Well, I Did It Again...

I have two things to announce.

ONE: I got a contract for You'll Think of Me. Now I have no idea what a "story of my heart" is, but I can tell you that Cade is one of my all-time favorite characters. Why? Because in one sense, he was easy to write--he likes sex, lots of it, and he makes no beans about what he wants. In another sense, he was the hardest to write because he had so much emotional baggage. I could see things through Melanie's eyes easily. I recently went to the airport to pick up a friend and witnessed a serviceman coming home. I didn't know the man, but seeing him melting into the arms of his loved ones brought tears to my eyes. Then right after that, I read a testimonial on one of those table flag thingys at Red Robin. It was about a serviceman coming home and the restaurant holding the table all day until he got in. Again, I started to cry. Why? Because I saw it through Melanie's eyes as Cade came home. I also saw her confusion as to how to deal with him. What I couldn't totally grasp was his trauma from the war. By the end of the story I was in tears because it took an emotional toll on me. I hope that happens for the readers, but as reviews tend to show, that may not be the case.

The other thing to announce? It's not really an announcement, but I had to talk about it. Why? I'm not totally sure.

I know when I see Forrest Gump on television, I have to stop and watch. It's not my favorite movie in the whole wide world, but it's a good one. But every darned time I see the ending, that part where Forrest talks to Jenny's grave and sees the birds, it brings tears to my eyes. And when he sits and waist for little Forrest while he's at school, yup, the water works start. Why? Personally, I think he got the raw end of the deal with her. Secondly, I love the innocence and trust on his end. His faith in her, in his momma, in the world is something more of us need.

Now you may wonder how the two announcements have anything to do with each other. YTOM is an erotica story. FG isn't. But both deal with heavy subjects and both bring out deep emotion. I hope when you read YTOM you see the deep seeded emotion in Cade and maybe it makes you cry, too. Cry because you can identify with him and love him, not because you want to throw the book against the wall thinking it's merely decent.

Okay, I think it's time to get down off my soapbox and to find a hankie.

Thanks for reading.