Prologue True Confessions by Electa Rome Parks

True Confessions by Electa Rome Parks

Twenty-eight year old Kennedy Logan is gorgeous, educated, talented, and in love. Unfortunately, Drake Collins has other ideas about the true state of their relationship. Kennedy hopes to turn him around; Drake just wants to turn her out sexually. Kennedy is also searching for her biological mother, who gave her up at birth. She wants answers and she has tons of questions. The enormous weight of these predicaments leads to a failed suicide attempt.

Her overprotective and overbearing mother, Dorothy Logan, moves in with Kennedy and makes it her mission to get her daughter's life back in order. The first step is getting rid of Drake Collins once and for all, but that's easier said than done. Drake has no intentions of going anywhere. Kennedy's ever loyal and fun-loving best friend, Taylor, and her absentee father join forces to help support Kennedy in her time of need.

At her psychiatrist's advice, Kennedy uses writing as her therapy. She starts to keep a daily journal detailing the erotic circumstances and family drama that led up to her despair. Through very personal, funny, and graphic entries, readers will share her confessions. Brace yourselves for a very steamy journey!



Prologue True Confessions by Electa Rome Parks
(Erotic Thriller)

My reality is surreal and happens in super, slow motion. A nervous giggle escapes my chapped, dry and parched lips. I lick them to restore moisture. Then, there is utter, deadly silence. If I listen closely, I can hear my heartbeat beating away at an accelerated pace. My senses are heightened and I marvel over the brilliant, bold colors of my bedroom as I inhale my favorite fragrances, from their spot on my antique dresser, colliding into one another with their potent allure. Even my sense of touch is different somehow. Everything is magnified to the nth degree. It’s like I’m looking down at myself from a huge movie screen with surround sound as I ready myself for the big finale---the final shot and then fade to black.

I’ve never been good at saying goodbye, even on short, weekend trips. I keep the handwritten note short and sweet and pray to God that mother will understand, and hopefully, one day, forgive me.

I don’t mean to hurt her or cause her any fresh pain. I sincerely don't. I hope she understands that this isn't her fault, that I love her with all my heart and being. No matter what, that fact will never change. I’m so thankful and forever grateful that she chose me to be her daughter out of all the orphaned babies in the world. She chose me. I told myself over and over again that that made me special. I needed to feel special instead of unwanted and discarded.

I’ll miss mother the most, but the hurt I feel inside is too unbearable and indescribable. It is too painful for me to continue, day in and day out, with just a hollow emptiness that erodes and corrupts any happiness that briefly surfaces. The dawn of each new day only brings me more heartache and renewed memories. Some memories are like leeches. They latch on for dear life and slowly, ever so slowly, suck and drain all the blood, all the living out of you. You are left with just a shell of the old you and that's no way to survive. Not for me, anyway.

When they find me, I want it to look like I’m sleeping, peacefully. Just like Sleeping Beauty who only needed a handsome prince to kiss her and awaken her from the darkness that engulfed her. However, for me, there won't be a handsome, charming prince to wake me, save me, and ride off into eternity. All my so-called princes were monsters in disguise with their own hidden agendas that attempted to crush and stamp out my self-esteem. Yes, just blessed sleep awaits me.

I chose pills. I couldn’t subject mother to a messy, bloody scene that comes with slitting one’s wrists or shooting one's self. I refuse to take my final breath with that heavy on my heart. I don't think my heart could handle anything else weighing against it. As it is, I feel like I have three hundred pounds weighing me down. Crushing the life out of me.

As I settle myself comfortably on my queen-size bed, slowly pull the red, satin comforter up to my chin and stare at the full bottle of prescription pills carefully nestled in my right hand, I can’t imagine not waking up in the morning.

What will it be like to not see the rising sun? To not hear my alarm clock going off announcing it’s time to get ready for another day of work? Not hitting snooze to give myself another fifteen minutes? Not rushing to finish my morning rituals before I dash out the door and into rush-hour traffic? What will that feel like?

More important to me now, though, is will it hurt? I hope not. I have never been able to tolerate too much pain, physical, mental or emotional. Yet, that’s what Drake has caused me for the last year of my life. Pain. Intolerable suffering.

I only wanted to love him and for him to love me in return. Simple enough. Was that asking too much? My part of the equation was accomplished, effortless. Drake claimed he loved me, but he really didn’t. Probably never could. Didn't know how to love or receive it. After what happened last week, I know he didn’t. Yet, I gave him everything: my heart, my body, my soul. Now, I have nothing left to give myself. I'm empty inside.

