Love on the Rocks with a Twist – 

Delightful Fiction with Lessons on Dealing with Others

Persuasion coach Margaret Anderson has a secret. Not only an accomplished writer of non-fiction in her professional sphere, she has also written fiction as a pastime for many years.

When her sister remarked that Margaret could find a lesson about persuasion or communication in just about anything, she inspired Margaret to look for communication lessons in stories she had already written and include both stories and lessons in an anthology.

The fact that most of these pieces were written before Margaret ever considered adding study notes lends added credibility to the fact that one can apply the skills in any situation from the business world to one’s love life.

On the other hand, because the stories were written first, intended for publication on their own, they represent the very best fiction Margaret can produce. “Duet for Flute and Phantom” won First Place in Genre Fiction in the Writers Digest 74th Annual Writing Competition. You’ll find no preachy parables here.

See the smiling ice cube on the book cover? The humorous tone of these stories will make you smile too. Unlike the heroines and heroes of conventional love stories, many of these protagonists set themselves on the path to happily ever after by walking away from those who make their lives worse, rather than better.

• In “Duet for Flute and Phantom,” our protagonist feels attracted to a coworker until she gets a taste of his personal habits. She resorts to an extreme method of removing him from her life, but the study notes show a wiser way to handle the situation.
• In “What Would Help,” a man who seems to be on the road to rejection turns things around when he proves that he understands what respect really means.
• In “Can We Talk?” a promising couple place hurdles on the track to love by texting rather than talking.
• “Dinner Date” is a poetic snapshot of how not to get a second date.
• “The Package” features a young man who’d like to eradicate his girlfriend’s aversion to routines and schedules, while she wishes he’d loosen up, but a crisis teaches them to appreciate the very traits that used to drive them crazy.
• In “Peaches,” we follow a woman’s mental and emotional journey, walking away from an unsuitable man to live happily every after.
• In “Surprise . com” a woman learns to value an exceptional fellow who’s not much to look at.
• And in “You’ll Get over It,” our protagonist must not only deal with rejection by a man who doesn’t appreciate her, but with even greater pain inflicted by a former friend.

Note: Suitable for both adults and teens. No explicit sex or gore.