The Computer is mightier than the Sword

As a modern day writer, we sometimes might use a pen or pencil to scribble our musing down, but mostly I think we use our computers. So it's important to take care of the tools of our trade. Here are a few things I do to speed up my computer. If you’re like me, as you write you find a million reasons to surf the Internet. Sometimes they are even valid reasons, like research... anyhow, one of the side effects of all this poking around can be a slowing down of your computer’s speed. I’m going to walk you through a few things that may help.

Start at the start button (the bottom left corner on your screen)

Click on ‘Control Panel’

Click on ‘System and Security’

Click on ‘Administrative Tools’

Click on ‘Free up disk space’

This will run quickly or slowly, depending on how long it’s been since you’ve done it. When it has finished a small window will open up. Under ‘files to delete’ put a check mark in ALL of the boxes, don’t worry, it won’t delete anything important even if it is checked off, it just deletes the garbage stored in your computer.

After you check everything off, Click on ‘Clean up system files’

Again, this may go quickly or slowly depending on how much stuff is there. When it is done configuring, the same box will come up again, click okay, then another box will appear and ask if you are sure you want to delete all the files, say yes!

Back in the administrative tools click ‘Defragment your hard drive’

Click on ‘Analyze disk’ (this may take a while)

When it’s done click ‘Defragment disk’ (again, this may take a while, um, a long while if it hasn’t been done for a long time)

Okay, now that this is done, open up your Internet and go to the top right corner and look for ‘Safety’. Click on it then in the drop down menu click ‘delete browsing history’

I check off everything except ‘form data’ and ‘passwords’ (I like being signed in automatically lol) once you’ve checked off the other stuff click ‘delete’. This gets rid of tracking cookies and browsing history (a list of everywhere your mouse has taken you) and stuff that sites like to send to your computer to sit in storage there (I'm sure there's a reason, but I sure don't know what it is)

I recommend you do the first half - freeing up disc space and the defrag - with everything on your computer shut off. (no word docs or email things open) I further recommend you run through this process twice, it should go much quicker the second time, if it doesn’t, run it a third time. Sometimes when the defrag is not done regularly it takes a couple runs through to get everything as it should be.

This should help your system speed up some. A little something extra besides just depending on your security system to do everything. Your computer is a big part of what you do as a writer. From communicating with your publisher, to marketing yourself and your book, and even research (playing on Facebook if you prefer...) So like I said earlier, take some time to take care of one of a writers valuable tools.

Review You!

A dozen links to get your book reviewed, oh, and the last one links you to one-hundred other review sites. No matter what your genre, there will be a place that fits your book perfectly.

http://nightowlreviews.com/nor/

http://goteroticromance.blogspot.com/

http://www.Amazon.com

http://booklistonline.com/

http://allreaders.com/

http://www.theromancereader.com/

http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/for-authors/

http://paranormalromance.org/BookReviews.htm

http://whippedcream2.blogspot.com/2010/04/heart-of-maze-by-rain-chapman.html?zx=13ad76d1ab8a3a3a

http://joyfullyreviewed.com/reviews/Feb10/heartofthemaze.rc.html

http://www.shvoong.com/

http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/09/15/100-best-blogs-for-book-reviews/

Once you become a published author, you have to figure out how to get people reading and buying your book. Sending your book out for reviews is a fantastic way to generate a buzz about your book. If you have writer type friends who are of the published variety, chances are they have a blog of some sort. Exchange a review with them. An I’ll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours sort of deal, only with this one you can keep your shirt on. This will expose both of your respective books to new readers and everybody is a winner.

On a side note, as you click through these links you may come across a book review. My book review to be specific. **smiles winningly** Feel free to read it before you explore the site to find where to send your book for review. Also, many of the ones on this page deal with the romance genre; however, the final link will offer every other genre a chance to be read.

So be brave, you’re a published author. Get out there and pound the information highway for ways to bring your book to the world.

Rain

Rainy Days and Mondays - The Journey

Each writer has their own way of approaching writing. Some write the entire manuscript before returning to the beginning just to start  it all over again. Some edit as they go. I tend to be in the second group of writers.

Every day, as I sit down to add to whichever project I am working on, I start by rereading what is already there to put myself back in the moment I left off in. This is where I tend to find things that require changing. All of the extra commas come out, the tense changes, odd phrasing or head hopping. This isn’t to say I am able to catch all of the strange little foibles that fill my writing. That is where a great writing buddy comes in.

