The Introduction

I promised a sneak peak at LETTING GO, my first attempt at a Romance novel, and I’m here to deliver. I give you, the summary.

Sometimes what you think you want isn’t necessarily what you need. And sometimes what you need, doesn’t just land in your lap, it knocks you on your ass.

The one thing Celi Cooper wants is to be taken seriously by her boss. The last thing she wants is to become the victim of a hit-n-run. Unfortunately for her, she gets both. Though she survives the hit and the guy doesn’t really run, she wishes he had. Not only is the man infuriating, he’s her new neighbor and hot to boot. So when her boss assigns her an account all her own, Celi’s life is flipped upside down when the client turns out to be the stranger seemingly sent to do her in.

Bryan Riggs is determined to open his own restaurant and fulfill a promise. He knows his food will win over the customers, but first he has to get them in the door. For that, he needs help, but the last person he wants to work with is the crazy neighbor who won’t stay out of his way or his thoughts. With no other option and a truce in place, Bryan sets out to open his restaurant and ends up opening his heart.

In a story about headaches, heartaches and the ultimate healing, two damaged people go from enemies to friends to lovers. But if they’re ever going to find that elusive happily ever after, both will have to let go of the past and put their heart in someone else’s hands.

This is a brief introduction to my story. It’s rough and thrown together, much like my characters, but gives a pretty good summation of what this story is about.

To go a little more in depth:
Celi has abandonment issues. Men, starting with her father, have a habit of walking away from her and never looking back. As you can imagine, this doesn’t do much for a girl’s self-esteem.

One years ago, Bryan was engaged, picking out rings, and planning the rest of his life with the woman he loved. But in a split second, all that was taken away and the only thing he has left is the dream they shared of opening a restaurant.

Celi has no intention of ever giving another man the chance to walk away.

Bryan has no intention of taking the chance of loving and losing again.

Celi needs to make the launch of Bryan’s restaurant the biggest splash the town has ever seen in order to convince her boss she deserves a promotion.

Bryan needs his restaurant to be a success or he’ll not only lose his future, he’ll lose everything he has.

This seems like the perfect situation for them both. But, life is never quite that simple, now is it?

A New Outlook

Today I ventured out to see the movie Julie & Julia. I’m sure it will be no surprise to hear that I loved it. The best I’ve seen Meryl Streep in years and Stanley Tucci really does steal your heart every moment he’s on screen. Anyone who has ever been a cog in the wheel of cubicle land can relate to Julie Powell. Add in her feelings of failure for not becoming the writer everyone, including she, expected, and I can more than relate. I’m so used to seeing Amy Adams in period pieces or breaking into song, it was nice to see her looking just like the rest of us. Well, she could never really look like the rest of us, but you know what I mean.

There was something Julie kept saying in the film that I’ve seen discussed on more than one writing blog. The idea that you’re not a writer unless someone publishes you. Her husband kept correcting her that she was a writer whether she was ever published or not, and I’d like to think she would have come around to agreeing with him even if she hadn’t won the book deal from the blog.

So I guess you can tell, since I haven’t updated here in way too long, that I left the theater inspired to blog again. One of the reasons I haven’t been updating is because I didn’t think I had anything interesting enough to talk about. But today it hit me, I’m attempting to write a full length novel. On top of that, I’m attempting to get that novel published and then write another one. Get that one published and write another one. I think you see where this is going.

This week I’ll post a “Where we stand right now” blog to bring everyone up to date with the story so far, then I’ll update as the story progresses. I’ve been writing steadily now for six weeks and am having more fun than I expected. Why not share that fun with everyone else?

Tune in later this week to get up to date on the current work in progress, LETTING GO, and come back often to follow the adventures of Celi and Bryan.