I'm seeing stars and more insta-goodies

Feb 20, 2023 12:01 pm

Hello! Thank you for all the love on Back Stage Pass this weekend. I hope you're enjoying Milo and Kat's love story. Don't forget to grab the steamy bonus scene at the end of the book!

Today's email is packed with goodies. Scroll for everything!

What you'll find in today's email:

Lucky Stars chapter 1
Related Reading
What's coming
New Release by Fern Fraser
New freebies and sales

INSTALOVE SPOTLIGHT'S ON...

Lucky Stars! grumpy sunshine, close proximity, light intrigue

Why I wrote Lucky Stars:

I purchase lottery tickets every once in a while. I don't have a big lotto dream, but sometimes wonder if winning is worth sacrificing anonymity. What happens when a winner's name is published? It can bring scam artists and leeches out of the woodwork. How does a winner protect themselves from constant hounding? What if the safest place to hide is with someone in desperate need of money?

That's the theme I wanted to explore in Lucky Stars. To be fair, my ideas for this story were much larger than I could accomplish in a short, one-hour read. But I hope Rebecca and Archer's love story gives you all the feels. If you find yourself daydreaming about the mystery that surrounds these characters, pop me an email and tell me about it. Who knows, maybe I'll write that novel someday.

Lucky Stars contains copyright material.

Prologue

Rebecca

One minute I'm reading "See Lottery Ticket Agent" on the small monitor, so I follow instructions like the good girl my momma raised me to be. The next, I'm standing amid a small crowd peering over my shoulder with the lottery clerk's machine blasting, "WINNER, WINNER” for all to hear.

I'm caught up in the moment, thrilled to have won something. Though I'm not entirely sure what until I'm standing in front of a camera holding a giant cardboard check with more zeros than I can count scrawled across it.

For someone growing up with a small family, there sure are a lot of relatives coming out of the woodwork. I used to equate winning the lottery to freedom. But now, the only word to describe what I'm feeling is…

RUN!

Rebecca

Purchasing a lottery ticket should come with a handbook of dos and don’ts, because winning is serious business. Winning is nothing like I imagined it would be.

I'm like anyone else with a couple of extra bucks in my pocket. I could waste three dollars on a tall caffe latte that’ll last me exactly twenty-two minutes and fifteen seconds. Or I can trade three bucks for a lotto ticket and sail through the next few days dreaming about what I’d do if I won.

My winning fantasies never included phone calls, emails, and letters from long-lost relatives who desperately need a cool million to keep their home or business afloat. Nor did my fantasy include solicitors clamoring to “help” me with all my investment needs for a measly fifty percent profit share. I’m so paranoid about who to trust, I’m afraid the little girl down the street is going to hit me up to invest in her lemonade stand.

I thought winning meant freedom. Freedom to do everything I could possibly dream of. I could take a fantastical vacation without saving up for five years. I wouldn't need to penny-pinch for emergencies like good old Bessie blowing a gasket or sputtering to her final stall.

“You’ve got this, girl.”

I pat the dashboard and rub my hand along the bleached leather, crossing my fingers that this old car does, in fact, have it in her. She was my grandfather’s pride and joy. Having her is like driving around with an old friend now that he’s gone. There’s no amount of money in the world that could make me send her to the junk heap. We go way back, her and I.

“Don’t fail me now.”

Darkness envelopes the winding mountain road with only a sliver of moonlight and Bessie’s weak headlights lighting the way. If the directions Charlie gave me to his buddy’s place are correct, I should’ve been there by now. It’s a quarter past midnight as it is. My phone lost its cell connection hours ago. Michelle, my best friend, must be worried sick that I haven’t checked in yet. She’s probably got every patrol car in the state looking for me already.

Except, she wouldn’t. Not under these circumstances and not where I’m headed.

A deserted stretch of highway might’ve made me skittish months ago. But now, I’m grateful for the peace and quiet that surrounds me. If the road had anything resembling a shoulder, I’d pull over and call it a night. A little morning light to guide my way would be helpful.

Still, I’ve got Bessie rumbling under my feet with tunes to keep me company. I’m rounding a bend when Bessie’s headlights catch a flicker of movement. I see the buck too late and swerve into the opposing lane, skidding in the gravel lining the road. But I yank the wheel too hard, overcorrecting the sharp swerve. Bessie fishtails then begins spinning as I overcorrect again.

