A School of Daughters by Kate Rene MacKenzie (Spotlight, excerpt, review, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

A SCHOOL OF DAUGHTERS

by 

Kate René MacKenzie

 

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GENRE:   Literary Women’s Fiction

 

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BLURB:

It’s funny how things sneak up on you…

 

Kate Willoughby is a champion for throwaways—discarded dogs and cats, abandoned horses bound for slaughter, and all creatures great and small. But now it's Kate who's alone in a hostile world like a dog dumped by the side of a road. Is there a champion for Kate?

 

After 22 years of marriage, Kate loves her husband, Brian, with an even greater passion than when she spoke her vows. “My world spins on his axis,” she often says. But when Kate finds a love letter to Brian from Micky, she’s torn between proving Brian’s innocence and nailing him to the wall with his guilt.

 

Throughout her marriage, Kate has been trusting and trustworthy —to a fault, friends have said. Now, she steals into Brian’s emails and accesses his credit card accounts, phone records, bank statements, friends and activities, discovering the metaphoric iceberg beneath Brian’s affair.

 

Turning to the one constant in her life, Kate is guided by her family of animals: shelter dog Molly; Premarin horse Quinn; packrat Winston; owls Albert & Victoria; Stubby, the chipmunk; rattlesnake Cassandra; and Phineas, the determined grosbeak. These wise and wonderful teachers, along with a wild menagerie on her Arizona ranch, deliver lessons on life, love, and letting go. But it’s Molly, in a heartbreaking act of courage, who leads Kate back to her true self, before she became lost in love with Brian.

 

Shining a light on the childhood events and adult choices that, like steppingstones, brought her to this moment, Kate illuminates a familiar and well-worn path. Narrating her story with equal doses of heartache and humor, Kate comes to understand that nothing sneaks up on you that isn't already here. Learning from Phineas, the determined grosbeak, Kate realizes that even after a devastating injury, you can soar again.

 

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EXCERPT

 

I get through the rest of the day. I feed the horses, wash their faces, brush their coats, pick up poop, then walk Molly, fill the bird feeders, clean the litter box. In between, I hug an old teddy bear. Actually, it’s more than a hug. I cleave to my bear like a life preserver keeping me afloat against the waves of despair that threaten to drown me.

 

And…finally…I cry.

 

Sometimes I just stop what I’m doing, slump to the ground, and wail. It is the most awful, primitive sound and I can’t believe it’s pouring from me.

 

Molly comes to me, tail wagging, ears back, offering the comfort of her warm, soft tongue. I reassure her that it’s okay, that I’m okay, and I climb up from the ground and soldier on.

 

Then there are merciful respites where the pain still exists but I’m too drained to express it. But the best moments are when numbness takes over and I simply exist. It feels like the aftermath of a funeral, when the anguish of death has subsided and all that’s left are soft, graveside tears.

 

Brian and I have shared seven family funerals. Is Micky Brian’s attempt to postpone the inevitable? Does she make him feel young and new while I remind him of death?

 

We’ve also shared the birth of seven grandchildren. Does each new life add to his making him seem that much closer to the grave?

 

I want so much to understand why he is doing this. I want to forgive him. But what I want most is to pretend it all away.

Amazon buy link

 

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Kate Rene’ MacKenzie is the women’s fiction alter ego of romance novelist and Golden Heart nominee Maggie McConnell (Spooning Daisy). Kate (and Maggie) spent her childhood overseas, the daughter of US diplomats. Attending college in Illinois, she volunteered at the local humane shelter, eventually becoming director. While earning a BA in Art and then an MBA, Kate worked at various jobs including go-go girl, bartender, and teaching assistant. At 26, she sold her 280Z and packed her dog and cat into a Ford truck and drove the Alcan Highway to Alaska where she spent 23 years exploring The Last Frontier in a single-engine Cessna. Her next adventure was in Arizona on a no-kill ranch at the end of the road. A vegan and animal rights advocate, Kate provides a sanctuary for all creatures great and small, but her immediate family includes horses Quinn and Hershey, and cat Noelle.

 

 Websites:

 

Kate Rene MacKenzie

Maggie McConnell

 

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Amazon buy link for Maggie McConnell's Spooning Daisy   

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My review:

3.75 out of 5 stars

“A School of Daughters” by Kate Rene MacKenzie follows Kate Willoughby as she navigates the painful journey of discovery that results from a card addressed to her husband of twenty-two years. Navigating between the blind trust she’s always had in his love and support and the unpalatable realization that she needs to rediscover herself and her self-reliance, Kate relies on the unstinting love that she’s shown all those around her, including her rescued animals, to bring her through her darkest days.

