Welcome Wendi Zwaduk

Welcome Wendi as you pass through on your blog tour. I understand today is also the day your book "Careless Whispers" is released. Congratulations. Visitors to my blog have come to read what you have to say, so I hand the baton over to you Wendi.

What I Wouldn’t Give...

I would like to thank Sue for having me. I’m thrilled to be here at her blog and can’t wait to answer any questions or chatter back and forth with comments.

But I’m here to guest blog, too. I should get to that.

There are always things we wish we could either go back and change or things we’d like to have done. Lost chances, passed up opportunities... When I was writing “Careless Whisper” I had those themes running through my brain.

We’ve all had them. I know there were times I thought, gee, if I’d just gone back and gotten another gallon of milk, I’d have saved a dollar. Or what if I’d asked my high school crush on a date? That’s a time I’d like to go back to, if only to be a fly on the wall. 

In Ryan’s case, he’s got moments in his past where he wished he’d paid more attention. Times he would’ve acted rather than stood back and watched.  As I penned his story, he kept saying, what I wouldn’t give to go back and love her a little stronger. It was hard to write and put the true emotions in the way he wanted. But I did.

And that’s one of the joys or hardships of writing. There are times when I think, gee, what I wouldn’t give for this scene to go smoothly and to just write itself. Other times, it’s what I wouldn’t give to be done. But really, the times I seem to struggle are the times when the story is so wrought with emotion that I have to let it go minute by agonizing minute. Does it always turn out good? Nope. That’s another irritation of writing. It won’t always go well. Sometimes the struggle is just that. A struggle. And those moments I’d like to be done? Yeah, those are a little out there, too. Just because I want the story to be done, doesn’t mean it is. Ryan’s story started out much simpler. He wanted his ex back. Problem? She’s dead. For some paranormal stories, that would be the jumping off point. For me it was, but not in the logical sense. I had him grousing he wanted wifey back, but wifey...well, she wasn’t interested. So my ending quickly and writing a short little story wasn’t going to happen as planned.

I rather like it that way. 

The story is more complex and really, I have very little to say, gee, I wish this had gone this way...

Ryan gets to deal with his lost chances just as I did. No, I never really said more than hi and bye to the HS crush, but I went back and worked out “Careless Whisper”. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

Do you have any moments you’d like to go back and fix? Revisit? Chances you’d like to have? I’d love to know about them.

Tag line: 

He’s her kinkiest desire, if she’s willing to open her heart and believe in him.

Blurb:

The dead don’t always rest in peace. Some stick around to make the lives of the living hell on Earth. Ryan Black knows the frustration of dealing with the dead. He’s a Ghost Explorer. He’s conquered houses filled with apparitions, abandoned school buildings that house angry vermin, and managed to woo the female population of Snake Falls, Ohio. But he’s about to face his toughest challenge, convincing sceptical Samara Jacobs she not only shares his gift, but holds his heart.

Women fall at Ryan Black’s feet and Samara’s determined not to be one of the many—that is until she’s forced to work with him. He’s certain ghosts exist and willing to prove it. The more she gets to know the man behind the television persona, she decides the handsome klutz who chases things that go bump in the night isn’t so silly after all. But is he worthy of her love?

Excerpt One (PG): 

          “Look around at the scenery. Ohio girls are the stuff of legend. For example, Meredith has those legs a man fantasizes having wrapped around his waist.”

“Engaged.”

“Well, then there’s Caren. She’s got a nice rack and she’s single.”

“Implants.”

“Pick nits.”  Eddie snorted and shook his head. “You’ll shoot down all my ideas just to be right.” He scoped the cafeteria room once more. “What about Samara? She’s cute in a girl-next-door kinda way. All peaches and cream. I’ve caught her checking you out once or twice—a day for the last year.” He pointed to Ryan. “She’d make a perfect forever girl.”

“I had my forever girl. But I could be wrong.” Samara checked him out? Hmm... Kinda nice to know the attraction wasn’t a figment of his undersexed imagination. He’d spent many a night fantasizing about her, holding her, making love to her, waking up in the morning and seeing her smile.

At her table across the room, Samara curled up in her chair, paperback book propped in one hand and concentration written on her face. From his position, he couldn’t read the title, but he’d passed her desk enough times to know she liked romance novels. In the two years he’d worked in the same building with her, he’d heard her speak a total of three times but he knew her voice like his own.

“Ryan?”

         “What? I’m checking out the scenery. It’s—” he drew a breath, feeling more than the oxygen stirring something within his body. His sex drive? He shifted in his seat. Yeah, there was a definite tingle below the belt. “It’s intriguing.”