Good morning! Please welcome guest blogger Maggie Le Page. Though I will be away for most of the day, please feel free to leave comments for Maggie and I will post them as soon as I return. Thank you!
~Kate
Hi Kate, and thanks so much for inviting me to be a guest on your blog. It’s great to be here!
Today I thought I’d chat about something very dear to one of my characters’ hearts: dreams. We all have dreams about what we’d like for ourselves, how we want our lives to pan out, where we see ourselves in five or ten or twenty years . . . and that’s good, because it means we have something to strive for, an end goal to keep us motivated when we’re suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous life (with apologies to Shakespeare).
But what if our dream is a fantasy and the thing we’re seeking doesn’t really exist, or the thing we aspire to is impossible to achieve? We’re setting ourselves up for failure, and I’m guessing some of us probably think that’s worse than having no dream at all.
In my chick lit novel, A Heat Of The Moment Thing, Becky is a heroine who’s finally realized her dream is a fantasy that doesn’t translate into the real world. Her goal: find Mr. Right. Simple enough—many of us have searched for (maybe even found) our Mr. Right—but the men she is attracted to somehow lead her away from her white picket fence/unconditional love/happy families dream.
As her housemate points out, Becky’s so used to feeling inferior that she chooses partners who perpetuate the problem.
Actually, Becky’s dream is eminently achievable, but to achieve it she has to first get to know herself better. Paradoxically, she has to stop searching for Mr. Right and start searching for the self-sufficient, go-get-’em woman she can be. Only then will she see the wood for the trees and find the real Mr. Right(s) out there.
I guess it’s something we all have to go through; part of the growing-up process. Some of us just take longer than others to get there! For my part, I know it took me a good decade (okay, longer) after my teens to work out what it meant to be me and who my ideal partner was. And I made plenty of mistakes along the way.
Here’s a wee scene where Becky’s about to make a big mistake with her boss . . . or is she?
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He didn’t feel like my boss tonight. And I didn’t feel like I was merely a challenge.
“How’s the sauce going?” Matt asked.
Cripes. The sauce. I looked down, discovered it was bubbling, and quickly reduced the heat.
“I think it’s almost done,” I said. Not that I could tell.
Maybe I should taste it, just to be sure. It smelled delicious. And it was loaded to the gunnels with calories, so odds were on it would be sinfully good.
The sauce, thickening now into golden brown nectar, enticed me. Taste me, taste me. My finger hovered over the pan. My mouth watered. Another glance Matt’s way—not looking, all good—then I quickly touched forefinger to spoon and closed my mouth around the stolen sauce. My taste buds whooped with excitement. This sauce was miraculous.
I dipped the spoon back in the pan, blew to cool it, then swiped a healthy finger-load. It was a food quality check, that’s all. Nothing to do with my sweet tooth. I withdrew my finger, opened my mouth—
Matt’s hand closed around my wrist.
I started, looked up, blushed.
His eyes danced. “Couldn’t wait, huh?”
“Quality control.” I composed my expression into one of serious scientist.
“Ah. And the quality is adequate?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll tell you in a minute.”
I tried to raise my finger to my mouth but, instead, it headed away from me and straight towards Matt’s mouth. I slitted my eyes at him and pulled harder. He smiled, but still my finger continued inexorably in the wrong direction.
“That’s my finger,” I said.
“That’s my sauce,” he countered.
My finger approached his lips. A pulse leapt in my throat.
“I stirred it,” I said.
“You certainly did.”
Since I couldn’t get my finger to my mouth, I’d have to bring my mouth to my finger. I moved my head closer. His eyes met mine over the top of my finger. Sauce trickled down towards my palm. He smiled, then closed his lips around my finger and sucked.
I gasped. Was instantly wet, hot, and ready. The spoon clattered into the pan.
His tongue trailed up and down my finger with seductive intent. He released my moist, sexed-up finger and moved on down to my palm, his tongue claiming every last sweet calorie.
I dragged in a raggedy breath. “Well? Is the quality adequate?”
He looked up. Held my gaze with his dark, dark eyes.
“Oh yeah.” My finger stood to attention between us. “The quality is more than adequate.”
