Monday 30 September 2013

Rise of Xosha Scavenger Hunt

Oceanus had about enough of Pyre and his nonsense. He issued a short growl and rushed the smaller dragon, knocking him away from Rose. Pyre hissed as he toppled onto his side with a thud.
“Enough! I will not tolerate this insubordination from you, Pyre!” Oceanus roared as he peered down at his younger brother.
Pyre glared up at Oceanus with a hate like no other in his amber gaze. “You’d side with that freak over your blood and your horde, Oceanus?”
“If you truly think that, Pyre, then you have no place here. Why do you not go and join the humans and be their puppet like the Anjyls.” Oceanus growled as he turned his back on the young red to face Rose.
“Oceanus… You shouldn’t say such things to him, he’s your brother.” Rose chastised softly.
Oceanus looked to her and sighed. “He is just so hard to deal with sometimes… Enough about him for now. I assume he will either calm down or leave, but he shouldn’t be a bother for you anymore.” He looked around wondering how they were supposed to live here with the mountain in the way.
As if reading his very thoughts, Rose let a smile play on her lips. Her silver depths danced in a way Oceanus had never seen before, and truly to him, she looked even more beautiful than she always did to him. “What has you all giddy, Rose?” He asked curiously.
A gentle breeze wrapped around him before carrying itself off. Rose craned her elegant neck and looked to Oceanus. “The spirits have told me how to make what they wish possible.
Oceanus’ cerulean orbs widened as he looked to her. “So this isn’t Xosha?”
This made Rose chuckle. “Of course it is. It just isn’t finished, yet.”
“What needs to be done to complete it?” Oceanus asked eagerly.

“The browns. I will need their cooperation.” was Rose’s only reply.

Release day giveaway!

Happy release day to me!

My Highland romance To Steal a Highlander's Heart is now available on Amazon. Hurray! And to celebrate I'm running a BIG giveaway. To be in with the chance of winning the following, simply enter via the rafflecopter. And if you pick up a copy for only 99c/77p, keep your order number handy for an extra entry.

Prizes:
1 x $50/£50 Amazon GC
5 x $10/£10 Amazon GC
1 x Diamond dust filled heart necklace
2 x gold dangle earrings
1 x To Steal a Highlander's Heart Mug
1 x To Steal a Highlander's Heart Tote bag
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Cover Reveal: Dancing On Air by Nicole Hurley-Moore

Welcome Nicole as she reveals her stunning cover for her Victorian romance, Dancing on Air. Just look how gorgeous it is! My inner girly girl is loving it.


Dancing on Air will be released on the 1st of November by Escape Publishing. However it’s available now on Amazon as a pre-order. 


Cinderella meets Swan Lake in this Victorian-era set story about a ballet dancer, an aristocrat, and their class-crossing romance...

Lisette yearns for freedom, security and love, but none are offered on the run-down stage of The Imperial Theatre. Instead she has hard work, a tyrannical aunt, and the hope of one day becoming a prima ballerina. Dancing on the stage she catches the attention of two powerful men: Lord Gainsworth and Lord De Vale. 

Lord Evander Gainswith never expected to fall in love, let alone with a woman so wholly unacceptable to his family and his peers. The sinister Lord De Vale covets Lisette's youth and strength, and is willing to pay well for it. Lisette may dance roles in fairy tales and fantasies, but the real world is about to intrude, bringing with it the harsh realities of life for a young girl with dreams of rising above the demimonde.


Nicole has always been a lover of fairy tales, history and romance. She grew up in Melbourne and has travelled extensively, whilst living her life through the romance of books. Her first passion in life has always been her family, but after studying and achieving her BA in History and Honours in Medieval Literature, she devoted her time to writing historic romance. She is a full time writer who lives in the Central Highlands of Victoria with her family, where they live in the peaceful surrounds of a semi-rural town. 
www.nicolehurley-moore.com
https://twitter.com/nhurleymoore
https://www.facebook.com/nicole.hurleymoore

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Book Spotlight: September Ends by Hunter S. Jones


SEPTEMBER ENDS

By

Hunter S. Jones & an Anonymous English Poet

Overweight and dull. That’s how I felt.

