Sneak Peek Sunday

It's Sunday and time for the  Sneak Peek Sunday mini hop! The deal is to post 6 paragraphs from a writing project, published or unpublished. Today, I'm offering a sampling from my back list ~ Dreamscape.

Written in homage to Agatha Christie, Dreamscape is a haunting, a murder, a thriller, a mystery, a time-travel of sorts, and a love story that transcends time. Above all, this sensual tale is a reader's Easter egg hunt in the truest sense. Not everything is as it appears. Peppered throughout are little clues suggesting a story running behind the scenes. Finding them isn't necessary to the telling of the tale, just a fun twist in my writing. Can you find them all before the story ends? But more importantly, can a ghost find love among the living?

Setting the scene: Jason haunts his house and ponders his death 120 years ago. One day a lovely stranger comes. It looks like she's moving in!


My Six:
He'd watched the pair as they walked around the grounds with pens and paper in hand presumably making notes for repairs. While assessing the pavers that lined his walkway, she looked up at his window curiously as if seeking something. Jason frowned. Did she see him standing there? How odd. He could only be seen when he wanted to. And he did not yet wish to be seen. 

After the man had driven away in his automobile, the woman retrieved her bags from another smaller vehicle. He watched her come up the walkway. She glanced his way again and she was smiling. 

Hmm. 

Below, the front door opened and closed, so he headed there, curious about the woman who at this very moment was moving into his house. He was grateful for two things, the first being he'd no longer be alone with only an occasional mouse for company. The second, this young woman bore no resemblance to his beautiful, black-hearted wife.

He thought about her from time to time, his duplicitous wife Cathy, her lover Richard Mason, and his sister Bertha, his murderers. He spent many a night listening to their congratulatory recounting of how they'd set him up, duping him into marrying a woman who from the onset had a lover in the wings. Like the Masons, Cathy too was born and raised in the south at the time of reconstruction and was reared on tales of the glory days. Their sole purpose from the onset in taking his life was so she would inherit all.
 
When they met she had been such a sweet and shy little beauty, the shyness he later learned to be false. When she comforted him over the untimely death of his father, he'd been surprised by how quickly he fell head over heels for her. Though she'd never voiced it while he was alive, he was well aware of her desire to live in the affluent manner in which her parents and grandparents had lived before the war took it all away. To that end, seeking to win her timid heart and encourage the comfort that would eventually lead his wife into his bed, he gave into Cathy's every whim. No more than two months had passed before he was compelled to offer her marriage. No more than four before he found himself dead with his spirit walking the halls.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Sample all of my love stories for free

Subscribe to my main blog.
You'll never know what you'll find.

http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

 

۞>Saturday & Sunday Happenings on my other blogs<۞

Sexy Snippets & My Sexy Saturday
http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Seductive Studs and Sirens & Weekend Writing Warriors
http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

New Topic, 100 Things, & Fun Day Sunday
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

A Saturday Teaser
http://ifollowthemuse.blogspot.com/

Sneak Peek Sunday
http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Sunday Snippet **promo op**
http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

See my new Links page on the right for more

Knee-deep in Santa's workshop

I make many of my gifts for my loved ones. While I’m seeing to my seasonal projects to accomplish by the end of December, you'll notice my blogs are somewhat quiet. My main blog is still a little active from now until the end of the year. I'm currently posting vintage holiday postcards there. Gorgeous happy things from days gone by. 

I'm also highlighting promotional opportunities for authors and contests for authors and readers alike on my two group blogs Exquisite Quills and Romance Books '4' Us. Find details for both and subscribe to my main blog here: 

http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

In the meantime,  allow me to introduce my unique love stories through my book trailers. I hope you enjoy. Scroll down to learn how you can sample my books for free!

 ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ

Sample all of my love stories for free!
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/333971


Pick up a free copy of our
Exquisite Quills Holiday Anthology Vol 1
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/374815

ɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤɤ
You'll LOVE Reading Rose!

Main Blog:
Subscribe on the Main blog for interesting posts, updates & more.
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Satellite Blogs:
One hop or four, there's lots of action on these blogs!
http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/
http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/
http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/
http://roseanderson4858.blog.com/

Salon Blog:
Come start a great discussion or add to one. (temporarily inactive)
http://anotherstoneunturned.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills:
Several authors & their romances.
From sweet to scorching. 
Discover our author promo opportunities
http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Yahoo Group: Open to readers and writers
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExquisiteQuills/

Romance Books '4' Us: I'm a featured blogger the 4th of every month
Many great topics there all month long.
http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rose-Anderson/e/B004XDGWL6
I'll happily sign all ebooks with Authorgraph.

