Behind the Scenes of Business Before Pleasure.

 My face paled. A burning heat drained from the top of my head and joined the rush of anger turning over in my stomach before flooding back up again. My hands shook, and the pulse pounding in my ears drowned out the rest of the voices at the table.

Have you experienced that kind of visceral emotion? I’m still not sure if it was anger or shame that overloaded my senses in the moment, but I’ll always remember my panicked thought: what do I do now?

Happy Tuesday, friends. Thanks for joining me for a little behind the scenes post this chilly, January day. Years before I began writing, I held a variety of jobs in a variety of states. This one is particularly memorable due to this particular meeting. The short version is, I was brought in to clean-up a  disaster of a project to swap an office building’s aged phone system to a VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) system. At the time, (yes, I’m dating myself), it was a new and expensive technology requiring not only equipment upgrades, but also rewiring the entire five-story building. The partners I worked for were displeased with the vendor they chose and their inability to stick to the costs as bid.

After several meetings with the partner spearheading the project, we had settled on a strategy to present the vendor with their initial cost projections, the current invoices, and hardball our way into some savings, while still getting the work completed by this vendor and by deadline. Fun times.

The meeting started, and, as per the scripted presentation, I laid into the vendors with all our backup. I hadn’t even finished when this same partner--the one I just came out of a meeting with who set this strategy--did a complete about-face, agreed to pay them a bonus if they finished in a shorter time frame, and apologized for my aggressive manner. 

Say what?

All I can remember are the feelings in that moment. They were so sharp, so all-consuming, that I’m not sure I can tell you what happened next. Later I discovered this partner had a kickback deal with the vendor, but that’s a messy story for another day. So, why am I sharing this today?

Writers are always told to write what we know. It can be easy to take that advice literally. But, in this case, I took the emotions and a situation I had personally experienced, and used it in one of my short stories, Business Before Pleasure, recently released by JMS Books, LLC. It’s a little bit of realism I hope readers can relate to and deepens my character’s dilemma.

I think I succeeded based on this review at Goodreads by a reader named Anita: Hard, fast and sexy. Lovely short story about corporate intrigue and cutthroat methods to get ahead. Surprising depth about Joel and his backstory.

Whoot! That calls for a dorky fist-pump! (You knew I would).

Joel Anderson is on the fast-track to upper management, and he doesn’t care who he steps on in the process. But when the man he thought was a mentor steals his idea and uses it against him during a meeting, the only thing Joel sees in his future is the unemployment line.

Bryce Harris has been in Joel’s shoes. After months of working with Joel and not even having him know his name, Bryce gives up on both the job and the man he wants.

Can the two men work together before time runs out to keep more than their customer satisfied?

Business Before Pleasure is available from Amazon, JMS Books, and your favorite ebook retailers.