Drinking Straw Sculptures

Beautiful three-dimensional sculptures created out of thousands of drinking straws by talented Korean artist Sang Sik Hong.  See more here.

The Month's Not Complete With Some Piperdraws

Not in the English Language - Juoksentelisinkohan

Cute Fruit

There's More Than Meets the Eye

Time For Some Googly Eye Fun

New! ICE, Hip Pocket Romances #1 - A Sexy Contemporary Short Story

What are Hip Pocket Romances?

They're quick 30-45 minute reads to keep you engaged and titillated. Lunch time reads. Waiting for your kid to be dismissed from school reads. Sitting at the doctor's office reads. Any time you need a brief and satisfying escape from reality!

New!

ICE
Hip Pocket Romance #1
Contemporary
Word Count: 2.3K
$0.99 e 

Aimee is determined to bring the zing back into her and Blane's marriage, and a hot, muggy night is the perfect time for a glass of lemonade.

Excerpt and Buy Links

Now Available as an Audiobook! CHICKEN FRIED BEEFCAKE, a Humorous Erotic Contemporary Romance by Linda Mooney Writing as Carolyn Gregg

Now Available as an Audio Book!

Chicken Fried Beefcake
Erotic Humorous Contemporary Romance
by Linda Mooney Writing as Carolyn Gregg
Word Count: 20.1K
$1.99 e / $6.99 p / $6.95 a

Narrated by Linda Mooney

Length: 2 hrs, 17 min.

Hear a Sample

Beth is wanting out of her engagement to Wyatt when she meets his younger brother, Billy.  But where Wyatt is suave and worldly, Billy is a hick country boy who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty.  Yet there is something about Billy's gentle ways that touches her heart.

Unfortunately, Beth is a born klutz.  Bad luck follows her wherever she goes, and Beth is positive bad luck will continue to plague her if she allows herself to fall in love with Billy.

That was before she fell into a stock tank, and right into Billy's arms! 

Excerpt and Buy Links

Please Welcome Kelly Jensen as She Tells Us About Her Sci-Fi Romance, TO SEE THE SUN.

TO SEE THE SUN
A Sci-Fi Romance Novel
by Kelly Jensen

Survival is hard enough in the outer colonies—what chance does love have?

Life can be harsh and lonely in the outer colonies, but miner-turned-farmer Abraham Bauer is living his dream, cultivating crops that will one day turn the unforgiving world of Alkirak into paradise. He wants more, though. A companion—someone quiet like him. Someone to share his days, his bed, and his heart.

Gael Sonnen has never seen the sky, let alone the sun. He’s spent his whole life locked in the undercity beneath Zhemosen, running from one desperate situation to another. For a chance to get out, he’ll do just about anything—even travel to the far end of the galaxy as a mail-order husband. But no plan of Gael’s has ever gone smoothly, and his new start on Alkirak is no exception. Things go wrong from the moment he steps off the shuttle.

Although Gael arrives with unexpected complications, Abraham is prepared to make their relationship work—until Gael’s past catches up with them, threatening Abraham’s livelihood, the freedom Gael gave everything for, and the love neither man ever hoped to find.

ebook:
Riptide | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks | Smashwords

paperback:
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Welcome to Alkirak

In To See the Sun, Bram chooses Gael to be his companion based on a short HV (holo video) at a site called Heart Companions. There’s not a lot of detail about Gael’s profile, except that he’s looking for a single male companion. But it was the video that sold him. Bram was entranced.

For his part, Bram’s looking for a life partner. Missing from his profile would be some vital details about the planet where he lives, though. He included pictures of his farm. Close up pictures. His wind turbines, the small animals he keeps. Rows of soybeans and the small hobby garden he keeps.

But Bram knew better than to include a picture of the land adjacent to his farm—mostly because his farm occupies a wide terrace in a deep crevasse. There is no land adjacent. Just a void. Below the crevasse, poisonous mists swirl. And above, on the sunbaked plateau, the air is too thin to breathe without the aid of a mask.

Why did I have Bram entice Gael out to a barely habitable planet on the far edge of the galaxy? Well, for one thing, I thought it was funny, and one of my favorite scenes in the book is Gael’s reaction to learning that Alkirak is not the paradise he thought it might be. But I also liked the idea of setting this romance in a challenging environment. To See the Sun is a sweet love story—perhaps the loveliest I’ve ever written. The contrast of a hot, dusty, and nearly airless planet could only make it sweeter.

