Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Sweet Trouble by Sharon Lynn Fisher

SilkWords is the go-to source for interactive romance and erotic fiction.

With gorgeous custom covers and a clean, sophisticated design, the SilkWords site offers a secure, upscale reading environment. In addition to content on their web site, they offer stories for purchase in the standard e-book formats.

SilkWords is owned and operated by a full-time mom with a background in genetics and an RWA RITA-nominated, multi-published sci-fi romance author.

Their technology guy and site designer was the founder of Microsoft Xbox Live.

SilkWords features two formats that allow readers to choose how the stories will proceed.

Pick Your Path:

Will she or won't she? With which man (or woman) in which location? With Pick Your Path romance, you decide. Romance and branched fiction are made for each other, like picking your favorite flavor of ice cream...positions, partners, and paraphernalia, oh my!

Reader Vote:

Readers vote at choice points and decide how the story will continue. These stories are a great way for readers and authors to connect. It’s exciting to be part of a developing story!







Sweet Trouble
B’s Book Labyrinth Series
Sharon Lynn Fisher

Genre: Contemporary erotic romance

Publisher: SilkWords
Date of Publication: April 2

Cover Artist: Indie Designz

Book Description:

Welcome to B’s Book Labyrinth and Bistro! The first novelette in this SilkWords Shared World Series, Sweet Trouble is the story of smart and feisty bookstore owner Bronte and sexy Seattle-area rock musician Brody.

Brody appears at the store’s grand opening to pick up a book recommended by an ex-girlfriend — and to meet the woman responsible for him losing his apartment.

The awkward first meeting does nothing to dampen the instant chemistry, but with Bronte wrangling menus, book buyers, and the resident ghost, and Brody’s rockstar-complicated past, can either of them afford even the sweetest kind of trouble?

Available at Silkwords.com

Excerpt:
Heading for the stairs, I met Trissa coming down. “You’ll never believe it!” she whispered urgently.

“What’s up?”

“I think Lenny Kravitz is here.”

Having Annabelle on my mind, I had braced myself for news of mischief directed at customers. Relieved, and feeling a little mischievous myself, I raised my eyebrows and replied, “Who?”

She groaned and rolled her eyes. “God! Do you do anything but read?”

As the grin I’d suppressed broke free, she frowned in annoyance. “B! You have to go talk to him.”

“It’s not Lenny Kravitz.”

“Come on.”

She grabbed my arm and dragged me upstairs to the fantasy section, where she gave me a shove toward a man in distressed denim and black leather. He stood eyeing a shelf on the L-through-P aisle.

To be fair, he could’ve been Lenny Kravitz — like twenty years ago. This guy’s denim was truly distressed, not distressed by machines for that perfect, overpriced lived-in look. And the cracks in his leather jacket traced a map of a rugged landscape in some unknown, dark country. The heel and sole of one of his motorcycle boots were held together by duct tape. He was as poor as I used to be. Maybe poorer.

But his sculpted features were framed by a glorious but compact starburst of spiky dark hair bleached burnt-orange at the ends. And I’d stake my store on him being a musician.  

As I stood there studying him, he looked up, and I took a few steps forward. “Can I help you find something?”

His eyes moved over me, but not in a way that felt creepy. He was studying me back. And what he was probably seeing was that the money I’d spent on my outfit would have bought him groceries for a month. It wasn’t the way I usually dressed. Well, it was now. But a year ago my clothes were all the same vintage as his.

“You work here?” he asked.

“I … ” I couldn’t bring myself to say I was the owner. “Yes. Can I help you?”

“Do you have sci-fi? This is all fantasy.”

I nodded. “We’ve got them in two sections. If you’ll follow me … ”

Chill bumps washed over my back as I listened to the thud of his boots against the hardwood floor behind me. I was suddenly self-conscious about the length (or lack thereof) of my skirt. No way of knowing whether I was imagining his eyes on my ass, but I was glad he couldn’t see my face, because the heat there confirmed my belief that they were. 

“Here we are,” I said, waving at the first of the sci-fi shelves. Alpha by author. Is there something specific you’re looking for?”

He considered me a moment, delicious chocolate eyes fixed on my face. He was intense about eye contact. Finally he gave a slight nod. “Solaris.”

“Oh yes,” I said too eagerly, “that’s one of my favorites.” I walked to L through P and sank down to study the bottom shelf. “Looks like we have both a used and new copy.” Solaris was on the obscure side for sci-fi, and now my curiosity was piqued. Or rather more piqued.

“I’ll take the used,” he said quietly.

“Of course,” I said, again in a quick, nervous voice, as I slid the book off the shelf.

I held it out to him, and he said, “What do you mean?” Something dark flashed in his eyes.

I felt my smile slipping. “I’m sorry … ?”

Clearing his throat, he shook his head. “Nothing. I’ll take it.”

I handed it to him, annoyed that my heart felt like a box of wrestling kittens. The guy had spoken a handful of words, and he had me completely unsettled.

