Jun 24, 2013

I Ditched the City and Moved to the Country


“Maggie, just how long are you going to go on this way?”


“What way is that, C.J.?” Her voice was low, husky, as if she'd just been awakened. It was a voice that made most men wish they'd awakened her.


The woman was infuriating. C.J. tugged a hand through his carefully styled, blow-dried hair. What was she doing three thousand miles from L.A., wasting herself on this dirty work? He had a responsibility to her and, damn it, to himself. C.J. blew out a long breath, an old habit he had whenever he met with opposition. 

Negotiations were, after all, his business. It was up to him to talk some sense into her. 

He shifted his feet, careful to keep his polished loafers out of the dirt. “Babe, I love you. You know I do. Come home.”



Night Moves

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When I burnt up my LA life out in the desert, (headshots, resumes, lingerie, lint--a flaming rainbow) and moved up here, friends and family were bewildered. Often they still are.






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“Gardening's good for you. It gets you back in touch with nature.”

“I've no desire to touch nature.”

This time she laughed and lifted her face to the sky. No, the closest C.J. would come to nature would be a chlorinated pool—solar-heated. 

Up to a few months ago she'd barely gotten much closer herself. She'd certainly never attempted to. But now she'd found something—something she hadn't even been looking for. If she hadn't come to the East Coast to collaborate on the score for a new musical, if she hadn't taken an impulsive drive south after the long, grueling sessions had ended, she never would've happened on the sleepy little town tucked into the Blue Ridge.

Do we ever know where we belong, Maggie wondered, unless we're lucky enough to stumble onto our own personal space? She only knew that she'd been heading nowhere in particular and she'd come home.


Night Moves

Jun 3, 2013

On your Bikes




This cover, and story, in The New Yorker reminded me this scene from one of Nora's Best Novels:



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"I have to shower," she told him, drawing back far enough to smile again. "I'm still sticky from that last scene."

"I enjoyed watching it. You've fascinating thigh muscles, Ariel."

Amused, she lifted both brows. 


"I have aching thigh muscles. And I'll tell you something, if I were to ride a bike for the three or four miles I did today, it wouldn't be anchored to the floor."


Dual Images