By Willa Edwards (Guest Blogger)
The
hero and heroine of my newest release, Valentine Next Door, explore
the world in very different ways. Jeremy is a nature photographer. He
travels to exotic locations taking pictures of their native sites.
From a mama tiger and her cubs in wilds of India to a sunset over the
Sahara, he explores the world and brings it back to everyone through
his photographs. Miranda, on the other hand, explores the world
through books and stories. She’s the school librarian, and lives by
the old adage, that every book opens a new adventure.
Personally
I resemble Miranda’s version of exploration much more than
Jeremy’s. I’ve had some of my own adventures. I’ve traveled to
some great places, changed careers and even lived in several
dramatically different places. But I’ve still traveled to a million
more places—some that don’t even exist—through books. And I
also get to explore the world from an even deeper level, through the
research and writing of my books.
Writing
romance allows me to live in many different places, experience
working a several different jobs, without having to leave my desk. I
can also explore all kinds of different types of relationships, from
BDSM love to ménages, and all the way to the sweet and sensual love
of a couple like Miranda and Jeremy. I can delve into issues and
concerns I might not have experience myself, but may exist beyond my
world, like dating a man ten years younger or having a child on your
own, like Miranda deals with.
There are some nice benefits to exploring life through my writing. For one, I can write about someone tripping and falling in a pile of rhino dung (yes this does happen in one of my books) without, thankfully, having to do it myself. I can experience the heartbreak Miranda feels at having to decide between the man she loves, and the family she desires, without my own heart breaking (though my heart does break for Miranda and the pain she deals with). And I get to open up these worlds, and let my readers in to explore with me.
I
love my job. I love being able to write about all these different
places, different people and different issues. Though I’d like to
explore more the world beyond the pages of a book (I don’t know
that I could ever get to all the places I’d want to visit and see
in this lifetime), I love being able to explore the world in a
different way, through the beautiful characters I meet and the
fantastic romances that unfold between them.
And I hope you’ll
explore with me, and take a look at my newest release Valentine Next
Door, now available with Totally Bound Publishing. Read an excerpt
below and find out more about Jeremy and the sexy librarian he lusts
after living right next door, Miranda.
Blurb
Jeremy Callahan has been in love with his next door neighbor, Miranda Valentine, since he was fifteen years old. As a teen he used to watch her, fantasizing about how he could make her his. But he never acted on it. Miranda was older, married and out of his league. Forced to return home ten years later after being injured on a photo shoot, all those old feelings return, and this time there's no reason to keep them at bay. She might be a decade older than him, but Jeremy's not about to let a few numbers stand in his way.
Jeremy Callahan has been in love with his next door neighbor, Miranda Valentine, since he was fifteen years old. As a teen he used to watch her, fantasizing about how he could make her his. But he never acted on it. Miranda was older, married and out of his league. Forced to return home ten years later after being injured on a photo shoot, all those old feelings return, and this time there's no reason to keep them at bay. She might be a decade older than him, but Jeremy's not about to let a few numbers stand in his way.
Since
her husband's death, Miranda's been left with a big hole in her life.
Never able to fulfil her dream to be a mom, Miranda isn't sure what
to do with herself. She certainly isn't expecting to find the most
gorgeous man she's ever met next door. She can't believe Jeremy
Callahan is that sexy younger man, or that he's had a crush on her
for years. When he kisses her, all bets are off. Jeremy's young,
gorgeous and makes her feel more than anyone has before.
But
she knows he can't want the same things she does. He can't be ready
to settle down and start a family, but she's running out of time.
Will her dream of being a mother keep her from the man she loves? Or
can they find some middle ground where they both can get everything
they want?
Excerpt
“You
need to get out of there, buddy,” Brett declared.
Jeremy
huffed into the phone. He didn’t need his best friend to tell him
that. He’d been back in his childhood bedroom for three weeks now,
while the damn bone in his leg healed. Being waited on by his mom,
unable to even leave the house, was driving him stir-crazy. After
years of moving from place to place searching out the next great
photo, sitting still was taking a serious toll on his mental state.
