Hello fellow writers, readers and internet wanderers. Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where writers from a wide variety of genres share from their work in short excerpts of ten sentences, with maybe a few more added on for good measure.

I’m sharing from my upcoming release, Shameless In Seattle. Last week, I took us up to the end (almost) of the first chapter. So today, we’re starting on Chapter 2, as Aaron intensifies his quest to flush out the mysterious Olympia Konstantin.

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Another day, another woman with bad news hidden behind a conspiratorial smile. Aaron had yet to penetrate Olympia Konstantin’s wall of anonymity, but her editor had been easy enough to find.

Desiree Boldheart (aka Susan Moffet) sat in the noisy Starbucks on 3^rdand Pine with a tablet, smartphone and newspaper all open or switched on and arrayed in front of her.  Desiree was a busy woman, but she’d agreed to meet with him after he’d played the potential lawsuit card.

“So pleased to meet you, Mr. Schafer.”  She extended a languid hand still warm from gripping a grande latte in a paper cup. She wasn’t what he’d expected. Stout; blonde hair shot with streaks of white worn in a short, tufty, non-style popular with busy soccer moms; wearing an unfashionable plaid button down shirt and large tortoise shell glasses, she looked like the vice principal of his junior high school instead of an editor/writer of erotica.  When he sat down, her wide cheeks brightened to a rose petal pink.

“You do look like Eric Slater,” she said.

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

“He looks like me, you mean.”

“Most men would be flattered to be the model for a romantic hero,” she said, folding her hands together over the newspaper.  In that pose, she reminded him of the vice principal more than ever, about to lecture him on disrupting classes again with his incessant questions.

“It’s not Eric’s looks that bother me, or the fact that he drives my car and lives in my apartment.  It’s my private life details splashed across the pages that bother me.”

“Kind of like what reporters do to other people?” she said, the mischievous smile growing.

“Not even remotely.  I report news, not gossip about intimate secrets for no purpose other than to titillate.”

“And what intimate secrets of yours has Olympia revealed?” Desiree/Susan casually stirred the foam on her latte with a fingertip.

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Shameless In Seattle – coming in January 2021!

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 might just change both of their lives.