Sweet December

Author's Note

December is here once again. And it seemed only a few months ago that we were all happily sliding into summer and beautiful days of wine and laughter at the beach. Now it's time for jackets and heaters and settling indoors with hot apple cider and loved ones. 

 

2010 has been an eventful year - but aren't they all? - with beginnings, relocations, new stories, and new ideas percolating and making the year that much more interesting. After a wonderful Thanksgiving spent in the chilly but welcoming north, I'm preparing to leave behind 2010 with no regrets, only new things: a re-vamped website, the anticipation of Dangerous Pleasures, and a chance to see more of the world.

 

Have a wonderful holiday season. Love, love, love!

 

- Fiona

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Dangerous Pleasures - Arriving Next month!

Closer and closer. January 25th is on the horizon and approaching with each new day. I've looked forward to this new book for so long that it feels like it's been a forever (insert exaggerated sigh here).

 

To read an excerpt from the new book, check out the Dangerous Pleasures link on my website. This novel holds a few surprises for my readers, as well as some new characters, and a whole new setting: San Diego, California.

 

You can pre-order now through Amazon.com or your local independent bookseller and have the book in hand by February 1st. If you want a signed copy and the possibility of getting the book sooner, send me an email at f.zedde@gmail.com. 

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February Blog Tour

To get the word out about my new book, I'll be embarking on a blog tour in February 2011. For the tour, I'll visit the blogs of some wonderful authors and editors, answering questions about the new book and anything else that comes up.

 

If you have any questions that you want these fantastic bloggers to ask me, send an email with it/them to: f.zedde@gmail.com.

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Rumi Verse of the Month

I am in Love with Love
and Love is in love with me.

My body is in Love with the soul
and the soul is in Love with my body.

I opened my arms to Love
and Love embraced me like a lover.

 

~Rumi

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Hot Shorts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Temptation

 

“Why can’t men be more like lesbians?”

 

Kendra looked at Sara as if the slender lawyer held the answer to that question and more. Sara shook her head, smiling gently.

 

“You’re asking the wrong one. Maybe your god would know the answer to that, darling, not me.”

 

Sara leaned back in her chair, letting the gentle spring breeze ruffle the skirt around her calves. The honeyed scent of blossoms from the trees surrounding the coffee shop’s terrace blended with the creamed coffee smell of their drinks. Kendra sighed and propped her chin in her palm. Her straightened hair swung heavily forward, curving around one rounded cheek.

 

Sara’s affair with Kendra had been a brief indulgence from the previous year, a blatant rebound after she’d walked in on Rille with a student from the university. The second forgiveness, but not the second infidelity, not by any means.  Sara glanced down at the clear glass cup of mochaccino steaming near her hand.

 

“Vic is acting like a total shit,” Kendra said. “I tell him about one damn girl on girl relationship and he gets hysterical, getting jealous of every girlfriend I see. Boys don’t even worry him anymore.  And in bed it’s worse, fucking insecure but acting as if it’s my fault.  It’s too bad; he used to be a great lay.”

 

“Before you told him about us?”

 

“Right.”  She sucked her teeth and smiled over at Sara.  “You look good though.”

 

Sara laughed. “I know.  Martyrdom must really suit me.”          

 

“What?”

 

“Nothing.” 

 

She hadn’t come here to cry on Kendra’s shoulder about the madness with Rille. It wasn’t a coincidence that she’d finally agreed to meet up with her ex-lover after weeks of avoiding Kendra’s company. Sara needed the distraction.

 

Last night her lover had come to bed with kisses and revelations. After the tremors of satisfaction eased, leaving Sara’s body liquid and soft, Rille leaned over her with a different kind of attentiveness. There was a boy she’d recently met. She wanted Sara to meet him. He was beautiful. Special. Sara jumped out of the bed in shock, the air cool on her naked skin, denial of Rille’s desire for someone else rising up in her throat like bile.

 

No, baby. No. Don’t be like that. This is not like last time, Rille said.

No. This wasn’t like the last time. Then she hadn’t told Sara about wanting someone else. When Sara found them together in Rille’s office, the girl’s face awash in worship as she knelt before a cool-faced Rille whose legs were spread as wide as the chair would allow.  That was different. This was honesty.

 

Sara grasped her cup and sipped the hot drink, absently licking her lips to rid them of the foam she knew had gathered there. Across from her, Kendra followed the motion with a hungry look then blushed when she noticed Sara’s eyes on her.

 

There were good reasons Sara had chosen her after the short-lived breakup with Rille last year: Kendra’s commonplace good looks that were nearly opposite to Rille’s peacock-on-a-chicken-farm flamboyance. And her ability to be completely and absolutely immersed in whatever thing she was doing at the time.

 

Sara lightly tapped the table top with a long finger. “Honesty is overrated anyway. Maybe you shouldn’t have told him. I’ve heard that men can only handle bi-sexual girlfriends in theory.” 

 

“You should have told me that before.” Her red mouth glistened in the sun as she pouted. ”I figure since he asked me to marry him that he deserved to know.”

 

“I don’t know why you think that. Have you ever thought that he hasn’t told you about everyone that he slept with?”

 

Kendra sighed again, this time wrinkling her nose. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” The hot coffee she’d ordered sat on the table untouched. She leaned back in her chair, flickering her eyelashes up to look at Sara. “Distract me.”

 

It would be easy.  She could just reach across the table and touch her hand, slide her fingers between Kendra’s and suggest a quieter place, something wetter, saltier on her palate.  But she didn’t.  She never did.  Still, her thoughts continued on the same route.  Teasing.  Familiar. 

 

Life was simpler with Kendra: days of laughter and food and sex, the nights with more of the same.  But even with the sweat drying on her skin and Kendra tugging on her body for another round, her mind was with Rille, steeped in its misery, remembering her smell and their own after-sex rituals.  No, she hadn’t been happy with Kendra, she had been waiting.  Sara released thoughts of Kendra’s hand and smiled.

 

“Come on, let’s go to the park. We can sit in the swings and eat ice cream.”

 

Sara thought she saw a droop of disappointment to Kendra’s mouth, but was too busy gathering up her things to pay attention.

 

From Language of the Broken, a new novel.