 

This women’s fiction story is somewhat depressing to read, especially at this time of the year, but it is a compelling story that is leavened by the interludes of vivid description of the beauty of nature and the valuable lessons and gifts that come from interacting with various rescue animals. I am sorry to admit that I identify with many of the heroine’s feelings of betrayal and sadness, having watched my mom practice her own version of deliberate blindness to my father’s indiscretions, just as Kate has done. It is frustrating to watch the seesawing of Kate’s emotions and actions as she reveals episodes she’s suppressed or ignored, even though I can understand her reluctance to see the enormity of betrayal that has been perpetrated.

 

The author paints wonderful word-portraits of life in two very different states, contrasting the dangers of bears and moose in Alaska with the smaller life-threatening creatures such as snakes and scorpions in Arizona. Her artful descriptions of the various animals she interacts with brings them to life, and I will be thinking about Winston the packrat and Albert and Victoria for quite some time.

 

I think this is a story that should be approached with caution by those with triggers about infidelity, but one should be reassured and inspired by this woman’s journey and ultimate resilience. Part cautionary tale, part travelogue, and part inspirational tale in support of adopting strays, this story is well worth reading, even if you’re an incurable fan of happy ever afters like me.

 

A copy was provided for review

On Ocean Boulevard by Mary Alice Monroe (Spotlight and review)

On Ocean Boulevard

by

Mary Alice Monroe

About the book:

It’s been sixteen years since Caretta “Cara” Rutledge has returned home to the beautiful shores of Charleston, South Carolina. Over those years, she has weathered the tides of deaths and births, struggles and joys. And now, as Cara prepares for her second wedding, her life is about to change yet again.

Meanwhile, the rest of the storied Rutledge family is also in flux. Cara’s niece Linnea returns to Sullivan’s Island to begin a new career and an unexpected relationship. Linnea’s parents, having survived bankruptcy, pin their hopes and futures on the construction of a new home on Ocean Boulevard. But as excitement over the house and wedding builds, a devastating illness strikes the family and brings plans to a screeching halt. It is under these trying circumstances that the Rutledge family must come together yet again to discover the enduring strength in love, tradition, and legacy from mother to daughter to granddaughter.

Like the sea turtles that come ashore annually on these windswept islands, three generations of the Rutledge family experience a season of return, rebirth, and growth. “Authentic, generous, and heartfelt” (Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author), On Ocean Boulevard is Mary Alice Monroe at her very best.

  




(Note from ELF:  My apologies, I asked for an excerpt, but for some reason I could not get a response. Sorry!)

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My review:

4.25 out of 5 stars

On Ocean Boulevard by Mary Alice Monroe follows the close connections of a group of women in the lowcountry of South Carolina, who are not only bound by love and friendship, but who are united in their care for the loggerhead sea turtles that many of them are devoted to helping survive. Linnea Rutledge has returned to her roots, but she’s far from settled, and it will be a challenge to navigate the personal and professional challenges, but her passion for the preservation of the environment never flags.

This contemporary women’s fiction story paints a vivid portrait of life on a special island and one of the families who are integrated into Charleston’s colorful history. Although I have never been to this area, I could almost smell the beach and I was delighted to share the experience of the lives of these characters and fascinated by the complicated hierarchy of the families. Although there are several books that touch on the Rutledge family, there is no problem reading this story as a stand-alone tale.


A copy of this title was provided for review

The Summer Sail by Wendy Francis (Spotlight, excerpt, and review)

The Summer Sail


Blurb:

Three college roommates are celebrating a twentieth wedding anniversary by taking a cruise to Bermuda. As the ship pulls away from the pier, everyone is looking forward to lounging by the pool, sipping sunset cocktails, and reminiscing. Abby, the mother hen of the group, will be celebrating her wedding anniversary in style, even as she and her husband keep a secret from the group. Ambitious career woman Caroline happily anticipates several stress-free days away from her magazine job with her boyfriend, Javier, who may or may not be finally inspired to propose. And single mom Lee (annoyingly gorgeous and irresistibly popular in college) hopes she’ll win back the affections of her formerly sweet daughter Lacey, who after her first year in college, has inexplicably become a little bit of a monster.

As the balmy pink shores of Bermuda come into view, tensions simmer, and old jealousies flare, sending the temperature from soothing to scorching in this engrossing tale of three best friends on a vacation they won’t soon forget—but not for the reasons they expect.


