Arms of an Angel ~ a short, sweet, emotion-packed read

My novella, Arms of an Angel, is taking center stage today over at the iWrite blog. If you have a moment, I would truly love some comment love over there (click here to take a look), however, more than anything, I'd love to share with you a little about the book.  The main character, Claire Orion, was born from a single vision that flashed through my head of this woman sitting in the passenger seat of a man's car. She was an amazing creature though she obviously lived the high life filed with all the worldly pleasures money could buy. This is where that vision took me: "Claire wasn’t exactly the type of girl a guy would normally choose to take home to meet Mamma.  Yet there she was, on her way to meet Garrett’s parents.  Her heart slammed against her chest hidden, in part, by the sweetheart neckline of her blue Carin Morrow.  It was the most modest dress she owned and, still, it showed an ample amount of flesh.  She’d tried to cover a bit more with a simple sweater, but wasn’t at all sure if she’d been successful.  Her wardrobe had been purchased to enhance and show off her assets, not hide them.  Dressing to meet parents was not a priority..."


I honestly thought it was going to be a bit of a comedy until I realized Claire was hurting to the point I could almost feel the pain inside her and I knew I had to write this book even if it was just to satisfy my own curiosity!

I have many works in progress that I hope to have finalized and release through this next year as I prepare to concentrate more fully on my own writing (yes, I know! It is about time!!!) but Claire remains forever close to my heart. She's not the most celestial being. A wealthy heiress, she lived hard and high, using anything and everything she could get her hands on to try to ease her pain. And yet, even with all that, she truly is beautiful. She just needed someone to help her realize that and fate provided with a reservation mix up at a fancy restaurant where she has gone to have her last meal before ending the pain forever. That's where our hero steps in and many lives begin to take different paths.

If I'm not careful I'll end up sharing the whole story with you. I get so excited talking about the lives these fictitious people lead! Instead, I'll leave you with the short synopsis as well as an excerpt from the book. One note: Claire will be back. Although not the main character, she has a pretty big part in another story about another high society young woman forced to travel cross country with a "country hick". Again, I don't want to say more about either of these stories and spoil Angel for those who haven't read it. I hope you'll give it a chance. It's currently priced through the end of November at just 99 cents for the eBook at both Amazon Kindle and Smashwords.  The paperback is only $7.95 on Amazon or my website.

The Synopsis:
Being wealthy and beautiful doesn’t promise an automatic ticket for happiness. Sometimes you need the angelic touch of someone who needs you as much as you need him… Sometimes it’s hard to tell where one set of wings ends and the other begins.  Claire is alluring, sensual – called an angel by some, though the woman she’s become is anything but celestial. Her heart is filled with pain so deeply embedded she doesn’t want to live any longer…until fate puts her into the hands of the most virtuous man she’s ever met; a man who needs someone like Claire to help him piece together the shattered bits of his own life.

"I still like happy endings, and Linda never fails her readers on that! It's good to know you can count on authors to deliver a good story with a good ending."

Enjoy an excerpt:

“You want to come up?  We can have that coffee we never ordered…”  They were stopped in front of the building waiting for a clearing to turn into the circle drive where the doorman waited.  Their eyes locked and a bucket of emotions passed between them.

He reached over and touched her cheek.  “I want to, but I won’t.  Besides, I have a brunch date at my parent’s farm in Morgan’s Falls.  It’s late and I’ll have to get up early to make it on time.”

“Oh.” Claire nodded, the corners of her lips turning down.  “A decent reason I suppose.” She chuckled. “I’ve never been turned down for parents.”

They smiled at one another as he pulled in and the doorman approached.  “Another time perhaps?”

Claire gave a noncommittal half shrug.  “Perhaps.”  She was silent for a moment, signaling the doorman to wait.  “Thank you for an enjoyable evening, Garrett.  I’m pleased our paths crossed.”  She started to reach for the door and he grasped her arm.  She looked at his hand then at him.

