Favorite scenes from Suddenly.

I'm going over some of the parts of Suddenly that I'd gone over in an earlier edit and making note of some of my favorite scenes, including this one:

I had stayed up late last night studying, and I was running out of steam by the time I got to my study period. I went to the library and found an empty table in a corner. I put my books down then laid my head down on my crossed arms. I was out in no time. I slept sound until I felt a hand gently shaking me. “Jamie,” a voice was saying. “Jamie, wake up.” I sighed and shifted positions. The voice chuckled. “Come on, Jamie. It’s almost time for the period to end.” I stretched but didn’t wake up. “Jamie. Come on, wake up.” I finally I raised my head and looked around. I realized that I’d been sound asleep, and then I saw who woke me up. It was P. J. I was mortified. “Oh my God!” I said, “What time is it?” She chuckled again. “You’ve got about five minutes before class is over.” “Oh,” I said sleepily. She leaned down close to my ear. Her musky perfume assailed my nose. She smelled good. “You might want to wipe your face off before you leave,” she said, her breath tickling my ear. What she was saying hit me. I had been drooling in my sleep. I wiped my face and there was a huge glob of slobber there. “Oh shit,” I said. P. J. laughed. “See you at the pep rally,” she said as she walked off. Now, I was really mortified. Not only had P. J. seen me sleeping, but she had seen me with drool all over my face. Oh my God!

*Does the girl in this picture fit your image of Jamie?*

Editing of Suddenly Coming Along

I've been hard at work getting Suddenly cleaned up and ready to be republished by my publisher. My goal is to finish it by the end of May. Yes, I realize that is right around the corner, so I have got to stay on top of this process.

I wanted to share this paragraph that comes from one of my favorite scenes in the book. It's during Homecoming Week, and Jamie dresses up as Amy Lee from Evanescence and this is P. J.'s reaction to seeing her.

“Nice,” she said. Her eyes raked over my whole body, “Very nice. Amy Lee, right?”

“Yes,” I laughed. “I must have really done a good job. You both guessed right away who I was supposed to be.”

“It’s the corset,” she said, looking at my boobs that the corset pushed up. Her eyes had a new look in them. It was more than appreciation. She met my eyes briefly and I felt like I’d just been touched by a flame.

 

I've been reading my first posts on this blog about Jamie and P. J.'s continuing story, and it has been almost as fun as reading Suddenly again has. Even thought the blog originally started the summer before their sophomore year of college, I still feel like I need to go all the way back to their first year of college and tell the story from there. I've had some ideas for twists that will hopefully have readers on the edge of their seats.

This project has been on the back burner for a while because Kayla and Lori's characters were not developing the way I wanted them to. I'm reworking those ideas. I would love to hear what you all think about the characters as they appear in this blog and what you would like to see happen in Jamie and P. J.'s lives.

Editing Suddenly

My publisher is letting me do some editing on Suddenly. There have been several complaints about grammar problems so I am working it over. I hope to have it done by the end of March. It's been great fun re-reading this story after going a long time not reading it. There may be some grammar problems but it is still a great story, if I must say so myself.

So busy and writer's block.

Life has changed a lot for me since my last post in January. My partner's mother has been moved into our house in October and we are caring for her. She is bed ridden and requires a lot of help.  My partner's oldest son passed away shortly after her mother moved in with us which caused a lot of trauma for everyone.I wrote a new story during NaNoWriMo in November that will hopefully get published in 2015. And, I've had writer's block with this sequel so I had to walk away for a little while to rethink it. I'm going to revisit this story later and hopefully finally finish this sequel.

Coming back around

Artwork by George S. Williams

I've been working on the Circle of Confusion now for about two years and I keep hitting a brick wall. I was just reading some of the earlier posts of the first version of what I'm tentatively calling this first book "It's All New," and I like it so much better than what I've been writing more recently. What I really need is to print everything off and sit in a nice quiet room and really read over it until I figure out where I'm going with the story. Of course, it would help if my characters stopped creating themselves. I have an idea of who I want them to be, but sometimes that have a mind of their own and they become someone I didn't forsee, which screws up my long term story plans. GRRRRR. Anyway, the story is slowly coming along and I'm still shooting for Thanksgiving, but we'll see.