Excerpt:

From The Summer Sail: A Novel by Wendy Francis. 

Copyright © 2018 by Wendy Francis. 

Reprinted by permission of Touchstone, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Prologue

Abby slid the invitation into the envelope. It was a lovely invitation, on sturdy cream card stock with blue script and a jaunty little boat sailing across the top. She knew it was silly to have ordered special cards in this day and age when everything got sent electronically, but a twentieth wedding anniversary seemed to demand a certain amount of decorum. And it was the perfect reason to celebrate. Every year, she and her two college roommates tried to meet up for a reunion somewhere in the States, but this year, she wanted to propose something different: a cruise, an island getaway to Bermuda. What could be more idyllic?

She sealed the envelopes, affixed the stamps, and addressed them in her loopy handwriting, one to Ms. Lee Minor in Charleston, South Carolina, and the other to Ms. Caroline Canton in New York. Abby smiled at the thought of her roommates’ spotting the invitation in a sea of advertisements and magazines in their mailboxes. It was good to try something different every so often, and as she’d said to her husband, Sam, when first pitching the idea, If not now, then when?

Frankly, she was desperate for a proper getaway, one where she would be among friends, plied with good food and drink, and tasked with nothing more than a decision on where to dine that night (the ship had five elegant restaurants on board). Abby had barely survived the homestretch of her boys’ sophomore year—both twins seemed intent on growing up too quickly—and she was counting on the cruise to entertain them with its endless loop of activities. Meanwhile, she could lounge by the pool in peace. It was, as Sam liked to say, a win-win.

Now if she could just twist Caroline’s arm to take a full week off from work and Lee to treat herself and her daughter to a vacation, all would be well. Abby would call them later, once they’d had time to consider the idea. The sales pitch was easy—Caroline needed a break from her stressful editor’s job at Glossy magazine, and Lee and Lacey could use some uninterrupted time together to smooth things out between them (Lee, a teacher, would be on summer vacation in June). Abby needn’t mention any other reason—beyond her anniversary, of course—why it was so pressing that they come. They would find that out soon enough.

She licked the final envelope and addressed it to Sam’s office on campus. He’d get a kick out of that, being invited to his own anniversary party. Somehow the formal invitation made the whole idea of a cruise—up to this point a dreamy mirage—crystallize into reality. Abby could almost smell the sea breeze, taste the margaritas, feel the sand between her toes.

She decided she would walk the letters over to the post office herself, only a few blocks from home. No point in worrying whether the invitations had actually made it into the mail. She headed out the door, envelopes in hand, and was flooded with a newfound sense of anticipation. A sail away to a tropical island. Yes, it was just the thing she needed.

She hoped her roommates would say yes.

Amazon

4 out of 5 stars

“The Summer Sail” by Wendy Francis is a women’s fiction novel that follows a trio of college roommates who have reunited for a cruise. Ostensibly, Abby has invited her best friends to help her and her family celebrate her 20^th wedding anniversary, but each of the women has an additional goal for the trip. Amid the luxury and pampering of a trip to a beautiful Bermuda beach, real-life drama plays out as each reflects upon her life choices and her future.

This is a delicious summertime novel, perfect for relaxing at the beach with a cold libation. I enjoyed the author’s deft evocation of that lasting bond that forms during the halcyon days of college, when one has big dreams and the future is an open book. The three paths taken are contrasted as each woman deals with a crisis in her life that comes to a head on the cruise, juxtaposed with the hedonistic vacation they are enjoying.

Each of the friends’ point of view is provided so that we are able to understand some of what they are grappling with, but this book only provides a keyhole into their lives. We also get a brief look into daughter Lacey’s mindset, contrasting her college experience with that of her mom. I was a little surprised at Abby’s naivete with respect to her sons and I didn’t establish a deep connection with any of the characters but I enjoyed this glimpse into the lives of all of these folks. I am almost tempted to try a cruise but still fear that dreaded seasickness, not to mention being in forced proximity to so many folks! I’m a little disappointed that not all of the strings are tied off by the end of the story but I guess that reflects reality. I think the author has an engaging voice and that fans of women’s fiction will enjoy reading about these three friends.

