Although the novel is still officially going through the editing process, I thought I'd share an excerpt from "Once A Rebel"
...Enjoy!“Whiskey.”
The tall lean bar dog nodded and filled a glass before settling it before Josh. “I don’t suppose you’d happen to have a pretty little redhead answers to the name of Scarlet working for you?”
“No sir, but we do have a few pretty little redheads floating about that I’ve no doubt would answer to just about anything you might fancy to call them.” The man winked and immediately Josh found that he liked him.
He laughed and lifted his glass in amicable salute before downing the amber liquid and setting the glass up for a refill.
“It’s my birthday!” a familiar voice squealed from somewhere behind him. Josh spilled the drink down the front of his shirt. His heart thundered in his ears. He caught a glimpse of the cunning harlot in the mirror before spinning round to witness the minx work her charms on a potential John. Seeing her there, in another man’s lap with a smile on her face the size of Texas and batting her eyes did unspeakable things to his insides.
Under a possessive rage, Josh marched over to the table where she was sitting with the octopus-like man and jerked her, none too gently, off his lap. “Where’s my horse?” he demanded, chest heaving in berserk fury.
Pain unlike any he’d ever known seized his heart when she looked up at him in stunned horror and he saw the bruise that marred the area just above and below her left eye. He swallowed, battling the sudden craze to pummel every man in the saloon for being suspect to the cause of her anguish.
“Let go off me,” she demanded in a huff while attempting to tug her arm free.
Josh pretended not to care about her injuries. “Not until you tell me what you’ve done with my horse.”
“Your horse?” Her eyes rounded in surprise.
The man whose lap she’d been sitting in came to his feet, as did several others at the table. “Take your hands off Miss Eve.” The bold stranger went for his gun, but Josh was quicker.
“Stay out of this,” he warned, keeping one hand on the woman and the other on the weapon aimed at the octopus’s heart. He turned his eyes back to Scarlet. “Eve?”
She shrugged and flashed a sheepish grin. “Look gentleman. I’m sure we can settle this without resorting to violence.” At that moment, the bar dog came over.
“Miss Eve, he your husband?”
Josh’s brows shot upward. “Husband? My, my, aren't we chock full of surprises?”
ONCE A REBEL by Angela Ashton...coming January, 2008 * slight change to the lineup*
Each new character creates a certain visual that stays with you throughout the book...and forever after. In writing Once A Rebel, I've already shared that I had Josh Bernstein (pictured left) in mind as the hero's template. (Sorry, Galen doesn't really resemble anyone that I can think of.) As I penned the congressman, the whole time I could just see Ted Levine as the ambitious politician, Theodore Cady. Not sure why, but something about his voice and look captured and held my interest. 
