It's hard to believe it's been seven years since my contemporary romance novella, Going with Gravity, was first published. To celebrate its bookaversary, I revised the story a bit. I also created a new cover that fits the story better, and is much more beautiful!
In 2009, the artists at The Wild Rose Press created this cover.
The story released on July 16, 2009.
I'm grateful to The Wild Rose Press, publishers and editors and cover artists, for helping launch my romance writing career. Going with Gravity was one of three stories published with them in 2009, and several more followed in later years.
In 2011, I requested the rights back, revised the story and released it with this cover, which is a little play on one of the scenes.
And when I realized that the story was about to celebrate its seventh year, I decided to freshen up both the story and the cover.
So, without further adieu, here is the new Going With Gravity cover. Ta da!
The novella was a 2011 EPIC finalist, and has had some wonderful reviews.
Reviews
have described Going with Gravity as:“so compelling I did not want to put it down. The sexual encounters
were sizzling and the ending was unexpected. There were moments of poignant
emotional conflict.”
And “What
happens is what storybook romances are made of and what everyone hopes for in
their lives. But, you will have to read this romantic and heartwarming novel to
learn just when and why Allison realizes she might have met the right man, and
why Wes made sure to meet her on that fateful flight. “
And praised the hero:
“Wes, the hero, is so darned sexy, I wanted to take him home. I’m not talking
about his finesse with the spicy part of loving; it’s his class, style and
solidness of character. Wes struck a chord with me that makes him a keeper.
There’s the part where Allison meets him again under somber circumstances. The
way Ms. Masters describes the whole scene allowed me to visualize it. It’s hard
to find the exact words to describe how it made me feel but it is no surprise
to me that Allison could connect with a guy like Wes so readily. He’s written
in such an approachable way, I fully believe that love at first sight can
happen.”
It's a great beach read!
You can pick your copy up from Smashwords and Amazon. Other online booksellers will carry the updated version in a few weeks.
I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Today, you can enter to win an ebook of Going with Gravity - go to The Romance Reviews' Anniversary Party page and answer a simple question. Easy peasey! There are lots of other great goodies to win, too. Don't miss out! :)
Going with Gravity was a 2011 EPIC finalist, and has garnered some wonderful reviews. You can learn more here. Good luck!
Thanks to everyone who's been visiting each week for Six Sentence Sunday. And especially for commenting! I try to visit as many of the SSS blogs as I can, and am always blown away by the amazing writing.
Here's another snippet from my contemporary, Going with Gravity, which I re-released on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords:
“Mmm. This is nice.” After two sips of sangria, her eyelids hung heavy, her body weighted with sleep. She felt the glass lifted from her hand, a kiss on top of her head.
He whispered, “Sweet dreams.”
She wanted to tell him it already was sweet, sweeter than she’d ever known, but only a formless sound came from her mouth, and she gave in to sleep.
The plane Allison and Wes are on has just lost its fuselage (this actually happened, which made me wonder: hmm, who could I put on that plane?) and Wes checks on Allison, who's in the rest room (and try Googling Mile High Club sometime - you'll never use a plane pillow or blanket again! lol):
His gaze steady on hers, he smoothed her hair from her face. She leaned above him, freefalling into the blue of his iris flecked with black and gold felt like diving in a deep cove and floating to the sun-kissed surface.
Going with gravity, she settled onto his chest. With his bottom lip fuller than his top, his mouth gave him a determined look.
“In case you’re wrong…” Her lips met his, and she unleashed years of repressed desire on him.
And because these Peeps dioramas are so inventive and hilarious, I had to add a few more. Click on any image to enlarge it a bit. Hope you have a wonderful holiday!
QUESTION:What software and applications help you write your masterpieces? What do you wish you could afford? What do you regret buying? And what ebook reader do you use? Why/why not? Question provided by Tracy Cooper-Posey
Microsoft Word 2007's the word processor I use to write, but I also use Excel to track story-related info such as submissions, contests and giveaways, etc.
Word's handy for not only first drafts of stories, but I also store research in Word files too. When I find great articles or background info on the web, I cut and paste it into a Word doc to refer back to later. During edits, most editors use Track Changes to show what suggestions and changes they'd like, and that feature's great for crit partners too.
What do I wish I could afford? Even if I could afford to, I doubt I'd change word processors. I've looked at writing software and haven't felt the need to go that route. At one point, I considered buying a little gadget (can't even remember the name of it - Alpha something? - it was a word processor only) but I'm sure it would have been more a bother than a help as far as converting files and so forth.
Currently, I'm reading ebooks on my computer. I'd love to be able to afford an ereader. Maybe Santa will bring me one this year! :)
She set her portfolio on her seat, lifted her purse from the floor and squeezed into the aisle. Her foot caught on the end of the row, and his hands shot out to steady her. In that moment, his eyes met hers, his mouth opened as if ready to kiss her.
