Whenever You Want

This is an especially proud day for me.  I wrote this book in 2006-2007, and it had a very nice run as a free book.  Finally, it's in paperback and ebook on Amazon and everyone can enjoy the magic.  It's especially wonderful because it's a book about an escort and one of the tags for the book is 'clean and wholesome'.  I know.  How did I accomplish that?  Well, there is only one way to find out.

Normally, this first introductory post would be about the synopsis on the back or an excerpt from inside, but not this time around.  This time I'd like to talk about the cover.

I always do my own cover design, but I do not create the piece of art I use as the central focus.  Instead, I check out various artists' work and choose something that has already been created that suits my purposes.  I pay them and feel pretty awesome about the whole transaction because I love supporting starving artists. 

For the cover of Whenever You Want I started doing just that.  I found myself particularly drawn to images that were gold and black, but most of the pictures I gathered lacked a much-desired depth to them.  Not only that, but they failed at being complex images.  They were images that focused on hair or eyelashes that didn't translate into an atmosphere.  I started thinking that I should contact a more experienced graphic designer than myself when my brain suddenly clicked.  I do know someone who is a better graphic designer than me.  She had over a thousand followers on Sketch before they shut it down!  So, I called her up.  By 'called her up', I mean that I asked her to come upstairs from the living room.  I drew a little pencil drawing of the basic idea of what I wanted and then I told her to do it her way.  This was the image she brought back to me.

Needless to say, my daughter, Kait, is an awesome graphic designer.  She's still in junior high!  I am so proud.  This is not her usual style.  Her flexibility in making an image to suit a brief stunned me.  And before you ask, yes I paid her.  In hats, but also in money.

Because this has been free for 13 years, an ebook of it is still free.  Here's the link to download your free copy.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/987116

For those of you who prefer paperbacks, here's a link for where you can order one if you live in Canada, and right after is the link for where you can order one if you live in the USA.  Remember, Christmas is coming!

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1700538322/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Whenever-You-Want-Stephanie-Orman/dp/1700538322/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=whenever+you+want+by+Stephanie+van+orman&qid=1572462673&sr=8-1
 

Trick Number One

Today is the last day for promoting A Little like Scarlett.  My, the time does fly.  Here's today's excerpt.

I used to get tricked into going on dates with guys I didn't like.  A guy, usually a guy who had a girlfriend, would call me up and ask me if I wanted to come on a group activity.  A bunch of kids were going to do something fun and I could come along with no date? Awesome! Except I'd show up and it was a single date or a double date and I was paired up with someone I never would have consented to go out with if Mr.  Matchmaker had been honest.

On this particular occasion, I was distinctly repelled by something about my date's mouth.  His name was Stephen and I was really not into Stephen's mouth. His lips were enormous in a way that just rubbed me all wrong.  

But I tolerated the rollerblading date and thought pleasantly that it would be over soon and I would no longer be around this guy I was actually repelled by.  He drove me home, by himself. We were alone in the car and I was not thrilled by that prospect. I didn't know him and I had not agreed to a single date with him.

We drove in silence.

“Isn't there anything you want to know about me?” he asked.

“Nothing's coming to mind,” I replied.

“Don't you even want to know my last name?”

I straightened.  Yeah, I did want to know his last name in case he attacked me and I needed to file a police report.  “Okay,” I said. “What's your last name?”

He told me.

And I immediately responded with, “What's your grandfather on your dad's side's first name?”

Again he told me, and I snorted.

“What?”

“We're cousins.”

He gawked.  “No, we're not.”

“Yes, we are.  Your grandfather and my grandmother are first cousins."  I started listing his first cousins, one of which was Wyatt and I suddenly made the connection.  The reason I didn't think he was attractive at all was that he actually had lips like two of my brothers.  Those really pronounced lips; my dad had them too.  

“We're third cousins,” I announced.  “Little too close for me to want to date you.”

He didn't believe me, but I didn't really care.  I sent him home to ask his daddy. It was a little weird when I got to the single adult ward after high school and I heard the ladies gushing over him.  Yeah, like he was my brother.

