Beautiful Beautiful
by Heidi Garrett
Once Upon A Time Today #1
Publication: November 15th 2013 by Half-Faerie Publishing
Adult Contemporary Romance | Fairytale Novella
Movie director Karen Mayham has an eye for beauty. Now her years of struggling on the indie film circuit are about to pay off. She's the frontrunner to win Golden Pinnacle's Director of the Year. Winning will mean generous financial backing for her next project, and the most bankable actors in the industry are already signaling interest in the leading role. How will she decide which Adonis is right for the part of Demion Glass?
In this contemporary retelling of the eponymous Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, Karen's journey leads her to discover a deeper meaning of beauty.
In this contemporary retelling of the eponymous Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale, Karen's journey leads her to discover a deeper meaning of beauty.
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A peek inside Beautiful, Beautiful
Sherri Winestine, the aging and chunky agent for Bruce Rik, was the next person Frank introduced Kerrin to. He definitely had an agenda.
Her heart floated. Would the rest of the nominees receive similar treatment before the night was over, or had Frank singled her out?
A frumpy woman approached, a young god in tow. He really could be Adonis wearing a faded green T shirt, worn chinos, and rubber flip-flops. Kerrin blinked. She glanced up at the recessed light fixtures. A ricochet of shadow?
No, the closer he got the better he looked.
So scrubbed and fresh. The fingers of her right hand curled. God she needed her camcorder.
“Frank!” the woman shouted.
The host held out both his arms. She almost knocked him over with her enthusiasm for his embrace. He closed his eyes and patted her back.
The woman yanked on Adonis’ hand, as if he were her five-year-old son. “Here he is. The one I told you about. Anthony Zorr.” She made an impressive maneuver, exiting the close embrace with Frank to shove her beautiful find in his face.
Sherri waved and wandered off.
Anthony grinned.
Dawn shimmered across a rising tide.
Kerrin lost track of the conversation. All she saw were those cheekbones, those masculine bow lips, and that stance— not bloated and beefy, just taut. And tan. He glistened. Standing with his hands jammed into his pockets, he gave off an air of bashfulness.
Where had he come from?
She re-tuned to the conversation. Ah, just off the bus from the cornfields of Iowa. He wouldn’t stay untouched for much longer. Kerrin wanted him— she didn’t know for which film, and she didn’t care. She just wanted him in front of her camera, filling frame after frame, with that natural boyish exuberance, at the edge of becoming a man.
“How old are you?” Kerrin asked.
Anthony, the woman with him, and Frank, looked at her as if something living had gotten caught between her teeth.
“Ma’m?” He had called her ma’am. She couldn’t decide whether it was endearing or insulting. Maybe a little of both.
Kerrin pressed on. There were at least four other directors in this room, who would lure him, take him, steal him away from her. She wasn’t going to let them. “My name is Kerrin Mayham.”
He took her proffered hand. “Right on.”
His handshake was firm, dry. The promise of that simple physical exchange charged her body.
“Kerrin Mayham!” the woman standing with Anthony blared.
All the heads in the room turned in their direction. Kerrin flattened her hand against her thigh, to resist the reflex to cover her ear.
Oblivious to the foghorn effect of her voice, the woman continued. “I’m such a fan of yours! I’ve seen every single film you’ve ever made. Anthony is twenty-four. He has a great look, don’t you think?”
“Yes,” Kerrin said.
“And he’s not just a pretty face. He’s won awards.”
She assumed for acting. “That’s great,” Kerrin said.
“Anthony, Kerrin’s one of the five directors nominated for the Director of the Year,” Frank said.
“Nice to meet you, ma’ am.”
There it was again. That ma’ am.
“Please, call me Kerrin.”
“Have you met Marni Lamb?” Frank asked. “She’s an agent with Colossal Talent.”
The woman wedged herself between Kerrin and Frank. “We’ve met now.”
Kerrin was again impressed with the physical agility of someone so rectangular. Anthony spread his legs and settled his arms in reverse fig leaf. Kerrin imagined camera angles. Vivid expression. Anthony blessed her with another shy smile.
Marni squeezed Kerrin’s arm with two hands. “Anthony’s going to make a huge splash in Glitter City,” she said. “First film— he’ll be a star. I know these things.”
Kerrin couldn’t disagree.
Heidi Garrett is the author of the contemporary fairytale novella collection, Once Upon a Time Today. In these stand-alone retellings of popular and obscure fairy tales, adult characters navigate the deep woods of the modern landscape to find their Happily Ever Afters.
She is also the author of The Queen of the Realm of Faerie series, a fairy tale/high fantasy mashup about a young half-faerie, half mortal woman who must save both the Enchanted and Mortal Worlds.
Heidi was born in Texas, and in an attempt to reside in as many cities in that state as she could, made it to Houston, Lubbock, Austin, and El Paso. She also spent a decade in southern California, but was disappointed to discover it seldom rains there. Now Heidi lives in Eastern Washington state where she's content experiencing the four seasons with her husband, their two cats, her laptop, and her Kindle.
Being from the South, she often contemplates the magic of snow and hopes to remind readers that: Once Upon A Time You Lived in an Enchanted World Too…
She is also the author of The Queen of the Realm of Faerie series, a fairy tale/high fantasy mashup about a young half-faerie, half mortal woman who must save both the Enchanted and Mortal Worlds.
Heidi was born in Texas, and in an attempt to reside in as many cities in that state as she could, made it to Houston, Lubbock, Austin, and El Paso. She also spent a decade in southern California, but was disappointed to discover it seldom rains there. Now Heidi lives in Eastern Washington state where she's content experiencing the four seasons with her husband, their two cats, her laptop, and her Kindle.
Being from the South, she often contemplates the magic of snow and hopes to remind readers that: Once Upon A Time You Lived in an Enchanted World Too…
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Thank you for having me on the LUV NV! It's such a beautiful site and a beautiful post!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the introduction to this book and the great giveaway!
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the giveaway! I love that book cover. It's simple and the man looks like he's staring into my soul!!
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