Saturday, November 1, 2025

The Scoop on “Carla’s One-Sided Crush”

The inside scoop on the short story (or VERY short story as some would say) is also going to be very short. Amazon estimates the story at fourteen pages. The word count is around 2,300 words. It’s available at Amazon.com, Smashwords, and Universal Link. The story sells for 99 cents.

I’d like to reduce the amount, only 99 cents is the lowest I’m allowed to go on those sites. Originally, this story appeared at Fictionwise.com for 49 cents, and readers were very happy with that price. But alas, Fictionwise closed its doors. Periodically, Smashwords holds a sale, and I can set the price to free at that time, so do check on the link every now and then. “Carla’s One-Sided Crush” has been a popular download.

Some time ago, one of the “hot” romance internet sites, All Romance eBooks, put out a call to authors for short stories with a Back-To-School theme. The word count reflected that they wanted a quick read. I answered the call with “Carla’s One-Sided Crush”. It was quickly chosen, and even earned this comment:

“This is fabulous! It gave me goose bumps. LOL!”

The story appeared in their newsletter, Wildfire, and sizzled there during the month of September.

It’s a really cute story!

Maybe Carla's schoolgirl crush hadn't been so one-sided after all.

Amazon.com, Smashwords, and Universal Link

This book is part of the Romantic Contemporaries line.

Basically, we have Carla, now grown up at age twenty, running into her obsession, the hunky Newton Philips. Newton is a biology teacher, and oh, does he use the physical effects of attraction against Carla!

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His gaze held her, and despite all her struggles, Carla couldn’t break the connection. “Fight or flight?” she whispered.

“The stress of attraction,” he whispered back.

She shook her head.

Newton gave a knowing smile. “Yes, even now the pupils of your eyes are constricting, to help you focus on me.” He glanced down at her chest, and his smile deepened. “You’re trembling and your breathing has quickened, both of which are caused by adrenalin rushing through your body.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You may be wondering why I gave Carla’s crush the name of Newton. Ah, it’s a tidbit from real life. I’d just found out my great grandfather’s first name was Newton. I’d known him as Frank, which turns out to be his middle name. Cool, right?

So now you’ve learned that “Carla’s One-Sided Crush” is really short and really cute! I hope you enjoy Carla and Newton’s story.

Susanne Marie Knight

http://www.susanneknight.com

Read outside the box: award-winning Romance Writing with a Twist!