#FridayFun One Summer Night Playlist #AttheShore

Admit it, there are some songs that bring back memories every time you hear them. Whether it’s thoughts of hitting the open road on your way to the beach (or the shore as Jersey folk like to say) or of a special time in your life, those songs stick with you.

Wouldn’t it Be Nice by the Beach Boys is one of those songs! Being down the shore on summer nights brings the sounds of the Beach Boys to mind for sure. But this song is doubly special because it’s “Our Song.” It was part of the soundtrack for the movie Shampoo which was my first date with my husband. Being without transportation, we went to see the movie together on campus at Villanova. Brings back good memories every time I hear it.

FYI – this song is from the Pet Sounds album which is considered one of the best albums of all time. If you love the Beach Boys like I do, check out Love and Mercy which is the Brian Wilson story and has a lot on the creation of the Pet Sounds album. Fabulous movie.

Have a great weekend and if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to sign up for the May 11 Cover Reveal event on Facebook.

Please click here if you can’t see the Beach Boys Video below or cut and paste this link: https://youtu.be/lD4sxxoJGkA.

#FunFriday My Writing #Playlist & Excerpt Wars

I wanted to change things up and offer you something fun that will hopefully get you looking forward to the end of Friday and a fabulous weekend! It’s chilly today in NY/NJ, but we are looking at weather in the 80’s. There are some fun things happening this weekend. Taking a walk with a girlfriend to check out the British Car Show in Ocean Grove. I love cars, especially those little MG roadsters.

Going for a run with my daughter on Sunday. She’s been doing the From Couch to 5K workout and I’ve been stepping up my game since we made a deal to run a 5K together next year. Wish us luck!

Excerpt Wars are still going strong at the Tall, Dark and Paranormal Fan Page. Please visit the page for details on how to win a $100 Gift Card or e-books.

For those not on Facebook, please leave a comment here or tweet this phrase:

Excerpt Wars Tall Dark & #Paranormal .@CaridadPineiro #99cent #Boxset http://bit.ly/1btXKrp

I’ll share my excerpt down below, but for now, today’s Fun Friday is a playlist for songs that get me going! Sometimes it’s just the catchy beat, other times the theme, but for whatever reason, these songs are on my must listen to playlist. So here goes!

Caridad’s Playlist

Excerpt Wars!!

Here’s my excerpt for today’s Excerpt Wars! This is from SINS OF THE FLESH, my contribution to the box set.

SINS OF THE FLESH Paranormal Suspense“Easy, Cat. They’re just memories,” Mick said softly.

She grabbed hold of his t-shirt, her hands fisted tightly into the fabric as she keened like an animal. Only the press of her body against his was very human and very womanly.

Too much so, Mick realized, fighting his visceral reaction to her proximity.

“Why is this happening?” she murmured against his chest, rubbing her head there as if by doing so she could erase the images.

He cradled the back of her head with immense restraint and tenderness, sifting his fingers through the thick curls. “They gave you small doses of LSD in addition to a bunch of other hallucinogenic drugs. It may take a little while for all that medication to work out of your system.”

“What’s a ‘little while’,” she said and wagged her head more forcefully, as if trying to dislodge the visions.

As he glanced down, he realized she had gone all camo on him again. Her hands were the color of his dark blue polo shirt and the rest of her was beginning to blend into the rust brown of the over-sized t-shirt he had offered her to wear.

“A couple of days or even weeks. It’s hard to tell with LSD, but try to focus, Cat,” he urged, recalling the mantra she had used the day before to regain control.

She listened to his command. She repeated the word over and over and as the tightness left her body, so did the color, but not before she caught a glimpse of herself in her altered state.

She released him and raised her hands. Held them before her and examined them while her skin slowly faded back to normal.

“What am I?” she asked, puzzlement in the stormy ocean blue of her eyes when her gaze skipped to his.

He could have lied. Tempered his words with tenderness, but he had a limited quantity of that and holding her had expended most of it.

“A science experiment,” he said, released her, and returned to his spot in the chair.

Her eyes narrowed as she considered his statement. The soft curls of her hair bobbed back and forth with the motion of her head as she said, “They were supposed to help me.”

“You’re not blind anymore,” he reminded, although he wasn’t sure she would consider that a worthwhile trade-off to becoming someone’s lab rat.

He wouldn’t.

