I think the question I most often
field from readers is “Where do you get your ideas?” There’s no simple
answer. My ideas begin from a tiny
little start or seed and grow. I call
them ‘story starts’ and I have more starts than I do time to see if they will
grow into a story or a novel.
My new
release, Heart of the Ozarks, has a
back story, one easy to share with readers without getting them lost in my
tangled family tree branches or confusing them much.
Growing up, my paternal grandparents
headed off to the Ozark Mountains, to a lakeside resort on Lake Taneycomo to
enjoy the slower pace and the beautiful scenery. Sometimes their favorite grandkid (well, I
like to think I was, anyway) got to tag along and skip in the quiet place, big
chance from the old neighborhood. So with those memories tucked away in the back
of my mind, when I came up with a character from St. Louis who needed a place
to go, to heal after a tragedy, I came up with a resort called Lake Dreams. I put Cole – my hero – on the highway and the
story began to build momentum, just the way we travel, one mile at a time. Somewhere along the way my past merged with
the storyline and a few elements from more recent stays at other resorts crept
into the mix too.
Here’s the blurb and a short
excerpt….along with a couple of pictures.
One is the cabin where I once stayed with my grandparents back in the
day, another is taken at a resort where my family and I stayed a few years ago
on Taneycomo, and the last is the amazing book cover, another triumph from
cover artist extraordinaire Carl J. Franklin!
Heart
of the Ozarks
Contemporary
romance/drama Ebook
ISBN:
RIP 0001112
Rebel
Ink Press $5.99
Blurb:
After St. Louis TV
weathercaster Cole Celinksi loses his almost estranged wife and three children
in a car crash, his boss orders him to take a leave of absence. Against his will, Cole leaves the city in
late May to find the rest and relaxation everyone else thinks he needs. Without
anywhere else to go, Cole heads for Lake Dreams, a resort on the quiet side of
Lake Taneycomo in the Ozarks he visited each summer as a child with his
grandparents. Some of his best memories
were made in the lakeside vacation haven with his summer friend, Maggie.
Upon his arrival, Cole learns Maggie now runs the place. Twenty years have passed but from the minute
he returns, they reconnect and soon their mutual attraction ignites. He fishes in the lake, takes Maggie to visit
some of the places he remembers and begins to find out who he truly is. Before
he can heal, he must learn to deal with his loss and to see if he can create a
new family with Maggie and her children. It’s a task he’s not sure he can
handle but if he wants to be with Maggie, he must. A near tragedy brings them
all together into a close knit unit and afterward, Cole may be able to make his
dreams reality.
Excerpt:
“Then start with tonight,” she
breathed, an invitation if he’d ever heard one.
He took three steps and enveloped
her in his arms, very aware of just how little she wore. Cole leaned down and connected his mouth to
hers. Her lips molded to his, warm and
sweet and her arms wrapped about his neck to draw him even closer. Desire, as electric as lightning, flared between
them and although he ached to hurry, Cole decided to go slow and savor the
experience.
So he kissed her with precision,
with lingering anticipation and evoked a response he liked. Cole craved more so he lowered his lips from
her mouth to throat where he nibbled with delicate little bites. By the way she moaned and moved, he thought
she liked what he did. Cole enjoyed it
too. Each little taste propelled shivers
through him, each one like a shuddering chill but with a physical pleasure
rocking him hard. The flavor of her
night sweat tasted salty against his tongue but he savored the she-woman aroma
he inhaled even more.
Cole lowered the straps of her
nighty so he could kiss her shoulder and brush the freckles there with his
mouth. Maggie shivered and without
knowing quite how, he stripped the gown from her body. The thin cotton fell to the kitchen floor as
he cupped her full, lovely breasts in both hands. “Beautiful,” he whispered as he put his mouth
over one nipple and suckled just enough to make it bloom, hard and tight. Maggie whimpered as he did and the sound of
her pleasure intensified his. His
fingers caressed the flat smoothness of her abdomen, the slight curve of her
lower belly. Against his rough
fingertips her skin’s softness seemed as fragile as cobwebs but beneath the
veneer her body heat burned. If he
didn’t know better, he’d swear she had a fever but this heat wasn’t from
illness. This fire came from internal
combustion.
He fingered the soft curly hair
above her cunt with the same reverence he would show for something precious but
it wasn’t until her fingers jerked at the zipper of his jeans Cole remembered
he still wore clothing. He wanted them
off now and yearned to be skin to skin with Maggie so after she unzipped his
pants he kicked them off with one swift motion.
When she hooked the edge of his briefs with one hand his heartbeat
increased until the beats made a staccato rhythm in his chest. Maggie pulled them down and he stepped out of
them, sure she’d hear the wild drumming of his heart.
Cole’s already hard cock stiffened
more when Maggie grasped it with one hand and squeezed with just the right
amount of pressure. At the rush of sheer
physical rapture she caused he thought he’d fall down on the floor with the
wave of response but instead he managed to pull off his khaki shirt, tearing away
at least two of the buttons in the process.
He heard them ping against the kitchen floor but he didn’t care. He owned other shirts and if necessary, Cole
figured he might be able to sew them back on anyway.
Maggie pressed against him, hand
still cupping his cock and he almost ejaculated too soon at the sensation of
her skin against his, even more erotic than he’d imagined. She raked her nails down his back at the same
time and Cole groaned aloud.
“Like that?” Maggie said, a grin
emerging from the look of rapture on her face.
“Love it,” he managed to spit
out. Need roared within until he decided
the hell with going slow. He’d savored
all he could stand now he’d feast. Cole
backed Maggie up against the kitchen table, lifted her ass enough to make her
cunt accessible and entered her with a sudden, sharp thrust. He plunged in deep and cried aloud wordlessly
as her tight box fit around him. The
first of the spirals began, circles of carnal delight radiating out from where
they joined to consume him with intense pleasure. Maggie clung to him as if he were a life
preserver out on a turbulent lake and made small sounds he found
gratifying. She gasped and then shrieked
like a banshee. Her outcry brought him
over the edge and into the starburst of passion, the ultimate come
experience.
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