Here's the link for Amazon.ca

amazon.ca/Little-Like-Scarlett-Partial-Autobiography/dp/1694390489/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=a+little+like+scarlett&qid=1571422105&sr=8-2

Here's the link for Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1694390489?pf_rd_p=2d1ab404-3b11-4c97-b3db-48081e145e35&pf_rd_r=W9RYAYVGFBD3YV6548PE

Caught by a Chaperon

Today, and next week, I'll be posting clips of my new book A Little like Scarlett. It's a collection of my dating stories from when I was a teenager. Here's a link to my author page on Amazon.com. Let's jump right in, shall we?

I was at a dance once where I was slow dancing with this adorable boy named Wyatt.  We were laughing and flirting and suddenly he got this amazing expression on his face, and I thought that he wanted to kiss me, but there were at least half a dozen chaperons and so nothing special was going to happen.  

I looked up and questioned, “What were you about to say?” Pretending to be stupid.

He shook it off.  

And I was like, “Come on and tell me!”

We went out into the hall and I finally got him comfy enough to make his confession.  He couldn't look at me when he said it and missed all of my signals that he had to shut up.  There was a chaperon coming.  

Except he missed all my frantic hissing and said clear as day, “I just really wanted to kiss you.”

And the chaperon was right behind him and he said loudly, making Wyatt jump almost clear out of his seat, “You two should head back into the gym.”

I got up and started walking with him.  I said something about how it was too bad and cute little Wyatt executed a perfect wall slam against the church wall.  That's when a guy neatly pins you against the wall either with the purpose of kissing you or yelling at you. He was about a centimeter off laying that kiss on me when that chaperon was back with his booming voice, “You'd better head back into the gym!”

I just about leaped out of my skin and the moment was completely ruined.  I think both of us were too embarrassed by getting caught that second time to spend much more time together.  I got home and contemplated his last name. The next day I made a call. Yep, he was my cousin.  

Here's a link to my author page on Amazon.com.

https://www.amazon.com/Stephanie-Van-Orman/e/B07YBTPPGQ?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000

And here's the link to the book page on Amazon.ca

https://www.amazon.ca/Little-Like-Scarlett-Partial-Autobiography/dp/1694390489/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1570734734&refinements=p_27%3A+Stephanie%5CcVan+Orman&s=books&sr=1-1

A Little Like Scarlett Release Day

Hello Joyful Readers!


Today I am posting the links to my new book A Little like Scarlett.  It is a compilation of real-life tales from my teenage dating life.  It is available for purchase as an ebook and a paperback on Amazon at https://www.amazon.ca/Little-Like-Scarlett-Partial-Autobiography/dp/1694390489/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=A+little+like+scarlett+by+Stephanie+Van+Orman&qid=1570132432&sr=8-3

Here's another excerpt:

There was a boy who lived down the street from me who was very popular.  I had friends who used to come to church with me just to watch him bless the sacrament.  I enjoyed the company, but I didn't see what they saw in him. He was adorable, the cutest thing really, but if I had to describe anything more about him, I would be at a loss.  Maybe it was simply that I never had much to do with him, so I didn’t hear what he thought about or understand who he was. Also, I am not soulless enough to fall in love with a boy based on looks alone.  As far as I could tell, he was a perfectly fine guy. He just didn’t set my heart aflutter.

One foggy, icy day I was walking home from school for lunch and this guy was walking five steps behind me.  Four steps behind me. Two steps behind me.

And I just couldn't help myself.  

I slipped on the ice and he caught me, much to the fluttering of my heart.

I love this memory because when I intentionally slip on the ice or do a baseball slide, I do so with intention.  If he had not caught me, I would have cracked my head open. Instead, he helped me up and I felt like the little devil I knew I could be and walked the rest of the way home with him.  

I love dating stories. Please check out my book and let me entertain you with mine!

