After a rocky couple of weeks spending too much time on the unpleasant side of the book business, I’ve been back to writing and the final edits on a bunch of short stories. Finally, the project is coming together. It feels like a book. And that book is Frosting on the Cake 2: Second Helpings.
Long-time fans know that Frosting on the Cake (hereinafter called Frosting on the Cake: The Original) is a collection of short stories inspired by my previously published novels. It was published in 2001, and featured 13 stories that take place after my first ten novels. Above Temptation (July 2010) was my 22nd book (not counting those written as Laura Adams or in collaboration with other writers). It seemed like a good time to revisit as well as collect stories I’d published in some other volumes that would also fit with this one.
So far, it looks like a total of 18 stories. Of that, 7 were published previously in other anthologies. Because some were in anthologies with a common setting, when lifted out of that context they needed specifics added to them, so they’ve all been enhanced with more detail and if further inspiration struck that went in as well. There is an 8th previously available story that BellaBooks.com gave free to customers as an eStory last year, in celebration of my 20th anniversary of writing. If you missed it, now you’ll have it.
Ten more stories are original to this collection. I thought all the stories would be only from books I’d published since the original Frosting, but some old characters still had something to say. Like last time, the one that slipped into place the easiest was Faith Fitzgerald of Wild Things, who is journaling Sydney’s latest political campaign. A short (and extremely unedited) snippet of that is below.
When the manuscript is all signed, sealed and delivered I’ll post the individual story titles and their source of inspiration. The collection will be out this fall and Frosting: The Original will also be rereleased at the same time, and available in ebook for the first time as well.
And now, after the jump, the equivalent of a dab of frosting on your finger. You know you want it. Forgive typos and malaprops; it’s not been edited.