Read Online Random Acts of Hope by Julia Kent - Free Book Online Page B

question.
    “My creative writing professor at Harvard said I should.”
    That stopped his laughter. “She did?”
    “He. He did.” She cut her eyes over to Amy. “He’s hot. Like, really hot. And his writing has won awards…”
    “Why would a Harvard prof recommend writing romance novels?” Joe sneered.
    “Because it’s what he does for a living when he’s not teaching at the e xtension school.”
    The sneer melted.
    “Huh?”
    I had to admit, I was as confused as Joe. Romance novels are those silly books with the half-dressed woman from the 1800s with some dumb jock type with a ba r rel chest trying to sniff her to death.
    “He makes way more money writing romance novels than he does teaching,” Darla explained.
    Joe cut her off. “Then he must not be a good teacher.”
    “He’s tenured at Harvard .”
    “Oh.” That meant Joe’s categorization of the world was falling apart. This was going to be fun.
    “Your professor at Harvard told you to start writing werewolf porn for a class?” I asked, nudging Trevor. He gave me a grin and then snuffed it out when Darla and Joe gave him the side eye.
    “It’s not porn!” she and Amy shrieked in unison. “It’s romance.”
    “What’s the difference?” Joe asked.
    Darla took a deep breath as if she’d planned for this question. “A romance novel has one woman and one man and an emotionally satisfy i ng ‘happily ever after’ ending.”
    “What about gay couples?” Sam asked.
    “Okay…they count,” Darla added. She looked at Trev and Joe with a dark expression. “But not threesomes.”
    “So you can write about werewolves falling in love and it’s a romance novel but three humans can’t have a happily-ever-after?” Trevor said, agog.
    “ Not when one of the guys keeps hogging the woman,” Joe said darkly, under his breath.  
    Amy interrupted. “I think you can, but everyone knows writing menage romance is a career ende r . Darla would be finished before she even got started. No one wants to read threesome romance.”
    Darla frowned. “Amy and I disagree on that one, but for now she’s right, and my professor says the same thing: if you want to make a good, part-time income, you write male-female romance with a happily-ever-after and hairy feet.”
    “Huh?” All four of us guys grunted at the same time. She sounded like those women on douche commercials. Like she spoke a language I didn’t ever want to u n derstand.
    “ Animal s hifter romance is what I like to write, and so far, I like to read it. My professor had us take the ‘monster’ classics—Dracula and Frankenstein—and write a short story of our own based on a classic monster. I picked a werewolf,” Darla elaborated.  
    “Why?” Joe put his arm around her and seemed to thaw. That guy could be jumping h e r bones right now if he’d walked through the door with a better attitude. Instead we were talking about romance novels and hairy feet.
    “ H e said I should exp and the story. That I have a gift.” She blushed and looked up a t Joe under her hooded lids. Even I couldn’t be an asshole to that. She was h o peful and eager, and if Joe cut her down so help me I’d—
    “That’s cool ! But what do you mean, ‘car e er’?” he asked.
    “My professor says I should try to get my book published. Write a series and make some money. Like Twilight .”
    Every person in the room groaned hard. “You want to write about a woman with the facial expression of dried spooge?” I asked.  
    “What expression does dried spooge have?” she shot back.  
    “Just hanging around for too long and overstay ing its welcome.”
    “I don’t want to write about Bella and Edward. I want to write my own stories. About werewolf cops and—”
    We all burst into laughter. Except Amy and Darla.
    “It’s not funny, and fuck all of you!” Darla shouted. “When you were all snot-n o sed little shits someone told you your music had promise. What if they’d just laughed at you and said