9/2006

 

Hi Everyone!

 

  It’s a little past mid-year and since my second book the sequel, FALLING ROSES: THE YEARS BETWEEN is complete, I wanted to tell a story and send out a general letter to all who has helped me through this.

The Years Between is yet another novel that I started to write back in ’93-’95, and I still have the original version, which was downright horrible, so I revamped it. It started out twelve years later, where Jackie (Gabrielle’s daughter) met Kathryn Morris on an airplane  when she was going to Canada on a field trip to Niagara Falls. Since Kathryn looked exactly like her dead mother, Jackie sifted through Kathryn’s purse and stole her wallet. In the middle of the night, Jackie left her hotel room and went to Kathryn’s home, and snuck inside this huge house where the butler caught her. Well, that was completely scratched and maybe one day I’ll put that up on the extras page as an “unedited version.”

 

The past several months, I had to do a lot of research on amnesia, how to drive a stick shift, Halloween costumes, illegal restraint, and Bugs Bunny, to name a few things. I had six chapters rewritten and then I ventured out to find an editor. Miraculously, I found A.J. Conley who’s Novella The Monsters Mind was turned into a movie. Autumn was absolutely fantastic!! Our goal was to get The Years Between complete by October and we finished in August. We were throwing each other chapters every three days from May to August and working hard to make “Years” a success.

My biggest fear with Years was since it is the sequel to Falling Roses there was so many references to the first book that no one would understand it, unless you had read Falling Roses. At the beginning I even told both Autumn and my father that I didn’t believe that Years could even stand on its own. However, I do believe that it turned out beautifully. Since Autumn never read Falling Roses, she made comments like this is ‘clear now.’ Autumn kept wanting more to come and even said that she read it to her husband who was definitely amazed by one of the main surprises in the book. But, there was only so much that my brain could splatter.

 

The Years Between only has 26 Chapters, instead of the 52 that Falling Roses has. It’s still a nice size, complete with a lot of action in every chapter. (Hopefully, the price will be better too.) There are so many twists and turns. çBernadette always tried to get rid of John and Gabrielle, and even tried to kill Jackie when she was a day old with no success. However, the evil Giovanni Caruso, leader of the mob that Bernadette Malone had affiliations with, actually has one of his men get into the Ravolie Estate and kills a character who I won’t name. Elizabeth Malone (Bernadette’s sister)  makes an appearance inside the home as well. Jeffrey Rolando’s men are just as stupid as ever when it comes to protecting the Ravolie family.

You, the reader, will find out why Bernadette won’t go near Children Hospitals, especially Pediatric Burn Centers, as well as why she wears those fur coats in the summertime.

A funny chapter (completely brand new) and I think it’s my favorite is when John and Gabrielle try to go skinny dippin’ in the fountain that’s in front of the Ravolie Estate. I was laughing hard when I saw those two escape down the stairs and out the front door in just their underwear. When Mom and Dad are in front of the house, Jackie and her new boyfriend, which will completely surprise YOU was in the pool out back continuing their love affair.

 

As Falling Roses was, The Years Between is a book of romance, drama, a secret baby (technically 2), and a few love triangles with the Ravolie women, all wrapped into one. (And a little rock and roll.)

 

Then, my next idea was the cover. The cover for Falling Roses was done by me, because my publisher couldn’t find a white rose. I think we’ve all heard that story. I had the fear that this book was going to come out with a dreadful looking cover. Now the cover on Falling Roses isn’t bad, but now a year later when I see it, I think it’s a picture that belongs in a funeral home or on a ‘How to take care of roses’ book. I still have the dead rose petals and the dead white rose. (Maybe one day those dead things will sell for big money???)

 

Anyway, out of the blue I got an email from someone who I hadn’t written to in over a year. And it so happens that she never received the autographed bookmark that I sent to her in the mail before Falling Roses even was published. A year ago she had given me permission to use her wallpaper on her website as background images on mine. I mentioned to Irene what my dream cover was and it was an idea that I had submitted to my publisher for Falling Roses, but of course my Account Manager said there was no way that they could piece that together and we know they couldn’t even come up with a white rose. However, Irene was able to pull my vision out of my head and create a fabulous cover that I now have on my desktop. I want it to remain a surprise, so I don’t want to say what it is. I wonder how long I’ll be able to keep this a secret. It came out incredible!!! And, I don’t think it’s something that you’ll find in a funeral home.

 

 

  Continue