“I have this overwhelming feeling that I’ll never see you again once you get out.”  His brows were drawn down, his face concerned.

Claire was sure he could hear the loud thud of her heart.  She felt the need to throw him off.

“Let me have your phone.” She held out her hand and he produced it with out question.  She stared at it for a moment then keyed in her number.  “There.”  She handed it back.

“Thank you.” He smiled, rubbing the phone between his fingers as if it was her hand.  “We’ll have that coffee… and sooner than you think.

“Would we have had coffee, Dr. O’Bryan?” she asked, kissing his cheek and bolting from the car before he had time to recover.

When she waved and smiled mischievously from the lobby doorway he shook his head and laughed.  The thought of her would not easily be shaken, he was sure of that.

“You’re home early, Ms. Orion,” Garrett heard the doorman saying to her as he pushed the button that rolled down the window.  “And alone!  You ruffled somebody’s feathers again, girl?”

Claire started to respond but was cut off by Garrett’s voice calling her name.  She turned toward him and he was struck momentarily silent by her beauty.  Uncertain of his intent, she walked back to the car and looked through the open window.

“Change your mind?” she teased.  “No, I suppose Morgan’s Falls still has you bound.  What then?”

“Sunday brunch?  10:00ish?  And we’ll have that coffee then.  Scouts honor.”  He held up two fingers.

“Wouldn’t you know.  Friday night and I get stuck with a parent whipped boy scout.”  She laughed, letting him know she was still teasing.  “Make it 10:30 and I’ll accept with expectation.”

Garrett nodded.  “Claire,” he called as she began to back away. “You are a woman of your word, right?”  When she didn’t respond he added, “You seem as though you would be.”

Claire breathed in and held it for a moment as she looked into the distance.  The night had not gone as she’d planned.  Now she was being asked for her word.  Yes, she was a woman of her word…most of the time, and especially when pressed.  Why was he asking?  Did he inherently know?  If she said yes, under the circumstances, was she bound by her word?  Yes, she supposed she was.  At last she nodded.  “My yes is yes.  I’ll be waiting and watching.  10:30 sharp on Sunday morning.”

Garrett smiled.  “Thank you.”

“You may change your mind.  You don’t really know me.”  She pushed away from the car with a laugh.

He shook his head.  No, he didn’t know her at all.  He’d lived enough of life, however, to believe their paths must have crossed that evening for a definite reason.  He wondered if he’d ever find out why.

“You losin’ your touch, Miss?” Garrett heard the doorman teasing her again.

“Nah, Charlie.  I got lucky in a different way tonight.”  She elbowed the older gentleman.  “I found me an angel.  What was his name?  Clarence maybe?  Oh listen…  I think I hear a bell ringing.”

He heard the doorman chuckle as Claire disappeared behind the heavy wood and beveled glass doors of the grand building.

“Not an angel with these thoughts!” he whispered as he drove away.

Get enough? If not, there's another excerpt on my website: http://www.lindaboulanger.com/arms-of-an-angel.html that will, hopefully, help you decide if you want to grab this great little holiday read.

I also participate quite often in the Weekly Challenge provided by Clever Fiction~short stories for the real world. If you'd like to read some of my shorts, please feel free to jump to my blog on that site: http://www.cleverfiction.com/linda-boulanger.html. Clever Fiction is open to all writers who want to participate, so writer friends ... consider taking the challenge!

Where Arms of an Angel  is sold: Paperback: Amazon.com, TreasureLineBooks.com

   eBook: Amazon, Smashwords, B&N, Apple iBooks, Sony, Kobo, Diesel

Link to book on Amazon:

  Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Arms-of-an-Angel-ebook/dp/B004J4VW78

  Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Arms-Angel-Linda-Boulanger/dp/1617520373

No Shameful Mistake

I have another new short. Yes, another one. It is a WEEKLY challenge so, unless I am unable to get to it, you can expect a new short each week. This one goes along with my earlier story titled Secret Shame and you may also expect additional writings about the as yet unnamed young woman in that story. This week she has her baby but the post is very much NOT about having the baby and much more about relationships and inner thoughts. Here are a few paragraphs and a link to where you may find the rest of the story:

I named her Faith knowing that’s what I needed. Faith.

