Seashore Seduction

July Birthstone: Ruby (Promoter of friendship and love)

July Flower: Larkspur (Levity and hilarity) -- FICKLENESS

Theme: Beach scenes/scenarios; music, movies, plays, books with beach settings

Beach scenes and swimming come to mind in summer time, especially in July. The birthstone and flower for July are ruby and larkspur.

In addition to levity and hilarity, the stately looking larkspur also represents fickleness. Did you know it is poisonous?

In addition to friendship and love, ruby also represents power and wealth. These dynamics can often get complicated.

I started writing a short suspenseful murder mystery including these themes. At the beginning I knew who would be killed off and who the bad guy was, but as the story unfolded it morphed and several equally fascinating endings occurred to me.

So, I thought I’d invite you to have some fun here. The story is dangling at a crossroads. Anyone could be the murderer and anyone could be murdered. There are equally strong potential motives on all sides, although some have not yet been revealed.

I’m also contemplating the idea of writing more than one “last chapter” with different outcomes. I’ve never done that before, and would love to know your opinion. Would you enjoy a story with two different endings/victims at the end?

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SEASIDE SEDUCTION (an excerpt)

A brunette bombshell in an expensive bright red bikini reclined on a chaise lounge at water’s edge. The thin solid gold chain hugging her waist glinted in the sunlight. Warm turquoise water lapped gently at her heels and over her pedicured, red-tipped toenails.  The scent of coconut wafted on the tropical breeze, as palm fronds swayed overhead, offering occasional shade.

She let out a slow, sensual sigh. It was so liberating to be free of her unhappy life for a fleeting weekend of secret pleasures. The impulsive getaway to this idyllic tropical resort had turned into an unexpected sensory feast.

Giorgio was everything her bruised ego needed. For two months he had been her personal trainer, coming to her mansion three times a week to guide her workouts and help sculpt her body.  

Rolling over onto her warm belly, Ruby’s eyes scanned the hotel swimming pool area where the beach bar was located. His back was to her as he ordered a chilled bottle of pink champagne for them from the vivacious bartender Colleen.

Her lover’s physique was outrageously perfect. He stood a head above all the others. Sun-streaked raven hair caressed his broad shoulders and his long well-proportioned legs were planted firmly apart. All he wore on his bronze body was a black racing brief that left nothing to the imagination, and the invisible trail of kisses, licks and bites she had placed on him that morning.

The sun hit her jewel emblazoned wedding band at a certain angle, and the rubies and diamonds flashed like fire. Ruby cursed beneath her breath. She didn’t want to be reminded of her farce of a marriage. Nor did she want to return to it.

Her seven year union with Syd had been dominated by money, power and sex, and was built on a bed of indiscretion. Syd had made it his business to bed every woman in their social circle, which was vast considering they moved in high circles, both politically and with the international jet set. She had turned a blind eye to one affair after another, and had never once cheated on him.

Until last month.

Syd always made sure she knew about his paramours. The day she found out he had screwed her sister-in-law was the day her inner fire awakened with a vengeance.

When Giorgio arrived for their workout, he’d found her in a sexy black and scarlet negligee with passion in her golden topaz eyes. Instead of their usual workout in her private gym followed by laps in the Olympic length pool, she had taken him upstairs to her bedroom suite.

He had become her willing captive, taking her in his arms and peeling the sheer material away from her skin. Their yearnings and pent up desires of the past month exploded and rippled out through exquisite love making. He was so strong and powerful physically, but his hands were gentle and his nature was unassuming. Instinctively he seemed to know where to touch her and how to play her body like a flute.

One by one he had uncovered all her deep dark doubts about her body. Why did her husband need to bed every other woman in their world? What was wrong with her? Soon Giorgio taught her the problem was not her – it was Syd.

As the full moon rose over silver tree tops, they had slipped downstairs to skinny dip beneath the stars. Violet and pink larkspur flowers were visible in the moonlight, and the scent of night blooming jasmine intoxicated Giorgio and Ruby as they made love in the pool. She had never been happier.

Any time she had considered walking out of her marriage she had given up the thought. It wasn’t a lack of courage so much as a deep-seated dread in the pit of her stomach. Syd had told her many times that if she ever tried to leave him, it would be in a box. He would consider her abandonment like the loss of a personal asset he had invested in for years. 

