Saturday Snippets: First Loves

The theme of today's Saturday Snippets is first loves.

My snippet today is from Whirlwind Relationship. Colleen gets whisked back 30 years in time to 1978 and gets a second chance with her first love, Gary. With future knowledge on her side, she gets to decide whether or not to do things differently this time around.

Blurb:

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:

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.


A knock on the door jarred her back to the present and the fog lifted from her brain. She had to be dreaming.

Rhonda frowned and glanced at her watch. “Are you expecting anyone this early?”

Colleen shrugged. Like she knew anything? “I don’t think so.”

Rhonda pivoted on her heel and returned momentarily. In a hushed whisper she said, “It’s Gary. He wants to see you. Should I tell him you’ll be out after you dress?”

Obviously Gary didn’t belong to Rhonda yet. Her heart raced and she finger combed her hair. Then she remembered she wasn’t only suffering from bed head. She was ancient. She’d die of embarrassment. Cougars were one thing, but thirty years older? “No! He can’t see me this way.”

Rhonda wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes. “You make it sound like you’re a beast.”

Maybe she was…

She glanced in the mirror and froze. She couldn’t breathe. Her eyes widened. That wasn’t herself looking back at her. At least it wasn’t the person she’d known for more than thirty years.

She stared at her glowing skin, her full lips, her slender neck. Her upper arms were firm and sculpted. Her boobs stood erect and perky. She was twenty-something like Rhonda. And gorgeous.

Her first attempt at speech got stuck in her throat. Her second try was more successful. “It’s okay. Let him in.”

Rhonda’s jaw dropped. “Are you sure? You’re not decent. Your nipples show through that gown.”

For thirty years she’d dreamed about Gary’s kisses, longed for his caresses and berated herself for being stupid enough to let Rhonda steal him. Now that he was here, she wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. She was happy her nipples showed. She was anxious to let Gary see a whole lot more than just her dusky aureoles.

“Dead sure.” This time, if it was a second chance, she was going to fight for her man.

Rhonda flipped her hair behind her shoulder and drawled, “It’s your life.” Then she bounced out the door.

“Damn straight it’s my life!” Then she looked heavenward and said, “Thank you, God. If this is real, please don’t let me screw this up again.” If it was a dream, she wanted to sleep forever.

Whirlwind Relationship is available at Total-E-Bound.

For more excerpt fun, please visit my fellow authors.


Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
HelenKay Dimon
Lauren Dane
Lissa Matthews
Shelley Munro
Shelli Stevens
Ashley Ladd

That's a 10-4 Rubber Duck

Guess what I'm doing tonight? If you guessed that I'm having fun driving my kids crazy, you'd be partially right. Of course, I enjoy doing that a lot. But tonight in particular. :) I'm also researching 1978 for a time-travel romance I'm writing. Why 1978? I graduated from high school that year. Between going to the disco several nights a week most every week and switching gears a couple times a month and going to the square dance and doing the CB radio thing, I had loads of fun. My kids, and probably most of the people alive today, seem to think the 1970's were weird. But it was FUN! Partially I think so because I was a teenager. But I think that merely allowed me to enjoy it as I wasn't fettered by diapers or a wedding ring yet. The 80's and 90's and even today, seem pretty boring in comparison to the 70's. I wasn't a Burt Reynolds groupie (that was my hubby) but I thought he was hilarious as the Bandit in "Smokey and the Bandit". I don't recall ever seeing "Convoy" with Kris Kristoffersen and Ali McGraw, but I figured now was a good time to remind me of things 70's. I was hoping to download it on the computer and watch it, but we can't find a version that looks safe. But there's You Tube! So I've been playing Convoy videos on You Tube to immerse myself in the times. I'll have to visit Blockbuster this weekend to see if I can rent it. My dad's CB handle was "Speed Boat". I don't remember mine or if I even had one. Back then every female was "Foxy Lady" or "Foxy something". It's cracking me up: "Love Machine", "Rubber Duck", "Bears in the Air"... Yes, a lot of people really talked that way - in Ohio, USA where I lived, anyway. Usually it was in snippets. "Ten-four" and "Put the pedal to the medal" was pretty common. The kids got smart - they pulled out their headphones so they can tune out my wacky songs and videos. Shoot! They're destroying my fun. Dang kids! But not all of it. I'm pretty easily amused and laughing at this trip down memory lane. I'm also having fun writing this time travel. I hope I can do it justice. I'm trying. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Thirteen Things I want to do while I'm visiting Cincinnati on vacation