As tears slowly flood my weary eyes and blur my vision, I look around my cozy bedroom for the last time. Ever. It used to be one of my favorite rooms in my small two bedroom, one bath apartment. There was nothing better than lighting several fragrant candles, drinking a little white wine and cozying up with a good romance novel. Yes, that was heaven. Simple things excite me. Always have. Watching a sunrise or sunset, waking up to birds chirping in the treetops, walking hand in hand through the park with the one I love, all these things brought me great joy.

Mother will have to understand. I left her a note, propped up on the nightstand, in full view, that explains how much I love her and daddy. What will she think when she can’t reach me tonight? I would love to hear her soothing, loving voice one last time. Yet, I know I wouldn’t be able to go through with my plan if I did. I’d give away my intentions over the phone or mother would pick up on my foul mood and that would be that. I’d wake up another day with this aching, dull pain inside, tearing me apart, bit-by-bit. Pain that dulls and diminishes every ounce of my strength, all the way down to my pores.

Drake Collins. His name leaves a bitter taste on my tongue. Just the thought of him brings bile to the back of my throat. I will forever regret the day I met that man. If I could turn back the hands of time, do it all over again, I would have called in sick that day or run for the hills. I was just fine with my life the way it was. Sure, it wasn’t exciting or glamorous, but it was enough for me. Drake came with the charm, movie star looks, glitz and high drama and reeled me right in like a bass caught at sea. I gladly jumped into his net.

I say a silent prayer of forgiveness as I place one, then two colorful pills on my tongue and swallow dry. I didn't think of getting a glass of water. I can't think. The lump in my throat quickly diminishes. There’s no turning back now. Just like there was no turning back when Drake turned me out. The countdown begins. Ten, nine, eight. . . I've lived a happy life. I have tons of good memories. I've treated others the way I wanted to be treated.

I hope this happens quickly. I steadfastly place three, four pills on my tongue and swallow again. Hot tears start to spill forth and stream down my cheeks as I realize the final result of my actions. Seven, six, five. . . It’s for the best. I need to stop the pain. Will he even miss me? Or will he just move on to his next victim? Will all this be in vain?

I guess I’ll never have that family now. The one I used to daydream and write about in my journal. The family with the almost perfect mommy and daddy and two kids, a boy and girl. The boy would be the oldest, and he'd look out for and protect his younger sister. They'd have cute, adorable names and they'd know they were wanted and loved and cherished by their parents. They'd never feel unwanted.

Four, three. . . I swallow a handful of pills this time. I've lost count as to how many I've digested. As spittle escapes from my mouth, I gag. I wipe the overflow away with the back of my hand and keep right on shoving pills in my mouth until the orange-brown medicine bottle is empty. I look inside, in awe, shake the bottle, and can’t believe the pills are gone so quickly. Just like the illusion of love. If you blink, you'll miss it.

I wonder if Drake even realizes how much I loved him? Now, I wait for blessed relief and peace to take away my hurt and pain. I’m so tired. Tired of loving the wrong men. Tired of giving my all, coming up empty, and getting absolutely nothing back in return. Good sex isn’t the end all to everything. Drake taught me that lesson.

Two, one. . . It won’t be long now. I faintly smile and lay back against my down pillow.

I welcome peace. In my mind, I start silently repeating Psalms 23. I shall walk through the valley of death; I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me. I’m so sleepy. I can barely keep my eyes open. I can feel myself giving in to the fog that slowly invades my mind. Maybe if I close my eyes for a few moments. Yeah, just rest them for a few minutes without seeing Drake’s face behind my heavy eyelids.

Suddenly, I feel lightheaded, like I’m floating on a big, fluffy white cloud, bouncing up and down, giddy with not a care in the world. This is a different sensation that I literally reach out my right hand to embrace and never let go of. Not a care in the world. Nothing matters but blessed, uneventful sleep. I close my tired, weary eyes as the countdown ends. Fade to black.

(continues in the book)

True Confessions by Electa Rome Parks
Order your copy today!



© 2010 All rights reserved. Book Excerpt Reprinted by Permission of Electa Rome Parks, author. Do not reproduce, copy or use without the author's written permission. Copyright infringement is a serious offense. This excerpt is used for promotional purposes only. Share a link to this page or the author's website if you really like this sample from True Confessions.

About the Author
Electa Rome Parks lives outside Atlanta, Georgia and is the best-selling author of six acclaimed novels, The Ties That Bind, Loose Ends, Almost Doesn't Count, Ladies' Night Out, These Are My Confessions (anthology) and Diary of a Stalker. Dubbed a "book club favorite," avid readers have embraced Electa's true to life characters that tackle prevalent and heavy hitting issues that take them on an emotional roller coaster.

The self-proclaimed Queen of Real, Electa has been a frequent guest on radio shows, nominated for many industry awards and interviewed by numerous newspapers and national magazines. Electa is currently following her passion and working on her next novel and first screenplay.


