Laugh With Me

My computer and my kitty were being bad this morning, but I’m finally able to post a sneak peek at my WIP, “Knowing Naomi,” which is the long (and I do mean long) awaited sequel to “Tempting Jonah.” It’s a New Adult sweet contemporary romance. Seth Morgan once worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, but after losing his job due to the economy, he’s back in his hometown of Morganville, Maine, living in his parents’ house, and running the town thrift store. Naomi Schwartz is back in town to run the satellite office of her family’s detective agency, and to find her birth mother. There are issues between Seth and Naomi…

Hope you like this!

Naomi Schwartz wasn’t used to delays. She hated waiting at the security checkpoint at the Bangor Airport because the knee replacement she’d had had set off the alarms. She’d tried to show them the card they’d given her at the hospital, but the TSA agents had made her stand there, until they called her doctor to check with him.
Naomi had never liked waiting, and patience wasn’t a virtue with her. She hadn’t wanted to come back to her hometown of Morganville, Maine. She preferred to stay and work with her parents at the Schwartz Detective Agency in Washington, D.C. They were the ones who’d insisted that she come back to Morganville to run the small office in Maine that her great-great-great-great grandpa Hank had opened during the Civil War. She was sure his daughter, Danielle, wouldn’t have had to go through such nonsense.
If only the drug dealer she’d discovered in D.C. hadn’t shot her in the knee. If only she hadn’t had to go through months of physical therapy and re-hab. There were too many “if onlys” to suit her.
“No!” Naomi groaned, staring at two men, about her age, twenty-six. Seth Morgan and Andy Berman were hurrying past the check-point. She had been good friends with Seth when she and her parents had lived in Morganville. At least, she thought they were friends until… she didn’t want to think about it; didn’t ever want to see him again.
It had been easy to do that in Washington, but in Morganville, she’d never be able to hide from him.
“You’re free to go, ma’am,” the TSA agent said. Naomi silently thanked God and walked confidently away. She was in such a rush to get away from Seth and Andy and call a taxi that she didn’t look where she was going. She collided with five foot ten inches of rock-hard, solid, slender chest and legs. She found herself face to face with Seth Morgan.

Evidently, I was too late for this week’s Sneak Peek Sunday, so I’m posting it here. I just finished writing this scene from my upcoming holiday novella, “Tasteless Holidays.” In this scene, the holidays are over and Scotty has just taken a temp job working for the government. His new bride, Lorrie, is jealous because he’s working with an old girlfriend. Lorrie’s also expecting their first child…

Scotty sat at his desk, or rather, “Tingle” table, as desk with all kinds of cubbyholes and sections named after a guy named Tingle. He could sort documents and place them in the cubbyholes. As he sat there, date-stamping document, he heard the cacophony of the other stampers. A woman in the back of the room spoke in a loud (very loud) voice. He’d been on the temp job at the IRS for about three weeks now. He’d also worked overtime just to make sure he had enough money for when the baby came.

            Ramona sat at the desk next to his, a bundle of nervous energy. He could barely keep up with her rapid-fire date-stamping. He noticed that when she leaned down to retrieve documents from a bucket, some fell out. He didn’t know how she could work at the IRS during the day, and then work at the restaurant at night and on weekends. He did know that if that’s what he had to do to support Lorrie and the baby, he’d do it.

            Although he wasn’t working as a paralegal right now, he felt more secure and confident.

            “Scott?” Ramona asked, in her breathless, always-in-a-hurry voice. 

             “Yes?”

            “Want to have lunch with me? I brought leftovers from the restaurant, and there’s no way I can eat all of it myself.”

            Lorrie wouldn’t like it if they had lunch together, but Scotty didn’t want anybody to say he was henpecked. Besides, poor Ramona had all that food left over.

I went over the six paragraph limit, but I figure it’s okay since I didn’t get my name in on time to be on the Sneak Peek Sunday site. Maybe next week, I’ll remember sooner.

In the tradition of “Oprah’s Favorite Things,” and continuing on from the guest blogs I did last week (thanks to Delaney Diamond and Zee Monodee for having me on their blogs), I give you a few of my favorite things. I tried not to repeat the same things that were on the blog:

My favorite:

Animal—cat

Cab driver—Greg M.

