#SaturdaySnippet Bell's Accident from Dancing in the White Room.

I've got a few more excerpts from Dancing in the White Room to Share. In this one, Mallory remembers what happened the first time Bell tried a descent down the West Rib of Denali. He's gone to try again, and Mallory is upset that he would.  This is the reason why--

It’s been five years, and I can still hear Roddie’s voice. “We had to grapple him down. Copter’s won’t go that high. We’re shipping him off to Anchorage.” When I didn’t say anything, he added, “Hope I didn’t worry you, love.”

After we hung up, I called the airlines and booked the first flight to Anchorage. They had Bell in a room by the time I got there. He looked like he’d been the loser in a prizefight. One eye was swollen shut, one hand bandaged because of frostbite on two fingers.

I was trying at the time to unhinge an awful fear, the awful thought of Bell as fallible, as vulnerable. It sat in my head, reinforced by tape and bandages and the blistering on his face. It sat there and I couldn’t shake it. It still sits there, this heavy pulsing gravitational thought.

When I think of Bell on Denali, this is the picture I get. Bell vulnerable. Bell fallible.

For more, please go check out Dancing in the White Room on my website

Dancing in the White Room--#Snippet The bedtime story. #TMPress

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Mallory and Bell's daughter, Emily, asks her mother for a bedtime story that Mallory would rather not tell--

Settled into bed, she asks for a story. “I want the story of Daddy and the mountain.”

This stops me for a minute. I have to bite my lip to keep from crying. “I don’t know that one, Em.”

“Yes you do. Daddy went to the big mountain,” she begins and she lies back expectantly.

I swallow hard. “Oh, that one,” I say and I pick up as best I can. “Daddy went to the big mountain.”

“And what’s the big mountain called?” she asks, though I know that she already knows the answer.

“It’s called Denali.” The name is loose and pliable on my tongue. It rolls like pebbles in my mouth.

Dancing in the White Room is available as an e-book. Buy your copy at TMP, Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Dancing in the White Room #BookTrailer

Ready, set, go! Dancing in the White Room is being released on February 11th! Holy smokes, that's on Tuesday! Stay tuned for places to buy the book and lots more about this ski-based story. 

Next week, I'll also be doing a Valentine's Blog Hop with some other great authors. There'll be lots of fun and prizes, including a grand prize of an e-reader loaded down with books, books, books. I'll have more for you on that on Monday.

Meanwhile, in the countdown until Dancing in the White Room's debut, here's the trailer for the book-

Cover Reveal: Dancing in the White Room #TMP

Can I have a drum roll? The cover for Dancing in the White Room is here!

Getting cover art is one of the truly fun parts of being an author. It's like unwrapping a Christmas gift. I love the energy in this cover, by Kim Jacobs. It looks like the skier is going to ski right off the page, doesn't it? Perfect for this ski-themed book.
Dancing in the White Room will be available in mid-February, just in time for the Winter Olympics. It's set in ski country, but at heart, it's a love story.

Here's the book blurb--

 Dancing in the white room is slang for skiing or boarding in deep powder snow. The dancer is PD Bell, one of the best extreme skiers on the planet. Mallory Prescott, the woman who lives with him and loves him, is used to Bell’s exploits. A patrol woman at Whiteface Mountain near Lake Placid, New York, Mallory is no stranger to risk. But this time Bell is taking on the West Rib of Denali, highest and most dangerous mountain in North America. It’s a descent that has never been done, though it’s been tried. Five years ago, Bell had tried it. The attempt nearly killed him. Five years ago, he promised Mallory he wouldn’t try it again.     
    Over the six weeks in which he’s gone, Mallory begins to question her relationship with Bell. Does he really love her? Is he in it for the duration? What has loving him cost her?  Mallory’s life choices are thrown into stark relief when her daughter Emily takes a terrible fall. Together with her life-long friend Creech Creches, she must work her way through a maze of uncharted territory at a hospital miles from home.       
      Dancing in the White Room is the story of the love we keep, the price we pay for that love, and the forgiveness it takes to hold on to what is precious.

#Write-a-thin Check in. Week Four

Sometimes, it seems, the goal posts move. It's the final push in the month-long write-a-thin sponsored by the Women's Fiction Writer's association. I had set writing a first draft of Willow, part four of the Anton and Lenora historical novella series, as my goal for the month. I haven't, and won't make this goal. Primarily, because the book my publishers at TMP had scheduled for a March release is, with a little luck and work, being released early.
The book, Dancing in the White Room, is set in and around skiing. The publisher has hoped to release it to coincide with the Winter Olympics. Which is a fabulous idea. It means I've had to work hard to get my galley proofs (the final edit before the finish line) in a lot sooner than expected.
I've got the galleys done--and, if the fates allow, the book will come out mid-February.
I've got a fabulous new cover, which I can't wait to show off. I hope you'll stay tuned for exciting new updates on the project.
Sometimes, having the goal posts move is not such a bad thing, after all. 

#Write-a-thin check in

My goal--get a good start on the first draft of Willow, book 4 of Anton and Lenora

January is whooshing by, or here in the great white north, skating by. I haven't increased my word count at all this week. In fact, I've taken a giant step backward because I had taken a wrong turn. I was stuck, as sometimes happens in a manuscript. When it happens, I need to sit back and ask myself why. The answer, this time, was clear--I needed to do more research.  I saw the wrong turn, went back, took a deep breath and pulled off the last 2,000 or so words. Sigh. The new words will be better, I think.

I'm also proof reading galleys for Dancing in the White Room. The full length novel comes out March 9 and proofs are the last step before we go to publication. There's some exciting new cover art, too. Stay tuned.

Here's a short snip from Dancing--

Emily goes outside with Chance when we get home. I fry up a couple of burgers and watch her from the kitchen window. She and the dog chase each other through the yard, then  Emily climbs up on her swing set. It’s only a short reach to the lower branch of a huge maple that stands in our yard. She grabs the branch and swings on that, Chance yapping at her heels. I hold my breath a second. A few times she’s climbed up into the tree. Both Bell and I have told her not to, but she’s fearless like her father. Each time I try to stay very calm and tell her to come on down. She can’t understand what the fuss is about.

Bent Guardrails on #ReadWave

I've posted a flash fiction story at ReadWave today. I wrote it a while ago and wanted to get it out into the world. The story was inspired by a picture by photographer David Torcoletti.
You can find the story HERE.
The image can be found HERE