Red, White & Blues: Book Two is Scheduled For August 1 Release

 

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After several years of editing and rewriting (which I had started to document here), the second book in my trilogy is finally done and will be released for Kindle on August 1 and paperback soon after.

The grueling process of editing a manuscript of any size can be overwhelming, but, as with my first novel, this one was another massive document of 251,753 words and 383 pages.

As I read and reread and reread the story, I knew that a lot of it had to be deleted and the rest revised. It seemed that I was doing quite well for a while and I happily watched the page count go down while the file that I put all of the deleted material grew. However, the more I tossed and turned at night thinking about the manuscript, the more I felt needed to be addressed even if it was briefly. This, of course, led to additions and the page count started to slowly go up again. So much for reducing the bulk.

Although I was somewhat unhappy about having to add in more parts, I was ultimately happier having done so. This is not so much a complex story (in fact, complexity is something I try to avoid), but because of the connection I feel to my characters and readers, I felt myself needing to further deepen certain situations. My story is ultimately about human connections, experiences and interactions and how all of that creates bonds, love, understanding and even friction and hatred among a large group of friends and family members.

Picking up two years later, “Red, White & Blues: Book Two” revisits the main characters from the first book and introduces new ones.

With the sixties and seventies behind them, the majority of the young hippies and bikers from Book One are now parents of tweens or teens and face the challenges of raising children in a world that is changing quickly. While parents like Mike and Sarah Blackhorse embrace and take seriously the responsibility, Sandy Porter, as a single mother, falls back on bad habits and lackadaisical parenting. Young teen Pandora Hartford embraces her budding sexuality with frightening confidence; Warren and Shane Clark learn about the female anatomy from their father’s dirty magazine collection while Toby Weston questions his sexual orientation and Lane Stewart butts heads with his mother, step-father and estranged father, Morgan.

As the kids deal with adolescence, their parents are dealing with life changes as well. Mike Blackhorse, still troubled by his memories from the Vietnam War, begins to learn the healing powers of motorcycle riding and club camaraderie. His brother, Lucas, learns that running away from his parenting responsibilities isn’t as easy as he had thought and Sandy Porter learns a similar lesson, but with a better outcome.

Souls of Liberty MC club members go through their own emotional odysseys as crack cocaine enters their world, trust and loyalty are put to the test and intrigue and danger lead to a terrible and final outcome. John Clark questions his involvement in the brotherhood as bad situations continue to rock the club’s world; Morgan Stewart comes face to face with the strains of being the club president as some members challenge his ways of thinking with drug use and broken trust. And Salem Lund ignites a series of troublesome incidents while trying to keep his marriage together and his twin, Alex, safe.

In San Francisco, unlikely friends Louise and Maura continue to run Moonstone Books as the AIDS epidemic grows around them. Unable to ignore what is happening in the community, they plunge in head first and the bookstore soon becomes a special place for the gay community to gather, sip tea, get a crocheted hat when sickness sets in and most importantly, find loving and sympathetic friends.

I am pleased and proud to offer the second book in my trilogy to the reading public. It is a book that I would read with great interest and pleasure (and will do so again as soon as I can forget about it for a while first).

If you haven’t read “Red, White & Blues: Book One” now is the time! Get caught up this summer and you’ll have the sequel at your eager fingertips right after you finish!

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