Seven days into the new year already. I don’t know how times goes so fast, In some ways, it’s a good thing as temperatures here are dropping, and they won’t stop until April, but in some ways, it’s sad too, because what are we rushing toward? I can’t wait for spring to come, a New Year’s resolution of mine to spend more time outside, but I want to also appreciate every day as they come, find joy again in the little things. It’s difficult when you look out the window and the days are nothing but a blur.
Reading is another thing on my list to enjoy more of, and if that’s on your reading list too, maybe this will help! I made up a BINGO card of character descriptions, mini-plot points, and tropes. Mark what you find in the books you’re reading and maybe you can fill up your card! I’ve never been good at BINGO, those numbers just out of reach. Maybe I’ll have better luck playing this kind.
print me!
My Rocky Point Series is done and copies are ordered! I’ll be hosting a giveaway soon, so check back, subscribe, or book mark this page. Four signed paperbacks of stories set in Minnesota in December. Can’t get any more wintery than that!
Right now I’m editing the next book I’m going to release. It’s so much fun to visit these characters again. Mark your calendar because Dominic and Jemma will be here in September of 2025.
It’s a busy time of year for all of us, shopping, getting together with friends and family. Dealing with the weather is time-consuming and stressful too, if you live in a place that gets a lot of snow and don’t have any help shoveling. It can be difficult to be happy this time of year, and I hope that even if times are a little tough right now, you can find joy in a phone call with a friend or watching the sun set. Don’t forget to take care of yourself during these busy times and give yourself grace if you’re just not feeling it.
This is the first year in four years that I’ve felt like celebrating. My daughter and I went Christmas shopping last week, bought a few presents and grabbed dinner. That’s not something I bothered to do last year, especially since we went while it was snowing and the wind was whipping. So I know what it’s like to just want the holidays to be over, just to go back to a normal routine. My health isn’t 100% and it never will be, but I’ll take the small win, wrap a couple of presents, and enjoy the wine I’ll let myself drink on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
A Heartache for Christmas, a billionaire, small-town, holiday standalone novel is free on Kindle December 23-25. I loved writing this story, love how Sawyer is so protective of Evie since the second he sees her. This novel is by far one of my favorites, and I hope it will turn out to be one of your favorites, too.
Most people despise Mondays and I don’t blame them. The start of the work or school week, all we want to do is snuggle in bed and stay warm, especially in this weather. (Where I am in Minnesota, it’s currently 24 degrees! Brrr.)
But my Mondays are usually pretty good. I work through the weekends to have Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays off, and I’ve already done two loads of laundry, made two loaves of banana bread, and taken a shower and got ready for a day of editing. My son teases me for doing my hair and makeup to sit home, but I learned during lockdown if I don’t, I’ll feel like sludge, and that’s no good for my mental health.
So, in all that, I almost forgot that the conclusion to Zane and Stella’s story went live today! CRUEL DREAMS, book three in my King’s Crossing series, is available on Kindle, in Kindle Unlimited, and Paperback. Thank you to those who preordered it–I hope you enjoy their story.
If you were waiting for it, you can find it here at the sale price of $2.99 USD or in KU:
In other news, I’m still polishing up a series I published back in 2020, so I’ll be busy with that until the end of the year at least. I’ll be letting you know of some special re-release things I’m going to do for those. I’m proud of the series and it will shine with a new edit and updated covers.
I have quite a few plans for 2025, but I’ll get to those later. I still want to enjoy what’s left of the year, and I hope you all have a happy holiday season if you celebrate!
Fall is almost here, but you wouldn’t know it by the temperatures out there. Even as I’m writing this, it’s 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Though the leaves may be turning, summer is hanging on. I’m not complaining about it–when it gets cold too fast, winter can feel like forever so it’s better to enjoy the sun while you can. I’ve been sitting on the balcony in the mornings, drinking coffee and feeding squirrels. They know who I am and that I have peanuts. They’re getting brave enough to crawl pretty close to me, and it’s one of the highlights of my day.
In more exciting news, Cruel Fate went live Monday! Well, Sunday night because of some odd timing Amazon has, but still, I am so happy to see this series slowly releasing out into the world. It’s $0.99 if you want to pick it up, and it’s available in Kindle Unlimited if you want to borrow it.
This is also a good time to say that if you read an ARC of it, you can leave your review! They are slowly trickling in, as you can see, and sometimes it takes a while for people to remember or find the time. I understand, and any review left is very much appreciated!