My grandfather and brother died. I hid inside a black cave deep in my soul, numbed for a decade on meds, booze, and bad love, married to my glorious career.

My name is Liz Snow, from Atlanta, Georgia, and this is my story.

One hot summer I fell hopelessly in love with successful attorney, Peter William Hendrix III, from Chattanooga, Tennessee. We bonded because of Shelley and Keats. Pete introduced me to the works of modern English poet, Jack O. Savage, It was like The Poet was drawing us together through his blogs and poems, like he had a message for my life and my love with Pete Hendrix.
I lived it in my heart and soul.

It all went tragically wrong once I learned Pete’s secret.

As September ends I jet to London, England with an unstable mind and a broken heart. Pete Hendrix betrayed me big time. There was no time for revenge. My life was a kaleidoscope of stabbing shards of pain.

London ignored me. Maybe I didn't exist. I was lost and lonely in a flat in Kensington.
I hear that Jack O. Savage will make a rare public appearance. I wrangle an invitation to the art gallery where he is reading. I was curious. Somehow, he was the cause of my trouble.
The rock-star-with-words was even more damaged than I.

Jack O.Savage, The Poet became my friend.
Then, an unexpected kiss at a county fair on a perfect English summer's day changed everything forever. Jack the man became my lover.
Magic.
My elusive dream of a lifelong love began.
If Pete was what I'd always wanted, Jack was what I always needed.
The mystery unraveled as the kaleidoscope of my broken life evolved and I found myself living a rainbow of perfect bliss.

Sometimes when you believe it’s the end, it’s only the beginning.


September Ends is a contemporary romance with erotic and supernatural elements. It reveals the intricate web of passion and desire which entangles Liz Snow, Pete Hendrix and Jack O. Savage. The story is told through Liz Snow’s diary, Jack O. Savage’s poetry, and from letters sent across the Atlantic. Traveling throughout the lushness of a summertime in Tennessee and Georgia, September Ends journeys into the elegance of London’s West End and is finally settled in the countryside of Cornwall, England, a decade later.

September Ends is a story of sin, redemption and salvation through love
 because love happens when we least expect it.


Novelist. Exile on Peachtree Street.
Lover of all the finer things in life.


The art form I create when writing is much more interesting than anything you will ever know or learn about me. However, since you ask, I have lived in Tennessee and Georgia my entire life, except for one “lost summer” spent in Los Angeles. I was always a complex kid. My first published stories were for a local underground rock publication in Nashville. I have published articles on music, fashion, art, travel and history.

Currently, I have a music/entertainment blog @ExPatsPost.com. My debut novella, Fables of the Reconstruction, was published in 2012.

Edgar Allan Poe and Anne Rice have always fascinated me, although like any Southern girl, I will always idolize Margaret Mitchell for writing Gone With The Wind. I also adore the works of John Grisham, and own a huge selection of his books. I live in Atlanta, Georgia with my husband, my books, too many clothes, too many shoes and way too many stacks of notepads and journals.

October 2013 will see the launch of a novel collaboration, SEPTEMBER ENDS, a contemporary romance with erotic and supernatural elements. This novel is written in collaboration with an anonymous English poet. He wants no attention. In blogs, he only asks to be recognized as the secretive collaborator from London. We have never meet and we only communicate electronically and have no personal ties. His privacy and art are more important than anything.
You can connect with me at the following social media sites:
@huntersjones101
about.me/huntersjones1 has links to all the sites, books, Goodreads – Everything – on one site.



Monday 23 September 2013

Blog Tour Stop: Talking Dirty With the Player by Jackie Ashenden


Please welcome Jackie on her blog tour stop for Talking Dirty with the Player. We're talking cristicim and deep dark secrets! Be sure to comment as Jackie will be awarding a digital copy of Talking Dirty to the CEO and a $50 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the the tour.

