Life was good for Country Crooner Rhett Ravel. His latest album was a hit. His fiancée was carrying his child and he was about to take his career in a new direction. Nothing could stop him.
Bella Cayn was an upcoming novelist who's newest book was about to put her on the map and take her career to levels people only hoped for. Nothing was standing her way.
Both were getting what they wanted. Had worked hard for their little slices of heaven but what happens when one's heaven turns into hell and the other was sent to save them giving them the comfort needed escape the hell they found themselves in.
Where were you born/grew up at?
I was born by the river .... which surprisingly is true. I love Otis Redding's song. Truthfully I was born in Joliet, Il, which sits on the Desplaines River. Joliet is a town were everyone pretty much knew everyone. You could not mention my name and not have people asking if I was the daughter or granddaughter of someone. It was tiring but also fulfilling
If you knew you'd die tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?
At the beach, I'm a water baby. I love to swim and the beach is my favorite place to be. I know most would say with family which I love but I would love to be at the beach looking out over the water remembering the good life I built. I would not dwell on the past. I would just reflect on it and hope my children would have a wonderful and fulfilling life after I was gone.
How to find time to write as a parent?
Naptime and bedtime are the two most important writing times of my days. Since I have a toddler and a teen when the toddler is sleeping I write and when they both are sleeping I am writing
How long have you been writing?
Since freshman year of high school so almost 20 years. oh my gosh I just told you my age ...lol
What is your writing process? For instance do you do an outline first?
There is no outline. I did that once and found I didn't care for it. My style is writing the whole novella, such a fancy word; and an accurate one since most of my books are only about eighty to ninety pages long. Once its written I go back through it and make changes or take things out. There are about two or three rewrites to any story I publish. I'm a little anal when it comes to my novellas because I want them to flow clearly and no one to be lost in an story.
What is something unique/quirky about you?
I love old movies. I am talking about black and white- the stories are completely about love and heartbreak. TCM, Turner Classic Movies, is one of my favorite tv channels and I watch it as many times as I can. Also my Dad and Mom love Westerns. John Wayne, the Big Valley, Bonanza. I grew up on them and love watching old episodes with my Mom and with my Dad. I can watch John Wayne movies and have a great time with it just being us and these movies or tv shows. Its so great.
Tell us something really interesting that's happened to you!
As everyone does these days I was on an online dating website. I was asked on a date by someone I was talking to on the site. I should have balked when he said we were going to happy hour, or Appy Hour because it was Applebees and everything was half price. When we meet everything was all right. Then I ordered an iced tea and he said ‘I guess I can buy a beautiful woman a drink’. Dude it was just iced tea, mind you he ordered water. Then we started talking about my dog at the time and he said he didn’t like animals and if we started dating I could come home and my dog would not be breathing. He threatened to kill my dog. So right then I knew the date was over.
Do you have any advice to give aspiring writers?
Get a good editor or find a website with several good editors and check out as many as you can. Make sure your story is cohesive don’t start with an idea in the beginning then change the whole dynamic midway through because reviews can be brutal. Read the bad reviews- they help you learn what needs to be changed, my sister gave me that advise because when I would get a back review I would sulk for days on end. Don’t take the bad reviews to heart they are opinions and if you know you are good at writing or telling stories then continue cause you can only get better with time. Know you audience and don’t be afraid to step out of the box a time or two. I write a great romance. Heartache and pain seem to be my thing but I'm a Science fiction fan so a few of my novellas have leaned towards the paranormal and I think I love those the best. I love building a world that’s no different than ours- except people are werewolves, bears, tigers or vampires- but I love it. And that’s truthfully it. If you have the passion and you love what you do then do it because it will always be with you
“So there seems to have been a mix-up,” Ms. Greene said. She was going to hit Carlton, her husband, for this. He was supposed to have put Bella in the small cottage they had on the back of the property, not in the third floor apartment.
“A mix-up?” Bella heatedly said. “This isn’t just a mix-up; this is a disaster!” She and the man she now knew as Rhett Ravell had argued back and forth about whose room they were in until their raised voices, and his retreating dog, had carried down to the first floor of the inn. “And that’s putting it mildly!” Bella said as she shook her head. “I’m naked in my room, and this man…” She gestures towards Rhett, “…opens the door with a bottle in his hand, screaming that this is his room.”
“I wasn’t screaming,” Rhett interjected as he took a sip of his drink. He sat down on the windowsill.
“And what do you call screaming at the top of your lungs, ‘WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?’” Bella mocked in a deep voice while looking at him.
Rhett chuckled into his glass. “What else was I supposed to say? I see a naked woman in my room, and I have to wonder why she’s there – especially when I didn’t hire her!”
“Did you just imply I was a hooker?” Bella questioned.
“I’d place you as more like a high-class call girl,” he replied, his eyes roaming her body.
Before she’d covered up, he had gotten a real good look at the curves Bella’s deep caramel skin housed. She definitely had an hour glass figure, with a little more weight in the hips, and an ass he was positive he could balance a tray on.
