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EXCERPT: “The Broken Road”

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TheBrokenRoad

“The Broken Road” by Melissa Huie

Blurb: Twenty-six-year-old Megan Connors’s life is not going in the direction she thought it would. With her love life in the dumps, she doesn’t think it could get any worse until her long-time crush, Shane asks to move in. After all, he has no clue that she’s been in love with him for the past ten years. But fate has a way of turning things around.

As their relationship goes from “just friends” to lovers, life takes a turn for the unexpected. Shane isn’t the person that Megan once fell in love with all those years ago. Shane has a past; deadly secrets that are only revealed once the FBI knocks on Megan’s door.

Secrets, tragedy, and deceit force Shane—and Megan—to make choices that will change their lives forever. Once Megan learns the truth, will she still want to be with Shane? Or will someone else be at the end of her broken road?

The Broken Road contains mature themes, heart-pounding action, edge-of-your-seat suspense, graphic violence and steamy romance, with a side of strong language, drug dealing, and a lot of sarcastic humor.

EXCERPT

“Yeah, baby. I knew you’d remember me at some point. I didn’t forget you,” he said in a surly tone. He was obviously drunk and tried to run his hand down my arm. I pulled away.

“Yeah. Well, nice talking to you.” I turned my back to him and waited for Fallon to get my drink.

“Don’t turn away,” he said, touching my arm “You’re here, I’m here; let’s dance for a while and see how well you remember me.”

I yanked my arm back. “No thanks. And don’t touch me. I’m here with someone, not you.”

Dominic grabbed my arm roughly. His brown eyes blazed. I could tell he was not used to hearing the word no. “You don’t need to act like that. Come on baby. Let’s dance.”

I could see Fallon wave to someone, but I couldn’t see who. God, I didn’t want to cause a scene and cause security to come over. I didn’t need anyone to fight my battles, I could fight them myself. I looked down at his sleazy hand on my arm and balled up my fists.

“Listen, asshole, if you don’t get your hand off me, I’m going to break it,” I warned.

Dominic just laughed and let go. “If you’re here with someone, where is he? Huh?”

“Hey, baby, did you miss me?” said a voice behind me. A pair of muscular tattooed arms wrapped around my waist. I knew that voice. Shane. I breathed a sigh of relief. I looked up at him. His beautiful eyes were hard and his jaw was clenched. His body was coiled in anger. Shane was ready to drop this clown to the floor. I played the role and stood up on my toes to kiss his jaw line. I could feel a little quiver in his body as he relaxed his stance slightly.

“Hey, sweetie. Of course I did,” I said with a smug smile on my lips.

“What’s up, Dominic?” Shane said with a nod, his tone undeniably cold. Shane is a gentle man, but he is also a protector. He never fought unless it was necessary and when he did fight, he rarely lost.

“Shane. Sorry man, I didn’t realize she was with you,” Dominic said, backing off slightly.

Shane ignored him and loudly whispered, “Let’s dance.” Taking my hand, he led me to the dance floor. I turned and saw Fallon watching us with anticipation. “Thanks,” I mouthed, as Shane pulled me away. She just grinned. She knew how close Shane came to kicking Dominic’s ass.

My favorite Usher song came on and Shane pulled me close. With my body tingling from his touch, my hopes soared. But I felt the need to give him an out, just in case. “Thanks for helping me, but I could have handled him. I think you made your point. You don’t have to dance with me if you don’t want to.”

Shane gave me a mischievous grin. “We can’t let Dominic see you dancing alone can we? What, you don’t want to dance with me?”

I had to smile. “Oh shut up, you fool.”

He put his hands on my hips, and pulled me closer. Shane swayed his body in time with mine, matching me step to step. We fit perfectly. I was captivated by how well our bodies seem to fuse together. I threw my arm around his neck as he held me. We were so close air couldn’t have found a space between us. Electric sparks shot straight to my toes and I had to remember to breathe. I looked up at him; his eyes were dark and inviting. I don’t know if it was the loneliness of being single or the heat of the moment, but I put my other arm around his neck and tentatively touched my lips to his. I cannot believe I just did that. My cheeks flamed with embarrassment.