 Interview
What is your name and where do you live now?
Jackie Ashenden and I live in Auckland, New Zealand.
First off, how has your week been?
My week has been busy! I have a novella to write, a book to edit, blog posts to finish, and two kids and a husband to wrangle.
Sounds just like my week! So tell us about your latest book, and if you had to summarise it what would you say?
My latest book is Talking Dirty with the Player. And it's about a photographer who has just got the world to her liking when her best friend's older brother – and the man who broke her heart – comes barging back into it again. She hates rugby and game-playing of all kinds, and he's…well, he's a player and he wants to play with her. Again. ;-)
Yum, rugby players... sorry you lost me for a moment there! Is anything in your book based on real life experiences or purely all imagination?
Well, I'd love to say I had a superhot rugby player taking his shirt off in my photographic studio but sadly not. It's all imagination. Except for the old cinema where the bachelor auction thing takes place. That's based on a real cinema called the Civic which is in downtown Auckland.
Damn, but what an imagination you must have! Can I live in there for a while please? So what was your favourite chapter to write and why?
It's a toss up between the first – because I love writing banter, especially when the banterees involve don't like each other. Or the chapter where they get it on, because, well…sexytimes! Who doesn't love writing that? 
I agree sexy times and banter is so much fun! Now where it came to publishing, did you have any say in the title / cover of your book?
I was allowed to keep the title – yes, it's my title. And I had to fill in an art sheet about my hero and heroine's appearances for the cover, plus anything else I'd like on there. I just told them I wanted sexy. And boy did they deliver!
I agree! Can you describe the feeling you had when you saw your published book for the first time?
I'm not sure I can. It took me five years to see my first published book and I'm pretty sure it was like seeing your baby for the first time. Well, okay, maybe not THAT special. But pretty amazing all the same. I cried. As you do.
What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
I like this question.  The toughest criticism was someone saying that 'magic sex cures all' about one of my books. My response to this: if you're going to have sex in a book, it had damn well better be magic sex, amiright? ;-)
My best compliment was from someone who told me that my book was an inspiration, a symbol of hope and a picture of love and strength to not let anything that happened in our lives destroy us. I cried when I read it that part. Yes, I cry a lot.
Hee hee, well us writers are an emotional bunch, but that's what makes us so awesome, right? Now what piece of advice would you give to a new writer?
Never. Ever. Give. Up.  While I was aiming for publication I wanted to give up at least 3 million times a day. But I didn't. I kept remembering this: the only authors who remain unpublished are the ones that gave up.
And finally... are you ready for this one...? Would you share a deep dark secret about you with us?
Don't tell anyone but I actually hate rugby. ;-)
Well I am shocked! :D Thanks so much for joining me today, Jackie. Readers do check out the great excerpt below.

Jackie has been writing fiction since she was eleven years old. Mild mannered fantasy/SF/pseudo-literary
writer by day, obsessive romance writer by night, she used to balance her writing with the more serious job of librarianship until a chance meeting with another romance writer prompted her to throw off the shackles of her day job and devote herself to the true love of her heart – writing romance. She particularly likes to write emotional stories with alpha heroes who've just got the world to their liking only to have it blown wide apart by their kick-ass heroines.  

She lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband, the inimitable Dr Jax, two kids, two cats and some guppies (possibly dead guppies by the time you read this). When she's not torturing alpha males and their stroppy heroines, she can be found drinking chocolate martinis, reading anything she can lay her hands on, posting random crap on her blog, or being forced to go mountain biking with her husband.

Twitter: @JackieAshenden
FB: http://www.facebook.com/jackie.ashenden
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6577006.Jackie_Ashenden
She was almost touching him now and it was all he could do to keep his hands to himself. “I don’t understand why you keep selling yourself short. You act like you’re this stupid playboy but you’re not.” She put out a hand, pressed it gently against his bare chest, and all the breath went out of him.