Social Media:
I'm everywhere. Come say hi. 

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/FollowTheMuse/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/roseanderson_
Tumblr: http://author-roseanderson.tumblr.com/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com//MusesWritingTablet
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117411462633912228541/posts
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rose.anderson.7524
About.me: http://about.me/rose_anderson_author

Author Pages etc:
I have many author's pages and static pages around the web. Too many to list here! If you see me, do say hello.

Dreamscape

Dreamscape

~*~

Written in homage to Agatha Christie, this tale is a haunting, a murder, a thriller, a mystery, a time-travel of sorts, and a love story that transcends time. Dreamscape is also a reader's Easter egg hunt. Not everything is as it appears. Peppered throughout are little clues suggesting a story running behind the scenes. 
 

Setting the Stage: Lanie returns from a blind date but has no idea a ghost has been pacing the halls waiting on her return. Wanting to know how she would react to a ghost in the house, he disrupts the TV, knocks a spoon to the floor, and opens a cabinet door. And getting only her curious reaction, he follows her upstairs where after reveling in her living warmth, he falls into her dream and into the life he once lived. (The story as follows has been modified for today's broad viewing audience. Dreamscape is a scorching love story with more than one adult theme)
 

Excerpt:Taking a seat in the chair across from her as she scribbled small pictures onto her notepad, flowers mostly, daisies and lily-of-the-valley, he read the messages she wrote to herself regarding what needed to be done the following morning. This list was the shortest yet. Occasionally she’d look at the cabinet door to see if it would actually move again. He was tempted, but a part of him was too afraid she’d leave, never to return. Then the moment he had waited the entire day for happened. She yawned.

“You’re tired, you should rest,” he whispered. He could see the suggestion taking root in her mind. Putting her nearly full cup in the sink, she headed to bed.

Watching her sleep, Jason sat beside her a long while thinking on how lovely she looked tonight. He would have loved to have been the man to take her out on the town, to the theater perhaps. Out for dinner, certainly. If his own kisses had swelled those luscious lips, he would have ventured from her sweet mouth to the tops of those exquisite breasts so tantalizingly displayed in the décolleté of her neckline. His entire being desired to lose himself in the living heat of her. There was simply no stopping himself from caressing her, having lost that particular battle of conscience the first night she lay in his bed. He’d convinced himself that as long as he kept his baser needs to himself, touching her while she was completely unaware was a harmless compulsion.

Materializing just under the linens, his glowing form lit the sheet like a Japanese lantern. He whispered to her unconscious mind as she lay curled on her side, “Lay back for me, sweetheart, let me look at you fully while I feel how warm you are.”

Unconsciously responding to his suggestion, she rolled on her back, one arm tossed casually over her pillow.

Once more marveling that he was able to touch her at all, he swept her raven hair back from her lovely face, his thumb lightly tracing the delicate arch of her eyebrow. Touching her skin was like touching a rose petal in his garden, a warm sun-kissed rose petal. Gliding his hands over her warmth, he caressed her trim belly and arms all the while carefully avoiding the dove-soft breasts as any gentleman might unless given leave. Though it was true she hadn’t granted leave for any touching, the fragment of his gentlemanly comportment quickly faded as her living heat seeped into him.

He imagined her then as he saw her in her dream—imagined he was alive and he’d taken her out for the evening. And in his musings he’d kiss her rose-tinted lips for the longest time and she’d come to his bed without hesitation. Maidenly airs aside, she’d want him as he wanted her. He’d leisurely undress her himself, slowly unlacing the corset she didn’t need to wear. He’d kneel at her feet to roll stockings down those beautiful smooth legs. He imagined he could smell the heated scent of her arousal because he was a flesh-and-blood man again. And while his imaginative yearnings delighted his fancy, his respectful touch had unconsciously grown bolder.
 
Passing right through him, she rolled over on her side and hugged her pillow. Breathing the perfume behind her ear, he lightly spooned against her. His glowing blue arm wrapped possessively around her waist, and his hand filled with the soft weight of her breast. Lying there, Jason’s mind was awhirl. He hadn’t felt this way about a woman before, not once while he lived, and certainly not once since he’d died.

