Take it away Colleen and tell us about your new book, I Have a Story.
Thanks Pam. This book is radically different from my earlier historical romance/fiction novels. Its creation can be compared to the appearance of an unplanned child—one untimely born, unexpected, and an utter surprise because you thought your childbearing years were over. That is how I was looking at my writing days, when this story came to me in a dream. I woke up refreshed, utterly happy, swimming in vibrant colors, and surprised at the springing up of a love story in circumstances where no love could possibly survive. I had been handed a beautiful fabric, a lighthearted antidote for the challenges my family and I had endured the past few years. All I needed to add was a crime, an antagonist, and an elderly grandfather who showed his grandson what true heroes were made of. This tale became the escape and lift I needed, so I suspect it is meant to be the same for anyone else ready to step slightly outside the practical and suspend the expected for the unexpected.
Like an unplanned child...I like that! Give us more Please.
Ok, here's the blurb and an excerpt...
Jim Turner writes crime but doesn’t live it. He respects his grandfather’s tales of heroes but doesn’t believe them. When his failing grandfather sends him to a remote peninsula to write the end of his own heroic love story, Jim includes a war criminal interview to maintain his edge.
Chastity is an anomaly, a misfit in pre-WWII culture as well as in Jim’s life. Her spritely charm and endearing features turn Jim’s world upside down, especially when she reveals his grandfather’s peninsula as the site of her upcoming wedding.
Do good journalists flee when their interviewee is murdered? Do heroes write fiancés out of another’s story and themselves in? “The End” become the hardest words for Jim to write.
Excerpt
“So,” Chastity said. “Tell me more about the grandfather who impacted you so much.”
I felt him in the room. Or maybe it was in Grove. Mountain Grove. Or because we had been on his beloved peninsula, she with her yellowish hair. It was as if he joined Chastity and me, and she sensed it too. His hands and heart were in this decrepit building with us, his presence and hers making it feel like a castle instead.
“If it wasn’t for him, who knows where you might be now instead of here helping me.” She squeezed my hand.
How did she know? Because of Grandpa I came to Grove and searched for a peninsula that brought me to Chastity…who actually brought me to it. “My grandfather is a wonderful man… But before we discuss him, there are things you should know about.” I had to be honest. “Tasks you can’t help me with.” Like crime and violence, dangerous interviews, and the way I felt about her.
A face unlike any I had ever seen…and never would again…should send my heroic heart to the ladder where I would gather a million splinters in my hands by sliding to the ground, risking pain and infection to keep her safe by leaving.
Her features looked watery as I gazed at her. Tears? I never cried. Her pastel throw rugs turned into colorful puddles blurred by an emotion I had never experienced before.
“You are supposed to be here, Jim. And I am supposed to help you.”
For a moment, something ominous crept into my thoughts. Something of the old crime writer in me, who with several clicks of a typewriter’s keys could turn any story the direction I wanted. I welcomed him back, then set him aside. Because in the blue of her eyes, I saw something stronger—my promise.
If friendship was defined by a long period of time and a large number of interactions, Chastity didn’t qualify. And maybe my initial carnal fascination which became a pitter-patter my heart couldn’t beat without didn’t meet the definition of love. But she was at least partially right. For three days we were supposed to be together and help each other. For three days we had an eternity.
NICE! Do you have a bio and links for yourself?
Yep...
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