The inspiration for Alkirak came from a number of sources. I have… let’s call it a fondness for inhospitable planets, which I’ve explored in a number of other posts. In creating this planet, I drew on a couple of favorites.

For the surface, I revisited Crematoria from The Chronicles of Riddick—sort of. Rather than have the rising sun bring along with it a wave of lava, I made the surface of Alkirak barely hospitable. You wouldn’t want to be up there at midday, but when the sun is rising and setting, it’s just…warm. Okay, hot. And you can’t really breathe, but you wouldn’t be instantly burned to a crisp.

The hope is that one day the atmosphere in the crevasses will push upward and eventually envelop the planet, making the surface habitable as well.

So, the crevasses. I could have set all the action beneath the surface, in tunnels. Had the farms exist as variously protected greenhouses. But I wanted to show a planet in the process of being terraformed. Therefore, the farms had to be outside, necessitating the creating of a green zone. I placed this about a third of the way down each crevasse, a couple of kilometers below the plateau that makes up the surface of Alkirak. There is flora in the crevasses, thickening to alien forests toward the bottom. There is also water. In creating the first bubble of habitability, I proposed that the mining process released a combination of gases that formed a stable atmosphere, and that continued mining and farming would expand this atmosphere, pushing it upward.

I based this on research done into terraforming Mars or like environments by using lichen and by increasing the volume of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to create something like our ozone layer. My science isn’t exact, but I wanted it to be close enough to be plausible.

The color of the sky is also based on Mars. The difference in atmosphere (or almost complete lack of it) is what makes the inverse colors—the corona of the sun being blue rather than a warmer shade of yellow or orange, and the sky being a dull yellow rather than blue.

For the crevasses, I turned to T'ien Shan, from The Rise of Endymion. Dan Simmons is a master of creating different and challenging environments. T’ien Shan is a planet of mountains. There are no valleys, only seas of acid and poisonous gas, meaning people have to live in the higher reaches. The peaks are crisscrossed with steps and hanging walkways, making travel arduous and dangerous. I borrowed only the poisonous gases, and decided that the deadly mix below the habitable zone was probably a mixture of elements that were necessary, but too concentrated in their current state.

The storms? They were entirely my own invention and happened while I was in the process of writing. There’s a scene where Bram and Gael are having a pretty deep conversation and I needed an interruption. Hello, weather. Initially, I thought to show Gael as being terrified of the thunder and lightning, but he’s just not that easily cowed. So I had the storms scoop poison gas out of the depths of the crevasse instead.

(No characters were permanently… No one we really care about was permanently… There’s a happy ever after, okay?)

I had a lot of fun building Alkirak. I enjoy designing worlds in general—it’s one of the perks of writing speculative fiction. Some of my more outlandish ideas might not be possible, but I generally find that with enough research and imagination, you can make almost anything work!

If you’re interested in reading more about my world building, look out for the post detailing Zhemosen, the city (and planet) where Gael was born, and you can find a few pictures I used as inspiration on my Pinterest board for To See the Sun.

About Kelly

If aliens ever do land on Earth, Kelly will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories of the apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.

Kelly is the author of a number of novels, novellas and short stories, including the Chaos Station series, co-written with Jenn Burke. Some of what she writes is speculative in nature, but mostly it’s just about a guy losing his socks and/or burning dinner. Because life isn’t all conquering aliens and mountain peaks. Sometimes finding a happy ever after is all the adventure we need.

Connect with Kelly: Twitter | Facebook | Website
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How to Relate to a Glass of Water

Pig Latin

Have You Read Any of My FREE Stories?

Yes, I also have FREE ebooks! And you don't have to join a newsletter, or do anything other than go over to my website and download these short stories to read.

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A Sensuously Erotic Retelling of the Classic Fairy Tale

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Erotic Contemporary Romance
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A horrific short story
Written as Gail Smith

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Please Welcome Miranda Martin as She Tells Us About Her Sci-Fi Romance, DRAGON'S CLAIM, Red Planet Dragons of Tajss, Book 9

DRAGON'S CLAIM
Red Planet Dragons of Tajss, Book 9
A Sci-Fi Romance
by Miranda Martin 

Among the Zmaj, the alien dragon-like race of men who survived the devastation of Tajss, Bashir is different. He's connected to the spiritual nature of the planet itself. However, the scaled and powerful hunter craves a different connection.