Thoughts of his duplicitous wife came unbidden. Under the guise of shyness, Cathy had shunned such intimate attempts to bring her pleasure. Even his innocent kisses. Terrified tears met his advances on their wedding night, and in the four months of marriage he’d lived as a monk waiting for her “comfort to grow.” Of course, it never did, in fact they hadn’t yet consummated their marriage. She’d managed to kill him off before her avowed shyness was tested.

The little Cathy did suffer his affections, his kiss upon her cheek, his caress as she passed, were simply a part of the ruse that gigged him like a frog. Blinded with desire for his beautiful wife, he didn’t immediately see the changes in her when he’d brought her home. Having time to think like he had, he recognized Cathy was indeed cold as a woman, selfish to his calling as a physician, and disdaining to his friends and the people in his employ, some of whom had been with his family longer than he had lived. At the time he attributed those changes in her demeanor to her missing her dear friends in Atlanta. He knew her father had died in the war, her mother shortly after. Knew too she was raised by a distant fourth cousin who had children of her own. Cathy was extremely close to those cousins. He frowned at the thought.

The preposterous lie she’d told him on their wedding night as she cried and begged her shy sensibilities to keep his attentions at bay all but melted away after his death. He pushed the image of Cathy and her longtime lover from his mind. He’d lived as a monk with his shy wife, while she enjoyed her carnal feast with such abandon that no one could doubt the act had happened many times before.

Confused as to how he could have been so blind, he’d studied the pair, looking for the shy, delicate angel his wife pretended to be and finding instead the practiced whore. The whole thing, their lies and his ignorance, sickened him. Unable to stomach more, he hid himself away in the cupola for one hundred years of solitude and stayed there until one night when he’d heard lonely Margaret cry.

Lanie shifted positions, her movement redirecting his dark thoughts. This kind and gentle creature in his arms, this beauty with her hot blood coursing through her veins, was as different from Cathy as night was from day. With her in his arms he almost felt like a flesh-and-blood man again. Breathing the mingled scent of perfume and soap and a woman’s arousal, he whispered at her ear as his essence plied her synapse, “Dream, sweetheart, dream of me again.” 

And she did, right where the last had left off.

>۞<

My adult romances can be found wherever books
are sold in ebook and paperback
Sample them all for free!

Subscribe to my main blog.
You'll never know what you'll find!

http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Visit my Exquisite Quills blog for free author promotional opportunities 

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/ 

Time Flies

Time flies. The Hot Summer Heroes Blog Hop is now over. Sometime this week, I'll sort through my comments and find a winner. Thanks for playing along everyone! This blog will go quiet for a few days as I finish up a project. In the meantime, I'm leaving the post and book trailers up should anyone else stop by.


I love when blog hops have topics and this one is what makes a hero a hottie. I write heroes to fall in love with. As a matter of fact, I'm in love with all of mine! Of course nice to look at is always a plus, but over appearance, I'd say intelligence, kindness, and  the way he carries himself has the most appeal to me. I'm not overly fond of muscles on muscles in my leading men. I'd rather have sleek and powerful if the moment calls for it. Competence is equally attractive. Does he move through his world confidently? Does he have a certain grace about him? What about his hands?

I love a man’s hands. Sure, everyone enjoys a handsome face, a tight physique, a beautiful pair of eyes. Who wouldn’t? We’re designed by nature to be drawn to healthy and strong characteristics. How else would the species continue optimally if not for this unconscious selection? A man’s hands, provided they’re not long-nailed or belonging to Ichabod Crane, always turn my head. Pair them with corded forearms and strong wrists and mmm mmm mmm, you had me at hellooooo.

I prefer them large and capable, the clean fingernails trimmed reasonably. I like them expressive, their occasional gesture emphasizing the statement or encouraging the conversation. I like them rough, not so hard that their skin is like boot leather, but rough like they know what it’s like to pick up a shovel or a hammer even if they spend all day typing on a keyboard or playing a piano. I love when they’re gentle. There’s nothing so sexy as when these masculine hands pat a child’s back, tuck a strand of hair behind an ear, or gently interact with an animal.

