It is a bank holiday here so I have some time to share another author guest blog with you and offer you another contest to enter! I hope you enjoy getting to know Melissa Haag and take the time to check out her work! There is an excerpt included and the chance to win one of five copies of her book, Hope(less)!
Also, if you are quick you can get a free copy of Hope(less) by visiting her website (offer ends May 2nd). Too late? Then enter the contest!
Have a nice Wednesday!
Guest Post
Three things I avoid in spring
I love spring! I love the rain and the smell just after. I love curling up with a book while listening to the rumble of a good storm.
However, there are a few things I could do without… and usually manage to avoid.
3. Cleaning. If men can avoid flowers and gestures of romance on “hallmark” holidays, I feel I can avoid “spring” cleaning on the same grounds. Okay, fine… I tend to avoid cleaning year round. I dust as often as I iron.
2. Worms. It rains, and they crawl out of their tunnels onto every conceivable path between me and my car. No matter what kind of dancing, hop-skip pattern I use, I eventually squish one and start gagging. (This almost made it to #1)
1. Swimsuit shopping. I never understood why department stores start putting suits out in spring. I just had a whole winter of hibernation-type eating. My body isn’t ready for a suit yet! Sure, exercising sounds like the solution, but there are worms out there!
Walking the dirt path toward the door, which I realized I’d tread over several times in my socks, I saw a peculiar shadow on the ground melding with the shadow of the still open door.
Looking up at the space behind the door, I saw the flash of eyes just before a man stepped out into view. I froze. My stomach dropped and my heart did a strange little flip. Before I could take my next breath, a shiver ran up my spine and gooseflesh rose on my arms as my anger spiked uncontrolled.
“You have got to be kidding,” I whispered to myself without thinking. I’d been so close to escaping.
His filthy long dark hair trailed in front of his eyes shadowing his face into obscurity. An old dull-green army jacket hung from his frame as filthy as his hair while his bare feet shone pale against the black sweats he wore. I couldn’t tell his age, the color of his hair, or the color of his eyes through the tangle of hair, but could see the glint of them as he moved away from the door stalking close to me.
I remained frozen, trying to deny the significance of the encounter as my stomach continued to do crazy little flips. Just before he reached me, he turned away and walked around the corner of the building, heading not into the woods as the rest had, but to the front of the building.
I stared after him, momentarily confused. I struggled to think coherently to get my feet moving again, my thoughts jumbled. He’d recognized me. Just as I had him. Why had he turned away? Did it matter? Move! Escape before he changed his mind!
Finally lurching toward the door, I said in a rush, “Sam, I’ve more than fulfilled any obligation I had to you or the pack.” The Elders stepped aside before I bowled them over. “I’d like to leave tonight,” I added walking past him and the other Elders.
I didn’t wait at the door but walked through the Introduction room to the interior hall, pausing only to pull off my dirt-caked socks. Charlene would have me cleaning floors if I walked through the halls in my dirty socks.
Maneuvering through the fortuitously quiet and empty halls, I struggled to control my emotions, or at least tamp them down. Over the years, I’d learned control, knowing those around me would be able to smell things like fear, anger, lust, or even sadness, but tonight all that control evaporated. Anger and fear swamped me. Anger at Sam for arranging the whole damn thing and fear that the Elders knew what just happened.
I’d been so close to freedom. Sam had set me up, stacking the odds against me with the sheer number of werewolves in attendance. Why would it have to be the very last one I saw that sent a bolt of lightning right into my stomach? Was it too much to ask for just one break in my life?
Contest
7 comments:
I avoid outside. My allergies are terrible so I enjoy the beauty of spring through windows.
Thank you.
vsloboda(at)gmail(dot)com
I avoid the beach because all of the tourist come for spring break and it is insane!
I avoid the sun, always gives problems the first sun in the year. And allergy is always worse in spring too, so best not to go for walks...shall
I don't know that I actually avoid anything.
I don't really avoid anything--I do have some allergies, but they are very low grade and don't bother that much, and the heat hasn't gotten bad enough yet to keep me in the AC.
cgclynsg0
I avoid poison Ivy and Oak highly allergic !
I don't really avoid anything. I will say that I don't clean unless I have to.
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