Lou Sylvre's Blog - Posts Tagged "finding-jackie"

I was reading through some of my WIP, Finding Jackie and I ran across these few paragraphs. They made me smile even though it happens at a crucial point in the story. Sonny has insisted that one leg of their extended honeymoon consist of driving to Nebraska in a rented motorhome. (Luki, of course, never says no to Sonny, and it would likely make little difference if he did.) They're stopped and all set up at an RV hookup site, when they get the phone call from Luki's uncle Kaholo: Jackie is missing. Here's a short bit of what immediately follows:

Sonny, of course, had no qualms about driving The Monster really fast. “Here, Luki,” he said, before Luki even hit ‘end call’ after talking with Josh. “You put these away good enough they won’t fly around and break when we turn a corner. I’ll get this old girl all ready and get her fired up.”

Luki obeyed, stashing the glasses, plates, and knives with extra care, not wanting to get Sonny’s scolding, and besides it calmed his mind. While Sonny jumped—literally—out the door to pull plugs and roll hoses, he stacked dishes and tried to line his thoughts up just as neatly. Where to start? How to find Jackie’s trail? One step at a time. That was the only answer he could come up with.

“You done, Luki?” Sonny flung himself into the driver’s seat, and after a quick rattle of the keys and a single crank of the ignition, the diesel engine purred. “Seatbelt, honey. Let’s go.”
Luki jumped into his seat and pulled the belt across his lap as Sonny started The Monster moving, and by the time it was buckled, they’d made the turn onto the highway.

Sonny said, “Hang on.” This worried Luki. By now he was quite used to Sonny’s driving which often seemed wild, but rarely was, because he knew just what he was doing. The vehicle might spin, slide, or skid, but Sonny had control. It was crazy and it made Luki’s stomach do flips, but it didn’t really scare him—it kind of turned him on. But Sonny didn’t usually say, “hang on.” Luki wondered if perhaps he should have used the bathroom while he could.

His knuckles stayed white for the next half hour, until he acclimated himself to the faint squeal of tires, almost rhythmic on the winding road, the whoosh of cars and trucks as The Monster pushed past them, the rising pitch of the engine’s whine as they picked up speed on every downhill. Finally, he started to believe he was safe in Sonny’s hands even in the oversized vehicle, and he started to believe he would make it through without smoking, and he let hands relax in his lap.

“Sonny,” he said. “First, I love you. Also, I think this is going to be a hard thing for me to work out—finding Jackie.”

Well, I can't resist posting a little sneak peak at Finding Jackie, the sequel to Delsyn's Blues, which I just submitted to the publisher. Yes, I'm jumping the gun a little, but I thought maybe you readers would enjoy a bit of the Vasquez and James honeymoon in Hawaii. Let me know what you think, if you feel so inclined!

Sonny had worried that Luki wouldn’t enjoy the water, what with his history with rivers, almost drowning twice, once involving a knife and once involving a bomb. And last year he’d said he didn’t like being on the water, when they took the boat out to Mack Money’s island in the San Juans. He needn’t have feared. Luki took to surfing like he was born to it. And maybe it was something inherited, something hidden in the genes until opportunity arose. Kaholo had surfed one day before he left, and as old as he was his body remembered its Hawaiian youth. He let out a “whoop” once, riding just ahead of the crest of a wave, that reminded Sonny of his own uncle, Melvern, at a powwow. So maybe Luki came by his affinity for board and surf naturally. Whatever the explanation, once Luki had a couple lessons, he hardly left the water. He didn’t try any giant combers, of course, and even on a smaller waver his ride didn’t always succeed. He had some spectacular crashes, and sported a gash on his already scarred left cheek from hitting the board fin.

“It figures,” Luki had said, pressing his palm against it.