Gravel crunches beneath the tires, flipping into the air and pinging back against the car like gunfire. My fingers grip the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles pop and crack. Then the tail end of the car begins sliding downward as the chasm swallows us into the darkness, with only a glimmer of Bessie's headlights flickering against the embankment.

By the time the car comes to rest, I’m shaking and screaming, nearly standing up in my seat with my foot grinding the brake into the floorboard. The engine knocks and sputters. Bessie shakes and clunks until the only sound in the darkness is my choked, gasping breath.

I slam my hands on the steering wheel in frustration, letting loose the fear and anxiety that have built up over the last several weeks.

“Damn it.” My luck ran out as soon as I cashed in my ticket.

Archer

The favor Charlie called in on behalf of his wife’s friend was a big ask. But if it weren’t for Charlie’s detective work and his boss, Sheriff Scout, I’d be rotting in federal prison. This whole debacle has my hackles on high alert.

Not only is Michelle’s friend hours late, but I don’t take kindly to strangers or opening my home to them. Especially strangers with a gaggle of reporters on their tail. I’ve had my fair share of vultures with prying eyes hungry for blood.

I have my former partner, Cliff Masters, to thank for that.

I can take a computer’s motherboard apart and rebuild it from nothing but a jumper. But I suck at the day in, day out functions of running a small business. Shuffling papers isn’t my thing. Neither are accounts reports, fundraising and schmoozing. But Cliff's a natural at all that, and he had his sights set on a broader picture than I could’ve imagined.

Who knew a computer whiz with a knack for code and a financial wizard could build a consumer tech platform on a shoestring budget into a startup company worth billions of dollars? I sure didn't. But that's precisely what we did. Cliff could charm the purse right off the Queen's arm if he put his mind to it. Instead, he wooed heiresses out of their inheritances and kingpins out of their bags of laundered money.

By the time our startup went public, every eye in the financial world had us on their radar. We were squeaky clean and golden as the youngest, fastest startup company to go public. Only our newfound fame and red carpet treatment came to a screeching halt when audits uncovered lies, theft, and betrayal.

Suddenly, our shiny blip on the radar became a national phenomenon. Our photos were plastered all over the news, tabloids, and social media. Cliff got off easy, though. He took off with the loot and fled the country, leaving me to hold the bag. He could be anywhere by now with all the money he hid in off-shore accounts. He's probably lounging on a white sand beach with a Pina Colada in one hand while he picks the pocket of some wealthy oil tycoon's wife.

Yeah, I’m irritable, grumpy, and all sorts of suspicious. I endured hours, weeks, and months of interrogation that peeled back every nook and cranny of my public and private life. The feds left no stone unturned. That’s when Charlie stepped in. He and his boss called in every favor they had to clear my name.

Only angry investors don’t care that I’m an innocent man. They just want their money, and they’ll do everything in their power to get it.

♥♥♥

Continue reading and find out what Penny's running from and why Logan has his eye on her!

♥♥♥

Continue Reading Lucky Stars

Lotto Love series

Lotto Love is available as a box set and paperback

Related Reading:

We first meet Rebecca in Holiday Moves. Her best friend, Michelle, goes home for Christmas, and Rebecca tags along. Charlie, the cop friend mentioned in chapter 1, is Archer's friend. He's also the single dad Rebecca's friend Michelle meets in Trading Favors with the Single Dad. You can read more about Charlie and his boss, Scout, in Wild in Love. Grab your forever copies or read in KU.

Read it now: Holiday Moves

Trading Favors with the Girl Dad

Wild in Love

Home Wrecker's Construction Continues

I've spent so much time writing Jonas that I haven't told you much about him and the book. You asked, and I listened...

Jonas is everything you love about Home Wreckers Construction and MORE! He's bigger, longer, and sexier. There's MORE banging, MORE stripping, MORE nailing and hammering. Jonas is EXTRA and goes into steamy OVERTIME! You're going to love him and the recurring cast of characters from the series.

Pre-order Jonas - releasing Thursday

Psst...Luca delivers the EXTRA goods, too...

Pre-order Luca - releasing Apr 6

Catch up on the series

AUTHOR CORNER

♥ Can a passionate conservationist and a powerful property developer put their differences aside while they do community service? Sparks fly in this sizzling, humorous, enemies-turned-lovers romance. ♥ If you love billionaire, curvy girl, older man, and younger woman romance, ‘Wild at heart’ is the perfect short instalove romance. No cheating, no cliffhanger, and a guaranteed steamy sweet happily ever after in this over-the-top fast-burn romance.

Read Wild at Heart now!