A Little Like Scarlett

Very soon, I am releasing my partial autobiography entitled A Little like Scarlett.  I wrote this book like a person possessed.  I have always been curious about authors of romance novels, so I wanted to write about my own dating stories.  Each week, for the next four weeks, I plan to post a different clip from the book to whet all your appetites.  Here's the first one:

:

When I was a teenager, I used to read books dedicated to teaching young women how to win men over.  Apparently, you should get him to help you with your coat. When I was studying this in the 1990s I thought that idea seemed so outdated it was laughable.  Yet, I am a ridiculous sort of girl and I wanted to try out the theory before I hurled it out the window.

So, as I was leaving a dance with a boy at the end of the night, we stood by the coat rack.  I pointed to my coat and said, “That one is mine."  

As a side note, it was a really ugly coat.  Really, really ugly. So ugly that I didn’t want to admit to owning it and if I hadn’t committed to trying that stupid idea, I probably would have left the church without claiming it rather than admit that the incredibly ugly coat that actually that grommets in the armpits to help with ventilation, was mine.  My mom bought it at a thrift store and was ever so pleased with herself.

Back at the church, the boy looked at the coat and shrugged his shoulders like, “So?"

I looked at him like he was stupid, took the coat off the hanger and handed it to him.  

He took it, but had his hands apart like, “I don’t know.  Why are you giving this to me?”

I looked at him like I was trying to be patient with him when really my face was aflame and I didn’t know why I had committed to this stupid idea, and he was going to think I was stupid and everything.  I spread the coat between his two hands and got into it.

He laughed, didn’t seem to notice that my coat was only pretending to be a jean jacket (because it was actually made of something much cheaper), enjoyed my playfulness, and afterwards he never forgot to treat me like a lady.

Kiss of Tragedy Excerpt

Hello Clever Readers!

Today I am going to share an excerpt from my newish novel Kiss of Tragedy.  Before we begin I would like to take a moment to talk about the dark romance and its progression.  To set the stage I want to frame a dark romance with the borders of novels like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Phantom of the Opera, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Frankenstein.  Those are classic novels everyone is familiar with and they don't spook anyone, even when they start stitching corpses together at midnight.  Think of the pleasurable parameters of those books and then start to consider what I would do with similar material.

For my own part, I want to write different kinds of novels.  I can't stand reading when an author picks one thing and does different variants of it until the genre is a husk.  A dark romance has always been on my radar, like something I wanted to voice in my own words and string along like a necklace made of black beads with the occasional pearl as a spot of light.  This means that a dark romance is not always my genre of choice.  The next book I release will belong to a different genre, and the book I release after that will be from yet another genre.  I want to explore everything.

With that in mind, let's get dark and romantic with this excerpt from Kiss of Tragedy. 

“Choose me,” Seth said, finally sounding sincere. 

“What?” Juliet muttered, quite out of breath.

“If that’s how you feel, then I want you.  If you’re just going to run out and let some monster like Rylan ruin you, then I want you.”

“Be real,” she said, closing her eyes and trying to brush past him.

“I am being real,” he said, clasping her elbow.  

Her shoulders fell.  “Are you saying you want to be my boyfriend?”

“Sure.  If that’s how you want to classify the love you want, then sure, I’ll be your boyfriend.  I’ll be whatever you want.”

“Weren’t you going to ruin me?”

“Better me than anybody else,” he said persuasively.

“What if I don’t want you?” she asked, a small part of herself barring Seth from convincing her.  Her mind was unraveling, but she still had one idea to hold onto. “What if I don’t want anyone, except a vampire?”

He faced her.  “It’s true that I’m not a vampire, but I kiss like one.”

He warned her, so she should have been ready, but absolutely nothing could have prepared her for his lips.  The fragrance from before, the spicy blend of leather and Paris, was gone and instead the taste of his saliva and the smell of his aftershave were like copper.  Darkness enveloped her. It was as if her lips and nose had been lowered into a puddle of blood rather than been captured by the man she dreamed of. Her mind was flashing with images.  