“Sorry,” I stammered.

Shane’s response stole what little breath I had left. He crushed his lips hungrily to mine. Those electric sparks were nothing compared to what I felt then. Fire broke out all over my body, the sensation shot right through me to a place that had been idle for far too long—my heart (and some place lower). His tongue gently caressed mine, and I sighed in ecstasy. Shane broke the kiss off first; there was fire in his eyes. “Damn, Megan,” he muttered, holding me tight. Oh my god, what did I do? I can’t believe we kissed!

“Let’s get out of here while we’re still standing,” he growled, pulling me off the dance floor.

**Buy “The Broken Road”: Amazon   Barnes & Noble   Goodreads

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MelissaHuie**About author, Melissa Huie: Melissa grew up in Maryland by the Chesapeake Bay, where her favorite memories took place near the water. Not having the physical coordination for most sports and the tendency to trip over air, she gravitated to books. She was never seen without a book. With her imagination running wild, she began to write her own stories at the age of nine, with her first book about a pet-loving family and the adventures they had. As time passed and Melissa grew up, reading and writing always stayed with her, becoming her escape from everyday life.

Melissa now lives near Washington, D.C. with her family, dog and a lot of fish. In between the chaos of laundry, chasing after her three children and trying to not to burn dinner, Melissa finds her escape by feeding her addiction of reading and writing of love, suspense and sarcastic humor.

**Contact Melissa: Email   Facebook   Twitter

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**Click HERE to see other stops on Melissa’s Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours!

Rachael O’Bryan

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Author Bio: Rachael O’Bryan grew up in Louisville, Kentucky. She attended college at Temple University. After college she pursued her law degree, starting off at Tulane University and then graduating at American University. Rachael is a lawyer, but pursues writing in her free time. Besides writing Unlocked, she keeps a blog. Also, on June 1st she launched her own business – an online women’s magazine. The magazine is operated under Rachael Magazine LLC. The self-titled magazine is geared towards professional women in their 20s and 30s that want it all. You can subscribe HERE. When Rachael isn’t working, writing, or running her own business she enjoys reading, traveling, watching The New York Mets. and following the University of Louisville basketball team. She currently resides in New York City.

My Not So Chick Lit Life

In college I worked at a summer program in Louisville, Kentucky called Summerbridge. As I was driving to a work related event with a fellow summer teacher she told me of her desire to have a Carrie Bradshaw type of life in the future – an apartment in New York, a live in boyfriend, etc. She loved the independence and glamour of what was portrayed on HBO at the time. I had never seen Sex and the City at that point; I unfortunately didn’t get HBO in my college dorm. However, I now am the proud owner of the whole series on DVD minus the second movie.

And after watching the most notorious example of a chick lit based series, I see why the life is so appealing. Carrie was able to have an amazing apartment in New York, that prior to becoming a successful author, seemed completely unrealistic. She spent money on the best brands in fashion and took cabs everywhere. She seemed to have this endless money supply, until she really needed it to buy her apartment. Her finances didn’t match her lifestyle and as an aspiring writer and a new New Yorker, those things bother me to no end. I know life in New York doesn’t exist for most people like that and certainly not for me.

I moved here with no job, but was able to after about a week land my first contracting job (which was what I was doing in Washington, DC before I moved). And since moving here I’ve also been working on my writing career through blogging, promoting my book, starting a second book, and launching my online women’s magazine. I do all this from my tiny studio apartment in the East Village after I fit in 40+ hours of work at my day job (that sometimes turns into a night job and weekend job). Not only do all of these things fight for my time and attention, they also fight over my financial resources.

Besides my insane jealousy of the make believe financial situation she had, she also had lots of dates and relationships. Ugh the world of dating is one I can barely navigate, especially in New York. I mean I’m not longing to be broken up with on a post-it note, but if that means that someone is breaking up with me because I had a relationship for awhile than maybe I am wishing for it (I’d prefer the relationship without the break-up though of course). Besides the post-it break up Carrie definitely had lots of ups and downs with the opposite sex, but in the end she got her guy. Big rescued her from that Russian guy she dated (that I was not a fan of ) in my favorite city in the world – Paris.