Giggling in my delirium as my doctor had coaxed me to push, I’d realized I was about to have Faith. Most people wouldn’t have found that funny, I know. The lady the hospital provided to coach me certainly hadn’t. She was perplexed by my laughter. I’m pretty sure she thought I was crazy.

Still, the words of that old George Michael song my Aunt Betsy used to sing had taken over my head. It was her favorite back when she lived with us. I wish I could have remembered more. More of the song that is. I remembered plenty about Aunt Betsy when she stayed after her divorce. I used to pretend I was her, living her carefree life, always surrounded by friends, yet never too busy to stop and have a pretend pot of tea or a Barbie style show. That was the only time in my life I didn’t feel alone.

“You’ll spoil her, Bee,” my mother would tell her. Betsy would roll her eyes and stick out her tongue or, worse, make an obscene gesture with her hand. That one especially used to make my mother huff away commenting on how ungrateful her younger sister was.

But I loved my Bee. I was proud of her success after she got on her feet and left my parents’ house. She was her own woman, not needing anyone or anything. That’s what she said. Mother used to say she would have been nowhere had they not taken her in. I rolled my eyes. Mother always took credit for the success of others … and distanced herself from their failures. Wasn’t that evident by the fact that my parents were on their third trip since the beginning of this whole shameful mess?

Like mother – like daughter. I shrugged. It’s not like they would have been much support anyway, though under the circumstances, you’d have thought they’d be more understanding. Not them.

Oh, dear God. More tears! I began to hum that song again. I could only remember a little. Oh you gotta have faith, faith, faith. You just gotta have faith…

To read the rest of No Shameful Mistake, please visit my writer's page at Clever Fiction (click HERE).

Cover Qualms

I'm having trouble with the man. Well, the man on my cover anyway. If you read the post below, you know my short To Dance with the Enemy is morphing into a Novel or at least a Novella. The working title for that is Marked, although I so love the way To Sleep with the Enemy looks in print. Anyway ... the main male character has very dark blonde hair, longish, and intense amber eyes. He's a fantasy warrior so he also has to be buff :-)  I'm trying to find him. See what you think of these guys...

  

Here is the original as well as the other To Dance with the Enemy cover:

What do you think????

(Click on covers for enlarged pics)

Read To Dance with the Enemy at the Clever Fiction Blog

Read the beginning of Marked below

A Challenging Challenge

This week's challenge over at Clever Fiction~short stories for the real world proved to be exactly that for me -- a challenge! I wrote one story but it ended up too long. I felt I would lose too much by cutting it down. Maybe I'll have to share it here in the near future. Then I considered a sequel to my Secret Shame, but I'm just not quite ready for that one again. That story really moved me for some reason. Her struggles and emotions were so very real to me. I love all my characters but it doesn't happen that often that one gets so completely under my skin. I'm pretty sure we'll be revisiting that story again in the near future.

The prompt for the week was All Day/Speechless/Dinner and my submission was titled Destiny's Visit. It's another departure from my straightforward Happy Ever Afters, although, as one commenter mentioned, "Imagine meeting either your love or your killer ... and the choice is yours." Seems to me, this story could go either way!

Enjoy the first couple of paragraphs and then jump over to Clever Fiction to read the rest:

Arms folded, elbows resting on the lacquered top of the wood bar, Jake watched the woman in the corner. He was perplexed. She didn’t seem the type to spend her day in a pub. Yet that’s what she’d done. She’d been there all day.

He was also perplexed by his attraction to her. She wasn’t young and she wasn’t pretty. Although … He looked her over and decided she certainly might have been. Pretty, that is. Of course she’d been young. Everyone’s young at some point in their lives.

