Love Talk with Adora Smutz - Interview with April McKenna

            Love Talk with Adora Smutz
            Today, Adora is interviewing April McKenna from April’s Kiss in the Moonlight.

            Adora: Good morning, April. How are you today?
            April:   Fine, Adora and you?
            Adora:   So you’re Gavin’s main squeeze, eh? Tell us, where does he mainly squeeze you, anyway?
            April: In places he’ll never squeeze you, Adora!
            Adora: Hey! I get the good lines around here!
            April: Sunny Davis warned me about you, *grins*
            Adora: Yeah? Don’t get too uppity, I’m just getting started. Tell me, do you ever have sex in the fireman’s carry position with this sexy fireman?
            April: *stifles a laugh* Adora, do you even know what that position is?
            Adora:  Well, no…but it sounded good.
            April:  What’s your favorite position for sex, Adora?
            Adora: I’ll ask the questions here, young lady!
            April:  *laughing* so ask already, I’m aging rapidly.
            Adora: *flustered*, Jean! Jean! You said she’d be a pushover! What’s going on here.
            April:   Tell us, Adora, which one of Jean’s heroes do you want to sleep with first.
            Adora: Well, first there’s…wait a minute! My turn, my turn…how IS Gavin in bed anyway?
            April:  Wouldn’t you like to know? You’ll never find out, either. Gavin hates pushy women.
            Adora: You have some nerve! I’m not pushy…I ask aggressive questions. I get to the stuff people want to know about.
            April:  Oh? You think so?
            Adora: I’m an award-winning journalist!
            April: Yeah, if the award is Idiot-of-the-Year!
            Adora: Hey! Is that a crack? So tell me miss high-and-mighty, how did you ever snag such a sexy guy. You’re nothing to look at, I mean compared to me.
            April: *flips hair back*, you don’t have to be a 36 DD to be attractive, Adora, especially to Gavin. He can’t get enough of me.
            Adora: Oh? *moves closer to the microphone* Tell us about it.
            April:  Why only yesterday when I was in the outdoor shower, he…wait a minute!
            Adora: Go on, go on… the outdoor shower *grins*.
            April:   Jean! Jean!  *pulls out her .22 semi-automatic* Can I shoot her?
            Adora:  I’m afraid that’s all we have time for today. *gathers up belongings and stuffs them into briefcase* This is Adora Smutz for ‘Love Talk” thanking April McKenna and signing off for this week.
            April: *polishes barrel of gun on her sleeve*. Gets ‘em every time.

More about April and Gavin

Fresh from graduate school, April McKenna, beautiful and brilliant vows to strike out on a new path rather than return to San Francisco to take a job with her father’s firm. She meets Rusty and sets off for an escapade that ends in tragedy. Injured and alone she is taken in by Sunny Davis, a friend of her mother’s who lives in a small town in the Catskill Mountains in New York.

During her recovery, April resolves to carve out an exotic life of travel and adventure. But she didn’t count on a sexy fireman upsetting her plans. Gavin Dailey has dated practically every woman in the county, but when he meets April, he knows he’s finally found the one he wants.  Only a stubborn man like Gavin wouldn’t let April’s resistance to his charm and his small town change his plans. Determined to win her, he pulls out all the stops until he encounters one stumbling block he didn’t count on. Only a near-tragedy resurrected from the past gives April the tenacity she needs to make the right decision for her life in April’s Kiss in the Moonlight.

This is a sweet contemporary romance with no explicit sex.