Connect with Electa Rome Parks online at:
www.electaromeparks.com
www.electaromeparks@blogspot.com
www.facebook/electaromeparks.com

Intimate Conversation with Gwynne Forster

Intimate Conversation with Gwynne Forster

Gwynne Forster, bestselling and award-winning author of When the Sun Goes Down, Blues from Down Deep, If You Walked in My Shoes, and A Different Kind of Blues, conjures a riveting story of fractured ties, secrets, and forgiveness in this powerful family drama in When the Sun Goes Down, the sequel to: If You Walked In My Shoes.

Gwynne Forster is a national best selling author of forty-five works of fiction, including her latest of nine mainstream novels, WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN. Gwynne is author of thirty-six romance novels and novellas, of which the latest novels are DESTINATION LOVE and YES, I DO. She has won numerous awards for fiction writing, including the Romantic Times 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award, the Romance In Color Author of the Year award, the Gold Pen Award and has been inducted in the Affaire de Coeur Hall of Fame.

Gwynne loves to sing, read and listen to music, especially jazz, classical music, opera and blues. She also loves to sing and dance, and enjoys entertaining at small dinner parties. She lives in New York with her husband, who is her true soul mate.


Listen to a lively interview with Gwynne Forster and BAN Radio host Ella Curry


BPM: Mrs. Gwynne, we are celebrating the holidays! What was your most memorable holiday from the past?
GF: My most memorable Christmas holiday was the first Christmas Eve that I spent with the man who is now my husband. I cooked a turkey, the first I'd ever cooked and, to my astonishment, it was a perfect bird. Many things happened that evening that we still joke about. We didn't know each other too well then, and we "tiptoed" around each other, each wanting to assure the other a happy Christmas and neither of us knowing how. We had a wonderful evening, singing, eating, listening to music, telling each other tall tales of our lives and, of course, exchanging gifts. I shall never forget it.


BPM: How do you celebrate the holidays? What are the traditions for your family?
GF: We celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve, always with a roast goose dinner and mounds of gifts around the Christmas tree. We began the Christmas Eve tradition when my step son--then a teenager--got his first girlfriend. Of course, he wanted to have Christmas dinner with her and her family. So we invited her for Christmas Eve, and he went to her family on Christmas day. We liked the custom. We open the gifts after dinner on Christmas Eve. One beauty of that is that I enjoy Christmas day with no work to do.


BPM: What are you most thankful for today? What does all your books have in common?
GF: I am most thankful for Jesus Christ in my life and for the health and well being of my family and myself.

GF: My books have different themes, but everyone of them demonstrates the importance of loyalty and common decency and the rewards of reaching for a higher goal. Website: www.gwynneforster.com


BPM: Mrs. Gwynne please tell us about your latest release, When the Sun Goes Down.
GF: When the Sun Goes Down deals with the strengths and fragileness of relations among family members. When self-made millionaire and widower Leon Farrell dies, he leaves behind a legacy of family dysfunction—and a missing will. The possible loss of a fortune only increases the existing tension between his three grown children.

While handsome slacker Edgar kicks back in anticipation of his windfall, middle child Gunther struggles to save his software business, and fiercely independent Shirley unsuccessfully tries to stay out of the fray. But things soon take an explosive turn. And as the siblings find themselves battling each other to protect their own interests, they’ll face choices that could bring them together at last—or tear them apart for good.

Caught in the middle of her brothers’ ill-will, and doing her best to keep the peace, Shirley is further unsettled when she falls for Carson Montgomery, the smart, sexy private investigator Edgar hires to tract down the will. And when Gunther suddenly falls ill, Edgar’s attempt to manipulate him causes a conflict of interest that will shock them all!

BPM: Are your characters a portrayal of real people?
GF: Not at all. Something about a person may give me an idea, but I invent my characters.


BPM: Who did you write When the Sun Goes Down for? Is there a message in your book that you want readers to grasp?
GF: I wrote it for my readership. I thought that the women and men who have read my novels over the years would enjoy a frank discussion of some of the problems common among people of African descent. I’m not sure you’d call it a message, because I make it a policy not to preach to the reader. My first agent told me that it is a writer’s duty not only to entertain, but to inform. I’ve taken that advice seriously, and in every book that I write, whether mainstream fiction of a romance, I include some worthwhile information as a part of the story.



BPM: If you could change one thing you from your road to publication, what would you have done differently?
GF: I wouldn't have written a romance as my first book. I write mainstream fiction, and some of my books have won awards, but they are always judged as romances, because reviewers associate me with romance. And when they complain about something, it's usually what distinguished mainstream women's fiction from a romance.


