Reading Excerpts

On Saturday, I will be at the Old Bridge Library talking about e-publishing and reading excerpts from some of my books. I spent last night searching for the proper excerpts. I've found it's easier for me to read excerpts of the character's internal thoughts. Reading dialogue is tougher for me. I think that's because I am used to reading children's stories and acting out the parts of the characters--I have a very good witch voice, and I can do a nasty wolf voice, too. :^)

I liked this excerpt from The Company You Keep. It is a bit tiltilating.

Abruptly, he ended his nervous pacing. Tonight he had stumbled upon Jennifer in the woods and had seen a look of total panic on her face that had nearly made his own heart stop. She seemed a completely different woman, which made the entire episode eerie, like a vague but haunting dream. It was as though she had shed her shield and for the first time he had touched flesh instead of hardened steel. The Iron Lady had turned into a winter sprite. He had felt the tender curves lurking beneath her sweater. Lust fired through him at the thought of her full lips, rosy, quivering, and so close to his own as he carried her over the snow.


Nevertheless, he knew that at the next planning meeting, Ms. Brant would again be suited up in her gray, tailored armor. Her heavy braid would be tucked into a spinster-ish knot, and her eyes, so desolate in the woods, would be as unyielding as gunmetal.

Try reading it aloud--with expression and slowly. What do you think?