The others will be live on these dates and are all on preorder now:
Book two is on sale for $1.99 and book three is on sale for $2.99. The others are full price. I’m not sure how long they’ll be on sale, but I marked them down so it would be easier to buy the full series.
Right now I’m working on kind of a secret project, and I hope I have something to announce by November. It’s old, something that needs some attention, but after a shine, I hope that my readers will enjoy it.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a lovely weekend ahead!
The ARC period for the series is over and I have taken down the links. Please check the latest blog posts for updated release dates!
You know in that Richard Marx song Endless Summer Nights, when he sings, “Summer came and left without a warning…” I feel like that’s how this summer was… One second it was here, the next it was gone. (I know he was actually talking about a woman, but let’s pretend he was singing about the actual season for the purposes of this blog, LOL!)
If you want to listen to the song, here you go!
I enjoyed the summer months, for the first time a few years. I was feeling better and we actually had some 90 degree Fahrenheit days. I was able to lay out on my balcony and relax. It was nice. But fall has always been my favorite time of year, and though I’m mourning the sizzling pavement, the sun shining in my eyes, and sweat running down my back, I’m looking forward to crunching leaves, snuggling in sweaters, and sipping hot apple cider.
I’m also looking forward to the release of the first book in my King’s Crossing series, Cruel Fate. If things go well, I’ll have it on preorder by September 9th for a September 16th release day. But that means that my ARC links have to come down, so this is the first of two reminders I’ll post before that happens.
Here are the links:
Cruel Fate, Book One:
Cruel Hearts, Book Two:
Cruel Dreams, Book Three
Shattered Fate, Book Four
Shattered Hearts, Book Five
Shattered Dreams, Book Six
Download from Bookfunnel, subscribe to the blog for reminder emails and posts, and read at your leisure. I’ve gotten good feedback already, and I have a feeling this series is going to be something special. I hope it will. I put my whole heart into Zane and Stella and Gage and Zarah. Read the series and let me know if you love them too.
I have to admit, book six was the most fun to write, and part of the reason it was so fun was because of the friendship that evolved between Zane and Gage. Gage is kind of snarky, sarcastic, and Zane’s quiet, hardened by life and what the Blacks have done to him. He won’t let anyone fuck with his family and he knows he can go to Gage for help, and he does. I like how they interact with each other, respecting each other and working toward the same goal–to keep Zarah safe. There are a few scenes where they’re alone, talking, and their conversations both amuse me and give me some big feelings too.
Here’s what I mean:
Zane’s waiting for me to say something, do something, but hell if I know what. Finally, I shrug. “I don’t know what to tell you. She’s obviously having a problem with me, and what am I supposed to do? Chase her every time she decides we’re moving too fast? Run after her every time she thinks I’m no good for her?”
He meets my eyes. Doesn’t speak until he has every ounce of my attention.
“Yes.”
I blow out a breath. “Fuck.”
Zarah knows what to say if she wants me to leave her alone and she didn’t say it.
“Fine. Did you track her phone?”
“I didn’t want to. I wanted to find her some other way first.”
“Well, your other way doesn’t know where she is. You did put the app on her phone that traces it, didn’t you? When you took it after her breakdown?”
“I might have,” he mumbles, “but only for her own protection.”
–Shattered Dreams, King’s Crossing Book Six, VM Rheault
That scene goes on for a while… I don’t want to give too much away, but this is a great example why book six was so fun. I hope you enjoy their “bromance” too.
It took me a long time to get the ending just right. You don’t end a six-book series without trying to tie up every loose end possible. I ran into that when I finished up my Ghost Town trilogy. That trilogy is over 300,000 words, and I wanted to get the ending just right. I wanted my readers to get a serious book hangover after reading the last book, and I hope I accomplished that.
I took the ending of this book seriously, too, and when I first wrote it, Zarah finished up. It felt good, the way she had the last word. It felt right… until it didn’t. There’s something about an Epilogue that, when stunningly written, can leave a reader wanting more, even if there is no more. I liked the way Zarah’s point of view ended the books, but I realized it ended hers and Gage’s story, not necessarily the series.
So, I took a few days to mull over what I wanted to do about that. Stella started the series, the first chapter of the first book is in her point of view. She’s the catalyst that began the beginning of the end of the Blacks, and so I thought, well, maybe Zane should be the one to wrap things up. Completely. Forever.