“What interested you in the book?” I asked, trying to sound casual and friendly rather than neurotic or stalker-like. 

He hesitated, studying the cover. “My girlfriend recommended it.”

“Ah.” I swallowed hard to prevent any more words from coming out.

“Ex-girlfriend, I mean.” He glanced up, and a slow smile swung one corner of his lips up. “She left me for a guy with a PhD. I decided it was time to educate myself.”

“Ah.” I didn’t have to swallow this time. There was no way to reply to that without ending up a mess of blushing awkward.

“You’re Bronte, aren’t you?” he said, tucking the book under his arm. “The owner.”

I cleared my throat. No avoiding it now. “Yeah, that’s me. But it’s just ‘B.’”

“Nice to meet you, Just B.”

I tried and failed to stop the eye roll. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that one.

He grinned. “Sorry. But I can’t call you that.”

“Why?”

Encore of the intense chocolate stare. “It’s a less than perfect grade, and that’s not you.”

I was so startled by this I forgot to notice that it sounded an awful lot like a cheesy pickup line. “That’s exactly what my moms say.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Your moms?”

Now the pickup line thing sunk in. “Yeah. You got a problem with that?”

“No,” he laughed.

No one here was ruffled but me, and I felt like a jerk. I couldn’t think of a single word to say to him now, except “if you’ll excuse me,” which at this point would only emphasize my discomfort. Luckily he took pity on me.

“I’m Brody, Bronte. Thanks for helping me with the book. Good luck with the store.”

Grateful to him for coming to my rescue, I smiled. Genuinely. “Thank you. I hope to see you here again.”

He gave another shake of his head, and his gaze slid around the second floor. “I don’t read much. But I had to see if it was worth it, me getting kicked out of my apartment because some rich kid wanted to open a bookstore.”










About the Author:

An RWA RITA Award finalist and a three-time RWA Golden Heart Award finalist, Sharon Lynn Fisher writes stories for the geeky at heart — meaty mash-ups of sci-fi, suspense, and romance, with no apology for the latter. She lives where it rains nine months of the year. And she has a strange obsession with gingers (down to her freaky orange cat). In addition to her SilkWords stories, she’s authored three science fiction romance novels for Tor Books: Ghost Planet (2012), The Ophelia Prophecy (2014), and Echo 8 (2015). She’s also the editorial director for (and a partner in) SilkWords! Visit her at www.sharonlynnfisher.com.








Shared Worlds: The new story format from SilkWords

SWEET TROUBLE is the first story in the SilkWords World B’s Book Labyrinth. Shared worlds were introduced just this week, along with some other fun new features on our web site.

SWEET TROUBLE is the story of Brontë (the “B” of B’s Book Labyrinth) and local rock band frontman Brody. Each story set in this world begins with an introduction (in B’s point of view) that sets the stage for the reader. Here’s a little taste of that:

My name is Brontë Austen O’Neill, and I have the best job in the world. If you took even one course in English literature, you can probably figure it out just from my name. (My moms are both literature professors.)

Yep, I manage the world’s last bookstore. Or at least the last one in Seattle. Well, maybe not the last, but certainly the biggest. In the heart of the Fremont neighborhood, which is accepted by all Seattleites (or at least the ones living in Fremont) as the Center of the Universe, is a funky old turn-of-the-century mansion, just south of the world’s only real troll-under-a-bridge. Its architect was insane, or possibly a drunk. Six floors, piled atop each other in higgledy-piggledy fashion (much like a stack of books someone has tripped over and righted without bothering to straighten), connected by a staircase winding like a corkscrew through its heart.

In and around this bookstore, our authors will set stories about various customers. Currently in the works is a story about a bike messenger and a mystery author who writes all his books in the store’s bistro. The setting is contemporary, but will likely include a range of genres. (The store has a resident poltergeist who is sure to be the subject of a future story!)

B’s will feature romance of all heat levels (the first story is erotic romance), and we have a second world in the works that will focus more on erotic adventures. (More on that soon!)

Along with the launch of our first SilkWorlds World, we also introduced ratings, comments, and a game-inspired system of currency (hearts, of course!). 

Here are five fun facts about SWEET TROUBLE:

- This is my first contemporary romance! I’m a sci-fi romance author for Tor and have always written speculative fiction. (Let me know what you think in the story’s comments section!)
- The story was inspired by this song: Disco Lights [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0MqEtqSoH4]
- Brody, the frontman for the fictional band Iron Clementine, mentions a real Seattle group called the Mark Lanegan Band. (Mark was the frontman for the grunge band Screaming Trees.)
- The “Book Labyrinth” in the series was inspired by Portland’s Powell’s Books [http://www.powells.com/], one of the last of the big indie bookstores.
- B’s signature cupcake is called “Heart of Darkness” — vanilla cake, grenadine buttercream, and a truffle-sized ball of soft chocolate at the center.




Tour giveaway

3 bundles of 30 hearts, which can be used for buying stories on the SilkWords site (www.silkwords.com)



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