Many are of the opinion that a man has to have a firm handshake. I concur. I love watching men shake hands. A man doesn’t have to break the fingers of the hand he’s clasping, but his handshake should be strong enough to show his vitality. I just love that. In my mind it’s a throwback to the days when knights participated in tournaments, though I’m sure the handshake goes back far longer than that. It is a good way, after all, to judge if the man you’re meeting is a force to contend with should the meeting go badly. Enjoying this little show of prowess is another instance of a woman being drawn to the strongest male in the vicinity.

My heroines love lacing their fingers in a strong, neat, expressive, lightly calloused, gentle, and capable hand. Especially if she can feel the love there in the warm, safe, confines. And lastly, she loves when these hands roam. Oh yes she does!

Meet my HOT heroes

The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo (Book 1 Ashkerwhetasu)
Inspired by Native American mythology and the very real urban legend
of the Wisconsin wolfman

Read more at USA Today!

The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo (Book 2 Eluwilussit)The story continues

Loving Leonardo (book1)
A Victorian polyamorous love story,
with a touch of reader-interactive art history

Loving Leonardo - The Quest (book 2)
The story continues

Dreamscape A haunting, a murder, a mystery, a reader's puzzle
running behind the scenes, and a love that transcends time

Hermes Online A contemporary erotic romance
with a little ancient meddling
(Pssst...the Greek Gods are implied)

 

You'll LOVE Reading Rose!

Main Blog:
Subscribe on the Main blog for interesting posts, updates & more.
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Satellite Blogs:
One hop or four, there's lots of action on these blogs!
http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/
http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/
http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

http://roseanderson4858.blog.com/

Salon Blog:
Come start a great discussion or add to one. (currently inactive due to health issues)
http://anotherstoneunturned.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills:
Several authors & their romances.
From sweet to scorching.
http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Readers & Authors Yahoo Group (NEW)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExquisiteQuills/

Romance Books '4' Us:

I'm a featured blogger the 4th of every month
Many great topics there all month long.
http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rose-Anderson/e/B004XDGWL6/

I'll happily sign all ebooks with Authorgraph. 

Social Media:
I'm everywhere. Come say hi. I follow back.

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/FollowTheMuse/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/roseanderson_
Tumblr: http://author-roseanderson.tumblr.com/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com//MusesWritingTablet
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117411462633912228541/posts
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rose.anderson.7524
About.me: http://about.me/rose_anderson_author

Author Pages etc:
I have many author's pages and static pages around the web. Too many to list here! If you see me, do say hello.

 

What a whirlwind weekend!

Wow was that a whirlwind weekend! Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, this humble little bog was very busy. You should see my Main blog! It was just one of those all events line up on one particular weekend, weekends.  

1. I was in the Christmas in July  hop here. Later this week, I'll wade through my comments and pick a winner for reader's choice of any 2 of my novels. I'll contact you. I wish you all the best of luck for the grand prizes and hope you find my novel entertaining too. Thank you for playing along. You can Look Inside all of my novels to get a teaser on Amazon. If you'd like to sample my works, Amazon has an ebook sampling of first chapters. I tried to make it free but they weren't allowing that. It's 99¢. That was the best they'd do for me, though I did try. http://www.amazon.com/Love-Waits-Unexpected-Places-ebook/dp/B00DIKHDDQ  

2. On my Main blog I participated in the Hot Summer Romance Giveaway hop. That event is now over too. My full year of blog hopping research is coming to a close. I have just a few left. Sometime in December, I'll post my findings. I've been in some great ones, some very odd ones, and some real duds. I won't say which because all these things take effort and hats of to anyone wanting to put effort in. Of all the hops I've done, I can count those I'd do again on six fingers. Again, I'll post my findings with the last one at the end of the year.  

3. Saturday and Sunday saw me doing back-to-back mini hops on three satellite blogs. My Sexy Saturday, The Weekend Writing Warriors, Sexy Snippets, Sneak Peek Sunday, and The Sweet Saturday Samples. I also did two on Wednesday but I'll mention those another time. I really enjoy those 1-day hops and everyone commenting always has some nice and encouraging things to say. I try to visit the participants too, but this weekend was nuts. Last week there were a lot of great teasers offered. I think creating satellite blogs with the same theme running between them was a very good idea. It gives me versatility. If you'd like to join those 1-day minis, scroll back here and click the active links to go sign up. Then check the links tab above and check out my satellite blogs. Most of these events will be ready for sign-up by mid-week.
 

