The Prequel/Sequel to Substitute Angel

Sorry it’s been so long between blogs, but a lot’s been going on! There was the release of Substitute Angel in paperback, a family trip to England, and then there are also two other writing projects I’ve got in the pipeline that have kept me pretty busy. One is the prequel/sequel to Substitute Angel called, The Intended Ones, and the other is a new historical novel I’m working on entitled, A Farm In Pennsylvania.

Let me begin by addressing the paperback release of Substitute Angel. It’s now available on amazon.com, as is the eBook version, and it’s also available on my publisher’s website which is touchpointpress/bookstore.com. I can also report that the distributor for the book is Ingram Book, which is the world’s largest wholesale distributor of books. Ingram supplies such national chains as Barnes & Noble and Books A Million. But I’ve learned that just because one may have have the world’s largest book distributor behind them, that doesn’t necessarily mean that every bookstore in every city is going carry your book.

There are so many new titles available to retailers, they get be very choosy. A chain may decide to carry a book on a regional or even an individual store basis. For example, the two Barnes & Noble locations here in Birmingham, Alabama, may carry Substitute Angel because I live here. But you may not find it at the Barnes & Noble in, say, Sarasota, Florida, if there hasn’t been a prominent review for it or if a signing wasn’t held there. It’s the difference between being published and being known, and my publisher and I are working on the “known” part. I hope that doesn’t sound egotistical, building a name for one’s self, but as J.K. Rowling once said: “Stories only live if people read them.” So, that’s what we’ve been working on: getting the story known so people will hopefully read it.” Ironically, that’s partly what’s taken me away from writing this blog, but you can help. Please tell your friends about the book, share this blog with them, encouraging new readers to write a nice review on amazon, suggest Substitute Angel as a title for a book club, and request it at your local bookstore. And for anything you may do that forwards the cause—thank you!

Next, let’s talk about the prequel/sequel to Substitute Angel called, The Intended Ones. I guess the first thing I should explain is: how can a book be both a prequel and a sequel? Well, the book is actually two stories combined into one. But I should say there are SPOILER ALERTS from this point on. So, if you haven’t read Substitute Angel yet, you might was to stop here until you have.

As you know, Substitute Angel is the love story of two people, Wyatt “Doc” Reynolds and Farren Malone Huffman. But there is also a second love story. It’s the story of Farren’s grandparents, Gus Cooper and his wife, Clair, who died when she was only twenty five years old. The Intended Ones picks up six months after the first book ends. It’s summertime and the height of the tourist season in Charlevoix, Michigan. Doc and Farren are now a couple, but Farren is having trust and intimacy issues because of how she was sexually abused and conned by her late husband, Charlie Huffman. Meantime, the loan shark Bartholomew has wiggled out of the charges that were brought against him and he’s out of jail. He’s determined to exact revenge on Farren for ruining his plans to build luxurious and lucrative condos in Charlevoix. He brings in a deadly assassin from Moldavia named Yuri and unleashes him on an unsuspecting Farren.

While this is going on, Gus Cooper, Farren’s grandfather, has been obsessing about a young woman he saw at midnight mass six months earlier, that bore an astonishing resemblance to his late wife. (As you, the reader, know, this was Clair.) As a result, Gus recalls how he and Clair first met back in the 1950s, fell in love, and met the challenges they had to overcome. The biggest of these was Clair’s disapproving father, Aaron, who had other plans for his daughter. He wanted Clair to marry a young man named Derek Worthing, who’s father’s business could also help to secure Aaron’s company. Once the book establishes these two storylines, the chapters weave seamlessly between the 1950s and the present until both storylines are resolved. Though I say it myself, it’s a terrific read! If you liked Substitute Angel, you’re also going to like The Intended Ones, which should be out later this year. So stay tuned for more updates on this.

Finally, a few lines about the new, new project, A Farm In Pennsylvania. Like Substitute Angel and The Intended Ones, it’s a love story. But unlike those two, it’s a historical novel. It takes place in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1863, just five weeks after the infamous battle. It’s the story of John Dorian, a farmer from Ohio, who has come to the war-torn little town searching for his younger brother who is a Union soldier and is missing. He winds up as a boarder on the Samuels farm, where the lady of the house, Maria, is having a hard time keeping up with the farm and making ends meet while her neglectful and adventure-seeking husband is off fighting the war and also serving in the Union. After two years of waiting and struggling on the farm, she’s terribly lonely and raising a nine year-old boy, her husband’s stepson, single-handed. Meantime, Dorian has some issues of his own. He’s concealing a secret about his brother, feels trapped in an engagement to a girl back home, and is wary of a predictable future of working for his father. For their own reasons, both Maria and John are looking for escape. Ultimately, they find it in each other’s arms. While thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers who were injured during the three-day battle still linger in the hospital tents on the outskirts of town, Maria, John and Maria’s son, Armando, build an insulated world of love, work and togetherness, until, one day, Maria’s husband returns unannounced—and their pretend family comes to an abrupt end. Leaving the question: can John turn this pretend family into real one?

With luck, A Farm In Pennsylvania will be released sometime in 2015. More to come on this in future blogs.

For now, though, my deep thanks for your interest, as always, and please keep spreading the good word about Substitute Angel. After all, stories only live if people read them!