Playlist for A Perfect Mess

Have you had a chance to listen to my playlist? Songs are so powerful and my hero and his brothers are all singers and musicians.

The minute I started writing A Perfect Mess set in Louisiana, I knew that music was going to play a role in the book. That my hero was going to be musically inclined. How did I know that about him? Because Booker Outlaw lives in the part of the country that makes wonderful music and he has Cajun relatives on his mother’s side of the family. The ‘let the good times roll’ laid back, fun-loving people of Acadia know how to make some lively music and some very melancholy music.

Blue Bayou by Eccentric Scholar on Flickr

 As soon as I started to assemble a playist, I knew Blue Bayou had to be on there. Not just any rendition of it though. I had to have Linda Ronstadt’s version. It was like greeting an old friend when I heard that song again. Not only is it beautiful but it tells a mini-story that an author can totally appreciate.

We all have songs that are so wrapped around our lives that they stop being just songs and become something else. Something more integral to us, like extra DNA, or special blood.

Sometimes songs make us laugh, sometimes cry and sometimes they really inspire us and make us think. Music really speaks to us, settling into our lives like a good friend. And that's the thing about music, anyway. It's yours. Films and books with their narrative work totally on a different level. It’s totally visual and, although, music adds to the experience, it’s mostly the eyes that absorb the story. But it’s not like the ownership of music. We make a place for ourselves inside music and music has that special place for us to be. It’s up to our individuality to understand a guitar's howl, a plunging bassline, an intake of breath in any way we want. We can take that meaning with us, and let it fill us up.

When we give ourselves over to music, music shapes itself to whatever pattern we need.

With the availability of music it may seem that it has lost some of its power. But I don’t think so. People still listen to music for that power, for the emotions that piece of music evoke. It speaks to who we are fundamentally and I don’t think that will ever change. Music is still as potent as ever. Music can untangle our feelings better than we ever can.

We may wonder often how a vibration of air waves, a combination of lyrics and meaning, reach so deeply into our beings, stir up feelings of fear and fight and remorse and delight and sex. But we still respond to it. Sometimes we wonder how does music do that? And, sometimes we just listen to Josh Groban singing in Italian. Even though we don’t understand the words, he touches us. And, we cry.

RELEASE DAY FOR A PERFECT MESS

The journey begins with the first step, but in this case it's the first word!  I'm delving into a new genre, ripe territory and I guess that makes me a virgin of sorts. When I was first encouraged to write the New Adult genre by a really good friend, I was nervous. First person male POV--young male POV. Yikes. But being a virgin is all about exploration, so I jumped in and wrote what I know. What lives and breathes inside me. Pure romance.

This book doesn't really pretend to be anything, not a clone, or a profound treatise on growing up.  It's about falling in love and finding the one. My characters Aubree Walker and Booker Outlaw have some growing up to do in this book as they fall into each other. I so hope if you take the chance to read this novel, that you will enjoy it and that it takes you back to the freshness of that first aching true love. You know what I'm talking about.

 Excerpt:

Booker

Aubree freaking Walker.

Yeah. She hadn’t changed one bit. Still gorgeous, still distant and buttoned up, still curvaceous. I shifted. My thoughts and my purely male biological reaction to her. They weren’t a good combination. Yeah. Heavy wood in the morning.

I turned over onto my back and glared at the goddamned ceiling fan.

And my brain took a track I’d tried very hard not to travel down for the past nine months. What had she been doing all this time at Tulane? Had she thought about me? Or had she lost herself in another guy?

Another guy inside her.

F**k

I felt awful about the way she had just taken off, and sick about both that and what had happened. I was also really angry. Disappeared without even a goodbye.

But now she was back because of her aunt’s terrible accident. Was that the only reason, or was Aubree looking for closure?

Only two times I’d been one-on-one with her, on Wild Magnolia Road and again really early this morning, and both times there had been something terrible going on. Would I ever have the chance to relate to this girl in a completely normal setting? I wasn’t some kind of knight, but I also wasn’t going to let her get hurt. Whoever had thrown that rock better watch his step.

Would she ever get it that I’d crushed on her in school? I hoped not. I knew Aubree’s sort. Forever kind of girl was how I pegged her type. Sure, I could flirt and I could tease, but getting involved with her was a bonehead move. And, if there was anything that I did well, it was looking out for myself.

