Gemma Halliday | Best Wedding Stories...

My latest book, Mayhem in High Heels, follows fashion designer turned amateur sleuth, Maddie Springer, as she investigates the death of a wedding planner. Unfortunately, hers. As the killer closes in and wedding disasters from hideous bridesmaid dresses to incontinent doves pile up, Maddie’s race to the altar quickly becomes a race against time. Sounds fun? Post a comment here today and you’ll be entered to win a signed copy of your own!

Since this book is about weddings, one of my favorite things about writing it was collecting wedding stories. Some made me laugh, some made me cry and go “awww”, but my absolute favorite one came from a young woman who posted hers on a wedding forum. I laughed so hard I think I pulled something the first time I heard this story. Here’s what happened at her wedding:

She was just 19 when she got married, and the night before her wedding she let her husband-to-be borrow her car to go to his bachelor party. Only it he didn’t come home that night. The next morning he still hadn’t brought the car back, and the bride was beginning to worry. Finally, an hour before the wedding is supposed to start, the groom shows up at her house. Only he didn’t bring her car back. He’s in a tiny purple car. He tells her he knows purple is her favorite color, so he borrowed that one to make her happy. So, the two get in the purple car, pile the best and maid of honor in the back, and drive into the city to the Justice of the Peace where they’re getting married. But they can’t fid the place. The end up asking a police officer, who gives them a police escort – lights and sirens and all – to the justice of the peace. When they finally arrive, they realize, to their surprise, they’re in Chinatown. The JP’s assistant comes out and rings a giant bong three times before the JP makes his ceremonial appearance. He starts the service, his accent is so thick that when he tells them to repeat the vows after him, they can’t understand what he’s saying. They totally wing it, making up the vows themselves as they go. After the ceremony he brought out little glasses with drinks for a toast. The bride and groom – water. The JP – vodka. When, after containing their laughter from the mangled ceremony, the bride and groom signed the marriage license and paid the JP, he argued that it wasn’t enough money. They got the “deluxe” ceremony. So, they all started digging in purses and pockets, and between the four of them finally came up with enough to satisfy the JP.

As they were leaving the JP’s, his assistant threw rice at them… and accidentally hit a bee’s nest. Angry bees came flying out and chased the wedding party all the way to their car. When we left they were throwing rice at us and some hit a bee's nest the bee's chases us all the way to the car. Oh yeah, the purple car? Once it was time to leave for the honeymoon, the groom confessed that he and his friends had been so drunk the night before, they’d completely lost her car. He’d borrowed the purple one at the last minute, but didn’t want to tell her until it was too late for her to call off the ceremony. So, the bride’s father ended up driving them to their honeymoon destination, in the back of his station wagon. Very romantic.

With a wedding like that, I can only imagine how fun the marriage will be. :) If you have any great wedding stories, feel free to pop over to my website and share them in my Wedding Stories Contest: www.gemmahalliday.com/contests.

Gemma Halliday
GemmaHalliday.com

NOTE: To be entered to win a copy of MAYHEM IN HIGH HEELS either comment below or visit One Day Contest. Or do both for double your chances!

Gemma Halliday | In Search of Prince Charming…

Dating is hard. I mean, way harder than writing a book. Way harder than getting published. Even harder than walking in five inch stilettos. Mostly, I'm convinced, due to the inordinate amount of frogs out there trying to pass themselves off as Prince Charming. Some of my recent forays into Toadville: a man who, after three weeks of dating, admitted to me he was actually married, a guy who committed a felony (While on a date with me! Hiding from the cops – not my idea of foreplay.), a man who learned English from watching old Seinfeld reruns (If everything in your life relates back to Kramer, you have a problem.), and Hairy. Nope, I didn't spell that wrong. The man was a walking wookie. But, the one that capped it all off, my favorite amphibious fellow, the man with one leg. That's right, just the one. Not one to discriminate (Hey, love comes in all shapes, right?), I went out with him anyway. Until he dumped me. That's right folks, I was dumped by the guy with one leg. See, what I mean? Dating is really hard.