BPM: Do you write full time? Describe your writing schedule for your readers.
GF: I write full time. I get up around seven-thirty and usually write from nine to about four Mondays through Fridays. Important errands may interfere with the schedule, but that’s basically it. I write after dinner for about two hours, unless my husband and I are going out or have guests. I often write on Saturdays after I’ve finished my shopping and errands. I don’t write on Sundays. I work in my office, and I don’t listen to the radio unless there’s a program of Mozart music.

BPM: What do your do when you’re not writing?
GF: In the summer, I’m an avid gardener. I love music—opera and classical music, classical jazz, blues, some Sinatra/Nat Cole type popular songs and a couple of old fashioned country singers. I enjoy entertaining at small dinner parties and consider myself a rather good cook. And, of course, I read.

BPM: What does your family think of your writing?
GF: My family consists of my husband and stepson. Both are very proud of my success as a writer and read my books. Although my husband is an academician and not a computer expert, he makes my fliers, brochures, and bookmarks and does an elegant job of it.


BPM: What two pieces of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
GF: Don't be disappointed by rejections. When you get one, clean up the manuscript and send it to the next editor on your list. The appraisal of fiction is, in some important aspects, highly subjective.

GF: Learn English grammar, and cultivate an extensive vocabulary so as to express yourself precisely as you intend. Write each day and, if possible at the same time. Try not to get a habit of procrastinating, and don’t rewrite until, say, you’ve at least written a chapter. It’s best to rewrite after you finish a first draft. Nothing worthwhile comes easy. Join a writing group such as the local

RWA group and attend writing conferences whenever possible. Remember: if you write a page every day, at the end of a year you can have a book.


BPM: Thank you Mrs. Gwynne for joining us today! Readers you can find out more about Gwynne Forster and her books at: http://www.gwynneforster.com/



When the Sun Goes Down by Gwynne Forster
Book Review: 5-Stars by Sharel E. Gordon-Love

Dysfunction can be part of a family even when one looks from the outside in and all appears to be well. In Gwynne Forster's When the Sun Goes Down, we find this to be so with the three Farrell siblings after the death of their father, Leon.

Leon Farrell was an odd character, who seemed to lose touch with real life and the children that most fathers would hold dear to his heart, especially after the loss of his beloved wife. However, he retreated within himself and played a cruel joke on his family, that could have them at odds with one another and ruin their relationships for good.

The eldest sibling, Edgar, was determined to get what was coming to him as a means to an end and continue to be the rebel that he is and live life on his terms. In the meantime, his brother, Gunther, and his sister, Shirley, tried to live their lives in spite of Edgar and the way they were treated by their father when he was alive. No doubt, their upbringing had a lot to do with who they grew to be, albeit, all three different in their own way.

When it was all said and done, secrets were revealed and hidden things brought to the light as this family strived to keep their families together and receive the things that they believed they were entitled to outside of their father and his eccentric ways. At the end of the day, it is about family and the things that we do to remain one.

What I loved about When the Sun Goes Down is how author Forster took her time to tell the story; there was no need to rush the storyline. I recommend this book to everyone who loves stories about family love and romance. This book was provided to me courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.
--Review by Sharel E. Gordon-Love APOOO BookClub


When the Sun Goes Down
ISBN-10: 0758246994
ISBN-13: 978-0758246998

"When the sun goes down on my life, you'll all come apart like ripped balloons." -- widower Leon Farrell

When stingy self-made millionaire and widower Leon Farrell dies, he leaves behind a legacy of family dysfunction—and a missing will. It's soon clear that his three grown children, Edgar, Gunther, and Shirley, don't handle loss well—the possible loss of a fortune, that is. And when Edgar hires a private investigator to track down the will, it's just the beginning of a search that will lead the siblings to re-visit their childhoods, uncover buried secrets, and ultimately learn for themselves what it means to be a family. For as tensions escalate between the brothers—with their peace-keeping sister caught in the middle—an unexpected conflict of interest is brewing that will shock them all—and either bring them closer together or tear them apart for good...    Peek inside the book and read excerpt chapters!


Purchase your copy today. Give as a great holiday gift book!
http://www.amazon.com/When-Goes-Down-Gwynne-Forster/dp/0758246994


ALSO AVAILABLE NOW!
Once in a Lifetime by: Gwynne Forster
ISBN-13: 9780373831944

With a young daughter to support, recently divorced Alexis Stevenson jumps at the chance to become household manager for wealthy businessman Telford Harrington and his two brothers. Though she knows it won't be easy turning their bachelor-pad mansion into a home, she is determined to handle any obstacles, while maintaining a separate life for herself and her daughter. But Alexis isn't at all ready for the red-hot chemistry crackling between her and Telford—or the fact that she's suddenly caught in a maze of unexpected secrets and deep mistrust. But if she and Telford find their way through it—together—can they both embrace the love they so deeply desire?