But with all this said I still find myself tuning into Sex and the City and dreaming of my Carrie Bradshaw life. I don’t need Manolo Blahnik shoes, I’m perfectly happy with my shoes from DSW. I don’t need expensive bags, although a part of me does want to buy a Marc Jacobs bag, but that’s for when I make it big with my writing (hey you have to treat yourself every once in awhile). And I do love my Chanel sunglasses, but I’ve had them for years. So what’s the appeal then you may ask? It’s the same appeal of every other chick lit book – love. Every girl, every person wants love. I haven’t found that type of love yet and it’s always refreshing even if it’s in a TV show to see it happen. As much as her financial/living situation wasn’t realistic in parts of the series, her struggles with love were. The heartaches, the infatuation, the nerves, the over thinking, the happy moments – those are all relatable. However, the one difference between me and Carrie is that I don’t need someone to rescue me in the City of Lights and Love, I need someone to board the plan with me at JFK to go explore the city. I want someone to share my life, not save it, because the hero of my story has always been myself and that’s the way every woman should think. Unless my ideal Mr. Big would like to save me from my law school debt, then save away … I’m joking … mostly … law school wasn’t cheap.

I leave you with my favorite quote from the series by Carrie Bradshaw: “Some people are settling down, some people are settling, and some people refuse to settle for anything less than butterflies.”

**Contact Rachael:

Blog

Rachel Magazine

**Click HERE to read my review of “Unlocked!”

Do You Like Your Characters?

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Have you ever been in the writing or editing process and haven’t liked you main (or any) characters?  Well, beginning to strongly dislike my Hero.  I’m in the editing process of my first book and I’m wanting to delete him all together.  He’s the main Hero, so this means creating a new character — maybe even a guy with a heart towards his pregnant girlfriend and the baby he helped to create!

Let me explain:

Nathan really is a nice guy.  His girlfriend is pregnant and he doesn’t want to be a father.  She wants to keep it, but he had major daddy issues.  His dad wasn’t there for him, so he’s afraid of repeating the pattern.  While he love Lucy (my Heroine), being a father part of the plan.  Lucy prepares to become a mother on her own and she’s okay with that decision.

Nice guy, right?  Ha!  I know that this might be a realty for some, but this guy is a jerk!  He’s a handsome jerk, one that could easily be described as an innocent Christian Grey of “50 Shades of Grey.”  When I wrote this two years ago, the only conflict I could think of was pregnancy because I didn’t want to write about love triangles.  (I have before in a book that I didn’t finish, but might continue with that sometime in the future).  Maybe I don’t like Nathan because I have trouble writing from a male POV!

::::::Sigh::::::

Have you ever written a book, then want to get rid of a character because you don’t like him or her?  What do you do to get your characters likable?

Why Writers Should Follow Celebrities

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Jennifer Aniston
George Clooney

Celebrities!  We might love them and we might hate them, but as writers I think we should pay attention to them and what they say and do.  Why, you ask?  Because it helps us create better characters.

Often times when I have writer’s block, I think of what situations celebs have been in.  I imagine what they would wear, what they do, who they’d be with and what they’d say.  This helps add drama.  In this case, I  sometimes add Kardashian-like traits to my Heroine.  While I’m not really a fan of the Kardashian’s, Khloe is my favorite.  (Read THIS blog post I wrote about her).

I think that I first really began to enjoy celebs when Friends was on.  I loved Jennifer Aniston and still do!  She’s got a great body, she’s funny, she has confidence, and she’s moved on from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie – yuck!  Come on, we all know he’s a loser for cheating on Jen!  As for George (yes, I’m on a first name basis with him), don’t we all wish he was our Heroine?  Can you believe he just turned 51?!  This leads me to another plus of following celebs – relationships!  If you read the famously known tabloids and relate them to your characters, then you can create conflict between your Hero/Third Party/Heroine.  The magazine and website I use for this is UsWeekly!