Short Excerpt
He walked up to the car and knocked on the window, startling April, who jumped.When she turned to look at him, he was smiling at her.
“Flat?” He asked.
She nodded.
“Pop the trunk,” he said.
Can’t you get inside the car through the trunk? He could attack
me...
“Take it easy. I’m not a mass murderer. Want to help you
change your tire,” he called to her.
April popped the trunk. If she didn’t want to spend the night
alone in the dark, accepting his help was her only choice.
“Are these yours?” he asked, plucking her panties off the door
handle and holding them up to the car window. The white lace
bikinis looked ridiculously small in his large hand.
April felt heat seep into her face and knew she had turned
several shades of red. Avoiding the stranger’s gaze, she opened the
car window and snatched the panties from him. He laughed, shook
his head and headed for the trunk, as she struggled to put the
panties back on while sitting in the front seat.
“Easier to jack up the car if you’re not in it,” he called to her.
Reluctantly, she got out of the car, keeping an eye on him and
perched on a large rock at a safe distance to watch him, hugging her
knees to her chest.
“Rusty,” he said, extending his hand after taking off his
backpack.
“April,” she responded, wrinkling her nose with distaste at
the sight of dirt coating his hand.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. Greasy.” He wiped his hand on his jeans.
He worked for forty-five minutes, jacking up the car then
changing the tire. April watched him with interest. As he began to
sweat, he removed his T-shirt. April stared at his strong chest
covered with reddish hair, feeling a desire to touch it. The muscles
in Rusty’s arms worked as he attached the jack and began to pump
it up, moving the car higher and higher. He was tall, about six foot
four inches, broad and strong. He shot her an easy grin from time
to time.
“What’s a beautiful woman like you doing stranded out here?
Where you headed?” He asked, looking her over with appreciation
in his eyes.
“San Francisco. You?” She said, blushing slightly under his
gaze.
“I’ve got a week to get to Allentown for a job. At the rate I’m
going, it’ll take me a week to walk it.” He worked the tire iron on
the lug nuts.
She laughed. “Why kind of job?”
“Driving a truck to New York City and back. It pays well.”
“You going to live in Allentown?”
“Of course. Where are you coming from?”
“Got my MBA from Kensington State University. Heading
home.”
“Going back to a job?”
“Uh...an internship. But I don’t want to. I’m not sure what I
want to do.”
“After all that time with college and graduate school and you
still don’t know what you want to do? Heck...a lot of money down
the drain.”
“Education doesn’t always tell you what you want to do in
life.”
“True enough. Still going home, eh?” He leaned against the
car.
“It’s expected.”
“Car’s ready. You should replace the dead tire because if this
one blows, you’re out of luck,” he pointed out, putting his shirt back on.
“Thanks. Get in,” she said, standing up, and brushing herself
off.
“You giving me a ride?”
She shrugged and gave a nod.
“Well, I can promise not to strangle and murder you...but I
might kiss you,” he said.
“Thanks for fixing the tire. I’m taking you all the way to
Allentown,” she said.
“No way! You are? Fantastic.”
“The least I can do...it’s not far out of my way and...I’m in no
hurry.”
“Up for a little journey?” he asked her with a wicked grin on
his face.
“Maybe.” She looked him over, thinking about his offer of
adventure.
“Let’s get some food. There’s a diner down the road a ways
and I’m buying,” he said, holding the door open for her.
She smiled up at him as he closed the car door.
Buy Link (only $2.99 for a full length novel)
AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
BARNES & NOBLE PAPERBACK ($8.09)
SMASHWORDS

TUESDAY TALES - GREY & CARRIE, PROMPT: KISS

Word prompt this week  is "kiss".

GREY & CARRIE'S CHRISTMAS

My story today is taken from a WIP, sequel to "The Marriage List". It is the continuing story of Grey and Carrie. They have arrived at his parent's house in Pine Grove, a small town in upstate New York in the morning on Christmas eve and the whole family greets them:

 Carrie was enveloped first in Fran’s arms for a hug. Member after member gave her hugs, then moved on to hug Grey. John eased everyone away from the doorway so he could close the door.

“I’m not paying to heat the outdoors. Get your butts in here,” he said, putting his hand on Grey’s shoulder, “glad to see you, son.”

 Fran linked Carrie’s arm through hers as she walked her into the living room. The tall Christmas tree was decorated with more home-made ornaments from many years of school holiday projects stretched over four children than it was at Thanksgiving. Perhaps Fran found an old box of treasures in her attic. 

The entire house sported festive decorations. Evergreen swags hugged the mantle and twined through the staircase. Snow globes, small statues of Santa Claus and other Christmas figurines perched on the wide marble mantle and the baby grand piano. One white electric candle stood proudly in each window.

There was a roaring fire in the large fireplace, bordered with cream-colored molding stained with soot in a few places. Fran steered Carrie to the wide brown velvet sofa. Jenna sat cross-legged on the floor in her fleece workout outfit. Bill sat next to her, petting the two pugs snuggled up to him. Barbara and her husband, Ernie, took over the love seat. John commanded the leather wing chair. Grey joined Carrie on the sofa and Colin pulled up an ottoman.

Carrie stood up and took her bags of gifts to the tree and placed them under and around. Then she did the same with the two bags Jenna brought in. Afterward she rejoined Fran.

“Let’s go over the schedule for today and tomorrow.” She pulled a small journal out of a large pocket in the apron and opened it to a clipped page.

“The open house has been moved to 2:30 to 7:30 so anyone who wants to can go on the Santa sighting hayride. Grey,” she said, turning to face her son, “Carrie has never been on that. It’s not long, about twenty minutes. Might be fun. Then we have our one-present exchange at eight o’clock.”

Grey nodded at his mother and directed his gaze at Carrie, who smiled at him in return.

“Dad is doing brunch this morning…what are we having John?”

“Pancakes and link sausages. Chocolate chip pancakes ‘cause Grey said those are Carrie’s favorite,” John smiled directly at her.

Carrie blushed at the attention.

“Okay, he’s going to start that in about five minutes. It’s nine thirty now, hmmm. We need to get the ham in the oven by one o’clock. So let’s eat then divide into teams. We got most of the cleaning done before you got here, Grey…”

“Gee. I’m disappointed!” He made a mock sad face. Colin threw a pillow at him.

“Right! I’ve saved a few choice tasks for you, though,” Fran smiled at him, her eyes twinkling. Grey groaned.

