Jumping on the Billionaire Bandwagon

After listening to the Writing Gals excellent podcast on writing ideas that sell, I decided to jump on the Billionaire bandwagon. Scary, I know. One of the girls--sorry, I can't tell you which one because I listen to rather than watch the podcasts while I walk--repeated a number of times that we can still write the books that beacon to us AND write the books that we know (think) will sell. So, while still on the walk, I came up with this idea that I'm calling The Billionaire and his Misbehaving Beagle. 

I started it today around noon because I spent the morning with my daughter redesigning the covers of my newly released The Tick-tock Between You and Me and it's sequel and soon to be released, Dreaming of You and Me. 

Again, I was inspired by the Writing Gals and decided I needed to make my sweet contemporary romance books look less artsy and more contemporary romancy. Here's the before and after covers. What do you think?

Before:

 I love them, but they don't scream contemporary romance like I hope these do.

After:  

 

And here's the beginning of the baby billionaire book. I hope to finish it in just a few weeks while the idea is still hot. Some of you may recognize my character Vanessa from my novella Stuck With You. Both books take place in Laguna, so I thought why not let Vanessa out of her cage? I'd love some feedback.

CHAPTER ONE

Chet let his anger carry him into the hotel and up the stairs to his suite. He didn’t want to stay at the hotel for the simple reason that the hotel never felt like home, despite the fact that he had grown up living in one hotel after another. He preferred his boat, but he could see how staying there with the dog didn’t make sense.

“Hey you!” Vanessa Walgreen rounded the corner and Chet took an instinctive step back.

She laughed and even from a hall length away, the sound sent a creeping chill down Chet’s neck. Vanessa shook her finger at him. “Are you avoiding me?”

Absolutely, Chet thought, but he said, “Why would you think that?”

Vanessa swung toward him. She’d long lost the baby fat she’d carried into high school, but he and his friends still called her the Loch Ness Monster.

She wore a size too small, dark navy skirt and a silky white blouse with the top three buttons undone, exposing a pink lace bra. Chet knew Vanessa would have had the shirt buttoned in the office. So, why did he find the woman from the wedding with her knee-length pink crinoline skirt and neck-high lacy top so much sexier? Same dark hair. Same tall, lanky build.

“With you, I can never tell.” Vanessa slid toward him and pressed her hands against his chest. Her red nails looked like splotches of blood on his bare chest. “You’re a hard man to pin down. We’ll be seeing a lot of each other now that you’ll be working at the hotel.” Vanessa purred as she wrapped an arm around Whit’s waist.

“How did you know about that?” Her perfume filled his head. What scent had the woman from the wedding worn? He wished he knew. He typically didn’t like perfume.

“You know I have my ways!” Vanessa winked. “Your grandfather and I,” she wrapped her middle finger over her pointy finger, “are tight.”

Chet winced. “You two are probably good for each other.”

 “And I’ll be good for you, too!” Vanessa bumped Whit with her hip. “I’ve missed you. Your grandfather has missed you. Where have you been?”

“Marlin fishing in Mexico.”

“It’s pretty hard to run a hotel on the move.”

“There’s a few Montlake hotels in Mexico.”

Vanessa rolled her eyes. “But you’re home now.”

“Huh, not for long.” Not long at all, if he could help it.

“Maybe sometime you can take me on one of your adventures.”

“I don’t think you would like it, Vanessa. Things get pretty rough.”

Vanessa’s laugh trilled. “Oh, I like it rough.”

Chet blinked at her and tried to imagine Vanessa on the slimy deck of a fishing boat. “You don’t even know what that means.”

“You should try me.”

Chet cleared his throat and looked up and down the empty hallway for someone to rescue him. “You know, as much fun as this has been, I have to get Buddy cleaned up. He’s had a rough night.”

“There’s that word again.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her.

She answered his unspoken question. “Rough!” Laughing, she said the word again, but this time while barking like a dog. “Ruff!

“Excuse me.” He pulled away from and walked as fast as he could while towing Buddy to his suite.