Saturday, July 31, 2010

Saturday Snippets: Friendship

Today's Saturday Snippet theme is "Friendships".

Love isn't the only important relationship in life.

Other family members, friends, co-workers, team members, neighbors, etc. make up our lives.

My cousin who is also a friend called me yesterday to let me know her mother died. Although her mother was my mother's cousin, I considered her my aunt. So I lost my aunt and reconnected with my cousin. As this cousin and I were in the same grade in the same high school, we're also friends.

Not long ago, I lost another aunt this year. Bittersweet as it always is, her memorial service was both a time to say goodbye to her and a family reunion for the rest of the family.

My recent romance, Whirlwind Relationship, not only deals with a chance to win back a lost love, but a chance to renew relationships with a lost sister and a lost friend.


When Colleen gets sucked into a hurricane and awakes in 1978 she gets a second chance to be with the only man she’s ever loved.


Colleen’s life didn’t turn out like she planned. At fifty plus she’s divorced, childless and her career’s nowhere. If that isn’t bad enough, a hurricane destroys her home and sucks her into it.

When she awakes she’s either dead or crazy. It can’t be 1978 and she can’t be young again but all indications point to that.

She really can’t have a second chance with the only man she’s ever loved...or can she?





Excerpt:

Abba’s Dancing Queen yanked Colleen from her nightmare. She resented relinquishing her pillow and blind from sleep, she patted the dresser, searching for the alarm clock. When it crashed to the floor she moaned, “Five more minutes.” Then she hit the snooze button and cocooned herself in her comforter.


But the nightmare returned filled with tornadoes that devoured buildings and trees. Splintered wood stabbed her. Concrete slabs crushed her. In terror anew, she bolted up in her bed. Then the room’s serene but strange décor filtered into her slumberous brain. Her brow furrowed and she did a double take.

This wasn’t her room, at least not in 2010.

Eight-track tapes littered the dresser. A rabbit-ear antenna sprouted from the TV. A bright yellow phone on the nightstand sported a rotary dial.

She read the tapes and her jaw dropped. Captain & Tenille. Bee Gees. Linda Ronstadt. Rod Stewart. Queen. Billy Joel. Barry Manilowe. Elton John.

Before she could figure out what this meant, Rhonda popped into her room. Her college roommate’s eyes danced and her hair long and feathered like one of Charlie’s Angels. She looked to be twenty-something, not the fifty-something she should be. Rhonda shouldn’t be in her room at all. She hadn’t seen the woman in almost thirty years, not since she’d stolen Gary.

Rhonda sauntered over and shook her shoulder. “Sleeping Beauty, you’d better get up. Don’t you have early class today?”

Colleen blinked at the ghost. She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand but the vision remained. Nothing was making sense.

On a gulp she asked, “What class?”

Rhonda shrugged. “Beats me. You’re lucky I know you have class. I’m not your keeper.”

Colleen batted her ears and rubbed her eyes. Not happy to be face to face with the ex-best friend who’d stolen her man, she eyed her warily. Her Botox never worked that good. She’d never seen plastic surgery do the trick that well, either. Not even for Cher. “What are you doing here?”

Rhonda closed the distance between them and put her hand to Colleen’s forehead. “I live here. Are you okay?”

Colleen stole herself not to flinch. She tried to remember the good times, the time before her friend stole the only man she’d ever loved. But she couldn’t forget the treachery. Agony tormented her as she remembered Gary and Rhonda together.

Whirlwind Relationship is available at Total-E-Bound.

Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
Emma Petersen
HelenKay Dimon
Shelley Munro
TJ Michaels
Ashley Ladd
Eliza Gayle
Lauren Dane



If you're not here to look for this Nook for the Long and the Short of It's Party Treasure Hunt, but you'd like to win a Nook then go to The Long and Short Reviews to check out the contest. August 2-29, 2010.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Sorry for your loss.

The Redhead Riter said...

I'm sorry for your loss.

I can't believe that you have another book already. How many books do you write a year?

You're an amazing woman!

Unknown said...

Thanks. Aunt Ruth was very precious. Now she's one of my angels.

Unknown said...

Red - this year I've got 8 Ashley Ladd books coming out (so far) and two EH books, so 10 total. Several of those are novellas although one is 95,000 words.

Whirlwind Romance is about 26 K.

So far, I don't have any books scheduled to come out in 2011. I have to kick myself into gear bigtime!

Website Content and Copy: Ashley Ladd, 2008.|Blog Design by JudithShakes Designs.
Graphics hosted by Flickr.