4. I had a guest blog post up on author Toni Sweeney's blog. I'm talking about art, Leonardo da Vinci, and how such things inspire me. It'll be up all week. Do say hi if you stop. I'll be on and off to answer questions. http://www.tonivsweeney.com/tvsweeney@tonivsweeney.com/Blog/Entries/2013/7/18_Loving_Leonardo_and_After.html

5. The Exquisite Quills yahoo group is going strong. I'm very happy with it. We have a wonderful bunch of members who offer suggestions based upon their various experiences, and we talk about a lot of different things. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExquisiteQuills/

6. I participated in a cute little event called The Darwin Murders over on Facebook (did I say how much I dislike FB?). I submitted Ester's Bees to show my mind can be as twisted as the next author's mind. I invite you to see it before they take it down. https://www.facebook.com/events/137774169753258/ Hopefully, my mini crime will be selected for an anthology. I was in the last event with a very last minute entry. My story made it in the Bump Off Your Enemies anthology. http://www.amazon.com/Bump-Off-Your-Enemies-ebook/dp/B00CJWAVAQ

7. Very last minute, I got involved in the 10-Day Writing Blogger Challenge on my Main blog. I love challenges. Already this event has helped me create a nice blurb for my work in progress. Many authors hate blurbs. I don't, but they're hard for me. I think in big pictures. On Main blog, you can scroll back to see my offerings for day 1 and 2. It’s Day 3 of the 10-Day Writing Challenge now.
Today’s task: Offer my bio.

About Rose -

I live with my family and small menagerie amid oak groves and prairie in the rolling glacial hills of the upper mid-west. In this chapter of my life, I'm a multi-published author. My active imagination compels me to write everything from children’s stories to historical nonfiction.

I love descriptive words and choose them as carefully as an artist might choose a color. My detail-rich romances are happily ever after love stories colored in many shades. Readers will find my compelling heroes and heroines easy to fall in love with, and my villains…well, I won't give too much away.

As a student of the human condition, I like to play with symbolism and metaphor dealing with core issues related to being human. Readers will find insights into the ongoing search for the ultimate meaning of existence tucked into my stories. Believing we are all on the same journey, I hope they strike a personal chord when discovered. I so love when readers say they've found something. I’d like people to feel my stories were written just for them, for that’s the truth. These hidden insights are my gift to my readers. When not writing, I gather with friends for drumming, poetry, Reiki, and great discussions. You’ll also find me tirelessly dogged by my furry companions. Like right now...

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

What's next? I'm closing in on Enchanted Skye. This poor story had so many starts and stops for various reasons, health and otherwise, I've completely rewritten it for continuity's sake. I think readers will find it charming. I do, and if I can please this hard-to-please reader, others just might like it too. Because I plan to hit the bricks with this story this week to get it done by the end of the month, this blog will go quiet for a few days unless writer's block grabs me by the throat again. If you've never been here before, I invite you to poke through my links below. Scroll back to my previous post to see my book trailers.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Love waits in Unexpected Places

Main Blog:
Subscribe on the Main blog for interesting posts, updates & more.
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Satellite Blogs:
One hop or four, there's lots of action on these blogs!
http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/
http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/
http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

http://roseanderson4858.blog.com/

Salon Blog:
Come start a great discussion or add to one.
http://anotherstoneunturned.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills:
Several authors & their romances.
From sweet to scorching.
http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills Readers & Authors Yahoo Group (NEW)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExquisiteQuills/

Romance Books '4' Us:

I'm a featured blogger the 4th of every month
Many great topics there.
http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rose-Anderson

I'll happily sign all ebooks with Authorgraph. 

Social Media:
I'm everywhere. Come say hi. I follow back.

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/FollowTheMuse/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/roseanderson_
Tumblr: http://author-roseanderson.tumblr.com/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com//MusesWritingTablet
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117411462633912228541/posts
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rose.anderson.7524
About.me: http://about.me/rose_anderson_author

Author Pages etc:
I have many author's pages and static pages around the web. Too many to list here! If you see me, do say hello.

The Christmas in July Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Christmas in July Blog Hop! There are two grand prizes for this hop -- a $100 Amazon.com gift card and a $25 Amazon gift card.
There are 48 authors participating so you have 48 chances to win something! I'm offering reader's choice of 2 of any of my 6 novels. Find the other participants here.

