TRUSTING LOVE now available to preorder

I am so excited for the release of my newest book, TRUSTING LOVE due out on December 10, 2013.  This is my third book, second romantic suspense, which centers around domestic violence.  People, in my opinion, have no idea what women go through when they are abused.  It's not easy to ask for help and get out of the situation.  Women in abusive situations are run by fear and intimidation. So here is what Trusting Love is about.

CHLOE WILDER is newly pregnant and running from her abusive boyfriend.  She needs a home more than ever before.  Chloe takes refuge in Arden, Maine - a sleepy, coastal town where she finally thinks she can be safe.

JAYDEN PETERSON abandoned his career as a city cop after accidentally shooting a child. Jayden quickly agrees to fill his father’s shoes as Arden’s police chief. Determined to protect his loved ones and unsure if he can ever pull his gun again, Jayden is relieved to stay where the worst crime that will ever happen is jaywalking - or so he thinks.

You can at this time pre-order a print copy here and it will be shipped just as soon as it is available.  They make great Christmas gifts for those readers in your life.

New Release

I am so excited about my upcoming release -- TRUSTING LOVE.  It has been sent off to the editor, a release date has been set (December 10, 2013) and I am working with my cover artist to get an awesome cover, and for this book I have started working with a new marketing team.  Good things are happening!

What a process it is to get a book to the point where it is ready for release.  Writing alone is a huge process.  The steps it takes to produce a book that you hope your readers will enjoy and want to share with others. For me my writing process may be a bit different than other authors.  My first draft consists of a skeleton draft really.  I get the basic plot out and don't edit at all as I write.

The second pass through is spent putting in details, description and missing elements needed for those never ending plot twists required in suspense.  The third and fourth pass is then spent diving into the edits, changing point of views, fixing gaps in timelines or plot structure before making a final read through.  As I hit send and it goes off to my editor, I cross my fingers and hope she likes it.

Once it is off, the excitement of it all begins.  Setting the release date, working with marketing and the process of selecting picture ideas to send to the cover artists.  There is nothing like the feeling of first seeing your cover, and then the excitement all over again when the book is in your hand, a finished project.

So what is TRUSTING LOVE about?  Good question.  Here is just a little hint of what you can expect.

CHLOE WILDER is newly pregnant and running from her abusive boyfriend.  She needs a home more than ever before.  Chloe takes refuge in Arden, Maine - a sleepy, coastal town where she finally thinks she can be safe.

JAYDEN PETERSON abandoned his career as a city cop after accidentally shooting a child. Jayden quickly agrees to fill his father’s shoes as Arden’s police chief. Determined to protect his loved ones and unsure if he can ever pull his gun again, Jayden is relieved to stay where the worst crime that will ever happen is jaywalking - or so he thinks.

Love and Vulnerability

As I start plotting out a couple more books, and as always life events tend to shape that process, I start looking at what is it about love that makes people vulnerable? In my own life, I have been been through good and bad, like most people. I have moments that I thought I was so totally in love that I didn't believe anything could penetrate that and destroy it, but as there have also been times I have been hurt I now make a conscious decision to keep my heart guarded from that which makes me vulnerable.

What's that moment in time that you consciously decide you can't take the hurt or pain any more and never want to go through it again....yet in the back of your mind you still hope for that happily ever after and the one true love that will always be there for you. As a writer, I get to write that ending in my stories and portray that hope for that type of love through my stories.

I have spent a great deal of time in the past week thinking about this. About the risks of putting your heart out there after you have been hurt. We all want to be that priority in someone's life, be the one that they think of first thing when they wake up and last thing when they go to bed, be that one that brings a smile to their face during the day just because they are thinking of you. How do you protect your heart from the hurt that could follow when you make yourself vulnerable.

In The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis penned a lesson on the danger of holding one’s heart too tightly. He writes:

    To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.

After stumbling across the above statement, and doing an exhausting amount of thinking on this subject this week, I have come to the conclusion that it is much better to put your heart out there and run the risk of getting it broken once again than to have it become unbreakable, impenetrable and irredeemable.  I would rather love and be vulnerable than hide my heart away in the name of protection.

What's Your Comfort Zone?

I am feeling a bit remiss that I haven't been here putting out a blog post as regularly as I had been.  It's been a crazy year.  Lots going on and yet its no excuse.

So although it's not New Year's, I have a new resolution to start my blog back up and be blogging regularly again.  Thank you to those who have hung in with me when I have been sporadic. The past year has been crazy, like I said. But to just recap the past several months I have had a daughter get engaged, return to college for her final year (until grad school), another daughter head off for her first year in college and my son go into his junior year in high school.

I've been adjusting to the house being quiet with just my son there, started a new job, which allows me to write more on a full time basis and on top of all of it have finished my third book, TRUSTING LOVE. I'm excited about this story for so many reasons.  The empowerment of a facing your fears and regaining broken trust is the theme throughout the story. My goal is to have this book released at the end of November.

With so many changes going on I have found myself stretching my comfort zone, which is extremely difficult for me, by attending a few conferences.  I'm so fortunate to have daughters who encourage me and push me when I dig in my heels and decide I just don't want to step out of that comfortable area I have. Although I look forward to going and always have a great time once I get there, the few days before I leave I'm a ball of nerves.

How often do you get stuck in a comfortable place and drag your heels about trying something new? Or are you an adventurous person, always looking to jump into the new and exciting thing?