Visuals from 'Flying Solo'

Have I mentioned that Mike Newton *might* be my favorite character in Hot Commodity? ;) I guess that means I can start with a little visual from his speech -- the dreaded f-word aka the flogger! I'm no BDSM expert, and I can't say I've ever personally used one of these, but I've seen plenty of them in adult stores. I don't know what Mike is so scared of - then again, we don't know what Caius tried to do with the flogger. Ha! Here it is:

 

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Bella brought a deliciously sweet dessert wine, Moscato, to Thanksgiving at the Whitlock house. I might have mentioned before that I'm always pumping random parts of myself into my stories, and this happens to be the traditional Thanksgiving beverage at my family celebration. For those of you who haven't heard of or tried this wine, here is my personal favorite brand:

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I've only visited Brooklyn once, and it was during one of those double decker bus tours that cheesy tourists like myself go on when we visit the city (well, at least before we've visited it enough to be seasoned). I believe all they did was take us across the Brooklyn Bridge, let us out to take pictures of the Manhattan skyline from that side of the harbor, and then we were right back on the bus again. This is quite clearly not a townhouse (at least not to my knowledge), but this is exactly how I pictured the Cullen and Whitlock residences - on top of one another. Cullens on the left, Whitlocks on the right, shared patio out back, and four stories of gloriousness with a rooftop terrace to boot:

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Some of Mike's fashion will be coming up on Polyvore with the next chapter update. :)

Until next time...

xoxo
- N.

Music from 'Flying Solo'

The chapter song for 'Flying Solo' is Shadow Days by John Mayer.

I heard this song on the radio and immediately thought of Edward. He's going through a bit of an emotional "awakening" at this point in the story, he's coming to some realizations, and kind of standing on the fringes of an epiphany. 

Hot Commodity Chapter 13 Teaser

Here's a little taste of what's coming up in Chapter 13 of Hot Commodity...

 

“Are you really planning on spending Thanksgiving by yourself, Bell?”

I shrugged. “I don’t feel like going to Rose’s and we’re well past the age of getting tanked all night like Mike wanted to. Chinese takeout and the TV are my only options.”

“Come to the Whitlock’s house with me and Jasper,” Alice said, looping her arm through mine.

“You’re kidding, right?” The last thing I wanted to do was cash in on the sympathy invite and spend the day with a family I didn’t even know. “I’ve hardly spent any time with Jasper and I’ve obviously never met his family. That would be supremely awkward and uncomfortable for everyone involved, Ali.”

“Oh, hush. I’ve never met his parents either, so we’d be in the same boat there.”

“Yes, but you’re his girlfriend. I don’t fit into the puzzle.”

“And you’re my best friend and I refuse to let you spend Thanksgiving holed up by yourself in your apartment.” Alice came to a stop in front of my building and turned to face me. “Jasper’s family is small, so I’m sure they’d be happy to have an extra face around the table. I know Jasper won’t object – he thinks you’re great.”

It would be pretty boring to sit at home by myself. Plus I loved the food. I wasn’t ashamed to say I usually stuffed my face, unbuttoned my jeans, and kicked back to watch the football game with my dad on a typical Thanksgiving afternoon.

Besides, this was the Whitlock family she was asking me to spend the day with. It wasn’t like she was asking me to spend it with the Cullens or something.

It didn’t take much to get me to give in. “I’ll come for dinner, but if it’s too awkward, I’m leaving right after.”

“Yay!” Alice hugged me and smiled happily. “Who knows, maybe mama Whitlock knows a single man or two that need New Years Eve dates next month!”

I held up my hands and shook my head. “No enlisting anyone to play matchmaker for me, Alice. I’m perfectly capable of securing my own dates.”

“You’re no fun,” she said with a pout. I laughed, walking towards the door of the building.

“How can you say I’m no fun?” I asked, turning around, as I was about to open the door. “I just agreed to go to Thanksgiving with you at the house of a family I’ve never met before.”

“I know, I know. I promise I won’t pester you about dating again – at least not for the remainder of 2011.” Alice winked and checked her cell phone. “Jasper is picking me up at ten tomorrow. Can you be ready by ten thirty?”

“Yes ma’am,” I said, giving Alice a pseudo-salute. She stepped off the curb and waved her hand in the air, hailing one of the dozen or so taxis crawling up the street.

“See you in the morning!” Alice waved and climbed into the back of the cab.

My stomach was twisted in nervous knots an hour later when I climbed into bed. I tried to shake the feelings of worry that had occupied my stomach, but I just couldn’t do it. Instead, I lay awake and stared at the ceiling. Sometime after two I managed to drift off into a restless slumber.

For reasons unknown to me, I had a feeling that tomorrow would end up being a Thanksgiving to remember.

- = - HC - = -

Look for the full update on Thursday!

Visuals from 'The Test'

This is a new little thing I'm planning on doing for each chapter going forward. I thought it would be fun to do some posts about the different visual and musical inspiration for my writing.

