I finished my second book!

I am excited to announce I have a new book coming out. I am in the editing phase and I am excited. It is my first attempt at fiction, but then when I think about it, through my songwriting I have been writing fiction all of my life, just not in the form of a novel. My book is called Didn’t see that Coming! One woman’s journey through meeting the love of her life and the spiritual eruption, confusion, and finally transformation it causes in both of their lives. Romance meets spirituality.

I hope you enjoy! Would love to hear your feedback. Please follow and share if you would like to read more chapters and keep updated on the release.

CHAPTER 1 – A Scrape with Destiny

When Sierra Jane Fillmore woke up, she looked around the room at her surroundings. It was Sunday morning and she had finally arrived in New Mexico. She rubbed her eyes as she swung her tired legs over the side of the bed. She truly wondered for a split second, if she was crazy to leave New York and drive across country to a town in the middle of who knows where. Maybe she would wonder that for awhile. She could hear her mother now. ‘Sierra Jane….girl have you lost your mind?” Maybe she had lost her mind. But maybe she needed to in order to have something good in her life. Perhaps she needed to do a complete about face in order to uncover a life that would be so different from the one she was living. A life she could be proud of and a life that made sense.

 She stepped under the shower faucet imagining the water to be a magic potion washing away the past, cleansing her heart, and filling her with new life. She was pregnant with anticipation. She lingered in the shower and leaned up against the wall directly under the shower to feel the water pulsate against her head. She felt refreshed and clean as she stepped out of the shower to dry herself off. When she came up from wiping her legs, she noticed the foggy mirror above the sink. She walked toward the sink and reached out with her towel to wipe the foggy mirror clear. How nice it would be to wipe away the past in just one quick swipe, like the mirror. Fuzzy, foggy past gone. New clear, clean life now appearing. Every part of her ached for that change; for a new way to look at things…like turning the world upside down and seeing and living it from a different angle. This was her time, her life, to decide what she wanted. Nobody knew her here. She could act and be whomever she wanted. This move was timely, needed, and necessary. What was in store for her, she didn’t know.

She pulled out a clean pair of jeans from her suitcase, and then opened the box of new cowboy boots she bought from one of those western stores, on her way out west. She couldn’t wait to break her boots in. When she tried them on in the store, she didn’t want to take them off. She felt brave, like nothing could scare her. She walked differently in them. They would be a symbol of her new life; like new shoes a kid gets at the start of every school year.

When she was finally dressed, she got in her car to find a place to have breakfast. As Sierra drove, she came upon a cafe that looked enticing to her. She pulled into a parking spot, but while pulling in, she misjudged its size. The front end of her car scraped against the car right next to her. She slammed on her breaks.

“Darn it,” she said. She opened her door, and got out to survey the car next to her’s. She had only scraped the surface. Not deep, but enough. The car she scraped was white and her car was navy. How obvious was that? What a way to start her new life, she thought to herself. She knew she had to go in and find out whose car it was.

She was embarrassed and a little nervous. She had no idea how these people were. In New York, someone probably would come out screaming and yelling at her. What could be worse than that, she thought?

She grabbed her purse, took a deep breathe and walked through the front door of the cafe. She took a second to survey her audience.

“Anybody got a…. Oh darn,” she said under her breathe. She didn’t get the make of the car.

She paused for a moment, as she walked to a nearby window to locate her car, and the car next to her.

“Yeah, anybody got a white Range Rover?”

Immediately a gentleman with dark brown hair popped his head up from his meal, and looked in her direction. Sierra felt like a deer in headlights when he looked up. He had tanned skin, sharp rugged features, and hazel eyes that seemed to twinkle for no reason at all. 

“Yeah sister, what’s up?” the man said.

She made her way through the obstacle course of diner tables and chairs. She started to fidget with her purse. She felt nervous. The kind of nervous you feel when you’re walking down a hallway in your high school and the star of the football team says ‘hi’ to you, and you’re so dumbfounded that you say nothing back. She just stood there for a moment looking at him.

“Hey,” she said. That was the only word that came to mind.

“Hey yourself,” he responded. She could not stop looking at him.

“Um, I kind of hit your car.” His eyes widened but there was a smile inching its way out.

“Kind of?” he asked. He chuckled and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

Thank goodness, he has a sense of humor she thought to herself. She couldn’t get over his looks. She couldn’t help staring, but at the same time it was hard to hold eye contact. How could this much gorgeousness be bestowed upon one person, she thought.

“Okay, not kind of….I hit your car” she confessed. “Yeah,” she let out a sigh. “Nothing big, but you should come and check it out,” Sierra mumbled as she kept glancing away. What was it when she got around really good looking men, that caused her to fall out of sorts and lose any kind of cool that she possessed, which really wasn’t that much in the first place.

“Okay,” he said. He took a sip of water, and stood up. She was surprised when he stood up. She didn’t expect him to be as tall as he was. His tallness overwhelmed her. He kept looking at her, looking at him. She let him lead as she followed him out of the cafe. He had long black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and wore jeans with old worn out black Dingo boots. He was lean and muscular as well. 