My fellow Wenches keep my writing in line and push me to finish when I falter. My husband (who is not a reader at all) gets treated to excerpts which require a male point of view and as an added bonus, reading these bits out loud usually helps me to find the places that stumble in my writing. I highly recommend reading your work aloud, even if it is only to the family pet or an empty room. You’ll find and rectify the things your mind autocorrects as you read in your head.

 I guess what I’m trying to tell you in my roundabout way is that the writing may be a solitary journey, but the rewrites do not have to be and should not be done alone. When you are the only one reading and reviewing your work, the view can tend to become myopic. So, whether you are part of the first group, who creates the full manuscript before doing any rereading, or the second group, find yourself some people you can trust to tell you the truth. As nice as it is to hear that each word from your pen is solid gold, it is far more helpful to have someone point out where the work stumbles.

If there is no one in your life to tell you when you are abusing your right to use commas, you can do as I did and join a writers group. For myself, there was nothing available to me locally so I turned to the internet. A group called FanStory.com became my home away from home. It is also the place I met my fellow Wenches. The feedback and the lessons I learned there are what brought my writing to the level where it could become published. This doesn’t mean I write flawlessly the first time, every time, far from it. But a writers group is a wonderful place to test your wings and explore new writing genres.

Try to toughen your skin and be open to helpful advice. It’s easy to become offended by someone who is telling you that your perfect brain child suffers from some bad habits. Take a deep breath and don’t respond right away. Give the advice a chance to settle and see if it is something that really will improve your work. You may not always agree, but more often than not, the new set of eyes see a lot more clearly than your love blinded ones.

Just remember, you may take the first steps alone in the caverns of your imagination, but you will find tremendous joy when you retrace those step and shine light on them with someone you trust. Someone who will lovingly help you polish the images you have created to perfection.

Rain :)

Rainy Days and Mondays - Beware the Repeat

When writing your story, take careful note of how often you start sentences with the same word. If your main character’s name is Simon, it is not necessary to start each sentence about him with his name. At the same time, you don’t want to start each sentence with ‘he’ or ‘his’ either. It is possible to convey to the reader who the paragraph is about without starting with these words - although you do want to have the characters name towards the beginning of the paragraph.

Example

Simon turned and rose from his crouched position. His lips formed the word danger to his companions, but no sound passed them. He motion for them to follow through the rising mist. His senses opened. He strained to hear or see any sign of the beast they tracked. He had glimpsed its form through the trees earlier and now feared it was heading for the nearby village. Simon’s heart ached as he thought of his beloved sister Emily. He thought of the terrible damage done to her, body and soul, by the foul animal she mistakenly called husband. Simon’s need for vengeance raged through him. He would put an end to its mockery of life. It would be dead before it could continue its blood-fuelled rampage.

Simon turned and rose from his crouched position. The word danger formed on his lips, but no sound reached his companions. He motion for them to follow through the rising mist. Senses open and straining to hear or see any sign of the beast they tracked. Earlier, he glimpsed its form through the trees and now feared it was heading for the nearby village. His heart ached as he thought of his beloved sister Emily. Thoughts of the terrible damage done to her, body and soul, by the foul animal she mistakenly called husband. Need for vengeance raged through him. There would be an end to its mockery of life. It would be dead before it could continue its blood-fuelled rampage.

Okay, the first paragraph has 126 words, the second 121. So it doesn’t take much in the way of extra or fewer words to eliminate all of the he, he, he, his, his, Simon, Simon’s. For me, the flow of this paragraph is much easier to follow with the varying sentence starters.

You should also be aware of this with paragraph starts. Look through your story or novel. See if there are paragraphs within close proximity to each other that start with the same word. Especially if it is an unusual word like ‘incidental’, sometimes, it can leave the reader feeling as though they have lost their place and returned to the previous paragraph. It’s important to keep the flow of reading going, and having a reader stop to check their place interrupts this.

One more thing about repeats, when describing something, like a storm or a race, it is easy to use the object you are describing frequently. More so if it is something unique. This makes it even more important to be aware of the words you choose. And don’t forget to make certain all of your characters don’t grin with delight or their eyes don’t all twinkle mischievously. Use your thesaurus. It will open up a whole new world of verbal delights for you.

Rain :)

Rainy Days and Mondays - Where you from?

Dialect: a regional variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation from other regional varieties and constituting together with them a single language.