So, as I set out to write my latest story, I'll admit, I was kind of in a jaded place. (Understatement alert.) I decided I was going to write a short about a woman that worked as a decoy to bust cheating husbands. She was hot, kick-butt, and had a bunch of James Bond worthy gadgets. I loved her. (Okay, I'll admit, kinda wanted to be her.) The story started out with her waiting for the mark she was totally going to bust for cheating on his wife. She was all set to seduce him, take photographs, and present them to his wife so she could milk him for beaucoup alimony. (Bwhahaahaha!) But as I wrote, somewhere along the line the story took a turn. Instead of busting him, she started falling for him. Instead of being a cheating creep, he turned into a sexy, suave and actually truly caring guy. Oh, no, what had I done! Despite the frogs I'd kissed lately, I'd turned my story of kick-butt girl revenge into a romance. I realized that no matter how rough it was out there in the dating world, something in me still wanted to believe in real heroes. What can I say? I guess that's why I write romance.

And, I'm happy to report that, while I haven't yet found my frog that morphs into Prince Charming, I'm not giving up on real life romance, either. You can read about my latest dating triumphs and disasters every Friday on the Killer Fiction blog at http://killerfictionwriters.blogspot.com/ And if you're in the mood to have your faith in romance renewed, too, be sure to pick up my short story, "Mark of a Bond Girl", in the Dreams & Desires Vol. 2 anthology to benefit victims of domestic violence, out February 1st!

Gemma Halliday
http://www.gemmahalliday.com/
http://killerfictionwriters.blogspot.com/

Gemma Halliday | High Heels Mysteries

Yay, I get to be on the Fresh Fiction blog! (squee!) Hi all! I’m Gemma Halliday and I write the High Heels Mysteries about L.A. shoe designer turned crime fighter, Maddie Springer, and the sexy yet stubborn LAPD detective, Jack Ramirez. So far I’ve had a blast writing about Maddie’s many adventures. In Spying in High Heels she navigates the L.A. freeways (no small task!) to track down a missing boyfriend, $20 million in embezzled funds, and ultimately, a cold blooded killer - despite the interference of one sexy detective, trying to derail her ‘girly’ investigation at every turn. The second book, Killer in High Heels, begins with a mysterious phone message that leads Maddie to Las Vegas were she encounters a group of Prada smuggling shoe counterfeiters, a handful of aging drag queens, and once very scary mobster. Not to mention the likes of Ramirez, hot and bothered to see her interfering in one of his investigations. Again.

The third Heels installment just hit bookstores and, not to play favorites, but I think I had more fun writing this one than any of the others! Undercover in High Heels finds Maddie back in L.A., Hollywood to be exact, where she goes undercover as the new wardrobe assistant on the set of TV’s hottest prime time soap, Magnolia Lane. Which sounds like a dream job until a beautiful young starlet winds up dead on the set. Now it’s up to Maddie to catch a killer as she sifts through a leading lady with a secret, an actor on the verge of a nervous breakdown, a sexy cyber scandal, and one tabloid reporter who'll stop at nothing to get the story of the century. Not to mention the case's familiar lead detective, Jack Ramirez, whose patience with Maddie is wearing thin, maybe for good this time.

While book number three hits the shelves, I’m also crossing my fingers that Maddie and her gang may be expanding into other mediums soon. Spying in High Heels is currently in development with the USA Network for a TV show in the upcoming 2007/2008 season! This is completely thrilling news to me not only as a writer, but also as a huge TV watcher. Okay, maybe watcher isn’t exactly an accurate description. I’m a total addict. Take away my TV and I go into withdrawals, trolling the Internet for updates on all my favorite shows. The ones I can’t live without: Grey’s Anatomy (man, did I cry during the season finale! Burke, how could you?), House (why am I always attracted to the bad boys?), Law and Order: CI (moving to the USA Network in the fall!), and of course the show that Maddie’s fictional Magnolia Lane is modeled after, Desperate Housewives (OMG – did Edie really kill herself?! Over Carlos?! No. Freakin. Way.).

So, if any of you are willing to come out an publicly admit to being TV junkies too, tell me what your can’t-live-without shows are and I’ll send one lucky commenter a signed copy of Undercover in High Heels.

Until then, happy reading (and watching!)!
Gemma Halliday

www.gemmahalliday.com

Here is my group blog (it's brand new – we're very excited!):http://killerfictionwriters.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/highheelsmysteries

http://www.killerfiction.net/