“Well, that’s better!” Bella said.
He raised an eyebrow. Most women would hate being compared to a prostitute.
“My momma always told me, if I was going to be in any profession, be the best. And last I checked, high-class call girls went for a thousand an hour with an all-night rate of ten grand,” Bella informed before she faced Ms. Greene, who was trying hide a smirk. “Now isn’t there something we can do about this?” she questioned, pulling her robe tighter around her body. She’d seen how Rhett was looking at her. Though the man was ruggedly handsome, he was not the type she wanted to get involved with.
“I agree. I would like my room back – without her in it,” Rhett said as he poured more whiskey into his glass.
“Being anywhere near you, Mr. Ravell, is not how I planned to spend my vacation,” Bella snapped back.
“So you know who I am?” Rhett questioned. He’d hoped the months’ worth of facial growth had hid him somewhat.
Bella faced him. “Though I’ve been in Europe and Asia the last four months, you have been front-page entertainment news for most of it,” she informed him.
“I’m sure I have been,” Rhett replied. Since he’d been at the Prestige, he hadn’t really listened to the radio and had avoided the news at all cost.
“Yes, well, I don’t want to be anywhere near a man like yourself.”
Rhett pointed at himself with his hand, holding the whiskey glass. “Myself? Lady, you are a piece of work. You are in my room with my things, and you are trying to make it sound like it’s my fault.”
“I told you before, I didn’t know this was your room,” Bella reminded him.
“My crap is all over the place!” Rhett countered. “I have shaving stuff—”
“That you haven’t used in a while,” Bella finished for him.
Rhett continued, “…and there is man-soap in the bathroom. Plus, I have clothes hanging up in the closet. Did you think all that was left behind by some person who had checked out? And how in the hell did you miss the dog bed by the French doors leading to the balcony?”
Bella swallowed. She wasn’t paying attention, that’s how. She had been so tired that she’d completely ignored all he’d pointed out to her. “I—”
“I what? …am sorry? You should be! My privacy was invaded, not yours!” Her shoulders slumped, and he saw the glistening of tears in her eyes, and Rhett cursed himself. “Damn it! I’m—”
“No.” Bella wiped at her tears. “You’re right. I invaded your privacy.” She looked at Ms. Greene. “If there is another room in the inn, I would like to take it,” she said as her fatigue was coming back full force. Between the tour, her neighbors, and now this, she was exhausted and ready to fall over. And she would – just as soon as she could find a bed to fall into.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have anywhere else for you to stay,” Ms. Greene said.
“That can’t be possible. When my publicist’s assistant booked this place, you said you had more than enough room. That you were practically empty … when she inquired about privacy for me to rest….” Bella couldn’t head home and deal with the constant barrage of townspeople, and now she was about to be kicked out of the B&B she had hoped to find some rest in.
“That was the case when she booked the room three weeks ago when we were expecting you,” Ms. Green said.
Ugh. These reservations were three weeks old? Shangela, Vanya’s assistant, must have made them before she had solid appearance dates in Australia.
“If there is nothing here, then there has to be something somewhere else,” Bella said. She would hate to move her things again. Her body was protesting, but she couldn’t….
“You can stay here,” Rhett told her. He stood up from the windowsill and placed his glass on it.
“I can’t,” Bella said, not facing him.
“You can,” he insisted as he walked over to her. He’d watched silently as the wind had been taken out of her sails and her body revolted at the idea of moving anywhere but to a bed. He placed his hands on Bella’s shoulders and turned her towards the bed. “Now, in bed,” he told her.
“I can’t stay here,” Bella yawned, already breaking down into sleep mode.
“I will sleep on the floor,” Rhett told her as he gently pushed her toward the bed. He pulled back the covers and placed her in bed and put them over her.
“That’s not fair. This is your room. I can—”
“Go where?” Rhett questioned as he watched her eyes droop.
“The next town,” Bella said sleepily.
“All booked there too,” Ms. Greene told them. “It’s the American Association of Beekeepers Annual Conference,” she shrugged as Rhett looked at her. “Who knew we had enough beekeepers to fill up all the hotels and such.”
Rhett was sure not all of the people were beekeepers. Some were vendors selling their wares or salespeople trying to make deals with the beekeepers. “How long is the conference?”
“Five days,” Ms. Green replied. “We are already two days in” she finished
“What about the tiny house I saw out back?” Rhett questioned. He’d walked the property a few times with Whiskey Girl and had seen the little house empty.
“Being used by a beekeeper who lives full-time in the tiny house and didn’t want to change his—”
Both became still when a tiny snore came from the bed. Rhett chuckled at the sound.
“Laughing at a young woman is unbecoming,” Ms. Greene told him.
“Yeah, but she’s not awake,” Rhett retorted.
“Come downstairs for dinner. I’m sure Whiskey Girl and Mr. Greene are starving. Plus it will give Bella a chance to sleep.”
Bella. So that was her name. Rhett turned from the woman in his bed. She definitely lived up to her name.
