Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Hazards of.... with Rachel Van Dyken, Karina Halle, and Courtney Cole!


To celebrate The Hazards of Sex on the Beach release, I have fourteen amazing romance writers stopping by over the next few weeks to share their awkward or "hazardous" dating stories.

To kick things off, today I have Rachel Van Dyken, Karina Halle, and Courtney Cole!

Rachel Van Dyken
Senior year of college I went on a double date with my best friend and two guys that had graduated two years ahead of us...When they asked us out they said it was going to be a double date...DOUBLE DATE meaning you know, we're together the whole time, right? 

Wrong. Her date rented a corvette, picked her up at 5PM and then told her straight up, "I rented this car to impress you." Yeah, no lie. 

My date picked me up at 5:30 PM and then proceeded not to talk to me the entire time we drove 20 minutes to downtown...At the point where I almost opened my door and just took my chances rolling across the freeway, he finally said, "I didn't really plan that much."

Me, "That's fine." As it was I was kind of thankful b/c it was already all kinds of awkward. I'm assuming we are meeting my friend and his friend. No. I assumed wrong. He decided to take me to this restaurant downtown where you can't sit inside so you have to sit outside, which would have been fine had I brought a coat...It was a balmy 32 degrees outside. 

After eating, on a park bench, shivering. I asked if we were going to meet our friends. He checked his watch and said, "Well let's walk around some."

Okay so we walked around, still not talking much mind you, NOT for lack of trying on my part. I've always prided myself in being able to keep people in conversation, not this guy. At first I thought he was nervous then he just seemed upset I was talking so I stopped. 

We met our friends at a coffee shop downtown TWO HOURS Later (yes two hours) So by now it's around 7:30 at night. 

I see my friend and her look is one of absolute horror as I sit down next to her at the coffee shop. The guys buy us coffee and my guy suddenly comes out of his shell FINALLY! 

We all sit with our coffee's and the guys pull out board games and no joke say, "We thought since you're young you guys might want to play some board games." Since we're young...Like we're five. 

My guy perks up and says, "Hey is that your guys' left over food?"

Her guy says, "Yeah man dig in." Apparently our meal was not enough for him so he proceeded to eat their left overs, over our board game, at least he offered me some, but I declined. 

Three hours later (no I’m not exaggerating, and if you're keeping track we are now at the five hour mark), my friend and I are doing everything in our power to tell the guys we're tired. I yawn, she yawns. I say I have a test I need to study for, she says she really doesn't do well staying up late...Etc... FINALLY the guys are like yeah we should call it a night. Thank God. 

We drive home separately. Somehow my guy and I make it back to the dorms first. I get out of the truck, say thank you and he follows me, yes follows me to my door and I'm thinking oh okay so he's just walking me to my door....he then proceeds to say, "Aren't you going to let me in?"

I look at him and am about to say no when he pushes past me and goes inside my apartment. 

My friend soon comes home and her guy basically pulls the same thing (She tells me later).

They stand, STAND AWKARDLY in our apartment staring at each other, trying to make small talk with us, and then enter into their own convo while me and my friend just sit there. 

FINALLY they leave. (We are closing in on the six hour mark people)

When they finally go my friend and I run upstairs and scream, no joke, scream into our pillows, and then say out loud, "LONGEST DATE EVER!" 

Our windows are open. 

We panic then think, no way are they actually standing outside our apartment still it's been at least 20 minutes. 

Our friends call us to come hang out, so we leave and run smack dab into our dates who were actually standing right outside our window, stalking apparently. 

I get awkward, my friend pretends she's on her phone and I make an excuse like, "I need to go pick someone up."

And we leave.  And we never spoke ever again. 

7 hour date people....7 hour date. 

About Rachel Van Dyken:
Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she's not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor.
She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband and their snoring Boxer, Sir Winston Churchill. She loves to hear from readers!
Links:                                                                 

Karina Halle
It was a Saturday afternoon and my (thankfully) ex-boyfriend and I were snuggled on the couch watching dumb movies. I was feeling a little amorous, so I thought I’d amp up the sexy times. Without saying a word, I unzipped his pants and proceeded to go down on him. After about a minute, he asked me to stop. Why? Because he needed to pay attention to the movie.

What movie WAS it? 

Snakes on a Plane.

Yeah. Worst thing ever. And what really trips me up is I know I'm pretty damn good at this particular act. Needless to say, I'm glad he's my ex.

About Karina Halle:

With her USA Today Best­selling The Artists Tril­ogy pub­lished by Grand Cen­tral Pub­lish­ing, numer­ous for­eign pub­li­ca­tion deals, and self-publishing suc­cess with her Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror series, Vancouver-born Karina Halle is a true exam­ple of the term “Hybrid Author.” Though her books show­case her love of all things dark, sexy and edgy, she’s a closet roman­tic at heart and strives to give her char­ac­ters a HEA…whenever possible.

Karina holds a screen­writ­ing degree from Van­cou­ver Film School and a Bach­e­lor of Jour­nal­ism from TRU. Her travel writ­ing, music reviews/interviews and pho­tog­ra­phy have appeared in pub­li­ca­tions such as Con­se­quence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNo­mad Travel Guides. She cur­rently lives on an island on the coast of British Colum­bia where she’s prepar­ing for the zom­bie apoc­a­lypse with her fiance and res­cue pup.

Karina is rep­re­sented by Scott Wax­man of the Wax­man Leavell Lit­er­ary Agency

Links:


Courtney Cole
I had just moved to Indiana and I was staying with my parents while I found the perfect place of my own.  During this time, I was set up with someone.  We emailed back and forth, I thought he was hilarious, so we met for our first date.  It went awesomely, so the following weekend, he picked me up at my parents’ house.  
My parents weren't home, and I wasn't quite ready yet, so he waited for me in the living room alone.  Or so I thought.  

When I walked out there, my dad's dog was chewing on something next to my date's chair.  My date could barely keep a straight face as he told me that the dog seemed to have something of mine.  Puzzled, I bent over to look- only to find that it was my...er... "female toy."  *dies*

I scrambled and said that it was my mom's, to which my date raised an eyebrow.  "Your mom, the preacher's wife?"  *dies again*

I was busted fair and square.  

He was good natured about it, and laughed and said it might be good that he saw it instead of my parents.  (True!!)

Some people might never have recovered from something like that... But not us.  We were married a couple years later.  :)

ABOUT COURTNEY COLE:
Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could. She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds. She loves chocolate and roller coasters and hates waiting and rude people.
Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.
Links:

Do you have your own “hazardous" dating story? There is still time to stop by and enter the giveaway for a chance to win signed copies of the first three Hazards books and the possibility to have a character named after you in a future Hazards book!  http://www.alyssaroseivy.com/blog/2014/7/28/the-hazards-of


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