SUNDAY SNIPPETS WITH GINGER #sundaysnips

This week I'm offering six paragraphs from one of my two works-in-progress, Deceived.  Last week, I offered a sampling of its predecessor, Betrayed.  Despite being told by my current publisher that my relationship novel was not selling and they wouldn't be accepting any beyond my next submission in that genre, I've decided to finish the story because I personally "lived" the event with my sister as she tried to recover from her Internet dating experience.  Of course, I fictionalized names and added a few phony facts. :)

I'm hoping for encouragement to continue writing this story, so leave me a comment and tell me what you think about both books.

Hadn’t she learned her lesson? Cassie Fremont mentally kicked herself as she busied herself with a much overdue house cleaning.  She'd just returned from her second date...lunch...with a man she met on the Internet. One would suspect after what she'd been through, she would’ve known better.  Her sigh sliced the silence as she thought back on her disastrous past.  She tried never to let the name, “Evan Dennis,” drift into her mind, but she couldn't help wondering if he'd found another sucker who believed  he actually gave a damn about her.

Clearing the devastation Evan had wreaked on her emotionally and financially had taken years.  By the time the proverbial smoke had cleared, Cass realized“sucker” was the only word fit to describe her any anyone else who accepted his line of charming bullshit.

Leaving the dust cloth splayed on the end table, she widened the slats on her mini blinds and peered out the front window at cars passing on the street.  Who rode in them, where were they bound, and were they happy?  Distracting thoughts kept her from the task of cleaning and thinking of Evan.  With any luck, he rotted in Hell.

 Having already married once and divorced, she’d taken back her maiden name to try to erase fifteen years of heartache, but nothing, nothing, could eradicate the bad memories of being cheated on by her first husband.   With no self-esteem left, she'd lost herself in Evan, and then discovered he’d been a cheater, too, but in an entirely different way.

  Past experiences left her cold and unyielding to the idea of male company for five long and lonely years, killing any chance she'd had with Brian Green, the police detective she dated for a time while he investigated the dead-end Evan had become.  Then Will appeared. Something about him thawed her icy protective barrier and penetrated her defenses.

Maybe she’d been seduced by his handsome face, trim body, longish hair, or chocolate eyes that saw through to her soul, or...perhaps she was just a desperate, aging woman who needed male companionship and sex.

  Cassie furrowed her brow, fought niggling doubts about men, and  backed away from the blinds.  She resumed dusting, but still her naive actions played in her mind.  Was Will really the one for her? Their first meeting had been on a dating site despite her swearing she'd never visit one again after the disaster with Evan. Depression and lack of finances kept her housebound, and surfing the Internet became her only entertainment. In a weak and stupid moment, she'd created another profile, but that night, she'd actually gone online with the intention of removing it.  That's when she saw Will's picture.

****

This is the intro to the story, and if you haven't read Betrayed, you might have read it as Embezzled Love.  I previously released this story through another publisher who dealt only in paperback, and of course I don't know if I sold any, so I thank Books We Love for giving it new life, cover and title.

Deceived is the continuation of Cassie's journey to find love.  You can probably tell by the title, she's not lucky in that department...or maybe she is now.  :)  Check out my Amazon page for all my books.

Now, hop on over to the following blogs and see what's cookin' there:

http://www.jamiehill.biz (Jamie Hill)

http://triciamg.blogspot.com (Tricia McGill)
http://medievalnovels.blogspot.com (Vijaya Schartz)