"Stay calm, have courage, and wait for signs."

That’s one of my favorite quotes. I don’t know if Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire series of books, got it from somewhere else or not, but I don’t care.

This week has been a mix of that. Usually, release day weeks are, for me, a happy time. Especially one a week after FetCon.

Having to say goodbye to our old Lab, Scudder, on Tuesday afternoon has pretty much sucked the joy out of it for me.

So all I can do is…

Stay calm, have courage, and wait for signs.

That’s not always easy to do, but I’m trying.

With indie publishing being what it is, flexible and fast, I was able to insert a modified dedication to Scudder (who was the inspiration for Doogie in the book) into Pinch Me.

This book is one I’ve actually had on the burner for…well, over ten years. I got the idea for it from the Barenaked Ladies’ song of the same title. (I’ve trimmed the lyrics down to hit the highlights.)

It’s the perfect time of year
Somewhere far away from here
I feel fine enough, I guess
Considering everything’s a mess
There’s a restaurant down the street
Where hungry people like to eat
I could walk, but I’ll just drive
It’s colder than it looks outside
…
Pinch me, pinch me
‘Cos I’m still asleep
Please God, tell me
That I’m still asleep
…
On an evening such as this
It’s hard to tell if I exist
…
It’s like a dream, you try to remember but it’s gone, then ya
Try to scream but it only comes out as a yawn, when ya
Try to see the world beyond your front door

The idea for the story immediately smacked me between the eyes. That happens frequently. (Taking it beyond an idea is a different story.) Unfortunately, it sort of languished despite having most of it written. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that it was missing something. Yeah, it was a complete story, lots of conflict, lots of action, lots of energy.

But…

Yawn.

I’d pull it out every so often and look at it and then put it away again. I honestly didn’t know what it was missing, and while I thought maybe I’d go ahead and self-pub it as a romantic mystery, I just…

Didn’t know.

Fast forward to Bash this year, at the end of May. (It’s an annual BDSM convention here in the area.) I was literally finishing up Two Geeks and Their Girl to submit it when we got there. And at one point during some downtime, I pulled open the file for Pinch Me.

And it smacked me between the eyes what was missing.

I immediately rewrote the first and second chapters in less than an hour and the rest of the story just automagically filled out the “missing bits” in my brain.

Yes, I’ll be the first to admit the amnesia trope is common. (To be fair, it wasn’t AS common when I first got the idea for it years ago. LOL And I’d originally wrote it as a suspense, not a romance.) But what happens when a woman not only has to try to regain her memory, but her fiance is her Master and is afraid to tell her about that part of their life?

And now (channelling Paul Harvey) you know…the rest of the story. LOL

So I hope you enjoy Pinch Me. It also allowed me a chance to revisit and update other characters from other books in what I’ve now dubbed the Suncoast Society series.

Description

http://www.bookstrand.com/pinch-me

[Siren Sensations: Erotic Consensual BDSM Romantic Suspense, spanking, paddling, cropping, sex toys, HEA]

Laura Spaulding awakes in a hospital following a vicious attack that has stolen her memories of the past. All she has to go on are the strong emotions she instinctively feels for close friends and her fiancé, Rob.

Rob Carlton is more than just Laura’s fiancé—he’s also her Master. But how can he tell her she’s his slave when he has to win her love all over again first? And he feels helpless to protect her from a nameless stalker who’s killed before and won’t stop until he finishes the job with Laura.

As bits and pieces slowly return, Laura struggles to rediscover who she was, and if she even wants to be that same person again. All she knows is there’s something huge missing in her life now, and not just memories of the attack. She also knows it’ll take more than just pinching herself to wake up from her living nightmare and bring a killer to justice.

A Siren Erotic Romance

Tymber Dalton is a Siren-exclusive author.

—

You can find this and my other current BookStrand releases, including the other books in the Suncoast Society series, under all my pen names on my author page at:

http://www.bookstrand.com/tymber-dalton

The other books in the Suncoast Society series are as follows:

Safe Harbor
Cardinal’s Rule
Domme by Default
The Reluctant Dom
The Denim Dom

And you don’t even need to wait for a book to hit Kindle. You can buy the .prc version and transfer it to your Kindle (and they have other formats for other devices), or enter your Kindle’s email address in your BookStrand account and they’ll send the file right to your device:

http://www.sirenbookstrand.com/customers/kindle.htm