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About the Book/Author |
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About the Author
Marnie
also works with talented individuals who have a message to share. Through
writing and teaching she gives people the principles behind success - the laws
that bring both personal and professional blessings. Then she offers them
practical automated tools for
creating their own WOW online. Marnie has been in business since 1990 and been developing web sites and doing online marketing since 1995. She and her husband Greg live with four sons and two daughters near the Chickamauga Battlefield in Northwest Georgia in a home that Marnie designed. Special Thanks to These Sites and Publications Who Have Helped Us Spread the True Meaning of Christmas.
About the Book
Excerpt from Miss Humbug: December 16th “Merry Christmas, Ms. Houston,” the elderly doorman tipped his
hat as he opened the glass door to the office complex. “Good morning,” Elaina Houston waved her gloved hand and
brushed past him. She headed straight for the elevator and pressed the up
button. The toe of her black stilettos impatiently tapped the green marble
floor as she waited. She removed her gloves and put them in her coat
pockets. After forty seconds, she released a heavy sigh and thrust her
hand to her hip. Elaina’s immaculate burgundy nails tapped against her
black wool overcoat. Her eyes darted to the stair entrance and then down
at her high heels. Just as she decided that the stairs wouldn’t be such a great
idea, the elevator dinged and the door opened. She tossed her hand with an
impatient flair and then hurried inside, carrying her leather briefcase as
three people stepped off and four others followed her. Her index finger
pressed 15 and both hands clasped the handle of the briefcase in front of
her. The elevator stopped on nearly every floor between the first and the
15th, letting people off and others on. By
the time they reached the tenth floor, Elaina checked her watch and
released an irritated sigh – five ‘til nine. She should be in her
office right now. She was so preoccupied with the time that she didn’t notice Nick
Aimes, the tall, strapping heartthrob of Mullins and Mullrooney
Enterprises. Every woman in the office practically threw herself at the
blonde-haired, blue-eyed Southerner. Born and bred near Nashville,
Tennessee, his mother had evidently spent quite a bit of time training her
son in the proper use of Ma’ams and Sir’s and how to open doors and
hail taxies for the fairer sex in such a way that even the most hardened
New York City feminist could not be offended. He was quite a novelty in
the mile-a-minute Elaina was as hard as those long burgundy nails of hers. For her,
everything was about business. Her co-workers joked about her when she
wasn’t around. They wondered if she even slept. If she did, her dreams
were probably about spreadsheets and marketing strategies. More likely she
plugged into a recharging station at night like a Borg from Star Trek. Nick smiled as he studied Elaina, his eyes traveling from her ash
blonde hair pulled back in an immaculate bun to her professional business
suit. He pictured her with wires coming out of her beautiful body
connecting her to the collective consciousness of the Borg. The humor
faded from his lips, replaced by a sad expression. She was really quite
pitiful – cool and aloof most of the time. The only emotions she seemed
to possess were irritation and impatience. As far as he could tell she had
no family, no one who loved her, and no one to love. “Ice Woman” was
what Charlie in packaging called her. Of course, Charlie was a relentless
flirt and Nick had warned him he was wasting his energy pursuing Elaina.
Nick remembered the time Charlie finally got up the nerve to ask her to
dinner; Elaina shot him down cold. “Thank you, No,” was her frigid reply. If he’d been a
telemarketer she would have replaced the receiver coolly before he got out
his first, “But…” Instead she clapped her heels across the granite
floor, entered her office and shut the door. She left Charlie with the
proverbial tail caught between his legs. If friendly Charlie couldn’t pull off a dinner invitation with
Elaina, no one else stood a chance. So no one else tried. That was two
years ago and no one had attempted an invitation since. Even the females
who tried to befriend Elaina found themselves pushed away. Elaina glanced up at the floor indicator and noticed Nick staring
at her. What was that expression on his face? Pity? The corners of his
lips turned up and he nodded his head in a friendly gesture. The pity was
still there though. She’d have none of it – neither his nor anyone
else’s. She made no attempt to return the acknowledgement, but turned
her aloof gaze back to see that the elevator had now reached her floor.
The doors opened and she rushed out, her stilettos clapping across the
floor toward her office. Nick exited after her, watched her for several moments, and then
turned in the opposite direction toward his own office. He passed several
people in the hall on his way. “Good morning, Mr. Aimes,” a tall redheaded secretary greeted
him from her cubicle. “Good morning, Melissa!” He gave her a cheery nod, “Merry
Christmas!” “Merry Christmas!” greeted several other office workers as they
milled around the water cooler. Elaina shut her office door and set her briefcase down on her desk,
opened it and pulled out a memory stick containing the presentation
she’d worked on last night at home. She walked over to the window to her
office that looked out over the rows of cubicles. A glittering Christmas
tree laden with gold, silver and red ornaments stood in the center.
Cubicles encircled it as if everyone were gathered around some sort of
shrine. “Christmas,” she gritted her teeth. It won’t be over soon
enough for me. They’re all useless at this time of year. Can’t get a
thing out of them, she thought to herself. All they do is watch the
clock, waiting for the moment they can leave and go waste more of their
money on presents, parties, and decorations. From a marketing standpoint, she had to admit that nothing was so
ingenious as to have millions of people go out automatically every
November and December and spend money they don’t have on things they
don’t need. She wished she’d thought of it herself. As a matter of
fact, she wished she owned a credit card company. Those people were the
ones making a killing! Instead she worked for Mullins and Mullrooney.
