As 2012 draws to a close, so is the first draft of my third novel. I can tell you that the excitement and anticipation of finishing a novel is quite similar to that of finishing a marathon, except with writing your blood is drawn and dripping down your face rather than just sweat.
Of course, finishing the first draft is similar to getting to mile 20 of a marathon, you are really only halfway there. Second, third, and fourth drafts are needed, editing and proofreading and beta-reading and sacrificing goats in ancient rituals are then required.
Of course, finishing the first draft is similar to getting to mile 20 of a marathon, you are really only halfway there. Second, third, and fourth drafts are needed, editing and proofreading and beta-reading and sacrificing goats in ancient rituals are then required.
My third installment is a piece of dark fiction, much shorter, succinct, with a lovely dash and sprinkling of the bizarre. Yes, it features a runner, and a run, but I don't think you could say it was about running. Although it is about endurance and relationships and the things we do for love.
So, this week is the last chance to pick up STRAY and The Jade Rabbit free for Kindle as part of Amazon Prime's promotional offer. After this, they will remain priced as usual into eternity. Even if you don't have a kindle, you can read them on your phone in the waiting room at the dentist or on your computer as an excuse not to work, all free as your next heartbeat.
So click away on Amazon, like them on your Facebook pages, tweet it to your tweeps, and shout it from the rooftops. Here are the links and a blurb about both of the novels.
Stray traces the harrowing paths of addicts at the West Oaks treatment center, the stray pets at the next door animal shelter, and the caregivers who serve them both.
After an alcohol-induced seizure during his father's funeral, Thomas Cleaves remains sober and becomes a therapist to help others just like him recover from their addiction. After trying to start a family, his wife has a miscarriage on the same day a client of his dies from an overdose, and he fears that the addicts he treats must have infected her womb.
When his wife becomes pregnant again, and the sickness and despair of his clients worsen, Tom becomes terrified and is in desperate need of a client to give him some hope.
James White is one such client. James is a newly orphaned alcoholic dead bent on drinking again until he finds a job at the Argos animal shelter. It is here that he meets the mystical Rachel who rescues strays, cleans cages, but has the unfortunate duty of putting some to sleep by lethal injection. Can James find a reason to live by helping her rescue the throw-away pets of the city?
The lives of Tom and James, along with some incredibly vivid characters from the streets of Detroit, are intricately woven together, creating a novel that has received excellent reviews and is certain to be remembered. A gritty novel with an edge yet surprisingly gentle and sweet, Stray illustrates the universal longing in all of us as we look for a safe place that feels like home.
After an alcohol-induced seizure during his father's funeral, Thomas Cleaves remains sober and becomes a therapist to help others just like him recover from their addiction. After trying to start a family, his wife has a miscarriage on the same day a client of his dies from an overdose, and he fears that the addicts he treats must have infected her womb.
When his wife becomes pregnant again, and the sickness and despair of his clients worsen, Tom becomes terrified and is in desperate need of a client to give him some hope.
James White is one such client. James is a newly orphaned alcoholic dead bent on drinking again until he finds a job at the Argos animal shelter. It is here that he meets the mystical Rachel who rescues strays, cleans cages, but has the unfortunate duty of putting some to sleep by lethal injection. Can James find a reason to live by helping her rescue the throw-away pets of the city?
The lives of Tom and James, along with some incredibly vivid characters from the streets of Detroit, are intricately woven together, creating a novel that has received excellent reviews and is certain to be remembered. A gritty novel with an edge yet surprisingly gentle and sweet, Stray illustrates the universal longing in all of us as we look for a safe place that feels like home.
A female infant is abandoned by her birth-mother in a small Chinese village and spends her first ten months in an orphanage. She is adopted and raised in the United States where she becomes a social worker in order to help children in a desolate Detroit neighborhood.
Her nickname is The Jade Rabbit and this is her story.
As director of a shelter for runaway and neglected youth, Janice Zhu Woodward gets pulled into the lives of the lost children of the Detroit streets. Fueled by angry parents, stories of ghosts who haunt the shelter's basement, and her own history of being left by a birth-mother who may have long forgotten her, Janice emulates her adoptive mother and becomes an avid, nearly obsessed marathoner. Training injuries, failed goals, and unexpected trauma test her will and take her near her breaking point. When a mysterious girl with dreadlocks is abandoned at the shelter's front door, Janice becomes her surrogate mother and risks everything to save her. Only a miraculous, unforgettable run through the streets of Detroit can save them both.
Her nickname is The Jade Rabbit and this is her story.
As director of a shelter for runaway and neglected youth, Janice Zhu Woodward gets pulled into the lives of the lost children of the Detroit streets. Fueled by angry parents, stories of ghosts who haunt the shelter's basement, and her own history of being left by a birth-mother who may have long forgotten her, Janice emulates her adoptive mother and becomes an avid, nearly obsessed marathoner. Training injuries, failed goals, and unexpected trauma test her will and take her near her breaking point. When a mysterious girl with dreadlocks is abandoned at the shelter's front door, Janice becomes her surrogate mother and risks everything to save her. Only a miraculous, unforgettable run through the streets of Detroit can save them both.
**Note - If you are a blogger, and would like a paperback copy to review on your blog, please contact me.**
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