December Wedding

December Wedding

by Emelle Gamble

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Molly Harper is a movie star who fans think ‘has it all’. Cruz Morales is Molly’s true love, and he hates the media intrusions into their life. Molly and Cruz are going to have a baby. And throw a secret wedding for her brother Harry. What could go wrong? Read DECEMBER WEDDING, the sequel to DUETS and MOLLY HARPER, and find out if there really is a happy ever after for Molly and Cruz.

EXCERPT:

Molly Harper lay beside Cruz Morales in the darkened bedroom, finally drowsy as the familiar night sounds floated in on the Santa Barbara breezes. She was on her second set of counting backwards from 100 to fall asleep, forty-two, forty-one…

“Will you marry me, Molly?” Cruz asked, his voice husky and close.

“No.” She’d said no to him a hundred times the last year. He told her last Christmas Eve he was going to ask her the last thing every night for a year before he’d give up. Saying no had been easy. Though meaning it was getting a little more difficult.

“Why not?”

“You know why not. I love you too much to subject you to a wedding.”

Cruz sighed. “Lame reason, chica. No one I know would think that’s a good reason.”

“They would if they remembered I’m an actress whose life attracts the press like a tub of honey attracts bees. And bees sting. You know what a zoo our wedding would turn out to be.”

“Not if we got married at the courthouse in Taos, or at your home there. People can get hitched the same day they get the license in New Mexico. I checked. We could keep it a secret.”

“A secret?  You know that’s impossible. Someone at the courthouse would tell their friend, who would call the newspaper or People Magazine or tweet it to thirty thousand of their closest friends.”

“Are you sure we’re still interesting to other people? I think the gossip about us has cooled down. People seem more interested in royal babies and the Jolie-Pitt clan now.”

“That’s true. There were only two camera crews outside the restaurant where we ate last Friday.” Molly’s brain reran a few snippets of the last two years, all recorded and available on the internet. Cruz struggling to recover from the motorcycle accident that nearly killed him. Her movie star husband leaving her for another woman. Her ex and the other woman having a baby.

Mother’s death.

All events which were played out on the front page of newspapers and websites around the world.

“Please? I’ll put a ring on it tomorrow if you say yes.”

Molly took a rattling breath. Tonight’s discussion was quite a bit more protracted than the three hundred plus nights before. “No, thank you. I don’t need you to do anything more to prove you love me.”

In the midnight shadows, his generous mouth softened against the hard curves of his face. “I do love you. I’ve always loved you. Every single moment since I met you. Even when we were apart.”

“Did you, Cruz? Did you really even love me then?”

He touched her nose with his finger and cleared his throat, which he always did when he recited a favorite poem.

“i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) i  am never without it (anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling) i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)”

    

Molly’s eyes burned. “I melt when you recite love poetry, Professor Cruz. I hope you don’t do in class; all those cute girls will be trying to jump your bones.”

“I only recite for you, chica. I read e.e. cummings when I was recovering in the hospital. He brought you back to me.”

“Oh please,” she whispered. “Let’s not talk about those terrible times.”

“Why? They don’t matter now, they hardly mattered then. Once we got back together, I mean, the past was gone.”

“The past is never gone. It’s on Facebook and Entertainment Tonight.”

“No one looks at those things.”

That made her laugh, as he had hoped it would.

“Right. No one.” Molly embraced him, the sheets silky smooth, while Cruz was warm and hard, and then rolled onto her other side.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW:

1.How has being an author changed you?

It taught me, more than any other job or career endeavor I’ve made, how hard work at something you love is the very best way to spend your ‘work’ allocation of time.

2.What was your favorite scene in the book?

I love the scene when Cruz Morales gets ambushed by Molly Harper’s ex-husband, at the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I’ve visited that hotel and the area is gorgeous, and while Cruz doesn’t behave very well, it was very satisfying.

3,What event triggered you to become a writer?  Any major inspirations?