Her palm felt like a hot coal against his cold skin. A brand.

“Don’t,” he forced out, a bolt of pure desire shooting straight down his spine. “This can’t go anywhere, Jude. I’m not even going to be in the country for long. Once my contract with the club expires, I’ll be looking at a TV job in Australia. Understand? I’ll be leaving. For good this time. And then there’s Joseph. He’d kill me if I touch you.”

“I don’t care.” Her voice sounded faint but she didn’t remove her hand. “I don’t care about any of that. I just want to see...”

“See what?”

The blue of her eyes became lost in black as her pupils dilated. The black top she wore was stuck to her skin, outlining every delicious curve, including the hard points of her nipples. “See if the man I used to know is still in there.”

She was so beautiful. And so very close. He wanted to touch her so badly. “He’s not, darling,” he began.

She didn’t let him finish. Her hands splayed on his chest as she rose on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth to his instead.


Up-and-coming photographer Judith Ashton is pretty sure she has everything in her life under control. That is, until a blast from the past comes back to taunt her, in the shape of Caleb Steele, her older brother's best friend...and the man who broke her heart eight years ago. Their chemistry is combustible, but she's been fooled once by this player, and she's not going there again. To pro rugby player Caleb, Judith has always been his Kryptonite. But his former playboy lifestyle is the last thing she wants to be involved in. In the midst of her brother's threats to back off, and the deal of his career sending him far away from her, he knows he's playing with fire. And this is one game he's going to lose.

Purchase from Amazon and B&N

Sunday 22 September 2013

Blog Tour Stop: Cursed by Cate Master (The Vitruvian Man # 1)

Please welcome Cate to my blog today as she talks about her new book and using music to inspire stories. She mentions one of my favourite bands, The Goo Goo dolls so we must be kindred spirits! Now be sure to enter the rafflecopter as she's giving away a $15 GC PLUS book swap. Contest is tour-wide, open internationally and ends Sept 23. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.



Music to Write Stories To

Did a song ever stop you in your tracks? Or maybe just work its way into your subconscious and keep replaying in your head?

Lots of songs do that to me. I'm not someone who can write with music playing in the background. Oh, I absolutely love music, and I could spend countless hours trolling YouTube for favorite bands. But while I'm writing, I find music too distracting, and I'd end up either singing along or blocking it out completely.

Music often inspires me, and I love to incorporate it into stories. Sometimes all I need is a snippet of lyric, and a story evolves. That's how Cursed began. The oldies station my hubby likes often plays The Goo Goo Dolls' song Iris.

One line of lyrics jumped out at me: "I'd give up forever to touch you." What a powerful notion. Such an incredible sacrifice.

I began jotting notes revolving around that line. But I'd already written several stories about angels who'd given up their heavenly status after falling in love, so I wanted something a little different. An alpha male, for sure, but a little bit unusual.

So Bruno diCesare began to take shape. Bruno's a music lover, too, and sometimes people strolling through Venice might hear the lovely strains of a Stradivarius violin echoing along the narrow alleyways. They'd never see him because he hides himself away until Carnevale, the ten-day masquerade. And even then, he stays in his disguise.

Until the day he meets Melina. :)

What about you -- have you ever fallen in love with a song? Or its lyrics?

Cursed is the first in The Vitruvian Man series, and Decadent recently released Charmed. Watch for Claimed to release this month!

Purchase from Amazon, B&N and ARe.



Ten days of freedom. That’s all Fate had allotted me each year. In the streets of Venice, I could walk among them. Mingle. Belong.

During Carnevale, they had no idea who I was. What I was.

For ten days, it didn’t matter.

Until I met her.

Bruno diCesare lives alone by necessity, not choice. An experiment performed by Leonardo da Vinci, who believed having a dual DNA would grant a person immortality, used magic to render Bruno a chimera – the head of a lion, body of a dragon. The only time he can mingle with people is during Carnevale, ten glorious days of masked anonymity, frivolity and intimacy.