One with Penelope.

He desires the tall, lithe human female who's shown herself to be intelligent and strong-willed, fierce with fire clear behind her clever eyes. Bashir knows that water wears down the hardest rock over time and is willing to patiently pursue his treasure.

But on the Red Planet, time is no friend to either Zmaj or Human. A threat comes from the skies and Bashir must get Penelope to understand their bond before it's too late.  

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GK5BDSD

Excerpt:

Get ahold of yourself woman!

I shake my head, trying to regain the composure that I lost as soon as I saw Bashir. I shift my gaze away hurriedly as I walk over to him. He's dangerous, at least to me. Maybe it'll help if I don't look directly at him. I offer him the water, my gaze still averted in self-defense.

"Thank you," he murmurs, the deep tone of his words sending another shiver of awareness through me.

This is ridiculous. He's just a person. I look up briefly and accidentally meet his eyes. The look in them tells me I did not avert my eyes quickly enough earlier. He saw me staring. The knowledge is there in his eyes. I look away immediately, hoping he thinks the heat is responsible for the flush I feel on my face.

Damn it. I've been so careful!

What is it about this Zmaj in particular that has managed to sneak under my guard like this? When there are equally attractive, well-muscled specimens literally all around us. It can't be because he saw me half-naked. We're both adults. As mortifying as that was, it wasn't the end of the world. No, it has to be something else. Something about him just...draws me in. Something more than his body, as gorgeous as it is.

I find myself trying to figure out what he's thinking. What's going on behind that still face as those intelligent eyes take in everything around him. My mind goes into overdrive worrying at this question like a dog with a bone, trying to understand him. Trying to understand my response to him.

I risk another glance at him, watching the muscles in his throat work as he guzzles the water. A trickle of it escapes his lips and slides down that smooth skin... I lick my lips involuntarily, completely avoiding his eyes as I take the water jug back and hurry away, going back to the well as fast as I can.

Please Welcome McKenna Dean as She Tells Us About Her Paranormal Romance, GHOST OF A CHANCE, Redclaw Security Book 2

Ghost of a Chance 

Redclaw Security Book 2

by McKenna Dean

Madison has put together some really awesome Prizes giveaway during the tour. Please use the Rafflecopter below to enter. Remember you may enter every day for your chance to win one of the prize packages. You may find the tour locations here.  

About Ghost of a Chance by McKenna Dean:

At sixteen, Sarah Atwell walked away from her love of horses and a promising career as a competitive rider after discovering she’d inherited the family curse. Years later, her grandmother stunned everyone by leaving Sarah her horse farm—worth millions—but with conditions Sarah might not be able to meet. A former Redclaw agent, Casey Barnes retired when a security assignment went bad, killing his partner and leaving him as a partial amputee. His inner wolf is in hiding. He’s been living quietly as a horse trainer, but June Atwell’s death now pits him against her granddaughter for rights to the stable. With both of them snowed in at the farm, a series of increasingly serious accidents draws Sarah and Casey closer together, but they both harbor secrets that might tear them apart. Ghost of a Chance is a paranormal romance story. 

Amazon Buy Link: https://amzn.to/2nbVC33 

Excerpt: 
For some reason, he glanced back at Sarah where she waited by the door. The backlight of falling snow through the glass in the shadowed hallway created the suggestion of a black-and-white photograph. The only spot of color was the bright red scarf at the collar of her coat and the wine-dark lipstick she wore. She leaned against the wall with her eyes closed. Something inside him clicked, as though recognizing a scene from a movie. His heart stopped a beat, flipped over, and thudded again with increased intensity. No. It couldn’t be. Not her. He hurried away, head still reeling at his reaction. When he returned with an armload of clothing, she was nowhere to be seen. Her laptop sat by her shoes, one pretty little pump turned over on its side. As expected, he discovered her in the living room, staring at the pictures on the wall. “There you are.” She jumped at the sound of his voice. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He adjusted the heap of clothing piled over one arm and held out a pair of snow boots. “She had so many photographs of me.” Sarah took the boots almost automatically, and indicated the walls covered with pictures, ones Casey had seen many times. That had to be it. Why she felt so familiar. Why she seemed to be the one. Relief washed over him. Obviously he’d spent too much time alone if he thought Sarah Atwell was his destined mate. 

