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News & Contests

I Spy a Secret blogfest!

3 Comments

If you had trouble seeing the linky before, it has been fixed! (I hope!)

Could you keep a secret from someone you loved? A big one? In my book I, Spy, Talia keeps a pretty big secret from her boyfriend Danny: the fact that she’s actually a CIA operative.

While it’s obviously not fun to live, it was a lot of fun to write someone keeping that kind of secret. So I thought we could share the fun! That’s right, it’s a BLOGFEST with FABULOUS PRIZES—TODAY!

How to participate (and rules)
I Spy a Secret blogfest1. The theme is I Spy . . . a secret. It’s all about keeping a secret from someone you love. So what do you put in your post?

  • Write a scene with one character keeping a secret from someone s/he loves
  • Post a scene from one of your books (WIP, published, draft, whatever) with one character keeping a secret from someone s/he loves
  • Tell about a time in real life where you kept a secret from someone you love(d)

2. You may share a story from your life, OR write a new scene on the topic, OR you may post a scene from your WIP. [This doesn’t preclude completed works. Because, after all, no work of art is ever finished, only abandoned.]

3. Please keep all scenes clean , without sex, or gratuitous violence or foul language. (Like PG, PG-13 here, ‘kay?)

4. Post your scene TODAY, July 19, 2013, and add it to the Mr. Linky. Link your post back to the blogfest on here so your readers can read other entries, too.

5. Read, enjoy, and comment on other entries!

6. Fabulous prizes! I’ll be giving away Amazon gift cards (number of prizes based on the number of entries winners drawn at random from entries received on the linkie by midnight MDT 19 July 2013 and announced here on JordanMcCollum.com Monday, 22 July 2013. YOU SHOULD CHECK BACK BECAUSE YOU MUST EMAIL ME TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE), plus a freebie for anybody who participates (even if you’re only reading!).

So, again: write a blog post about one of those things, link back here in your post, and sign up on the linkie.

Tell your friends! Copy this and paste it in the HTML of a blog post or your sidebar:

<a href="http://jordanmccollum.com/secret-blogfest/" title="I Spy a secret Blogfest. Photo by Catherine, wheat_in_your_hair via Flickr/CC" alt="I Spy a Secret blogfest badge. Photo by Catherine, wheat_in_your_hair via Flickr/CC" style="text-decoration: none;"><img src="http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z41/MamaBlogga/secretblogfest-1.png" width="300" /></a>

Want it bigger or smaller? Change the number at width="300" to adjust the size.

Sign up here & visit the other participants!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL THOSE WHO SIGNED UP IN ADVANCE! Your links are still on the signup post, but please be sure to share your actual POST for the blogfest (not just a link to your main blog address) below.

Share your blog post here! Use your name (or your name@your blog’s name, or your blog’s name), and the complete permalink to your post—i.e. http://yourblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/this-goes-to-my-post.html, NOT JUST http://yourblog.blogspot.com!

This blogfest is closed.

Please visit, read, link & comment!

The freebie!

MrNiceSpy_CVR_SML(All participants are welcome to share this in their blog posts as well!)

Just for reading a blog fest post, you can get a free e-copy of the novella Mr. Nice Spy, a prequel to I, Spy! Use the coupon code SECRET on my site store here! (Coupon code good through July 26, 2013.)

 
 

Blogfest badge photo by Catherine

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Works, News & Contests

I SPY . . . a Secret!

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Today’s the I SPY a Secret blogfest! Please join in: check out this post for more details.

In this scene, Talia is a CIA operative in Canada, but her job is so TOP SECRET, she can’t tell her boyfriend Danny what she does for a living—even though that demanding job is pulling her away from him repeatedly this week. (She’s promised him to set aside Friday night, but as soon as she made that promise, work double books her evening.)

“Talia?” Danny’s voice draws me out of my thoughts. I’m with him right now, and that’s all that matters. For personal time, a spy has to live in the present.

In this present, Danny is looking at me like I’m too good to be true, like he can’t believe I’m really here. “You know you’re beautiful, right?”