Great, so how do you get a dialect across in your writing? The best way I’ve found is by using the KISS theory. Keep It Simple Stupid. There is no need to start rattling off Scottish or Spanish phrases to prove your character is from another country. In fact, since it’s a braw, bricht, moonlicht th nicht, why don’t we explore this a bit more?

Did you just stumble a bit there? Probably, I know I did even as I wrote it. (Scottish translation courtesy Pamela Wench – it’s a cold, bright, moonlit night tonight) A few key words will let the reader know this person is from somewhere else without making them struggle to find meaning in the words. Stumbling your way through an accent so thick you would have trouble understanding it even if it were read aloud to you, can turn your readers off – fast. Personally, I read fiction for the pleasure of becoming lost in a world of someone else’s creation, not for language lessons.

Example

“Wipe that silly smirk off your face, I will not be found like this!” Her voice came out in a strangled hiss. She tried to make her way to the far side of the stream, to the concealment the bushes there offered.

Iain found himself chuckling, “Och, tis a fine temper ye have. I knew yer passions would run deep.”

A mischievous grin hovered near the corner of her mouth, one brow cocked. “Not as deeply as yours. Now help me out before the whole of the world knows what we have been doing.”

Pleasure at her unabashed response filled him and turned his chuckle into a laugh. He boosted her up onto the steep edge, taking the time to give her bottom a gentle caress. “Dinnae wander too far. I still have questions only ye can answer. Ye ken?”

The man is from Scotland, the woman from England. His every word does not ooze Scotland, but enough do for the imagination to seize on them and fill in the rest. I’ve chosen to leave out the accent for her so I don’t overwhelm readers with two distinct dialects. For her I try to convey her nationality by how she phrases things. So, there are various ways to express different accents and varying degrees of them as well.

Use the internet. There are so many sources out there for writers. Just Google, ‘How to write with a (fill in the blank) accent’ and search through what comes up. Tap any friends you have who have lived, or been to the place you want to capture. Getting a dialect right can add another layer of reading pleasure, putting the reader in a whole different environment and giving them the chance to travel vicariously to new locales.

Whether your characters are from Brooklyn, the Deep South, Rome or England, let a bit of their local color shine through in how they speak. Just a touch will do.

Rain :)

Rainy Days and Mondays - Speech Tags

He Said, She Said...

Have you ever read something, maybe even something you’ve written, that is loaded with speech tags? I know I have. As useful as they can be in say, a group situation, they can really detract from what your characters are trying to communicate. Following a question mark with ‘she asked’, or an exclamation point with ‘he bellowed’, is redundant. The punctuation already lets the reader know the tone in these cases.

It is more effective if you can give your characters something to do, something that separates them from others. A woman can fiddle with her skirt. A man can twirl his moustache. Show your readers who is speaking, don’t tell them. Your writing will be stronger for it. This gives you a chance to let people know so many different things, things only you know about your characters. Do they have habits or foibles that are specific to them? Guzzling coffee, nail biting, hair twirling, finger tapping, or pencil chewing any of these things can be an indicator for who is speaking. What do they do when they are upset? Happy? Annoyed? Hurt? Physical descriptions can be accentuated and cemented into people’s minds.

With Tags

Back story: In a corner booth at the back of a seedy bar, Mary seeks the help of a man named Jim. They attended high school together years before. Jim has always held a special tenderness for Mary, but he is hurt and angry over her assumption that he is involved with illegal activities. She tells him who she suspects of robbing her, a group of men she believes he hangs out with.

“So, will you help me recover my grandmother’s ring, Jim?” Mary asked.

Jim replied sarcastically. “And you would be suitably grateful for my help, I’m sure.”

“You don’t have to be such a jerk about it, you could just say no.” She said and stood up to leave.

“I’m sorry, please don’t go.” He begged. “Look, I’ll help you if I can, but what makes you think I know any of those guys?”

Without Tags

Mary twisted her napkin again, trying to judge his reaction to her story through lowered lashes. “So, will you help me recover my grandmother’s ring, Jim?”

His mouth curled up on one side. Something flashed through his eyes before their soft blue turned icy. “And you would be suitably grateful for my help, I’m sure.”

“You don’t have to be such a jerk about it, you could just say no.” Throwing down the napkin, she slid out of the booth. Jim reached out as if to stop her, then let his arm fall back to the table.

“I’m sorry, please don’t go.” Furrowed lines appeared across his forehead, he leaned towards her, his hand outstretched. “Look, I’ll help you if I can, but what makes you think I know any of those guys?”