Since I was a pre-writer, I wanted to tell a story. Often, the same story…HA!...all about discovering who I was and where I came from. Molly Harper, in these series of novels – DUETS – MOLLY HARPER – and the final novella, DECEMBER WEDDING – does just that. It was very satisfying for me to work that out through the character of Molly, a beautiful and successful movie actress who knows that until she’s comfortable in her own skin, she’s not going to be any good to herself.

4.What’s the very best thing about being an author?

Telling a story. Touching people in some way. It is unbelievably gratifying to read an email or review and hear that someone cried or laughed or nodded their head and said, ‘this worked for me’. It the gift that makes all the hard work worth it. Oh, and answering the question, ‘what do you do?’ with the answer, “I’m a writer,” is also really, really cool.

Thank you Elaine for hosting this blog post. I hope your readers will share with me what genre they most like to read … and why!

 AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Emelle Gamble Bio : Emelle Gamble became a writer at an early age. As ‘M.L. Gamble,’ she published several romantic suspense novels with Harlequin Intrigue. She is now self-publishing and also working with Soul Mate Publishing  who have released  two romantic women’s fiction novels,  Secret Sister, in July of 2013, and Dating Cary Grant, an April 2014 release.

Always intrigued by the words ‘what if’,  Gamble’s books feature an ordinary woman confronted with an extraordinary situation.  Emelle celebrates the adventurous spirit of readers, and hopes each will enjoy the exciting and surprising journeys her characters take.

Emelle welcomes any reader interested in emailing her at emellegamble@aol.com  and hopes they will visit her website, www.EmelleGamble.com ,  her FaceBook page: https://www.facebook.com/Emelle.Gamble or follow her on Twitter @EmelleGamble.

Emelle will be awarding a $20 Amazon GC plus a digital copy of December Wedding to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during this tour and the Review Tour, here. A $25 Amazon GC will be awarded to a randomly drawn host also between the two tours. Use the rafflecopter link below to enter. You can find her schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/10/vbt-december-wedding-by-emelle-gamble.html

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Marvelous Are Thy Works

#marvalousarethyworks

 Marvelous Are Thy Works

Author: Meiah Shaun

Paperback: 120 pages

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 12, 2014)

ISBN-10: 1500398039 ISBN-13: 978-1500398033

Genre: Inspirational, Christian Fiction, Novella

About The Author

Meiah Shaun is an inspirational author and freelance writer. She is a graduate of LeTourneau University. She is a native of Orange, Texas and currently resides in Plano, Texas. Meiah Shaun is the author of Marvelous Are Thy Works, a novella. Meiah Shaun has a special interest in empowering African American women to self love and to embrace their natural hair. She and her twin sister rock Sisterlocks. Her fraternal twin sister is thirteen minutes older than her.

Meiah Shaun is featured on Ezinearticles.com as a platinum level author penning articles on numerous topics such as inspirational, spirituality, goal setting to shopping and product reviews. Meiah Shaun enjoys writing, reading, cooking, jazz music and making scrapbooks.

About The Book

Fatima, her best friend Lauryn and her cousin Sheba are natural hair stylist at All Natural Hair Salon in Washington, DC. Fatima wants to build a brand and invest into other business ventures for their salon. She desires to empower African American women by motivational speaking about the natural hair movement. She wants to travel nationally to spread her message. Lauryn and Sheba have rejected Fatima’s business proposal. They are going through different life events and are struggling to maintain their friendships while doing business together. Fatima’s boyfriend has not proposed after dating her for over five years. Fatima has to stand on her faith and follow her instincts as she moves into her destiny. Marvelous Are Thy Works is an inspirational story about natural hair empowerment, self love and relationships.

Chapter 1

All Natural Hair Salon’s busiest time was the first weekend of the month. Fatima made it to the salon at ten o’clock that morning. After parking her car in front of the salon, she noticed Lauryn and Sheba were already inside. The front window shades were pulled back and the lights were on.

