It's been a big week!  My kids are now out of school for summer holidays - yeah! I love this time of year! Christmas is coming with all its frills. I revamped my MySpace for Christmas (what fun!), and I went to a party with a bunch of writers last night. Oh, many were fledglings - new to writing, but it was at Jane Beckenham's house, and Yvonne Walus was there, too. Jane and Yvonne are both multi-published names in the local writing scene, and it was great to catch up. Jane has a new book coming out from Red Rose Publishing, and Yvonne's just been nominated for a national award for one of her short stories.

Other things - In Flames is on major countdown now to its January 1st release. Oh, and I have a morning chat (9 am to 1 pm) on the Yahoo Love Romances & More loop on the 23rd of this month - the eve of Christmas Eve, so to speak!

I'm going to a book club meeting tonight. I've never been to one, so it should be interesting. The first copies of In Trysts and In Flames arrived in country today, so talk about timing! They're beautiful - really attractive. It makes me feel so proud to hold them in my hands. I have goosebumps.

I'll leave you with an excerpt from In Flames. It's the sequel to In Trysts, published under my pseudonym Melody Knight, and published by Linden Bay Romance.

Peri knew Sophie was up ahead—a rattle, a scuff, a scraping of rock warned her. She paused, unwilling to use the flashlight, instead focusing her night vision glasses carefully on the path. There was enough residual light here, whether vented moonlight, or glimmers from Sophie’s distant flashlight, to make the glasses useful.

The path was rock, dirt, worn stones. Easy enough to follow.

Unless… Peri hesitated. There’d been four or five intersecting tunnels so far. Could Sophie have wandered down one of those? Echoes in a cave system could throw you. Peri wondered whether she should call out. Surely, if Sophie realized Peri was following, she’d wait.

Unless she figures what she's doing might be hazardous to your health. There was another answer, but Peri didn’t like to consider it. Sophie might not be exactly “herself”, at the moment.

It wasn’t until Peri came to yet another intersection that another possibility came to mind. What if it's not Sophie?

Which seemed ridiculous unless you were working under the premise that Gerald Beaumont had some idea you were going to be here, or at the very least, that Sophie was. If any of it was true, or even if they’d triggered some hidden security switch in opening the secret door…

…then I left them a sign saying where I was.

Maybe it didn't matter whether it was Sophie in the tunnels. Maybe being a trespasser was condemnation alone.

Peri was panicked. If she hadn't been, she would have brought rationale and logic and reason to the fore. She had the owner’s permission, after all…

But her own intuition was screaming. As a footfall sounded behind her, Peri began to run. It could be they were looking for the one who’d defaced their ancient stone path with fluorescent paint.

Me.

Peri kept picturing monks and group rapes—specters from Sophie’s dreams. For some reason, the more likely scenario of armed security guards never even occurred to her. There was too much here that matched Sophie’s nightmare, and made it seem more like memory. If that was the case, Peri didn’t think either one of them should be going this alone.

Another footfall at her back.

Peri picked up speed.

She was moving as fast as she could; nearly overrunning her night-vision lenses. Silence and subterfuge suddenly seemed as stupid as racing through the dark. They knew she was here.

But maybe they didn’t know…as yet…that she was female. Maybe, there were no thoughts of group havoc here—just the capture of an unanticipated security risk.

In that case, her best shot lay in outdistancing them, confusing them further—and finding a place to hide until she could locate Sophie.

With these confused thoughts in mind, as she tore down the path, Peri decided it was time to toss caution to the wind. Light might give them a target, but there were enough bends in the tunnel to avoid giving them a clear shot.

Decision made, she lifted the night-vision goggles at the same instant she flicked on the flashlight. She missed the apparition emerging from the side tunnel, full-on in her path.

Her light wavered, wobbled, and fixed. She was looking into the face of a dead man.

Enjoy! Cheers, ND Melody