As they approached the cars, she stepped ahead of him so she could show him the damage.

“New York, huh?” he noticed.

“What?” she replied.

“Your license plate,” he gestured. “You’re a long way from home sister.”

He was incredibly handsome. Movie star handsome. She could not ignore it.

“Um….yeah, New York,” Sierra said.

“This just looks like a minor scratch and paint job,” he surmised.

“So I guess I should give you my insurance information and all that good stuff,” she said. She quickly opened her bag to find her insurance card. She was irritated that she could never seem to hold her ground around men like this. She felt like a dork, and probably in her estimate, acted like one.

One time, while she was in her neighborhood Starbucks in New York City, the actor William Baldwin walked in. He lived in the neighborhood as well. On his way to order his coffee, he happened to say hello to Sierra. She sat there frozen. She couldn’t find the word ‘hello.’ William Baldwin happened to be a childhood friend of one of her best friends. Her friend told her if she saw Billy again, just walk up and introduce yourself. He said Billy would love it. Billy sat in a nearby table in Sierra’s eye view, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak. For the life of her, she didn’t know why she acted this way. She certainly did not want to.

She rummaged through her big purse for a pen, but she couldn’t find one quick enough.

“Hey, no need to go through all of that. I’m sure we can find something to write with inside,” he suggested. He motioned for her to go before him. Josh couldn’t help but notice how awkward she was, but at the same time, she was beautiful.

“Got everything worked out?” the waitress asked.

“Yeah, we just need a pen,” Sierra said. She crossed her arms, and looked around, not wanting to rest her eyes on the obvious, which would be on this man, because she was sure she had already used up her share of staring, and anything beyond that would be considered weird. The waitress handed her a pen. Sierra wrote her cell phone number down, and the insurance company information, and handed it to him.  

“Sierra,” Josh said, reading her name on the paper. “I’m Josh,” he said extending his hand.

“Yeah, nice to meet you…..sorry about your car,” she said. She turned to find a table so she could escape quickly, wanting their conversation to be over.

“Hey, would you like to join me?” he blurted out. He wasn’t sure why he said it. Something compelled him. Sierra turned, not wanting to be rude, but his question stopped her in her tracks. Oh my god, he did not just ask me that, she thought to herself. If she couldn’t manage just standing next to him, how would she manage having a meal with him. Besides, he was literally a stranger. Why did he want to have a meal with her? Guys like this never paid attention to her.

“Uh, no thank you,” she said. “It’s my first day here and I kind of just want to be by myself.”

What was wrong with her, she thought to herself? This drop dead gorgeous man just asked her to have a meal with him. She immediately second guessed herself. Did she say too much? She was always over explaining herself and giving out too much information, so as not to hurt people’s feelings. Her friends would always tease her and tell her, ‘No, is a complete sentence.’  She didn’t even know this man she thought, as she sat down at a table on the opposite side of the small cafe from where the he was sitting.  

“Have a fine day then,” he said.

“You too,” Sierra replied. She couldn’t believe he asked her to join him. She thought he really must be crazy….or something must be wrong with him if he wanted to hang with her. She was too freaked out to be flattered, but he was beautiful.

The waitress handed her the menu. She sat there, milling over the menu. The waitress returned ready to take her order.

“Well, this is my first time here, and my first day in New Mexico, so I am not familiar with this kind of food.”

There were all kinds of things on the menu she had never heard of, or for that matter, could even pronounce. Considering all the choices of restaurants in New York, Mexican food was never on her radar.

“Would you like some suggestions?” a deep voice chimed in. Sierra looked over in the direction of the voice. Oh my gosh, he’s on his way over here. What is up with this guy she thought? Her heart started beating faster.

“I’ll let you two figure it out, and I’ll be right back,” the waitress said.

Before Sierra could object, he was at her table.

“Here goes,” he said, counting on his fingers. “An egg and sausage breakfast burrito with green chiles, and tortilla soup, in that order. Its yummy and delicious. I guarantee joy,” he said.

“I would say add some fry bread to that, but you don’t look like a big eater,” he said noticing her body.

Sierra blushed. If only he knew what a chubby she was before moving here.  

“Thank you for your help. I appreciate that,” Sierra mumbled.

“How long you here for?” he lingered.

Sierra remembered watching those TV shows like Cold Case Files or Unsolved Mysteries, where some innocent woman is traveling alone, when an unassuming stranger makes his way in, just like this guy, and the next thing you know, the woman ends up dead somewhere. She just arrived in New Mexico. She wanted to live to talk about it later.

“Not sure” she said. She moved her hair out of her face, feeling a little uneasy.

“Destination?” he queried.

“Um…not sure of that either,” she fibbed. She looked up at him for a brief moment. Her eyes got stuck noticing the perfect muscles in his arms.

“Okay, I get it,” Josh started to explain. “Let me just state this straight out. I grew up not far from here. Everybody knows me. I am not a serial killer a