A copy of this title was provided to me for review

 

Getaway by Maureen Brady (Spotlight, excerpt, and review) PUYB

GETAWAY
by Maureen Brady

Publisher: Bacon Press Books

Pages: 230

Genre: Women’s Fiction

$14.99 (paperback) $8.99 (kindle)

 

After stabbing her abusive husband and leaving him dying on the kitchen floor, Cookie Wagner flees to remote Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. For a moment, she seems to have gotten away with murder. But, consigned to a secretive life with a new name and the need to be on constant alert, she faces all she has not gotten away with. She is helped by the recently widowed Mrs. Biddle, who offers her a place to stay, and the lobster fisherman Butch, who gives her a job and later falls in love with her. Walking the cliffs and beaches, taking in the scruffy windblown plants that survive the buffeting wind by growing at an angle, she begins to heal.

Yet, there is no leaving behind the notion that Warren is dead as the result of her action.
Or is he? And if not, will he one day come to find her?




Sexual harassment and abuse are all over the news these days, often involving celebrites and other well-known figures, but Cookie, the protagonist of Getaway, is no celebrity. She’s an ordinary woman married to a working class guy who drinks too much and resorts to violence. Their story reveals how endemic the phenomenon of abuse is, and the quandary Cookie lands in when she fights back.



Praise for Getaway

“Sensitive, sensual, and stirring. Getaway is a true page-turner, but one with heart and with context. I couldn’t put it down until I got to the end, not just to find out what happened, but also to discover who these intriguing and complex characters would develop into. An extremely satisfying read!”

Danielle Ofri, author of What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear, Editor-in-Chief, Bellevue Literary Review.

Amazon Link 

Cookie dove between the tall grasses, jarred with adrenalin. In the gloom, she could barely make out the blue cottage on the other side of the lake, but her eyes clung to it desperately. It was up for sale and she thought, unoccupied. Maybe if she bushwhacked around the lake and found her way there without being seen, she’d be able to hide behind it.

The air sparkled. Everything around her seemed to vibrate with too much life. When a bullfrog glugged in the reeds, she jumped, stood still, then made herself get moving again. This was no time to try to understand what she had done.

She inched along the shoreline, her feet sinking into the mud.

Her foot slipped off a root and twisted painfully. Damn weak ankle, she muttered, working it before she pushed on.

A three-quarter moon came up to light the way a bit, but it was getting cold. She stopped to put on her windbreaker, the one thing she’d managed to grab from the hook by the door. A good thing she had, even though it was a bright aqua, too colorful for someone

who wanted not to be seen.

Squatting, she buried her face in her hands. Her stomach roiled and she thought she might throw up. My God, Warren, why did you have to come after me like that?

She was struck by the sound of twigs breaking underfoot. A bear or a coyote? Someone coming after her? That got her moving again, making low, humming noises to keep whatever it was at bay.

When she finally came out to the clearing, she scooted through tall tufts of grass in front of the blue cottage and crept around back.

The building blocked the moonlight as she huddled against the cinderblock cellar wall, her arms wrapped around her legs, her feet wet and freezing. She stared into the night as the fireflies spit tiny patches of light before flickering out.

As she adjusted to the dark, she noticed a hump a few feet away, a rounded Bilco cellar door. She stood and lifted the handle.

Detecting a little give, she lifted again, hard, and one side came up. Three steps down, there was a wooden door. It, too, had been left unlocked, so the knob turned and she was in.

She sunk to the cellar floor and wrapped her windbreaker around her wet pant legs but couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering. Trying to still her jaw only made her whole arm shake. She remembered once as a child when her teeth had rattled on this way. It had been fear, not cold that time her father had raised his large square hand but stopped just short of slapping her across the face.

When she finally found the remains of a matchbook in her pocket, the first match she struck crumbled. She stood up and struck another. The light flared up shockingly fast and extinguished itself before she’d seen a thing. She caught a glimpse of a stairway, which she shuffled toward, hands out ahead of her, searching for a light switch.

In the flare of the last match, she spotted a worktable under the stairs. Patting along its surface, she touched something soft and squishy, almost like human skin. She jumped back, horrified.

Gathering her courage, she reached out again but she must have turned when she jumped back because, where the squishy thing had been, there was nothing, not even the bench. She made a quarter turn and reached out again. Still nothing! At least it wasn’t the squishy thing, but where the hell was she and what was that anyway?

Though Maureen Brady wrote the humor column of her junior high school newspaper, she didn’t actually comprehend that she was a writer until after she had moved to New York City in her twenties, where she began taking writing workshops at The New School and then fell headlong into the consciousness raising groups of the early 1970’s.

