The Beach by Jaye Frances (Guest Post/Giveaway)

Today I would like to welcome back author, Jaye Frances, with her latest releases, The Beach & Short Time!

Thank you, Crystal, for hosting me today on Reading Between The Wines Book Club with my new duella release including a sci-fi fantasy titled The Beach and the suspense novella Short Time.

How many of us have wished for the chance to change something about our lives? Maybe it started as a daydream, with our imagining how much happier we would be if we had a more loving partner or found a king’s ransom buried in our backyard.

Far from being immune to the temptation, I’ve often wondered what it would be like—to have the power to bring an instant, life-altering adjustment to my own little part of the world.

Our fantasies usually fall into one of the big three categories: Love, money, or longevity. But there’s another side to the happiness equation—the cost. If we were unexpectedly given the opportunity to receive our heart’s desire, even temporarily, would we have the foresight to ask about the price?

For the main character in Short Time, being offered an open ticket from a secret government agency sounded like the deal of a lifetime—the chance to have and experience anything that money could buy. Until it was time to pay the bill.

In the following excerpt, our willing victim is coming to grips with his desperate situation. As he waits for Jake, his unsympathetic jailer and guardian, he makes a final plea to his captors, asking for an alternative payment plan.

Here’s an excerpt:

Sleep was impossible. Five minutes here, another ten there. I just kept waiting. For the sun to rise. For Jake to show up. I passed the time by trying to remember the names of the girls I’d slept with. I dug further, into my childhood, attempting to recall which toys I got on a particular Christmas.

I talked to the camera, hoping someone was listening. I told them about the woman I’d lived with for five years, and how she’d suddenly decided to move to Italy to study art or fashion or design—reasons that seemed vague and nebulous, yet compelling enough for her to explore the opportunity of a new life without me.

I rattled on, describing the boredom of working a crappy sales job year after year, telling them how I’d eventually decided to look for something better, something that would make me feel alive again. I told them about my vacations, where I’d been and the places I still wanted to see. I ended my soliloquy with some self-serving rhetoric about wanting to make the best of my situation, and how I hoped they would give me the chance. Although it carried the earmarks of an impromptu confession, I wanted them to learn as much as possible about the “package.” The more they knew about me, the better my chances of scoring a sweeter deal.

The door finally opened mid-morning. I could tell Jake was agitated. I wondered if it had anything to do with me.

“So what’s the plan for today?” I asked.

“No plan.” Jake leaned the chair against the wall.

“So let’s talk. You can tell me what’s on the schedule for tomorrow. In a few hours, you’re gonna tell me anyway. At least somebody is.”

He looked like he might explode. “Right now your job is to wait. That’s all. And you better start liking it, ’cause pretty soon that part is gonna be over, and then you’ll wish you were back in this stinking sh*t-hole, ’cause it can go from bad to worse in a big hurry.”

“It gets worse than this?”

“You thinkin’ it would be different?” His scowl made it clear he would just as soon kick the crap out of me.

“Listen, Jake, you and I both know I’m not cut out for this. Maybe I can work a deal with the suits, pay them back. I’ve got a little money left, my pension, a small rental house in Boulder. I could make sure twenty percent goes to you, make it part of the deal.”

He shook his head, indicating I’d said something stupid. “The suits done tore your life apart. You got nothin’ left to bargain with. And besides, everything I need is at the other end of this phone.” He patted his jacket pocket.

“Then tell me what comes next, what kind of future I’ve got.”

Jake began to flip through his notebook, ignoring me, shutting me out.

I lowered my voice to a whisper. “I hid some cash offshore. Fifty grand. I can tell you how to find it.”

Still nothing.

“You’re not giving me a chance,” I protested. “There must be something you want.”

His huge frame stiffened, as if my words had released a paralytic toxin. “You got nothin’ for me, you and the rest of your kind.”

“My kind?” It came out as a challenge and I regretted it immediately.

“That’s right, your kind.” Jake’s rising voice made it plain he wasn’t to be interrupted. “Every one of you assholes comes in here thinkin’ you’re smarter than the last guy. Better. Deserving some kinda deal. But you’re all the same. Just another one of those hard-starched, go-on-green-stop-on-red bastards that live in white town, following the rules, playing the game, living, breathing, and eating the same old sh*t day after day.”

He waited, as if tempting me to argue. After a few seconds of silence, he asked, “Any of this sound familiar so far?”

I swallowed hard. “So far.”

“Then something changes,” he said. “Your woman leaves or you lose your job or some other sh*t happens and you think you got it bad. You start feeling sorry for yourself, go looking for some way to make it all better. And that’s when the suits throw out the bait.”

I couldn’t believe how he knew, how he got it so absolutely right.

Here’s a brief synopsis:

Alan loves the beach. More than a weekend respite, it is his home, his refuge, his sanctuary. And for most of the year, he strolls the sand in blissful solitude, letting nature—and no one else—touch him. But spring has given way to summer, and soon, the annual invasion of vacationers and tourists will subdivide the beach with blankets, umbrellas, and chairs, depriving Alan of his privacy and seclusion—the fundamental touchstones of his life. Resigned to endure another seasonal onslaught of beach-goers, Alan believes there is nothing he can do but prepare for the worst.
 But fate has other plans. Delivered to him on the crest of a rogue wave, the strange object appears to have no purpose, no practical use—until Alan accidentally discovers what waits inside. Now he must attempt to unravel an ageless mystery, unaware that the final outcome will change his life, and the beach, forever.

In the companion novella Short Time, you’ll meet a respectable but bored middle-class executive, who exchanges his future for six months of excess and extravagance, only to find out the price he must pay for his hedonistic indulgence is beyond anything he could have imagined.

Author Bio: 

Jaye Frances is the author of The Kure, a paranormal-occult romance novel, The Possibilities of Amy, a coming-of-age romance, The Cruise-All That Glitters, a humorous adult satire about looking for love at sea, and The Beach, a sci-fi fantasy about a man who is given the opportunity to receive his ultimate wish and lives to regret it. She is also a featured columnist for the NUSA SUN magazine. Born in the Midwest, Jaye readily admits that her life’s destination has been the result of an open mind and a curiosity about all things irreverent. When she’s not consumed by her writing, Jaye enjoys cooking, traveling to all places tropical and “beachy” and taking pictures—lots of pictures—many of which find their way to her website. Jaye lives on the central gulf coast of Florida, sharing her home with one husband, six computers, four cameras, and several hundred pairs of shoes. For more information, visit Jaye’s website at www.jayefrances.com, or Jaye’s Blog at http://blog.jayefrances.com

The Beach is available now in kindle eBook on Amazon

 at a special Introductory Release Price of $0.99

Until September 15, 2012

~*GIVEAWAY*~
Jaye is giving away one copy of The Beach for your Kindle to one reader today. To enter, just leave a comment on this post; What category do your fantasies fall into: Love, money or longevity? And then fill out the rafflecopter below. Additional entries are available but not required. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway