Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in excerpts of ten sentences, with maybe a little more tacked on for your reading pleasure.

I’m sharing from my upcoming release, Shameless in Seattle. Our hero Aaron is enjoying a drink with his bestie, Melanie, who’s hinted that she has some tantalizing gossip to share. I’ve skipped over some witty banter to get to the juicy bits. You can read last week’s snippet here.

***

Aaron sipped his beer and felt better.  Tension eased off him.  He’d worked late again, getting a story in just under deadline. A diverting drink with Mel kept him from brooding at home, and Pioneer Square was hopping on a warm summer evening.  He suspected it might be Friday night.  He checked his phone rather than ask Mel and open himself up to ridicule about the dire state of his social life. Yup. Friday the 13^th.  Oh, swell.

“I don’t suppose you read many romances, do you?” she asked nonchalantly.

That’s ten. Here’s a bit more if you’re so inclined:

“Oh, sure. I’ve got stacks of them hidden in the closet. Why?”

“Well.”  She looked around furtively before reaching into her enormous handbag and removing a paperback with a garishly bright cover. Further inspection revealed a glossy, embossed image of a male model posing as a tough guy of some sort, shirt open to his belly button, wielding a huge gun. A buxom blond clung to his back but managed to contort in a way designed to expose maximum amounts of her impressive cleavage. In the background, the skyline of Seattle burned.

“What the hell?”

***

Blurb in progress:

Aaron Schafer, star reporter for the Seattle Times, is shocked to find out he’s the inspiration for a series of bodice-ripper romances written by a reclusive author no one has met.  He’s even more surprised, and disturbed, on discovering intimate secrets from his past buried in the pages of Shameless in Seattle. Who is this mystery author, who has clearly been stalking him and stealing details from his life? Are they dangerous? And worse, will they reveal Aaron’s darkest secret to the world? Aaron decides to stalk the stalker, a decision that will change his life forever.