Sneak Peek: A Wedding in Ruby Lake

Today we have a sneak peek from author Sherrill Willis’s new novel, A Wedding in Ruby Lake.

A Wedding in Ruby Lake finds Sydney Myers and Zeke Greyson planning the perfect wedding, only to receive several unexpected, but not unwanted, houseguests. Illana Garet, Sydney’s city-savvy best friend, decides to come rather unexpectedly as does Zeke’s friend Tyler Shepard. They both arrive just in time to be embroiled into a new threat which proves to be far more dangerous than anyone at first had believed.

A Wedding in Ruby Lake is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Here is an excerpt from A Wedding in Ruby Lake:


“I need a note pad so we can make a list of everything you need. Invitations, but first you have to figure out where you’re having it. We’ll need flowers, food, dresses, tuxes, and music. Do you have any idea how much preparation we need to do this?”

Sydney went to a drawer in the kitchen and opening it, pulled out a book. “Yes I do, which is why I got this wedding planner. I figured we could use this as a guideline. It’ll be fine Illana, don’t get so stressed out.”

Raising an eyebrow at Sydney, Illana said, “One of us should be and it shouldn’t be you.” Drinking the rest of her coffee, she rinsed out her cup and left it in the sink. “Give me a minute to grab my stuff. I’ll be right back, and then we can go.”

Illana walked quickly into her room and grabbed her black clutch purse, opening it to drop her cell phone in it. She checked her hair, red tipped today, and makeup one last time in the mirror above the dresser and then walked out the door, pulling it shut quietly so as not to wake the other houseguest. Turning around, she ran smack into his chest.

“Ow, hi, I didn’t hear you get up. Did we wake you?” she asked, her face turning pink as she looked at Tyler.

“No, I’ve been up for hours actually,” Tyler said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall. “Just so you know, my heart has already been spoken for. But if it wasn’t, you’d be very fun to chase…and catch.”

Illana felt a pang of disappointment, and a wave of relief. “Ha, like you’d catch me to begin with. I never date men who are prettier than me.”

Tyler’s small grin told her he didn’t believe her for a minute. “Is that so? Well, I guess we’ll never know now will we, little mshike?”

“What does that mean?” Illana asked, the word sounding strange and beautiful at the same time.

“It means ‘turtle’ and I’ll leave it to you to puzzle it out,” Tyler said, stepping into the bathroom and closing the door.

Illana stared at the door, not sure whether to be insulted or amused. She shrugged and walked back out into the living room.

Sydney looked at Illana’s furrowed brow and asked, “What’s the matter?”

Illana looked up, “I ran into Tyler in the hall and he called me a turtle. I have no idea what to make of it.”

Sydney laughed a little. “I can take a guess. He’s pretty quick if he picked up on that.”


Ed’s Casual Friday: 5 to 1 Book Reviews

Once again I return lazily back to the review well, as opposed to actually thinking of a new idea for Ed’s Casual Friday. What can I tell you, I’ve got writing to do this week, and writers always seem to love/hate reading these things. 😉

For something slightly different, instead of just unearthing one-star chestnuts on “great” works, I’m going more economic. What follows is a list of the ten bestselling books of the decade 2000-2010 which I found on-line (at about(dot)com) – I am not claiming it is entirely accurate, but these titles “feel” about right for the period, and each author only appears once (I didn’t want the list to be all Rowling/Meyer books). Accompanying each listed book are excerpts from two reviews from the fine readers at Goodreads, one from a five-star and the other a one-star. As always, my intention in doing thusly is, as ever, only to point out that for every book every written, somebody is going to hate it.

And somebody, or a whole lot of somebodies, may well love it, too. Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: 5 to 1 Book Reviews”

No Writing Allowed

KSBrooks at Mesa Verde
Or you could just go somewhere with no internet and no electricity.

Let’s face it, writing a book is hard work. You might even break a sweat, or pop a cog in your brain. Who wants to do that? So, enter November – NaNoWriMo – National No Writing Month. This is one month where we authors, writers and scribes can legitimately rest our brains from the toils of our literary efforts. I know, I know, it won’t be easy – so here are some tips to keep yourself from writing that book without losing your edge.

#1 – Committees and meetings are an excellent way to prevent progress on any level. So, form a committee for your book! Find a bunch of people who also write and invite them to your own Yahoo!, Facebook, or Goodreads group. If you can actually get them to pay attention to anything you have to say in between announcements of their free eBooks and basic spamming, you might get some input. That input will probably spark a discussion. That discussion will most likely get sidetracked onto the subject of kittens or television shows. See? It works. Continue reading “No Writing Allowed”

Ed’s Casual Friday: Quoth the Indie…

Of all the traditional filler material any blogger or columnist might be tempted to use for a last post before Halloween, there is probably nothing so hackneyed, so stale, and so overdone as a parody of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Raven.

So here we go. 😉

 

 

Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: Quoth the Indie…”