"Look" at that in Nightmare Ever After

Summer Ross over at My Inner Fairy tagged me in the "Look at that" meme on Friday.

The rules are: Count up the 'LOOK's in your current WIPs and choose your favorite three. Then post the paragraphs around the word. 

I decided to use the un-edited version of Nightmare Ever After, the sequel to Once Upon a December Nightmare. According to "find," I have 45 looks in it out of 24,000+ words. Not too bad. I'm sure a few or more will be cut.

So here are my favorite three:

1. The pungent reek of death burned FBI Special Agent Tim O’Conner’s nostrils. His fingers twitch to cover his nose, but he wouldn’t dream of looking disturbed by a corpse, especially in front of the local yokels. Off to his right, a green-faced deputy barfed into a Wal-mart bag. Tim swallowed hard and breathed shallowly through his mouth.

2. “I know.” His voice was soft, low, a gentle caress that made her look back at him. “Do you mind if I show you something, Cassandra?”

3. “Just a little jumpy, I suppose.” She chuckled and shifted away from him. Those too blue eyes lingered on hers. Why hadn’t she worn some jeans? She felt too exposed under his gaze. Her tongue dampened her lips as she noticed he’d taken his jacket off. He looked like he worked out, even though he was tall and slender. She liked how he wore his gun with the shoulder holster, like Booth from Bones. Since The X-Files, she’d always had a thing for FBI men.

Now, I'm supposed to tag people, but I am lazy hate choosing people, so if you'd like to be tag, then consider yourself tagged.

Wednesday's Writing Update: Be Inspired and Look, a Sale, and Once Upon a December Nightmare

 

Happy Wednesday!

I was recently tagged in the Be Inspired meme by L.G. Keltner over at Writing Off the Edge and in the Look meme by Christine Rains. Thank you, ladies, for tagging me! For the Be Inspired meme, I'm supposed to answer some questions about my current writing project. In the Look meme, I'm supposed to share the first place I used "look" in my work in progress, so since I plan to start editing Starred in September, I've decided to use this novel for both.

What is the name of your book? Starred

Where did the idea for your book come from? Back in high school and college, theater used to be my life. Although I don't act anymore, I wanted to write an ode to that previous life, thus Starred was born.

In what genre would you classify your book? YA Contemporary with romantic elements

If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose? Oh, I'm terrible at these things. I do, however, see Josh Hutcherson playing a good Jason "Jace" Matthews. I'm not sure about the other characters. I really haven't given it much thought.

Give us a one sentence synopsis of your book? Former sixteen-year-old movie starlet Rose Handell must hide who she really is to live a life she never wanted.

How long did it take you to write your book? The first draft took 12 days.

What other books within your genre would you compare it to? Or readers of which books would enjoy yours? Another really hard question. Readers who like books that are touching, funny, a tad self-deprecating and sarcastic, and want a behind the scenes look at high school theater would enjoy Starred.

Which authors inspired you to write this book? Although they aren't books (well, there are Glee-inspired books), the television shows Glee and Hart of Dixie really inspired this book between the small Southern town from Hart of Dixie to the musical aspects of Glee. I would also like to give a shout out to Christine Rains and my sister Kara. When I write my YA novels, I keep my sister in mind. She's my ideal reader for them because even though she likes to read, she's a picky reader. She enjoyed Starred. As for Christine, she's my critique partner and the first one to finish Starred. Even though Starred isn't in a genre she typically reads, I think she enjoyed it and it touched her, so to go from my ideal reader to an unlikely reader and get 'thumbs up' was really inspiring to keep working on this novel.

Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book? This book is really personal to me and features quite a few scenes that actually happened to me while in theater.

And now the first place "look" appears in my manuscript:

My fingers stroked my hair and pushed it further over the left side of my face. If I could’ve pulled off Cousin It, I would have, but showing half of my face—the good half—would have to do. It was hard enough being the new kid, or returning kid, to a small school. It was worse to look like a monster.

Now anyone who wants to do the Look meme or the Be Inspired meme, you have my blessing. I find each one of you inspirational in your own way.

And I have two other brief things to mention for the writing update.

Women of Foxwick is on sale through Labor Day (September 3rd). I have it half-off, so it'll be $1.49.

To purchase: Amazon US / UK / DE / FR / ES / IT  Smashwords  Nook 

Reviews of Women of Foxwick:
"Each tale works on its own, but they also tie together nicely to weave a tapestry of a well imagined world." - Aubrie Dionne, author of Paradise 21​
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"...a rich and wonderful fantasy world..." - Christine Rains, author of Fearless
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"I give Cherie's fantasy collection five stars out of five. If I still played Dungeons & Dragons, I would want to have a game based in Foxwick. It was that real to me." - Michael Offutt, author of Slipstream

"Women of Foxwick is a must read for any fantasy reader." - Cher Green, author of Seduced by Darkness

Also, you may have noticed that Once Upon a December Nightmare has disappeared from my sidebar as well as the cover art from my websites. On August 24, 2012, my two-year contract with Wild Child Publishing was up, so I got my rights back. I'm working on editing it for a September/October re-release date. I am also adding the short story of the monster's origins, originally titled "Freak Show" (published in Bloody Carnival by Pill Hill Press, September 2010) but now titled "Nightmare at the Freak Show" (to keep with the Nightmare theme) to Once Upon a December Nightmare.

So what are you working on?