Contemporary Romance / NOVELLA
Date Published: July 31, 2014
No shirt, no shoes, no … problems?
Hemi Ranapia isn’t looking for love. Fun, yes. Love, not so much. But a summer fishing holiday to laid-back Russell could turn out to be more adventure than this good-time boy ever bargained for.
Reka Harata hasn't forgotten the disastrously sexy rugby star she met a year ago, no matter how much she wishes she could. Too bad Hemi keeps refusing to be left in her past.
Sometimes, especially in New Zealand’s Maori Northland, it really does take a village. And sometimes it just takes a little faith.
NOTE: This 36,000-word (120-page) novella begins about six years before the events of Just This Once, and yes, it gets a little steamy at times, because Reka and Hemi are just that way. It can be read as a stand-alone book, even if this is your first escape to New Zealand.
She’d noticed him even while she’d been walking down the
aisle in the wharenui, wearing the stupid strapless dress of blood-red satin that Victoria Victoria
Rosalind James, the bestselling author of the Escape to New Zealand and Kincaids series, is a former marketing executive who discovered her muse after several years of living and working in paradise--also known as Australia and New Zealand. Now, she spends her days writing about delicious rugby players, reality shows, corporate intrigue, and all sorts of other wonderful things, and having more fun doing it than should be legal.
Hemi Ranapia isn’t looking for love. Fun, yes. Love, not so much. But a summer fishing holiday to laid-back Russell could turn out to be more adventure than this good-time boy ever bargained for.
Reka Harata hasn't forgotten the disastrously sexy rugby star she met a year ago, no matter how much she wishes she could. Too bad Hemi keeps refusing to be left in her past.
Sometimes, especially in New Zealand’s Maori Northland, it really does take a village. And sometimes it just takes a little faith.
NOTE: This 36,000-word (120-page) novella begins about six years before the events of Just This Once, and yes, it gets a little steamy at times, because Reka and Hemi are just that way. It can be read as a stand-alone book, even if this is your first escape to New Zealand.
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Excerpt:
Hemi Ranapia, the starting No. 10 for the Auckland Blues,
one of the year’s new caps for the All Blacks, and about the finest specimen of Maori manhood she’d ever
seen. His dark, wavy hair cut short and neat, his brown eyes alive with interest as he watched her. A
physique to die for, too, his shoulders broad in the black suit, his waistline trim, the size of his arms and
thighs making it clear that the suit hadn’t come off any rack, because that had taken some extra material. She’d stood in her neat row to one side of the bride
throughout the service, had done her best to keep her attention on the event, and had felt his gaze on her as
surely as if he’d been touching her. She’d had to will herself not to shiver, and the look he sent her way,
unsmiling and intent, when she walked back up the aisle again told her she hadn’t been imagining his
interest.She’d still had what felt like hours of photo-taking to
come. Standing around endlessly, smiling in the sunshine, arranging and rearranging herself according to the
photographer’s instructions, being flirted with by one of the groomsmen, with Hemi in and out of her
view all the while. His suit coat off now, his tie loosened, white shirt stretching across chest and
shoulders. A beer in his hand and a smile on his face, having a chat with the other boys, being approached, at
first shyly and then with enthusiasm, by the kids. And by the girls, she saw with a twinge of jealousy that made
no sense at all, as one after another of them miled for him, touched her hair, touched his arm. It looked
to her like every unattached woman at the wedding, and more than one of the partnered ones as well,
was going out of her way to chat him up. And he wasn’t exactly resisting.But he was looking at her all the same. Every now and then,
she glanced across and his gaze caught hers, and she saw an expression on his face, an intensity and a
heat that were making her burn. By the time the photography was done and she was released at
last, the wedding party moving into the wharekai so the eating and drinking and dancing could begin,
she was well and truly warmed up, and tingling more than a little in every single place she could
imagine him touching with those clever hands, the hands she somehow knew would handle a woman as deftly as
they handled a rugby ball.The band began to play, the bride and groom stepped into
their first dance, and she saw him edging his way around an animated group towards her, a glass in each
hand. He reached her side, handed her the flute of champagne with the flash of a smile.
“Think you earned this,” he told her.She took it, and he touched his glass to hers.
“Cheers,” he said with another white smile, the heat in his
gaze unmistakable at this range. He tipped his brown throat back and drank, and she mirrored his
action, felt golden bubbles popping against her tongue, the cool liquid sliding down her own throat.
Drinking together like that somehow felt as intimate as kissing him, and the tongues of flame were licking every
secret spot now.
“Took your time, didn’t you?” she asked him with a cool she
wasn’t even close to feeling. He laughed.
“Didn’t want to seem too eager. Doing my best to
be smooth here, but it’s hard going." Another long drink, another long look as Victoria and Mason
finished their dance and the band began another number, a fast one, and couples started filling the
floor.
“Think I can get a dance?” he asked.
“Mmm, I think you could,” she said. “Maybe so.”
Rosalind James, the bestselling author of the Escape to New Zealand and Kincaids series, is a former marketing executive who discovered her muse after several years of living and working in paradise--also known as Australia and New Zealand. Now, she spends her days writing about delicious rugby players, reality shows, corporate intrigue, and all sorts of other wonderful things, and having more fun doing it than should be legal.
Rosalind’s website: http://www.rosalindjames.com
On Facebook: rosalindjamesbooks
Twitter: www.twitter.com/RosalindJames5
Don’t Let Rejection Get You Down (Yeah,
Right)
“Dear Author: Thank you for your submission.
Unfortunately . . .” And your heart sinks again.
You tell yourself that Gone With the Wind was rejected 38 times. That over a hundred
publishers turned down Meg Cabot’s The
Princess Diaries. That Tom Clancy, after everyone else had said no, finally
found a publisher for The Hunt for Red
October—the Naval Institute Press.
