BFFs

I love friends.

I love my friends, I love reading about friends, I love watching friends interact.

So when I started planning my novella trilogy, The Girls Most Likely To,  I knew that the friendship Tess, Bree, and Kelsey share was vital to the storylines. Although each book is about the journey to love for a different couple, the thread that holds them together is the friendship of these women who've known each other for so many years.

They share each other's memories, in a way. They remember the crushes, the inside jokes, the little details that make them individuals. They know what matters and what's fluff. And it's their friendship that helped shape them into the people they are today.

So even though the word count is limited in a novella, I included scenes where the three of them interact, whether the guys are around or not. (Although it does get interesting when they're included!) Because I know when dramarama happens in my own life, my friends have got my back. No way would these three leave each other to navigate the treacherous waters of their reunion alone.

Yeah, they snark and complain and are sometimes a little thoughtless. But in the end, they're there for each other. And that's what really counts, doesn't it?

Who Says You Can't Go Home?

Last year, I went to my high school reunion. (No, I'm not going to tell you which one.) I think it was my favorite of the reunions we've had, simply because it was so relaxed and casual. No expensive dinner-dance, no posturing and working to impress - we just hung out, shared stories, and enjoyed being together.

I know not all reunions are like that. I think we're lucky, in my class, that we genuinely like each other. I worked in the same school district years later, and even then staff would tell me that our class had a reputation for being nice. It's a good reputation to have, isn't it?

So when I sat down to write The Girls Most Likely To series, I had my classmates in mind - people who aren't perfect, but who care for and support each other. That's the tight bond that Kelsey, Bree and Tess share. And when it comes to breaking the "yearbook curse", they know they can depend on each other to be there throughout it all.

(And a note to my high school friends - don't worry, your secrets are safe with me!)

(With Abby and Guy, at the reunion...)

They're The Girls Most Likely To...

Ten years ago, Kelsey, Bree, and Tess were inseparable. Best friends forever, they'd spent their senior year on top of the world. But right after graduation, everything changed.

The yearbook curse hit them, and hit them hard.

Kelsey, voted Most Likely To Succeed, instead found herself trapped by circumstances in the one place she'd always dreamed of escaping—her hometown. Anne, one-half of Silverton High School's Cutest Couple, learned the hard way that young love doesn't always turn out the way you want it to. And Tess, Silverton’s Life of the Party, ends up stuck in the friend zone longer than she’d ever anticipated.

Now it's time for their class reunion. Kelsey knows catching up with classmates who'd found the success she never achieved is going to be torture, but she can't stay away—especially when the news spreads that her former lab partner and secret crush might be there as well. Tess couldn't miss it even if she wanted to—she's chairing the reunion committee, after all.  And Bree hopes that finally she'll learn why her high school sweetheart was able to remove himself from her life so completely, taking her heart with him.

One weekend. One hometown. One chance to break the yearbook curse, and finally prove they really are The Girls Most Likely To...

Book One, Most Likely To Succeed, comes out March 25. You can preorder it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Carina.

Putting the Steam in Steampunk

So the A Clockwork Christmas steampunk anthology releases today and I'm still in a state of partial disbelief over the fact that my novella was chosen to be part of this fantastic collection in the first place. I guess I shouldn't be, given all the excellent help, encouragement and advice I got from the Naughties while I was writing it, but I still have to pinch myself occasionally to be sure I'm not just dreaming. Lucky for me, the tattoos have been doing a real good job of concealing all the bruises. lol! Okay, just kidding about that. Mostly.


But really, it wasn't all that long ago that I didn't even know what steampunk was and I think that's part of what fuels my continued disbelief....that and the fabulous company I've found myself in. Again. My antho sisters are awesome. Do I have great luck in author groups, or what? I love this anthology. It contains four stories guaranteed to steam up anyone's winter's night--in more ways than one!


And since both the anthology and my own story were such group efforts, I've decided to talk about all the stories here today, instead of just my own.  So bear with me, this might get a little long (oh, like that would surprise anyone!) 


I've written about all the stories on my own blog in the past few days as well. You might want to check that out, if you haven't already, since I've got a bit of a giveaway going on over there too. But since I don't want to repeat myself, what I'm going to do here is simply share a really short excerpt from each one. Oh, and yeah,before I forget, I'll also be lurking around Erin's group today 'cause she was nice enough to include the antho in her holiday giveaway. So, be sure and stop by there as well. Now, on to the stories...


