Excerpt 1 from Love Me Tender, Ch 1

January 22, 2013January 20, 2013 / Cheryl Harper / Leave a comment

Chapter One

Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Julie Dillon prayed under her breath while she did a particularly active form of airplane yoga. She contorted her nearly six-foot frame into this position and that to wrangle the seat belt and buckle out of the seat before cramming her twenty inches of hip into a seventeen-inch seat.

“Please don’t let anyone sit next to me. Please, God, let’s leave this one seat empty, okay?”

This had been the day from hell, if hell was a frozen wasteland that sent freezing precipitation across half the country. So far she’d gone from Atlanta to Chicago to Charlotte and right back to where she started before dawn. After a quick race through the airport, she’d been one of the last people to board the final flight of the day. It would take a miracle for her to make it to Dallas tonight but she wanted to get home. She was staring Valentine’s Day in the face, and if she didn’t make it home tonight, she’d be at the mercy of the world’s romantics tomorrow. Maybe the good luck that had gotten her to the gate on time would hold and that seat would be vacant for the hour and a half it would take to fly from Atlanta to Dallas.

As Julie leaned back to take a deep, calming breath, she kept an anxious eye on the front of the cabin and the still-open door. Really wish I’d taken this jacket off before I buckled in. With her knees crammed up against the seat pocket in front of her, she decided there was no way she’d ever be comfortable on this flight, jacket or no jacket, and besides, she didn’t have enough energy to repeat the process and take it off. Instead, she waved her hand limply around her glowing face and decided to cool herself by sheer force of will. She closed her eyes to concentrate and kept whispering “Please let it be empty” under her breath.

“Sorry, darlin’, but that prayer isn’t going to be answered.”

At the deep, soothing voice, Julie’s eyes snapped open and she swallowed a groan. She didn’t want anyone in that seat, but she sure as heck would have picked just about anyone else besides Luke Pearce.

It Happened On Valentine’s Day

January 18, 2013January 18, 2013 / Cheryl Harper / Leave a comment

There have been a few things I was unprepared for in this journey to my first on-sale date. Seeing the first rating up on Goodreads was one of them. First I flipped, then I tried to imagine how it was possible as the book’s not out yet, then I told myself to just calm the hell down. This is a marathon, not a sprint after all. People with writing careers need to learn to pace themselves. And that’s the goal: a career.

And then, when I should have been writing or working on the day job, I was watching television and googling. I made sure my Google alerts were set. Yep. Then I went over to Amazon to see if anything was happening.

Searched my name and the first result on the list was something I’ve never seen before. It was from Avon. But the first name on it was Eloisa James. So somebody made a mistake. But I was curious because it was Valentine’s Day related, just like Kiss Me. I read the list of names under it and there was Cheryl Harper. Since I didn’t know anything about it, I was still pretty sure it was a mistake somehow. Then I embiggened the cover and Cheryl Harper is on it. Right next to Rachel Gibson. I gasped. Audibly. I think I scared the dog. Then I fired off an email to editor Chelsey that went something like “Wha?” And also “Wha?” And then maybe a “squeeOMGthatcan’tbemecanit”.

And it is. This is a free sampler, a collection of excerpts from some of your favorites. And me. Oh holy night. February 22, you can get it for free. I’m hoping you’ll already have Kiss Me, have laughed heartily and rated it all 5 stars in every rating location you can find. But if not, maybe you’ll try this.

I will be cowering under by bed by the time this one’s out so somebody call me to tell me how it goes, okay?

Wallflowers, stage fright, and working with Avon Impulse blows my mind

December 17, 2012December 17, 2012 / Cheryl Harper / Leave a comment

So, I can sometimes be a little…wallflower? I’m not sure what the right word is. I don’t care for the spotlight but I have, a few times in my life, landed myself in some pretty sweet, wholly unexpected, and completely overwhelming spots. These are places where you just have to shut up and dance already. I find myself here because I’m an optimist. And stage fright nearly kills me every time. I had a moment this weekend where I looked around and freaked on a small scale.

I like to read. I also like to write. I had an idea for a novella and I sent it in. I mean, on the surface it seems mundane. This is my level. I’ve been submitting to publishers for two years but I was still surprised that this time was different. Editor Chelsey called to say Love Me Tender would be included in the Kiss Me anthology. Then she asked for some other, related ideas. I sent three. And that led to an actual, serious, OMG-inducing straight-up three-book contract for this place, the Rock’n’Rolla Hotel that I created WITH MY MIND.

As I always do, I sail into things with all the confidence in the world. And then I flounder. And flop. And flail. And different kinds of OMG escape. And as I always do, I pull through, overcome, rise above, lose sleep, put a permanent wrinkle in every muscle in my back, and devour every sweet thing in the house. I even had to break the foil wrapper on the emergency chocolate.

But I did it. I wrote the first one. It’s called All Shook Up. It’s the one I turned in last week.

It’s approximately 60,000 words. Look for it in April. Please. I mean it. Okay?

This weekend I decided maybe I should put on a businessperson’s hat. I followed up on some training/info that Avon provides through a slick system (and the email listed my name along with OTHER AVON AUTHORS, like the big timers. I MEAN SERIOUSLY on the website Author page I’m sitting right next to Christie Ridgway. Christina Dodd is on the next row of the yearbook and Cathy Maxwell is above. I died. DED.). And I had that realization that I’ve landed in the deep end. Professional publicity, strategies, questions from Eloisa James because she’s been invited to the SAME EVENT…I just…I can’t…I mean…you guys…

While I listened, I set up a profile and flipped through recipes on the blog. And then I searched my name. As you do.

I have a Google alert for my name. That’s how I knew when the Kiss Me cover went up on the Avon site. But now a placeholder for All Shook Up is there! So, seeing my name and delivery dates on a contract was big. Seeing my first cover was huge. But the idea that I’m going to get to do this again? (oomph…I fell off the stage in a fainting nosedive).

After I fanned myself for a minute and took deep, calming breaths to still my racing heart, I totally grabbed a screen shot.

Get

a load

OF THIS: