I'm not going to lie

I can be kinda hard to live with.
It's true.

I'm not high-maintenance as such... I'm just hard to live with. I know this. I accept it. It's tough on Carla living with me... but she's young and I do try and maintain some kind of normality for her sake. If I can't then my dad steps up. Thank God.

Mac and I had no problem living together - because he got it. He just got it. I never had to explain my priorities to him. I never had to say... "I'm a fed I wear a gun, deal with it." He was one too in the end.
He got it.

Where is this going?
I'm not sure... come a long and we'll find out.

I've been away with Doc (aka SSA Dr Kurt Henderson), not really undercover just posing as his wife for a few days so I could poke about without people realizing who I was.  Really? Not a brilliant idea, thanks Doc.
For one - I'm dating Rowan Grange. He's kinda a big deal rock star who gets followed around by morons with cameras. It's not secret that I'm not a fan of the media. *cough splutter, find a real story*
For another - there was this little situation with Conway women dying of unnatural causes.

Two strikes.

Turns out no one really figured  it out though, which was cool. Then this thing happened and the whole fucn situation turned to custard. When the thing was over (yes, we are just going to refer to it as 'the thing') I found something out that I don't think I knew before.

About Doc.

It's made me think long and hard about what it is I want and how much of my life I am willing to share with someone who has issues with some of what my life entails. 

Maybe, Rowan and I are too alike - he always says we're very similar.
I do know we're both very caught up in our own thing and often display amazing singular focus - which is great - helps him do what he does on stage etc, helps me do what I do... but we exclude each other. We don't mean too. It's just how we are.

Then it gets complicated.
It's not just me he'd have to live with. It's super girl Carla as well. Yeah it's not even started to get complicated yet... AND... Mac. Who just won't fucn leave. Who knew a dead guy would be so clingy?
As great as it is having him there helping me at times... and having Mom add her two cents worth (which is never welcome quite frankly - she didn't improve with death.), it makes life tricky for those who can't see them, hear them, understand who the hell I'm talking too... and even knowing probably isn't great for a partner. Who wants to share their new partner with a ghost?
Yes, My mind just went to the Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore place.
Gimme a minute.

Okay, back.

But wait there's more.

I got a little pissed at Mac recently. All right, so not a 'little' - a lot. Angry enough to do something which caused a string of events that I'm going to be explaining/working through for the rest of my life, but apart from that... Mac seems to have gone. I say seems to have, because someone else has taken his place.
I cannot win this.

Not only can I not win this. I can't explain it to Rowan. It's one thing seeing my dead husband but now I see someone who definitely isn't dead... and it's one helluva hallucination. And I'm sure it would amuse most people and I just bet it would amuse the person concerned. I have a feeling he has a pretty good sense of humor. I also have a feeling that not much actually bothers him... shame he's just a hallucination.

*I think Lee was right about a few things lately - just don't tell him that. He was right about the security thing, he was also right about the blond thing.


My life is changing again. It's fluid. Sometimes I feel that I just need to go with the flow and stop fighting so hard.  Sometimes a life jacket would be of benefit.

 Que Sera Sera.
What ever will be will be.

Yes, I can hear Doris Day singing.


 *If you know the name of the person Lee was talking about here:
"....And that makes him one of the good guys who can handle a weapon and himself in any given situation." 
Either tweet me his name or leave me a comment with his name.

I feel like giving something away.
(tee shirt or maybe cap - haven't decided yet.)

If you're not sure you may find out in my twitter stream. But you'll have to dig and then read and then look for his twitter name to be sure. (No clues, except the conversation happens in Flashbyte.)

Ellie xx

you can tweet me HERE.

That was fun!

Yesterday had some fun moments.

All things considered, despite the on-going flak from Lee and Kurt, it was a better day than some.

But the real fun was giving away a few copies of Flashbyte.

Anna (@AnnaESmart), Geraldine (@GClarkHellery), and Lee (@Threeand10)now have Flashbyte to read.

I'm tempted to add 'good luck' after that sentence, that particular episode in our lives nearly broke my brain, permanently. Some would say it did.

I haven't exactly been idle since Flashbyte - Soundbyte is with Rebel now, Cat complained bitterly about that story... but in the end she wrote it how I told it, so that's a win. She's slowly learning it won't work unless she listens.

Meanwhile there is an actor who needs our help - I'm not a hundred percent sure about this...

Giving away 2 copies of Flashbyte...

Want a copy of Flashbyte? Okay then...

Having a bit of fun today. Because Cat has a migraine from hell and because she can’t really work through this… so, she's decided she is going to give something away.

While her brain is trying to explode out her right eyeball… you can win a digital copy of Flashbyte.

It’s easy.

If you’re a tweeter follow me @EllieConwaySA (you can follow Cat too if you don’t already @catconnor).

Now - the next step is to tweet me.

Yup, that’s right. You need to tweet me. Say hello, whatever… but be nice!

If you’re on Facebook ‘like’ Cat's page and leave a short comment, say hi, say something I don’t care what you say - but don’t be rude.

Now, IF you are already following me and already like the facebook page - then I love you. No, that’s not right… then if you tweet me or leave a comment on the Facebook page today, you also go in the draw. Because it’s only fair.

At the end of the day… there will be a random draw and two someone’s will win a digital copy of FLASHBYTE each.

Which by the way is awesome and will also let you understand in greater detail what I was tweeting about this morning - and why I will never ever live down the comment I made about Christopher Chance. Special Agent Ridiculously-Good-Looking will see to it!

Payback is a collection of adjectives.

FLASHBYTE:

Woken by the news that she’d been strangled in a parking lot, SSA Conway knew it was going to be an interesting day.

The incident escalated into a week from hell with bank robberies, snipers, truly bizarre packages, and more reports of her death. What Ellie did not expect was old friends (good and bad) reappearing, see-sawing with more than the usual amount of kickass energy. Just so Delta A didn’t get bored, the universe tossed in an extraordinary rendition, lost memory, and a visit to the past that anchored the present.

Available now from Amazon.com and Smashwords and all over the place really! :-)

Sometimes though my days can be fun...

My phone continued ringing then abruptly stopped. Dammit, there’d be a message. Kurt ushered James from my office. Sam and Lee sat down.

“This is not good,” Sam said.

“No it really isn’t,” I replied. “For the record, I didn’t do anything to Eddie the ‘tard, but I’m having trouble feeling sorry that karma has finally caught up with him.”

“Us all. Wonder where the rest of him is and where they found that hand…,” Sam said.

“Not on his arm,” I muttered. “Typical freaking Eddie, he’s always been trouble.”

The phone sat on my desk taunting me. I knew I had to listen to the message.

I lifted the cradle and pressed four numbers, accessing my voice mail. As soon as I heard Beatrice Connelly’s voice I hit the speaker button.

“What did you do to my Eddie? Wasn’t it enough that you killed my youngest son, now you have to take my Eddie. I’m sure you are in jail by now. The police were here. I told them all about you and how you hate my family and are killing us off one by one.” She disconnected her rant.

Lee and Sam grinned from ear to ear.

“It’s nice that we can always count on Beatrice to be level-headed and sane,” I said. “I’m sure Detective James enjoyed her ranting and earnest mutterings about how I’m killing them all off one by one.”

“As insane as she sounds, he was just doing his job. She pointed her fat finger at you, he’s obliged to investigate,” Lee said. “He didn’t have to go about it the way he did though.”

“I’m sure he’ll be back… Beatrice won’t let this go.”

“That’s as sure as bears shitting in the woods,” Lee drawled.

“We can poke around,” Sam said. “See if we can find any more of Eddie.”

“Or we could let it go and move on. Detective James will be back, until then, we’ve been asked to look into a stalking case.”

“Stalking?” Kurt said. “A serial stalker?”

A smile erupted into laughter as a mental image took hold. Cereal stalker indeed. I could see some crazy but pretty woman stalking the Frosty Flakes in Safeway. Maybe she liked tigers or maybe she just liked sugar. I suspected it was a package deal.

“No, not a serial stalker, at least not as far as we know,” I replied sending the Frosty Flakes image packing.

“Who’s being stalked?” Kurt asked, taking his pen and notebook from his suit jacket pocket.

“A celebrity,” I replied. “LAPD have asked for our help.”

Suddenly everyone was focused.

“We’re going to Los Angeles?” Sam sounded hopeful.

“Not at the moment. Our guy is flying out east for some public appearances and also to vacation.”

“Why us and not Metro?”

“The threat assessment turned up something interesting.” I turned my gaze to Lee. “You wanna hazard a guess what that might be?”

He shook his head.

I continued, “If I said his name was Steve Davenport would that ring any bells? Agent Davenport?”

Lee smiled just a little.

Kurt and Sam both frowned.

“I don’t know any celebrities called Steve Davenport,” Sam said. “Isn’t your brother named Steve?”

Lee nodded. “Steve is my little brother.”

“Celebrity? Does he look like a rocker too?” Kurt said. “Because I could understand that.”

“No, he looks like an action hero,” I replied. “He looks a lot like someone from a very popular action series currently on television.”

“He’s an actor?” Kurt said.

“Yep. Steve Vine aka Steve Davenport aka Lee’s baby brother.”

Sam and Kurt digested the information.

Sam was first to speak. “You never mentioned Steve was an actor.”

“No one ever asked,” Lee replied with a grin. “So when does the boy arrive?”

“I kinda thought you would know the answer to that,” I said. “LAPD did not know what flight he was on or what day he was arriving.”

“Really?” Sam said.

“His management would not give dates and times,” I said. “The threat is unknown. We do know that a letter was sent to his publicist stating that he would not leave Washington alive.”

“So someone knows he’s coming to DC,” Sam said. “Hopefully not when.”

“Did you know about this?” Kurt asked Lee.

“Not really, not about that letter. I knew he’d picked up a few stalkers. I’d given him advice on how to deal with them,” Lee said. “Does Steve know about the letter?”

This is where it all got a little bit tricksy.

“Steve doesn’t know about it, as far as I am aware. He has no idea how dangerous this particular stalker has become.”

“No one’s told him?” Lee asked.

“His management decided the best course of action was to limit his knowledge and put extra security in place.” It was all so familiar. A stars management thinking they know what’s best for the person when in actual fact they’re all about protecting the bottom line, their livelihood. The safety of the client was nowhere near as important as the safe guarding of their way of life.

“He needs to wake up and smell the coffee,” Lee muttered. “Notifying police and not telling the client just how bad it is, sheer stupidity.”

“I don’t know your brother, how will he react to this news?” I was grasping at straws. He’s an actor. If he was highly-strung then telling him would just cause more issues.

“Like you or I,” Lee replied.

Ah, crap. He’ll arm himself and turn himself into a target to lure the threat out into the open. I smiled. Very familiar. On hearing that I wondered how much of him was in the character he played on television.

This was going to be fun with a capital f.

“Right, Lee get onto Steve and get the travel details. You don’t have to tell him over the phone what’s going on. In fact, we don’t know how tech savvy the stalker is, so probably say nothing.” I stopped in my tracks. “Scratch that whole idea. Do you two have a way of communicating that no one else knows about?”

My cell phone buzzed. I read the text but it didn’t register.

Lee nodded. “We do, we leave messages for one another through the army website.”

“Get onto it, tell him you need to know when to pick him up. He needs to be vigilant and looking for tails etc. He will have an LAPD escort, they have him under surveillance but probably not a marked car.”

“Can I?” Lee indicated to my laptop.

“Go for it,” I said and stood up, picked up my cell phone and stepped away from my desk. Lee passed me and sat down.

“It’s not right,” he muttered.

“What’s not?”

“Sitting in a warm chair.”

I left him to it. Kurt, Sam, and I joined Sandra in the bull pen.

“This could be fun,” Sam said giving me a nudge.

“Yep, or a total pain in the ass.”

Sandra poured me a coffee.

“What’d the cop want?”

“He thinks I chopped my ex-brother-in-laws hand off,” I replied.

“You want to find out what’s going in that case?”

“Hell yes.”

....

 

Sometimes my life is beyond wacky.

Take this for example:

No one spoke until we were all standing on the driveway in front of my once beautiful home.

A heard my escort cough quietly.

Damn!

I knew that cough.

I spun around to face him.

“Steve!”

And there was my second God damn rescue. Woman all over the world swooned. My life is not for the faint-hearted or remotely normal.

He grinned and before I could protest said, “There was no danger.”

“You’re in SWAT gear, didn’t I tell you not to do that?”

A gruff voice from behind me replied for him, “I told him he could gear up.”

My head swiveled to see the owner of the voice; I couldn’t believe what my ears heard.

“Caine. You told him it was okay?” Stunned. No other word for it. My SAC told him to gear up. “Can we have a quiet word?”

Caine’s mouth twitched, he held out his arm and guided me away from the group.

“Why?” I asked.

“He’s researching a role.”

I could see him walking toward us.

“Researching a role…” Nope, that wasn’t flying for me. “This is not television or a movie set.”

Steve stopped in front of me. Rifle still cradled in his arms.

Caine acknowledged him with a twitch.

“I asked Ellie. When I got the message and when I knew for sure I was coming out here, I asked Lee if I could tag along on a typical day,” Steve said.

My eyes rolled so far back I almost fell over.

“In case you haven’t noticed...” I waved a hand around the driveway. “This is not an episode of Castle. I am not a television cop and you are not a television writer.”

“You’re way better than Detective Beckett.”

Flattery? He gets points for trying. I’m pretty sure I look like I’ve been shot at, covered in glass, and holed up in a safe room with someone I just broke up with.

Not good.

“Thanks for that. I can’t be responsible for a civilian tagging along. Were you not present today? Did you not grasp what was happening?”

“It was intense,” he replied and still his smile stayed. “It’s been a few years since I’ve seen action but I’m quick learner.”

I waggled my finger at him. “There will be no action. You. Action. No.”

Caine growled, “It’s a favor Ellie. CBS asked officially.”

Oh Jesus!

“We can’t just set them up with a media liaison and give him a tour of Quantico?”

Caine’s head shook slightly.

“Buy him a copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the FBI and send him safely back home?”

“They have one of those?”

“They have one for zombies and for String Theory; they seem to have one for everything imaginable. Betcha they have one for us.”

Caine growled. “Morons everywhere, suppose they’re eBooks. What’s wrong with paper?” He glowered. I knew better than to answer him. “And the request was granted, Steve is tagging along with Delta.”

He twitched remarkably as I heaved a sigh and through clenched teeth offered my hand to Steve. “Welcome to Delta A. Try and stay alive.”

I turned to Caine. “Since when does Delta look like a smart place to second an actor? Really? This has disaster written all over it.”

“This disaster has the backing and approval of Director O’Hare.”

“That’s even better.”

I wondered how she became involved for about two seconds before the answer popped up from the depths of my mind. Caine would’ve gone to O’Hare with the request. Endangering a civilian meant he needed to clear it with her.

“Give me a minute,” I said and hurried over to join Lee and Sam.

“Did you enjoy your rescue?” Lee asked, he stepped back quickly as I my hand involuntarily clenched into a fist.

“It was awesome.” I replied.

Sam chuckled.

“Payback’s a bitch,” Lee said with a grin.

“Ain’t it though?” I replied. “You guys do know we’re stuck with Steve for a few days. Directors orders.”

“I didn’t think Caine would go for it,” Lee replied. His tune changed. “Really, with Delta? That doesn’t seem right.”

“You’re telling me.”

“Shit,” Sam muttered. “We better not get him killed.”

“Good luck with that. I’m getting the feeling he’s not the type to stand idly by watching.” I said.
....

Howdy, sorry it's been awhile

But what can you do?

Life gets busy.

As I'm sure you can appreciate.

Currently Kurt and I are working on a joint interview... it's almost fun. Almost.

I hear Cat has finished Soundbyte and is almost ready to send it off to her publisher and see how if it flies!
Exciting.

Meanwhile you can all read Flashbyte ... our latest adventure. (I'm not sure adventure is the right word...)

Flashbyte - lots of digital formats
Flashbyte - on Amazon

:D