Three years later...

A long time ago, it was just an idea. A little seed of forbidden love between teacher and student that blossomed into the book I now call my first baby. Once, it had song lyrics laced throughout the novel. Once, it was a screenplay and page one had Nina working at a movie theater. Once, it was simply for myself and my best friend. And then suddenly it was for everyone. 

Three years ago, I gained a job title. Author. 

My debut novel, The Low Notes, released from a small publisher called Rebel Ink Press on May 17th of 2012. By January of 2014, I released the second edition of the book myself as an independent publisher. 

I've struggled for three years with the idea of revisiting Kevin and Nina's story. Readers ask for more all the time and I always say the same thing; that the story that needed to be told has been told. Still, people ask for a sequel...

A few months after the book came out, I posted an epilogue on my blog. The following year I posted a mock-interview with the main characters catching up with them a year later. Then I posted a new chapter on the second anniversary. My intention was to always have some kind of new material on the anniversary every year, but this year it didn't happen. Tomorrow I'm releasing my eighth novel so there hasn't been a ton of time for writing anything extra.

Here's what I'll tell you...I've started writing a 'sequel' a handful of times, but it's never felt right. I know what happens to Kevin and Nina and there's no story there. Novels--even novellas--need some kind of conflict and in my heart of hearts, I know they are happy. Maybe they fight, maybe there's doubt, maybe there's jealousy and insecurity from time to time but trust me, you don't want to read about Nina's frustration with Kevin about who does more housework. 

Nina and Kevin live in New York.

Nina interns and eventually works for Confession Records (so if you want a quick glimpse at her you should read Natural Harmony).

Kevin writes and eventually returns to teaching.

They are happy.

A real happily ever after with no need for me to go and scare you into thinking they won't make it. The will. They have. 

I'm sorry to those of you who were hoping for another quick scene from them. I hope to have more in the future, but I don't want to pressure myself into forcing words that aren't there. I would never want to cheapen the original story by writing them in an inauthentic way.

I'll leave you with this, the last line of the book. Yes, it was their beginning, but it will always be the true end for me. I said goodbye to them and left them alone to be happy. Three years later and I still love them, miss them and think of them often. 

After all of the months of fighting and yearning, hiding and denying, loving then leaving, they were just two people in the end. Two people—at the beginning.

*I'm always open to answering questions about the book, the characters, and the fact that I plan to write more books set in Wexley Falls! Please contact me if you ever have anything you'd like to ask.

Release Day! In Tune : A Love's Duet Anthology

7 Books for 99 cents and all for a great cause!

From the Fender Music Foundation website:

The Fender Music Foundation believes that music participation is an essential element in the fabric of an enduring society. The organization aims to keep music education alive and available in our nation’s schools and communities. Founded in 2005, this public charity has reached over 187,000 people through its grants of instruments to music education programs. These grant recipients, which give more people the opportunity to make music, include school music classrooms, community based organizations and music therapy programs. 

www.fendermusicfoundation.org

BUY LINKS

AMAZON

Cover Reveal! My first anthology!

Let your heartstrings be plucked, as you’re serenaded to the melodies of romance. Fall in tune with loves duet, and the seven sensational authors who bring you an anthology that sings notes of swoon worthy sounds and decadent men in:

S.K. Logsdon – Stricken Desire

Amber Nation – How to Save a Life

Casey Peeler – Our Song

Kate Roth – The Low Notes

Nacole Stayton – In The Lyrics

Savannah Stewart – Arianna

Erika Van Eck – Ace’s Wild

Anthology release date: November 1, 2014. All proceeds will be donated to the Fender Music Foundation to help put music back in the classrooms.

Snappy Snappy

Something you may not know about me is I was a fine art photography student for two years in college and for a while I considered making that my career. I abandoned it to go to cosmetology school after realizing it wasn't what I wanted to do for a living but I never stopped loving being behind the lens. I'll snap the occasional artistic photo but I mostly drag out my former skills to do family portraits of my brother's family a few times a year. But most recently I dusted off my camera to shoot cover images for Natural Harmony and The Low Notes!

