Summer’s Night
(Wind Warriors, Book 3)
by Cheyenne Meadows
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Action, Adventure
Night tells himself Summer is his mother’s physical therapist and nothing more. Until she’s kidnapped on his watch and he realises how much he truly cares.
Night, leader of the Wind Warriors, has little time for romance and no patience for his matchmaking mother's selections, too busy focusing on special missions. His orderly life falls apart when Summer, his mother's physical therapist and his budding romantic interest, is kidnapped at gunpoint.
Summer never expects to meet a man like Night, intelligent and downright sexy. She bristles under his dictatorial tone, stands up to him, while beginning to see the man underneath. A man she could spend a lifetime with.
The past comes back to haunt Night, dragging Summer into the midst of danger. Can he gather the team and rush to her rescue before it's too late and he loses the woman he's come to love?
Reader Advisory: This book contains reference to rape and sexual abuse.
Publisher's Note: This book was previously released by another publisher. It has been revised and re-edited for release with Totally Bound Publishing.
One of the questions I get from people all the time is ‘how do you write a story?’ They cite lack of ideas, lack of motivation, and being at a loss of even knowing where to begin in the process for themselves.
I tell them that writing isn’t for the faint of heart. LOL. It’s true. There are voices in your head that decide to talk at the most inopportune time, not to mention the hours at the keyboard, sometimes staring at a blank screen, waiting and hoping for words to magically appear. They never do.
In my case, the idea normally just pops into my head. It could be from a news story I read, from something I’ve seen on TV, even a whisper in the wind while I’m outside caring for my garden. Most of the time, the words grow louder when I go to bed at night and have to be up very early in the morning for work. That’s the best lines, but the worst timing. Grudgingly, I get up and write them down since I’ll never remember them the next morning.
The names of the characters and a bit about them normally comes first as well as a question. What happens to them if this scenario unfolded? What would transpire if this person did this or ran into that one? I play around with the many possibilities and try to find something that fits. It doesn’t have to be a full blown outline and synopsis. My mind doesn’t work that way. Instead, it’s a bit of a slow feeding. One idea leads to another which leads to another. My job is to tie those ideas and scenes together, to progress the story along, and make it all reasonable at the same time.
Once I have an idea, I write a narrative of what I know, the ideas behind scenes, the background. Just sit and let the words flow out of me and onto a document. Now, that happens about one third of the time. The rest, forget the narrative, it’s a day by day battle inside the manuscript itself. No notes, no direction, just butt in chair, hands on keyboard, and making the issues happen. I bounce around in my writing, going with my ideas on what’s to happen at the beginning, middle and end. Whatever part speaks to me for the day is what I write, whether it’s the first chapter or the epilogue. I jump all around. While not my favorite way to write, it does work for me. I simply do what I know then go back and fill in the holes, rational scenes to advance the story along.
There’s no secret recipe and every author has their own way and methods. I say if a person truly wants to write, they simply have to sit down and make it happen.
Here’s a hint. Nothing that is worthwhile comes easy. Writers suffer for their art. We laugh, we cry, we live vicariously through our characters. There are sacrifices in time to be made for a book is never written in a day, despite the amount of time a reader takes to go through one. There’s research which goes hand-in-hand with many stories and the constant backtracking to make sure the flow is forward, your story is consistent, and adding neat details here and there. It’s a labor of love.
Completing the story is only the first step. Afterwards, there’s so much more to be done. Synopsis, query letter, formatting, finding a publisher/s to submit to. Rejection letters. Hopefully acceptance letters. Edits, promotion, cover art. The steps add up until you begin to wonder if this dream will ever come to fruition. All the while, you’re busy multi-tasking by starting your next book, or even working on more than one at the same time. For the world doesn’t stop with a single book. That’s just the start of a long, winding path, filled with so many possibilities.
Never let it be said that an author is lazy, for there is so much more to writing than people realize.
Nothing worth doing is ever easy but there’s some pretty grand rewards if you’re willing to put in the effort.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Summer and Night's story is a fun romance with a little bit of adventure mixed in.
Summer's innocence is refreshing, and Night's alpha personality and desire to protect and romance her reminds me of a fairy-tale prince.
The supporting characters are quirky, especially Night's mother and his team, who made me laugh.
SUMMER'S NIGHT is an entertaining story that offers readers an escape from reality into a setting where knights come to the rescue in heavily armored trucks and ride horses in their spare time.
Growing up in the Midwest, I began reading romance novels in high school, immediately falling in love with the genre, to the point where I decided to write professionally for a career. However, that dream splattered against a brick wall, resulting in a quick death in my first writing class in college when my professor told me bluntly that I wasn't any good at it. I shifted gears quickly, and left my writing dreams behind, eventually settling on becoming a nurse.
A few years back, I stumbled across a fan-fiction writing site on a favorite author's webpage. I began to read stories others wrote, not only making some wonderful close friends from the experience, but also, really learning to write for the very first time. Here I was able to share short stories, practice my writing skills, and truly develop into a writer. More than that, the experience allowed me to revitalize my dream, as I rediscovered joy in writing. Now, I spend my days off with my alpha male characters, quick witted heroines, and see how much trouble everyone can get into.
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