She published her first novel, Give Me Your Good Ear, in 1979, and it was published by The Women’s Press in England in 1981. Her novel, Folly, was excerpted in Southern Exposure, received wide critical acclaim, was nominated by Adrienne Rich for an ALA Gay Book Award and was reprinted as a classic by The Feminist Press. She published a collection of short stories, The Question She Put to Herself, in 1987, then turned to writing nonfiction in the ’90’s, publishing Daybreak: Meditations for Women Survivors of Sexual Abuse and Midlife: Meditations for Women. She returned to fiction with the novel, Ginger’s Fire, and her most recent novel, Getaway.

Her recent work has appeared in Sinister Wisdom, Bellevue Literary Review; Just Like A Girl; Cabbage and Bones: Irish American Women’s Fiction, Mom, In the Family, and Intersections: An Anthology of Banff Writers. Brady’s essays and stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and were finalists for the Katherine Anne Porter Fiction Prize and the Nelsen Algren Short Story contest.

An Adjunct Assistant Professor, she teaches creative writing at New York University and New York Writers Workshop @ the Jewish Community Center, and works as a free-lance editor and tutor, helping writers across the spectrum take their writing to the next stage.

A co-founder of Spinsters Ink, Brady edited such books as The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde and The Woman Who Breathes Fire by Kitty Tsui. She also served as a panelist for The New York State Council on the Arts Literature Program and as a fiction judge for Oregon Literary Arts. She is a founding member of The New York Writers Workshop and has long served as Board President of Money for Women Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.

She has received grants from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation; New York State Council on the Arts Writer-in-Residence; New York State Council on the Arts CAPS grant; Holding Our Own; Briarcombe Foundation; and The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship to The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland. She was the winner of the Saints and Sinners short story contest for 2015 and is also a Saints and Sinners Hall of Fame winner.

She lives in New York City and Woodstock with her long term partner, Martha, and their joy dog, Bessie.

Visit Maureen’s website

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My review:

4.5 stars

“Getaway” by Maureen Brady follows Cookie Wagner as she finally fights back against her abusive husband. Her flight takes her to Canada and a new way of life, but she fears her newfound freedom will be cut short at any time so she can’t plan for the future, just live one day at a time.

This contemporary women’s fiction story is both thought-provoking and entertaining. The author’s voice allows the reader to experience the shock and challenge of dealing with the pressure and repercussions of an abusive relationship. The frantic journey north and the struggle to blend into a tightly knit small community and learn a new way of life are vividly depicted. Those who are concerned with such should be aware that there are multiple points of view that come and go in places and a couple of dangling threads that didn’t get tied up completely, but the overall story is compelling and I love the message of acceptance that permeates the story. Serious life challenges are explored and tension is kept throughout the story even as a gentle romance develops. I was on tenterhooks until the end and invested in Cookie’s journey and enjoyed watching her relationships develop.

A copy of this title was provided to me for review

 

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Deep End by Kathleen Duhamel (VNBtM, guest post, excerpt, and GIVEAWAY) GFT

It is my pleasure to share a guest post from author Kathleen Duhamel, who shares her thoughts on...

CREATING MEMORABLE HEROINES

By Kathleen Duhamel

A few years ago, when I began writing what became my first novel, Deep Blue, I had no idea it would ever be published, much less met with positive reviews. I also worried that my characters were too old to be relatable. Until recently, conventional romance and women’s fiction seldom featured characters past their thirties. When Deep Blue begins, Claire Martin is a 58-year-old “barely not starving” artist and her love interest is 62-year-old musician, Robert Silver. Would readers be turned off by the idea of these two enjoying a healthy love/sex life?

 Deep Blue is also not a conventional “romance” in the sense that not every problem in the relationship gets resolved before the last page. Life tends to get a lot more complicated when you’re attempting to balance the demands of children, grandchildren, health issues, career pressures, and aging parents, and I wanted to touch on these issues in the book. Surprisingly, the age issue I worried about turned out to be a bonus for some readers, who found the senior love story “refreshing.”

What began as one book has morphed into three, with Deep End, the third book in the trilogy, published in December 2017. As in the first and second books, what drives the plot is Claire’s emotional journey. While love is certainly part of that journey, she also is forced to deal with several unresolved issues in her life as a new wife and unexpected stepmother.

Here are my tips on how to create a strong female character that readers will remember.

Give her a spine.

At 58, Claire is certainly older (and presumably wiser) than younger heroines, having been through a few failed relationships, an acrimonious divorce, and financial struggles. She’s also a cancer survivor, which makes her identifiable with millions of others. Although she hasn’t given up on love, she’s somewhat wary of it, especially when a famous and charming man enters the picture and wants to sweep her into his overblown lifestyle.