“Good morning, ladies,” Fatima said as she walked through the door. “Good morning, Fatima,” Lauryn answered, while sashaying to her workstation in her high heels and locs pulled back into a lobster tail style. Always the diva, Lauryn appeared to be in a good mood and eager to work.

“Hey, girl, you finally made it in,” Sheba said as she sorted through her laundry bag of towels. Her hair was loose in a kinky and curly twist-out hairstyle. She was dressed comfortably in white skinny jeans.

“Are there any messages for me?” Fatima asked. “A young lady called to make an appointment. She requested a low maintenance hairstyle.” “What time did she call?” Fatima inquired. “She called a few minutes before you walked in,” Lauryn replied. “She said her name was Danielle Evans.”

“Did she leave her phone number?” “I put it on your desk,” she said. Fatima continued to her station so she could check her itinerary for the day. It was unusually free. “I’ll just work a half day and meet up with my honey later,” she told her co-workers.

Fatima then sat in her chair and started daydreaming about the day she would become Mrs. Ephraim Okoye. She could not wait to see him. “Ladies, what are your plans today?” Fatima questioned. “I have a couple of appointments for locs retightening, and I got a new client scheduled this morning. He’s a chef and new in town.” Lauryn smirked while doing a shimmy with her shoulders to show her excitement.

“A new male client? Girl, you be pullin’ the men,” teased Sheba. “I need to pull a husband.”

“Baby, I met my husband when I wasn’t even lookin’. I was minding my own business down at the Farmer’s Market and––”

Lauryn rolled her eyes. “Sheba, you’ve told that story so many times,” she said, cutting Sheba off and looking down at her iPad to show her disinterest in hearing it again. Sheba walked over to Lauryn and tapped her on the knee with her forefinger. “When you least expect it, that’s when you’re gonna meet him. It happened to me, girl!”

“I wish God would hurry up and send him!” Lauryn snipped. “Most married people forget what it’s like to be single, so it’s easy for them to tell someone else to be patient.” “That’s not true,” Sheba replied.

Fatima butted in. “Some women who are married have never had to experience being single for long.”

“Don’t you just hate that, girl?” Lauryn said. “Then they try to tell you to wait and have faith. Chile, please!”

Social Links

Tour hosted by: WNL Book Tours

Author Tour Schedule

Raging Blue

No Beyond the Book today. I'm on vacation. See you next week.

About The Author

Renee Daniel Flagler is an award-winning freelance journalist, teaching artist, and the award-nominated author of four novels, Mountain High Valley Low, Miss-Guided, In Her Mind and, Raging Blue. She teaches creative writing through public school’s Arts in Education programs. Renee resides in New York and is currently at work on her next novels, Still Raging, Society Wives and her first faith-based, nonfiction book entitled, The Relationship Survival Guide. Connect with Renee on Facebook, Twitter or online at ReneeDanielFlagler.com.

About The Book

Raging Blue is a contemporary romance by author, Renee Daniel Flagler. Blue Holiday has decided to call foul and leave her destructive marriage. But her cheating husband, Jaylin, decides he needs her money to survive and insists on a rematch. Usually, Blue would be game, but after discovering the depths of his depravity, she drops him from her roster of eligibles. Unaccustomed to rejection, especially from his wife, Jaylin decides to take what he feels is rightfully his. Problem is, he forgot a woman in love will put up with a lot. But a woman enraged, she’ll let you think you’re winning, just before she snatches it all.

Website: http://reneedanielflagler.com

Amazon Buy Link: http://amzn.to/1qL1jSn

Tour Hosted by WNL

Webstite: www.wnlbooktours.com

Follow The Tour: http://bit.ly/1nO9CXn

Good Faith by Liz Crowe

 

GOOD FAITH

By

Liz Crowe

 

BLURB:  

 

Strong personalities—volatile marriages—stressful careers—conflicting goals—difficult children.

