Friday, January 23, 2015

Looking for Love?


Hard to realize it's been three years since I first hit "Publish" and Hearts Unfold was launched into the Vast Unknown of Kindle Readership. It's been through several revisions--one of which turned it into two volumes--and become the entry point for a series I never saw coming. I've lost count of the number of free copies currently residing in ereaders waiting to be read, but the numbers for the rest of the Miracle at Valley Rise series tell me how many folks have gone on to purchase the complete saga starring British Classical music superstar Stani Moss, and Emily Haynes, the Virginia farm girl who saves his life and claims his heart. I'm thrilled by the warm response these two, along with their eclectic circle of friends, have received. To know they've touched so many lives with their unlikely romance far exceeds anything I ever hoped to accomplish in telling their story.

When I started this journey with Stani and Emily, I was fulfilling a lifelong dream of my own. I was finally a writer, but where that might lead, I hadn't a clue. I never for a moment imagined their story would travel so far, or take me with it! I never anticipated meeting so many generous people along the way, or finding the inspiration for more and more stories. And yet, three years later, here we are--seven books, two series, an audiobook, and the surprises keep coming!

So once again, Hearts Unfold is FREE for Kindle this weekend. Not only is this month the anniversary of its initial publication, but this weekend, two of my granddaughters are celebrating their birthdays! There couldn't be a better time to share this "very special love story." Please help yourself to a copy and be sure to tell any of your friends who love a good, old-fashioned romance.



Friday, January 16, 2015

Audiobook Adventure--Part Eight AUDIOBOOK GIVEAWAY!




This is really very simple. I have a pile of FREE audiobooks to give away. All you have to do is leave a message here with a way to reach you--email, FB, etc. I'll give you a code to download your FREE copy. You'll get to listen to the incredibly talented Matthew Lloyd Davies reading Shannon's Daughter for FREE! According to the readers quoted below, you'll be glad you did!




Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Walking the Tracks--the Work in Progress

As a child, I lived in a tiny village beside a railway line. One of my grandfather's frequent walks--he was an avid walker, though nothing intentionally aerobic--was along the railroad tracks, and many times, I tagged along. He was one of my favorite people and I sensed I was one of his. As a recently bereaved child, I found enormous comfort in his quiet, solid presence and in the years I lived with my grandparents, he and I spent countless hours simply sharing the same space. Those spaces are places I revisit as I get older, the walks, the bag lunches beneath shade trees, the brisk treks through the woods in search of Christmas greens, all comfort food for the soul. But it is the railroad walks that come to mind as I grapple with the current work in progress.

On those walks, as my grandfather stepped easily from tie to tie, I was determined to match his long stride, more often than not failing. To avoid the gravel in between ties, I tried walking the rails, balancing like a tightrope artist, or leaping across the gravel like a ballet dancer, even jumping two-footed as in a game of leap frog, but most of the time, my short legs failed to span the space and I suffered the bruising impact of the rocks. Beside me, my grandfather never discouraged me from trying, never told me I couldn't do it. He just walked beside me, allowing me to find my way.

As I write the next story in the Walnut Lodge series, I'm doing much the same thing, attempting to tell the story while avoiding its bruising emotional impact . It makes for a very tough walk.

If you've been here before, you know most of my writing is character driven. With this story I have two lovely characters to work with--Jeff Anders, former PK (preacher's kid) and journalist, now primary caregiver to a parent with dementia and working as the night auditor at Walnut Lodge, and Connie Mitchell Monroe, single mother, divorced from her Major League Baseball fallen star husband and struggling to build a new life for herself and her daughter. These details were outlined in Katie Lost and Found, the first of the Walnut Lodge stories. We know how Jeff and Connie's story ends, but what we don't know is how they reached that ending. Thus the plot of this story has a beginning and an end already in place. That should make my work easier, right? It does. But there are other issues, admittedly, my own, slowing my progress.

In the first book, we're told that Connie's marriage was a "fast lane to disaster." I knew what I wanted that to mean from the beginning. I had the scenario in mind before domestic abuse became the biggest story in major league sports last year. My personal experience with the subject is something I've known I would eventually incorporate in one of my stories. I've put it off because I suspected it might not be a walk in the park to live with this subject again, even in a fictional plot. My suspicions were correct. It isn't.

Each time I open the file for this story, I brace myself. Unlike the eagerness with which I normally write, I force myself to get down to work. Little by little, the words--which have been in my head for months--fall onto the page. I probably measure them more carefully than I normally would. They need to say so much without saying too much. They need to tell Connie's story and reveal Jeff's response. They don't tell my story, but they are certainly colored by my experience, even though the details are very different.

In writing Connie's story, while the fictional circumstances may be different, the feelings involved are the same. I can only write so much before I'm forced to step back, to separate from her pain. It would be easy to give up, to take a different approach, less costly for me and far more expeditious. But I know I won't. As difficult and time-consuming as it may be, this story needs to be told. I need to tell it.

As I remember, at the end of those long ago walks, my feet might have been sore, but I was glad I'd tagged along, maybe because of striving to if not quite reaching the goal, maybe because the companionship had been so rewarding.  As with those walks, while writing this story, I have to accept that as I find my way, I'll feel bruised, sometimes even angry at the sharp memories that continue to inflict pain. I can't avoid them, anymore than I could leap to the next tie. If I am to complete  this walk--this book--I have to keep my sights on the end. I'm not sure yet what the reward will be. Maybe finally crossing off that square, writing about domestic abuse, or maybe I'll learn that one reader found a message in the pages, something to take them a step further along their journey. I won't know until I hit "Publish," will I? Until then, it's one determined step--one word--at a time.