Thirteen Things I want to do while I'm visiting Cincinnati on vacation 1.... Spend time with my dad. 2.... Spend time with my aunts, uncle, and cousins. 3.... Attend Lori Foster's Readers' N Authors' Get Together this weekend. 4.... Attend my 30th high school reunion - Go Norwood Class of 1978! 5.... Spend a day at King's Island (where I used to work and where I met DH.) 6.... Drive down the country roads with my music full blast, singing to it, while I visit old haunts. 7.... Check out the square dance in Elizabethtown (I'll have to map quest it as I don't recall how to get there.) 8.... Walk around downtown Cincinnati and shop. 9.... Attend a Cincinnati Red's game. 10... Boat on the Ohio River. (or at least watch them - Dad doesn't own a boat anymore.) 11... Write a book featuring the cute boy, I mean "man", next door. 12... Take lots of pictures of the Cincinnati/Hamilton/Northern Kentucky area to post on my blog. 13... Catch up with old friends. (I need at least 3 weeks vacation and that's not still nearly enough).

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I also want to shout out loud!

Today was Christmas in June. I opened my email to not just one, but TWO new covers. Thank you, Claire and Lynne! They're fab.

Here they are. What do you think?

What were you doing thirty years ago?

What were you doing thirty years ago?

That sounds sooooooooo long ago. It only feels like last year.

Thirty years ago, I was in my senior year of high school - that was 1978.


I was co-editor of our high school newspaper, on the year book staff, 2nd lieutenant of our flag corps. I worked part time at a junky jewelry store in downtown Cincinnati. I went to the disco several nights a week and danced hte night away.

We were all chatting on the CB radio, good buddy. That's a big 10-4. My husband wants to be Burt Reynolds/Bo in Smokey and the Bandit.


On I was watching M.A.S.H. (I saw a rerun tonight), One Day At A Time, the Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Eight Is Enough, The Waltons, Welcome Back Kotter, Charlie's Angels, and Little House on the Prairie. I was probably watching Brady Bunch and All in the Family reruns, too.



My boyfriend whom we called "Chewie" as everyone said he looked like Chewbacca, was way more in love with Star Wars IV than with me. I think he saw it at the theater at least 17 times. I liked it, too. We all did. I still say episodes IV, V, and VI are the best by far. Forget the better graphics in the first trilogy, the characters and story are great. By the way, I didn't marry this guy. Can you imagine what our kids would've looked like? Yikes!

I borrowed my mom's big tank of an Impala to drive my friends around Cincinnati. We went to the drive in a lot when we didn't go to the disco. In fact, I could see one or two of the drive-in screens from my mom's front lawn. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear the sound or lip read.

We also hung out at the Frisch's drive through, eating greasy fries and burgers. Well, I ate the buddy boy (the ham sandwich) with the greasy fries.


I wanted to go to college for journalism at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, but I was preparing to make do with the University of Cincinnati in Clifton.


I drove one of the best cars I ever had - a red Toyota Corolla. Later, I drove a blue, beat up Corolla, but it never let me down.


The only computers I knew about were the ones my dad worked on - the big IBM monsters that filled rooms and used punch cards. I don't think I heard of a PC until the late 80s when I was in college. (I dropped out of college and went into the Air Force for a few years and then returned to college after I was married and had 3 children - so much for dorm and sorority life).


I was thin without trying, without watching what I ate. But like I said, I was a dancing fool. That was back when the cool guys tried to be John Travolta on the disco floor, when they wore those 3 piece white suits. It was also when the guys just started doing "the bump" with us in the middle of the dance floor before we'd officially met. Those were fun days. God, I miss them.

On a different topic, I missed American Idol last night and again tonight. I was good and doing my edits at Borders. I just want my editor to know. :) I'll catch the recording Friday or Saturday.