But even that hadn’t freaked him out about the water and surfing. Because now, here they were, seventy-two hours before they were due to taxi and fly out of Honolulu airport, in the heat of the warmest midafternoon yet. Sonny joined Luki in the waves—he liked them well enough. They were so different than the cold, rocking current of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where he swam regularly—or at least took a dip almost every day except in a freeze. Here, the water was a whole different kind of playmate. But after Sonny had played a while, he left Luki to surf the aqua sea, and walked up the beach raising white sand in the miniscule breeze. He shook out his towel and collapsed onto it.

He lay on the beach, then, letting the sun and breeze dry his skin, his eyes almost closed, drowsy but not sleeping, surreptitiously watching Luki’s play. Because that’s what it was, Luki at play in the surf, and Sonny loved it. Loved the very idea of it. And Sonny couldn’t get enough of seeing Luki overfull of joy.

I am being so bad, so jumping the gun! Dreamspinner hasn't yet told me that Finding Jackie is in--these things take time! But I can't help myself, I want to share! So here's a few lines here and there from the novel:
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At the Hawaiian wedding, Luki's Vow:

“Sonny, I promise to love you, never to try to change you, to trust you with my heart and with everything I have, and always to remember how precious, how fine, how beautiful you are to me. And I’ll keep you safe, Sonny. I’ll always keep you safe.”

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A little Sonny + Luki banter:

Riley squirreled away scattering sand. Before he was even out of sight, Luki asked, “What?”

Instead of answering, Sonny said, “That boy has a crush on you, Luki.”

“No.”

“No?”

“He has a crush on us,” Luki said. “He’d like to be a fly on our bedroom wall.”

“That’s worse!”

“Yes. Did you see him blush when you told him to come by the room? So, anyway, what’s the message?”

“It’s kinda cool, I think. The message I mean, not Riley’s amorphous lust.”

“Just to be clear, I don’t, won’t, play that. Ever.”

“Damn, Luki, I think that’s fairly obvious, thinking back a few months to the great big misunderstanding about him-who-shall-not-be-named.”

“Richard.”

“You weren’t supposed to invoke the name, Luki. Obvious I would think. I would think it’s also obvious that I don’t, won’t, wouldn’t ever want such entertainment either. Can I take you back a few days to the wedding? Remember I said, 'Only you?'”

“I know. I love you. Fuck Riley… or rather, don’t. You know what I mean."

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Lastly, Luki lends Sonny a bit of comfort:

Luki sighed and pulled Sonny up out of bed, drew him to stand against him, full contact. It wasn’t sex—well, sex was always there when they touched like that, but that wasn’t the purpose of the hug. When Luki wrapped his arms around Sonny it was solely with the idea of giving his beloved the opportunity to melt for a moment. Give him a few seconds where he didn’t have to be anything, not brave, or witty, or kind, or thoughtful, or angry, or scared.

Nothing.

And Sonny took advantage, or so it seemed to Luki. Despite the fact that Sonny was a couple of inches taller, Luki’s greater mass served as anchor and Sonny simply fell into him, laying his head on Luki’s shoulder and letting himself drift.

When Sonny moved, after a length of time that neither one measured, Luki walked him to the little bathroom, turned on the shower, adjusted the temperature, put Sonny in the shower, and washed him down with sponge, soap, water, and love. Throughout the process he murmured, “Let it go, baby,” and “It’ll be okay,” and “You’re beautiful and I love you.”

They say the best flowers for apology are these sweetly blue bachelor's buttons, so I'm offering them here to all my readers.

Don't get me wrong. I realize it's not life changing for anyone that I haven't been posting here with my sometimes silly, or sappy, or sexy excerpts and news about books and the goings on in the world of Vasquez and James. Still, I feel bad that I've been absent, lately. Someone--I'm not sure who--said the best way to ruin an apology is with an excuse. True, but I'll offer a small explanation: My 84 year old dad has new diagnosis stage IV cancer, and I'm the only person available to help him negotiate his new medical world. It takes time, of course and energy.

