Novel Beginnings is a series that is all about the novel way my books begin! I'm talking about my favorite book I've ever written, Finding the Cure today!
What inspired the novel?
I honestly can't remember. I wrote the original version back in 2009, and unlike all of the rest of my novels, I wrote it entirely by hand in a journal. It was one of the first few books I wrote after my hiatus as a teenager, which is probably why I decided to pen it all on paper. When I first started writing full-length novels at age 12, PCs were available at the school I went to, but we weren't all walking around with laptops. I honestly don't even know if laptops existed then! So, it made sense that when I got back to it, I decided to do it in a tiny notebook that could fit in my purse. It was a really tiny notebook, and it overflowed into a second one pretty quickly. I really loved the story, but since I hand wrote it, I didn't think about seriously publishing it because I would have to type it all out first. In 2015, I was having issues with how my launch of Flawed Perfection, which didn't do as well as Love Exactly. I decided to pause from that series and come back to this book. It literally was calling to me. I felt a bit lost and it really helped me focus on WHY I was and AM a writer.
What's the plot?
This one is a real tear-jerker. Ellie is in college and has faced a lot of pain already. When she was a little girl, her mother died in a car accident. Her father is her rock, but he's dying of cancer. She's struggling to accept what's happening and it's causing her to lose sight of the fact she is alive and her father still is alive -- for now. All she sees is the inevitable end, and that darkness is overwhelming to her.
When she meets Trent, she's close to the edge, and he helps her to start living again. But Trent doesn't have it easy either. He's a father to his sister and both his parents are not good people. They help to show each other that finding the solution to their problems -- the cure -- isn't always black and white. And sometimes, we don't need a cure -- we just need to see that we're lucky to be here in the present.
What was my path to publication? I truly believe that this is the best book I have ever written, aside from Letters to Live (on submission traditionally.) I self-published it without any thought to my other options, and I will always regret that. Ten years later, and I still wish I could take that back. This book helped me really define who I wanted to be as an author and why. But I strongly believe that it could have actually been successful and reached a lot more people if I had tried to get agented with it. I'm still proud of this book, but it hasn't sold much over 300 copies in the past five years.
I will say that this was the first book where I had people I didn't know personally reach out to me to thank me for writing it. Not just one but at least three or four. Reading their words made me cry because my book meant that much to them. I only wish I could have touched more people with it.
Why you should read it?
Tear-jerker
Heartwarming ending
Bookstore romance
You like Nicholas Sparks and other emotional rollercoaster style romance books
I'm super stoked to say that it is now available in audiobook AND I have a few free copies from Audible. If you're interested drop me a message or comment below! It's also available where ever books are sold for just 1.99.
But don't forget your tissues. And if you enjoy, a review would mean the world to me!