The Panther’s Lost Princess 
  Redclaw Security Book 1 
  Amazon Buy Link: https://amzn.to/2LSf9UL      

About McKenna Dean:
McKenna Dean has been an actress, a vet tech, a singer, a teacher, a biologist, and a dog trainer. She’s worked in a genetics lab, at the stockyard, behind the scenes as a props manager, and at a pizza parlor slinging dough. Finally she realized all these jobs were just a preparation for what she really wanted to be: a writer. She lives on a small farm in North Carolina with her family, as well as the assorted dogs, cats, and various livestock. She likes putting her characters in hot water to see how strong they are. Like tea bags, only sexier. 

McKenna Dean's Social Media Links: 

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/c8GDYX 
  Website: http://mckennadeanromance.com/ 
  Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B075CRHQ7B/ Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/McKenna-Dean-Author-262328784224302/ 
  Twitter: https://twitter.com/McKennaDeanFic 
  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mckennadeanromance/?hl=en Tumblr: https://mckennadeanromance.tumblr.com/ 
  Email: mckennadeanromance@gmail.com 

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Photos Mashed Together into Delightfully Imaginative Collages

Creative director Stephen McMennamy merges his original photography to create delightfully quirky mashups called #ComboPhotos. With careful planning and positioning, he splices together snapshots of different scenes and objects, resulting in colorful compositions that play with scale and juxtaposition.

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Now Available in Print! RANDY AS A GOAT, a Humorous, Sweet But Naughty, Paranormal Romance by Linda Mooney Writing as Carolyn Gregg

Randy as a Goat
Sweet But Naughty Humorous Paranormal Romance
Word Count: 17.5K
$1.99 e / $6.99 p

Randy Greebley is your typical teenage boy, with typical teenage boy issues, except for one big difference – when he gets horny, he tends to get “horny.” Literally. His feelings for his best friend Cricket have grown recently, and it’s becoming more than obvious, making it harder for him to hide his other side whenever he sees her.  

A nerdy, middle-class farm boy, Randy doesn’t really have a lot to offer Cricket, but he can’t let graduation pass without letting her know his true feelings. Can Randy get up the courage to reveal his secret and tell her how he truly feels? Does she feel the same, or will he always be stuck in the friendzone?

A senior class trip to the water park could be the hardest test of all for them both. 

Excerpt and Buy Links

Anatomy of...Famous Authors (Shakespeare, Shelley, and Doyle)

From Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks

Six on Sunday - RANDY AS A GOAT, a Humorous, Sweet But Naughty Paranormal Romance by Linda Mooney Writing as Carolyn Gregg

Six paragraphs from RANDY AS A GOAT, a Humorous, Sweet But Naughty Paranormal Romance by Linda Mooney Writing as Carolyn Gregg

1. “You know that what we are, what we can do, is hereditary. I got it from my dad, and you got it from me. But because we’re so different, we have to keep what we can do secret from humans.” The man scratched his five o’clock shadow as he considered his next words. “You also know your mother is human. When we started getting serious about each other, that’s when I let her know what I was. I didn’t wait until after we were married. When I took that step to let her know from the get-go, I broke a cardinal rule among our kind.”

2. “Oh, really?” She turned to face him directly. “And what do you call me behind my back? A geek? A nerd?” By the expression on his face, she knew she’d hit one of his guilty nerves. Making sure he didn’t misread her disdain, she flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Get back with me when you learn some manners,” she quipped, and pranced off to her next class.

3. His friend sucked his milk carton dry. “I dunno, dude. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she doesn’t look at you the way a girl looks at a friend. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she’s just sitting and biding her time, waiting for you to make the first move.” Manny’s expression hardened. “You ain’t got much time left, dude. Graduation’s in a few days. Pretty soon she’ll be off to some college somewhere. And when she leaves, there’ll go the last opportunity you’ll ever have.”

4. Parking his elbow on the center console, Randy rubbed the tense spot between his eyes with his fingertips. “If I see her with her bathing suit on, it will only cause problems. I can’t risk it.” He gritted his teeth. “It’s a good thing, anyway. We can’t afford it, especially now that you’ve had to fork out money for this stupid hat that I didn’t need.” Snatching it off his head, he tossed it onto the console. But he also ran his hand over his hairline, checking to make sure the horns were gone. “Dad, does it ever stop? I mean, will my horns always come out when I get horny?”