I knew I wanted to shoot the Natural Harmony cover photo myself not only to save money but also to keep myself from seeing the same stock photo on someone else's cover at some point in the future AND to ensure my vision was exact. A mutual friend stood in as my Sabrina and, after being stood up by my original male model, my second shooter and good friend Jeremy stood in as my Wade. I got a great cover out of the shoot and a handful of extra shots that I've since used as teaser photos. I even added to the story by describing the dress Olivia wore on the day of the shoot to a certain scene. 

Here's a few of the shots that came from the day ...

 

 And of course the cover ...

Here's me, Olivia and Jeremy  on the day of the shoot giving our best 'model' faces. Jeremy makes me laugh too much so I could hardly keep it together. Olivia is clearly a blonde which made for some tricky Photoshop work for my cover artist, Jenny. She did a great job transforming Olivia into Sabrina. 

Next up is the second edition cover of The Low Notes. I adored my original cover but unfortunately I couldn't retain the rights to it after leaving my publisher to self-publish. So I knew I wanted something very similar and I thought, how cool would it be to shoot the piano I learned to play on as my cover? I hopped over to my parents' house and took a few shots and then with the help of Miss Jenny, the second edition was born. As partial as I was to the original cover, this one is better to me. Not only is it more meaningful knowing it's my own photograph (which has more meaning than any reader will EVER know ;) ) and the piano I grew up playing, it's also been amended to be called 'A Wexley Falls Novel'. I'm so excited to expand on the Wexley Falls world and adding that subtitle was the very first step.

Thanks to my amazing cover artist, Jenny Streif, my models Jeremy Shoemaker and Olivia DePaulis, and to all the readers who have complimented me on both covers. I'm proud that more than just my writing went into both of these books.

The Art of Tease

For those of you who are fans of authors and book review blogs on Facebook, you'll no doubt have already noticed the trend that has been going on for some time. 

The teaser pic.

A photo with a quick quote from a book to pull you in. It's the movie trailer for books (though actual book trailers are on the rise too!). I've recently been collecting a stock pile of photos for ALL of my works in progress and I've been hard at work creating a wealth of teaser pics for my books.

I must say it's been a lot of fun finding people who look enough like my characters to represent my books. A few pictures are already up on my website and Facebook but I just thought you all might like to know that more are coming. I'd like to be releasing teasers every few weeks. A lot will be in preparation for my December 30th release of Natural Harmony but I'm also making teasers for Last Resort (my first erotic romance), the next two Confession Records novels, The Low Notes, Reckless Radiance and maybe a top secret project I'm working on ;)

Here's a little taste of my first baby, The Low Notes ... more to come from all my books!

Thank You, Thank You!

What an incredible week?! I still cannot believe it's been a year since I officially became an author. This week has been so much fun looking back at the year and looking ahead to another release.

Thank you to everyone who graciously hosted me this week on my anniversary tour! You are all amazing people!

Special thanks to:

Boekie's Book Reviews

Author Lisa J. Hobman

Smardy Pants Book Blog

Author Melissa Keir

Author Lila Munro

Author Jennifer Wilck

Becca The Bibliophile

Author Britni Hill

Author Jane Wakely

Author Joanne C. Berroa

Author Josh Zimmerman

The Boyfriend Bookmark

The Low Notes is still on sale in e-book form for .99 cents on Amazon just until the end of today. Share this information with your friends who have yet to get a copy.

And again thanks to my readers, fans, fellow authors, publishers, bloggers, friends, family and supporters for a great week and a wonderful year for me and The Low Notes!

Who Likes Prizes?!

It's time for prizes!!! Enter with the Rafflecopter below to win some cool The Low Notes swag in honor of its 1st birthday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It's my last stop on the anniversary blog tour over at The Boyfriend Bookmark! Check it out! 

And don't forget you can get an e-book copy of The Low Notes for 99 cents on Amazon today!