There was always one tiny part of book two that was never addressed in the rest of the books, and it niggled at me. Before I decided to write the Epilogue, I wondered how I could mention it, bring it up, so it could be resolved, and I never figured out a way. I read through these books several times, as you can imagine, and nothing ever popped. Then I had a lightbulb moment and thought writing the Epilogue in Zane’s point of view could be just what I needed to address what could have been considered a minor plot hole, and test Stella and Zane’s love…again. Of course, saying that Zane and Stella have a happily ever after isn’t a spoiler, and they do have a happily ever after as do Gage and Zarah. I was just so happy that I could circle back to book two, the entire premise for the books, if you want me to be perfectly honest, and end in Zane’s voice because I started in Stella’s.
I don’t know…this series is long and maybe no one will ever get to the Epilogue. I’m asking a lot of readers to read 500,000 words, but I hope if readers make it that far, they are as pleased as I am.
Here’s the cover and the blurb for book six.
Gage
Zarah made it clear she wants space to do her own thing, but that doesn’t mean any of this is over. Zane asks Pop and me to look into another murder, and I reluctantly agree. We find some interesting evidence at the crime scene, pointing fingers at people I never considered could be a part of it all.
When Zarah’s therapist kidnaps her, Zane, Stella, and I race against time to figure out where they could have gone, and what she wants with Zarah.
What we find will change my life forever.
Zarah
Breaking up with Gage was the biggest mistake of my life, and he’s the only person I can call when I’m in trouble.
Despite getting back together, he still encourages me to go through with a trip I had planned. Jerricka intercepts me at the airport, and she knows just the right buttons to push to convince me to go with her instead.
Revealing secrets from the past seven years, she explains the real reason why Ash locked me away in Quiet Meadows, why my memories have disappeared, and what she plans to do with me.
I know, without a doubt, if she gets her way, I won’t survive.
I’ll be getting the ARCs together as soon as I possibly can. I’ll have more information when my proofs come. How soon the ARCs will be available depends on if I have any tweaking I need to do to the interiors or the covers and if I run into any issues formatting the ebooks. I shouldn’t, but formatting the ebooks and uploading them to Bookfunnel always takes longer than I think it will. I’ll keep you updated.
In the meantime, don’t forget you can download a copy of My Biggest Mistake as a thank you for stopping by and (hopefully) subscribing to the blog. Lots of news coming your way–don’t miss out!
So, when I was writing this book, I thought this would be the end of the story, but, I should have known better. I was naïve right up until practically the end. You know how authors say their characters are in control and we’re just telling their stories? That is absolutely true. I had no clue what was going to happen or that it would create the need for three more books.
In fact, when I opened the document for book four, I had no idea what I was going to write, who Zarah’s love interest was going to be, or what her story was going to be about. Nothing. All I knew then was that she needed her chance at happiness because someone had taken it away from her at the end of book three.
This post isn’t about book four though–we’ll get to that next week.
Book three wraps up Zane’s and Stella’s stories. Not completely, as they don’t disappear in books four through six and they feature in the series’ epilogue, but they do get their happily ever after, even if they have to tackle some difficult situations later on.
Zane was in love with Stella from the second he saw her, and I do feel bad it took them three books to find their happiness. But Zane… he’s different from other heroes I’ve written in the past. One of which is, he’s younger than any of the male characters I’ve published so far. His age makes him vulnerable, too trusting in the wrong people, and naïve. He’s mourning the loss of his parents and hiding from the obligations their deaths put on his shoulders. Because of this, sometimes he makes poor choices, and I won’t be surprised if I get a review or two telling me they don’t like him. That’s okay. He’s flawed and makes mistakes, but I think, as you read his and Stella’s stories, you’ll find his heart was always in the right place. He just doesn’t know what to do with his feelings most of the time.
Stella fell in love at first sight, and she put up with a lot. There were times when she didn’t think she could do it, and in books two and three, their relationship is shaky at best. Through it all, though, she never gave up, and in the end, Zane turned into the man she needed him to be. Maybe readers will think she put up with too much and she should have walked away. Zane certainly thought that. But Stella stands up for what she believes in, and despite his mistakes and her doubts, she believed in him. He’ll always love her for that.
Can a character be too flawed? I guess I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Here’s the cover and the blurb:
Zane
I thought everything would end the day Ash and his father, Clayton, were arrested for my parents’ deaths, heading a prostitution ring, and selling weapons on the black market.
But I was wrong.
The true reason why Ash hated Stella comes out, and it does more than ruin what little trust I’ve managed to repair between us.
