Welcome, Author Susan Roebuck!

Today I am thrilled to host author Susan Roebuck!

Thank you Regina for inviting me today onto your blog.

These last few weeks I’ve been part of a blog tour, along with Regina, that has culminated in the participants writing a short story of 250 words (oops, mine’s 270 – I can never follow rules) based on a picture. Here’s the picture kindly provided by Kayleigh Malcolm:

Blue Jay Way

Fog turns people into wisps of ghosts and the world becomes an almost silent place. I lick at the moisture droplets, tasting airy cleanliness, and watch the ripples on the pond, golden in the early evening lamplight.

I wait for him, my heartbeat quickening at the sound of scurrying footsteps. But they aren’t his.

I’m tempted to go into the bandstand to wait but he won’t like that, saying we’re too obvious there. One day, I swear, we’ll waltz to silent music in that bandstand and let the lamps illuminate us. “What a beautiful couple,” people will say. Until then we hide because I’m the third person in his marriage.

“But not for long,” he promises as we huddle under whatever cover we find. “One day…”

He’s never as late as this. I check my phone but there’s no message. “Don’t call me, ever,” he’s told me. “My wife will know.”

I wait as mist swirls ever thicker around me in a rhythm that turns to music in my head:

There’s a fog upon LA
And my friend has lost his way

George Harrison, I mentally tell the Beatle, this isn’t LA and fog won’t bother him. We both know our way here with our eyes closed after all this time. I swallow a ball of pain that’s risen to my throat as I contemplate what I’ve always suspected and dreaded would happen: he’s not coming.

I shiver in the cold and damp, my tears mingling with the fog droplets as I turn to go.

Please don’t be long the music continues. Don’t you be very long.

A footstep and, turning, I see a shadow appear through the fog. My heart sings.


*****

Susan Roebuck has a new book out. It’s a cosy suspense with a touch of romance and a hint of magic and is called Rising Tide.

I

Blurb of Rising Tide: Time, and most of Portugal, has almost forgotten Luminosa, a small fishing community on the Alentejo coast. A cluster of white and blue cottages huddle under the cliffs overshadowed by the great manor of Herdade Albatroz whose family has ruled the village since the days of Napoleon. Far off the tourist route, nobody visits Luminosa by chance.
When a ruthless American racketeer turns up, the peaceful village's way of life could be ruined forever. But will other visitors--Piper Pines, seeking news of her long dead Portuguese mother, and Leo Shine, bereft of a father and brother accused of terrible crimes--help or hinder his objective to drag Luminosa into the twenty-first century?

Buy Rising Tide: http://www.amazon.com/Rising-Tide-Susan-Roebuck/dp/1606598570/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437925728&sr=8-1&keywords=Rising+Tide+Susan+Roebuck&pebp=1437925732102&perid=1X567NVY54PC9TR7QV5K

Find Susan Roebuck here: Blog/website: www.susanroebuck.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuRoebuck
Twitter:https://twitter.com/suemonte

Follow the links below to read my fellow tourist’s stories. Remember, we all used the same picture and had to limit ourselves to 250 words.
Regina Andrews at http://kayleighmalcolm.blogspot.com/
Kayleigh Malcolm at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ann-Tracy-Marr/114711658247?ref=hl
 Ann Tracy Marr at http://susanroebuck.com