by Madelle Morgan
Last week I typed THE END on my New Adult romantic comedy Caught on Camera! It's the first in my Muskoka series of contemporary romances about men and women in the film-making industry who fall for locals in a beautiful lake district.
The series premise - "Hollywood in cottage country" - is aimed at those interested in learning about the various professions in the entertainment business, in the context of love stories.
I actually wrote the second in the series first. Sex & the Screenwriter tells the story of one of the secondary characters in Caught on Camera, so the two books will be released back-to-back. If the editing process goes smoothly, both will be late summer reads on Amazon. I plan to write the third, Director's Pick, over the summer and fall.
Caught on Camera has a Cinderella theme. Here's a snapshot:
To achieve her dream of working on Hollywood film sets, starstruck chambermaid Rachel Lehmann needs $35,000 for film school tuition by the end of the summer. When she's asked to fill in for a missing bridesmaid at a movie star's wedding, it's her big chance to take candid photos of celebrities and sell them to the entertainment media. Then groomsman Mickey McNichol, agent to the stars, sweeps her off her feet.
Mickey's bitter experience is that everyone in show business fakes emotions. When he falls for the stand-in bridesmaid, he thinks he's finally met a beautiful woman he can trust. But if Rachel betrays his friends' privacy, Mickey will ensure she never works in Hollywood.
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| Rachel Image Credit |
Excerpt
Rachel stood in front of the Bridal Suite's floor-length mirror
dressed in a pale lilac strapless, tea-length chiffon gown with fitted bodice.
One part of her basked in the image of herself in the exquisite dress, and the
other part fretted about falling behind schedule. She kept one eye on the
digital bedside clock, and the other on the ball of white fur rolling over her
black uniform on the unmade bed.
“I need
to call the Housekeeper, Ms. Kane. I have rooms to clean.”
“Wanda
will take care of that,” the bride-to-be said airily. She turned to her
personal assistant. “Inform the hotel manager that I need Rachel until Sunday.”
“Right
away.” The PA bolted for the exit.
“We
booked the entire hotel for the wedding,” assured the tall, slender woman with
a medley of blonde highlights in waist-length hair. “What the bride wants, the
bride gets. Relax and show me a few smiles. Mouth open. Mouth closed. You know
the drill.”
“Drill?”
“Your
smile for the wedding photos. I need to approve it.” She grabbed Rachel’s bare
shoulders and twisted her around to face the mirror.
Rachel
obliged, although the situation felt more surreal by the second.
Ms.
Kane tapped a scarlet, French-tipped nail against her chin. “Mouth closed, I
think. Yes, a sweet but sexy smile puts the focus on your big brown eyes.”
Meanwhile,
reflected in the mirror the tiny white dog’s devilish black eyes stared
straight at Rachel’s backside. To her horror she noticed a dark stain spreading
out from under its butt and over her uniform. “Oh my gods. Your dog just urinated
on the bed!”
“Did
she?” Ms. Kane’s good humor restored, she merely glanced at her pet sitting innocently
beside a puddle rapidly disappearing through Rachel’s uniform into the eight
hundred thread count Egyptian cotton duvet cover. “Bad Mopette,” she cooed.
“It’s Wanda’s fault. She’s supposed to walk you every couple of hours. The maid
will clean it up.”
“I’m the maid!”
“Not
anymore you’re not. This weekend you are my bridesmaid. A cousin on my mother’s
side from... from...”
“Toronto,”
Rachel supplied.
“Right,
Toronto, Canada. Where they have that international film festival.”
“And
the largest city in Canada,” Rachel added dryly.
But
Candy Kane’s mind was already on a different track. “Don’t you dare tell any of the guests you work
here.” Candy swiped fingers across her mouth in a zipping motion. “There’s a
big tip in it if you keep the secret and pull this off.”
“How
big?” Rachel wanted to ask, but kept her “sweet but sexy” lips clamped shut.
Truthfully, a tip wasn’t the prime reason she’d jumped at the miraculous opportunity
to be Ms. Kane’s bridesmaid. A shiver of excitement rippled across exposed
skin. Her good fortune to be conscripted into the Kane-Armstrong wedding party and
have access to their guests felt like a dream. She pinched herself. Then her mood
plunged as the awful truth hit her. She’d tucked the camera pendant into the
pocket of her pee-drenched uniform.
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