Sunday Snippet: Quitters Never Cheat

Another crazy-busy week but I got a lot of television watched. Finished up some short-term projects and got started a new long-term project that I'm excited about. July is almost over and I'm kind of surprised by how fast it's flying by.

On the television front, I actually got four episodes of The Muppet Show watched. Julie Andrews, Jaye P Morgan, Peter Sellers, and Petula Clark were the guest stars. Had a funny conversation with my brother about the reason I've been rewatching the series—mainly because it's something I remember us doing when we were way younger—and he regaled me with how he remembers certain skits more than he remembers the guest stars … and that's actually kind of true for me, too.

Ended up getting in two episodes of The Hardy Boys also. Really excited the guys got into the secret room and I loved how they completely disagreed about what to do with the pieces of the eye. Interested in what Stacy's game actually is. Something tells me she's not quite as ready to trash everything to do with the circle as she claims. I love how shady all the possible baddies are on this show. I can't wait to see how the first season ends with the finale.

Caught two episodes of Peak Practice and enjoyed both. I liked being able to see Beth and Jack grieve for their loss. Andrew is definitely growing on me, which is a good thing because he sticks around for a long time. Will is Will and I like him as he is.

Watched two more Master Class lessons with David Carson. The first focused on designing impactful magazines and I got some good information from that one. The second one was about designing your future and had the four group members trying to predict what their future would like in design. It was interesting and I liked the group overall.

Enjoyed two more episodes of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The final with midwinter as the backdrop ended up being really good. The opener of season two with the epiphany set some interesting dominoes in play. I'm kind of excited to see where things go.

Loved the finale of Street Legal. I'm kind of hoping there's a second season because I'd like to know where the characters end up going. I kind of didn't see the partners hooking up coming but I'm interested in how that ends up playing out.

Caught two episodes of Chicago Med. Both were excellent. I'm so happy I'm finally able to catch this show from the beginning.

Ms. Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries had a great episode. Watching James and Peregrine tiptoe around each other makes my heart equally happy and sad. I love seeing the ramifications play out with them though. Next episode looks really good with Percy the Putz stirring the pot again.

Watched the second part of Silent Witness and ended up really enjoying the ending. I think I caught it during my initial run because I vaguely remember how things played out.

Got a full arc of Classic Who in and enjoyed the four episodes. I'm still not sure about the whole new regeneration of Romana but we'll see how the season plays out.

Caught another episode of UFOs: The Lost Evidence. I'm nearing the end of season two and I'm not sure if there's another season or not but I quite enjoy this show.

Started a new episode of Blue Heelers and, so far, it's interesting. There's a reporter that's annoying but otherwise good story rolling out.

Started a new-to-me series with Brokenwood Mysteries. I loved the first episode and look forward to see how the next few hold up to the premiere.

That's pretty much it for television. Tonight's post is from Quitters Never Cheat, a novella that has the main characters reuniting after a breakup.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Robbin Rhayne, a talented sculptor, believes she has to suffer for her art. Ewan Arthur makes her almost reconsider the concept—sex has never been better with anyone—until he wants more and she won't commit. Several years later she runs into Ewan again and the spark is still there … too bad they're both in relationships with other people.

And a snippety peek…

"Argh!" Robbin Rayne tossed her gloves off and swiped a hand across her face. "It's terrible." Her latest sculpture lacked … hell, everything.

Robbin paraded around the metal, steel, and iron structure. "No heart, no emotion, no life." Her work suffered.

Her creative mojo abandoned her—leaving half-assed monstrosities in its wake. Robbin shook her head. "So much for my brilliance." After selling all of her previous work and garnering some critical acclaim, she'd hit a wall. "None of my new pieces speak to me." Or anyone else. Not that she'd shown them to many people yet. Her coworkers at the factory and Stan. Man. I thought hooking up with Stan would spark some creativity. No such luck. Then again, she'd picked Stan because she didn't want to get sucked into anything too deep. But they didn't have much of a connection either. He liked to show off and tried to impress her and she let him do both, hoping some of his confident bravado would seep into her. But Stan barely cared about her struggle with her current projects. He loved the zeroes in her bank account from her previous sales. Liked that he didn't have to support her financially—even though he hated her job at the factory and never mentioned it when he introduced her to his friends and colleagues. When it came to her new material, he'd shrug and say the piece looked fine. Fine? What the hell did fine mean?

"Would be nice if he offered a supportive comment now and then."

You had that once … with Ewan.

Ewan Arthur.

She'd done her best work when they'd been together.

"But Ewan made everything too easy." She feared becoming complacent.

Of having life become too good. Ewan gave her stability, which often became a death knell for creativity. So why does all your new stuff suck? A damned good question. One she didn't want to examine too closely right now.

Robbin is about to face a reckoning but it'll take her a while to admit what she needs.

 

That's it for this week. Happy reading!

Skylin