New Story Picking Up, Blog Slowing Down

For all of you who have been following this blog, you know that my ideas about how to tell this story have changed several times. I went from telling the story from different characters point of view to telling it from Lori's point of to view, to P. J.'s point of view, and now I've come full circle back to telling it from different character's point of view. I working hard on this story and I think I've finally found the way of telling it that I like and hopefully all of you will like it too.

My original goal was to have it ready by the end of September, but that's not looking like it's going to happen. I've set a new goal of Thanksgiving, just in time for holiday shopping. :) Some of what you've seen on here will make it into the new story and some will not. The story is definitely being written with my audience from Suddenly in mind and hopefully some new readers will find it too.  It is also going to end up being a series that is going to follow Jamie and P. J. through college so the books will be shorter. My plan is to have a book for each semester of college, that's the plan anyway. ;)

I will keep you all posted of how things are coming along with the story. So for right now, mark your calendars for a Thanksgiving release.

Also, I love hearing from you guys, so if you have ideas about the story or just want to drop in and say "hi", you can write me at mxtudor08@gmail.com or find me on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, and Myspace.

Installment Seven Fall Break

Chapter Seven

Jamie kept her promise to make fall break very interesting. I dropped her off at her parent’s house with a light kiss when we got home on Friday evening. Saturday afternoon she was begging me to come over while her parents were gone. I thought she’d lost her mind, but I went straight to her.

Later, after we’d made love in her bed, we lay side by side gently stroking each other. I love the feel of her soft skin under my fingers. “Kayla wants us all to go out to dinner when we get back,” Jamie says casually.

I instinctively tensed and Jamie looked in my eyes questioningly. “Good,” I say. “It’s about time she agreed to meet me.”

“She is really shy,” Jamie says.

“Well, still, I’m interested in meeting the woman who is getting to spend so much time with you.”

“You can’t be jealous,” Jamie says, lightly stroking my naked breasts, “Especially with all the love we’ve made lately. How could you possibly think that I’m into someone else when I want to make love with you all the time?”

She had me there.  “I know, but I’m just not used to sharing you with another lesbian.”

Jamie kissed me lightly, and then with more intent. “Let me show you again why you don’t have to worry about anyone else.”

Two hours and a short nap later, we drug ourselves out of Jamie’s bed and into the shower. That, of course, led to more lovemaking. I swear the girl is insatiable. I guess I really should let this thing with Kayla go. Surely to God she wouldn’t want me like this all the time if she were even remotely interested in someone else.

By the time Jamie’s parents go home we were sitting in the family room watching a movie.  When her mother gave us her usual disapproving look I started to move away, but Jamie put her hand on my leg to stop me. “Hi,” she said cheerfully to her mom. “How was your day?”

“It was good,” her mom said and went upstairs.

“I’m going to head home,” I said and bent down to put on my tennis shoes that were sitting next to the couch.

Jamie sighed, “I hate that you feel like you have to leave.”

I looked toward the stairs and heard a shower start. Turning to Jamie, I pulled her into my arms for a quick kiss. “I hate leaving, but your mom hates me and that makes it very uncomfortable to stay.”

“I don’t think she hates you,” Jamie said. “She just still hasn’t adjusted to us being lovers.”

Standing, I said, “Sweetie, she is never going to adjust to us being lovers.”

Jamie stood too and walked with me to the door. She looked toward the stairs and then kissed me. “You are probably right, but she is going to have to learn to deal with the fact that you will always be a part of my life.”

“Always and forever?”

“Always and forever,” Jamie answered with a grin. She kissed me one more time before I opened the door to her father who was just about to walk in.

“Hey girls,” he said cheerfully. He gave me a quick hug surprising me. “How’s school?”

I shrugged, “It’s school.”

Jamie laughed, “Algebra is her favorite subject and she’s really enjoying the class.”

Her father looked from her to me and laughed. “I don’t believe that for a minute. How’s the art classes?”

“They’re pretty cool,” I said. “The professor is great and I’m learning some really great stuff.”

