BLAST, BLITZ, PROMOS, REVEALS, & TOURS . . . : SPOTLIGHT w/EXCERPT - NA ROMANCE

Isn't hope in some form our best-case scenario?

Best Case Scenario: Act I of Nyra's Journey
The Nyra Westensee, #1
by D.B. Sayers
Genre: New Adult Romance

Isn't hope in some form our best-case scenario?

More than a year after graduating from college, Nyra is beginning to wonder when her life, professional and personal, gets started. Was it like this for her mother? She doubts it, but things were different, then.

Nyra's reality is nothing like her mother's. Each generation confronts its own challenges. Still, she's tired of feeling like she's wading through waist-deep wet cement. Buried somewhere deep in a future she can sense but not feel, Nyra can hear the siren's song of hope and hypothetical options whispering to her. She's so ready! But is the song she hears hope or just an illusion?

Best Case Scenario is the first act in Nyra Westensee's journey from student to self-aware, fully actualized woman.

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The Year of Maybe: Act II of Nyra's Journey
The Nyra Westensee, #2

He’s nothing like her hopeful dream—and everything she wants.

Nyra’s transition from college grad scrambling for her first career job to full independence is as on track as it can be, these days. With her new marketing job is going well, even if she’s still living at home,Nyra’s pretty sure the light at the end of the tunnel is not an onrushing train.

Still, she gets bored, sometimes. A whimsical decision to take up surfing brings her together with Tai Abrega, a professional surfer and shaper so delicious Nyra’s imagination hasn’t even gotten around to fantasizing about a man like him, yet. Surfing awakens a latent, mystical connection with the sea along with a driven passion for the man himself.

But embracing one possibility often demands abandoning another. How can Nyra fit Tai and the seductive siren song of freedom into her “safer” vision of perfect? Can she blend her conventional world with his freespirited lifestyle, or is she doomed to disappointment and heartbreak? New Adult fans of It Ends with Us and Finding Perfect are sure to enjoy this upbeat tale of hope.

The Year of Maybe Act II of Nyra’s Journey continues the story begun in Best-Case Scenario.

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Chapter 1—Caricatures

The silence roaring in Nyra’s ears cuts through her self-hypnosis. Evening shadows leaking through the window paint prison bars across the office floor. Getting late. But Cori’s Coach bag with the snakeskin accents is still perched on Nyra’s officemate’s credenza.

With a breathy sigh, she forces her eyes back to the monitor, to her latest project—an elephant caricature on the flyer she’s still tinkering with. Clad in a pinstripe suit, tie artistically askew, the elephant smiles back at her. His hip is pressed to a storage room door he’s struggling to close. A golf bag blocks the doorframe along with a one-eyed teddy bear dangling precariously from the top of the door.

“Aren’t you the perfect metaphor of our time?” she mutters. The flyer is intended to tie in with the TV campaign Symondsen Cable will be running for Alstott Storage, one of their longstanding clients. Why are you studying this damned thing to death? Nyra uncrosses and recrosses her legs, tugging at her skirt.

Before she can glance at the clock on her phone again, Cori breezes in.

“Ross and I are heading to The Sail Loft for happy hour.” Settling into her desk chair, Cori swivels a quarter-turn and opens the bottom drawer of her credenza. “Wanna come with?” She redirects a lock of glossy jet-black hair behind an ear as she tilts an inquiring eyebrow.

Nyra’s about to decline when Ross appears in the doorway, draping an arm against the doorjamb, laptop bag slung over a shoulder. “Ready?” Cori and Nyra turn to look at him as though controlled by the same invisible wire. “Hey, Ny.”

“Give me a minute.” Cori retrieves her phone from her desktop and slips it into the side pocket of her purse. She looks at Nyra. “Well?”

“I’ve got some stuff I really should wrap up, and—” Cori eyes Nyra over the top of fashion glasses. “Shut that thing down and let’s jam. It’ll keep ‘til Monday, for God’s sake. Assuming it isn’t perfect already.”

Nyra combs a non-existent tangle from long chestnut hair with her fingers.

“Better come along, Westensee,” Ross advises. “You know how she gets.”

“Well, maybe she has you trained, but—”

Cori wads up a piece of paper from her desktop and pegs it at Nyra. It careens off Nyra’s forehead and Ross snatches it before it hits the floor. With exaggerated nonchalance, he loops it into the wastebasket against the far wall.

“Nice shot,” Nyra says. “Three-point range.” Ross fist-bumps her. “Come on, Ny. Cori’s right. You need this more than we do. Besides, it’ll be fly to walk into The Loft with both of you.”

“Really, Ross? Fly?” Cori turns to Nyra. “He’s right, though. Come on, girlfriend!” Cori’s use of “girlfriend” is innocent enough, but it conjures up Toni’s lovely face and soulful eyes. Her conscience leaks guilt she can’t quite exorcise. Nyra glances down at the mocking smile of her elephant caricature and caves.

“All right.” Nyra exhales. “I’m in.” She reaches for her mouse. “But I can’t stay late.”

“Yeah, whatever. We’ll talk about that,” Cori says. “Be right back.” She grabs her purse and bolts.

Nyra nods at the elephant. “Bye, Packy.” She closes the file on her flyer for Alstott Storage and runs the shutdown script.

“Sorry?” Ross asks.

“I was talking to Packy,” Nyra replies.

“Packy?” Ross’ forehead creases.

“Never mind. Inside joke.” She turns off her monitor as Cori swoops back in and loops an arm through Ross.’ She drags him toward the side door of Symondsen Cable’s building and the employee parking lot.

“Hurry up, Westensee,” Ross says over his shoulder. “Unless you know the way.”

Nyra keeps Cori’s Audi in sight as they wind their way through the Friday evening traffic on the way to the marina.

She’s heard of The Sail Loft but had never been there. Does Kevin ever go there? she wonders. Its proximity to the Long Beach Marina makes that a possibility. Not likely unless his schedule has changed. Working tonight, probably.

Toni and Kevin ping-pong around in her thoughts. The brake lights of Cori’s car pull her back to her surroundings as they stop for a traffic signal. Nyra’s memory of Kevin’s caresses bubble to the surface, along with Toni’s soft welcoming kisses and her unselfish love.

“Until I ruined it,” Nyra whispers. Cori’s brake lights wink off when the light turns.

Nyra follows, as she had once followed Toni to her apartment, for her first taste of love. “Move on.” Yeah. Right.

Dirk’s path to authorship wasn’t quite an accident, but almost. Through two previous careers, first as a Marine officer and subsequently as a corporate trainer, he started way more stories than he finished.

But in the backwash of the 2008 financial collapse, Dirk’s employer filed for Chapter 11 protection, cordially inviting him to leave and not return. Out of work and excuses, he published his first novel, West of Tomorrow, while job hunting.

Since opting for “retirement,” Dirk has published five more titles including an anthology of short stories, two science fiction yarns and two new adult novels. He lives in Laguna Niguel with his wife, two psychotic cats and a fourteen-year-old Ball Python named Corona.

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