Her head swam with a rush and her breath caught in her chest like a thousand butterflies. “Sorry.” The only thing she was sorry about was having to let go.
The flight attendant’s cart rattled in the next aisle.
The few feet to the rest room looked like half a mile. Vodka on a plane — never again. Steeling herself, she walked toward it, grabbed the handle and looked back.
Wes stood in the aisle, a crease between his eyebrows, watching her intently. Something wrapped around her beating heart and expanded in her chest, and flowed down her legs. Even as her nerves steadied by the surety of his gaze, her internal compass spun and locked itself on him. Knowing he waited for her sent a thrill through her as she stepped into the tight space.
Thank God she wore her short skirt. Her life was complicated enough. Whatever she could simplify, she did.
What about Wes? A relationship, on any level, would present definite complications. Maybe the only relationship he wanted was confined to the span of this flight. He probably picked up a girl on every trip. She shouldn’t read so much into his attention. His natural charms.
She wet a paper towel and touched it to her neck. Stop overanalyzing, she told her reflection.
A loud crack sounded on the other side of the plane. An awful metallic crunch. At the same time, the jet tilted slightly toward that side.
“Oh!” She braced her hands against the wall, afraid to move, afraid of what might be happening on the outside of that door.
Other passengers exclaimed the same noise of surprise. No one screamed. A good sign. Maybe it wasn’t catastrophic, whatever it was. The pilot’s voice came over the intercom, something about the oxygen masks deployed, ask the flight attendance for assistance. Dizziness swept over her.
A knock at the door. “Allison. Open up.”
Wes.
She quickly unlatched and opened it.
In one fluid motion, he pulled the door open, squeezed inside and locked it again. “Are you all right?” Even with his arms slipped around her waist, there was barely enough room for them both.
Thank God he was here. “What’s going on? That noise…” She couldn’t imagine what had caused it.
“I don’t—”
The plane tilted sharply downward and lost altitude fast.
Her stomach flipped in tandem. Her palms landed on the wall behind him above his shoulders. The plane’s dive placed him beneath her. He widened his stance to brace against the unnatural angle.
Panic rattled her nerves. “Oh my God.”
He commanded, “Allison. Look at me.”
Her eyes locked on his. Her mouth moved but only babbling nonsense – not even words – streamed forth in a breathless stammer.
“Allison.” His calm, deep voice reached deep inside her. “We will be fine.”
Her face must’ve crumpled with mounting hysteria.
His hand straddled her chin. “It’s not our time to die.”
“I wish you hadn’t used that word.” Thinning air deprived her brain of rational thought. Images flew faster than reflections from a disco ball: her life, her family.
All she’d done for the past two years was rescue Michelle McCarter from her own bad judgment and indiscretions. Was that all she had to look forward to?
His gaze steady on hers, he smoothed her hair from her face. She leaned above him, freefalling into the blue of his iris flecked with black and gold felt like diving in a deep cove and floating to the sun-kissed surface.
Going with gravity, she settled onto his chest. With his bottom lip fuller than his top, his mouth gave him a determined look.
“In case you’re wrong…” Her lips met his, and she unleashed years of repressed desire on him.
I'm excited that my contemporary romance, Going with Gravity, is now available on Amazon! Note that it now has a different cover. I requested the rights back because they expired this year, and have republished it on my own. I'll likely soon make it available on Smashwords also, but for now, it's here on Amazon. I'm pretty excited that the cover came out so well too.
Cate Masters packs a lot of action, emotion and romance onto 57 pages. A wonderful writing style paints vivid images for the reader and encourages faster and faster page flipping until before you know it the wild ride is over and you're left wanting to read another one of her stories.
Thanks so much Emma! I'm so glad you enjoyed it as much I enjoyed writing it.
I also want to thank The Wild Rose Press for first publishing this story. The TWRP publisher and editors are all wonderful to work with, and I look forward to more releases with them. In fact, TWRP will release my short fantasy romance, Romancing the Hero - check back for details!
Read the updated excerpt, reviews and more for Going with Gravity here (I still have to update the trailer though - time's too short these days).
This is the first of several ebooks I'll self-publish after rights revert to me. Watch for more!
Hope you all had as much fun as I did last week. The first birthday celebration was a blast. And thanks to all who visit each week. I truly appreciate your comments!
Because the EPIC awards are next week, I thought I'd feature another 2011 EPIC finalist - my contemporary, Going with Gravity. Set in gorgeous Oahu, one of my dream destinations, the research for this story was an escape in itself!
She nestled next to him, letting the moment wash over her: the warm breeze against her skin, the sound of the surf spreading its foam against the shore like a lacy-edged blanket.