 ~Be sure to leave a comment with your email to win~

You'll LOVE Reading Rose!

Each story is uniquely different

 

The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo (Book 1 Ashkerwhetasu) Inspired by Native American mythology and a very real urban legend

Read more at USA Today!

 

The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo (Book 2 Eluwilussit) The story continues

 

Loving Leonardo (book1) A Victorian polyamorous love story, with a touch of reader-interactive art history

 

Loving Leonardo - The Quest (book 2) The story continues

 

Dreamscape A haunting, a murder, a mystery, a reader's puzzle running behind the scenes, and a love that transcends time

 

Hermes Online A contemporary erotic romance with a little ancient meddling (Pssst...the Greek Gods are implied)

 

>>o<<

I'm doing the Sneak Peek Sunday! & the Hot Summer Romance Giveaway hop
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/
I have a Leonardo da Vinci post up on author Toni Sweeney's blog today
http://www.tonivsweeney.com/tvsweeney@tonivsweeney.com/Blog/Entries/2013/7/18_Loving_Leonardo_and_After.html

I have a Sexy Snippet here
http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/
and
I'm in on the Christmas in July hop too!
http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

>>o<<

Love waits in Unexpected Places

Main Blog:
Subscribe on the Main blog for interesting posts, updates & more.
http://calliopeswritingtablet.com/

Satellite Blogs:
One hop or four, there's lots of action on these blogs!
http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/
http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/
http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

http://roseanderson4858.blog.com/

Salon Blog:
Come start a great discussion or add to one.
http://anotherstoneunturned.blogspot.com/

Exquisite Quills:
Several authors & their romances.
From sweet to scorching.
http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/
Exquisite Quills Readers & Authors Yahoo Group (NEW)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExquisiteQuills/

Romance Books '4' Us:
I'm a featured blogger the 4th of every month
Many great topics there.
http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rose-Anderson
I'll happily sign all ebooks with Authorgraph. 

Social Media:
I'm everywhere. Come say hi. I follow back.
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/FollowTheMuse/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/roseanderson_
Tumblr: http://author-roseanderson.tumblr.com/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com//MusesWritingTablet
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117411462633912228541/posts
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rose.anderson.7524
About.me: http://about.me/rose_anderson_author

Author Pages etc:
I have many author's pages and static pages around the web. Too many to list here! If you see me, do say hello.

It's Time for the The Romance Reviews' Sizzling Summer Reads!

http://www.theromancereviews.com

It's time for the The Romance Reviews' big summer bash!

Join more than 400 authors and publishers for a month of goodies. Find hundreds of excerpts and over 400 prizes too, including the grand prize of a $100 gift card! (All winners will be notified at the end of the event.)

My prize is an Authorgraphed (signed by me) Kindle copy of book one in my Victorian polyamorous romance: Loving Leonardo.

