Tag Archives: Spokes

Rainbow Snippet — Spokes

Posted on January 16, 2016 | 21 comments

rainbow snippet logoOnce again, it’s the weekend, and time for a six sentence (or so, I can’t always count accurately 😉 ) tidbit from one of my works or WIPS. We have a group of talented authors playing, which you can find here on Facebook.

Since I told the story of my colleague (male, nearing retirement) picking up a copy of Spokes, I’ll give you a taste of a professional cyclist and the journalist who falls in love with him without understanding the nuances of his world.

Here, it’s their first date: Christopher and Luca were racing their bikes up and down the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, and warned away by a cop. Luca’s furious: doesn’t this cop know who he is?

spokes“Yeah, I said we’d get in trouble.” Christopher tried to soothe the wounded star with,  “Look, Luca, I know the Giro and the Vuelta are just as important as the Tour, and I know that Paris-Roubaix is a huge race, and that the Flèche Wallonne is a Classic. And that you won a white jersey there three years ago and what a great honor that is.” Luca would win no more “Best Young Rider” awards; he was twenty-eight now, two years too old to qualify.

Christopher slipped Luca’s coat from his shoulders, playing the soigneur. “And I also know, Luca,” he said, discarding their jackets and coming to stand close, his voice gone low. “If you were standing there wearing it, I’d still want to take it off and kiss you.”

You can find out what happened next here: Rocky Ridge Books, Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple, andAll Romance eBooks, as print and ebook (MOBI, EPUB, and PDF.)

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When worlds collide

Posted on January 12, 2016 | 1 comment

facepalmI had an interesting conversation with a colleague, who was helping me happy dance about this bit of news on Otter Chaos. He wanted to read it. Um… Okay. He’s nearing retirement, and he’s a lovely person but I’m not sure how open his mind is, and I’d rather he not bump his nose on genre if we know by definition he won’t appreciate the surprise. I have to work with him. I explain: “I write romance, and both MCs are guys. There’s sex, and it’s explicit.”

He barely blinks. “Is it available on Kindle?” he inquires, because his wife is a voracious reader and has a device. Yes, yes it is.

What have I done? I ask myself, and file it under known hazards of your pen name intruding into EDJ. This is a much better interaction than the time a well-meaning coworker yelled, “You mean like Brokeback Mountain?” across the pharmacy. At least that prepared me for someone leaving a copy of The Rare Event in the break room. It was well thumbed, too.

spokesNext morning Dear Colleague comes in and casually mentions, “We found one we think we’d rather start with. Because we’re both avid cyclists.”  And he quotes something that could only be from having read beyond the Look Inside. And beyond the first sex scene.

So I say the only thing I can say. “I hope you enjoy, and heh, I took a few liberties on the subject of drafting.”

For the first time I get to watch someone read Spokes while being more concerned about my depictions of cycling than about the sex.

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Alberto Contador look great in pink

Posted on May 23, 2015 | 2 comments

albertocontador st 14

Just thought I’d share the results after the 14th Stage of the Giro d’Italia.  This cycling race, along with the Tour de France, the Vuelta de Espana, and the Tour of Californa are the big four of stage races, lasting for multiple stages and 2-3 weeks. The pink jersey worn by the overall race leader is analogous to the more famous maille jaune, or yellow jersey we hear so much about in the Tour.

The Giro is a more dangerous race–the Italians have some seriously fucked up ideas about what’s safe to race on. This, for example:

Mt Crostis descent

In what universe is this road, which leads to the summit of Mt. Crostis, safe to race on? The route varies from year to year, and this leg, which you can’t even watch as a spectator, gets onto the program periodically. Last time, saner heads, aka cyclists who’d like to survive the race, objected strenuously enough that the route was changed once the stage was under way. The riders found out via ear bug, or by seeing the signs at the fork of the road. Alberto Contador was one of the major voices against riding this leg, and was called horrible names by commentators who apparently can’t tell the difference between a cycling race and gladiatorial games.

Contador hasn’t won a single stage so far in the Giro, but he doesn’t have to. Stages are often won by specialists: sprinters, climbers, time trialists, and sometimes by rookies with something to prove and who can see past the wiles of the GC (General classification) stars. He just has to finish high enough, often enough, to keep the overall lead.  He doesn’t have to be the best at everything, or anything–he just has to be awfully damned good at everything. Contador is.

Added bonus (but not a time bonus) for looking good in  (or out of) spandex.

sauna

Contador won the Giro in 2011 but didn’t keep the title, nor any of his palmares from that year. I’m going to wish him all success this year, with clean racing.

Because Contador looks fine in pink.

***

The Marital Unit is a distance cyclist who got me interested in the sport. And, as so often happens when I get interested in something, I wrote a book about it. Luca Biondi looks good in pink too.

SpokesAvailable from Rocky Ridge Books, Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Apple, and All Romance eBooks,

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What do you read on?

Posted on November 23, 2013 | 11 comments

devices-main-overviewI admit it, I’m behind the curve on technology. A substantial amount of my ebooks are PDFs, because it wasn’t that long ago I read everything on the computer screen. It worked, though not well enough: to read in bed involved sitting up or dislocating a shoulder, and forget standing in line or waiting at the doctor’s office.

The MU got me a Kindle for our anniversary, not thinking what that would do to my book budget. Heh. And then I won a Kindle Fire at GRL (Thank you, Total-E Bound.)  How to spend more money on books [pokes up Amazon store]: it’s so easy to buy a book with a few swift swipes, and the covers show so brightly on that color screen.., and oh look, Dreamspinner downloads directly to Kindle now…

Oh, where was I? Erm, yes. And then the MU, who is an Apple fiend (sigh, there’s a whole lot of technology in this house where the mouse goes the wrong way), starts wanting to read ebooks. So he’s reading things on his iPad, on whatever app works for whatever stories he has, and then today he downloads the Kindle app, which is always the precursor to buying more books. That’s okay, I don’t have to dust them.

I did manage to email myself a PDF on my old phone, but the new one does all sorts of good tricks, and reading is one of them. Which means I need to figure out how to get the books to the phone. I could use some technical assistance on that (it’s an Android, and I guess it needs the Kindle app first).

SpokesSo I have several choices around here for what to read on, and will probably use them all at one time or another. I finally figured out how to upload Spokes to the iBookstore, so we’ll see how long that takes to go live. (Going direct is how to be reduced to tears: how do I find the invalidating error on line 591 without counting? Wahh!)

What do you read on? Why do you prefer it? Do you use more than one device?

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Happy dance at Jessewave’s

Posted on November 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

SpokesI got up to find a lovely review at Jessewave’s. It’s always nervewracking to put your work out for the world; feedback like this from a picky reader takes some of the indigestion away.

In part, Lloyd said: “…This is a terrific read and I hope you treat yourself by picking it up. It’s an intelligent, interesting, emotionally satisfying story with lovable characters. Even if you’re not crazy about cycling (or even yummy cyclists’ thighs in shiny lycra), let Spokes take you for a victory lap.”

Mmm, cyclists’ thighs–see what he means?

saunaHe gave it 4.5 stars, and I will be walking about 4.5 inches about the ground for the rest of the day. Read the rest of his review here, and you can get your own copy  at Rocky Ridge Books, Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and All Romance eBooks, as print and ebook (MOBI, EPUB, and PDF.)

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