This morning, my family is attending the Memorial Day Service at Punchbowl Cemetery. My husband is singing with his barbershop chorus, SOUNDS OF ALOHA. Ruthie Knox will be your host today ....
Gonna Make a Mistake... Gonna Do It on Purpose
Hello, everyone! I’m so happy to be
back at SOS Aloha to talk about my second novel, About Last Night, which releases in less than two weeks. Kim asked
me if I’d be willing to write about mistakes for this guest post, which I was
really excited to do, because mistakes are right at the heart of what About Last Night is all about.
I think I’ll let the book speak for
me first. This is an excerpt from an early scene, where the hero and heroine,
Nev and Cath, are in bed together, and Nev is asking Cath about her tattoos,
which are many in number. The scene is in Nev’s point of view.
Later, she lay on her stomach, and he stretched out beside her
with one hand on her arse, studying the figures on her lower back. “Tell me
about your tattoos. What do the numbers mean?”
There turned out to be four tattoos, each with its own small
Copperplate numeral. The songbird came first, then a lit match, a book, and the
intricate tangle on her stomach. All four images were interconnected with a
matrix of lines and swirls.
“They’re my mistakes,” she said. “Each tattoo represents one of
my worst mistakes. So I won’t forget.”
He traced the shape of the bird, wondering what she could have
done to merit writing herself a memo on her body. “It’s a very permanent sort
of reminder.”
She raised herself up slightly, catching his gaze and holding
it. “They were really bad mistakes.”
She didn’t say Back off, but she told him all the same.
He tried a slightly different tack, wondering how far he could
push her before she turned as fierce as she looked when she ran in the park. “What
about the phoenix?” He slid one hand to her shoulder, picturing the tattoo
beneath her collarbone. “It doesn’t have a number.”
Apparently this was a permissible question, as she relaxed
slightly. “That one’s from when I decided to start over. You know, clean slate.
No more mistakes. Phoenix rising from the ashes.” She gave him a small smile. “I
was doing pretty well there for a while.”
Nev frowned, unhappy with the implication. “I’m a mistake then?”
“I don’t know yet. You have to admit, we didn’t meet under the
most auspicious circumstances.”
“True.”
He did have to admit it. He didn’t have to like it. And it
didn’t have to matter how they’d met. She was here, wasn’t she?
Cath didn’t feel like a mistake to him. She felt like a
beginning. A clean canvas, ready to be painted. A gorgeous new idea.
She lowered her face to the pillow. “I’m trying not to think
about it.”
“Want me to distract you again?”
“Yeah.”
He turned her over, kissed his way down her soft stomach, and
spread her legs wide with his shoulders. No doubt he’d been someone’s mistake
in the past. Perhaps more than one person’s, at that. But he wasn’t hers.
He’d simply have to prove it to her.
Now, I don’t want to give too much
away here, but I will say that it
takes Nev rather a lot of pages to prove it to her—but it’s an enjoyable
journey.
 |
| Aloha means love ... |
About
Last Night is a
novel with a damaged but resilient heroine, and for much of the novel, Cath is
convinced that by allowing herself to trust and fall in love with Nev, she’s
making yet another in a long series of terrible mistakes. And yet...she can’t stop.
I love this about Cath. In my own
life, I’ve been the quintessential good girl, but I have managed to make one or two whopping big mistakes along the
way, and one of the things I’ve learned is that sometimes we know we’re making them, and we do it anyway.
I think those mistakes are the most interesting, because they tell us so much
about ourselves. When our heads say “no” but something else says “yes,” what is
that something else? Our hearts? Our baser instincts? And what deep-seated need
are we fulfilling, doing something that we know is bad for us?
Sometimes—as in Cath’s case—what
we’re reaching for isn’t bad for us at all. It’s quite simply the one thing in
the world we most want and are most afraid of.
Love.
So
how about y’all—have you made any really stupid mistakes, whether on purpose or
by accident? Do you like to read about other people’s, or do you prefer your
heroes and heroines less flawed?
About Last Night, coming from Loveswept (Random
House), June 11, 2012!
