It’s ‘Opening Lines’ blog time again. This week I’m delighted to welcome my dear friend, Kd Grace, to share the first 500 words (precisely) of her novella, ‘In Training.’
In Training … Because, Aren’t We All?
Thanks for having me over, Kay. It’s always a pleasure to be on your wonderful blog. Sharing the beginning of my novella, In Training, is rather appropriate for me at the moment because I’m in training too. Oh, thank Gawd, not on reality TV like poor Lauren Michaels. I’m training for a pole photo shoot, having taken up pole fitness in a moment of insanity and then discovering that I love it, even if it’s a painful, bruising sort of love. I’ve been at it for ten months now and the photo shoot is a way of documenting my progress. I’m both excited and terrified. But in my case, the only camera on set will be that of the photographer, and the only people watching will be my own pole teachers.
No matter the situation, however, and no matter if what we’re training for is physical or mental or something else, there comes a point when we all have to give it all we’ve got and go for it. How much we fight ourselves before we get to that point becomes the challenge, and Lauren, well, she’s all about fighting herself, which makes for a comedy of errors that only reality TV could flaunt. Here are the first … slightly more than five hundred words of In Training. Enjoy.
In Training Blurb:
Getting fit on reality TV is PR guru, Lauren Michaels’, brainchild for gym equipment and fitness company Physicality, Inc. The brilliant PR stunt involves one brave volunteer who wants to be fit badly enough to submit to the not so tender training techniques of personal trainer, Wolf Jennings, whose successful, but non-conventional, methods would make a drill sergeant look like a fluff ball. But when CEO and owner of Physicality, Inc., Claire Amos, decides her PR ace in the hole needs to walk the walk, Lauren finds herself between a kettle bell and a hard place… er, a hard trainer. That’s nightmare enough, but for six weeks, 24/7, the explosive chemistry between the two will be sweated out live on camera for the whole world to see. What could possibly go wrong?
500 Words…
Chapter One—Everyone Loves a Bad Boy
“Everyone loves a bad boy.” Claire Amos paced back and forth in front of the big screen where Wolf Jennings’ face was freeze-framed over his howling wolf logo in front of the class he’d just put through their paces in Hope Park. She nodded up at the video. “Certainly your clients do. I bet you could make a drill sergeant quiver in his camos.”
“I do what it takes to help my people succeed.”
She waved a dismissive hand. “You and a hundred other personal trainers who’ve sent Lauren their impressive CVs.”
“So why me then?” he asked. “I assume there’s a reason I’m speaking to the CEO of Physicality, Inc. instead of its PR goddess.”
She sat down in the chair across the conference table from him with the kind of grace he’d expect from a woman who owned a company that manufactured multiple lines of gym and fitness equipment as well as franchised Physicality Gyms. She was clearly a person who took full advantage of her products. But everyone knew that about Claire Amos. They also knew she didn’t get where she was without playing hardball. She offered him a smile that wouldn’t have been out of place on a cat about to pounce. “Though Lauren’s idea for a fitness reality show is brilliant, sadly she knows next to nothing about health and fitness.” She glanced down at her hands—well manicured but calloused on the inside—from kettle bells, he’d guess. “That being the case, she’s left the final decision for the trainer and his lucky client up to me. Plus, it is my money.” She nodded up at his face on the big screen. “You’re here because of that.”
He smiled. “Because I can make a drill sergeant quiver in his camos?”
“You were an actor before you became a personal trainer. Why the change in career?”
“I’m a better trainer, and I like it more. I’ve been a personal trainer for a good few actors, though.”
“Yes, I know. I saw their rave reviews on your CV. But what I want to know is can you still act?”
He shrugged a shoulder toward the screen. “Every time I put on my boot-camp-bully-you-to-fitness face, I’m acting. A part of what an actor does is play off other actors. When the chemistry is right, the performance is electric. If my clients want boot camp, if they want me to cajole and bully, there’s my connection. They submit to my technique because they know I can get them there, and they walk away feeling that rapport between us.”
She stood and paced, then turned back to face him, arms folded across her chest. “Can you amp that up?” She flung a glance at the screen. “Can you be that bad boy for the next six weeks? Can you sustain it 24/7—in the gym and out?”
“If that’s what you want. But you have to understand for this to work, the chemistry would have to be such between…”
Buy In Training Here:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon AU
Amazon CA
Barnes & Noble
iBooks UK
iBooks US
Kobo
Smashwords
About K D:
For K D Grace, penning a good tale is a physical act. When she’s not writing, K D is veg gardening or walking. Her creativity is directly proportional to how much soil is under her fingernails or how quickly she wears out a pair of walking boots. She’s having a mad affair with a pair of kettle bells at her local gym and an even madder affair with a stainless steel pole in the pole fitness studio just across the street. She’s fascinated with mythology and fairy tales, which inspires many of her stories. She loves to read. She loves anything that gets her out of doors. But she loves writing a story best of all.
Voted ETO Best Erotic Author of 2014, K D is the author of sixteen novels and multiple novellas and short stories for multiple publishers. She also writes romance under the name Grace Marshall. At present she is excitedly publishing her Medusa’s Consortium urban fantasy series. The first three novels, beginning with In The Flesh, are now available.
Find K D Here:
Websites: http://kdgrace.co.uk/
http://www.thebritbabes.co.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KDGraceAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kd_grace
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/kdgraceauthor/
Newsletter: http://www.subscribepage.com/kdnewsletter
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/k-d-grace
Amazon: http://author.to/kdgrace
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Huge thanks KD! A fabulous intro….You’re going to have to buy the book to read the end of the sentence though!!
Next time on ‘Opening Lines’ I’m featuring Emmanuelle de Maupassant – so watch this space!
Happy reading,
Kay xx
