Showing posts with label Gail Roughton Branan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gail Roughton Branan. Show all posts

Apr 2, 2012

War-N-Wit, Inc. - Contest Entry

War-N-Wit, Inc.
By
Gail Roughton

I’m the cat’s meow.  The star.  I’m all over this series.  Over it, you understand.  As in, “on the covers”, not in the actual story.   Not yet, anyway, you never know what this crazy writer woman’s gonna do.  She’s not really my job, but since my assignments live in her head, well, she kinda goes with the territory.  If she ain’t happy, my assignments ain’t happy.  They’re just sitting there bored.  So I guess I have to take care of her by default. 

I’m Micah, by the way.  The cat.  The black one.  Sort of.  Actually, I’m Micah, Angel of the Divine Plan.  The watcher of spiritual evolution and revealer of the next steps of the path.  The world first met me over at the crazy writer lady’s place.  (http://gailroughton.blogspot.com/)  And you have no idea how long I’ve been watching these two.  ‘Course, they don’t know me from Adam’s housecat.  (Did Adam have a housecat, anyway? Did Adam have a house?)  But I digress.   See, it’s like this…

Ariel Anson thinks she has her life in order.  She’s young, smart, and beautiful, even if she doesn’t believe the beautiful part.  She’s a paralegal with a great career and a fiancé who’s a CPA.  You just can’t get any steadier than that.  Then she meets private investigator, bounty hunter, process server Chad Garrett.  What does War-N-Wit, Inc. stand for anyway?  Warlock and Witch?  For real?  Oh, yes!  For real.  Her life as she knows it is over!  

This Chad Garrett?  Oh, man.  He’s always into something.  It’s a high-risk profession to begin with.  But he took it to the next level even before he found Ariel Anson.  He’s a warlock, after all.  So he was bad enough to begin with.  And then he just had to go and find his witch.  Now my workload’s doubled.  But did he give a minute’s pause to think about that, when he finally convinced her to meet him?  At a Mexican restaurant, of all places?  No, he did not.  Though I guess I have to remember he doesn’t know a thing about me.  Anyhow, sparks started flying the minute those two met.  Like they weren’t flying already in those emails. No, at that point, he didn’t give a leaf of catnip how much extra trouble he was causing.  Not as much as he’s gonna cause, though.  I’m gonna have to watch these two through a whole series. 

Excerpt:

When the waitress asked if we wanted booth or table, I automatically said booth. I needed that table between us. That didn't work out so well, though, as he slid in right next to me.

"Too close?" he asked.

"No," I lied. Worlds too close. To the waitress, I said "Small guacamole salad and a chili rellano, please. And tea."

War-N-Wit, Inc.

He perused the menu briefly and flipped it shut. "Two chicken burritos, please. Unsweetened tea." And under the table, he rested his hand on my knee. An electric bolt of heat shot through me. I knew I should pull my thigh back over. Instead I felt it lean towards him.

I turned to the bowls of salsa and chips as though seeking sanctuary from a church altar. The first bite reminded me with a jolt that even though I loved Rosita's food, her salsa wasn't my favorite as it was made thin and, to my tastes, exceedingly hot. And our tea wasn't even on the table yet. And today, I wasn't even going to love the food because I was going to have a hell of a hard time eating anything. I glanced around. Nobody here that knew me. The attorneys ate at Rosita's occasionally, but almost always on a Friday when they made it a tradition to eat what they termed "funky". And nobody from Scott's accounting firm ever came in here, which had figured highly in the choice of meeting spot.

"Safe?" he asked, amusement in his voice. "Nobody here to run tattling back to the fiancé?" I'd forgotten he had a Floridian non-accent rather than a southern accent.

"So it appears," I said, leaning back. "Good drive up?"

"After I ran out of the rain. Wanta loosen up a little bit before you break?"

"I don't know if I can. And I don't even know what to say or talk about or—"

"Well, you've been just overflowing with questions in the emails lately."

The waitress deposited the plates with the usual warning they were hot, and I picked up my fork, promptly burning the hell out of my mouth on the first bite of rellano. To hell with this. Yes, I'd been overflowing with questions. Questions mostly unanswered.

"Yes, I have, haven't I, and you've studiously avoided answering most of them, too." I turned to face him, but instead of any of my prior questions, I had a new one. "Half-witch, half-bitch?"

He laughed. "For the moment."

"For the moment?"

"Until you figure it out. I'd thought there was no way you didn't know. Or at least have some glimmer of an idea."

"About what?"

