Demon in Blue Jeans by Toni V Sweeney

Welcome author, Toni V Sweeney.

With a Song in My Head…Can a Story be Far Behind?

Somebody’s knockin’, should I let him in

Lord, it’s the Devil, would you look at him

I’ve heard about him, but I never dreamed

He’d have blue eyes and blue jeans

SOMEBODY’S KNOCKIN’

Words and Lyrics by

Edward Penney, Jr / Jerry Gillespie

Recorded by Terri Gibbs - 1980

© Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

Does anyone remember that song?  I certainly do. ’Way back in 1980, I listened to it day after day on Station KRNY in Kearney, Nebraska while I was working as a doctor’s assistant.  It conjured visions in my mind of a knock-out blue-eyed hunk tapping on someone’s door and the young woman in question peering through the peep-hole at him and wondering whether or not she should open the door.

The description she gives of her would-be called would make anyone definitely want to open the door. Blue eyes…blue jeans… I kept imagining him as having blond hair, too…a definitely drool-worthy dude.

What could I do?  I had to write the story…and it wasn’t going to be a serious one. How could it?

Nevertheless, when I finished, it wasn’t a novel as I’d expected but a short story.  Very short…28 pages, as a matter of fact. It was a fun write and a fun read and it got some good reviews when it was published as a Black Rose novella by The Wild Rose Press. One reviewer even said she wished I’d gone into more detail and made it longer. So after the contract ran its course and I received back the Rights, I did just that.  I revised, re-edited, and re-wrote. I expounded on Zel, going more into his background…and I gave Satan—the “Big Boss”—a very prominent part in the proceedings.  It still isn’t a novel, but I did come out of it with a novella.  Class Act Books has it scheduled for release within the next couple of months.

“…suspend your belief and get carried away with a total fantasy. And Toni V. Sweeney definitely delivers with Demon in Blue Jeans.”

--Margaret Marr. Nights and Weekends

“I hope Ms. Sweeney has more stories like this because sometimes we all want the short, quirky, fun books to lighten up our day!”—Fallen Angel Reviews
 

“ DEMON IN BLUE JEANS provides rollicking fun mixed with heady emotion and enthusiastic sex – a perfect combination!”—Dark Angel Reviews

Blurb:

Kate Carter has always considered herself a good girl, but she’s also a very lonely one because of that fact.  One night, she does something rash…she asks the Devil to send her his baddest Bad Boy, all for her own.

        What Kate gets however is Zel, an underachieving incubus, who’s in line for evaluation.  Zek’s failed every review he’s had for the last ten thousand years, and Kate’s his last hope for promotion.  This assignment is one he’s desperate to pass.

        What follows is a night of passion neither mortal nor demon can forget and that leads to complications…as Kate and Zel realize they’ve fallen in love…and that the Devil had plans for both of them…

“…suspend your belief and get carried away with a total fantasy. And Toni V. Sweeney definitely delivers with Demon in Blue Jeans.”

--Margaret Marr. Nights and Weekends

EXCERPT:

“Wasn’t that a great movie?” Kate slid into the booth beside Selena. It was a lovely late spring afternoon. She and her friends were lucky to have a four-day work-week and as was their usual Friday routine, they had just left the Ritz Theater, where the latest horror movie was playing and were now at their favorite burger barn.

“Yeah!” Audrey agreed breathlessly, waving at a passing waitress who skidded to a stop and trotted over. “I just looove Sean Donovan.”

“Oooh, ooh!” Jennie mocked, clutching her clasped hands to her heart and rolling her eyes upward. “Don’t we just love those Bad Boys?”

“Oh, yeah,” Audrey went on. Her gaze roved over the menu. “Especially those Bad Boys Turned Vampire.”

“Huh, not me,” Selena declared, pulling the menu from Audrey’s hands and studying it intently. “I don’t want a bad boy of any kind.”

“Well, I certainly do,” Kate replied. “Mister Sean can put his shoes under my bed any time…fangs and all.”

