Six Sentence Sunday 3/13/11

Alanna Coca

Howdy! Wel­come back! Before shar­ing this week’s six, I just want to remind every­one not to for­get the awe­some Luck of the Irish blog hop start­ing on St. Pat­tie’s Day over at JustRomance.me. Join us for some real­ly fun sto­ries, a ton of ebook and gift card prizes, and this time we’re also giv­ing away a Kin­dle 3! (If any more authors out there want to join the par­ty, there’s still a lit­tle time left to sign up. Get in touch with me through my Con­tact page and I’ll get back to you with details!)

Now, on with the story:

The pain from her wounds dulled, and she feared that it was sig­nal­ing the end. Only adren­a­lin gave her the ener­gy to speak when the dis­patch­er picked up.

“I’ve been stabbed. How­er­ton Hotel, Peachtree Street. Nine­teenth floor. Please hurry.”

“Yes ma’am. I’ve got help on the way. Is there any­one with you?” The calm female voice mixed with the tap­ping and back­ground jabbering.

“No.” Brynn’s world went black.

 

Okay, off to the oth­er SSS Posters at the Offi­cial Web­site. Have fun!

 

Six Sentence Sunday 3/6/11

Alanna Coca

Howdy! Wel­come back! I’m here fight­ing win­ter away, because I read on the Inter­net some­where that spring was com­ing! We’ll see how long it takes to get up on top of this mountain.

On with the story:

Not trust­ing her hands to dial, she held down the voice dial but­ton until the elec­tron­ic voice rang out loud in the stillness.

Say a command.

Brynn let the phone drop to the ground, and slid fur­ther down through the pool of blood on the con­crete under­neath her. She had one shot. Already her strength was fad­ing, so she enun­ci­at­ed each word for the com­put­er. “Dial…nine…one…one.”

Con­nect­ing to…nine-one-one.

Okay, off to the oth­er SSS Posters at the Offi­cial Web­site. Have fun!

 

Romance Trading Cards

Alanna Coca

I’m very excit­ed for this year’s Romance Times con­fer­ence in April. A big chunk of the excite­ment comes from the fact that as I write this I’m under a win­ter storm warn­ing, and the con­fer­ence is in sun­ny south­ern Cal­i­for­nia! I’ll have to dig out some flip flops and paint my toenails!

This year, a bunch of authors are get­ting togeth­er to hand out Romance Trad­ing Cards, so I made three fla­vors, one for Fine Print, and two for Olivi­a’s books. As they appear on the site, I am amazed by the tal­ent these authors show with their cre­ativ­i­ty. Mine are pret­ty plain, but the heroes of the books make up for it I think.

Head on over to romancetradingcards.com to watch the col­lec­tion unfold. It’s gonna be fun!

Six Sentence Sunday 2/27/11

Alanna Coca

Wel­come back! I always work all day on Sun­days, so I miss hop­ping along the blogs along with the rest of you. I always bring up the end of the parade. I like to call it “fash­ion­ably late”.

On with this week’s six, where we join Bron­wynn as she was just stabbed in a park­ing garage.

“Help,” she choked. The atten­dant was­n’t in her line of sight, and her voice wasn’t strong enough to get his atten­tion even if he were. Her vision blurred, and she sat on her heels, and fell back against the wheel of her car. The pain was almost more than she could bear. She fum­bled on her belt for her cell phone, her hand shak­ing and slick with blood. Each beat of her heart sent blood gush­ing through her hand, no mat­ter how hard she tried to sti­fle it.

Sigh. Every week I open this WiP and won­der why I’m not writ­ing in it. I need more fin­gers! Be sure to check out the oth­er S3 posters at the offi­cial web­site! See you next week.

 

Six Sentence Sunday 2/20/11

Alanna Coca

Wel­come back! I’m doing two SSS posts today, be sure to check out my Alter Ego Olivia Bryn­n’s blog, show­cas­ing six sen­tences from tomor­row’s release Tes­sa’s Pride!