 

Contemporary challenges facing close-knit families form the crucible that forges a new generation.

 

Brandis, Gabriel, Blair and Lillian emerge from the entanglement of their parents’ longstanding emotional connections, but one’s star will burn brighter – and hotter – than the others.

 

With a personality that consumes everyone and everything in its path, Brandis Gordon struggles to maintain control as he ricochets between wild success and miserable failure. His life proves how even the strongest relationships can be strangled by the ties that bind.

 

Brandis and Gabe Frietag are as close as any brothers, bound by both loyalty and fierce rivalry. The strength of their ultimate alliance is tested time and again by Brandis’ choices.

 

Companions from birth, Blair Frietag and Lillian Robinson share loner tendencies, but come to rely on each other through adolescence. As they mature, both are forced to confront their feelings for the men they knew as boys.

 

Somewhere between the tangle of good memories and bad, independence and addiction, optimism and despair, the intertwined destinies of the new generation finally collide, leaving some stronger, others broken, but none unscathed.

 

As a chronicle of three families navigating the minefields of teen years into the turbulence of young adulthood, Good Faith holds up a literary mirror to contemporary life with joys and temptations unflinchingly reflected. Its fresh, real-life voice portrays the sheer volatility of human nature, complete with the hopes, dreams, and unexpected setbacks of marriage, parenthood and “coming of age.”

 

 

Excerpt 1

 

That morning his father had roused him from a sound sleep. He’d blinked, confused, by the angle of the sunlight. He rarely slept much past eight since he usually had some sort of training or the other.

 “Let’s go son. Time for lunch.”

 Brandis had dragged himself up, his limbs feeling like they weighed a thousand pounds each. His brain buzzed with a strange sort of energy, his typical state, and not at all welcome considering it normally didn’t hit him until later in the day. The conversation his father began as soon as they were seated at their usual diner did not help.

 “So, listen, Brandis. These girls…Katie’s friends from college….”

 Brandis sipped his ice water, waiting for his father to finish the thought. His heart pounded, and his face flushed hot with embarrassment.

 Jack sighed, as if exasperated that Brandis didn’t pick up the thread on his own, leaving him to carry on with the awkwardness about to ensue. Then he leveled his gaze, his face open, not angry or judgmental. “I think that you may be in for some…I mean, they’re…shit.”

 “If you are gonna tell me where babies come from again,” Brandis said, after deciding to ease his father’s obvious distress. He cocked an eyebrow and half a smile. Jack seemed to relax somewhat as Brandis continued. “Don’t bother. I already know.”

 He flashed his brightest smile up at the middle-aged woman who stood at their table, coffee pot in hand. She blinked rapidly at him, and at that precise moment, Brandis got his first flash of…something…about his power. Up until now he’d merely been “Brandis the trouble maker, the causer of strife.” Suddenly, he felt strong, amazingly so, stronger than even the man sitting across from him, a taller, older version of himself. His body tingled all over, as he tested the smile out again on the woman, making her slop some coffee out onto the table. His father frowned, but then chuckled as the woman walked away after they gave their orders.

 “Son,” he said, leaning back and cradling the coffee mug to his chest. “Your adventure has only just begun.”

 “Huh?” Brandis picked up his cup but didn’t drink any. He hated coffee, but had ordered it in a burst of need to be more like Jack. As he sipped the bitter stuff, he was transported back years before when he and his dad would spend every single Saturday morning together, eating breakfast at this very diner. He had adored the man, he remembered distinctly. His chest hurt at the simplicity of their relationship then. He looked away from Jack’s deep blue, knowing gaze.

 The subject changed of its own accord, and Brandis let it. Although part of him wanted to ask for advice, a much bigger part would not allow the words past his lips.

 They ate, discussing the upcoming football season and Brandis’ part in it. The recruiting company Jack had contracted last year to video his every move would start up with the first game. He’d made varsity again, technically as backup quarterback to a senior boy. Brandis didn’t see this as a setback and had every intention of starting under center by the second or third game.