I hope the above example gives you a better idea of what can be done to enhance your story if you take some time to give some personality to your characters. Did you notice anything else while reading? In addition to giving more information on how Jim and Mary are behaving and reacting, all those extra words slow the scene down. The extra words can create greater emotional impact, but too many of them during a fast paced scene can detract from the action. Use your judgement on how much information to convey.

Next time you’re talking with someone, take note of what they do as they speak. As a rule, human beings are not stationary when vocalizing. They are not two dimensional. So it stands to reason that to create believable characters for your story, they need to move as well.

Happy writing J

Rain

Picture supplied by Dreamstime

Rainy Days and Mondays - Lost and Found

The other day I was searching for a blank piece of paper to jot some notes on, I had several phone calls to make and wanted lots of room to doodle on. Unable to locate any in the usual places, I started probing the back of my closet without much hope. Distractions of all sorts lay in wait for me there. The ballerina slippers I wore for my wedding, an envelope of random pictures that have yet to make it into an album, a box of jewellery I made years ago, and a spiral notebook.

After indulging in a brief side-trip down memory lane, I snatched up the notebook and flopped on my bed to see if it was full or not. It ended up being another jaunt into the past - it was my first notebook as a writer. Page one: poem – The Rules According to Mom and Dad – a fun poke at the crazy things your parents said to you growing up that you hated, that you now find yourself saying to your own children. Page two: short story – My Rapid Weight Loss Experiment – although this was a funny story, I found my shoulders hunching with embarrassment over the horrendous amount of SPAG (SPelling And Grammar) errors. Thank goodness I’m no longer writing long hand, and double blessings for the person who invented spell check!

Anyhow, at this point I figured I’d wasted enough time and curled the edge of my notebook back to let the pages flip until I could find the dreaded blank white page. Once located, I grabbed my phone and took care of business. It wasn’t until later on in the day I returned to the front of the notebook. Not really sure what prompted me to do so, perhaps a need to compare my original writing to what I do now. In any case, what I found there captured my imagination. A story, or rather the start of one. One I’d forgotten I’d even written. Fifteen-hundred words later, I was wondering why on Earth had I ever walked away from this very interesting beginning.

The characters, raw and unfinished as they are, call to me to tell their story. I can actually feel the potential for an entire book!

However, I must control the impulse - for now. I have a hot, historical romance on the burner and I must pay full attention to it before it slips away from me. I’m thinking this new one can simmer on the back burner until NANOWRIMO 2011. After all, it didn’t lose its appeal after all that time in the back of my closet ... or maybe ... nah ... I don’t know. Their voices are awfully loud.

So tell me, how many of you have fits and starts of stories tucked away in some forgotten file on your computer? Have lost notebooks hiding in your closets? Under your bed? Tossed into a junk drawer? If so, have you ever gone back to read them? Were you surprised by how much you really enjoyed or really disliked reading something you wrote? Do you revisit the worlds of your creation again?

Tell me your story.

Rain

Picture supplied by Dreamstime

Rainy Days and Mondays - To head hop or not to head hop? That is the question.

Are you a head hopper? I’ve been known to head hop on occasion. I admit it. However, before my manic head hopping ways could make it out into the world, my editor caught me and put paid to my head hopping days.

Wait. You don’t know what head hopping is? Well, it’s when you are trucking along in your novel from one point of view, and from one paragraph to the next, BAM, you’re in someone else’s head. Editors will tell you this is verboden - an absolute no-no. Let me show you what they never want you to do.

Love scene: (If you’re not legal, skip to the regular text now!)

Laura let her fingers slide through John’s silky hair and trace their way down his spine, revelling in his responding shiver. She arched her back as his lips nibbled and caressed their way down her throat, her cleavage, past her navel, pausing in their play to elicit a gasp of longing from her. Each and every thought left her until only sensation remained.

He couldn’t get enough of the taste of her. The slightly salty tang combined with her own unique essence tested his control. John wanted all of her, now. Her texture so soft and inviting under his tongue, responding to the slightest increase in pressure convulsed him with desire. His journey down her body continued until he reached her molten core.

Well now, what was I telling you about? Ah yes, head hopping. In the example above we go from Laura’s POV (point of view) in the first paragraph, directly into John’s POV in the second. There are no page breaks, or ***, or even a chapter break in between. This is head hopping. And though it can be used to great effect during emotionally charged scenes, it can also jar a reader right out of the moment, ruining whatever tension may have been built to that point.