But while you’re here, I’ve got six more from my unti­tled WiP, pick­ing up where we left off last week.

She didn’t hear the dis­tinct hiss­ing sound of air, so the knife hadn’t punc­tured a lung. She took a deep breath, but stead­ied her­self when the wound on her abdomen flared painful­ly. She could have a punc­tured colon. Maybe her diaphragm, pos­si­bly her liv­er. She pinched her eyes closed. She did not want to think about the patient she’d lost dur­ing her ER rounds with sim­i­lar injuries.

That’s it this week! Check out all the oth­er mil­lions of SSSers at the Offi­cial Web­site.

Six Sentence Sunday 2/20/11

Alanna Coca

Wel­come! It’s my first SSS post! Well kin­da. I post over at Alan­na’s place every week, but this time I had to share six sen­tences from my book Tes­sa’s Pride which comes out tomor­row from Cari­na Press! I’m so excit­ed about this one. Also, click HERE for the pre­quel, Tempt­ing Tes­sa. A spicy free read to intro­duce Josh and Tessa.

Now, with­out fur­ther adieu, six sen­tences from Tes­sa’s Pride.

The same spicy, dark taste from long ago sent her tongue search­ing for his. He pressed her against the wall, flat­ten­ing her breasts against the sol­id heat of his mus­cled chest, and tilt­ed his head for a bet­ter angle. He kissed her des­per­ate­ly, as if he’d want­ed the kiss as much as she did. He licked along her low­er teeth, then returned to her lips.

“And this time no one’s here to inter­rupt us.” His nos­trils flared with every breath, and the fire behind his eyes made her heart squeeze almost painfully.

Thanks for stop­ping by! Be sure to hit as many of the rest of the SSS Par­tic­i­pants who can be found at the Offi­cial Site. Come again soon!

Six Sentence Sunday 2/13/11

Alanna Coca

Wel­come! Sor­ry I don’t have a mushy Valen­tine-ish post for you. Don’t wor­ry, I’ll get to it even­tu­al­ly. I am a romance author after all!

On with the story:

She stag­gered back against the fend­er of her car just as her assailant snatched her purse, and dis­ap­peared in the sea of vehicles.

It all hap­pened so fast, she could scarce­ly believe that she wasn’t dream­ing. The pain was real though, and the warm sticky blood that leaked between her fin­gers wasn’t her imag­i­na­tion. Two bright red stains spread along her mid­dle. She switched from vic­tim to sur­geon mode. The wound beneath her left breast could pos­si­bly have sev­ered a ven­tri­cle, but the pound­ing of her heart actu­al­ly calmed her.

That’s it for me this week. Six sure­ly go quick­ly lol. Be sure to stop by the Offi­cial Web­site for more S3 par­tic­i­pants. Have a great week!

Spreading the Love Blog Hop

Alanna Coca

Hap­py Valen­tines Day Week­end! Wel­come to my web­site! If you’re here with­out the tour bus, click HERE to join us.

I hope you have some time to poke around! One lucky win­ner this week­end will receive a copy of my book Falling Star. Ready for more fiction?

The fol­low­ing is a work of fic­tion. The char­ac­ters, inci­dents and dia­logues in this scene are of the author’s imag­i­na­tion and are not to be con­strued as real. Any resem­blance to actu­al events or per­sons, liv­ing or dead, is com­plete­ly coin­ci­den­tal.  © Olivia Brynn

Pic­ture © 2011, by Michael Clothier

Jon was up to some­thing. All after­noon he’d been skit­tish. They’d been eye­ing that Harley David­son Black­line motor­cy­cle in the show­room, but until stu­dent loans were paid off, there was no way they could afford it. If he went ahead and bought that thing…

“You sure you don’t want a soda?”

Kendra shook her head. If any­one need­ed a drink, it was Jon. He was sweat­ing, and had to release the top two but­tons on his shirt.