Chapter 12 of Hot Commodity was fun to write. Well, Mike made it fun to write. He's definitely one of my favorite characters to write in my collection of fics. For those Newton fans, fret not, he'll be making many more frequent appearances in the rest of the story. :)

Edward sent Bella a rather pretty boquet of apology flowers. (Typical man, right?) The arrangement of his choice:

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Mike conned Bella into being his emotional support while accompanying Rose to select foods for Emmett's surprise birthday party. What did our favorite NY designer pick for dessert? These delicious looking morsels:

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And, in case you're not familiar with the Big Apple, Edward's market of choice is in fact a real place:

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I'll do a music post a bit later today. :)

If you're interested in fashion inspiration, it's all housed over on Polyvore. I'm under blueeyedcherry there as well.

Ciao!

Hot Commodity Chapter 12 Teaser

A little sneak peek from the upcoming chapter of Hot Commodity...

“What is so important that you had to come all the way across town unannounced?” I was irritated; with myself for being so absentminded and with him for thinking it was okay to show up whenever he pleased.

“I…” He clasped his hands together and leaned his forearms against his knees. “I owe you an apology.”

“An apology for what?”

“I owe you an apology for bolting last weekend.” He grabbed a framed photo off my end table and examined it carefully. “Is this your mother?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. I snatched the photo away from him and put it back in its place. “You don’t owe me anything, Edward. I knew what you were like before I made the stupid decision to ask you out. Honestly, I shouldn’t have expected anything less.”

Hot Commodity fine tuning

Just a little heads up - I'm going back through Hot Commodity and picking over everything with a fine-tooth comb.

Some reviewers were kind enough to point out (in a nice way) a few inconsistencies between the chapters. Therefore, I'm fixing that. I'm pretty sure it's nothing hugely noticeable, cause only about 3 out of over 400 reviews even mentioned anything, but I'm a Type A personality, OCD mess, and if I don't fix it, I'll be stressing the fuck out for weeks. :)

I know I said Chapter 12 would be up tonight or Saturday, but I'm thinking it will probably be Sunday. I forgot that St. Paddy's Day celebrations will commence on Saturday evening and Bella started SCREAMING at me tonight, which propelled me to write an entire extra section for the chapter. *shrugs*What can I say? I'm kind of at their mercy. ;)

Thanks for all the love on Facebook and Twitter! And most of all, thanks for reading!

I'm off like a prom dress!

xoxo
- N.

A Couple of Updates

Some of you may have noticed that I pulled If You Only Knew from FFn and from TWCS. I did this because real life is kicking my ass like Mike Tyson and I just can't keep up with three stories at once. I only had two chapters of IYOK posted, so it was still in its newborn stages, and therefore I felt most comfortable yanking that story.

Fret not, it will be back as soon one of my other WIPs is completed. The story screams at me day in and day out, so there's no way I can't finish it. I need to do justice to Edward, and he's the primary voice I hear for IYOK. :)

My attention is going to be pretty much fully focused on Hot Commodity until it's done. Of all my works, that one is the one that calls to me the loudest, and I'm so excited to continue to share it with everyone and continue on this journey. A new lemony outtake - Harder, Faster, Stronger - was posted last night on the Insider Trading thread. It's my personal thank you to everyone who voted for the fic in the Sunflower Awards. The next chapter should be up tomorrow night or Saturday morning. *fingers crossed*

Endless Night is going on the back burner for the time being. I have a few different reasons for this, the biggest one being I went back and re-read everything that is posted so far, and I'm unhappy with some things, therefore I've lost the spark that was there when it comes to writing it. Another reason is because I'd like to get Hot Commodity completed, which requires me to pretty much put a cease and desist on the rest of my major writing projects. I will still update EN, it will just probably be one chapter every two months. I apologize sincerely to anyone who was following the story regularly - It's never been my intention to hold it back from you, I just honestly haven't been feeling the groove for that piece for a while and I have to do what I have to do in order to keep a decent balance for myself. :)

In other news, my darling beta/amazing friend Chloe Masen has a new drabble up - When You Close Your Eyes. I am encouraging all of you to go and read it, because it's a wonderful little story. There's angst -- you've been warned. I think you'll like it just as much as I do when you read it. :)

Another thing I wanted to share - My friend Steph (@byrd009) and myself have organized a multi-fandom compilation, Fandoms 4 Special Olympics. Basically if you send us a receipt showing you made a donation to the Special Olympics or to a Polar Plunge team, you can get a copy of the compilation. You can check out the website for the compilation or follow it on Twitter - @fandoms4SO - for information on where to donate, where to submit receipts, and on how to sign up to contribute to the compilation. The compilation is coming out June 15, 2012. This cause is very special and dear to me, so I'm incredibly happy to be spear heading the project!

In honor of Chloe (and just because I love you all), I leave you with a little Thursday afternoon jaw porn...

xoxo-
- N.