Sample Sunday #13

Today's Sample Sunday is brought to you by the Easter Bunny. He has loaded up my kids with chocolate and sugar. Pray for me.

So I'm back after a nearly two week hiatus, which was necessary in order to recharge my batteries. Things have been great around here, which I will highlight some of that in the next Thirsty Thursday post. Sufficed to say, going forward I think things are looking up, despite how down my sales have been. That's because I have a clear idea of where I want to go for the next few years in terms of my writing. It's always nice to have something to look forward to, and my next four projects are going to be both challenging and fun at the same time. I'm looking forward to bringing it all to you.

One more note before I get the sample. Because of my hiatus, which did include a halt in my every day writing, I will not hit my internal date for finishing the First Draft. I'm okay with this, though it does mean the ultimate date I had in mind for a release of Bitter Nights is pushed out. I'm still shooting for a late Q3 release but the actual date won't be hammered down until mid-summer at best. There's also a couple of things that I plan to do between now and then which might impact the release date as well, so until I can solidify a few things, I'm going to be keeping my targets a bit close to the vest.

A few weeks ago I detailed Alison Crawford, intrepid reporter, who was pestering Cheryl about getting an interview done concerning some of the events in Spiral X. Today I bring to you a scene which gives her what she wants, and more, thanks to some help from Cheryl's corporate nemesis, Joseph Redmond. Disclaimer: First Draft, yadda yadda, don't crucify me too bad for any mistakes. Hit the break to read.

"Oh good, you're not busy," I heard Joseph say from behind me. I groaned. Things… okay, they hadn't been going so well, but at least it wasn't a disaster. I had a feeling my evening was about to get a little bit worse.

I turned around to face him, and saw him with a smug look on his face. Alison was next to him, and it didn't take a stretch of the imagination to see she was excited about something. "Whatever it is," I said, "it can wait until morning. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly the picture of health and I'd like to go home and sleep off this evening."

"Oh, this won't take up but a small moment of your time," he said. "I've just gotten off the phone with a few members of the Board of Directors, and after letting them in on your heroics for this evening, coupled with a suggestion by Ms. Crawford here, it has been decided that we want a personal piece done on the person who represents us at these charity functions."

"What do you mean by 'personal piece'," asked Virgil, who beat me to the punch.

"Well, you've been avoiding Ms. Crawford-"

"Alison, Joseph, please," she said with a smile.

"Alison then. You've been avoiding her on the issue from last year, but what about something else? There's no reason not to talk about the work you do for us, and the board members I spoke to thought it would be a great idea. Something to put on our website." He tilted his eyes up and gestured as if he were reading a sign, then said, "Cheryl Erikson, the Face of Erikson Construction Company as it seeks to make the world a better place."

I rolled my eyes. "You might want to work on your headline," I said. "But the answer is 'no'. The less that people know about me, the better."

Of course, I said this, but Alison's smile didn't move a hair. "Oh, I don't want to know about you. I want to know about Cheryl, the charity worker."

"Not to mention, this is coming from a board majority," added Joseph. "You can bring it up with the overall board again tomorrow if you like, but this is a good business move, and there is no valid reason for you to decline it."

I opened by mouth to tell him what I thought about that sentiment when Virgil elbowed me and stepped forward. "We'll work something out," he said, smiling. "Alison, I assume you know where we live?" At her nod, he said, "Then stop by tomorrow morning and we'll hash out the details about what this piece is going to be about. For right now, I need to get Cheryl home. Before anything else happens."