Congrats to Gary Paulson - Winner of the ARC for Be Mused!

I just want to congratulate Gary Paulson - Winner of the ARC for "Be Mused." - I cast Chace Crawford as "Tristan," the muse. Tristan appears in my story, "Matchmaking Amusement." In the story he meets "Isolde," another muse and falls in love.

Scarlett Johanson as "Isolde."


In my story, the muses are old in spirit, but young in appearance. Tristan meets Isolde while on vacation in Germany, but in order to be together, Tristan and Isolde conspire to have their writers, Jane Ryan and Antonio Martinez fall in love.

Here's an excerpt from "Matchmaking Amusement" with Tristan and Antonio.

*****
Tristan smiled. One day Antonio would meet a girl and impress her with his poetry -- and Spanish.

Antonio walked back out onto the porch, sat down and sipped his coffee.

"What kept you up?" asked Tristan.
"The end."

Tristan's lips curved into a wicked smile. "Are you there? Now?"
"Almost. I fell asleep."

Tristan rubbed his hands together. "Well, let's whip it out, shall we?"
"Let me enjoy the sunrise first."

Tristan frowned. "At least tell me how far you got."
"Alstair is this close from stealing Dietrich's compass." Antonio lifted one hand and held two fingers within half an inch of each other.

"Really? Where is he?" British lieutenant Alstair York was Antonio's hero from the first book. Josef Dietrich was one of the notorious SS commanders.

"He's visiting Hitler at the Berghof in 1943 for a military planning session."
"The Obersalzberg Mountain!" exclaimed Tristan.

Antonio smiled. "You remembered."

"Who could forget our trip to Berchtesgaden and the Eagle's Nest when you were in the
military?"

"Don't get confused. It was a big mountain. The Berghof is a different building than the Kehlsteinhaus, but it was all part of the same complex."

"Of course. The Americans bombed the Berghof and left the Kehlsteinhaus intact."

"I haven't decided if Alstair gets wounded or out of there injury free."
"He's got to be wounded."

"Gun wound?"
"Better yet -- knife wound."

Antonio snapped his fingers. "That's it." He flicked off his screensaver and began to type.

"What's going on?" demanded Tristan. A muse had a right to know.

***
Thanks to everyone who entered the contest! I'll be going on a mini blog tour in support of the anthology the last week of March/first week of April arranged by Classic Romance Revivial.

Also, I'll be interviewed by author Regina Andrews about the anthology and short stories coming up the last week of March. I'll be offering all kinds of fun prizes on my blog tour and interview so please pop in and leave a note.

*smiles*
Steph