Sport: Baseball

Team: Cincinnati Red Wolves (fake) Cincinnati Reds (Real, even though they lost Tuesday night’s game)

Player: Jackie Fenelli (fake) Shin Soo Choo (real)

Expressions: “Greg says…”, “Oh my God!”

Book(s): You didn’t think I could pick just one, did you? (and this is the short list) “Rhett Butler’s People,” “Certain Girls”/”The Next Best Thing” by Jennifer Weiner

Movie(s): “Gone with the Wind”, “Singin’ in the Rain”

Beauty Product: Italian Beauty from HSN—I like Bath & Body Works, but it is not the same

Song: “Tasteless” by Jay & the Cincinnatians (fake) “There’s no Business like Show Business” (real)

Holiday song: “The Miracle of Chanukah” by Jay & the Cincinnatians (fake) “White Christmas” (real)

TV cartoon: “The Flintstones”

Comic strip: “Garfield”

Breakfast: Egg biscuit and wild berry smoothie from McDonald’s (and eating it in the cab with my parents and Greg)

Nancy Goldberg Levine is the author of “Three Strikes—You’re in Love,” a short story anthology, “Sweeter Than W(h)ine,” “Mr. Short, Dark…& Funny,” and “Mr. Tall, Tan…& Tasteless.” These books are available on Amazon. You can find Nancy on Facebook and Twitter, as well as on this blog, “Laugh with Me,” nancygoldberglevine.wordpress.com.

Today I am participating in a “Sneaky Peek” blog hop. I am sharing the first six paragraphs of my WIP, my upcoming holiday novella, “Tasteless Holidays.” It’s the sequel to “Mr. Tall, Tan…& Tasteless,” and I created it because I paid attention to the feedback I got on the book. So thanks to those of you who read it and commented…

Here goes…

Tasteless Holidays

A holiday novella (Practically Perfect Heroes series)

By Nancy Goldberg Levine

Chapter One

            Lorrie Caldwell paced the floor of her kitchen, the family cat, Ariel, pacing with her. She had the feeling that Ariel was more hungry than sympathetic, but she wasn’t giving in until Scotty walked through the door. Of all nights for her d/h, the love of her life, to get home late from work. She had something to tell him, and she wasn’t sure how he’d handle the news. Of course, the news had to arrive two weeks before the holidays. Naturally, fine, barely visible snow had started falling outside. Lorrie liked big, fat snowflakes, not something that looked more like a kosher salt.

            “Oh, I don’t know what dad will think about this, Ariel,” she said. “I guess we can get by, but it won’t be easy. Your grandma did it, though. I don’t know how she managed…” Lorrie sighed and remembered when she and her older brother, Jay, were growing up. Their dad worked as a truck driver, but sometimes he’d get laid off. Then their mom had gotten sick and there were medical expenses. Jay had had to grow up fast after she died. When their dad had died, too, things had gotten even crazier.

            “It’s bad enough that I got laid off during the holidays,” Lorrie said. She worked as a beautician for Wellstone Village retirement home. At least she had—until today. She didn’t voice her other statement—that she was still insecure about her marriage to Scotty. They’d gotten married a month ago and sometimes Lorrie thought that maybe her new husband had felt pressured into it. He’d assured her that he’d always loved her, but had never said anything because she’d had a strict policy against dating friends. Especially not her brother’s best friend.

Her brother’s hot, sexy, tall and tan best friend.

            “Meoowwwww,” Ariel said, stretching to her full height and running her paws against the handle of the refrigerator.

            “Enjoy it now,” Lorrie said, scooping some of Ariel’s favorite cat food into a blue plastic bowl. “Soon I’ll have to get even cheaper cat food.”

            Ariel cocked her head to one side, regarded Lorrie for a second, then chowed down.

Nancy Goldberg Levine is the author of “Mr. Short, Dark…& Funny” and “Mr. Tall, Tan…& Tasteless,” as well as “Sweeter Than W(h)ine” and “Three Strikes–You’re in Love,” a short story collection. She is now working on “Tasteless Holidays,” as well as a sequel to her print book, “Tempting Jonah.”