 Finally, when they pushed their empty plates back and sat looking at each other, Brandis felt more comfortable in his father’s presence than he had been in a long time. Jack said, “I am pretty sure at least one of those girls sleeping in the basement is determined to change the status of your virginity for you probably as soon as tonight.”

 Brandis choked on the last sip of lukewarm coffee. His face burned, and his body tingled again. “I’m…it’s…uh….” He clutched the napkin in his lap unable to meet his father’s eyes.

 “No need to say anything. Let’s just say your mother is an astute reader of female intent. While I was busy admiring your sister’s friend’s ass, she apparently read the girl’s mind or something.” Brandis’ face flushed even hotter.

 He resisted the urge to protest, to proclaim his innocence of such things. Because he wanted it back—those mornings between them, father and son, man and boy, not this awkward, man and almost-man bullshit. Because while the thought of one of his sister’s college friends popping his cherry remained a pleasant fantasy, it also made him feel older than he wanted to be right then.

 “So, I bought a box of condoms this morning,” Jack went on. “Put some downstairs in the side table drawer and the rest in your room. Use them please.” He sipped the last of his coffee, looked as if he were about to get up, then leaned forward, touching Brandis’ wrist. “Have fun. Don’t be an asshole to women. Let every experience teach you…something. Because you are nothing as a man if you don’t learn from every woman you…love.” Jack looked out the window onto the nearly empty parking lot. Then he turned back, tightened his grip on his son’s arm. “God, you are so…young.” His face fell a moment, then he perked up again, his eyes twinkling. “Okay, so, your mother told me to tell you not to let them corrupt you. But all I’m gonna say is this: always wear protection, no matter what, no matter how much you don’t want to. And don’t let your mom catch you in the act. I’ll handle her otherwise.”

Then he let go, stood and smiled, draping a friendly arm around Brandis’ shoulders as they exited the restaurant.

 “You really didn’t tell me you were admiring Katie’s friend’s ass, did you, Dad?”

 “No, son. I most certainly did not. You obviously misheard me.” Jack winked as he stood by the passenger’s side of his classic Corvette convertible and tossed the keys to Brandis. “Remember what I told you. Don’t ride my clutch.”

 

 

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

 

Amazon best-selling author, beer blogger and beer marketing expert, mom of three, and soccer fan, Liz lives in the great Midwest, in a major college town.  She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse. While working as a successful Realtor, Liz made the leap into writing novels about the same time she agreed to take on marketing and sales for the Wolverine State Brewing Company.   

 Most days find her sweating inventory and sales figures for the brewery, unless she’s writing, editing or sweating promotional efforts for her latest publications. 

 Her early forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre, “Romance for Real Life,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”).  More recently she is garnering even more fans across genres with her latest novels, which are more character-driven fiction, while remaining very much “real life.”

 With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and many times in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, frustrate, and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.

f you are in the Ann Arbor area, be sure and stop into the Wolverine State Brewing Co. Tap Room—but don’t ask her for anything “like” a Bud Light, or risk serious injury.

 www.lizcrowe.com

www.brewingpasssion.com

www.a2beerwench.com

www.facebook.com/lizcroweauthor

www.twitter.com/beerwencha2

www.facebook.com/groups/lizcrowefans

 

 

Elizabeth and Nikki Weigh In

 

"Wow, Elizabeth, I want to read this book."

"Me too. Maybe we'll get lucky and win it in Liz's contest."

"What contest? You know I love contests."

"One randomly drawn winner will win an ebook or print copy of Good Faith, one randomly drawn winner gets an ebook or print copy (where available) of their choice of a Liz Crowe (Tri Destiny) backlist book and one grand prize winner will receive the ENTIRE Stewart Realty series in ebook OR print."

 

You can find Liz's schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/11/super-book-blast-good-faith-by-liz-crowe.html