So different from the night sounds of New York – honking horns, speeding taxis, people – always people everywhere. Time had a clarity here it lacked in the city. Moments anchored within themselves, not rushed forward to the next and the next.
What came next, she couldn’t guess, and didn’t want to try. For tonight, the warmth of Wes’ body next to hers was enough.
Like all great getaways, my stay at Desert Island Keepers has come to an end. It's been wonderful! For the last day, I'm whisking you away to my dream destination. Come find out what it is - comment for a chance to win a PDF of Going with Gravity.
I'm also at the wonderful Kelly Harmon's blog - hope you'll pop over for a visit!
If you're like me, this summer's vacation will be a staycation. But you can always escape with to an exotic locale with a fun read.
Going with Gravity is just what you need. Travel with my heroine, Allison Morris, to lush Hawai‘i, and be swept away by sexy surfer Wes Hamilton.
This is the first of a new series of posts called Story Elements. These will examine the different aspects of each story, and how I pulled the different elements together to form each story. Stay tuned for another cool new series called Casting Call, which will debut on Wednesday July 28.
A news story spurred the initial idea for Going with Gravity. A jet lost its fuselage in midair and managed to land with no injuries to any of its 350 passengers, despite a gaping hole in the plane. An amazing story in itself. But in reading it, I wondered about the people on that plane. More importantly, who could I put on such a plane?
To ratchet up the tension, the characters on that fateful flight had to be under personal pressure. So I created Allison Morris. A harried public relations expert, Allison stayed at her job out of dedicated professionalism. Her boss, Michelle McCarter, took her divorce from a famous rock star badly, and often left a PR mess for Allison to clean up. Others might kill to have an in with the rock star royalty she rubbed elbows with, but Allison would kill for a day off, and Michelle was becoming too much to handle. Allison had always dreamed of going to Hawai‘i, but when Michelle needs her there, she doesn't look forward to it. She's barely had time for her own life.
Poor Allison was so uptight, I needed to balance her out with someone laid back. Someone who didn't let anything rile him. Someone who believed in the path he was on. Wes Hamilton is just such a guy. Up for any challenge, he seems Allison's polar opposite, except that he holds the same basic values - he cares for people, for the environment. Despite his anything-goes appearance, he works hard, and not just at maintaining his status as a world-class surfer. He's also an entrepreneur.
So when that fuselage blew in mid-air, while Allison's in the rest room, she freaks. Wes rushes to her to make sure she's ok. His embrace turns into a kiss. For all Allison knows, this could be her last few minutes alive. She wants more. So she earns her entry into the Mile High Club.
Because so many of my summers consist of staycations, I love researching settings. Going with Gravity's main setting is Oahu, but the flight's emergency landing is in San Diego. I found a very cool hotel there called Hotel del Coronado. Not only is the hotel itself very unusual, its rooms - especially the bathrooms - are amazing. And they overlook the Pacific Ocean.
From there, Allison goes to the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani (she's on a budget, and can't afford to stay where Michelle stays). Down after a misunderstanding with Wes, she learns about Princess Kaiulani, the crown princess of Hawaii in the 1800s. The princess's tragic story is one I'd like to write about sometime.
Hawai‘i has so many unique elements. As soon as you hear the sweet and soulful strains of a slack key guitar, it conjures images of the island beaches and sunsets, girls in grass skirts dancing with their hands and hips and feet. A slack key guitar is basically a six-string acoustic with the strings loosened to achieve that unique sound. Various theories exist about its origins, but the general consensus is that European sailors introduced the six-string guitar to Hawai‘i at the start of the nineteenth century. Around 1832, guitars were also brought to Hawai‘i by vaqueros (cowboys) from Mexico and Spain hired by King Kamehameha III to instruct the Hawaiians in managing an overpopulation of cattle. Many of the vaqueros worked on the Big Island of Hawai‘i around Waimea. According to my research, "When the hired vaqueros returned to their lands, they often left behind their guitars. Hawaiians began to tune the guitars in their own way by loosening, or slackening the keys until the six strings formed a single chord. In addition to the signature tuning, slack key guitar is distinguished by the playing technique. The bass sound is played on the lower register while the melody is played on the higher register at the same time. This unique blending of sounds results in an intricate, rich, and soulful harmony."
The ukelele is also strongly associated with Hawai‘i, but doesn't transport me instantly to the islands quite like the slack key guitar.
The Hawai‘ian language really amazed me. With only eight consonant phonemes, and either 5 or 25 vowel phonemes, depending on how the long vowels and diphthongs are treated. Its simplicity equals its complexity.