“I suppose that’d be all right,” Audrey smirked.  “If his shoes are the ones with the fangs, and not the man himself.” She was always correcting her friend’s grammar, much to their irritation.

The debate, about motion pictures, movie stars in general, and bad boys, in particular, especially the paranormal kind, continued. Most of it centered around the movie they’d seen that night. It was a minor epic with a plot about a young hood possessed by a demon. After many transformations and some very excellent special effects involving the hero’s gratuitous semi-nudity and a generous display of six-pack abs, he meets a sweet little social worker. Demon is exorcized by pure love amid fantastic explosion, clinch, closing credits.

“Girl, how can you say that?” Selena stared at her. “Are you saying you’d like to be treated like the girl in that movie? I mean…he was so hateful to her, even when he wasn’t a demon.”

“Oh, I agree.” Kate smiled. “Still…when they got together? Did you see those sparks? Yee-Hah!” The others snickered as she gave a loud theatrical sigh. “He’s so handsome, all that red hair and those green eyes…”

“Wouldn’t touch ’em,” Selena stated. “I always remember what my Granny told me…A red-headed man is the Devil’s own chile.”

That earned her a scornful laugh.

“I’ll take him, if you won’t. In fact, I’ll put in a Special Order, right now.” Kate raised her hands, dramatically clasped in supplication. “Ole Debbil Satan, send me your baddest Bad Boy, ’cause I’m ready and waitin’ and definitely willin’!”

There was a bright flash of lighting, illuminating the sky to an eye-blinding brightness. A clap of thunder followed, so violent the glass in the little restaurant’s windows rattled. The liquid in Kate’s cup splashed onto the tabletop.

“Wow!” Kate glanced out the window, looking upward at the sky. “Is it starting to rain?”

“Not a chance,” answered Selena, picking up her burger. She snapped a napkin out of the dispenser and handed it to Kate who took it and began to mop up the spilled soda. “That was just the Devil, granting your wish. Now, eat your fries. They’re getting cold.”

GIVEAWAY: Comment and get your name in the hat to receive a download of My Lord Ax, part of the Lovers of Leonesse series, the story of the tempestuous lord and very spoiled lady founding the ruling family of Leonesse.

Bio and links:

Toni V. Sweeney has lived 30 years in the South, a score in the Middle West, and a decade on the Pacific Coast and now she’s trying for her second 30 on the Great Plains. An accomplished artist as well as writer, she has a degree in Fine Art and a diploma in Graphic Art and produces book videos as well as writing. Since the publication of her first novel in 1989, Toni divides her time between writing SF/Fantasy under her own name and romances often set in the South under her pseudonym Icy Snow Blackstone.   In March, 2013, she became publicity manager for Class Act Books (US) and also Double Dragon Publishing (Canada). She reviews books for TwoLips Reviews and is also on the review staff of the New York Journal of Books. She recently had her 27th book published and has six more scheduled for release in 2013.

URL: http://www.tonivsweeney.com/
Goodreads: http://http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Toni+V+Sweeney
MySpace: http://http://www.myspace.com/tvsweeneyhttp://http://www.myspace.com/tvsweeney
Facebook: http://https://www.facebook.com/tvsweeneyhttp://https://www.facebook.com/tvsweeney
Amazon: http://http://www.amazon.com/Toni-V.-Sweeney/e/B002BLQBB8/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1365694962&sr=1-2-enthttp://http://www.amazon.com/Toni-V.-Sweeney/e/B002BLQBB8/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1365694962&sr=1-2-ent
Twitter: @tonivsweeney
Author Database: http://http://authorsdb.com/authors-directory/2030-toni-v-sweeneyhttp://http://authorsdb.com/authors-directory/2030-toni-v-sweeney
Ask David: http://http://askdavid.com/search/Toni-V.-Sweeneyhttp://http://askdavid.com/search/Toni-V.-Sweeney
Youtube: http://http://www.youtube.com/user/tvsweeney?feature=mhee