Free Ghostwriting by Traci Harding

Even when she wasn’t training and was a tiny size ten, she could intimidate any man who was stupid enough to piss her off. She might have lost a little of the muscle, but she never lost the attitude. My original story idea, to send a hero back to the Dark Age, changed … I would send a heroine, a woman like this woman, who could hold her own against the warriors of the time.
    In real life, Mandy and Karen have never actually met, so it seems funny that they ended up in this story together — I feel sure the reader shall easily define which character is based on which woman.

The Detox Factor

    WARNING: Those strongly opposed to coarse language should probably skip to the next story.
    1. The Resolution Binge
    â€˜SO WE’RE AGREED then, we’ll do it.’ Shannon pushed for a commitment.
    â€˜I gotta do something .’ Billie blew her nose ‘I’m dying here.’ She sniffled as she stuffed her tissue back into her pocket. Then, clinking her near-empty glass of bourbon against Shannon’s vodka, lime and lemonade, they downed their drinks to seal their pact.
    â€˜We’ll get off it all … smokes, booze, coffee, junk food,’ Shannon vowed with great enthusiasm, whichwas easy to do whilst drunk and smoked out in a tiny pub.
    â€˜Pills, trips, dope,’ Billie shot in.
    â€˜All that, too,’ Shannon granted, considering Billie had a lot more vices than she did. ‘Meat, chocolate —’
    â€˜Hey,’ Billie drew the line, ‘let’s not get too excited.’
    The shocked expression on her friend’s face made Shannon laugh. ‘Perhaps giving up chocolate is a bit extreme.’
    The thought of getting out of the city for a while had Shannon excited, and now they’d made a pact to get healthy that would double the benefit of this much needed break.
    Shannon always felt guilty taking holidays. In the film industry, as soon as you took your finger off the pulse you risked missing out on work. But to hell with it, she’d decided. Her resume was looking fairly healthy, and having cut a couple of feature films of late, her bank account was in good shape too.
    The mountains would not have been Shannon’s first pick for a holiday destination, but a friend-client of Billie’s was going overseas and leaving his secluded country retreat vacant for months. Why pay for a trip OS when there was great accommodation, free of charge, here at home. Personally, Shannon was going to miss the beach; she surfed every morning, religiously. Billie hadconsoled her with the news that their getaway had an indoor, heated pool, and Shannon had agreed that this would provide satisfactory compensation.
    â€˜Can I buy either of you lovely ladies a drink?’ A cute but tipsy, wax-head leaned between them and yelled to be heard over the music.
    Billie and Shannon, blonde, blue-eyed and fairly fit, always attracted male attention when they went out together. Even though they were of the same colouring and neither of them was very tall, they appeared to be a regular odd couple. Shannon was a little hippie-surfer chick, with crystal earrings, ankle chains, bracelets and bare feet — whenever she could get away with it. Billie, on the other hand, was more your baggy jeans, steel-cap boots, midriff singlet and leather jacket kind of girl.
    Billie eyed the arm the surfer dude had placed over her shoulder and then looked back at him in disgust. ‘Did I give you permission to hang your pissed carcass over my person? No, I don’t think so.’ This was the polite version of what Billie said. In reality she managed to work the ‘f’ word into the sentence about four times.
    â€˜I’m sorry,’ the guy smiled broadly and backed off, holding his hands up in truce.
    â€˜You will be, if you touch me again.’ She managed the ‘f’ word only twice that time. Billie shrugged off his touch to remove her leather jacket and expose the