I laugh the compliment off and turn away, trying to silence my mental whisper. It doesn’t work, and the No, you’re not. Don’t buy it echoes too long. He wouldn’t lie to me, but somehow when he says that, I can’t quite push myself to believe him.

He slides off the counter, wraps me in his arms, and continues. “Know what I love about you?”

“Um, no. After this week? I honestly don’t.” I silently pray it’s not my terrible sense of direction or my forgetfulness or any other part of “me” that’s a lie.

Danny leans closer, his voice soft. Serious. Sincere. “You never give up. You fight for the things you care about, and you won’t let anything stand in your way.”

And those are all true.

“Thank you,” he says.

“For what?”

ISpy_CVR_LRG“For fighting for time with me Friday. For not canceling.”

I bump his leg with my hip. “It was nothing.”

“No.” He holds me closer, those warm, genuine eyes locked on mine. “It’s not ‘nothing.’ Not to me.” He trails a finger along my jaw to draw me closer for a kiss.

The second my lips touch his, I can sense there’s something more behind this kiss. An electric current flows into my heart and my lungs and my brain, until I’m so lost in this kiss that I can’t tell which way is up.

Something slams right behind me and I jump away from Danny, whirl around, ready to fight.

Nobody there. I look back at Danny, leaning on one hand on the counter. A hand he just slapped down to catch us.

Right.

I’m an idiot. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.” He wraps his arms around my waist again. I look into his warm brown eyes, and that same overwhelming feeling threatens me again.

I don’t know what he’s thinking or trying to say, but I definitely prefer being lost in his kiss to just being lost.

Danny presses his forehead to mine, placing us eye-to-eye. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I kiss him this time and try to forget everything I’m afraid of, everything that could go wrong Friday.

I won’t let it.

Come join in the I SPY A SECRET blogfest to share your stories (real or fictional!).

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!

 
News & Contests

Coming up: I Spy a Secret Blogfest!

5 Comments

SIGN UP HERE!

Happy Independence Day! Having fun with the INDIEpendence Day Blogfest? I know I am! So how about another?

Could you keep a secret from someone you loved? A big one? In my book I, Spy, Talia keeps a pretty big secret from her boyfriend Danny: the fact that she’s actually a CIA operative.

While it’s obviously not fun to live, it was a lot of fun to write someone keeping that kind of secret. So I thought we could share the fun! That’s right, it’s a BLOGFEST with FABULOUS PRIZES!

How to participate (and rules)
I Spy a Secret blogfest1. The theme is I Spy . . . a secret. It’s all about keeping a secret from someone you love. So what do you put in your post?

  • Write a scene with one character keeping a secret from someone s/he loves
  • Post a scene from one of your books (WIP, published, draft, whatever) with one character keeping a secret from someone s/he loves
  • Tell about a time in real life where you kept a secret from someone you love

2. You may share a story from your life, OR write a new scene on the topic, OR you may post a scene from your WIP. [This doesn’t preclude completed works. Because, after all, no work of art is ever finished, only abandoned.]

3. Please keep all scenes clean , without sex, gratuitous violence or foul language.

4. Post your scene on July 19, 2013, and add it to the Mr. Linky (on my post that day, though you’re free to sign up below, too). Link your post back to the blogfest on here so your readers can read other entries, too.

5. Read, enjoy, and comment on other entries!

6. Fabulous prizes! I’ll be giving away Amazon gift cards (number of prizes based on the number of entries), plus a freebie for anybody who participates (even if you’re only reading!)

Tell your friends! Copy this and paste it in the HTML of a blog post or your sidebar:

<a href="http://jordanmccollum.com/secret-blogfest/" title="I Spy a secret Blogfest. Photo by Catherine, wheat_in_your_hair via Flickr/CC" alt="I Spy a Secret blogfest badge. Photo by Catherine, wheat_in_your_hair via Flickr/CC" style="text-decoration: none;"><img src="http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z41/MamaBlogga/secretblogfest-1.png" width="300" /></a>

Want it bigger or smaller? Change the number at width="300" to adjust the size.

Thank you for signing up in advance!

Blogfest badge photo by Catherine

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!