So, how come you’ll find head hopping being done by authors like Nora Roberts? Maybe it’s because once you reach a certain level of fame you can break the rules. Hm. Perhaps it’s because her editor doesn’t know this rule. Doubtful. I think, just maybe, it’s because she is good enough to head hop without leaving her readers floundering.

Ah, to have that level of talent. To showcase an emotionally packed scene from both characters point of view - and have it make sense! How awesome would that be? Now that we all know I drool at the thought of being a professional head hopper, what do all of you think?

Should there be one rule for everyone? No Head Hopping Allowed, Period. What about for those writers out there who have the talent and the know how to break the rule? Tell me what you think.

Rain

Picture supplied by Dreamstime

Rainy Days and Mondays - Review - The Princess and The Penis

Blurb - A beautiful, chaste, and completely naive princess encounters a strange lump in her mattress. The lump soon morphs into a shape familiar to everyone but her, triggering her curiosity and her father's greatest fears. He frantically tries to intervene, but having a large phantom phallus in a curious maiden's bed is never a good combination.

Are you looking for a light hearted read? Something perhaps on the irreverent side? Then you should definitely take a look at The Princess and The Penis. This novelette is funny, witty, cheeky and sweet. It takes an adult look at the standard fairy tales and wraps them in humour.

R. J. Silver has a unique voice and his tongue-in-cheek style will keep you giggling right up to the sigh of contentment at the end. If you can’t tell already, I really enjoyed this book. So, if you need something to brighten your mood, or just feel like a chuckle,  click on the picture to enjoy this free read.

Rain

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/32400

Rainy Days and Mondays

Thrills, chills and other scary tips

Okay, so you want to write a scary or suspenseful scene for your short story or even your novel. What should you do? Fill it with blood? Violence? An axe wielding psychopath? Maybe. If – and only if – it suits your storyline. After all, who wants a machete wielding Jason jumping out smack in the middle of a historical romance? It’s important to be appropriate with your villains and the emotions surrounding them. Believability is vital to a suspenseful scene.

Remember to use the five senses. Draw your reader in with the coppery scent of blood underlying the cloying sweetness of spilled perfume. Make their eyes see the shine on the blade, the flat black of the gun, the tremor of a hand. Have them taste the dust floating through an old barn, the sour, bitter bile rising to choke them, the salt from warm tears. Compose a symphony of sound, the lightest footfall, the shallowest breath of air, the sudden snap of a broken branch. Delve into physical sensations, the skip of a heartbeat, the texture of rough hands on tender skin, the cold slice of wind cutting deep into marrow.

If you have engaged all five senses and still find your nail biting scene is meandering along the slowest trail, try shortening your sentences. You control the speed of the action by lengthening or shortening your sentences. Longer sentences slow a scene down. The shorter ones speed it up. Like the shower scene in the Psycho movie. Stab. Stab. Stab! Quick punches of information will fill a readers senses with the tension you want to convey.

There is one more thing. It’s a small thing, but can take your scary scene and change it into something verging on ridiculous. Exclamation points! Yes! They really can be overused! Abused! And will distract a reader from the tension you wish to create! Can you hear me yelling at you yet? Please be oh so sparing with the humble exclamation point, he’s rather shy and doesn’t like to come out all that often.

So there you have it, engage the senses, shorten your sentences, and only judicious use of exclamation points. (Wow, I sure did a lot of babbling for something that could be summed up in one sentence!) Now that you have some basics for the suspenseful scene, go write something that will make your heart pound.

Rain

Rainy Days and Mondays - Lost in the Forest

For your reading pleasure, a short tale of love on Valentines day.

 

"You've got a piece of my heart on your face."

My wandering mind snapped back to the present. "What?"

"You've got a piece of my tart on your face, I can see it, so don't try your 'Miss Innocent' act with me." Justin's hazel eyes twinkled with delight at having caught me so completely unaware.

I flushed, both with guilt for having filched his tart and for having been caught daydreaming about him. We were best friends in high school, lost touch through the college years and had just met up again recently. Unfortunately, he seemed only interested in taking up our friendship where it left off.  I, on the other hand, was having embarrassingly vivid fantasies involving the two of us: a deserted island with an amazingly well-stocked hotel room and a hammock strung between two palm trees.

"Sorry, I got hungry while I was waiting for you. Did you get it?"