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Want to read more? A Heat Of The Moment Thing is available now for purchase on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and Smashwords.
I’m also offering an e-book giveaway for one of Kate’s readers. One commenter will win a digital copy (your choice of kindle, epub or PDF) of A Heat Of The Moment Thing. All you have to do is answer this for me:
Tell me about one of your ‘mistakes’ as you’ve journeyed towards happiness. Help Becky feel less alone in her struggles!
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About Maggie:
Maggie Le Page lives in Christchurch, New Zealand (aka QuakeZone) with her partner, two children, and a snooty cat who thinks they’re all her slaves. Her days are spent running around after kids or doing one of her ‘real’ jobs, so her writing generally happens in the dead of night. (Morning? No. She’s a third-generation night owl. Enough said.)
She loves chocolate, hates being cold, and is ever fascinated by the possibility of time travel. Obviously, her ideal experience would be to wake up on a tropical island eighty years into the future, with an endless supply of chocolate on hand.
There’s nothing she loves more than a good chat (except perhaps a good chat and chocolate–see the theme here?) so don’t be shy—get in touch!
Find her here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/MaggieLePage
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/maggielepage
Website www.maggielepage.com
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Back cover blurb for A Heat Of The Moment Thing:
Becky Jordan has had it with relationships. From now on her time and dedication won’t be lavished on her latest Mr. Wrong—or, worse, Mr. Hell-No!—just the dream travel job which has unexpectedly leapt into her lap. Finally, life is looking great.
Unfortunately, not as great as her sizzling-hot, take-charge new boss. Matt Frobisher is everything she doesn’t want him to be, but if anyone thinks she’ll risk her career on a workplace fling they can think again. No amount of Superman behaviour from him will make her roll over and play Lois.
At least, that’s what her head says. Her heart, however, doesn’t do logical. In desperation she finds herself a Mr. Distraction, one with no strings and plenty of appeal. But Mr. Distraction also comes with unforeseen complications. Kryptonite complications, like Becky’s sister. And when she shows up there’s only one sure thing: not even Superman can prevent the Disaster Fest that’s about to blow Becky’s life apart.
(Contains one guy determined to win the girl, one girl determined not to be won, and plenty of heat in the middle.)
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Thanks so much for the warm welcome, Kate! It’s great to be here 🙂 I can’t wait to hear about people’s ‘mistakes’ along the way to happiness, but I figure it’s only fair to start with one of my own.
Um… okay, so you know that golden rule, “don’t screw the crew”? Well, I found out the hard way why that rule existed. I’d just shifted to a new city, knew nobody, and moved into a house with three other people. My house mates were, like me, young professionals and it all went swimmingly until… yep, I broke that rule.
The result? A mess. The relationship lasted about five seconds, the friendship about seven, and I was hunting for another place to live shortly after. Ouch. Lesson learned.
Maggie Le Page! Mmmm…can you write a sizzling scene…makes me want to grab my kindle and curl up and re-read A Heat of the Moment Thing! What a fun book! And sexy! And so empowering! No wonder it is an Amazon Breakthrough Quarter Finalist!!!
And Kate Hill – what a fun blog! I feel like I am sitting down with coffee to chat about one of my favorite chick lit books 🙂
Hello, Maggie & Kate! What a wonderful blog post! Dreams are a wonderful thing, but can be so very frightening to pursue, as Ms. Becky Jordan finds out pretty quickly. Thankfully, after a few false starts, and some hilarious highjinks, Becky is able to find her way to happiness.
The degree of wisdom that one can find in Chick Lit nowadays is nothing short of amazing, is it not? I, for one, am going to take a page out of Becky’s book and bravely follow my dreams! Thank you, Maggie, for such an endearing character. And for the sexy Matt; the steam coming off of my Kindle as I read A Heat of the Moment Thing was ALMOST visible. 🙂
Thank you for being a guest, Maggie!
Hello, GVR and Glynis! Than you for stopping by!
GVR – thanks so much for dropping in to chat. Am so chuffed you enjoyed A Heat Of The Moment Thing. Not that you’re any stranger to sizzle a la Chick Lit… congrats to you in return for your own quarter-finalling with She Likes It Rough! Highly recommend it for any chick lit readers out there.