I can’t wait to put this novel in your hands!!

Hey there happy reader!

I feel like I’ve run a marathon carrying my new romantic suspense novel, “Question Everything” under one arm, striding toward the finish line ever so slowly. From initial concept, to writing, then rewriting it FOUR times to satisfy my very meticulous editor (I thank my lucky stars to have found her!), this book is almost ready for its close-up.

I think the artwork speaks for what lies between the covers of this page-turner, but here’s the back cover copy as well:

Maeve Byrne needs a lifeline.

Betrayed and alone, she escapes with her daughter in a heart-pounding effort to protect them from the danger chasing her through the dark night. If only she’d slowed down before that sharp curve on a slick road, she might have had a chance to find her way to freedom. At least until the tree, and the inevitable crash that upended all her plans…

Kyle Walsh should have been at work as a detective for the Boston PD.

Instead, he was running from his demons, ruminating about the one terrible mistake that had twisted his life upside down. When he witnessed Maeve’s car accident, instinct kicked in. What he found there would change him forever, tangling him in a web of mystery that had him doubting every certainty he’d thought he’d ever known.

Question Everything… because when secrets unravel, the truth becomes too powerful to hide!

*************************

This book has a unique plot twist that drives the story.

The female protagonist, Maeve Byrne, loses her memory in a car accident and while pieces of her old life begin to resurface, her current life circumstance makes her wonder if she will ever have the strength to leave the warmth and protection of Detective Kyle Walsh. She knows that she’s running from something, but she can’t remember what it is.

All Maeve does know is that Kyle is someone who she’d like to get to know better. When her worlds collide, real trouble finds her…

Intrigued? I sure hope so!

If I’ve done my job right, this book will leave you turning the pages way past your bedtime! It’s going to hit Amazon on October 22^nd. I’ll drop the pre-sale link here soon.

Hey there happy reader!

Sweater weather has reached us here in the Northeast. The mornings and evenings are cool enough for an additional layer if you’re going outside. It’s my favorite time of year… I love the smell of a fireplace when it’s being put to good use, the sound of leaves crunching under my sneakers when I take my daily walk and the crunch of a really good apple!

Interestingly, our older son has a friend who has staked his claim to fame as the “apple rater.” He takes this fruit and its flavor super seriously. The New York Times agrees that this guy has a rating system of the different apple varieties that you can trust.

☝️ 7 Apple Picking Tips From the Guy Behind Apple Ratings ☝️

No matter which type of apple you prefer (I love mine baked into a pie!) this is the season to find an orchard that lets you pick your own bushel or two. I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to spend an autumn afternoon.

As the days and nights get chillier, it’s also my favorite time of year to expand my TBR list of books.

I have so many titles I’d like to read – Long Island by Colm Toibin is at the top of my list. It’s the sequel to his bestseller, Brooklyn and it continues the story of Ellis Lacey, an Irish immigrant who marries her boyfriend Tony and moves to the suburbs. When she discovers his infidelity, she returns to Ireland to reconnect with her past. I can’t wait to pull out my favorite knit blanket and settle in for some me time with this terrific novel!

Speaking of terrific (or at least I hope you think so!) novels, my next book is almost ready for publication. I’ve been telling you about it for so long, but it’s very close to making its presence known.

This is a story that came to me, fully formed, in a dream.

It was almost like I watched a movie in my own head and just wrote it all down. Well… almost! Since I’d never written a romantic suspense novel before, there was a steeper learning curve than I expected.

Leaving clues within the narrative without giving away the twist at the end is harder than I could have ever imagined. This book took me so much longer than I thought it would to revise. My editor had me do four different rounds of revisions to get it all right. Whew.

It was an exhausting process, but now that I’m on the other side of it, I think it might be my strongest book yet! When you finally read Maeve and Kyle’s story, I hope that you’ll agree that it was worth the wait.

It will be available on Amazon very soon. 

My target date is October 22^nd

Mark your calendars!

Hi there happy reader!

I was in Los Angeles for a few days last week to see our grandson. He’s eighteen months old now, and a bundle of energy and fun.

These knees should tell you everything you need to know about him.

Always on the go, little bumps and bruises don’t stop him from running joyfully and exploring his world with more wonder than I ever remember having myself!

We love to read books together. 