On the 4th, simply follow the link to The Romance Reviews site and look for my name on the participant list. Then scroll down to my question and choose an answer from the multiple choice.Until then, hop on over for the rest and discover that next great summer read!

~~~~oOo~~~~

The Following excerpt comes from Loving Leonardo - The Quest. But first, Loving Leonardo's trailer to start you off on the story:

Setting the stage:
Up to this point, Nicolas has been plagued by disturbing dreams. His subconscious mind is telling him something isn't quite right. Now in Paris hunting for Leonardo da Vinci's clues, Nicolas, Ellie, and Luca take in the City of Lights determined to make the most of their adventure. They stop to have their fortunes read. Shortly after, Nicolas receives a fateful telegram.

After wine, we moved on to explore the famous Parisian Catacombs. The long-abandoned stone quarry’s underground chambers now held an ossuary with the remains of several million people stacked in a freakishly grotesque collage of bone. As dinner was some hours away, we bought ourselves several portable foods from the abundant street vendors and took ourselves to the Eiffel Tower’s top viewing platform. High above the city, the early November breeze left little doubt winter was coming. We weren’t long up there.

“My goodness, the day has turned cold.” Ellie plucked a hot chestnut from the paper cone and passed the nugget of warmth from one kid-gloved hand to the other.

“Would you rather we return to our suite?”

Laughing, she shook her head and swept a hand to the untidy wall of plastered playbills for the various happenings around the city. “And miss all this?”

Luca popped a peeled chestnut into his mouth. His words steamed as he read a bill plastered to a wall, Axël: A drama by Auguste Villiers.

I knew Ellie enjoyed reading of seductive and sexually attractive heroes. While I hadn’t attended any Villiers theater pieces myself, I had once read a commentary in the London Times suggesting he created Byronic heroes in his works. I took out my pocket watch and checked the time. “The play begins in approximately twenty minutes. We could warm ourselves there, and then return to the hotel for dinner.” I raised a brow to Ellie. “Care to take in a play, love?”

“What a marvelous idea!”

***

We left the theater an hour later. What a mistake that had been. While the play was entertaining and the theme interesting enough, with its occult undertones, the ending had left a bad taste in my mouth. After finding their treasure, Axël the hero and his heroine Sara fall in love, and then decide their dream is far too magnificent to be fulfilled in the unimaginative reality of their lives. With no dream to live for, they killed themselves as the sun rose and the curtain fell.

Apparently unfazed, my companions discussed the story at length as we walked back to the hotel. I couldn’t help but draw a parallel to our lives, although I was certain the dark thoughts were mine alone. It didn’t help that we passed a mortician’s window with the latest embalming on display as a macabre advertisement to the skill to be had there. Beside the door, a glass frame was filled with memento mori photographs. In general I found the practice of posing the dead in life-like attitudes a disturbing one. Especially the staring facsimile eyes painted upon closed lids.

Seeking a distraction from my thoughts, I used the tip of Eiffel’s tower as a guide and led us across the street and down an alley. We passed a beribboned one-man music show reminiscent of a May Day mummer, a raucous game of Three Card Monte taking place on an upturned dustbin, and Luca received a blatant sexual proposition by a ponce seeking work for his whore. Turning the corner, we chanced upon two women, one young and the other quite old or quite world-worn. Both were obviously Roma, dressed as they were in colorful rustic clothing one might see on country folk. The younger woman rocked a baby. The elder told us in heavily-accented English that her tarot cards held a message for Luca and me.

Unused to gypsies who peddled their wares across Europe, Ellie was enchanted by the idea. She tugged on my sleeve and encouraged a card reading. Luca shrugged and I found myself placing a coin on the scarf-covered folding table.

The elder’s smile revealed several missing teeth. She shuffled her worn cards and said, “The cards speak to you first, Englishman.” These she handed to me and I cut the deck into three piles as directed. I realized then that this deck of cards was not only quite old, it was hand-painted. Restacking them into her hand, she dealt three cards — the three of cups, the six of swords, and the five of pentacles. I looked at the woman expectantly.

I felt Ellie’s eyes on me.

“Well madam, what do the cards say?”

“The cards call for caution, Englishman.” She tapped the three of cups with a gnarled finger. “You’ve gained fortune in love. But this card is your past.”

Ellie looped her arm through mine. I could feel her thoughts. As far as she and I were concerned, it was our present and future.

The old woman tapped the six of swords. “Your plans will be postponed and sadly there is nothing to be done for it.” She stared at the cards a moment then tsked. She shook her head and tapped the last. “The card sees loss and ruin.”

Ellie looked at me with wide skeptical eyes that danced with mirth, the smile tugging at the corners of her lips as she tried to keep a straight face. Luca slapped me on the back in humor, and said, “You’d best watch yourself, Nicolas.”

I chuckled, but my unsettled mind absorbed the woman’s prophesy.

She gathered the cards again and shuffled them. After Luca cut the deck into three piles, she laid them out as before. The first was the two of cups. “Your recent past shows harmony, man of Venice.” Luca nodded, apparently missing the fact the woman knew where he was from. I hadn’t missed it. There was nothing in his accent that hinted at a particular region of Italy. She set the next card beside the first. It was the eight of wands. “There is jealousy in your life now,” she told him.