She insists on solving her own problems without having to be “rescued” by her man.

However, she’s also a bit of a risk taker, and after being advised by her BFF to “go for it,” she begins an improbable, long-distance relationship with Rob. The same risk-taking behavior emerges in Book 2, Deeper, when she’s forced to acknowledge her husband’s eight-year-old love child and must decide if she’s willing to continue her marriage under vastly different circumstances.

Drawing on the same inner strength that got her through cancer treatment, she is ultimately able to express her disappointment and anger to Rob, while re-affirming her commitment to him and her new step-son.

The greatest test of her inner resolve occurs in Deep End, when a disaster forces her to confront the possibility of life without her beloved husband.

Give her a guiding principle.

Claire’s favorite quote, which also becomes her mantra, is from Goethe: “Nothing is worth more than this day.” It is the perfect summation of who she is and how she approaches her post-cancer life. Not even a life-threatening illness could take away her fun-loving spirit and her determination to live fully, the very qualities that initially attracted Rob to her.

Allow her to have flaws.

She’s far from perfect. Claire worries about her scarred abdomen, disfigured from cancer surgeries. She continues to obsess over Rob’s first wife, a brilliant screenwriter killed in a car accident. Doubts about her relationship and endless taunts by Baby Mama land her in legal trouble and cause her to lose a promising new client. Her loathing of the news media manages to gain her more publicity, instead of less.

Like so many of us, she tends to suppress her negative feelings until they erupt in a damaging way.  Although she struggles at times, the fact that she is able to move past her inner turmoil and re-focus on what is most important in her life makes her a well-rounded and likeable heroine, scars and all.

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Deep End

by Kathleen Duhamel

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GENRE: Contemporary Women's Fiction

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BLURB:

After years of struggle and harsh criticism, happily married rock star wife Claire Martin has finally achieved the career success of her dreams. As the featured artist in an international traveling exhibit, she looks forward to her best year ever, while her husband, singer Robert Silver of the legendary band Deep Blue, contemplates a return to touring.

Things are also looking up for Claire’s best friend, Denise Hrivnak, who’s planning her wedding to Robert’s musical partner, Art Hoffman. However, what should have been most joyful day of Denise’s life turns to tragedy when an unexpected event forces both woman to contemplate the terrifying possibility of life without the men they love.

Besieged by the paparazzi and sick with worry, Claire waits for answers in a Las Vegas hotel room, thinking over her improbable relationship with Rob and praying that love alone is strong enough to bring her beloved husband back from the brink.

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EXCERPT

Before Claire can say a word, I glance across the room to see the older man rise from his chair and begin ambling toward us. When he gets near our table he announces in an apologetic tone, “I don’t mean to disturb your meal, but there’s something I’d like to tell you, Robert, and I’ll never have this chance again.”

Let me guess. He has a friend/relative/colleague who wants to be a singer/songwriter/musician and would I mind listening to his demo? I produce a cursory nod and he continues.

“My wife was a big fan of yours.” His shoulder sag. “She died a few days ago.”

Claire gives him a sympathetic gaze.

“When she went into hospice care, she asked for her little CD player and all her Deep Blue CDs. I wanted you to know your music gave her some happiness and comfort during her final days. Your voice was the last one she heard before she slipped away.”

An enormous lump rises in my throat, rendering me incapable of speech. Claire blinks back tears.

“Do you mind if I give you a hug?” she asks.

Without waiting for an answer, my wife rises and wraps her arms around the grief-stricken stranger for a few seconds. She takes both his hands in hers and says, “Your wife was fortunate to have had someone like you in her life.”

“We were married for 37 years.” His quivering mouth attempts a smile. “I always thought I was the lucky one.”

Amazon

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Kathleen Duhamel is a contemporary women’s fiction writer and the author of the Deep Blue Trilogy (Deep Blue, Deeper, and Deep End) as well as the novella At Home With Andre. She wrote and illustrated her first short story at the age of eight, and has been a writer for most of her life. Her love of the written word continued throughout her varied career as a newspaper journalist and editor, public relations executive, freelance travel writer, and owner/operator of two small businesses. A native of Texas, she has spent most of her adult life in Colorado. She lives in the Denver area with her husband, a geriatric standard poodle, and a spoiled cat. She is a lifelong devotee of rock and soul music, contemporary art, and popular culture.

Amazon link for Deep Blue

Amazon link for Deeper

Amazon link for At Home With Andre

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The tour dates can be found here