He has a special place in his heart for one of his favorite titles, “Stick and Stone.” The story of unlikely friends –a twig and a rock — he can recite each line and does so with glee. 

When I found a different title illustrated by the same artist, I just knew he had to have it to add to his library.

A little boy wakes up to find that the answer to anything he asks for is yes. 

Pizza for breakfast? Yes! Ice cream whenever he wants it? Yes! A late bedtime? Yes! You get the picture, right?

In one of the hundreds of times I read this adorable story to him, I started to wonder about what would happen if as adults, we were to say yes more often. It’s so easy to say no, isn’t it? No, I don’t want to try, no, I don’t want to risk failing, no, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Now imagine how different life could be if we didn’t hesitate to take that chance and say yes.

That is what I did when I sat down to write my first novel, and it’s what I still do every time I begin a new project.

I give myself permission to stretch my mind and imagination. To test the limits of my love for words, for stories, for reaching out to readers who I’ve not yet met; all of it was made possible by allowing myself to say yes. BTW – I highly recommend it!

Pumpkin spice is in the air!

Hey there happy reader!

I’m happy to say that I survived my family vacation to the coast of Oregon. The Pacific Northwest is spectacular, and the weather was picture perfect. The true joy, however, was watching our two young grandsons interact with one another.

This guy was a terrific traveler.

He enjoyed the long ride – we did a lot of walking up and down the aisle of the airplane…

And our eighteen-month-old loved our daily hikes!

We found an enchanted forest that had the largest wild mushrooms growing everywhere…

Look at the magical teepee we found. 👇

Doesn’t it look like wood gnomes should be lurking about? Or that they shot the movie “Twilight” here??

All in all, it was a blast.

But now I’m back behind this computer screen, trying to finish the revisions for “Question Everything” and get the pre-sale going!

It always seems like getting the technical stuff done for publishing a new book is such a tall mountain to climb. You’ve been so patient and at this point, all I want to do is put this fantastic romantic suspense novel into your hands…

Or I will do that, right after I finish all that post-vacation laundry! 😅

It’s all about getting the word out about “Question Everything!”

Hey there happy reader,

Last week I revealed the cover for my new romantic suspense novel, “Question Everything” and so many of you wrote to me to let me know how much you liked it! Thank you! I appreciate your feedback, and some of your comments led me to tweak the artwork a bit more…

It’s a small detail, but we’ve added a car with headlights driving through the dark road.

I think it adds the focal point that was missing, and I hope you’ll agree. My next step in the process was writing the cover copy that goes along with the image. It’s tougher than you might think to put together a gripping description, no longer than 150 words, that doesn’t give away too much of the story yet leaves the reader with the desire to find out what truly happens between the covers. It takes a lot of time and effort to get it right.

The above is the first cover copy I ever wrote.

The year was 1981(!) and it was for “Reap the Savage Wind,” a project I purchased from the slush pile at my job as an editorial assistant at Ace Books.

This was a huge learning curve for me. My boss, the editorial director of the company, tasked me with finding a bestseller and walking it through the entire process from manuscript to published product. That book became a New York Times bestseller, and the back cover copy won a People magazine “best of the decade” award.

Of course, it’s dated now, I mean, “brutal degradation?” UGH! But I learned how to condense and then use the elements a reader considers when looking for her next great read.

The process is a bit different now. I have an online tool that helps me target keywords that may trigger a response from my customer, drawing her into the description and hopefully resulting in her wanting to push the purchase button.

Using those three or four keywords, I crafted a short description that I hope will intrigue the buyer enough to take a chance with this title.

Here it is…

Maeve Byrne needs a lifeline.

Betrayed and alone, she escapes with her daughter in a heart-pounding effort to protect them from the danger chasing her through the dark night. If only she’d slowed down before that sharp curve on a slick road, she might have had a chance to find her way to freedom. At least until the tree, and the inevitable crash that upended all her plans…

Kyle Walsh should have been at work as a detective for the Boston PD.

Instead, he was running from his demons, ruminating about the one terrible mistake that had twisted his life upside down. When he witnessed Maeve’s car accident, instinct kicked in. What he found there would change him forever, tangling him in a web of mystery that had him doubting every certainty he’d thought he’d ever known.

Question Everything… because when secrets unravel, the truth becomes too powerful to hide!

Can you guess the keywords? Should I tell you what they are? I’ll drop them at the bottom of this newsletter…