Romance & Writing by Valley Brown
The Rocky Road Series novels center around heroine Christine Cassler and her new-found love, Doug the Biker. Their tongue-in-cheek romance is funny and touching, but the two characters have some unexpected skeletons in their respective closets that tend to put their relationship through the wringer.
Novel One: Speeding Tickets
From the moment their motorcycle-riding paths cross, Christine Cassler and Doug Hartford feel an unsettling connection. It’s a dicey roller-coaster-of-a-ride romance for a widow who is up to her biker-babe boots in angst as she uncovers a spiraling scheme of deceit and embezzlement at work, a scheme that threatens more than her job.
Meet Chris:
Christine Cassler may be slightly less than perfect – she is blonde and over 50, and has plenty of neurotic tendencies like the rest of us – but she’s no ditsy air head and is pretty darned cute. Chris loves to quilt, and has been trying to write that Great American Novel since fifth grade. In the meantime, she plans to put a few miles on her little red motorcycle and maybe even find a guy out there who fits in with all of that. Of course, he’ll have to pass the Cat Test first. (Cat owners understand. If your cat doesn’t like the person you bring home to meet it, then you probably shouldn’t either – cats know!) But you’ll have to read the book to find out more!
Read an Excerpt from Speeding Tickets:
Chapter 1...
This is it, I thought, my lower lip trembling. They’re going to find my scrawny little fifty-year-old carcass, broken and bloody, at the bottom of this ditch and say a woman her age had no business riding! I dug the heels of my over-priced leather biker boots into the loose soil of the highway’s shoulder, the front of my little 250cc Honda motorcycle sliding past the lip of the drainage ditch. Fumes of spent rubber and exhaust burned in my throat as tiny pebbles gave way beneath my soles. Oh God, oh God – what the hell am I doing?
My hands struggled to maintain a rigid grip on the controls, but I was certifiably stuck. I couldn’t get off of the bike – and I couldn’t let go. Gil’s response to my insistence on learning to ride echoed inside my helmet.
“You’re the one who wants to do this. If you’re gonna ride your own bike, you gotta expect to get into trouble sooner or later, kid.”
Ya think, honey?
Everything had been in soundless slow-motion: The big Unidentified Furry Object shooting across the road directly in front of me, the view through my windshield turning into a grassy abyss, the obscenity that never quite left my mouth.
“Something happens fast – just hit the brakes, kid!”
Well, Gil, I did hit the brakes. Unfortunately my less-than-perfect reaction resulted in a heart-stopping short skid to my current position. All 120 pounds of me was concentrated on keeping nearly 300 pounds of stalled bike from rolling head-first into the ditch as my feet slid further, leg muscles simmering in a slow burn.
I barely heard the deep throaty engine sound closing in on me. Glancing out of the corner of my eye – too afraid to turn my head – I saw a man hurriedly park a big bike. My boots lost more ground. Oh God. Desperate for any solution that didn’t involve imminent demise or permanent disability, I prayed he would yank me off the seat before the inevitable plunge...
Copyright©2011 Valley Brown