There was an image of the man she loved and his body was bleeding and dying at her feet.  Falling to her knees, she was embracing him—encompassing him with the greatest love she had ever felt.  His face was hidden from her, but it didn’t matter. She knew him by sense if not by sight. She was bending over him and kissing him for the last time as she had kissed him thousands of times.  This was to be the last kiss and her heart was overflowing with the intensity of the moment. Her mouth felt full with blood and she was choking, like someone choking on tears. She swallowed and with each swallow, she was safeguarding and sealing each one of their sacred memories.

Then she was kissing Seth.  He was the one from her vision, the one she crushed to her chest and ached to be near.  Nothing made sense except that she loved him and she wanted him. She tangled her fingers in his hair and drew him even closer, but the smell of blood was strong and she began feeling faint.

She slipped from his arms and half fell to the floor.  Seth cradled her and lowered her gently until she sat upright on the tile flooring.

“What happened?” she asked, putting her fingers to her face.  It felt like there was blood dripping from the tip of her nose and dribbling down her chin.

“I kissed you,” he explained.

Juliet pulled her hand away, expecting to see her fingers stained with red, but they weren’t.  They were white. In fact, her face wasn’t even wet.

“I…?” Juliet began.

“Kissed me back,” he finished for her.  “You’re a phenomenal kisser, Juliet. I think I even saw stars.  And I thought you were going to resist me. Now you’ll never be able to get rid of me.”

“I don’t want to get rid of you,” she mumbled, still confused about what happened.  She had been positive that she tasted blood in her mouth. She felt around with her tongue, but she couldn’t feel any cuts.  She even put her fingers directly into her mouth and touched her gums and cheeks, but there was only saliva.

“What are you doing?” Seth asked, laughing at her.

“I tasted blood in that kiss.  Are you bleeding?”

He examined her with amusement.  “No.”

“Then...?”

“Just think of me as your vampire, if that’s the only kind of man you’ll take,” he said as he put his arms around her and lifted her onto her feet.  “I’ll take you back to your room now, but I want to see you tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.”

See what I mean by dark romance?  I hope you enjoyed that and that you'll give Kiss of Tragedy a try.  Here are the links.

Here's where you order the paperback in Canada.
http://www.amazon.ca/Kiss-Tragedy-Stephanie-Van-Orman/dp/1689418877/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Stephanie+Van+Orman&qid=1567637141&s=digital-text&sr=1-2-catcorr

Here's where you order the paperback in the USA.
https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Tragedy-Stephanie-Van-Orman/dp/1689418877/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=stephanie+Van+Orman&qid=1567637009&s=gateway&sr=8-3

And here's where you get your free ebook everywhere.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/956670

Kiss of Tragedy

Hello Great Readers,

Today I get to announce the paperback and ebook release of Kiss of Tragedy.

Here's the back synopsis.

Juliet Hudson looks like spring. After all, she’s only eighteen years old and attending her first semester of university. Yet, even though Juliet’s eyes are clear and her heart as unspotted as the Virgin Goddess herself, she has her secrets. The least of which is that she loves the darkness. Not only does she join an occult club, but she falls head over heels for a man who looks and acts exactly like a vampire. Seth, with his black hair, white skin and with three perfect bite marks down the side of his neck, Julianne is convinced he is the vampire of her dreams. 

It would be perfect if something strange didn’t happen whenever they kiss. When his lips touch hers, she’s thrown into a world where violence is normal, romance and danger become the same thing, and where a simple kiss can lead to destruction.

Here's where you order the paperback in Canada.
http://www.amazon.ca/Kiss-Tragedy-Stephanie-Van-Orman/dp/1689418877/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Stephanie+Van+Orman&qid=1567637141&s=digital-text&sr=1-2-catcorr

Here's where you order the paperback in the USA.
https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Tragedy-Stephanie-Van-Orman/dp/1689418877/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=stephanie+Van+Orman&qid=1567637009&s=gateway&sr=8-3

And here's where you get your free ebook everywhere.
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/956670