“Are
you offering to let me stay at your place?”
“Fuck
no. I like you, dude, but not that much.” Brett chuckled into the
phone. “I’m not giving you a sponge bath.”
They
both laughed. Best friends since elementary school, they’d done a
lot for each other, but they had their limits.
“I
can bathe myself, dude.” It required a plastic garbage bag and a
few strips of duct tape, but he could do it. “I’m not that
handicapped. I just couldn’t get up and down the stairs to my
place.” His third-floor walkup in the city had seemed cool and
Bohemian before his injury. Once he healed, he’d be looking for a
new apartment in a high rise with a doorman and an elevator. Maybe a
condo in a neighborhood that would be good for families.
He’d
been thinking a lot about the future since his injury, not that he’d
admit it to his buddy. Maybe it was the staying still, or maybe it
was the injury itself, but the call of the road had tamed down to a
gentle breeze. The idea of coming home to someone was starting to
sound appealing. If it was the right person.
“Isn’t
there somewhere you can go for a little while? Just for a break.”
Papers rustling echoed over the phone.
Brett
must be at work. The man worked from dawn to midnight some nights.
Not that Jeremy could say much. He put in a lot of hours at his job
too. But at least it wasn’t in an office.
Jeremy
knocked his fist against the cast on his right foot. “Can’t drive
with this thing, and I won’t get far walking.” All he could do
was sit and think. About everywhere he’d been and where he might be
going next. He’d never been much of a thinker. He was a doer.
Whenever he’d seen what he wanted, he’d gone after it. Now, all
he could do was spin his mind in circles.
“There’s
got to be something you can do,” his friend declared.
But
the words didn’t register with Jeremy. All he heard was the slam of
a door. He stilled. His heart sped up and his cock perked to
attention. It was a sound he knew well. A sound he’d waited for so
often as a teenager and had now begun to anticipate each night since
returning home. It was one of the few joys he had since he’d been
stuck back in his childhood bedroom.
Next
door, Mrs Valentine, the school librarian and the star of his every
adolescent fantasy and most of his adult ones, shut her front door.
He held his breath, waiting for her to walk through the house to her
bedroom that stood across the small twenty-foot lawn from his own.
“Mrs
Valentine’s home,” he whispered, even though, logically, he knew
she couldn’t hear him through the walls of two houses.
“Are
you fucking kidding me, dude? Mrs Valentine?”
Brett
groaned, and Jeremy understood his pain. Just the thought of Mrs
Valentine had Jeremy’s balls tightening and his dick hard.
“You
were always the luckiest shit in school to live next to her.”
Brett’s voice rumbled in his ear.
The
sound distracted Jeremy—momentarily—from the beautiful sight
before him. Jeremy wasn’t the only one who’d had a crush on the
school librarian.
About Me
Willa Edwards has dreamed about being a writer since she was four years old. When she picked up her first romance novel at fifteen she knew she'd found her place and she's never looked back.She now lives in New York, where she works with numbers at her Evil Day Job and spends her nights writing red-hot tales of erotic romance. When she's not at her computer, you can usually find her curled up in bed with her two furry babies, her nose pressed to her ereader.
Find me Online: www.willaedwards.com
Or
my Blog: www.willaedwards.com/blog
Find
me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/willa.edwards
Find
me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/willaedwards
3 comments:
Hello, Willa,
Welcome to Beyond Romance and congratulations on the release!
I can really relate to Jeremy's plight. I broke my leg a couple of years ago and suddenly realized just how non-accessible most of the world is!
Sounds like a fun book.
Thanks for having me Lisabet. I completely agree with you, negotiating Jeremy around the world with his cast certainly took some work, especially in the bedroom. But he and Miranda figure it out.
Great excerpt. Good luck with your release.
Janice~
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