5. Head Boy started to come into the pool after him, when there was a shriek. At the top of the sluice, Randy saw Cricket trying to bat away the two teenagers who were trying to grab her. She managed to fight them off, then turned and went down the shorter slide, which ended on the opposite side of the pool, closer to the Wave Washer. Realizing she was safe for the moment, Randy caught Head Boy’s attention, flashed him the bird with both hands, and began swimming to the other side of the pool.

6. “You’ve been keeping a big secret from me, and I’m hurt because…I don’t know if you don’t trust me anymore, or…what. What are you? Are you the devil?” 

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Please Welcome E.L. Roux as She Tells Us About Her Fantasy Romance, Unrewarded Love: Magic and Heartache Book 2

UNREWARDED LOVE
Fantasy Romance
by E.L. Roux

What was I supposed to do when my sick mother asked me to help her finish prepping for her fashion show? I wanted to say no, because it meant working with Kyla, a man I detest, but when no one else can help, I have to step up. 

Except I don't trust Kyla. I know he's pretending to want me for unrestricted access to my mother's clothing line. But as the week goes by, I have to admit, he's been more help than hindrance. I hope he doesn't betray my building attraction for him with deceit, I don't think my heart can take the pain.

Excerpt:

I didn’t know what to say except for, ‘hell no’, but I wouldn’t say that to my mom. She’d spent all this time taking care of me as a child, working two jobs so we could afford a small rundown apartment, and still managed to make a name for herself in the fashion industry as Pondre. And as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t walk away from her request.

“And your assistant really can’t help?” I asked.

Her silver hair, a close reflection to my own, slid forward, exposing the pointed tip of an ear. Her skin, a darker olive brown than mine, held a paleness to it. The pixie blood, strong in our family, couldn’t charm away the cold biting her in the butt.

Mom coughed weakly into her hand, head angled up by the mountain of pastel pillows stacked behind her. “Perri, you know she can’t. It’s not like her uncle can come back from the dead, and all that litigation she’s tied up in won’t disappear.”

I sighed. “But do I really have to work with Kyla?”

He coughed. “I’m right here.”

“Yeah,” I said, turning toward him, “and I hate you.”

Kyla flashed me a smile from near the foot of my mother’s bed. Kyla was the pinnacle of what it meant to be a nymph; absolutely gorgeous in his heritage’s unique way. His dark hair, tied back at the base of his neck, accented the strong line of his chin and brightened his light oak complexion akin to something you’d see growing strong in the forest his parents still lived in. His eyes were a rich purple hue I’d heard others exclaim looked like monkshood, a poisonous flower you had to handle with care and took years of babying to firmly establish itself. I don’t know how close that flower reflected his personality, but just to be spiteful, I told him his irises looked like grapes. His vanity hadn’t appreciated that.

His elegantly cut figure looked good in whatever he wore—the bastard—and he, like all of Mom’s fans, constantly attempted to get the jump on Pondre’s latest designs. I still believed Mom should feature burlap sacks in her next collection, but she’d yet to try the design. In fact, right now he wore a dark gray suit from my mother’s fall line two years ago. The theme that show had been petrified wood.

I settled back into my chair, eyeing the man too sexy for his own good. It was really too bad he was only after me for unlimited access to my mother, the top designer in the nation, and not because he liked me. He was horribly unpredictable in every attempt to woo me, never doing the same thing twice—which I found kind of romantic, even as I stifled the smile his last gift had given me. The chocolate had been amazing, the rich flavor melting on my tongue with every bite. But he wasn’t going to win me over with chocolate.

I glared. Kyla raised an elegantly shaped brow and turned toward my mother. I was still wondering why he’d been sitting in her room before I arrived. He didn’t need to be here for us to have this conversation.

“I know you need her help prepping for your show this week, but does she really have to put up such a fuss about it?”

“Why are you even here?” I asked as I tucked the soft off-white blankets tighter around my mother, and sat on the bed beside her head. “Shouldn’t you be off in your forest home, frolicking with the trolls?”

