Tuesday, February 12, 2008

EXCERPT: The Duchess and the Dirtwater Faery

The Duchess and the Dirtwater Faery

a short story in

Faery Special Romances


Faery Special Romances by Jacquie Rogers The Duchess And the Dirtwater Faery


Faery Special Romances--a Fantasm Award Double Finalist!

Best Faery Tale Romance
Best Overall Fantasy Romance


The Duchess and the Dirtwater Faery finaled in the P.E.A.R.L Awards for Best Short Story, so I decided to post an excerpt, especially since Kegan is one of my favorite heroes. :) He's a tall redheaded fae man who is hiding out in the Human World because he can't stand the woman Princess Keely is trying to match him with. So he's in Idaho Territory working as a blacksmith.

Copyright © 2007 Jacquie Rogers

Idaho Territory, 1885

It was going to be either the best day or the worst day of my life.

Whichever, when I saw the classy dame’s wagon stuck in the mud, I knew my day would be interesting. With a final plink on the hinge I was shaping, I laid my hammer on the anvil and chuckled at the general confusion on the street outside. I’m from the Faery World, of the Red Clan, and my name is Kegan.

The clay mud gave the town its name—Dirtwater. We locals (meaning those of us who have lived through the four seasons here) glean great amusement from outsiders thinking they know our country better than we do. And so it went with the covered wagon and the driver who took it upon himself to whip the mules, when the animals were smart enough to know that a wagon sunk in mire up to its axles wasn’t going anywhere.

The lady was as beautiful as she was snooty. I’d place the cost of her fancy gown at about my yearly income, and maybe throw in the next-door baker’s, too. She didn’t seem to care one whit for her finery, though, as she bailed off the wagon, slapping away the driver as he tried to assist, then trudged with her skirts dragging through the knee-deep mud, and barged right into my blacksmith shop, waving her parasol like a sword. Hells bells, what do you do with a woman like that?

“I want the wagon fixed and a new driver hired,” she ordered in her refined English accent as she stood to her entire five-foot height, chin up, lips pinched. I cleared a chair by pushing the tools onto the floor and she sat, her reticule perched on her lap and her parasol leaning against her skirt. “And I want dinner.”

“Howdy-do, ma’am.” I leaned back on the shop’s center-support pole and wondered what a Brit lady like her was doing in Dirtwater. She needed to learn a thing or two about this country if she planned to stay more than a day. “I’d like a new roof, walls that don’t leak cold air in the winter, and you can have the woman who runs the confectionery. I never knew such a sour woman could make such sweet things.”

“You make light of me.”

“And you don’t seem to ken where you are. This is a hard country, ma’am. You play by its rules—it doesn’t play by yours. If you do that, you’ll enjoy yourself. If you don’t, you’ll probably die. Your choice.”

She chewed her lip for a moment, then took a deep breath. “What would you do, Mr. . . ?

“Kegan. I’d fire whoever told that driver to take a team and wagon through foot-deep mud.”

She looked me straight in the eye. “I told him to.”

That didn’t surprise me. “Then I’d hire some men to take care of those mules, and a blacksmith to fix that wagon of yours.”

“I’m hiring you.”

“Well, ma’am, I’m mighty expensive.”

She opened her reticule. “How much?”

“A kiss and five dollars ought to cover it.”

Her gaze faltered a bit, but she recovered quickly. “Here’s ten dollars.”

“That’s nice, but it’ll cost a kiss, too.”

“You, sir, are sweaty.”

“And you, ma’am, are muddy.”

Jacquie

Princess Keely, Star of Faery Special Romances

Jacquie Rogers *** Myspace *** Bebo *** Faery World

Faery Special Romances *** See the Book Video

Royalties go to Children's Tumor Foundation,
ending Neurofibromatosis through Research

Coming soon: Down Home Ever Lovin' Mule Blues

Down Home Ever Lovin' Mule Blues

Monday, February 11, 2008

Thursday 13: 13 Historical Quotations of Love



Happy Valentine's Day!

