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Sunday, October 7, 2012

At Meilori's: SECONDHAND SHOES cover reveal!

I looked at Roland's laptop.

Man, he was trusting me to write a good post for Shelly Arkon and her cover for her book, SECONDHAND SHOES.

The candle at Captain Sam's table flared, pushing the creeping shadows reluctantly away. 

The leaves of the two near-by palms hissed through the dark air like claws through desert sand.  Alice sat down beside me.  Sfumato.  How did she wiggle without moving like that?

Alice breathed, "Why are the candles at those other tables so small, their light so feeble, Victor?"

I made a face. "The candles are really the souls of the men sitting at them."

"Oh, my!"

Thea Gilmore was singing "COFFEE AND ROSES."  Two drunk city councilmen were marring her song with their loud voices.

Alice frowned, "Obviously, they have no ear for music. Fitting that they have no ears at all."

She left for a little fast food.

I started typing:

"Secondhand Shoes Cover Reveal and Something Borrowed Giveaway
Today, Shelly Arkon is doing another cover reveal to Secondhand Shoes.

She’s also giving away three books from the Twilight Series and eight books from the House of Night Series."
 
Father Renfield sat down with the candlelight striking fire from his canines. "I detest those books about that sparkly pedophile."
Oscar Wilde sat on the other side of me. “It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”  
I nodded and kept typing:
 
" In order for your name to be put in the drawing you must promise to Tweet, Facebook, and Google +1 this

and leave a comment in the box that you did so along with your email,

which series you would like,

and what you borrowed on your wedding day to wear down the aisle."
 
Oscar's eyes danced. "What will you borrow for your wedding day, Victor?"
Alice slipped between him and me to breathe in my ear.  "Victor is living on borrowed time as it is."
Alice giggled,  "At least I hope they will not be secondhand bridal shoes that did not fit like Shelly's heroine, Lila."
Renfield raised an eyebrow.  "You've read her book already?"
"Oh, yes. Twice."  Alice slipped her copy from her dress's side pocket.
Oscar smiled wide. “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” 
I went back to typing about Shelly's drawing:
 
"There will be no rafflecoptors or anything like that. She’s pretty much a self-admitted "techno-moron." 

(Alice giggled, "Isn't that British for Victor?")

On Friday, October 19th, Shelly will reveal two winners over at http://secondhandshoesnovel.blogspot.com/
 
Oscar snatched SECONDHAND SHOES from Alice.  "Here, let me read a bit of it aloud."
 
A light wind blew my hair across my face. I looked at the sky. Dark clouds coming up I-75. I looked at the woods. Probably a million snakes in there, I thought.
“Don’t be afraid, Lila,” the ghost of Gram said.
A half-dozen sparrows flew from around the front of the diner, low to the ground, and into the woods. I followed them in through the ferns bordering the pavement and into the trees. My lacey arm caught on a cypress branch ripping a portion of my sleeve from me.
I walked for at least a half hour. When Max and I left the wedding, it must’ve been mid-eighty degrees. It warmed up since then like twenty more. That was a Florida July for you. The humidity made it almost unbearable.

I was sweating, my bodice soaked. The money inside my bra stuck to my skin. It itched. The lace on my one arm and back itched more. I smelled no better than Max did when he got home from work and every winged insect buzzed around me. I smacked at them. A big, black horsefly really liked me. It wouldn’t go away. I thought of Max.
My blisters and toes screamed pre-, mid-, and post-step. The balls of my feet, too. The three inchers got caught in vines, branches, and mole holes. It took a lot to stay upright in the deep leaves.

I considered taking my shoes off, but there might be hook worms or some jungle ameoba waiting to feast on my leg muscles, and I needed my legs to get me out of this mess. Mom scared me out of going shoeless when I was little, and I’d never gone barefoot except on Mom’s clean carpets and disinfected floors. I wore shoes or slippers at Cynthia’s. Her mother didn’t vacuum every day. Nor did I taste Pine Sol in the back of my throat at her house.
A hawk flew down out of nowhere and landed on the ground in front of me, tilted its head, and blinked its eyes at me.
The hawk jumped up and down, flitting its wings. He turned and squawked.
“You want me to follow you?”
It hopped onward, looking back at me every third or fourth bounce.
From not too far behind me a male voice bellowed, “Lila!”
 
