Thursday, August 22, 2013

This Fragile Life - Meet Kate Hewitt & Giveaway

This Fragile Life: From Idea to Book 
By Kate Hewitt

Thank you so much for having me here! I’ve been writing romance for Harlequin Presents for seven years, but have wanted to branch out into women’s fiction for awhile now, so I’m thrilled that my first women’s fiction, This Fragile Life, is out with CarinaUK now.

I first had the idea for This Fragile Life—wait for it—nineteen years ago. I had newly moved to New York City, was fresh out of college and eager to pursue a career in playwriting. As I was crossing Ninth Avenue on my way to an unpaid and rather thankless internship at a playwriting guild, an idea popped into my head of two friends, Alex and Marsha, and how their relationship changed when Alex agreed to let Marsha, who had been struggling with infertility, adopt her baby. The idea was originally going to be a play called The Child Stealers, which is, of course, a bit pejorative—but even back then I was interested in the balance of power between women, especially when those women are good friends. I was also inspired by a play I’d recently seen, a feminist retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Louise Page, and, being young and full of myself, was eager to seem edgy and avant-garde.

Well. I wrote lots of notes and exactly one scene and then flitted to something else. I thought of the idea occasionally, and I think I might have wrote one more scene at some point, but it was firmly on the back burner until a year ago, when I was struggling to finish a different story for a prospective agent, and the idea dropped into my mind as if someone had hijacked my subconscious, except this time I had an added ‘what if…’ which I won’t share since I don’t want to spoil the story, but it made the entire idea sharpen into focus, and this time it would be a novel rather than a play—I gave up playwriting years ago.

I wrote the first third of the manuscript in three days.  The voices of Alex and Martha (changed from the original Marsha!) came to me so clearly, I felt as if I knew them and they were talking to me, telling me their stories, spilling their secrets, their hope and their pain. I love when that happens—and I’ll admit, it’s not as often as I’d like.

The working title of the story was Simple Gifts, which I changed to The Last Breath after a few days, and eventually ended up, a year and four sets of revisions later, as This Fragile Life. Only nineteen years in the making!

It’s amazing and incredibly wonderful to me that this story is now out there, available to readers. It makes me realize that no idea is wasted, and stories can sometimes takes years to percolate—but like good wine, that just makes them richer and more complex. Has anything in your life—a story, a relationship, an idea or a dream—taken a long time to come to fruition? 


Leave a comment and let me know your story, and I’ll draw a random name to 
win a copy of one of my Harlequin Presents, digital or paper.
Giveaway ends Saturday, August 24 at 6 pm EST.

And if you’d like to read This Fragile Life, you can find it at all these places:

Happy Reading,

Kate

Blurb for This Fragile Life:

You love your best friend. You trust her with your life. But could you give her the most precious gift of all? Alex’s life is a mess. She’s barely holding down a job, only just affording her apartment, and can’t remember when she was last in a relationship. An unexpected pregnancy is the last thing she needs. Martha’s life is on track. She’s got the highflying career, the gorgeous home and the loving husband. But one big thing is missing. Five rounds of IVF and still no baby. The solution seems simple. Alex knows that Martha can give her child everything that she can’t provide. But Martha’s world may not be as perfect as it seems, and letting go isn’t as easy as Alex expected it to be. Now they face a decision that could shatter their friendship forever.

Check out "Flavors of Summer Contest" On Kate's Facebook Page and enter to win a $300 gift card! 
Enter here:



OPERATION WEDDING CRASH - RELEASE DAY TASTY BOOK BLAST



Operation Wedding Crash

By: Sandra Sookoo

Blurb
Until death—or a secret—make them part.
Nora “Can’t Say No” Lenhart’s life is way past complicated. To add stress to everything, she’s just been appointed maid of honor for the upcoming wedding of the World’s Worst Boss and her ex is the best man. Looks like she’ll need to buy stock in an antacid company and try her best to ditch the green-eyed monster of wedding envy.
Camden Webber is an FBI agent with a massive chip on his shoulder—namely not being able to forget the woman whose usual inability to say no didn’t keep her from shooting down his proposal five years before. Though he has jaded views on weddings and marriage, Cam agrees to stand at his best friend’s side.
When Nora and Camden are thrown together at an engagement dinner, despite their tumultuous romantic history, they devise a plan to break up the ill-suited bride and groom. As the big day nears, emotions hit a breaking point, proving that wedding planning is more suited to a reality show and while happy endings are optional, they exist amidst the rubble, if the couple looks hard enough.

Buy here:  
Amazon

Author Info
Sandra is a writer of romantic fiction. Her portfolio includes historical, contemporary, sci-fi, and paranormal romances in full-length books as well as shorts and novellas. No matter if the heat level is spicy or sweet, she loves to blend genres and oftentimes will add humor to the mix.
When not immersed in creating new worlds and engaging characters, Sandra likes to read, bake, taste new teas, watch The Big Bang Theory, and Psych as well as Finding Bigfoot and travel. Her favorite place to spend vacation hours is Walt Disney World: it’s where dreams come true and the soul can play. When she’s not writing, she’s keeping things interesting at her Believing is Seeing blog or spending time with her husband, who patiently answers questions she has about men, sci-fi-related subjects, and the odd “what if”.

Sandra loves to hear from her readers. You can write to her at sandrasookoo@yahoo.com, visit her website at www.sandrasookoo.com, or look her up on Facebook and Twitter. 

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