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 The Good Life Detective Kyle Anderson is a man of simple tastes and reasonably low expectations. Give him a juicy steak and no homicides, and he’d call it good. When his sister Katelyn got engaged to his best friend Dominic, he’d figured the worst of the unnecessary drama in his life was over. But that was before Dom’s free-spirited, twig-eating, exasperating sister Demetria came back to Nebraska and completely hijacked the planning of the wedding, starting with inviting Dom’s ex-wife Isabel. Now Kate’s so determined to prove Isabel is up to no good that she insists Kyle date her to keep her away from Dom. Soon Kyle is so knee deep in Anderson-Valentini dramatics, he’s thinking of changing his name and moving to Tibet. If he could just get Demi the impossibly sexy granola-flake off his mind long enough to do it… The Good Life Excerpt “I can’t stay with you!” “Why not? It’s not like we didn’t start the evening in bed together. All joking aside, I’m not in the habit of molesting my girlfriends while they sleep.” “Kyle! That’s not—Err…” Demi growled, flailing her hands as she paced. “How—I mean why—I just…” she stopped and drew in a large breath. “How did you go from thinking I’m an idiot to deciding to hound me for a relationship?” “Correction, I have never thought you’re an idiot. I think you are the farthest thing from an idiot. You are an intelligent, successful woman with an incomprehensible hatred of bacon who occasionally pretends to be a flake. Hence the nickname granola-flake. Which is way worse than actually being an idiot.” She huffed. “That’s my point though. Underneath all this,” she waved her hands again. “…is still that undercurrent of disapproval from you.” “So change my mind. You’ve already proved me wrong on one major thing. I’m more open minded than you give me credit for. You seem determined to still see me as a narrow-minded bigot. This is a two-way street, woman,” Kyle growled. “What was that one thing?” she asked, blinking in consternation. “Let’s put it this way… I can tell when a woman hasn’t had a lot of sexual experience. Either that or you have shitty ass taste in men who are selfish in bed. But you deliberately cultivate this flower child, free love, come-and-get-it, sex goddess persona.” Her mouth worked for several seconds. “I have too had a lot of sex!” She cringed and looked side to side, then spoke in a lower tone, “I mean, not a lot…but plenty.” Of course, most of it had been in the same calendar year, but he didn’t need to know that. “So shitty taste, then,” he shrugged. “Alright, fine. Mystery solved.” “Uh,” she huffed. “What’s that say about you?” “Nothing, since I picked you.” “No, you didn’t.” “Yes, I did. I am currently the only person in this relationship who’s done any conscious picking.” “We are not in a relationship!” “Says who?” “You are a maddening man…” she replied, utterly flabbergasted. “It takes two people to be in a relationship. You can’t just wake up one morning and decide you’re going to be with someone.” “Sure you can. Technically speaking, it was you who made the first move.” “No, I didn’t!” “I guess that’s just how us Andersons roll. When we decide to do something, or change our minds about something and go in a different direction we just…” Kyle skipped his hands together, making a clapping sound, “…do it. Some, like Kate, take forever to get to that decision, but there’s no hesitancy on the course of action once the decision’s been made.” Demi narrowed her eyes, mouth slightly parted. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you’d participated in any of the wedding planning with her.” “That has never been about doubting her decision to marry Dominic and everything about Kate’s bad habit of trying to please everyone even knowing it is simply not possible to please everyone at the same time,” he said, then stood up and grabbed her again, scooping her off her feet. She gasped and reflexively grabbed his shoulders. He sat back down on the chair and tucked her head with his again. She sighed with a sudden realization, “You’re just trying to distract me, aren’t you?” He smiled at her, “Maybe. A little bit.” She reached up and gently traced his swollen lip again then laid her head back against his shoulder. “That’s what boyfriends do,” he continued. She laughed and smacked his chest, “Are not.” “She says while sitting on my lap… hours after having exchanged bodily fluids—” “Stop!” she laughed and smacked him again. He chuckled and squeezed her. “Thank you,” she whispered after a moment. He answered with another kiss to her head. She was willing to admit the ‘solid, dependable type’ did have its benefits. She sighed and squeezed him back. “You’re a good man, Kyle Anderson.” “Eh, I’m alright,” Kyle kissed her again. “I just wanted to let you know… I mean, I try to ease my girlfriends into this, but… my family’s sort of insane. Just so you know.” She laughed so hard she started crying, and that seemed so silly that it made her laugh some more. He rocked her a bit and it wasn’t long before she dozed off again, held tight in his arms. --The Good Life © 2014 by Genevieve Dewey, All Rights Reserved.
 So you want to be a writer?
Lisa's advice...quit. But if you can't quit, then DO THE WORK. I think it's some of the best advice ever. I wish I could just stop. But then all my characters stutter. Jackson Goththor and Sir Ahibodeau stop fencing and look at me. What? Marcus flashes dark talons and considers killing me. Asmara lifts a dangerous eyebrow and Tiecus growls. No, no stopping. Writing keeps me out of a straight-jacket. But Lisa knew we wouldn't take her advice so she continued on...and gave us wonderful motivational tools we'd use for the rest of our writing lives. Advice like -- if you can't quit--do the work. - Find your goal. - Define your own success. - Climb your own mountain. She gave us homework which is easy for me because, I do her kind of homework everyday. Some of that homework was watching videos: - Story Structure - Dan Wells - Save the Cat - Blake Snyder Thank you Lisa! I'll do the work! So I did it!! I traveled 650 miles from Los Angeles, CA to Provo, UT in my Honda Civic. I have the mileage clips to prove it! This is my journey from home to the hotel and back. I'll be blogging about the conference itself in the next week and tell you about each presenter! But for now, here's my goofy video on the way there!
 Oh my gosh!! The day is here! I'm driving off to Utah for The Writer's Life Conference and I'm so excited!!
First, it was for a good cause, a donation for cancer and second one of my hubs favorite author's would speak--Larry Correia. So off I go, thanking whoever sent the link (probably Larry) that sent the idea into my hubs head to send me to a writer's conference! Let me count my lucky stars!! I'll be sure to blog about it next week!! |
Welcome to The Enclave Thanks for taking a look at my little hodgepodge of a blog. The format and subjects of my blog has changed through the years as it's my log of S.N.McKibben's writing journey. You've now been sufficiently forewarned, happy reading! Categories
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