“But everything else?” Mr. Edwards asked.

Grinning, I said, “It sucks. Except psychology. That’s kind of interesting.”

“It’ll get better once you get past your general ed classes and get to focus on your degree classes,” he said. “Don’t let the boring classes get you down.”

“I’ll try not to,” I said. Giving Jamie’s arm a gentle squeeze, “I have to run. I’ll call you later.”

“Okay,” she said and threaded her arm through her dad’s as they went to the living room.

Well, at least her dad likes me, I thought as I headed to my Jeep. I had no doubt that her mother was never going to come to terms with my relationship with Jamie. I just hoped she never came between us.

* * *

Being at home in my own bedroom was awesome. The room I have at Aunt Cheryl’s house is nice, but it’s not the same as my room here. As I lie back on my bed, I study the posters of rock groups that I had collected over the years and the pictures I’d drawn. It’s funny how juvenile the posters seem now. I have only been away from home a few months, but it feels like I’ve matured years.

I still like the dark blues and black decorations, but I think I’m going to take down the posters and put something more artist up. Maybe prints from some of my favorite steampunk artist.

There’s a light knock on the door. “Hey, you ready to eat?”

I jumped off the bed and opened the door. “I’m starved.”

My mother smiled in at me, “Good. Dave and I are going to treat you to a steak dinner.”

“Awesome,” I said, turned and grabbed my shoes. “We leaving now?”

“Yep,” Mom said. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to talk to you much last night, but I was exhausted.”

“I know,” I said. “I understand.”

I followed Mom out to my stepfather, Dave’s truck. “Hey kiddo,” he said when I climbed in. Did you have a good visit with Jamie?”

“Yeah, it was awesome,” I said trying not to blush. It was extremely awesome. I was still really nervous the whole time that Jamie’s mom was going to come home and catch us in bed. I would have to bring her over to my house during the week when Dave and Mom were gone so we could have some real alone time.

“How’s school going?” he asked. “Every time you’ve called you’ve sounded a bit bummed out.”

“Yeah, school is school. My art class is pretty neat, but algebra sucks.”

“I’ve never understood why you have to take all those general ed classes. What do they have to do with your degree?” Dave said.

“I don’t know,” I said, “but they suck. Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m going to do after my scholarship runs out. I’m having a hard time wrapping my brain around the cost of taking a bunch of classes that I’m going to hate.”

“So what are you saying?” Mom turned to look at me in the backseat of the king cab. “Are you going to drop out of school?”

Dropping my head, I said, “I don’t know.  I’m just having a hard time thinking about spending the next four years running up a student loan debt when I could be out working.”

“What does Jamie say about that?” Mom asked.

“I haven’t talked to her about it,” I admitted.

Mom and Dave shared a look. “Well, it’s totally up to you,” Mom said, “but if you want to stick it out, we’ll help with the money.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I said. “I haven’t made any final decisions. I’m just not sure I’m cut out for college, but we’ll see what happens.”

“Yeah, it’s only been a few months,” Dave said. “Maybe it will get easier.”

* * *

The rest of the fall break Jamie and I went back and forth between houses, but we made love at my house most of the time. There was less possibility of my parents suddenly come home, and even if they did, they wouldn’t freak out to find us alone in my bedroom.

I discussed my plans to replace the posters in my room with steampunk art with Jamie. She liked the idea. She wasn’t that big on steampunk, but she was cool with me changing the room. It’s my room and her opinion shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it is. I always want her to feel comfortable in my room.

I wanted to talk to Jamie about my concerns over staying at school beyond the year that my scholarship covered, but there never seemed to be a good time to talk about it. I knew she was going to freak out, but I just really hate school, and I can’t see making enough as an artist to warrant the student loans. I just didn’t know what I was going to do.

Like Dave said, maybe it would get easier. Maybe after the first semester, I’ll have a really interesting semester and love being at school. I couldn’t really see that but I was going to try to stay positive.  But, until then, I had a paper that was due as soon as we got back. Maybe I could get Jamie over here for the last night and we could celebrate our last day of fall break together.