"Oh man, you won't believe it, Cass, I got it! I thought the guy wasn't going to part with it but once we started talking, he realised I wasn't just collecting for the cash value but for the love of it ... he let me have it for a song!" He laughed at his play on words.

"So, show me."

He carefully pulled a box from the backpack sitting on his lap, setting it on the table between us. His voice filled with a passion I wished was reserved for me alone. "This is a seven-inch vinyl record, released in 1955 by Bell Records, in mint condition." As he pulled the record from its protective sleeve, a small sigh of appreciation escaped him. "Cab Calloway, side A - Learnin' The Blues, Side B - Unchained Melody. Can you believe it, Cass?"

The unvarnished pleasure on his face made something inside me squeeze. It was easy to create intimate fantasies about the two of us; he was sexy in that 'boy next door' kind of way. You couldn't help but want to have a taste of all that yummy goodness. But I had been careful not to let my daydreams wander farther than his sculpted body. Once the heart gets involved, you're lost. I was determined to stick to the path; the forest is only scary when you're lost in it alone.

"That rounds out your collection now, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. It's kinda bitter sweet, you know? So much of my spare time has been spent collecting all of Cab's records, recordings, anything with him in it or on it. It's done now."

I could see the bitter half of the sweet inching its way onto his features, making him look like a lost little boy, and that painful little squeeze happened again.

"We need to celebrate. What do you say to a cheap bottle of wine, Chinese take-out and The Blues Brothers?"

He raised an eyebrow in question of my choices.

"What? This is your celebration so it should be done with the things you like best. Besides, I ..."  I finished my statement on a mumble.

"What was that? Did you admit to liking The Blues Brothers?"

I nodded, rolling my eyes upward and pursing my lips to suppress a grin to match his.

"I knew it! I knew you were a closet Jazz junkie."

"I wouldn't go that far but the movie was funny and it's not all that wonky scat stuff"

"Wonky? Wonky! Just for that I get both fortune cookies."

Our banter and laughter carried us out of the cafe and continued while we picked up the evening's entertainment. My stomach kept doing flip-flops every time he touched me, and the tight little squeezy sensation came back and took up residence near the vicinity of my heart.  A fat cranberry-scented candle burned between us. Its mellow light flickered, creating interesting shadows on the plains of Justin's face as he laughed at my dismal efforts to use chop sticks.

He came around the table to show me how to hold the recalcitrant pieces of wood. His large warm hand enveloped mine. His deep voice sent small tickles of pleasure through me. His eyes sparkled and seemed to be speaking of more than friendship. I cursed myself as eight kinds of fool when he returned to his side of the table.

Sometime between the second glass of wine and the middle of the movie, I finally admitted to myself that I was in love with Justin. He was my best friend and I had no idea what to do about my newly acknowledged but not so new feelings for him.  I was well and truly lost in the forest.

When the movie ended, Justin chattered happily about Cab Calloway's part while he helped me straighten up my apartment. His voice washed over me, sending me drifting right into one of my favourite fantasies as my hands washed dishes on automatic. I came back to reality in time to catch only the last half of his question. Heart racing, I turned towards him. His eyes radiated uncertainty.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

"Never mind, it was silly. I never should have said anything. We're great the way we are, aren't we?"

"Yes, I mean no, I mean - just ask what you asked again, please."

There must have been some of the desperate hope I was feeling reflected on my face because the strained worry left his and he flashed one of the sweetest, most dangerous, smiles I have ever had the pleasure of seeing.

"I asked if you thought there could ever be anything more than just friendship between us."

My answer came out as an extended sigh. He stepped forward and placed a tentative kiss on my lips. The world tilted. I giggled from the overwhelming release of my pent-up emotions and threw my arms around him. I told him about being lost in the forest, scared because I thought I was the only one in love. He in turn told me of how he was in love with me in high school and had been thrilled to find me again. He'd been hoping for the chance to change his image as 'just a friend' into something more substantial.

We talked, cuddled, kissed and did it all again. I wanted to ask him to spend the night but I was worried it might be too soon. He must have read my mind. Laughter and love twinkled in his eyes as he spoke the words that would send us tumbling into my bed and towards our future filled with so much more of both.

"Seeing as we're lost in the forest together and it can be scary when you're there alone ..." His love filled-grin had my head nodding with anticipation before he even posed the question. "Would it be okay if I crashed here tonight?"

Rain

Picture supplied by Dreamstime