Welcome to the first week of our participation in Sneak Peek Sunday, a romance writer blog hop. Follow the link back to see what other authors are working on this week (please note that participating authors write in all genres and at all heat levels).

Since our collaborative projects began with Starling, we’re sharing a six paragraph excerpt from that book (yup, only six, such are the rules of this hop).  Also, our publisher, Torquere, would like us to remind you that we’re still in the editorial process, so this is not final copy; errors are our own.

For context, Alex has just been discovered and is a rising star.  Gemma is his struggling actress roommate.  Margaret is his publicist.  Victor runs the show that he’s on.  And Paul is Victor’s loyal, yet often reluctant, protege.  Liam you’ll meet later.

Now, while Alex is the star of our story, Paul is the hero.  An everyman struggling against his own baggage to be extraordinary.  It doesn’t get any easier when he falls in love with America’s newest darling.

On the days when it must seem hard for him, Margaret asks Alex why he’s doing all this, and he says that Gemma told him he’s Marilyn Monroe and not allowed to say no.

“Sometimes, on TV, it’s important to be less strange,” is her only response. When he laughs and crinkles up his eyes, she knows she’s found his secret weapon.

His first TV interview that matters is a late show after the late show, where everyone is auditioning for the 11:35 post-evening news moment. Paul and Victor wind up watching together on the shitty first generation flat screen with the dodgy cable connection that lives in the writers’ room, because in television no one sleeps.

When Alex finally gets asked if he’s gay, he giggles, squints, and smiles sly, saying, “Is this something we didn’t know?”

“America just fell in love with him,” Victor breathes, leaning back in a chair with his feet on a desk, beer bottle halfway to his lips.

“America’s not the only one,” Paul murmurs, but whether that’s a jibe at Victor, who is notorious for his fascination with his stars — rumors have been going around about him and Liam forever, and not without reason — or his own personal moment of realization, Paul is not entirely sure.