Melina Weaver learned fire dancing to enliven her dull existence. A scientist, her long hours at the lab leave no time for a social life. For ten days at Carnevale, she can pretend to be someone else. Someone sexy and daring, who lives on the edge.

Once she meets Bruno, her wish comes true, but everything goes terribly wrong. Beneath Bruno’s costume lurks an alpha male, but is he dangerous? Worse, can she return to an employer who sells her research to the military to make an army of efficient killers? Her only hope may lie with the man she’s just met and never seen.

Warning: This title is intended for readers over the age of 18 as it contains adult sexual situations and/or adult language, and may be considered offensive to some readers.


Melina should have stayed in her room. Finding him had seemed like such incredible luck. Now she wondered whether luck had turned against her.

That sound—almost an animal sound—had that come from him? Had she imagined it? Strange things went on during Carnevale, her online friends had said, some so inexplicable no science could explain them. She’d laughed when they warned her she might get in over her head.

The sheer strength of his muscles, the raw power beneath his clothes, thrilled her. His pace conveyed the same urgency.

Pressed to his side, nerves jangling, her foot slipped on the stone step.

In one fluid motion, he scooped her into his arms and continued hurrying along. “Are you all right?”

“Unless embarrassment leaves a mortal wound. I’m normally not so clumsy.” She settled against his broad chest. Such incredible stamina. An image pierced her mind: his muscular, naked torso above her, his hips rocking against hers. His presence overwhelmed her, and she was acutely aware of every motion, every breath.

At the bottom of the stone stairs, he set her on her feet but maintained his firm hold. “Dampness has a habit of lingering here. You’d best allow me to assist you.”

“Please.” She fitted herself against him, acutely aware of the way his body moved against hers.

“In these calle of San Samuele,” he said, “Giacomo Casanova spent his youth.”

“Calle?” She should have brushed up on her Italian.

He dipped his head closer. “Narrow alleyways.”

“Narrow and dark. I wonder how many trysts Casanova had in these alleys?” And Casanova had nothing on Bruno. Women probably flocked around him constantly. Acid flashed through her at the thought.

“Too many to recount.” He paused, then added, “If one believes the writings in his diary. His mentor, the poet Giorgio Baffe, lived just down there.”

“Mentor?” She didn’t recall Casanova writing poetry. Did Bruno as well? Or was he not romantic that way?

“Of a sort. The man who introduced Casanova to worldly pleasures.”

The way the last two words rolled off his tongue, so enticing. She glanced at the dark steps that led to deeper shadows beside the canal.

She surprised herself by steering him down there, tugging him to an abrupt halt. “Do such mentors still exist?”

He whirled her against a wall. “Why? Would you be interested?”

She let her hands wander across the contours of his chest. “You did offer to introduce me to the delights of Venice.”

The same growl as earlier rumbled in his throat, unmistakable this time. “You do like to play with fire, don’t you?”

And he knew how to ignite one.

Multi-published, award-winning author Cate Masters has made beautiful central Pennsylvania her home, but she’ll always be a Jersey girl at heart. When not spending time with her dear hubby, she can be found in her lair, concocting a magical brew of contemporary, historical, and fantasy/paranormal stories with her cat Chairman Maiow and dog Lily as company. Look for her at http://catemasters.blogspot.com and in strange nooks and far-flung corners of the web. Cate loves to hear from readers! Email her at cate.masters@gmail.com.

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Friday 20 September 2013

Karma is a Bitch

Excuse the profanity. If you read my posts regularly you'll know that's a rarity for me. Though I'm not great at holding my tongue...fingers?

There's a reason behind this post, and not just a ranty one. I've had several people ask me about marketing this week. I'm no whizz but I do have a business brain. Always have done. I owned and ran a small business before selling it on when I started writing. And I've had my hand in a few things since my early twenties. I am not a marketing genius--I know some of them and boy do I envy them--but I have discovered a few things that work to sell books and a few things that haven't.