“I don’t want any­thing. Thank you though. Are you sure every­thing’s okay?” She gripped his hand and they wend­ed through the throngs of the Farm­ers Mar­ket traffic.

“Every­thing is fine. Sor­ry. I’m just…uh…thinking about stuff.”

Stuff. Some kind of “stuff” that had a Twin­Cam 103 engine, tour­ing pack­age, and a leather seat. Kendra sighed. She did­n’t want to think about it. Maybe next year.

“Peach­es? You love peach­es.” Jon let go of her hand, and while she wiped the sweat from her palm, Jon threw the fruit in a brown bag.

Kendra said noth­ing, as he paid for the peach­es, and grabbed her hand again. What did it say about their rela­tion­ship that he felt he had to hide things from her? If he real­ly could find a way to afford the Black­line would­n’t he have dis­cussed it with her?

She chewed her lip. She loved Jon with all her heart. She could­n’t imag­ine Jon doing any­thing that would change that. Even if he did blow their sav­ings on a motor­cy­cle. A beautiful…custom made…Blackline Harley Davidson.

But to hide it from her? To buy it with­out her there? Know­ing how much she dreamed about dri­ving that bad boy off the lot?

“Now you’re qui­et.” Jon nudged her.

She nudged him back. “Now you got me think­ing about stuff.”

“Good stuff, I hope.”

“Only if your stuff is good.”

They’d stopped in front of a wood­en cart with fra­grant cut flow­ers. Jon tossed a bill at the woman beneath the umbrel­la. “My stuff is so good it makes me feel like I’m a lit­tle kid.” He picked a rose from the bunch avail­able, then reached into his pock­et. “It’s so good I’m afraid that I’m going to mess it all up if I don’t say the right thing.”

Kendra shook her head, aware of the small crowd that was form­ing around them. “What…”

“I’ve been sav­ing up for almost a year for a ring, but I looked all over the place, and could­n’t find one that was beau­ti­ful enough for your fin­ger.” Jon dropped onto one knee, and offered the rose. I hope you don’t mind this untra­di­tion­al offering.”

As she accept­ed the rose, he showed her the keyring he’d hid­den in his hand. Black leather, with the famil­iar orange design tooled on both sides. The key glit­ter­ing in the sun­shine could only fit one machine.

“Kendra, will you mar­ry me?”

She nod­ded a few times before she found her voice to answer, “Yes!”

Thanks for stop­ping by. Don’t for­get to join us on Sat­ur­day evening, at 7pm EST as a gag­gle of us authors will be chat­ting in Gem’s Chat Room. There will be a link to the chat at the end of the blog hop.  Hap­py Valen­tines Day to you all! Good luck in the drawing.

Valentine Blog Hop

Alanna Coca

Wel­come to my website! I’m Alan­na Coca, and I write con­tem­po­rary romances, and I’ve dab­bled in his­tor­i­cal west­ern romance.  Feel free to click over to my Books page, because one win­ner will receive their choice of my back­list! If you’re just hap­pen­ing along this post, click HERE to see all of the blog posts in the JustRomance.Me Valen­tine’s Blog Hop.

© 2011 Michael Clothier

“Cut!” The direc­tor stormed onto stage, wav­ing his bot­tled water around in frus­tra­tion, the con­den­sa­tion hit­ting every­one watching.

Juan had been kneel­ing on the hard­wood stage for about an hour, and his kneecaps were throb­bing. Car­lie’s sigh was not only audi­ble, but her slump­ing shoul­ders clear­ly showed her frustration.

“Juan, you’re sup­posed to be propos­ing, not chew­ing glass. What’s with the pinched up face?”

Juan fell back on his butt, and let the rose roll out of his hand. “It’s called pain, Frank. I can’t kneel on this stage for hours on end with­out feel­ing a lit­tle bit of pain.”