One Year Later...

The following is a work of fiction based on characters in the novel The Low Notes. It contains SPOILERS to the novel including the ending!

 ***

Walking into The Black Jewel I can’t help but smile. The place I’ve heard about so much is exactly how I pictured it. It’s dark but not dank, old but not dated. The stage is dim as music is piped through the speakers from some unknown stereo system. Down the few steps to the sunken sitting area I search the room and they are easy to spot. The strikingly beautiful young woman with the long black hair that seems to melt into a lighter caramel color (I believe they call it ombre) is sidled up close to her man at the small round table. He is handsome with dark hair that is cut shorter than I had pictured but it suits him well. He wears a bit of stubble along his jaw and a beaming smile on his lips as he looks at her while she says something to him that I can’t make out. There’s no doubt they are in love. But it’s not my job to see the sparkle in their eyes for one another…it’s my job to talk about how it all happened.

Reporter:  It’s been a year since you two found each other again…can you believe it?

Kevin Reed: [laughs and glances at Nina] There’s a lot I can’t believe about our story. Some days it feels like I might still be dreaming.

Nina Jordan: I can believe it! So much has changed, so much has happened. It’s been a good year.

Reporter: What has happened since we last saw you? 

Nina: After we ran into each other in New York, Kevin came home with me to Wexley for my sister’s wedding and…honestly it was like no time had passed between us. We kind of picked up where we left off senior year only we didn’t have anything to worry about anymore. 

Kevin: I made the move to New York to be closer to her while she finishes school. We’ve been looking at apartments hoping to move into together this Fall. I’ve been freelance writing and staying busy and this amazing woman to my left just landed an internship at a record label.

Nina: [rolls her eyes with a grin] He just loves to gush. I basically just get coffee for people. It’s a cool experience but it’s not like I’m producing music or anything. I’m a gopher.

Reporter: It’s a step in the right direction! How did your family and friends take it when you came out of the closet as a couple?

[They meet eyes meaningfully and it’s easy to see the weight of their stares]

Nina: My sister Greta was cool with it right away. She and I have become so close in the last two and a half years. It took my dad a little while to understand but he says he’s happy if I’m happy. And I am. My best friend James is very supportive now. He was skeptical at first…

Kevin: [laughs] Skeptical is putting it mildly! He had to do the whole big brother thing and tell me how bad I hurt her and that if I ever pulled any of that [expletive deleted] again I’d be a dead man. I couldn’t blame him. He had the unique experience of seeing us through it all so he knew the whole story in a different way. But I would consider James one of my closest friends now. He’s like family.

Reporter: And your family, Kevin?

Kevin: At first I didn’t think my cousin Jeff was happy for me but he was just going through some stuff of his own. He and Jennifer are separated now and I think he was having a hard time being happy for me while he was first making a decision about their relationship. He’s totally cool with us now and he’s come out to the city a few times to visit. 

Reporter: What about Wexley Falls? I assume you come home occasionally…is it small town gossip or did anyone really notice?

Nina: [puts her head in her hands and stares at Kevin] Remember the grocery store?

Kevin: Jesus. The day after her sister’s wedding we went the grocery store to get food for my house since I’d been in New York a few days. We’d had a really great night—

Nina: Kevin!

Kevin: Well! [both chuckle] So we were holding hands and maybe a little ridiculous with the PDA because we could and who did we have to run into in the store? Principal Andrews. I thought my heart stopped. He didn’t even say anything to us. He just shook his head. I wanted to deck him because he gave her this once-over that was so….

Nina: People can think what they want about us and Principal Andrews is no exception. I lied to his face so I get why he looked at me like that. 

Kevin: It’s hard for people to understand, I know. But when people assume I’m a predator or she’s been duped—

Nina: Or that I’m some kind of slut.

[He sighs and they look at each other with another heavy stare]

Reporter: On to a happier topic, Kevin, looking back when do you think you first fell in love with Nina?