Sure, opposites attract, but in this
sexy, smart eBook original romance from Ruthie Knox, they positively combust!
When a buttoned-up banker falls for a bad girl, “about last night” is just the
beginning.
Cath Talarico knows a mistake when
she makes it, and God knows she’s made her share. So many, in fact, that this
Chicago girl knows London is her last, best shot at starting over. But bad
habits are hard to break, and soon Cath finds herself back where she has vowed
never to go . . . in the bed of a man who is all kinds of wrong: too rich, too
classy, too uptight for a free-spirited troublemaker like her.
Nev Chamberlain feels trapped and
miserable in his family’s banking empire. But beneath his pinstripes is an
artist and bohemian struggling to break free and lose control. Mary Catherine —
even her name turns him on — with her tattoos, her secrets, and her gamine,
sex-starved body, unleashes all kinds of fantasies.
When blue blood mixes with bad
blood, can a couple that is definitely wrong for each other ever be perfectly
right? And with a little luck and a lot of love, can they make last night last
a lifetime?
Preorder/order links -- only $2.99,
releases June 11
Amazon link.
Barnes and Noble link.
iBooks link.
Other links
Book page at Random House - link.
Book page at Goodreads - link.
Ruthie Knox website - link.
Ruthie Knox on Facebook - link.
Follow @ruthieknox on Twitter - link.
Ruthie Knox figured out how to
walk and read at the same time in the second grade, and she hasn’t looked up
since. She spent her formative years hiding romance novels in her bedroom
closet to avoid the merciless teasing of her brothers and imagining scenarios
in which someone who looked remarkably like Daniel Day Lewis recognized her
well-hidden sex appeal and rescued her from middle-class Midwestern obscurity.
After graduating from Grinnell College with an English and history double
major, she earned a Ph.D. in modern British history that she’s put to
remarkably little use.
These days, she writes
contemporary romance in which witty, down-to- earth characters find each other
irresistible in their pajamas, though she freely admits this has yet to happen
to her. Perhaps she needs more exciting pajamas. Her debut novel, Ride with Me, came out with Loveswept
(Random House) in February.
Mahalo, Ruthie, for joining us at SOS Aloha! Random House is giving away an ecopy of ABOUT LAST NIGHT to one randomly selected commenter. To enter the giveaway,
1. Answer Ruthie's questions:
So how about y’all—have you made any really stupid mistakes, whether on purpose or by accident? Do you like to read about other people’s, or do you prefer your heroes and heroines less flawed?
2. Comments are open through Saturday, June 2, 10 pm in Hawaii.
3. I'll post the winner on Sunday, June 3.
Mahalo,
Kim in Hawaii
I guess many of us have made some stupid mistakes, but in my case it wasn't on purpose. I think we relate more to flawed characters instead of the perfect heroine or hero.
ReplyDeleteI know I do! Thanks for commenting, Jane.
DeleteOh this story sounds so good. I think we have all made mistakes in our lives...maybe not on purpose but no one is perfect. I love a flawed character too!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Danielle! They're so much fun to read about, I think.
DeleteYES!! I wouldn't have been a good teenager without the stupid mistakes. I still hear about some of them at family gatherings. Even as middle aged woman, I still make mistakes, only now I am much quicker at fixing them and making amends. I do love flawed characters. The storie with flawed characters are much more realistic and believable. I don't want perfect. Lord knows I'm not.
ReplyDeleteMel
Perfect is boring, isn't it? Thanks for commenting, Mel. :)
DeleteWe all make mistakes and I have made my share. It makes the book more realistic when they make mistakes as well.
ReplyDeleteIt does, doesn't it? And I like a good does of realism with my fantasy. :-)
DeleteI think I would find it very distracting having that book cover on my night stand . . . Good review.
ReplyDeleteAnn
I know, right? I keep it in my office, where it belongs. :-)
DeleteGreat post Ruthie - I loved this story & I think readers will too - mistakes people make are what make us who we are and books would not seem real without them - all the best - love your books!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sue!