Nobody else was going to benefit from his investment. He owned her, in his sick and twisted mind. A piece of paper made her his legal courtesan, but in truth she was his slave and that piece of paper gave her no rights.

Giorgio slid onto the chaise lounge beside her, pulling her out of her depressing thoughts as his cool hand caressed her sun-glowing skin.

“Champagne is coming,” he whispered playfully into her ear. He nibbled her ear lobe, his warm tongue sending shudders of pleasure rippling up and down her body.

She rolled sideways to face him, rubies blazing on her ring finger in the bright sunlight. She rested her head on her hand.

“Let’s not go home.” Her eyes watched his features carefully to gauge his reaction.

“Cara mia, what a beautiful fantasy, but you know as well as I do that it’s not possible. Syd would kill us both.” Giorgio reached for his dark shades and placed them on the bridge of his straight nose, concealing his eyes.

“Maybe not,” Ruby replied hesitantly. “Did you know Syd is right here in the hotel, in a penthouse suite? He’s watching us this very moment.” Giorgio’s head started to turn to look upwards, but Ruby stopped him. “Don’t! He mustn’t realize we know he’s here. Listen…I have a plan.”

An excerpt from Seashore Seduction © 2015 Gemma Juliana. All Rights Reserved.

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I hope you’ll join in the fun, or perhaps you can share the name of your favorite summer read. Or what you consider the perfect summer vacation.

Thanks for reading my blog post. I wish you a very happy summer with a multitude of fabulous stories to read while you lounge beside the pool or ocean, or in the cool sanctuary of your own home.

GEMMA JULIANA is a multi-published author who lives in an enchanted cottage in north Texas with her handsome hero, teen son and a comical dog. She loves making new friends and hearing from readers. Exotic coffee and chocolate fuel her creativity. You can buy Gemma’s books on Amazon. 

  

You can visit Gemma’s website http://www.gemmajuliana.com.

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Top Ten Things I Love About Summer

It’s summer time and the livin’ is easy, to paraphrase the song. How do I love summer? Let me count the ways, paraphrasing Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Sitting in my air-conditioned house while the temps outside hover near 100 has me thinking of all the ways I love summer. Of course, air-conditioning makes summer a tad more enjoyable. Here’s my David Letterman-inspired Top 10 List, in no particular order:

1.  More time to write. My TV shows are in reruns during the summer. I’m a TV junkie and I’m not afraid to admit it. A writer acquaintance once told me that to be successful at writing I’d have to give up all TV. She’s more successful than I so maybe she was right. However, I don’t see why I should give up something that gives me pleasure. TV watching allows me to relax my body and mind, and I get ideas for stories too.

2.  The sun. It shines in the summer. I live on the East Coast so the sun is a rare commodity most of the year. Yay, sun! I love that shining orb. Just seeing the sun in a cloudless sky lifts my mood. Sun makes people want to get out and do things and it improves their attitudes.

3.  The beach. Or Shore if you’re referring to New Jersey. I’ve lived most of my life a 90-minute drive to the Atlantic Ocean. The beach and ocean are a big part of summer here. I don’t get to the beach much nowadays, but I went to the Jersey Shore most summer weekends when I was in my twenties and thirties. Snooki, The Situation, and the rest of the “Jersey Shore” cast have nothing on me and my friends. Good times. Although I spent almost every weekend at the Shore in those days, I didn’t get tan. There are two reasons for that: I don’t tan no matter how hard I try; I was indoors, in the bars, most of the time. Like I said, good times.

4.  Tans. See above. Most people look healthier in the summer with their golden tans. I’m the exception.

5.  Clothes. I wear fewer of them in the summer. It’s so nice to get up in the morning and throw on a tank top and a pair of shorts and some sandals. In the winter I wear thermal tops under my long-sleeved shirts, sweatpants, socks, warm shoes, and a jacket. In the house. Our house is surrounded by mature trees so it’s always cool, actually cold, in the winter. It’s so much easier to dress in the summer.

6.  Sandals. Love them. I once helped launch a revolt where I worked because our company wouldn’t allow us to wear sandals and wanted us women to wear pantyhose and closed shoes all year round. Yuck. Our revolt was successful. The company never again tried to force us to wear pantyhose and closed shoes in the summer.