One of the biggest things I believe in is karma. What goes around comes around etc. I do a lot of networking with bloggers, reviewers and fellow authors. Bloggers in particular work their backsides off to help authors. I know what a bloody pain it is putting together all these promotional posts so it winds me up when you see authors taking that for granted. I won't point out specifics but things like people spamming their pages without even a please and thank you is one of the things I've noticed book bloggers complain about. Where are your manners?

But this is where karma comes in to play. Those bloggers, fellow authors, reviewers etc, will remember that. I still remember the rudest author I've ever met from the start of my career. I know that if any of my friends came into contact with him, I would warn them away for their sakes. But we also remember those lovely authors who will bend over backwards to help you. I know I do. And I will always go out of my way to help them market. Some of them have become good friends and between us, we've achieved some awesome things.

So here's what I'm trying to say... you want to sell some books? Try helping out others. Try being polite and friendly. Try not to spam and leave. I'm not saying ignore your books, don't ever share your links, but just try and give as much as you take. It seriously will pay off.

And the best bit? You may make some amazing friends along the way.

Tuesday 17 September 2013

Blog Tour Stop: Stealing Fire by Susan Sloate

Please welcome Susan to my blog today as she discusses the setting behind her book. Be sure to comment as Susan will be awarding a notebook perfect for journaling to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. 
______________________________________________________

Samantha, thanks for inviting me to post on your blog today! And thanks for asking me to talk about my new novel, STEALING FIRE.

STEALING FIRE is not an historical novel, though the setting is 1980’s New York and L.A. To me, that wasn’t so long ago (I remember the 80’s with great fondness, mostly because I was still wearing a size 5 then). It’s true that computers were bigger and more expensive and no one was using the Internet. Still, much of the ‘80’s still lingers in our society today.

In particular, though, STEALING FIRE deals with the Broadway musical theatre, and in the 1980’s, there was a clear trend happening on Broadway, and his name was Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Lloyd Webber is a prolific composer who had a lot of hits in the musical theatre: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, CATS, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (the longest running and probably best known), STARLIGHT EXPRESS, SUNSET BOULEVARD, and many more. His shows were huge productions using lots of technology (like however they managed to make the chandelier fall, night after night, in PHANTOM). These were big, expensive shows that pushed ticket prices sky-high, and I personally am not a fan.

In STEALING FIRE, my hero, Beau Kellogg, is a well-known and respected Broadway lyricist/librettist (a librettist writes the script for the show). Beau wrote most of his hits in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Lloyd Webber kind of show is not what he does, and because of the current trend toward these big expensive productions, Beau feels out of step with the new shows. He hates their lack of substance but envies their success (who wouldn’t?) He wants to write a big, old-fashioned show but isn’t sure he’ll ever get backers in the current environment. Meanwhile, he’s writing advertising jingles to stay solvent.

My heroine, Amanda Harary, is out of step with her own contemporaries. She was raised on the kind of Broadway show scores that Beau used to write (in fact, she knows his songs as well, which is a real bond between them). She also hates Lloyd Webber but she wants to sing on Broadway, and that may be her only chance. Meanwhile, she sings a lot of old music because she likes it and relates to it.

New York in the ‘80’s had a lot of positives. There were great restaurants, some great shows (Rupert Holmes wrote THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD at this time, a show I really liked), fashions were sleek and often dressy, and in general, there was a lot of promise in the air. In L.A., where Beau lives and where I was living myself at the time, movies had money to invest in writers (ah, those were the days!) You could go into a studio meeting having written one good screenplay, pitch a story verbally for ten or fifteen minutes and end up with a six-figure contract to write the script. It was called ‘development’, and they don’t do much of it anymore, because those scripts that grew out of a short verbal pitch could end up no good at all, and the studio would have wasted its money. Back then it was okay. It’s not so okay now.