But still, what you’re hearing is that your book stinks.
And that nobody, anywhere, will ever love it. So how do you keep from getting
discouraged? Here are some thoughts that may help.
1.
Publishers
are risk-averse. Also agents. I worked in the publishing industry for 20
years, and have been on the other end of this one many times. If a publisher
thinks a book has a 40% chance of making $100,000, he will take that bet over a
5% chance of making $2 million. What does this mean? More of the same! They
want more of what’s been selling lately (BDSM romance, anyone?), because it’s
too hard to predict what will sell tomorrow.
2.
Success
stories. I decided to self-publish on the day a major agent told me that
she enjoyed my book very much, but “New Zealand rugby” would be too tough of a
hook in the U.S. market. Avon’s new ebook line turned me down on the day I
offered that same book for free on KDP Select and gave away over 14,000 copies.
I sold 2,000 books in my first month, and 20,000 books in my fifth. And I’m not
the only one. Being turned down by agents and publishers doesn’t mean your book
isn’t good, or that the public (as opposed to the publishers) won’t buy it. You
can choose either to keep trying, keep polishing your query and your
manuscript, sending out a few queries at a time until you land that fish, or …
3.
Consider
self-publishing. We are living in a unique moment when the barriers to
entry have come crashing down. Yes, this means some books are being published
that probably shouldn’t be. But it also means that authors whose books sat
rejected for years are putting them out there, and guess what? People want to
read them!
4.
The
downside: What downside? If your book succeeds, the publishers may come to
you. (It happened to me!) Maybe you’ll finance a little bit more writing time. And
if it doesn’t sell much, what have you lost? Some time and the money for (I
hope) a professionally designed book cover and professional editing. So make
sure your book is the very best you can make it, do your research on producing
and marketing your work, and give it a try.
5.
Keep
writing! Whichever way you choose to go, don’t stop writing. If people
whose opinions you genuinely trust are telling you your work is good, and you
believe in your heart of hearts that it is, you owe it to yourself to keep going,
and to find a way to put your books out there for the market to judge. Nobody’s
tombstone ever said, “I wish I hadn’t pursued my dream.”
Helen Keller said it best. “Life is either a daring
adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of
men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than
exposure.”
Rosalind James
Interview, August 2014
You’re a relative newcomer
to Romance. When did you start writing? I’m
a newcomer because I really did just start. I worked in publishing for 20
years, but on the editorial and marketing sides. I never, ever thought of
writing fiction myself, not even a short story. Then, a couple years ago, a
story came into my head as usual, but for once I didn’t push it away. Instead,
I started writing it, and then I couldn’t stop. Within six weeks, I’d finished
“Just This Once” and quit my job. The best part was, I was living in New
Zealand at the time, so I wrote a book about New Zealand rugby. Which was
lucky!
Where do you find your
inspiration? Hmm. Google “All Blacks
haka.” I’ll wait.
OK, well, that’s one
reason. But seriously—why New Zealand?
Because
I loved it so much. That’s the short answer, and the long answer. The longer
you’re there, the more Kiwi culture seeps into your bones. The Maori influence,
the geographical isolation (it’s just so FAR from everywhere), the sheer
physical beauty of the place, they’re all part of it. You end up with this
emphasis on family, the land (and the sea), hard work, and … well, I’d describe
it as being a “regular person,” no matter who or what you are. Not being a
jerk. Oh, and rugby.
All your heroes in that
series are rugby players. Why rugby?
Umm …
remember that “All Blacks haka” thing? Yeah. Tight jerseys, short shorts, full
contact, big muscles, the “regular person” deal combined with the fact that the
All Blacks (NZ’s national rugby team) are NZ’s version of movie stars—and the
best team in the world. The pressure of that in a country of 4.5 million
people, about 4 million of whom will recognize you walking down the street—and
will come up to shake your hand, ask for an autograph or a picture, and you’ll
be expected to smile and SAY YES. It’s life in a fishbowl, and good behavior is
expected. Pretty different from the lives of athletes in other countries, and I
just found it fascinating to think about what it would be like to be that
person.
What type of relationship
is your favorite to write? Romantically, I try to
write very different characters every time. I normally start with the guy and
find him the right girl. But I also love writing about parents and children,
sisters and brothers, friends, the love of country and place. Sometimes when we
say “love,” we forget about all the different kinds of love that enrich our
lives. Several of my books are very much about fatherhood and motherhood. Plus,
kids are funny.
You’ve written some
different types of books, though, besides the New Zealand ones. Yes, I started out writing
sports romance, and I love it, but I also like to challenge myself. A couple of
my books have a suspense element, because I wanted to see if I could do it. My
first U.S.-based book, “Welcome to Paradise,” although still a romance, had a
more complex storyline than the others (the reality show deal). I’m really just
trying to have fun, do something different each time, and write the book in my
head.
What has the publishing
process been like for you? I started out doing the
writing-to-agents thing, submitted to 38 different agents and publishers, got
pretty discouraged. Three expressed interest, all ultimately said no. The
problem seemed to be, “New Zealand rugby? Huh? Tough hook!” And I knew it was a
GREAT hook! I KNEW it! Plus I had three books, and wanted to write another one.
So I
put the three books I had up on Amazon, sold 2,000 ebooks the first month,
20,000 ebooks the fifth month, had a magical hour where I outranked Nora
Roberts, published the paperbacks, started getting the audiobooks up, and it’s
all still going great. Guess they were wrong … not that I’m gloating, LOL.
Thank goodness for Amazon!
What are you working on
now? A
brand-new romantic suspense series, set in Idaho! Can’t wait!
GIVEAWAY
- $50 Amazon GC
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