He looked at me and then at Ellie. There was no jealousy between us. Proof again these mystic pastimes were nothing more than parlor games. The last card was the king of cups. She looked up into his face and for the first time I realized she had a glass eye that didn’t quite move with the other. The real eye looked him up and down, and the perusal made me very uncomfortable. I couldn’t say why that was, even if I’d been asked. She suddenly scooped up the cards and declared the reading completed.

Luca chuckled. “Madam, you’ve not read my last card.”

The baby fussed. The older woman turned to the younger and said something in a language I did not recognize but possessed rounded syllables found in the Latin languages. Romanian, perhaps. The young woman nodded and replied, then bared her breast to suckle her babe. She said, “The king of cups tells of a powerful man—”

The old woman voiced something that effectively stopped the younger mid-sentence.

How strange. We looked at one another. Ellie dug into her reticule and set a coin on the table. “I’d like my fortune read too, if you please.”

The old woman shook her head.

“Why not? I’ll pay.”

Chuckling, Luca set another coin on the cloth. Obviously deliberating, the old woman stared at the coins and pursed her lips. In the end, the prospect of more money won out. She shuffled the cards and set the deck on the table. Her one eye moved from person to person, at last settling on Ellie. She told her, “One card only, lady.”

Ellie turned over a single card and set it on the scarf. The lovers in reverse. The old woman said, “Separation,” and quickly scooped up the deck and scarf and snapped the folding table closed. The card reading was officially over.

“Wait, what does that mean?” Ellie asked obviously confused.

I hooked my arm in hers and said, “It means nothing my dear, it’s merely a game.”

The gypsy cackled. “A mistake many make.”

I tugged Ellie away. “Come love, let’s see about our dinner.”

***

During the French Revolution, art once commissioned and hoarded by the privileged became the property of the citizenry. The dining hall’s vaulted ceiling sported numerous panels undoubtedly taken from the aristocracy. There was no option for intimate dining, with the long tables set to accommodate more than one thousand guests. We found ourselves taking our meal beside a world of nations. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle raved over the Grand’s culinary excellence, and the hotel’s kitchen staff did not disappoint. Our meal was superb.

To my right sat a rather sallow character whose clothing held a faint note of opium smoke. I introduced myself and for the effort got the salt passed to me. Then I introduced myself and my wife to the English couple directly across the table, a veritable Jack Sprat and his wife. In the din, I couldn’t quite make out their names — Anders, Landers, or Flanders — but it didn’t matter. The less-than-friendly wife was too absorbed in finding fault with an exemplary meal. Four times did she call for our server to complain about how cold her soup was and how hot her salad was, as well as how fishy the fish tasted, and she asked him to inform the cook that the peas were still in their pods.

Ellie nudged my knee with hers. Mrs. Anders-Landers-Flanders’s complaints were laughable because we’d been served a cold soup of potato and leek, an intentionally hot salad of roasted pepper and ham, a pheasant course in cream that was by no means a fish course, and haricots verts which were obviously green beans and not unshelled peas. The poor sod of a husband never once raised an eye from his plate while the woman complained; rather, he ate with increased speed. I assume he hoped to cut and run to the men’s salon for cards and cigars. The thought was born out a moment later, when he declined the delicious raspberry and chocolate trifle, briefly kissed his wife’s cheek, and said, “I’ll be playing cards tonight my dear, don’t wait up for me.” In response the woman tasted the trifle and said, “My word, can I not find one decent morsel to eat in this city?”

***

I had just removed my tie when came a quiet knock at our door. A chasseur met me with a silver tray in hand, upon it a telegram. I tipped the man and closed the door behind him. Confused, I turned to my companions. “I can’t imagine what this is about.”

Luca and Ellie both drew close as I unfolded the paper. It was from Mrs. Fletcher. I read it aloud.

My Dear Boy, Come home. Thomas has been injured and is not expected to survive. Come home. We need you. MF

Ellie laid a hand on my arm. “I’ll pack straightaway.”

I could barely breathe. My dear Thom not expected to survive. Needing the anchor of her love, I pulled Ellie to me and hugged her fiercely. An instant later, Luca’s warm body enfolded me as well. Choking back my misery, I said to him, “I’m leaving now. Bring Ellie.”

Winding her arms around my waist, she protested, “No. Nicolas, my place is by your side.”

Luca said, “As is mine.”

I shook my head. “I’m needed there now.” Willing her to understand, I gathered her hands in mine. “I’ll not see you travel the channel at night. Wait until morning, the crossing is safer then.” I kissed her knuckles then turned to Luca. “I don’t know what I’ll find at home. I know you understand.” I knew he did because I read it in his eyes. Society had a dark underbelly where men of our ilk were concerned. Thom’s dire condition might very well have to do with his homosexuality.

He nodded and kissed my cheek softly. “I do. We’ll follow in the morning.”

oOoOo

Rose Anderson ~ Love Waits in Unexpected Places

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