13 Historical Quotations of Love



  1. Love is a blazing, crackling, green-wood flame, as much smoke as flame; friendship, married friendship particularly, is a steady, intense, comfortable fire. Love, in courtship, is friendship in hope; in matrimony, friendship upon proof. ~~Samuel Richardson
  2. Who can give law to lovers? Love is a greater law to itself. ~~Boethius (Anicius Manlius Severinus), De Consolatione Philosophiae
  3. All the pictures that hung in my memory before I knew you have faded and given place to our radient moments together. Now I cannot live apart from you...Your words are my food, your breath my wine. You are everything to me. ~~Sarah Bernhardt
  4. As for me, to love you alone, to make you happy, to do nothing which would contradict your wishes, this is my destiny and the meaning of my life. ~~Napoleon Bonaparte
  5. 'Tis said of love that it sometimes goes, sometimes flies; runs with one, walks gravely with another; turns a third into ice, and sets a fourth in a flame: it wounds one, another it kills: like lightning it begins and ends in the same moment: it makes that fort yield at night which it besieged but in the morning; for there is no force able to resist it. ~~Miguel de Cervantes
  6. We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence, and its only end. ~~Benjamin Disraeli
  7. Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get--only with what you are expecting to give--which is everything. ~~Katharine Hepburn
  8. I cannot exist without you - I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again - my Life seems to stop there - I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I were dissolving... I have been astonished that Men could die Martyrs for religion - I have shudder'd at it - I shudder no more - I could be martyr'd for my Religion - Love is my religion - I could die for that - I could die for you. My creed is Love and you are its only tenet - You have ravish'd me away by a Power I cannot resist. ~~John Keats
  9. Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage. ~~Lao-Tzu
  10. The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden, a dim twilight, and a fountain singing to it... you and you alone make me feel that I am alive. Other men it is said have seen angels, but I have seen thee and thou art enough. ~~George Moore
  11. At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet. ~~Plato
  12. There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not. ~~La Rochefoucauld
  13. Love, and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as the two sides of an algebraic equation. ~~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Honorable Mentions (because verse messes up the numbering)

With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls,
For stony limits cannot hold love out,
And what love can do, that dares love attempt.
~~William Shakespeare

Love wing’d my Hopes and taught me how to fly
~~The Oxford Book of English Verse

Love, and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as the two sides of an algebraic equation. ~~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love is like the wild rose-briar;
Friendship like the holly-tree.
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms,
But which will bloom most constantly?
~~Emily Bronte

Sources:
http://www.quotations.com
http://www.bartleby.com


Jacquie

Princess Keely, Star of Faery Special Romances

Jacquie Rogers
*** Myspace *** Bebo *** Faery World

Faery Special Romances
*** See the book video
Royalties go to Children's Tumor Foundation, ending Neurofibromatosis through Research

Coming soon: Down Home Ever Lovin' Mule Blues


Down Home Ever Lovin' Mule Blues by Jacquie Rogers

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

10 Finalists: Now You Pick Your Faery Favorite Romance Story!





We asked for your stories and

you sent some great ones!


Our dedicated panel of judges picked ten finalists:


Tina Brunelle: Valentine's Day Wedding
Melinda Stogsdill: Harry Belafonte in Germany
Joan Powell: His Heart Forever
Tresa Hiatt: Half Off Sale
Gigi Hicks: Bed of Roses
Joy Isley: Hot-air Balloon Ride
Amelia: Salmon Steak
Jan Smith: Notes, Notes, Notes!
Vonda Gouker: Valexmas
Joan Woods: Her Faery Own Hero

And now, let's see who gets the prizes. I hope you enjoy their stories as much as we did--you can read their stories on my website (click on Contest! Vote for your favorite.

Voting is easy!

Go to my website and click on Contest.

After you read the entries, the voting button will take you to the ballot page. Remember, you can vote for one in each category: Most Humorous and Most Heartwarming.

Jacquie

Princess Keely, Star of Faery Special Romances

Jacquie Rogers *** Myspace *** Bebo *** Faery World

Faery Special Romances *** See the Book Video
Royalties go to Children's Tumor Foundation,
ending Neurofibromatosis through Research

Coming soon: Down Home Ever Lovin' Mule Blues

Down Home Ever Lovin' Mule Blues by Jacquie Rogers