So Beau and Amanda are both fish out of water in an era they don’t really understand, and part of the connection between them is that feeling. They cherish the songs and shows of the Golden Age of Musical Theatre—late ‘40s through early ‘60s—and if you happen to be a musical theatre aficionado, there are plenty of musical references to old shows and songs in STEALING FIRE. I even wrote some song lyrics for Beau; not sure they’re all that good, but I enjoyed writing them.

Hope you’ll take a look back at the ‘80s with me and come inside a passionate love affair with Beau and Amanda in STEALING FIRE. 

“How do you recognize your soulmate?

In glittery 1980’s Los Angeles, Beau Kellogg is a brilliant Broadway lyricist now writing advertising jingles and yearning for one more hit to compensate for his miserable marriage and disappointing life.

Amanda Harary, a young singer out of synch with her contemporaries, works at a small New York hotel, while she dreams of singing on Broadway.

When they meet late at night over the hotel switchboard, what begins will bring them each unexpected success, untold joy, and piercing heartache ... until they learn that some connections, however improbable, are meant to last forever.

STEALING FIRE is, at its heart, a story for romantics everywhere, who believe in the transformative power of love.”


STEALING FIRE was a Quarter-Finalist (Top 5%) in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest.
Oh, God, it was him, the bastard who had upset the switchboard operators and bellowed through the lobby loudly enough to alert all five boroughs. At three o'clock in the morning, asking for room service. Unbelievable.

Amanda leaned back in her chair. Her stomach was tightening inexplicably. "I'm sorry," she said finally, when she could control her voice. "Room Service closes at midnight."

There was a pause. "Oh. What time is it now?"

She looked at her watch. "Ten after three."

 "Then whom am I speaking to?"

 "I'm the night operator.  This is the main switchboard."

 "Well, main switchboard, you must all sound alike down there. I could swear I talked to you earlier tonight."

Well, how about that. "You've got a good ear, 704. I was on duty earlier."

 "Good Lord. How long are the shifts around here?"

 "Eight hours for everybody else. I’m working a double today." 

 “Why?"

 "Maybe I just love it here."

 "I guess you do. But I hope you're well compensated."

Trust a man to think of money first. "That’s not my major concern."

 "Glad to hear it."

Okay, enough's enough.  It's been a long day, made even longer by him. No reason to shoot the breeze with this guy. "Excuse me, I have other callers. Sorry I couldn’t help you."

"Well, better luck with them." 

 "Look, if you'd called earlier—"
     
"Absolutely. My fault entirely, for falling asleep after a cross-country flight, a time change and a screw-up in hotel administration. Forget I even mentioned it." The phone clicked in her ear.
     
She sat for some moments before she noticed she was trembling. This was the second time he'd undermined her—and it bothered her.
Susan Sloate is the author of 20 published books, including FORWARD TO CAMELOT (with Kevin Finn),
an alternative history of the JFK assassination, STEALING FIRE, an autobiographical love story, and REALIZING YOU (with Ron Doades), for which she invented a new genre – the self-help novel.  FORWARD TO CAMELOT was a #6 Amazon bestseller, took honors in 3 literary competitions and was optioned for film production by a Hollywood company. STEALING FIRE was a quarter-finalist in the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. Susan has also written young-adult fiction and non-fiction, including RAY CHARLES: FIND ANOTHER WAY!, which won a silver medal in the 2007 Children’s Moonbeam Book Awards, AMELIA EARHART: CHALLENGING THE SKIES, a perennial Amazon bestseller, and MYSTERIES UNWRAPPED: THE SECRETS OF ALCATRAZ, which led to her appearance on a special for The History Channel in 2009, as well as books for five girls’ fiction series. As a screenwriter, she has written an informational film for McGraw-Hill Films and optioned two scripts to Hollywood production companies. As a sportswriter, she’s covered the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Mets. She’s also managed two recent political campaigns, founded the East Cooper Authors Festival (which put 18 professional authors in 17 area schools in one day) and serves on the Culture, Arts and Pride Commission of the Town of Mount Pleasant.