Matthew McConaughey

(It’s okay if you can’t take your eyes off the men on this post.  I can’t either).

Here’s some advice for writing your characters like celebs:

  • Follow them on Facebook or Twitter

Read magazines!  Don’t just look at the pictures imagining how you wish you had their life

When watching an award show, observe them carefully: How do they walk? Who do they hug? A parent, friend or lover?

Reese Witherspoon

Above all, create the character that you want!  It’s important to do this because while copying can be easy, I don’t recommend it.  Be creative!  You don’t have to use everything about just one actor or actress, but maybe combining characteristics might work better — to create that perfect character for your book.

If all else fails, go ahead and use the Kardashian family!  You’re bound to write characters with lots of drama (KIM), lots of love (KHLOE), and lots of mommy-talk (KOURTNEY).

It’s Hump Day (50 Shades of Grey) Wednesday!

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As some of you know, I started “Fifty Shades of Grey,” out of complete curiosity, (and no, I’m not one who needs that kind of thrill).  I just wanted to read what all the hype is about.  I’m in the middle of it right now, so a review will be up within the next few weeks.

Anyway, since it’s “Hump Day,” I’m writing about the male Character, Christian Grey.  Ladies, I see it!  I’m now knowing what you mean by the erotic daydreams and fantasies that are now consuming your mind!  Two nights ago, I didn’t go to bed.  Christian Grey kept me awake!  Page by page, he had me right there with him in the moment, not wanting to stop — for anything!  I was at his beck and call.  I didn’t mind this dominance over me, but I did mind his rudeness, (more about this will be in the book review).

This leads me to wonder, who is your Christian Grey?  What does he look like?  What does he to do ignite you?  Does he take charge of you, telling you what to do or how to do it?  Does his touch make you (fill in the blank)!  Is he George Clooney, perhaps?  Tim McGraw, Ryan Gosling, or even Brad Pitt?

What turns you on?  Who is your Christian Grey?

How Important Is the Writing?

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You’ve been recommended a “great,” “sexy,” “fun,” “alluring” book! Awesome, you think!  You buy the book, you find a comfy place in your home, and then open the book.

Well, when you’re not even 50 pages into it and you’re enjoying the story, but you’ve noticed or even questioned a few things — this means that it’s not written correctly, not did they have a good editor!

I started the book “Fifty Shades of Grey,” (don’t forget about its trilogy: HERE), a few days ago on my iPad, and then I bought a copy for my hubby, (which I’ll be writing about his outlook on it once he’s finished with it).  Before he stated I saw a few mistakes, and while I’m not an expert, but I think that a lot of people who are reading the book and giving great reviews don’t care about the writing.  One my husband read the first chapter, he said that he wanted to “take a red pen to it!”  I don’t blame him.  This leads me to today’s blog post!

HOW IMPORTANT TO YOU IS GOOD WRITING VS. A GOOD BOOK WITHOUT GOOD WRITING?

Since I’m now working with editors, I’ve started to think like them — Why think this, Why say this, and Does this make sense?  When I was younger, I didn’t pay much attention to grammar or thoughts, but since I’ve grown, it’s all that I pay attention to when I read!  For fun, I’m reading “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the book that everyone is talking about (yes, I might be wanting a thrill).  I’m sixty-five pages into it, and I’ve been wanting to take a red pen to it myself, like my hubby!  Oh, my gosh!  If I didn’t have to have read six (yes, 6) chapters before anything happens, then I wouldn’t care so much, because action would be happening.  I’ve even considered not finishing this book!  With exceptional reviews, is it just about the book?  Probably so!  If the writing was graded, I bet it’d get a 1 out of 5 stars, (read my review for “Fifty Shades of Grey” that will be coming soon)!

My question to you is do you prefer books written with bad writing and the story is good, or do you get through it and read a book because of its storyline?

Fiction Relationships vs. Real Relationships

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The picture to the left is what every story requires.  Along with choosing to read a book, whether it be by your favorite author, or you like the storyline, readers shuffle through, eagerly awaiting for the climax (feel free to think of it as a sexual innuendo).  It’s what we wait for, page by page, (though, these days it’s, swipe by swipe).  that’s mostly the reason why we read the book.