It tears us apart.
There’s nothing that will redeem me in Stella’s eyes. All I can do is wait her out and hope that love, just this one time, wins.
Stella
Growing up in foster care, the only thing I’ve ever wanted was to find a family. I thought I had when Zane asked me to marry him. I would have a husband who loved me, and Zarah would be my sister.
But as the FBI sorts through the Blacks’ illegal activities, they find more than what we bargained for.
Now I have to choose between Zane and the family I thought I never had.
I don’t know if I can keep both, or if, after everything I’ve been through to destroy the Blacks, I have the strength to try.
As always, for reading and subscribing to the blog, you can download My Biggest Mistake, a free, full-length ugly duckling billionaire novel. You can find it here: https://BookHip.com/CMSVSNK
This was the book that actually started it all. I have no idea what I was doing now… washing dishes, driving somewhere, trying to fall asleep, but I thought, out of nowhere, What if he hated her? What if he loved her so much but she did something and now he wanted to kill her. That was it. I thought this little ember, this little tiny spark, would be the beginning of a standalone, or maybe a trilogy since I like writing them. I started to think about it. Why would he hate her? What could she have possibly done? What if he only thought she did the thing?
That led me to realize I needed to back up. I couldn’t start with him hating her. I wanted more. I wanted him to be so irrevocably in love with her that that passion, that fire, could turn into hate, loathing, at the drop of a hat. But it was important to me she didn’t do what he thought she did, and it took me 90k words of explanation. That would have been a pretty long prologue!
As you can imagine, that little spark turned into a forest fire, and this story, from the first sentence, until now, while I’m typing out this blog post, has pretty much consumed me. I’ve written other things between editing these books, and with every editing pass, the story became stronger and more fleshed out. I’m to the point now where I can’t do any more to them, and I’m not going to try. I’m proofing for typos one more time, praying I don’t edit in a mistake while I’m trying to fix one.
Book one ends on a pretty hard cliffhanger. You’ll want to read book two right away to see what happens (I hope!), and book two picks up right where book one leaves off. Well, maybe not right after, but if I talk anymore about books one or two, I’m going to start giving away spoilers, and all the spoilers I want you to have are in the blurbs. Writing the blurbs was hard just because the story builds, and you need to start with book one. The blurbs will give away some information, but hopefully only in a way that will excite you to read the series.
Here’s the book cover and blurb for book two:
Zane
I know the second Stella’s back in King’s Crossing, and I want nothing more than to tear her into pieces the way she did to me the day she ran away with another man.
But I’m not the only one who wants her dead, and when she risks her life visiting my sister, I realize that Ash isn’t as innocent as he wants me to believe.
Now Stella and I must work together to find justice for my parents, and maybe I can prove to her that despite all these years of hating her, I still love her, too.
Stella
When Zarah watched Ashton Black kidnap me, she snapped, and for five years, we were both Ash’s prisoner: me at Black Enterprises, Zarah locked away at a sanatorium.
Until I escape.
Now someone wants to kill me, and they almost succeed until Richard Denton, Kagan Maddox’s previous business partner, saves me.
He’s been trying to uncover who murdered Zane’s parents.
I have proof.
We need Zane’s help to destroy the Blacks and avenge Zane’s parents’ deaths, but working with Zane is strictly business.
I trusted him once with my heart . . . I won’t do it again.
That’s all I have this time around… I’m trying to post more on social media, and if you want to follow me, I’m on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/vaniamargenerheault/ and/or you can follow me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/VRheault. I’ll be posting graphics and teasers that don’t fit in a blog/newsletter, so following me, at least on Instagram, would be perfect.
I’ve been working extremely hard to get these books up and running, and with every day I’m coming closer. But that also means I need to start talking about these books or no one is going to know what they’re about or want to read the ARCs when I finally post them.
I’m not used to talking about my books much, just throwing the links out there and hoping for the best, something you probably have come to realize about me if you’ve followed my author journey for any length of time. I’m rather introverted and tend to lurk, but lurking isn’t so great if you have news to share, which I do, and I’ll have a lot of it in the coming weeks.
I started writing this series back in December of 2019. A plot, no, an idea, kind of fell into my lap, and as things do, my story turned into a 500,000 word monster. I’m not sad about it, but it took me a lot longer to get them written and ready to publish than I thought. Four and a half years later, I’m getting close. These were the first books I wrote when I decided to change from 3rd person past POV to 1st person present POV, kicking off my the books I would write under my initials.