Of course, I haven't been writing as much, but I have been writing, and some of what I've written has been at the insistence of Luki and Sonny. They know their suspense/thriller romance Finding Jackie is due out from Dreamspinner in May or June of 2013, but they decided we weren't done yet. The current suspense WIP is currently going by the title, Parting the Clouds. That title is the name of a warm-up excercise associated with tai chi, but it has another meaning for Luki, and for the story, too.

Sonny insisted that I allow him to go to Paris. (No really, he did.) Of course, Luki must follow. They see the Paris catacombs, a worthwile goal, but it might be under less than ideal conditions.... This is only work-in-progress, at the moment, but I'm thinking maybe a brief excerpt and some more news, maybe even a contest, within the next few days. I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of it!

A reviewer known as amaadhatter at Three Crow Press said some very nice things about Delsyn's Blues, which of course makes me happy, and in turn makes me want to share. Click on the link above for the whole review, but she sums it up by saying this:

"This book deserves a solid 4 stars and Lou Sylvre is becoming one of my favorite authors."

She also mentions the need to have tissue nearby, and says she hopes the next book in the series will be out soon. Well, I'm not sure we can call it soon, but (as I'm sure I've mentioned) the next Vasquez and James suspense/romance, Finding Jackie is due out in late spring 2013. Stay tuned for updates!

I can't believe I haven't posted since New Year's? Time has just slipped right through my fingers. Well, at long last I have something yummy to share in the world of Luki and Sonny.

Reese Dante's cover for Finding Jackie:



...and a little blurb to lure you!

Luki Vasquez and Sonny Bly James finally have their Hawaiian wedding, and it's perfect, almost. But their three-phase honeymoon is riddled with strife. Luki's status as a working badass spells discord for the newlyweds. A former informant from Luki’s days with ATFE brings a troubling message (or is it a warning?) from a Mob hit man. When Luki’s sixteen-year-old nephew, Jackie, is lured into capture and torture by a sadistic killer, the honeymoon is well and truly over.

The couple put aside their differences and focus on the grueling hunt, which takes them from leather bars to dusty desert back roads, and calls on Sonny’s deep compassion as well as Luki’s sharpest skills. Their world threatens to fall apart if they fail, but their love may grow stronger than ever if they succeed in finding Jackie—before it’s too late.

I'm thrilled that this is coming out soon from Dreamspinner Press. I don't have a release date yet, but I'll post it as soon as I do!

I never meant to neglect this blog for almost three weeks, especially when I've had so much going on--most of it centering around the May 17th release of the third Vasquez and James suspense/romance novel, Finding Jackie .


Ever since Dreamspinner Press set this one free, I've been kept busy with one thing after another. The book has had great reviews from Monique Lehane at Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews, from Trish at Mrs. Condit Reads Books, and from Pixie at MM Good Book Reviews. Monique also interviewed me (today) at Sinfully Sexy books, and in the last week she reviewed all the VJ suspense titles.

As in past years, I had the release party at the Dreamspinner blog on 5/18, and I believe it was a success. Here's a link to the last post save one: Where they went, where they're going. You can work back from there for a bit about cats and dogs, a nice stretch of NSFW bath time at the Monaco Hotel.



I also chatted here on Goodreads last week, on the Dreamspinner board under Meet Lou Sylvre, and I posted excerpts and some info about the evolution of Luki and Sonny and some other stuff.

There have been giveaways, the one at Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews still on until tomorrow.

Dreamspinner also has all the Vasquez and James books on discount through 5/26, 25% off! And through 5/31, Finding Jackie can be 20% off if you enter promo code VJ3FindJack.

I'll be back (promise) with a schedule of blog stops for the next week--there will be more giveaways and interviews, and who knows? But for now I'd like to leave you with one of Monica Lehane's visualizations of Sonny James and Luki Vasquez. Hang on to your hats, here it is:



See what I mean? Breathe, now.

He-he. I'll be back! Feel free to comment, ask questions, scold like Sonny James, whatever! I always like to hear from you.