It’s almost been a year since Prince William and Duchess Kate got married.  (You can read my blog post on their wedding HERE).  Anyway, I came across THIS article (isn’t that cute?!), and wanted to somehow relate it to writing.  This lead me to think about romantic relationships in fiction, and in real life.

FICTION RELATIONSHIPS:  I’ve read so many books where it goes something like this – boy meets girl, they start dating, they fight, they fix the issue, then they live happily ever after.  We might get a touch here and there about them on a good day with no action, but that’s not fun to read because readers “want drama.”  I, however, don’t.  I ‘d like to see my characters living the day-to-day life together without the drama.  I think this might be why I write like I do, because I want normalcy for my characters.  I want to see my characters working on their relationship, and making it stronger.

REAL RELATIONSHIPS:  Like fiction relationships, couples meet, they fight, they make-up, and they life (happily) ever after.  The thing is that we’re not perfect, and neither is any relationship.  We both must work on it %100 every single day, (I might be watching too much Dr. Phil – ha, ha!).  Yes, we’re going to have fights with the one we love, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be filled with drama.  Like William and Kate, it can be as simple cuddling next to one another and watching TV.  Cooking together can also be very sexy!  Climaxes in real life relationships might happen more often than in fiction relationships, but that’s okay – that’s life.

In closing, I’d like to share two of my favorite relation quotes:

“Little kindness and courtesies are so important.  In relationships, the little things are the big things.” Stephen R. Covey

“The fundamental glue that holds any relationship together is trust.” Brian Tracy

 

Sexy Thursday: Reading Erotica

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This blog post is a follow-up to one I wrote awhile back,

Adding A little “Hump” To Your Wednesday.

"Come, I'll show you the way..."

What turns you on?  Is it a love scene on you favorite soap opera or movie?  Is it the scent of your boyfriend or husband’s cologne?  Is it the kiss you got from your partner before they left for work – the one you can’t stop thinking about?  (Come on, I know  there’s some of you who are still hung up on that kiss).  Or are you a busy mom and/or career woman and it’s THIS that seems to be the only thing that can get you to take off those granny panties and spanx?

I recently came across THIS article.  It got me thinking how some women are ashamed to read these “trashy” novels, and need the “okay” to venture out of their June Cleaver minds.  Well, there’s nothing trashy about them.  For example, these novels by MEGAN HART aren’t only erotic, but the story-lines seem so real, that they seem more believable – the career mom, the desperate housewife…you name it, and you got it.  I think that’s the difference — “trashy equals fake” and “erotica equals real.”

Go ahead, go get yourself an erotica and enjoy it.  Your boyfriend/husband might even be surprised by your behavior when he enters the door after a hard day at work.  Go ahead, surprise him…you might even surprise yourself too!

It’s Fun Friday

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While writing your ROMANCE or CHICK LIT novels, haven’t you ever daydreamed that you’re the Heroine and your boyfriend or husband is your Hero in your book?   Have you played the part in your own sex fantasy, only to wish you could have him right at that moment, but it’s the middle of the day and he’s at work?  (I have this fantasy often when I’m writing, and find it very helpful during a sex scene!)

Well, if you’re too shy to write you and your SO (significant other) into your book, I have just the right thing for you.  For Christmas I got my husband our own romance/erotic novel, “Safari Nights,” thanks to a website called UStarNovels!  If you go to this website, you can create your own books from the following categories: Romance, Classics, or Vampire.  All you have to do is fill out questions that the website will ask you each about, and then you’re done!  (If you got this as a gift, all you have to do is register it and it’ll be free).  It’s that easy!  My husband and I haven’t filled out the answers yet, but I’m hoping to sit him down and answer them this weekend.

This can be a wonderful gift, whether it’s given for Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Anniversaries, Bachelorette parties, or just because, it’s a fun way to bring something new and spicy to your relationship!

I hope you and your SO have a sizzlin’ weekend!  Happy Friday!