 First up is Stacy Gail's Crime Wave in a Corset. This story pretty much defines steampunk, in my opinion. It may also re-define holiday stories for me too. There are those who might think a holiday steampunk anthology is kind of "out there" as an idea, but that's just because they haven't read Crime Wave yet. I think it fits right in with any of Dickens' Christmas stories, for putting you in a mood of Christmas cheer. 

"Feverish heat swept over her like a strange, invisible fire. Her bones melted with it until she thought she might be glowing. Her world rocked like her steam-powered dumbwaiter did when it blew a gasket, and it took her a moment to realize it was because her knees were on the verge of taking a holiday. Instinct had her wrapping her arms around his shoulders so she wouldn't fall in a heap, but it was another instinct that had her fingers spearing through the cool silk of his golden brown hair. This new instinct was so powerful it demolished her rule of keeping her distance. In that moment, distance was the one thing she didn't want.

What she wanted was Roderick.

"Cornelia." She felt her name more than heard it, the merest disturbance of breath that nevertheless raged with a desire so fierce it would crush anything in its path. For a sweet moment stolen from the stream of time, she wallowed in the possibility he might be as overwhelmed by this seductive retribution as she. How wonderful it would be to explore this sensual fire Roderick ignited in her. He was such a driven, passionate man, and he knew her as well as she knew herself. She would never have to hide what she was from him; he already knew her every dirty little secret.

And he hated her for it."

Next, is my own story, This Winter Heart. I'm not entirely sure where my conscious mind goes when I plot my stories, because I know I didn't set out to write a "secret baby" story, it just happened. I'm glad it did, however, because I fell in love these characters and, as it happens, that "baby" forms a large part of their story.  

"It was not often she chose to tell her only child an outright lie, but in this case, what else could she do? Arthur would be more than a surprise to his father, he’d likely be an absolute shock. And, as Ophelia’s all-too-brief experience of the man had taught her, Dario Leonides did not respond well to shocks.


Influential, aristocratic, overly impulsive and completely impossible to reason with while in a temper, Dario could make it very difficult for her to enter the country if he chose, and if he had the chance to do so. Ophelia would very much rather he not get that chance.


She needed to speak with her husband in person. She needed to appeal to his better nature. She was sure he still had one, even if it had been years since he’d shown it to her. Most of all, she needed to win his cooperation. Even if she could no longer hope to win his love, at least he could give her that."




Jenny Schwartz' story, Wanted: One Scoundrel,  left me wanting to go back to Australia, and not just because apparently those lucky Aussies get to celebrate Christmas in both the summer AND the winter. I love stories that transport me to another time and place--and this one definitely does that!  I also love stories with handsome, intelligent and slightly mysterious heroes. Yum.


"Jed bit back a smile as he realised Miss Smith had pegged him as a con man, and far from disapproving, was offering him a better con, one with assured winnings. She wanted him to take up politics. He played along. "You said Captain Fellowes recommended me?"

She nodded

He adjusted the cuff of one sleeve. "Miss Smith, what exactly did you ask your uncle for?"

A delightful pink carnation colour flushed her cheeks. "A scoundrel."

"A scoundrel." He laughed. "You would trust your political venture to a scoundrel?"

"I intend to supervise you."

"My father would tell you I'm unmanageable."




Finally, we come to JK Coi's, Far From Broken, another story featuring an estranged couple trying to piece their marriage back together and one I'm pretty sure will break the heart of anyone who reads it--but in an awesomely good way. JK and I have been arguing a bit over whose story is the more heart-wrenching, but I think we'll have to let the readers decide...


"She didn't acknowledge him, but he watched a small shiver move through her and stifled a wince at her visible rejection. After a long moment, he realized he remained standing just inside the doorway like a dumbstruck idiot.

This wasn't the reunion he'd expected. He didn't know what he'd expected, but not this painful, absolute silence.

Suddenly, the barrier between them was so much greater than a physical door, as he'd believed only a few minutes ago out in the hall. The barrier between them was built out of anger and pain and guilt. He'd thought he could handle it, but now that he was here he realized how wrong he'd been. He didn't know what to do to bring the wall down."


And there you have it. Both the anthology itself and all the individual stories can be found at Carina Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance eBooks, Books On Board, and probably a bunch more places as well. Enjoy!