Oklahoma

Aiming for His Heart Excerpt

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It’s been wonderful and difficult being book ten in the Pink Pistol Sisterhood series. Good because I’ve had wonderful books to read that have come before mine, but hard because I’ve had to wait so long to wait for my story to be released. But Jade and Dalton’s day finally arrived Friday!

As we’re all recovering from the long Fourth of July weekend, I decided to do something simple and share an excerpt of Aiming for His Heart with you today. I’m so excited to hear what you readers think of Jade and Dalton’s journey to happily ever after.

 

When they reached the airport exit, sliding glass doors whooshed open. The surprisingly brisk Texas wind swirled under Jade’s coat and up her skirt, chilling her. As she followed Dalton outside, she tucked her coordinating brown-and-camel plaid scarf around her neck and pulled on her leather gloves.

As they crossed the street between the terminal and the parking garage, she tried to lengthen her stride to keep up, but her skirt refused to allow anything but dainty feminine steps, forcing her to take three to his one. When she stepped onto the sidewalk, her heel caught in a crack. She tried to tug it free, but it wouldn’t budge. “Dalton, hold up.”

He glanced over his shoulder, shook his head, and returned.

She peered up at him. “I can’t free it.”

“I hope you packed decent shoes in your monster suitcase.”

“Of course, I brought casual shoes. I’d have changed into slacks and low heels, but I went straight from work to the airport,” Jade said as he tugged her shoe free—minus the heel.

She stared at her now-destroyed favorite black Jimmy Choo heel that he handed her. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“Wear it until you can change into one of the store’s worth I’m guessing you’ve got in there from the weight,” he said, nodding to her suitcase.

“If my bag is too heavy, maybe you should add strength training to your workout,” she tossed out in frustration as she slipped on the heelless shoe and penguin-walked behind him.

She almost laughed. No one would believe strength training could improve on the perfection good old hard work had done.

The deep, rich, vibrant sound of Dalton’s laughter teased her ears, sending little tremors radiating through her. “Now, that’s funny. I think you’re lucky they let you on the plane with this anchor.”

“In my defense, it’s winter. Sweaters are bulkier and winter shoes are heavier. Plus, I packed for a month.”

“We have things called washers and dryers here, you know,” Dalton said and then chuckled again.

When they reached his truck, she stared at it for a second. Sure, he’d mentioned his truck, but she hadn’t envisioned one almost big enough to qualify for a monster truck rally.

Dalton opened the passenger door and held it for her. She leaned forward and placed the Ferragamo work bag she’d snagged on sale for almost half price online inside.

How would she get on the seat wearing a Zoey-original sleek pencil skirt made of barely stretching fabric? Noting to discuss the fabric choice with her friend, Jade lifted her leg to step on the silver board thing running along the truck. When her skirt tightened enough she worried it could rip, she returned her foot to the ground.

“Need help?” Dalton asked, amusement in his voice.

What could he do? Lift her into the truck? No way. She shook her head and scrambled to find an excuse. She pulled off her shoes and tossed them into the truck beside her bag. “I got this. I just couldn’t get decent footing.”

“Whatever you say.” Dalton grabbed her suitcase.

When he turned to place her bag in the truck bed, Jade grabbed the armrest with her right hand, her skirt with her left, hiking it up to mid-thigh, and started pulling herself up. The tailgate clanged shut, insisting she’d run out of time. She glanced over her shoulder, finding Dalton—feet apart and braced—staring at her with an intensity that sent happy hormones dancing through her. A slow, sexy smile spilled A slow, sexy smile spilled across his face as his gaze moved downward. “Nice legs.”

I hope you enjoyed this short excerpt Aiming for His Heart.  Click here to buy the book and read the rest of Jade and Dalton’s story.

THE TREASURED SUGAR BOWL–by CHERYL PIERSON

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I don’t know if y’all remember my “attic saga” from a few months ago, but I wanted to tell you about a particular treasure I found. The attic floor was sagging from all the “stuff” that was stored up there—yes, it was all stuff I had kept, but in my defense a lot of it had come from other places: My mom’s and dad’s when they could no long live at home; my oldest sister when she had her stroke and had to go into a nursing home; and of course, the things I’d kept for my kids; and my OWN keepsakes! WHEW! That was a lot!

