I needed that

I'm now in the home stretch with Back to December - about 300 pages into the last draft's redline edits with most of the major editorial changes made (as opposed to the technical, typo stuff). I haven't made as much progress the last several days because it was my daughter's 6th birthday on Friday. We make a big deal out of birthdays around here, and usually, it's a multi-day celebration. Mostly in the vein of celebrating more than once, but when you have a huge family and your kid has friends from school, it happens. The party with her school friends was yesterday, and I think it went pretty well, given that I decided they should make cake pops. Now that's all done and though we were blessed with gorgeous weather over the weekend, it's going to be blah and rainy for two days. I won't complain about that right now!

So, I'm going to post some more snippets this week, starting with today. With any luck, by week's end, we'll be ready for publication. *crosses fingers*

On other notes, I was chatting on FB with my sister this weekend and actor Victor Webster's name was mentioned in conversation. She said she pictured him as Rob, which is close but no cigar. Darling Henry Cavill is Rob, not the least of which is because of those gorgeous blue eyes and the panty dropping smile - didn't that make you believe he was ladies man Charles Brandon? It made me believe! She said she keeps seeing Charles Brandon and not Superman, but to me, that's just hair and costume, and Rob would change his hair with every role. His eyes and his smile would always be the same, and that's what makes Henry Cavill Rob for me (it was just the Man of Steel promos that helped me see it; personally, I love shaved-head Henry). In part, that's because I really didn't know who Henry Cavill was before that. But he's Rob. He just is. That's who I saw in my head when I wrote the character originally. I had no idea a person like that really existed and was also famous.

Victor Webster, however, could easily be Sergeant Owen Nichols, who will feature in book #5 and will play a bit part in book #3 of this series. Owen is movie star handsome like Rob, but he's in the Army not the movies and he's also part Native American - thus the dark hair and eyes. At this point in his career, I'm not sure he'd be young enough to play Owen, but you never know. And I loved him as Coop on Charmed, so I know he could pull off the confident, smart-assed, sentimental Owen. Couple that with his soon to be turn in The Scorpion King and yeah, he could play ass-kicking soldier, too, I bet. *sigh* I think all romance authors must fall a little in love with their heroes. Or is that just me?

Okay, back to the real writing. Here's today's snippet. Emily has just had a  conversation with her sister. It's Christmas Eve and she's on emotional overload.

Mo opened the door for her and Emily climbed inside the limo. Rob was sitting across from her and suddenly, nothing else mattered. Not her call with Charlie, not her mother's opinion, not Josh or his feelings, not even the small sliver of nagging doubt that was plaguing her. He smiled, and that was it. Her eyes watered.

“Hey. Are you okay?” he said so sweetly it almost made her cry. He moved to sit next to her, even though they were still in visible range of the photographers. And she let him.

She shed a tear. “I am now.” He pulled her into his arms and just held her. He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back in slow, rhythmic circles. The tears kept coming.

After a few minutes of silence, except for her sniffles, she pulled away so she could look at him. “Thanks. I needed that.”