"That you're a witch. One of the most powerful ones I've ever run across. And nobody with that much power could possibly not know. At least a little bit. Guess I thought wrong on that one."

Okay, I was in the Twilight Zone.




Gail Roughton
Gail Roughton is a native of small town Georgia who grew up on the banks of Stone Creek Swamp, immersing herself in imaginary worlds fueled by whichever book was in her hand at the moment including, but definitely not limited to, Edgar Allen Poe,  H. P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker and Ray Bradbury.  She has spent over thirty years in a law office as a paralegal, having decided during the course of her first work experience that while she was as fascinated by the legal world as the imaginary worlds of her childhood, she never wanted to be a lawyer.  Sharpening her technical legal writing abilities all day every day while working full-time and raising her three children, her “spare” time has been devoted to writing because “I couldn’t have this much fun for free doing anything else.”


Nov 2, 2011

New Author Gail Roughton Branan's Unruly Interview

Today we welcome new author, Gail Roughton Branan, who is ready to introduce us to her characters from her upcoming book, Miami Days & Truscan (K)nights. Welcome, Gail! I see you’re brought some people with you...care to explain who they are?

Hello, folks!  I’m Gail Roughton Branan and I’m thrilled to be here with you today to introduce you to my heroine Tess Ames and my hero Dalph appearing directly from the pages of  Miami Days & Truscan (K)nights, coming April, 2012 from MuseItUp Publishing.  First up, …

Flowers On The Wall
Tess:  Okay, enough.  First you have me on a plane flying through a door in the Bermuda Triangle and crash landing in this weird parallel world where I have to be rescued from cannibal pigs by some dude built like Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Conan the Barbarian – and dressed like him too –

Dalph:  Green Eyes!  Manners!  We are guests here.  Wherever here is.  And who exactly is this Arnold Schwarzenegger?  You never mentioned him before.  I thought Carlos Ramos back in Miami was the only man in your past I had to worry about.
Tess:  Exactly!  Where’s here? I think this lady’s got some problems. Where does she come up with all this?  And why does she think she’s got the right to just move us around and plop us down like this? Don’t talk to me about manners! 
Gail:  Hold on!  I didn’t mean to plop you here, there, or anywhere!  Well, okay, I did plop you down in Trusca.  And that’s where you’re supposed to be, so why are you here?
Dalph:  Tess? This Arnold?
Tess:  Oh, give it up already!  I was only trying to let everybody know you’re a hunk, for cryin’ out loud!
Gail:  I’ll say. 
Tess:  Excuse me.  I’m not sure I appreciate the tone those words were uttered in.  You don’t have a life?  You’ve got your eyes on my hero?
Gail:  Well, duh!  I had my eyes on him, my hands on him – okay, let’s back up and not go there.  Let me rephrase that.  I created that man.  You said he was a hunk.  I agreed.  Of course he is.  Why would I make up a hero who wasn’t?
Dalph:  If I might intervene – you also created my Tess.  Might I inquire if it ever occurred to you that she could be a bit less headstrong and impulsive?
Gail:  Look here, your majesty, I don’t know about other writers, but my heroines are always some aspect of me so let’s not get insulting here.  I wrote you into existence, I can write you out of it. 
Dalph:  Though I hasten to add she has the really annoying habit of usually being right.  As well as always beautiful. 
Gail:  Much better, discretion being the better part of valor and all that.  Now, where did Tess go? Oh, Lord!  She’s gone!  Tess!  Come back here!  Honestly, characters are worse than kids, you just can’t take ‘em anywhere!  Hey, Dalph!  Your Majesty!  Randalph of Trusca! Yeah, I’m talking to you!  Come back here!  Where are you goin’ now?
And with that, gentle readers – Gail Roughton Branan has left the building in pursuit of fleeing characters.  So if anyone should see them – could you call BR 549?
Gail and Grandson
Gail Roughton Branan is a native of small town Georgia who grew up on the banks of Stone Creek Swamp, immersing herself in imaginary worlds fueled by whichever book was in her hand at the moment including, but definitely not limited to, Edgar Allen Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker and Ray Bradbury. She has spent over thirty years in a law office as a paralegal, having decided during the course of her first work experience that while she was as fascinated by the legal world as the imaginary worlds of her childhood, she never wanted to be a lawyer. Sharpening her technical legal writing abilities all day, every day while working full-time and raising her three children, her “spare” time has been devoted to writing because “I couldn’t have this much fun for free doing anything else.”

Please check out Gail's Blog, Flowers On The Fence, for a special tribute to a friend and much more at http://flowersonthefence.blogspot.com/.

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