Everything has been cleaned out and gotten rid of or “re-kept”, but I’m down to a total of about 18 containers now from probably close to 75 or 80. There were still 5 or 6 that I had not gone through that I’d brought downstairs, knowing they were going to take some time, since they were a hodgepodge of things that included correspondence and pictures, as well as other things.

 

My dad and mom on their 47th wedding anniversary

                                             My dad and mom on their 47th wedding anniversary

But the very first time I opened one of them up and started to go through it, I found something wrapped in cotton, and then in tissue paper, and a bag, and I knew that was something my mom had done. Mom was one to always write notes on things to let us know what they were. This was something my sisters and I would roll our eyes at, because she was so detailed in the descriptions she wrote.

But this time, I was so glad.

This treasure was something I’d never seen or known about. It was a sugar bowl. The note explained it all, and I still get teary when I think of it.

 

You see, my sisters were 10 and 12 when I was born, so a good part of my parents’ lives together had already happened by the time I came along. Certainly, the very hard times of first starting out together, of having their first home, and their first child (and second!) and those lean years that were now in the past.

But the sugar bowl told the story in a way conversational description could not.

When I unwrapped it, it was a China pattern I had never seen, so the sugar bowl must have remained after the other pieces had been broken. Maybe that’s why she saved it. I took the lid off, half-hoping there would be a note inside to tell why it had been wrapped so carefully and kept all those years.

I was not disappointed. This note is so typical of the things my mom wrote and taped to keepsakes. She didn’t want her life or the past to be forgotten. What a blessing to have found this!

 

This just made my heart glad in so many ways, and this sugar bowl, with the note inside, is sitting on the top shelf of my desk so I can just glance up at it whenever I want. That remembrance she included in the note of how happy she and my dad were with their little family, before I was ever born, is something I will treasure forever.

 

Mom and Dad, newlyweds, 1944

Of everything I’ve come across in those crates from the attic, this is the most treasured item I’ve found so far. There is a chip in the lid, and a crack that has been glued back together, and Mom’s ever-present masking tape holding the lid shut so it won’t fall off and break, but it will take a lot to beat this treasure!

 

In my book, LOVE UNDER FIRE, my heroine, Krissy, finds the pink pistol amidst her possessions. She doesn’t know who it belongs to or how it came to be in her bag, but instantly, she admires the feel of the wooden case, and she knows it was carved with such love. That’s how I feel about this sugar bowl. That note my mom included is filled with love and gratitude for those sweet memories of earlier days.

Have you ever found or been given something that had been forgotten or put away that you felt this way about? Please tell us about it!

I’m giving away a DIGITAL COPY of Love Under Fire to two lucky commenters! Don’t forget to check back tomorrow to see if you won!

Order your copy of LOVE UNDER FIRE today!

Be sure to check out the PINK PISTOL SISTERHOOD series page on AMAZON!

A New Book, A New Lesson

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I’m excited for Aiming for His Heart to be released on June 30th. Writing this book, the tenth story in our Pink Pistol Sisterhood series, challenged me in many ways. First, at 40,000 words, it’s the shortest story I’ve written. I hear those who know me well laughing because you know I can’t say hello in less than fifty words. 🙂  In my first writing classes, the instructor asked if I was taking her class on writing tighter. To my I hadn’t decided answer, she responded that I needed to. Despite hard work on that, I struggled 60,000 word Harlequin novels within the overage allowance.

I also had less time to write this story. When I start a book, I count on two things happening. I’ll start in the wrong place, either too far into the story or too far . I’ll take wrong turns. Sure enough. Both happened with Aiming for His Heart. In fact, the wrong turns were so disastrous I pretty much started over once. Maybe twice. While I was proud of writing in the shorter time frame, as a tortoise writing (unlike many of my amazing rabbit speed writing filly sisters), doing so took its toll.

However, the main challenge came from my heroine, Jade. Boy did she and I get into a battle of wills. Okay. I hear you laughing again. Yes, I know I can be stubborn, too. ? Our trouble started during brainstorming. My story ideas almost always start with the hero. In fact, only one hasn’t. But in the Pink Pistol Sisterhood series the heroine receives the pink-handled pistol which plays a key part in the story. This meant the story needed to begin with Jade. Until I learned her backstory, her personality, and what she wanted, I couldn’t move forward. And blast the woman, she wouldn’t let me into her head.

