I like, grew a tomato.
An entire tomato. The type (brand? genre? species?) is called a ‘sparky’. Cat said it passed the sniff test, and I put it in a pasta dish with onion and yellow bell pepper.
I can live off the land; I’m a farmer now; I’m legit.
There’s a sense of accomplishment in this. Seeing something from a tiny sprig of green to fruition (slight pun intended) and then getting to enjoy it.
Wonder where that excitement goes when I publish a book, and instead of enjoying the fruits of my labor (okay, I’ll stop now) I tend to crack my knuckles, stand straight, and tell myself, “Yeah, yeah, that’s cool and all–but we’re already behind on the next one, let’s go.”
I need to remember to celebrate the wins.
Such as…
When I checked my ARC form this afternoon, and after seeing it blank for a week now, I threw my hands in the air as if this number said 100, and not 1.
But still.
Still.
Someone decided my books were worth it; someone determined they wanted to spend time reading them.
And that right there is a whole ‘nother tomato worth celebrating.
If you’re interested in reading ‘Suspended’ early, the ARC form will be open until June 20th! You also get the chance to read the other books for free if you’d like to be caught up, however I don’t think there’s too much harm in leaping right in with Ben and Simeon’s story.
Here’s the link for the form, and…
Below is the synopsis, and just because I feel like it, here’s a random chapter snippet related to tomatoes.
To lay the scene, Ben is talking with Lisa and Janine, the couple he’s been working for while he’s attending HCU.
(Peep the cameo from Cat.)
Aaand…scene!
“Would you like lunch?” Lisa asks, turning back to the pot she’s in front of. “Grub will be ready in ten.”
“I’d love to, but I need to get going to my dad’s.” I sit on the bench by the back door and grab my sneakers. The boots I use for working I leave here, along with a set of clothes that LJ wash for me. Discovered last week Noah’s allergy to hay, so all my farm clothes stay behind.
“Shame,” Janine says, sharing a look with Lisa. “We were hoping to talk to you about something.”
“What is it?” I pull on one shoe, and a large fluffy tortoise shell cat jumps up and joins me on the bench. “I can stay for a couple minutes, just not a meal.”
Janine nudges Lisa in the hip. Lisa swats at her. Huffing, Janine pokes her harder, smacking the wheel of her chair into Lisa’s knee, making Lisa topple sideways. “Stop it!”
“Stop chickening out,” Janine hisses.
Lisa scowls at her wife, and I sit back at the way her pale skin begins to blush. “What’s going on?” I ask. Panic slowly sets in. I stand up with only one shoe on. “Do I—am I getting sent away—”
“No!” Lisa gasps, spinning to face me. She’s armed with a large ladle, and she sets it on the counter. “I’m just worried you’ll say no.”
“Say no to what?”
“To…well, it’s okay if you do say no…”
“I can’t say anything until I know what’s going on,” I reply, petting along the tortie’s back next to me. “As long as I still have the volunteer position, I’m sure it’s fine.”
“That’s the thing,” Janine says, rolling toward me.
Lisa gains her courage and steps up, too. “Next summer, after your…I don’t know what the word would be—”
“Sentence?” Janine shrugs. Lisa’s brow pinches, but I shrug, too. “After your stint volunteering, we were wondering if you’d stay on permanently. As a ranch hand.”
I blink. I drop back to the bench. “Huh?”
Lisa and Janine both smile. I don’t have to see my face to know it’s beet red. Janine clasps her hands in her lap. “Because you’re a hard worker and we have full faith in your abilities, we’ll be open for boarding and training in no time flat. We’ll need extra help, someone to keep an eye on the place and assist with the clinics. It won’t be easy but—”
“Are you sure?” I wheeze.
She snorts. “Sure it won’t be easy? Hell, no, it won’t.”
“N-no. Um. Are you sure you…you want me to do it?” They glance at each other, and I hunch smaller, fingers gripping the bench beneath me. “I mean, you know what I’ve done. Where I’ve been, so…”
“No, we don’t,” Lisa says. “How would we?”
I gape at her. “Because of my file?”
“What file?” Janine squints. “There was an email about you, but we hardly read it—well, we read enough. But there wasn’t a file—”
Lisa gasps. She covers her mouth with her hand and whispers behind her fingers, “The garden, Janey.”
Janine continues to squint up at her wife. “What?”
“The big ol’ envelope we got back in August. We—”
“Oh.” Janine’s eyes widen. “Oh. It did make good mulch, didn’t it? Those tomatoes sprouted right up.”
I stare at them, speechless. No way am I hearing this right. “Mulch?” I scoff, voice cracking. “Did you…did you shred my file and put it in your plants?”
“Not all of it,” Lisa says. “The rest I used for my paper mâché project.”
“Which promptly went into the trash,” Janine mutters. She pats Lisa’s arm. “It’s okay, Lis, the horrifying rooster you crafted was going to kill us in our sleep.”
Suspended is out August 14, 2026!
While attending reformation school St. Dymphna’s, all Ben Resin could focus on was surviving. Now that he’s a sophomore at Hugh Conrad University, he has a few more goals, such as finishing his designated community work, and staying under the radar of his professor father. But there’s one secret goal Ben keeps to himself, one he hardly allows himself to think about.
Really, it’s more of a wish at this point: make a friend.
Sophomore year at HCU and Simeon Glass plans to thrive. He’s rid of his awful ex-boyfriend, he and his best mate Jackson got a room on campus together, and none of his friends are trapped in a class with the pretentious Doctor Resin. All in all, it looks like it’s going to be a fruitful, peaceful year.
Then on day one, he finds himself in an elevator with a handsome, green-eyed transfer student, and what first feels like flirtatious sparks turns into an all-out firework show in the blink of an eye. Think explosive inferno, tumultuous fury…
Try as they might to avoid each other, they continuously find themselves thrown together against their will. From new jobs, old friends, and hard histories, both Ben and Simeon are about to get more than they bargained for, and before they know it, peaceful is no longer in the cards.
Quinn Coleman 
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