As most of my books are, these take place in a huge made-up city in Minnesota called King’s Crossing. In my mind, it’s a mixture of Minneapolis (a city I have been many times), New York City (a city I have never been to in my life), and Savannah, Georgia (a city I have been a handful of times). I wanted the big city feel, especially since Zane Maddox, my main male character for the first half of the series, is a billionaire, but I also wanted the river in Savannah to feature because when we stayed at the Westin, I would love to watch the huge cargo ships go by, and they play a part in book three.
This is the hotel I stayed at, right on the river. It was beautiful, and watching the cargo ships float by was amazing. I hope I bring that feeling into my books.
Anyway, so the story spans a few years and I was able to include the hot stickiness we can experience in the summer, even in Minnesota, and the harsh winter temperatures as well. It’s probably why I like setting my books in Minnesota… I love using all the seasons.
Here’s the cover and the blurb for the first book:
Zane
Six months ago, my parents were killed in a plane crash. They left behind me, my sister, and a billion-dollar company that’s my responsibility now.
The only things that have gotten me through are Zarah and my best friend, Ashton Black.
Until I meet Stella.
Ash hates Stella as much as I love her, and as I try to uncover the reason why my parents’ plane crashed, I struggle to keep both of them in my life.
When she disappears, Ash says, “I told you so,” and all I have left is our friendship built on years of family loyalty, tears, and blood.
Stella
Meeting Zarah Maddox while she tours her parents’ company is a dream come true. She introduces me to her brother, Zane, and a world I want to desperately be a part of as much as I fear.
Ashton Black is Zane’s best friend, and he hates me from the second he hears my name.
He’s not the man Zane thinks he is, but when I discover evidence he’s hurting Zarah, there’s nothing I can do but sacrifice myself to keep them safe.
Zane’s loyalty to the Blacks is stronger than our love, but I won’t be the only one to pay the price.
These books are new for me–they are one long story from start to finish. There’s only one entry point–book one, and books 1 2, 4, and 5 end on mild to hard cliffhangers. The first three books are about Zane and Stella, and the second three books are about Zane’s sister, Zarah, and her love interest, Gage.
As an author, you hear a lot about people hating cliffhangers and maybe readers really do, so I will be very vocal about this point going forward–most of these books end on cliffhangers. It’s another reason why I waited to publish until all the books were ready. There will be a few weeks waiting between books, but not months or even years that are between the releases of some books (no shade to those authors, this was just my preferred way). When the ARCs are ready, they’ll be available all at once, though the releases will be about six weeks apart, if all goes smoothly.
For now, I’ll give you a sneak peek at each book from now until the ARCs are ready, one about every 9 days or so. I’m hoping I don’t need much longer to publish these. I’m so excited, and I hope you are too.
Stick with me through the summer–you won’t regret it!
As always, if you haven’t grabbed your free copy of My Biggest Mistake, you can do that here. It would be great if you could subscribe to my blog for updates and news, especially if you plan to be in on the ARCs and releases of my series. This will be where I’ll post the newest information, so don’t miss out!
Have a great week and a wonderful 4th of July, also, Happy Canada Day to all my friends across the border. Stay safe, and I will touch base with you soon!
Happy May! I can’t believe it’s already the 9th. Did April feel like it flew by for you like it did for me? May seems to be going just as fast, and I would love it if time slowed down just a little bit. I have a lot to do!
This month I have a follow-up appointment in Rochester, MN, at the Mayo Clinic. I had my first appointment in February for a feminine issue I’d been having for quite some time, and the nurse practitioner didn’t disappoint. She knew exactly what was wrong with me, and I’ve been under treatment and on the mend since then. This appointment will tell me what to expect going forward, but I only see improvement and happier days ahead.
I’ve been steadily working on my King’s Crossing series, and I’ll be ordering the proofs to proofread in the coming weeks. While I’m doing that, I put Rescue Me and Captivated by Her for free from Thursday, May 9th, to Sunday, May 12th.
I love Captivated by Her and the second part of the duet, Addicted to Her. They were the first books I published under my pen name, and I’m still proud of them. Here is the first scene of Captivated by Her:
Devyn
I know the minute he calls my name I’m in trouble. I tense, sensing my boss’s stare boring into my back.
“Girl, what did you do now?” Alesha, the woman who uses the desk in front of me, asks, shaking her head.
“Breathe,” I mutter. I put up with the way Walt treats me because I need this job. I don’t let anyone know how much I need this job.