Kevin: God. Sometimes I think I fell for her with that first kiss but with everything that happened after that my emotions were so mixed up. But the first time I thought it for a split second was the night I made her dinner when she got her acceptance letter. I pushed it out of my head fast—but that was it.

Reporter: Nina, did you ever imagine you would have a second chance with Kevin?

Nina: I’m a hopeless romantic so I guess in the back of my mind I always hoped we would get another shot but I couldn’t have dreamed that he would walk into that hotel bar. That—that was fate. That was the universe paying us back for all the hell we went through.

Reporter: It seems like you two are pretty solid. Has it been an easy transition getting back together?

Nina: I thought it was easy at first but then it got harder [laughs]. We had a lot of things to deal with and talk about. I didn’t think I was holding any grudges against him for sneaking off but I was. We are better than ever now but there were a few weeks where it was complicated. Because that’s what we do best I guess [both laugh].

Reporter: So what’s next for you two? 

Kevin: We’re taking it day by day. [He looks over at Nina] I am crazy about her. So I’m here to stay—to make this work—until she says she wants me gone.

Nina: [Bites her lip and lets a small smile settle on her face] I won’t ever want him gone. [Turns to Kevin] Looks like you aren’t going anywhere.

I leave them just as they are about to order dinner, mentioning how nostalgic they are for a date at The Black Jewel. This time it’s under much different circumstances and though they never say it I can tell they are glad about that fact. I thank them for their time and wish them well in their future. A future I have a feeling will be full of love.

***

Thank you to everyone who read The Low Notes. This one was for you :) 

Today The Low Notes e-book is available for just 99 cents on Amazon only! Tell your friends!

The blog tour continues...today I'm over at author Joanne C. Berroa's blog and my darling friend Josh Zimmerman has a special game and giveaway on his blog today to celebrate!

Long Lost Epilogue

I've thought for a long time about whether or not to post this and as I celebrate the one year anniversary of the book it seems fitting to share. A lot of people have asked me for a sequel and I have never been interested in writing one but I wrote this scene shortly after I finished my first draft of The Low Notes. It was my choice as an author to not include this 'happily ever after' because I didn't feel that Kevin and Nina needed to be wrapped up in a shiny bow. I love the way The Low Notes ended but for those of you who wanted a bit more this is for you. 

The following is intended as an epilogue to The Low Notes. If you haven't read the book consider this a neon sign that says SPOILERS!

 ***

Round tables all covered in white linen and pale green organza sat evenly throughout the ballroom. Strategically placed candles glowed warm amber and bathed the room with soft light. Nina walked in and scanned the expansive room with her eyes. It was breathtaking. As nearly two hundred and fifty guests started filing in and finding their seats she continued to search the space. She’d been so nervous at the ceremony she hadn't found him in the crowd and after that was the hustle and bustle of picture taking. Her maid of honor duties were pressing but her mind was elsewhere.

She felt a tiny twinge in her heart when she had the fleeting thought that maybe he hadn't come. She remembered just a few nights ago when he waltzed into the hotel bar where she’d been working for only a matter of days. It had been the strangest and most amazing thing to happen. He sat patiently sipping on a drink listening to her sing like it was just another night at The Black Jewel. When her set ended and she returned to him the butterflies in her stomach couldn’t be contained. They had shared a kiss before her shift had ended and her mind was racing wondering what else the evening would bring. What transpired was nothing short of awe inspiring.

  

Nina’s palms started to sweat and she squeezed the ribbon covered stem of her white rose bouquet tighter as she let herself remember the feel of his hands slipping off her gown in his darkened hotel room. The way he whispered into her ear making it seem like no time had passed sent a chill through her. They let go of it all that night and let themselves enjoy one another in a whole new way. But she worried that despite the plans they made while lying in each others arms with what seemed to be the promise of a new beginning he had bailed on her.

The hall was filling up and she saw so many familiar faces. Todd Dawson and his family sat a few tables from where she was standing. Todd had brought Hannah Bruckheimer as his date and they had cartoon hearts in their eyes for each other. James and Nick were finally out as a couple and looked dashing in their tuxes. Sitting across the dance floor at the table she would eventually be seated at she could see them glancing over the wedding program and chatting with loving grins.