DeleteOf course, everyone makes mistakes. The hardest ones are when you find out much later that something you did was a mistake, when you thought it was right at the time. I loved reading Nev & Caths (Mary Catherines) story. How they dealt with their mistakes. And found each other anyway.
ReplyDeleteSo happy to hear that! And you're right -- finding out later that you've made a mistake is a killer.
DeleteEveryone makes mistakes and, of course, no one does it on purpose. lol I don't mind if the hero/heroine makes a mistake. It's part of life and a part of the story.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear it!
DeleteI love Ruthie's books, and it sounds like ABOUT LAST NIGHT, will be another great read. I also have made a great many mistakes in my life. One that I really regret is that my dad was dying in his nursing home, and my husband and I came to visit that afternoon. He was comatose and I thought he was sleeping, which was what the people in the nursing home had told us. We stayed over an hour, and left. About an hour later, my brother called and said the nursing home had just called him to say that dad had died. I have often wished that we would have stayed until he took his last breath.
ReplyDeleteI love reading about flawed characters since none of us is perfect.
Oh, that sounds hard. End-of-life stuff is so tough!
DeleteI've made a pretty stupid and costly mistake - when selling my townhouse, I had a first time homebuyers loan that had a stipulation that I had to sell to a low or moderate income buyer - didn't remember reading that but it was there in the contract, which I found out about after I sold - and it cost me $24,000 (10% of my profit on the sale, so I still made out okay). If I had refinanced my mortgage at any time and paid off that loan I would have been fine. I learned a lesson, and hopefully that money went to more first time homebuyers. :D I like reading about flawed characters, because of course, no one is perfect.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's terrible! I hate those teeny little things that trip us up big-time!
DeleteI've definitely made mistakes and I do my best to try and forget them unless it's a learning experience which they say you learn more from your mistakes than your accomplishments (unfortunately). Yes, give me a flawed character.
ReplyDeleteThat's so true!
DeleteYes I have made mistakes but I have also learned from them,and I think it is important to try to laugh at your mistakes because if you take it too seriously then you might just end up feeling depressed all the time and everything might seem like a mistake.
ReplyDeleteAnd oh yes please give me a character with their own unique mistakes any time !
Thanks for the comment! You're right -- laughter is so important.
DeletePlease don't enter me... I've already preordered my copy. I just wanted to say that I loved, loved, loved Ruthie's first book, Ride With Me. I'm really looking forward to this next book!
ReplyDeleteOy Vey... yup... I've made some big and little mistakes and probably will continue. But... I've learned to not beat myself up over them. As long as I can take something positive away from it and not make the same mistake again, I consider it a learning experience :)
And, as GI Joe said, "Now you know, and knowing is half the battle." :-)
DeleteHope you enjoy the book, Erin! Thanks for preordering.
I like to read about other people's mistakes.
ReplyDeleteMe, too! Thanks for commenting.
DeleteI prefer flawed characters. They are more believable to me. I make mistakes like everyone else. Why wouldn't characters be the same way?
ReplyDeleteGeishasmom73 AT yahoo DOT com
Me, too! Thanks for the comment, Stacie.
DeleteMistakes? I've made some real doozies and at least one I knew going in was a mistake. I have tried to not make the same mistake twice, though. I like to read about flawed characters - they should be like the rest of us!
ReplyDeleteOnce is enough, eh? :-) I agree about flawed characters -- let's see the humanity in them!
DeleteI like to read about other people's mistakes. It makes me feel less flawed. I also am a big sucker for a "tortured hero" and who but a tortured hero makes BIG mistakes.
ReplyDeleteOh, me, too, Betty. I'll let a tortured hero get away with darn near anything, so long as I get to watch him grovel at the end. :)
DeleteI'm not about to air my really stupid mistakes to the world - I can laugh now though. It is fun reading when characters find themselves in situations.
ReplyDeleteOh, come on, Marybelle! :)
DeleteUmm, yep, I'm of an age where there are some very stupid mistakes in the past. They are called lessons learned. I don't want to read about perfect people, but those that will grow and flourish in a story.
ReplyDelete