She smiled at him and his heartbeat tripled its speed behind the wall of his chest. Odd again since Jake Donovan liked younger women. Much younger.

So why did he take off his apron and tell Maria to watch the bar while he took a break? Why did his feet walk him over to the table where the older woman sat? What made him ask her if she minded if he joined her? Simple curiosity? Perhaps. He didn’t have the answers. He only knew it was something he had to do.

Enjoy the rest of Destiny's Visit over at Clever Fiction~short stories for the real world.

It would be a shame to let this one pass by...

My story for this week's challenge is up over at Clever Fiction. The prompt was/is Rain, A Sail Boat, & Shame. My submission: Secret Shame. Here's a sample: 

I watched the boats drifting across the bay, jealous of their freedom, knowing it should have been mine as I began my senior year. They hoisted their sails to take advantage of the gentle breeze.

Advantage. That’s what some would have said he’d taken of me. As for me, I wasn’t sure. The guilt tried to squeeze in again. I chased it away. Was he to blame? Was I? I didn’t know. Either way, I refused to feel shame. No. I hadn’t known. Hadn’t known anything other than the way he made me feel.

My flesh tingled with the memory of his touch. His trembling hands on my arms after he’d removed my wet shirt. The tickling sensations of his fingertips gliding up and across my back to move my hair away. The sweet softness of his lips against my neck, nibbling their way toward my ear where the sound of my name came to me on a breath, a whisper.

A gust of wind rushed around me, cooling skin that burned, yearned for him, even now when I knew it could never be.


Want to find out why it could never be? Jump on over to Clever Fiction. I'd love to have your feedback.
Secret Shame by Linda Boulanger at Clever Fiction~Short Stories for the Real World

Up For The Challenge

I've been away too long! It was a difficult summer but, at last, I've started writing again. I've accepted the challenge and submitted my first story over at the Clever Fiction weekly challenge.  The prompt was A Key, Noon, & Falling Leaves. My offering was called The Key To Happiness. Here are the first couple of paragraphs to whet your appetite. To read the rest, jump over to the all new Clever Fiction site and feel free to leave me a comment as well as take some time to enjoy the other submissions. Hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as it appears we enjoyed writing them. Here's my excerpt...


That did it! They’d done it again with their laughter and hugs. It had zipped the spring right out of my step … again. I was sick of it!

He smiled at me and looked away as I walked by. She said hi, her eyes filled with playfulness. She’d been teasing him about something. I nodded, thinking I’d be all happy camperfied too if I had a guy like that. I sighed and turned up the walkway to my place. I was glad our units weren’t side-by-side so I didn’t have to share a stoop with them or listen to their happiness through the walls.

Huh. I hadn’t noticed the railing was loose. I’d have to report that to the landlord … which meant a call to my dad.


Read the rest at Clever Fiction ~ Short Stories for the Real World

Enjoy some pics form my Dreamstime Play Album

      

   

All Pictures/Designs are Copyrighted

Original photos Purchased from Dreamstime.com

I have a secret...

I'm sharing a bit more about Gabe Saunders, the main male character of The Forget Me Not Spot, over on that book's blog - but I have a secret about him... He has a cousin and that cousin just married the Ice Princess! That may not mean a whole lot to you at this point, but it's pretty exciting to me because it means another story idea is exploding on the pages of yet another notebook that will eventually get passed along to my wonderful transcriptionist (who also happens to be the best mom in the world).  Taking a note out of the playbook of the amazing Jaimey Grant, Ice Princess will also weave in characters from The Escort and, in a round about sort of way, maybe even Claire and Garrett from Arms of an Angel (think horse in need of a place to pasture).  I hope you'll take the time to get to know Gabe a bit more while Hayden continues to take form on the pages of my 1 subject, 70 sheets, College Ruled Spiral Notebook!