Those two had been in business since the day they graduated Harvard. They
were the two most soft-hearted venture capitalists on the planet –
investing in everything from innovative computer gadgets to the latest
leak-guard diaper. Any inventor who thought he had the next best thing
since the invention of the PC traipsed through Mullins and Mullrooney
Enterprises, pitching their wares. It was Elaina’s job to figure out how to market the stuff.
Sometimes she had her job cut out for her because, personally, she
couldn’t see why anyone would buy the junk – no matter how Charlie
from packaging wrapped it or Nick from development improved upon the
design. The fact was, that Mr.
Mullins and Mr. Mullrooney felt it their God-ordained obligation to help
every poor dreamer they encountered. Because their hearts were bigger than
their brains, the company didn’t thrive the way Elaina knew it could. “If I were in charge, things would be a lot different around
here, that’s for sure,” she muttered under her breath. The first thing
to go would be that stupid tree. She closed the shades so she wouldn’t
have to see the insufferable symbol of holiday cheer. She sat down at her desk and went to work on her computer. She
looked up when she heard a knock at the door. “Come,” she answered. “Ms. Houston, here are the figures from Development and Packaging
on that new diaper bag with the built-in bottle warmer,” Angela laid a
stack of papers on Elaina’s desk. “When will those guys ever learn to use e-mail and just shoot
over the files?” Elaina asked her secretary. Angela shrugged, “I believe it’s because Mr. Mullins and Mr.
Mullrooney like hard copies.” “But I don’t like hard copies. They’re a waste of
paper and time. I just have to ask for the files anyway in order to
perform my calculations.” “Yes, Ms. “Please do that. They don’t seem to read my e-mails.” Angela nodded and left the room, mumbling something under her
breath that Elaina didn’t quite catch. ~*~ At 4:45 p.m., Elaina checked her e-mail and clicked the headline of
the company-wide memo. “Effective now through Christmas, everyone must vacate the
building by 5:15 p.m. Go home and enjoy your families and the holiday
season! Merry Christmas! Mr. Roger Mullrooney “Good grief!” Elaina rolled her eyes. “How do they expect to
run a profitable business with this kind of nonsense? Oh – right – I
forgot – they aren’t in it for profit,” came her sarcastic quip.
“Our mission statement is to ‘make the little guys’ dreams come
true,’” she sneered with another roll of her eyes, talking to herself
as she so often did. She spent the last few minutes e-mailing work home to herself. If
they wouldn’t let her use her office, she’d just have to finish her
work at home. Someone had to keep them from running the business into the
ground. The elevators overflowed with people following orders to vacate the
building. Elaina managed to find a spot in the group taking the second
elevator. The crowd of people closed in around her. Elaina began to feel
smothered as with each new floor the elevator picked up new people. Elaina
took a deep breath, attempting to control her frustration. What was that
tantalizing smell? It had to be the best smelling men’s cologne on the
planet. Why don’t we represent the inventors of that stuff? She looked
around to see who smelled so wonderful and found the source beside her.
Nick Aimes’ eyes followed the numbers – 12, 11, 10. He stood close –
incredibly close. Her eyes darted back toward the door. Why was her heart
beating so fast? Claustrophobia – that’s it – crammed in this dinky
elevator with so many people. She inhaled again. Dang! He smells good! The elevator stopped again, letting two more people on. As they
nudged their way in, a woman in heels lost her balance and fell backwards,
sending the others with a domino effect toward Elaina. Nick lunged forward
and knocked Elaina off balance. He reached out his left hand to brace
himself against the wall of the elevator and his other went around her
waist. He pulled her toward him in one strong tug to prevent her from
falling. People shoved them so far over that now Elaina’s back pressed
against the wall of the elevator, Nick’s arm still encircled her waist
and his pale blue eyes caught hers as his left arm still braced against
the wall over her head. His muscular form stood a full foot taller than
her and as her eyes caught his, her heart hammered. She completely forgot
to breathe. She could even feel a flush rising to her cheeks. He was
smiling now – those darn dimples and his thick, smooth Nick watched Elaina nod, indicating she was all right, then felt an
elbow jab into his back, causing him to move even closer to her until
their faces were only inches apart. She may be cool as a cucumber, but she
was beautiful. A wisp of her ash blonde hair escaped from her careful bun,
and he could see the struggle in her emerald eyes – wanting to maintain
her cool exterior, but there was something else.
His gaze dropped to her heart-shaped mouth. Soon, the group in the elevator managed to right themselves, but
Nick still leaned over her with his arm around her waist. Elaina forced
her eyes from his, studying his engaging smile. It was a different one
than he usually wore when he looked at her. There wasn’t the usual pity.
He was interested in her! For a fleeting second, Elaina felt flattered,
but the emotion vanished as quickly as it arrived. Nonsense! She didn’t
have time for a messy office romance! “Excuse me,” she moved to escape his presence, but there
wasn’t much of anywhere to go. Elaina deduced that Nick had come to his senses and realized he was
hovering over the Ice Woman because he excused himself, released her, and
turned to the door. They both stepped off the elevator on the first floor.
Nick buttoned the top buttons of his khaki wool overcoat, tightened his
red Christmas scarf around his neck and accompanied her to the front door. The doorman opened the glass door, and Nick gestured for Elaina to
go first. “Merry Christmas, Elaina,” Nick waved as she started left and
he went right. “Good night,” she replied as she continued on her way, her
heels clicking against the pavement. Estimated Release Date: November 12, 2007 Miss
Humbug will be available on |
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Marnie
Pehrson is an author, teacher and an internet marketing innovator. She's
a wife and mother of 6 who writes 
Miss
Humbug