her two friends – a pastor’s wife with a foul-mouthed parrot and a shoe-obsessed choir director.  These three younger members of the church choir are the only women in town without a criminal history… unless lusting after a neighbor’s shoes is a crime.

As a menacing group of strangers lurks about and the victim’s family threatens to bring police into the town of former, high-profile criminals, everybody’s on edge.  The ex-bootlegger mayor decides to find the killer through the application of baseball bat to kneecaps, but Dez opts for a more humane approach.  To protect the kneecaps of all Amaians and to prevent a generally unwelcome visit from the real police, she and her friends volunteer to investigate.

With droll wit, friendship and a possibly unhealthy love for shoes on their side, Dez and her sleuthing sidekicks set off on an adventure to unmask a murderer and save the day… and not die in the process.

THE SQUEAKY WHEEL GETS SNUFFED is a completed 82,000-word cozy mystery.  It’s the first of a planned mystery series, but the book can also stand as a single title.  Wholesomeness tempered with a splash of irreverence, this story features loveable, fun characters and entertaining banter that should appeal to fans of Krista Davis’ Domestic Diva mystery series and Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs. Murphy books.  Though the main characters are a part of a church choir, the book is not overtly “churchy” and does not present religious storylines.  

First 250:

It’s strange how choir practice breeds lunacy.  Dez Werner had been there for the past half hour, and she was ready to throw her songbook at the next person to arrive late.  It wasn’t that Dez really cared whether or not others were tardy, but if she’d known ahead of time, she could’ve spent thirty more minutes painting or drawing, or she could have at least brought a puzzle.  Now she sat… and waited... without even a sketchbook.  It was enough to drive the artist mad.

The evening’s most recent arrival was Berkeley, who strutted straight into the practice room and held up his hands as if to quiet the already quiet group.

“I have an announcement,” he said importantly.  “Jillian Harris is back in town.”

Berkeley’s words were met with gasps and sighs, and Dez immediately forgave his tardiness.  This was news.  This was big.  After all, everyone had known Jillian Harris. 

“Wait, who’s Jillian Harris?” asked Vicki, the choir director, amid the gasps and sighs.

Almost everyone had known Jillian Harris.  But Vicki was relatively new to Amaia, Arizona and was as yet unacquainted with much of the town’s history, which might also be called “gossip”.

“She was a pain in the…” Lex Pragner stopped short and cleared his throat.  He owned and operated the Arbogast Inn and sometimes spent so much time alone there that he forgot his manners.  But he remembered them just in time.  His gray eyes sparked as he self-edited his comment.  “She was a handful.”