Sneak Peek

I'm going away for a few days to hopefully finish up my fourth book. Still untitled. Argh. I hate coming up with titles. Anyway, I haven't told you much about it, so I decided to share a few thoughts about my work in progress. Believe it or not, this is mostly for me. It's a way of organizing my hopes and ideas for this book... Sometimes I get so lost in the muddle of the page-to-page story, I lose sight of the big picture. Imagine that.

My newest book is my first real attempt at a love story. It's not a romance, per se, but the driving force behind my characters' actions is definitely love. My protag is a small town doctor named Lucas Hudson who is trying to save his ten-year-old marriage to Jenna, the love of his life. When a dead body is discovered and Lucas acts as coroner, he finds himself swept up in a bizarre suicide/murder case that complicates everything. As he's drawn into the unfolding story, his marriage suffers more, especially when a dangerous young woman enters the picture.

It's been interesting (and actually lots of fun) to write tense, sensual scenes that try to capture the emotions of love gone wrong. Here's a quick paragraph from a scene where Lucas is thrust into an uncomfortable situation:

Angela shut the refrigerator door with her hip and stood tall in the center of the kitchen, stately and imperious, and looking for all the world like she owned the place. She locked Lucas in a calculating gaze, and tucked her bottom lip between her teeth so that a thin sliver of white shone between the curve of her lips with a sort of feline restraint. It wasn’t until she started shining the apple on the fabric of her nightshirt that Lucas realized that she was wearing one of his shirts. One of his favorites. It was pinstriped with French cuffs and it fell halfway to her knees.