7.  Pedicures. My favorite toe color du-jour is green. I wear toe rings too. Sometimes I paint my toenails blue. Painting my toes bright colors and wearing toe rings help me feel a little bit edgy. I like the feeling.  

8.  Beer. I’m usually a wine drinker, but there’s nothing like an ice-cold brew on a hot day. Give me some fresh oysters and clams with that beer and I’m in summer heaven.

9.  Less people where I live. Most of my state’s population is in the southern part of the state at the beaches or at the Jersey Shore. I stay up north most of the summer. The roads up here are less crowded and so are the stores and restaurants. You can walk into almost any restaurant and be seated right away. Whereas in the winter, the most popular restaurants have long waits. In the summer, I get to try restaurants I can’t get into during the winter.

10.  Air-conditioning. I love the heat. I love the sun. But I sure do love my air-conditioning when things get too hot.

What don’t I like about summer? My list only has six items:

1.  Sweat. Not a ladylike thing.

2.  My hair. Those of you with curly hair always complain about frizz. I challenge you to have my hair--straight and flat with not an ounce of body. Want to know what happens to my hair in the summer? Within minutes of styling it, it falls flatter than the proverbial pancake. In fact, pancakes are fluffier than my hair. Next time you complain about your frizz or curls, remember this--it could be worse. You could have my hair.

3.  Humidity. We have lots of it here. It’s what makes us sweat and gives us bad hair days.

4.  Mosquitoes. Enough said.

5.  Swollen fingers. I can’t wear most of my rings because of the heat and humidity. I love rings and usually wear at least three on every hand. Now I’m down to one or two on each hand. Bummer.

6.  Food spoils faster. I keep an ice chest in my trunk during the summer. When I food shop, I put the frozen foods and perishables in the ice chest for the ride home. Even though I live fairly close to the supermarket, food spoils quickly in the heat. One of the few good things about winter is that I can go food shopping in the morning, store the food in my truck, stay out all day, and when I get home, the food is still cold and the frozen stuff still frozen.

Even the hottest summer is better than winter, in my opinion.

So, what do you like about summer? What don’t you like?

Sun, sand and books

My daughter and I returned home from our Girls Road Trip 2010 last week. We made a round trip 2500 mile loop from our SW Missouri home to the north east coast of Florida, not far from where we lived for eighteen years. Can't get much more land-locked than smack in the middle of the USA and after three years of living here, we missed the ocean something fierce.


I had no worries that the beach town had gone through radical changes since I'd left it. I expected changes but nothing drastic. There were new houses and restaurants, a few more shops and more traffic that went along with the growth, but life in and around the Atlantic hadn't changed. That phrase, you can never go back home doesn't hold true for the ocean. One not crippled by human-made disasters is a safe place for the nostalgic person to return to. Tides, surf sounds, beaches, shells, sand crabs, sea birds. Every size, shape and age of people in and around the water. Five, ten, twenty years could pass before I get to the ocean again and when I do, I can feel confident that what I love about it will still be as I had left it.


I expect I will find the same beachgoing activities in a decade as I found last week. Walking, jogging, kite flying, castle building, eating, drinking, reading. I was so happy to see that reading is still favored by so many beach lovers. Educational associations, writer's loops and book purchasing statistics have raised concerns about the decline of reading in this country. We're told paper book purchases are down, ebook purchases are up. I expected to see either no readers or those who were reading to have the popular Kindle or other handheld reading device inches away from their faces. Like the Kindle television commercial with the couple sitting in cozy canvas chairs on the beach, their backs to the camera, each reading from a Kindle. In the week I spent oceanside I saw not a single one. Paperback and hardback books yes, but no handhelds. Not that it matters to me what method someone uses to read a book, as long as books are still being read. But I was surprised and pleased--no offense to those of you who use electronic methods to read--to see so many actual books being enjoyed.


I'm strictly old school. I have to hold a book, turn the pages with my fingers, see actual print on paper, use a bookmark from my vast collection to mark my stopping place. Apparently plenty of people agree with me. But even more important is they agree that a good book is a fantastic beach companion. And as writers, that is absolutely something for us to celebrate.


Polly