She saw aunts and uncles, out of town family friends, and Blake's three siblings and their dates. She saw everyone whose name she’d helped record in Greta's wedding folder under RSVP-yes. But there was one name that never made the guest list. He never checked a box 'yes' or 'no'. Chicken or beef. But he was her plus one—her date. She had dreamt of the day she could finally call him that. And she honestly never thought the day would come.

Panic was starting to set in and she felt the air in her lungs growing stiff like a block of concrete forming within her. Suddenly, without warning, a familiar hand was resting gently on her forearm from behind and she spun around praying it was him and not a figment of her imagination.

"Hey, beautiful," Kevin said as she met his eyes.

A sigh rushed out of her breaking the concrete blocks in her chest to bits. He was actually in front of her. To say the moment was surreal was an understatement. It had been nearly two years since that first night at The Black Jewel. Two years since their date and the subsequent fallout in room B100. And yet, this was actually happening. He was dressed in a simple black suit with a black vest and tie and a crisp white shirt. Clean shaven, he looked different from the day before and all the days she had known him but he was just as handsome. She reached up effortlessly and touched the smooth skin of his jaw. 

In the simplest of moments, an ordinary thing any woman would do to the man she loved, Nina saw the reaction she had been waiting for. No reaction at all. He didn't glance around the room wondering whose eyes might be on them. He didn't tense to her touch, fearful of being caught. Kevin merely smiled. 

"Should we sit?" he asked.

She nodded letting her fingers move from his face to his hand at his side. They walked across the room hand in hand to table number nine where Nick and James were waiting along with a few other guests who had already started on their salads.

             

"Guys, you remember Kevin," Nina said. Then she bit her lip stifling the smile she wanted to beam out at James.

James stood and shook Kevin's hand firmly. "It's really good to see you again."

           

***

He watched her with careful eyes. The candlelight from the centerpiece flickering across her cheeks, her delicate collarbone and the satin fabric of her plum colored dress. Her profile was just as stunning as he remembered and her presence was just as intoxicating as it was in his dreams. With his eyes on her she seemed to laugh in slow motion, her slender fingers languidly clapping together in amusement at something her best friend James had said from across the table. And then she turned to him, her gray eyes illuminating in a way they only did when their eyes locked.

Kevin leaned in close to her ear taking care to breathe in the flowery essence of her perfume. "I want to dance with you," he whispered.

Nina pulled back and met his gaze. "I'd love to."

He took her hand and led her to the wooden floor in the middle of the lavish ballroom where other couples were moving to the music. A smile crept onto her face and she held up one finger before stepping gingerly to the DJ on the opposite end of the floor with a giddy hop to her walk. From afar Kevin saw her lean in and say something to the man behind the booth and watched as he nodded. She spun on her heels and started walking slowly back to Kevin just as the song playing ended and a new slow song began. He knew it instantly. The few notes before the first line were all he needed and Nina smirked as she sauntered her way over to him. She was in his arms in time for the first line of the bluesy tune and she slowly put her cheek to his softly singing the lyric in his ear.

"Wish I knew… why I'm so in love with you. No one else in this world will do. Darling, please save your love for me."

Just as she had one August night not so long ago, with a few sweet notes and a voice like an angel she captured his heart. And through it all, the turmoil and the fear, the lust and the pain, the loss and now the rekindling—it was just as it always had been. The hard truth that took him so long to embrace, the feeling that brimmed in his heart from the moment he laid eyes on her. He loved her. Always had and always would. 

***

Thanks to everyone who fell in love with Kevin and Nina just as I did. It warms my heart to know that people want to be sure they ended up together. They certainly did! 

The blog tour is still on and I'm over at author Britni Hill's blog and author Jane Wakely's blog today! Come back tomorrow for the true ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY and hear from Kevin and Nina themselves!