The Story She Had to Tell by Sarah Tauber (VBT, guest post, excerpt and GIVEAWAY) GFT

It is my pleasure to have a guest post by author Sarah Tauber...

What scares you the most or makes you happiest about writing?

ST:  I love to write. I think I got it from my father who wrote often. I don’t believe he ever got published but he loved to play with words. In January of 2013 I began in earnest to write my first book. It was a memoir. It was strange how it came about. I was having lunch with an old friend when she began talking about the memoir she was writing. This was not news to me. She had been telling me about it for over a year. Every time she would mention it, my reaction was always the same. “That’s great. Good for you!” Until that fateful day in January when it hit me like a cosmic two by four. “I’m going to write a memoir!”

At the suggestion of my friend, I went online and signed up for a memoir writing class. About half way through the class (probably five weeks in) I began writing my very first book. The class taught me that a memoir should cover a time in your life that was either traumatic, dramatic  or life-altering – maybe all three! If it didn’t, you weren’t going to grab and hold the interest of your readers. I knew of such a time in my life. It was the one thing I had promised my husband I would NOTwrite about. And yet it was my most compelling story. Iran from 1974-1976.

Where was my biggest joy in writing? Editing! Really? Yes! To me writing is like creating a piece of art. The words are like various shades of a color. You can remove one or more words when editing and replace them with better words, different shades with a stronger impact or better meaning. I found myself rolling my desk chair over to the Thesaurus on my bookshelf (Yes, I actually used a book rather than my phone or computer) and looking up other words that would fit the idea in a more descriptive way than the ones originally chosen. I replaced the words and suddenly I had promoted my sentence from an “okay” to a “wow!”

Writing takes what is in my brain and puts it onto paper for others to see. It reaches out and communicates with other humans, maybe even changing their day. That’s powerful and exciting at the same 
time.

I believe we all have stories to tell, things to share that have the potential to impact others in a positive way. Writing lets you do that in the comfort of your own home. It’s just you and your computer and then the magic happens. The words go from inside your head to outside where they land on the paper. You have just created something! I used to say I was not really creative, not realizing that we are all creative; we just use different paths to get there.

Scary about writing? Nothing, until you have published your book and it becomes time to promote it. That part is out of my comfort zone at the very least and highly challenging at most. But the writing part, that’s just plain wonderful.

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The Story She Had to Tell

by Sarah Tauber

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GENRE: Romance

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BLURB:

Madeleine had a secret, a story that happened over fifty years ago in Havana, Cuba. Before she died, she wanted to share her story with the world.

After growing up on a farm in Maine and graduating college, this intelligent but naive young woman traveled to Havana with a girlfriend, looking for adventure. What happened there changed Madeleine’s life forever. From the moment she laid eyes on Carlos, she was turning over her fate to a man she barely knew.

This is a heart-wrenching love story that promises to stay with you long after the book is finished.

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EXCERPT

I got off the phone with my dad and looked at Carlos. He looked very serious. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“There was a robbery at the bank where my parents were yesterday, and my mother was shot by accident in the head. She’s in a coma right now, and it doesn’t look good.”

“We need to get you home. I will call my travel agent right now and get you a flight. Do you want me to go with you?”

“My heart does, but my head says this is not the time to bring my new boyfriend into the picture. Thank you, Carlos, for offering, but I think I need to go alone.”

Everything was arranged quickly. “You leave tomorrow morning. I will take you to the airport. Please stay in touch with me as often as you can and let me know how she’s doing.”

“Of course, Carlos, I’m so scared. She’s my mother!”

“I know, baby, I know. We will hope and pray for the best.”

On the airplane the next morning, I was an emotional mess. I hated leaving Carlos. Somewhere deep inside, I was afraid he would not be there when I got back to Havana. Maybe he didn’t exist after all.  The thought of that scared me to death. And then I was worried about my mother. What if she doesn’t make it? It was a very long flight during which I agonized over all these things.

Buy link:
 
Amazon

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Sarah Tauber is a world traveler who retired three years ago from a corporate job to pursue her passions of dressage riding and writing. Her first book, For Dear Life, is a memoir covering two years she lived in Tehran, Iran in the 1970’s. It is available on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and Xlibris.com.    The Story She Had to Tell is her first novel. Sarah lives in San Diego County with her husband of ten years.

She can also be reached on Facebook and LinkedIn.

LINKS:

Website

Facebook

Goodreads

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