“I think I have all the food and I’ve been baking cookies all week. They are in tins. Still, I didn’t get around to lemon bars and you know Emma always asks for those.”

Silence fell on the room. Fran gave a quizzical look. Barbara stood up.

“Then we have a lot to do, so we’d better begin,” she said, tapping her husband on the shoulder.

Everyone got up and went to the kitchen. Together they set the big table in the dining room while John whipped up pancake batter. Barbara cooked the sausages on the grill on the deck in the back. Grey and Carrie disappeared into their room to unpack.

“Why did everyone get quiet when your mother mentioned Emma?” Carrie asked Grey as she slung her small suitcase on the bed and unzipped it.

“Don’t know. Emma, my girlfriend from high school, is a family friend now. She’s married to Matt, also from our high school. They’ve got a kid.”

“But she comes here every year for your family’s Christmas open house?”

“She and Matt come on Christmas day, in the afternoon for an hour or two, that’s all. I swear she comes only for the lemon bars.”

“What aren’t you telling me?”  Carrie opened the top dresser drawer, folded her lingerie and placed it in the drawer.

“Okay, okay. She was my first…and I was hers. There. But it’s ancient history.”

“Ancient history with you or her? Losing your virginity is a big deal. Someone you usually remember.”

“I have you. I don’t want Emma, haven’t for years and years. I moved on and I assume she has, too. Otherwise, Matt is going to have a problem,” he said, hanging up a shirt in the closet.

“Perhaps your sibs don’t agree. Otherwise why did everyone clam up at the mention of her name?”  Carrie folded some shirts and added them to the drawer, then closed it.

“She likes to flirt. She still flirts with me. It used to make Matt mad, but I think he gets it’s only Emma being Emma and doesn’t mean anything.”  Grey took all his socks in one hand and opened the second dresser drawer and dumped them in.

“Is she pretty?”  Carrie took a dress out of her bag and shook it out.

“I guess. Haven’t thought about her in a long time. She’s not as pretty as you are,”

“Oh?”  Carrie hung up her dress and stopped, her brow furrowed.

“What?” He stopped.

“Do I need to worry about this woman?” She whirled around to face him.

In two strides he was in front of her, enveloping her in his arms. He hugged her tightly to his chest.

“Honey, you don’t have to worry about anything. I love you and only you. I’m not interested in anyone else. You’re mine and I’m yours. Don’t let her stopping by ruin our first Christmas together.”

“Hey, yeah. It is our first Christmas together,” she rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes, a smile curling her lips.

“Looks like we’ll have to move our ‘date’ tonight to nine, instead of eight.”

“Still gives us plenty of time…”

Grey grinned at her and dropped a quick kiss on her lips.

“Hey, you two, get outta bed and come down here. Breakfast is ready!”  Colin called up the stairs.

Color rose to Carrie’s cheeks as Grey took her hand, leading her into the hall.

“Colin can be a real idiot sometimes,” he murmured as he headed for the stairs.

BACK TO TUESDAY TALES, CLICK HERE!

Blurb:

Can happily ever after start with a list? Grey Andrews thinks so. After ten years of working, saving and investing, Grey finally achieved a level of wealth that allows him to do what he wants with his life. He needs a woman to share it with, but not any woman, the perfect woman. A woman who has the three essential qualities on his marriage list. But after three years of searching he isn’t any closer to finding her than he was when he started out.
 Carrie Tucker, an aspiring mystery writer and divorcée struggling to make it in the world of advertising, turned her focus from men to her career after dating too many creeps and losers. She’s finally earned her big break, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become the first female creative director in a hot New York ad agency. So what if it means working nights and weekends? It’s not like she has a social life anyway.
Is the marriage list a failure or will a chance meeting at a fiction-writing conference prove the list to be the key to Grey’s happiness after all?

Buy Links for "The Marriage List"
 AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE

CLICK HERE FOR MY WEBSITE


For favorites lines and an excerpt from April''s Kiss in the Moonlight, Click Here

MY LIST OF "DON'TS" FOR THE NEW YEAR

Forget that damn "to do" list for 2012. While making that list, I feel like a school teacher is standing over my shoulder, wagging her finger in my face. 

So let's make a list of ten "don'ts" for the new year, instead.


1. DON'T stop writing, outlining new stories and losing myself in my own world.
2. DON'T let someone's negative opinion affect the way I feel about myself and my work.
3. DON'T argue with a reviewer, ever.
4. DON'T forget to appreciate those who love me.
5. DON'T stop laughing no matter how bad things might get.
6. DON'T lose sight of my goals, keep moving forward.
7. DON'T trust false friends.
8. DON'T speak without thinking in person or on the Internet.
9. DON'T let exercise disappear from my life on some thin excuse.
10. DON'T stop facing each new day with hope and great expectations that something wonderful will happen.

What's on your list of "don'ts" Please share by leaving a comment.

A touch of spring to remind us what's on the other side of March.

To check out my books on my website, click here.