Pasting a smile on my face, I turn and say, “Just a second.”
Walt nods once, sharply, and disappears into his office.
“Good luck, hon,” Alesha says. “With that glower, you’re gonna need it.”
“Thanks a lot.” I try to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
It’s not her fault Walt doesn’t like me. Well, it’s not that he doesn’t like me. He likes me fine, or he wouldn’t have gone up to bat for me when I applied for this job. It’s that ever since then, the owners of the Portland Pioneer have been breathing down his neck. They don’t like me, and in two point five seconds I’m going to find out just how much they don’t like me.
Again.
“What’s up?” I ask, tentatively stepping into his office.
“Have a seat, Devyn. We need to talk.”
I push a piece of hair behind my ear, perch on the edge of the chair in front of his desk, and tuck my hands between my knees to keep them from shaking.
“What do I need to do to prove my worth this time?” I ask, not a little bitter.
I draw the shittiest assignments. They want me to quit. And even crappier, I don’t know who they are. I have no idea who owns this fucking paper and pulls on Walt’s puppet strings. I never dared to look or else I think I’d kill them.
Walt sits behind his beat-up metal desk and leans back in his squeaky chair. “You know it’s not like that.”
“Yeah, it is.” Tears want to spring to my eyes, but I won’t let them. I’m a damned good reporter. I tangled with the wrong person, and I get that, but I shouldn’t have to suffer for it for the rest of my life. Except, that’s not how it works.
He sighs, tips his head, and talks to the ceiling. “Look. I tried, I really did, and they’re setting you up to fail with this assignment. Devyn, ever since you walked into this newsroom looking for a paycheck for an honest day’s work, I’ve done my best by you. I really have.”
“It’s that impossible, huh?” I give up and rub a tear off my cheek.
I don’t know what I’m going to tell Talia, my sister. She’s depended on me for the past couple of years. Hell, we moved here because of this job, and to get her as far away from Cedar Hill as possible.
He tosses a file at me, and I open the front flap. A headshot of Rickard Mercer glares at me. God, the man is intimidating. Sexy, hot, and intimidating.
“They want you to interview him.” His voice is flat.
“He doesn’t give interviews.”
“They . . . don’t care. I’m supposed to send you up there with two hundred bucks for expenses and tell you to stay there for as long as it takes.”
I flip the flap over and cover Rickard Mercer’s glower. “I might as well just quit, then. You know how impossible that will be. He hasn’t spoken to the press since he was discharged from the hospital.”
And the words he said to the reporters loitering outside were, “Fuck you.” They’d ran the sound bite over and over again. Memes flew around the internet, and Rickard Mercer, the fifth richest man in the United States, turned into a laughingstock in two seconds.
Walt blows out a breath.
“And that was two years ago,” I add for nobody’s benefit.
“I can’t force you,” he says, “but if you can’t, don’t, whatever, then I’m supposed to send you packing. I hate it, but I don’t make the rules.”
Incredulous, I laugh. I can’t help it. “And they think if I’m able to land the interview of the fu—” I cut myself off from swearing. Walt hates it— “the year, I would hand it over to the Pioneer? I’d sell that sh—” God, I need to curb my potty mouth— “well, you know what I’m getting at.”
Walt scoffs. “Maybe they didn’t consider it, but if you went up there on their dime and you sold that interview to the highest bidder, I think you’d have a lawsuit on your hands. You’re still trying to wade out of the shit Stevie Johansson flung at you. I’d watch it. Don’t get any bright ideas.”
He’s right. Not the part about the lawsuit, but Stevie Johansson is the reason why I’m in Portland, Minnesota, population 15,333, instead of working at the Cedar Hill Times on my way to a Pulitzer. I’d been thisclose, and it went up in a ball of flames. That’s why I need this job.
“What am I supposed to do about my sister? I don’t like leaving her alone for so long, and Old Harbor is five hours from here.”
“I’ll check on her.”
Helluva lot of good that will do, but it’s all I got.
“When do you want me to go?”
“Now. As soon as you can. Go home, pack a suitcase, tell your sister you’ll see her soon, and get going. It’s supposed to snow up there tonight, and the roads can get slick by the water.”
I stand and head for the office door. “You’re going to job hunt for me while I’m gone, right?”
As always, if you forgot you have access to a free copy of My Biggest Mistake for visiting and hopefully subscribing to the blog, here is the link to download the billionaire, ugly duckling, standalone novel.
VM Rheault 