To get an idea, here are a few words and phrases relating to the sea: Kai; moana (open); malo, pāʻū (poetic). See sayings, pūnoni, forecast. Calm, quiet sea, kai mālie, kai malino, kai malolo, kai hoʻolulu, kai pū, kai wahine, kai kalamania, kaiolohia. Strong sea, kai koʻo, kai kāne, kai nui, kai nuʻu, ʻōkaikai. Rough or raging sea, kai pupule, kai puʻeone, kai akua, ʻōkaikai. Deep sea, kai hohonu, kai ʻau, kai hoʻēʻe, kai lū heʻe (fig.). Restless sea with undercurrent, kai kuolo, kai holo, kai lewa, lapa kai, kai kō, kai au. Dark blue sea, moana uli, moauli. Streaked sea, associated with Kona, kai māʻokiʻoki. Whispering sea, associated with Kawaihae, kai hāwanawana. Salt sea, kai paʻakai. Shallow or reef sea, kai kohola, kai koʻele. Rippled sea, kai hoʻolili. Receding or ebbing sea, kai heʻe, kai emi, kai mimiki, kai hoʻi, kai nuʻu aku. Western sea, kai lalo. High sea, kai piha, kai nuʻu. Of the sea, o kai. Towards the sea, i kai, makai. Place where sea and land meet, ʻae kai. By the sea, a kai. Sea almost surrounded by land, kai hāloko. The eight seas, nā kai ʻewalu (seas about the Hawaiian Islands, poetic). Puna with its sea rustling over pebbles, Puna i ke kai nehe i ka ʻiliʻili. My sea, concealing sarong (UL 124), kuʻu kai, pāʻū halakā. Black sea, yellow sea, Kāne's purplish-blue red-brown sea … silent sea, swinging sea (PH 237), kai ʻeleʻele, kai melemele, kai pōpolohua mea a Kāne … kai mū, kai lewa.
Of course, I had to incorporate a few of the more romantic and descriptive phrases into Going with Gravity. Wes couldn't resist the sea because of its kayani, which means “to call” or beacon. Wes taught Allison the meaning of ho`onipo: to make love, court, woo, yearn for. He also gives her a new name, Alana, which means Awakening. Unfortunately, the Hawai‘ian language is nearly extinct. As of 2000, less than 0.1 percent of the population spoke it.
I hope you've enjoyed learning a little more about how Going with Gravity came together. Here's the trailer, and an excerpt. The story's available from The Wild Rose Press.
Allison pulled her portfolio from her laptop case and set it on her lap, afraid to open it. As soon as the articles had arrived on her fax machine, she’d shoved them into her bag, then hopped in the shower. Delay tactics only worked for so long. The moment of truth had arrived. She opened it and thumbed through. Eleven pages. Eleven. And these were only the newspaper articles from the past two days. TV and online news sites surely covered more. And then there’d be the inevitable blogger. Uncontrollable, overly opinionated and accountable to no one, they were the worst. Michelle had arrived on Oahu with a bang, and then had the audacity to blame Allison for not doing her job to quell the media. She held up one photo of a topless Michelle prancing in the surf, laughing. Rumors and innuendo could be stopped with logic and tact, but to downplay this photo, she’d need a good explanation. When Michelle’s logic and tact failed her so obviously, Allison had to wonder about her mental state. A hulking figure filled the aisle, stowing his bag in the overhead compartment. Those shorts. That shirt. It was him. He checked his ticket, looked at her and smiled. His blond hair fell across his forehead as he sat next to her, his shoulder bumping hers. “Hello again.” For two years, she’d rubbed elbows with stars of all magnitudes without so much as a blink, and fended off paparazzi following the wife of megastar James McCarter. With two words, she’d been reduced to the rank of dreamy-eyed teeny bopper. He smiled, raised an eyebrow. She realized, then, she hadn’t responded. And her mouth hung open. Make that drooling dreamy-eyed teeny bopper. She flashed a smile. Think. Damage control is your business. Put it to good use for once. “Hi.” Oh, yes. Very witty. What a deft deflection of his charm. She turned back to her articles, but sensed the weight of his stare. He frowned at her reading material. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to read over your shoulder. I take it you’re a closet fan of the poor little rich girl?” “In the same way I’m a closet fan of train wrecks, I suppose. I guess you’re not a fan.” “Of hers?” He chuckled. “God, no. She’s awful. Her publicist should be shot.” Shot. Of course. Working fifty-five to sixty-five hours a week wasn’t enough to keep the spin spinning fast enough for the rest of the world. The one guy who’d interested her in the past two and a half years thought she made a good candidate for execution. Her life was in such a rut, she’d need mountain climbing gear to get out. “If you’re a fan, I didn’t mean to offend.” Sincerity had wiped the smile from his face. “Actually, I’m..” She turned and smiled, “…her publicist.”
