WeWriWa Snippet from The Chocolate House - All for Love - Anthology: Pig in a Poke 3/29/15

Hallelujah!

We made it through the winter and the days are starting to get longer and sunnier, and a smidgen

warmer. Of course, the warmer weather means everything is covered in horse hair but I'm going to ignore that little detail and focus on the positive.

One of the things that has made me very happy this winter was the release of The Chocolate House-All For Love-Anthology, which was compiled by Francine Howarth. The anthology features short stories that were penned by 6 authors from all over the globe. Today's WeWriWa snipet is from the story I contributed, Pig in a Poke.

On the other hand, he wondered why his brother wanted to meet. A dozen different possibilities drifted through his mind, but Simon dismissed each one. None felt quite reasonable.

Simon stood and reached for his coat, only one way to find out.

The sound of an angry, feminine voice drifted through the window.

Simon opened the wooden shutter and looked out the second story window to the street below.

Two men and a tall slender woman with a powerful pair of lungs stood across the street, in front of a small, nondescript building. The woman’s arms flailed while she berated the well dressed, barrel shaped man who Simon recognized as the owner of the plain building. 

Well, that ended a bit more abruptly than I intended. Sorry. If you want to learn more about the trio below Simon's window, grab your copy of The Chocolate House-All for Love-Anthology!

Also, don't forget to check out the official WeWriWa list for links to this week's participating authors. You'll be amazed by the variety!

The Chocolate House-All for Love-Anthology

In the fall of 2014 Francine Howarth (author of Debt of Honor & Infamous Rival) came up with an idea to compile a group of writers who would be interested in writing a story for an anthology. The book would be self-published and the proceeds would be donated to charity. 

By the start of November, 6 writers were committed to the project. We all had different writing experiences, different backgrounds, and different ideas about the type of story we wanted to write.

We also lived on three different continents.

The group consisted of

• ·        David W. Wilkin    
• ·         Elizabeth Bailey
• ·         Francine Howarth
• ·         Giselle Marks
• ·         Susan Ruth
• ·         And me.

It was decided that the stories could be Georgian or Regency in nature and would be set in Bath, England. Now we just needed something to unite the stories. Masqueraders, a fictional Chocolate House located on Milson Street. Perfect. 

During the next few months there was a great deal of sweat, tears, cramped fingers, panic about deadlines, debate about what Masqueraders looked like, laughter, and I’m sure more than a few curse words dropped, but in the end six different stories were submitted. The best thing about the stories is that they have something for everyone. In the pages of Masqueraders you’ll find murder, kidnapping, mystery, murder, romance, and of course, lots and lots of chocolate.

The Chocolate House-All for Love- Anthology is available via Amazon. All of the proceeds are going to Great OrmondStreet Hospital for Children, London. So support a great cause and get a great book out of the deal! 

If you love the book, we'd adore you if you would kindly post a review on Amazon.

WeWriWa Snippet from The Chocolate House - All for Love - Anthology: Pig in a Poke 3/15/15

Happy Ides of March!! I hope today doesn't prove as dramatic for you as it was for good ole Julius Ceaser. He should have just opted to stay in bed.

Getting down to writerly business. It's Sunday which means the Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop. The WeWriWa hop provides writers with an excellent opportunity to showcase thier work, and gives readers a chance to explore some books they might not find through other channels.

Last fall I took advantage to participate with a group that put together an amazing group of Georgian/Regency short stories that are connected through "Masqueradors" a fictional chocolate house in Bath, England. My contribution is Pig in a Poke, a story I found challenging to write, though

I'm pretty pleased with the final results.

Today's Pig in a Poke snippet picks up towards the start of the story and immediately follows the snippet I posted last week.

What did Sebastian want with him? They weren’t close, years had passed since last they spoke, so what possible reason could there be for this sudden need to meet?

And why Masqueraders, The popular chocolate house wasn’t the type of place Sebastian frequented.

Simon tore off a corner of the paper and rolled the scrap between his thumb and index finger. He was torn. On one hand, he wanted to ignore Sebastian’s missive. All of his childhood memories consisted of his older brothers ordering him about. When he’d left home, he swore he’d never do their bidding again.

The Chocolate House - All for Love - Anthology: "Masqueraders" is available in both e-book form and paperback via Amazon. The proceeds are going to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London. Learn more at the official The Chocolate House Facebook page!