Frank snort­ed. “Love hurts. Now we’re gonna can this scene before lunch if it kills me–” He took a long drink of water, prob­a­bly to replen­ish the mois­ture he was sweat­ing out. “–or you. Get it right so you and your knees can stop bitch­ing. Now places everyone!”

Juan ground his molars togeth­er. He rolled back onto his knees, and picked up the fake rose. The obnox­ious bell rang, along with Frank’s bel­low for qui­et on the set. Juan looked up at Car­lie, hop­ing his con­trite face con­veyed his apology.

She smiled, a sweet under­stand­ing grin, and leaned down to whis­per in his ear. “Get it right this time, and I’ll show you the silky red ted­dy I bought for our date on Valen­tine’s Day.”

“And…action!”

Thanks for stop­ping by, every­one. I hope you all have a great Valen­tines Day. Good luck in the drawing!

Six Sentence Sunday 2/6/11

Alanna Coca

Hap­py SSSun­day! Good grief, I for­get to add my link to the SSS Site and before I know it there are six­ty SSS par­tic­i­pants! I did­n’t even get around to every­one the week before!

Okay, on with the sto­ry, where Brynn is stopped in the park­ing garage by a stranger in a hat.

Before she could draw anoth­er breath, a sear­ing pain ripped through her stom­ach, then anoth­er at her ribs. She saw the man’s arm mov­ing back and forth with each blow, oth­er­wise she would nev­er believe that she was under attack. She took a breath to scream, but her gut seized in pain, and the only sound she could make was a high keen­ing noise. Nowhere near loud enough to rouse any assistance.

The sil­ver blade of the knife reflect­ed the flo­res­cent light­ing when he stepped back. Oh my God–he stabbed me.

Now, you all should have known he was­n’t the hero mak­ing an entrance. He’s wear­ing a Braves hat for God’s sake! 🙂

That’s it for me this week. Vis­it all the SSS par­tic­i­pants by check­ing out the offi­cial web­site. See you next Sunday!

Six Sentence Sunday 1/30/11

Alanna Coca

Wel­come back!  SSS is grow­ing so big!  I guess get a bunch of erom authors togeth­er and we start repro­duc­ing like bunnies

🙂

Any­way, back to the sto­ry. We join Brynn in the park­ing garage at pre-crack-o’clock:

The man in front of her appeared with­out a sound. She had to look up into his face, but it was shad­owed beneath a Braves base­ball cap that was pulled down low over his brows. All she could real­ly see was a stark black mous­tache that was thick­er than fash­ion­able. He wore a plain black tee shirt and blue jeans. “Bron­wynn Williams?” he asked again, his whis­pery voice raised the tiny hairs on her nape.

That’s it for me. Be sure to hit as many SSS posts as human­ly pos­si­ble by vis­it­ing the offi­cial site. Have a great week!

Six Sentence Sunday 1/23/11

Alanna Coca

Wel­come back! Anoth­er week gone, and I’ve got noth­ing to show for it! Well kin­da. My alter ego had a book release on Fri­day, so I took some time to cel­e­brate, then a while to recover 🙂

On with the story:

Brynn made her way to the park­ing garage. At this time of the morn­ing it was all but desert­ed. Even her ten­nis shoes sound­ed loud echo­ing off the cement sur­round­ings. She reached row fifty-sev­en, and start­ed look­ing through her purse for her car keys just as a voice stopped her.

“Bron­wynn?”

Her head snapped up.

Hope you’re mak­ing your way through the pletho­ra of SSS posts!  Have a great week everyone.

Pretty Things

Alanna Coca

Michael from Hartshine Design made this beau­ti­ful ban­ner for my sign­ing table at the upcom­ing RT Con­ven­tion in April. It’s so GD pret­ty I had to share with the world! Don’cha love it? It’s at the print­er now, I can’t wait to get my grub­by lit­tle hands on the real vinyl thing!

Now I just need some real­ly spark­ly swag to give away… hmm…