Oscar leapt from the chair.  "I must publish this in the Shadowlands!"
Alice blustered, "Under your own name?"
Oscar winked at her.  "Why of course! There would be no fun to it otherwise."
I started to go after his departing figure, but Renfield waved me back.  "Too late."
He held up another copy of SECONDHAND SHOES.  The author on the cover?  Oscar Wilde.
I hung my head and groaned, "Roland and Shelly are going to kill me!"

{Everyone else is doing Shelly's Cover Reveal Friday, but Victor always has to rush things!}

17 comments:

  1. Very cool getting to check out her cover and really enjoyed that excerpt.

    Sadly, I do not recall what I borrowed the day I wed. Not a thought I cared to hold on to after the divorce :-)

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  2. Alex:
    Which one? Oscar Wilde or Shelly Arkon? :-) Boy, is Shelly going to be madder at me now!

    Angela:
    I tell people that I believe in happy marriages like I believe in ghosts and albino's: I believe they exist; I just haven't personally seen one.

    I hope you enjoyed seeing Shelly's new cover in the atmospheric Meilori's.

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  3. I had to think what I borrowed. I'm pretty sure it was a string of pearls from my mother that was my great-grandmothers, before. So far I've had a happy marriage, so maybe you've seen a ghost recently? ;0) I've never seen an albino person (I don't think) but I have seen albino animals. Do they count?

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  4. Lara:
    My fictional self sees ghosts all the time. The physical me hasn't so far! I just haven't seen you or your husband either. All the marriages I have seen up close have been fractured in some tragic way sadly. :-(

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  5. Roland and friends:

    No problem that you posted this early.

    Thank you much.

    Hugs and chocolate,
    Shelly

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  6. Angela: Thank you.

    Lara: A happy marriage is way better than a sad marriage.

    Alex: I know you, too.

    Hugs and chocolate,
    Shelly

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  7. Lara S.:

    A string of pearls is much better than a pair of ill-fitting shoes any day.

    Hugs and chocolate,
    Shelly

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  8. Shelly:
    Victor is an impatient scamp ... but he has a good heart. Oscar on the other hand .... :-)

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  9. What a clever way to do a cover reveal. I love that it was too good to not take. :)

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  10. Oops, I thought this post was for friday, now I am confused...Really excited for Shellys book and I just love that cover. Great send off Roland and Happy Birthday ;)

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  11. Oh forgot to answer your Question...first time I borrowed my mother in laws necklace...marriage didn't work out...lesson? Never borrow from your mother in law. Second marriage, I didn't borrow anything and we are still married after 20 some years. Lesson? Never enter a contract with anything borrowed.

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  12. Raquel:
    Oscar is even now sitting at a table at Meilori's, autographing his "ghost-written" SECONDHAND SHOES!

    Siv:
    Yes, the cover reveal is slated for Friday, but you know Victor ... always getting ahead of himself! Besides this gives Shelly exposure both at the beginning of the week and at the end.

    Creepy Query Girl yesterday brought up that lately cover reveals have a diminishing effect: with many blogs doing the same cover reveal, people stop reading those posts as they already know what it is going to say.

    Victor couldn't have that so he jumped the gun and allowed Oscar Wilde to put a fun spin to things. "-)

    In Laws never seem to help marriages, do they? I hope you enjoy your husband's band concert. Great of you to support him even though his music is not your favoirite type. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FELLOW 0CT.9TH DAY BORN!!

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  13. Roland:

    Happy late birthday. I didn't realize you were a fellow Libran.

    We must stick together.

    Hugs and chocolate,
    Shelly

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  14. Interesting; I know I posted a comment on this a few days ago.

    Hmm, guess your ghosts are deciding which comments are worthy . .

    Or blogger is messing with me again. Sometimes I show up late at night and don't realize I didn't hit "publish".

    Sounds like a neat story.

    .......dhole

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  15. Donna:

    Thank you. I know Blogger automatically spams normal commenters. ***shrugs***

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