She leaned back against the headboard, raised slender elegant fingers to her temples and rubbed tiny circles there. “Toward the end, when I was sick, I couldn’t see. But it was the pain in my head . . . ”

Meeting his gaze directly, she said, “It was the pain that stole the music.” Tapping a spot above her heart with one hand, she added, “My music.”

The passion in her words was unmistakable.

He understood it. Admired it.

He couldn’t allow those sentiments to change what he had to do. “Someone killed Wells. Do you know who?”

“If I did, don’t you think I’d tell you so you’d let me go?” she shot back.

“Not if you were the one who did it,” he replied calmly, barely controlling his smile at her show of spunk. He liked feisty Cat much more than the mewling weak Cat the drugs had created.

She threaded her fingers into her hair, pulling it back off her face. Releasing the long locks to fall back onto her shoulders as she said, “Why don’t you turn me over to the police? Let them decide.”

He shrugged and intentionally kept his tone neutral. “Because I’ve been paid to return you to Edwards.”

Her skin paled for a moment before a bit of the t-shirt’s rust color leaked onto her body.

Fight or flight, he thought again.

“You’re afraid of Edwards. He hurt you?”

“Morales. Edwards,” she admitted, looking downward at the sheet covering her body. Plucking at the folds of it nervously before she asked, “Are you going to give me back to Edwards?”

“Do you think that’s what I’m going to do?” he said, perversely intrigued to hear her initial thoughts about him.

She slowly lifted her head and tilted it at a slight angle. She examined him intently, but the look wasn’t one like he generally received from most women. This one reminded him of the look from one of his elementary school teachers.

Exasperated described it best. That brought a disappointment he didn’t understand, so he arched a brow and said, “Well?”

She raised her chin a defiant inch. “I think that if you were going to do that, you would have done it already.”

Her slightly rebellious response roused his smile once again. “So what do you propose I do?”

Her chin shot up another tiny bit, but there was nothing tiny about the determination in her voice.

“Help me find out who killed Dr. Wells.”
TDPmeme2

#WriteWed Just One Night and the Boys of Summer

ONE NIGHT ONLYA lot of writers will tell you they have a playlist of songs in their head as they are creating their story.

Not me. I’m totally into the stories and characters on their own and it isn’t until after that I can match up songs with them.

For sure that’s the story with JUST ONE NIGHT, my contribution to the ONE NIGHT ONLY #Erotic #Romance anthology.

The initial inspiration for Jase, the hero in the story, came from my days at Villanova and awareness of the ROTC program there. It was always lovely to see the men and women in dress uniforms on campus and at other events.

The Jersey Shore location is thanks to my love of that area, but also because I grew up close to the water and spent a lot of time at the beach. I remember driving to Jones Beach, listening to the Beach Boys and later as a teen, to songs like this one by Don Henley. Actually, this is probably my anthem for my days on the shore and Jase is definitely a “Boy of Summer” for the heroine, Nicole.

I hope you enjoy this rendition by Don Henley from a Farm Aid concert. Thanks to Farm Aid for posting it on Youtube! If you can’t see the Boys of Summer video below, please click here.

#WriteWed #OneNightOnly Playlist Teenaged Dream by Katy Perry

I love Katy Perry! Okay, now that I got that out of my system. . .

One of the things that Nickie and Jase banter about in JUST ONE NIGHT, my contribution to the ONE NIGHT ONLY erotic romance anthology is how Nickie reads romance novels during her summers on the beach.

Actually, Nickie also spends a lot of time fantasizing about Jase as he’s up in the lifeguard stand and pictures him as the hero in one of her novels. She finally confesses that to Jase during their one night together.

Somehow TEENAGED DREAM by Katy Perry came to mind when I asked myself what song might be right for the playlist for Nickie and Jase’s story. I could imagine Nickie listening to this on her Ipod while she kind of reads her romances and wishes she had the courage to finally take a chance with Jase.

If you can’t see the Katy Perry video below, please click here.

Fall back Friday NOW AND ALWAYS Playlist

I had a very definite playlist in mind when I wrote NOW AND ALWAYS. The playlist was filled with songs that conjured up sultry tropical nights in Miami and the heartbreak of love that didn’t come easy.

So this Friday we’re falling back to the 1990s and Gloria Estefan’s Can’t Stay Away From You. I could so picture this being Connie’s song as she deals with all the love and angst of a relationship with Victor.

If you can’t see the video below, you can click here.