Author Tag...You're it!

Good friend and fellow author Alicia Dean has a brand-new web site up, and to celebrate its launch, several of us are playing author tag. (It's a game where we answer a couple quick questions about our current works, then tag five more authors, so on and so forth.) Check out Alicia's post here.

Here are my answers:

What is the working title of your book?
Escape to Sanctuary

Where did the idea for the book come from?
This is the second book in The Way series (Surrender to Sanctuary was the first) which explores a lifestyle choice (read: adult) practiced for spiritual reasons. My husband and I are fascinated by ancient cults and religions, and the idea was conceived as a blending of those two interests.

What genre does your book fall under?
I'd say mystery/suspense, with some romance thrown in. But there is a third book to the series, where the whole story will come full circle.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
That's tough, especially because I'm so out of who the big actors are. For David Owens, I'd have to go with Nick Wechsler who plays Jack Porter on ABC's Revenge. (Love that show!) For Anna Parker, probably Megan Fox comes the closest physically to the image in my head. I'm open to suggestions,though!

Now I need to tag five friends. This is even more difficult, because I'm blessed to have so many talented writing buddies, but here goes:

Denise Golinowski - fantasy and paranormal
Sofie Couch - YA paranormal and humor
Nara Malone - erotic romance
Tina Glasneck - suspense with romantic elements
Nancy Naigle - stories of small town and suspense

Me and Beyonce, BFFs 4Ever

So last night I received this notice in my e-mail. (See screen shot below.) It's from Twitter, telling me I have a new follower. I look, look again, then click it open.

What?! Beyonce Knowles, world-famous singer, actress, super-gorgeous, super-talented superstar, is following middle-aged, anonymous me on Twitter?!

My neurotic, naturally shy self immediately choked, laughed, then said, Oh please, get real!  But my author self, the Leah who is growing accustomed to putting herself out there to the world, experienced this rush of hopeful excitement that maybe, just maybe...

I opened the profile page and saw 60,000-plus followers. Respectable, although I would have expected in the millions for a woman of her stature. She's also following more than 30,000...  Hmmm, that Beyonce sure likes to follow people, I mused to myself.

I began to read a few of Beyonce's posts, all one-liner words of wisdom, the type of posts I don't have the desire to create or patience to read. But nothing about music or performing or....

So finally, in deference to cautious, neurotic Leah, I re-read Beyonce's description and noticed another twitter handle stuck at the end. I dug a little more and discovered the profile is owned by a young woman from somewhere halfway around the world who has several more twitter handles, including one for Marilyn Monroe!

After recovering from the slight twinge of annoyance that for some reason Marilyn wasn't following me too :-), I followed back.

Now, I admit I'm a relative newcomer to Twitter. My followers and followees number in the hundreds, not thousands. In fact, I generally describe myself as Twitter-challenged, and there's probably much I can learn from a person who has 60,000-plus followers, regardless of his/her identity. Still why a young woman, thousands of miles away, has created these faux identities of American icons is beyond my comprehension. Unless she's conducting some sort of psycho-social experiment ...or it's some kid sitting in his parents' basement in Encino, California, infecting the world's computers with the latest super-virus...or maybe it's really the government trolling for terrorists and I've just added myself to the terrorist watch list...

Happy tweeting, everyone!

Six Sentence Sunday ~ May 6

Welcome to Six Sentence Sunday! I'm happy to join a bunch of talented authors who share just six sentences of one of their stories.

I'm continuing with Surrender to Sanctuary, the story of FBI Agents David and Anna who go under cover in a BDSM club to solve a murder. Here, a mentor cautions David.

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"If you show up looking like you'll deck the first man who glances in Anna's direction, you'll blow the cover. Once that happens, her safety, her survival, will be in jeopardy." 

Suspicious now, he asked, "Where are you going with this?" 

"Well, I see your feelings growing each time you're together." 

The quicksand tumbled in on David's head,and he gave a rough laugh. "Feelings?"

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I hope you enjoyed these six, and I hope you'll get a chance to check out the other great excerpts from Six Sentence Sunday!

Six Sentence Sunday ~ 4/29/12

Hello, all, and welcome to this week's Six Sentence Sunday! Another six this week from my romantic suspense Surrender to Sanctuary.

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Wearing another of her sexy suits, her hair once again pinned up in that thing that made him want to take it down, moving with that athletic grace of hers, she stopped short when she spotted him. For a heartbeat he wondered if she was remembering those few moments they'd spent in each other's arms, as he was. And if the sleepless night had taught him anything, it was that he'd lay pretty much everything on the line to keep Anna Parker from harm, including going along with this crazy scheme of hers.

But ready? That was a different story. He'd never be ready for what they planned.

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I hope you enjoyed these six, and I hope you'll get a chance to check out the other great excerpts from Six Sentence Sunday!

Six Sentence Sunday ~ April 22

It's time again for Six Sentence Sunday! I've been away for a couple months, and I have to say, it's good to be back, joining all the authors who share weekly snippets of their work. My six will pick up right where I left off in Surrender to Sanctuary, with FBI Agents David and Anna discovering their mutual attraction.

Fire surged through Anna's chest, to her fingers and toes, low into her belly. She heard herself whimper right before the room started to spin, right before her legs lost their strength, and she tore her mouth from his to catch a breath, catch her wits. He stiffened, muttering a curse, and stepped back to tug her shirt down.


They stared at each other like prizefighters in the ring, their breathing labored, each trying to anticipate the other's move.

"Well," he finally said, "I believe I proved my point."

And it was only after he said good-bye, after admonishing her to get a good night's sleep, that she realized she hadn't even tried to stop him.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my six. I hope you enjoyed, and I hope you have a chance to read all of the other wonderful authors at Six Sentence Sunday!

Six Sentence Sunday ~ February 12

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Six Sentence Sunday for February 12th. You probably know the scoop, but just in case...the gist is to post six sentences (no more, no less) as a sample of a work, whether published, in progress, whatever. I'm continuing again with Surrender to Sanctuary, David and Anna's first kiss. Hope you enjoy!

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David's lips were soft—searching, not demanding—and he dropped the pose to wrap both arms around her, pull her even closer, his hands on her back and lower, kneading flesh through the layer of clothing that felt suddenly itchy and coarse. She flushed again, her entire body thrumming with an aching heat, and opened her mouth to his.

His breathing hitched, and when he shifted once more, entwining their legs, and angled his head to take the kiss deeper, slower, her senses swelled and tumbled. She was tingling, head to toes, and enveloped in his scent of musk and laundry detergent. His hands were in her hair, his thumbs stroking along her jaw. She couldn’t breathe, and when she raised on her toes and linked her arms around his neck to press closer, he slid a hand under her shirt.

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Thanks for reading! Hope you get to check out all the amazing samples on Six Sentence Sunday!

Six Sentence Sunday ~ February 5

Hello and welcome to the first Six Sentence Sunday of February! I've been posting bits and pieces of my 2010 release, Surrender to Sanctuary, excerpts that show the growing relationship between my hero (David) and heroine (Anna). Last week Anna thought David might kiss her. This week (a day or so later in story time) David is trying to convince Anna (in his very male way) not to put herself in danger, and...well, read on.

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It was a minute before she could speak over the pounding of her heart. "You're trying to scare me, but it's not working. I'm not afraid of you, David."

"Yeah, well you should be." He groaned, a sound that came from somewhere deep inside, and his hands gentled, at her wrists, her face. "What the hell," he said under his breath just as his lips came down on hers.
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Thanks for stopping by to read my six for this week. Hope you enjoyed, and I hope you get a chance to check out all the other great posts at Six Sentence Sunday!