She looked good, though. Really good. But I felt a pang that she had not only avoided me and Suttontowne, but her aunt, too. Poor Lottie. She was upset about Aubree’s all-too-transparent excuses not to come home, not even for the holidays.  Aubree was all Lottie had. I hoped this wasn’t about me. I would hate that. People should never abandon the ones they love. My father popped into my head, but I pushed that thought away. The old man didn’t deserve even one thought from this son.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Time to get moving. When my thoughts started down this ole tired road, it was time to find something else to occupy my mind.

In the bathroom I splashed cold water on my face, and then stood in front of the sink, forcing myself to keep my hands relaxed. No matter what my feverish little brain could come up with, wooing Aubree into bed was not going to happen. That much I knew.

After another minute of just standing there, watching the water drip off my face, it hit me. That was the only goddamned plan I was going to come up with—not sleeping with her.

I was a f**king genius.

NAmazing Adventure

Welcome to my stop on the NAmazing Adventure, a blog hop featuring over 60 New Adult authors, and prize packs that include ARCs, signed books, gift cards, swag, and more! If you're not sure what the NAmazing Adventure is, please click HERE to start from the beginning and read the complete rules on the NA Alley website. Now let's get this journey on the road!

I might be your last stop, but I am featuring a couple of firsts here. A Perfect Mess is both the first book in my A Perfect Secret Series and my first novel in the new adult genre. Writing this book has been a magical experience for me. I felt like I was writing on a tilted axis. I loved bringing Booker Outlaw, Aubree Walker and all the cast of characters in this novel to life. Add it to your Goodreads shelf! It’s out August 12, 2013! The cover reveal for A Perfect Mess is on Tuesday, July 30th. You can go HERE if you have a blog and would like to promote it. Just scroll down until you see my sign-up.

A Perfect Mess

I know what you did last summer.

Aubree Walker, the perfect girl most likely to succeed, is sure there’s only one person who knows what she did.

Booker Outlaw, one of the three Outlaw brothers—all identical, all gorgeous, all from the wrong side of the tracks, and all pure bad boys. He was always the unpredictable one, the one who would be brash enough to make it big self-publishing novels on the internet. He promised never to tell, but everyone knows you can never trust an Outlaw.

Then a year later, in the middle of the night, she receives a phone call at Tulane. Her aunt, who took her in after her mother’s death, is in a coma under suspicious circumstances. Now she has to face that one person who knows all about what she did that summer—sexy Booker.

Returning to Hope Parish, Louisiana to be with her aunt, stirs up all those ugly memories. When Aubree starts getting threats, she can’t help but wonder if what she did last summer was tied to her aunt’s “accident.” Afraid, she turns to the only person who knows the truth and Booker doesn’t hesitate to offer his broad shoulder for her to lean on. But Booker has a secret of his own that could crush their fledgling relationship.

As the hot, sultry summer days move on, she finds that even a perfectly smart girl can lose her heart to a perfectly bad boy. What is she going to do when someone starts asking questions Aubree doesn’t want to answer? She’s knee deep into a terribly dangerous, wholly life changing, who-can-she-really-depend-on perfect mess.

A Perfect Series: Three perfect girls, three perfect secrets, one unholy trinity

A Perfect Mess, Book #1 – the girl most likely to succeed, an unpredictable Outlaw, and a dangerous secret that could be the death of her.

A Perfect Mistake, Book #2 – A preacher’s daughter, a reckless Outlaw, and a secret that will change her life forever.

A Perfect Dilemma, Book #3 – The town’s poor little rich girl, a sweet-talking Outlaw, and a secret that will ruin all that she holds dear. 

Teaser

Quiz Question and Finishing!
The quiz question is: Where is A Perfect Mess set? The answer is above in my description. Got it?  You’ll need it for the quiz at the end of this quest! And remember, you must complete ALL SIX quizzes to be eligible for a prize pack.

But wait! You have a chance right here and now to win Hounded, the third book in my Going to the Dogs series, a cool t-shirt and an exclusive look at my unreleased cover for A Perfect Mess.

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Also, check out the other contest HERE I have running on my blog/Pinterest! More great prizes!

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