“Alas, they won’t have anything to do with me after our last meeting.” He crossed his ankle over his knee, his gray pants exposing just enough sock to be appropriate. Damn, when did I start getting hot and bothered about ankles and the lust-worthy socks that covered them?

I breathed in the scent of mint and brushed imaginary hair off my leggings. He managed to make me feel like frumpy and ill-shaped, like I’d failed to dress appropriately for a meeting at my mother’s sickbed. I placed my hands carefully in my lap. “Were the trolls upset at the number of your bed partners?”

The question popped out before I could stop it. It wasn’t like I cared one way or another.

“Apparently not enough. They were unhappy with me when I refused their company.”

I snorted, not believing him for a second. He was rarely without female company. “Why would you do that?”

“Why do you think, dear?” my mother chimed in, voice soft and difficult to hear. “He’s only been courting you for the last five months.”

I jerked, almost falling off the bed. “That’s not true.”

“I don’t know why you think that,” he said, tugging down the cuff of his perfectly pressed jacket. “I’ve been bothering you every day since I informed you of my intent.”

“That’s exactly why.” How could anyone trust that he was serious when he came out and stated something as ridiculous as that, especially as he was handing me a unicorn lollipop with a smear of blue ice cream still on his lips? I’d never fought so hard to not kiss someone in my life.

He squinted, and I could see the fine mental gears turning behind his gaze. “I see.”

My mother smirked at him. “I told you so.”

“You’re quite right, Pondre. I don’t know why I didn’t listen to you in the first place.”

“My daughter likes a challenge.” She smoothed the blankets at her hips. “You took all the fun away when Perri no longer had to guess at your intentions. Pixies enjoy chaos.”

“Wait.” I glanced frantically back and forth between the pair. “That wasn’t what I intended at all.”

“Are you sure?” His flirtatious gaze swung my way. “It certainly seemed that way to me. If it’s mystery you want,” he said, standing up, “then it’s excitement you’ll get.”

Shock held me still as he closed in on me. He leaned down and pressed a warm kiss to my cheek. “I’ll be seeing you later.” Straightening, he winked at Mom and left the room with a smug swagger. I glanced at my mother as I heard the front door close.

“What the hell just happened?”

She smiled before coughing roughly into her hand. “I’d hazard a guess, but I’d rather you not throw that Kleenex box at me.”

Glancing down, I frowned at the box clenched in my fist, the cardboard crumpled. “I wouldn’t do that.”

Mom softly laughed. “You and I both know you would.”

I sighed and placed the box back on the white nightstand where she could reach it easily. “Tell me again why I’m doing this?”

“Because you love me and would do whatever I needed you to do in my time of need.”

“Oh, lay off it,” I said tapping her foot under the covers with my own. “You’re not dying.”

“No, but this cold is definitely kicking my butt. I won’t be able to fix the last minute things that normally pop up before a show. I need you to make sure everything runs smoothly.”

“But why does Kyla have to help?” I winced at the whine in my voice. I was a twenty-seven-year-old woman; I could handle this on my own, damn it.

“Because, believe it or not, he actually knows how my shows are run.”

I crossed my arms belligerently. “Yeah, because he’s been to most of them.”

“And,” my mother said, speaking over me, “he knows all the players involved and will insure you won’t get the run around by anyone.”

I glanced at her as she frowned. “Like anyone would try and one up you.”

“You’d be surprised.” A pillow fell to the floor as she shifted on the bed. “People are always trying to play the long game or get the advantage. They think I’m one failed show away from the end of my career, and they’ll be able step into my shoes as soon as I’m out of the picture.”

I snorted, handing the fluffy pink monstrosity back to her. “As if. We both know it takes more than a single show to ruin a career.”

“And more than one to make it.”

Her next cough sounded particularly wet.

I check the window; the breeze floating through the slight opening kept the room smelling fresh. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to a hospital, or at the very least have a nurse make a house call?”

“No, no.” Mom waved away my concern. “I’ll be fine in a few days.”

“But you still want me to help out?” I was back to whining again. Shows weren’t at the top of my favorites list, mostly because we’d done so many of them when I was a kid.

“Perri Antibel Rosa, you will knock this nonsense off right now and help your mother finish a wonderful, life-changing show.”

I rolled my eyes. “There’s no end of drama with our family.”

Mom coughed delicately into her hand. “I have no idea what you mean.”

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