I knew Jade’s mother died when Jade was ten. From then until she went attended college, Jade spent summers and school vacations with her maternal aunt in Oklahoma. There Jade found the love and acceptance she often didn’t receive from her workaholic, distant father and his new family. Jade revealed her past to me, but after that, she shut down. All she revealed was she was returning to Oklahoma to settle her aunt’s estate.

Anyone who’s taken on that task knows how emotionally and physically exhausting it is. Despite putting Jade in stressful situations, she remained distant, almost emotionless. Thankfully, while talking to my dear friend and critique partner, Nancy Haddock, I realized Jade acted that way because she didn’t want to feel anything. She didn’t want to let anyone in. I finally had my key to her character. Jade feared if she felt anything, especially grief, she’d fall apart and never recover. She viewed her emotions as the enemy because when she lost control of them, chaos and disaster followed.

Being a sinister author, I had to break her. But as often happens in my stories, in busting through my character’s defenses and forcing them to face their issues, I make a discovery of my own. I learned I had been at war with my emotions lately. Because I had been feeling too much for lack of better words, I didn’t want to feel anything and had shut down in some ways, too. Forcing Jade to deal with her emotions forced me to grow and deal with mine, too. I guess, not only do I write what I know, sometimes I write about what I need to learn.

GIVEAWAY:  To be entered in my random drawing for cactus tote leave a comment about a challenge that made you grow and what you learned or what new skill you acquired.

 

A Sneak Peek!

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My current project is a fish-out-water story, my favorite type to write. I do so love putting my characters in uncomfortable situations. I realized this with my first book Big City Cowboy when I forced my hero Rory to model in NYC. In the book I’m currently writing, my heroine, Jade works as a Senior Account Manager for a NYC designer. When her aunt leaves her a house in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, she travels there to supervising renovations for its sale. Of course, my hero is a cowboy. Dalton’s forced to take contractor jobs to earn money to keep his ranch afloat.

Another reason I’m enjoying this project is get to show off my DIY/renovation skills. (Yup, I love power tools and own tile, miter, and table saws, a cool nail gun, and various sanders.) I’ve retiled floors, removed wallpaper and popcorn ceilings, then retextured them, and retiled a shower. (FYI, renovating your house is a better workout than you get at any gym!)

After I hammered 🙂 out my characters and their backstory, I thought about the house’s floor plan to determine what renovations Jade would do. Despite knowing all we can discover on the internet, silly me, I tried to sketch a floor plan of my grandparents’ farmhouse. I almost drove myself crazy before turning to the internet where I discovered floor plans from houses built in the early 1900s from Sears and Roebuck.

 

New farmhouse my aunt built when my grandparents’ house had to be torn down.

Starting in 1910 homes were built wired for electricity, except for ones in poor rural areas. They didn’t get electricity until the 1920s. They also had indoor plumbing. This meant houses had one bathroom with a toilet, sink, bathtub (or shower), and a kitchen sink. Because of the growing popularity of automobiles, home also started having a detached garage built. The last new feature of the era were built-in closets to replace wardrobes.

I choose this floor plan.

 

I’ve selected option #2 or Jade’s house. It’s still hard to believe this house could be built for less than $3,000. I chose it for a couple reasons. One, the square style reminded me of my grandparents’ house and the happy times I spent there. Secondly, this design had a bathroom upstairs. Because this novel is shorter than ones I’ve written recently, I wanted to keep the renovations simple and didn’t want to add a plumber character. Because of this, I’m also saying the aunt already added a downstairs half-bath.

I needed another photo and thought we could use a picture of a good looking cowboy.

Before you think I’m writing a DIY renovation book and calling it a novel, my plan is to use the renovation to create trouble for Jade and Dalton. As anyone who’s renovated a house knows, it’s stressful and messy. Ordering supplies online, supply chain issues, and weather problems can create havoc with a timeline. And with Jade wanting to get in, get the job done, and get out of Oklahoma ASAP, this will drive her crazy. Further, there’s opportunities for Dalton to tell Jade about the perils of ordering online and the value of using local suppliers, only to be told Jade’s the boss and she’s made her decision. But of course, he’ll show this city girl a thing or two and she’ll give him a run or his money. Oh, how I love putting two strong-willed, intelligent, stubborn characters together!

So, now you’ve got the inside scoop on my latest project. More to come later on Jade and Dalton…

Giveaway—To be entered in today’s giveaway for the Thanksgiving dish towel and signed copy of Colorado Rescue, leave a comment on what renovations you would do to the house in my story if you wanted to sell it.