Marie Force and the Book of Her Heart + Giveaway!!

A warm welcome to Marie Force, an author I both admire and appreciate.  Her enthusiasm is infectious, her love for her work tangible.  I'm thrilled to have her here today. 

She is giving away a copy of her new release TREADING WATER and 5 custom handmade bookmarks today! Simply leave a comment to enter.

The Dream Comes True—My Way

Thanks so much for having me today, Joan! This has been one of the most exciting weeks I’ve had yet as an author, which is saying something as there have been a lot of exciting weeks this year. A year ago, I took the plunge as an “indie” author by self-publishing some of my unsold books. Since then, I’ve sold nearly 150,000 ebooks, a number that astounds and delights me.

On Tuesday, the book of my heart, TREADING WATER, went on sale as an ebook. I wrote TREADING WATER more than six years ago, and its two sequels, MARKING TIME (coming in November) and STARTING OVER (coming in December), were finished five years ago. These three are still my favorites of all my books, the three I am most proud of, and the three I’ve most wanted to put in the hands of readers. Because they aren’t “conventional” romances where boy and girl meet in chapter 1 and their love story unfolds from there, they didn’t fit neatly anywhere in the crowded fiction marketplace.

After success of my first six self-published books, I decided to go for it and publish the TREADING WATER trilogy on my own. This week, I had the supreme pleasure of seeing TREADING WATER officially on sale. Finally!

Here’s a brief summary of the book:

Love is the last thing on Jack Harrington’s mind when he sets out to meet Andi Walsh’s flight. Recently back to work after spending more than a year tending to his comatose wife, Jack is focused on getting through each day and caring for his three daughters. However, the moment he sets eyes on Andrea Walsh, the interior designer who has come to decorate the hotel his company is building in Newport, Rhode Island, Jack begins to wonder if Andi might be his second chance. After a disastrous marriage, Andi, single mom to a hearing-impaired son, isn’t exactly looking for love, either, but that’s what she finds with Jack. The two embark on a long-distance relationship fraught with challenges as they balance the needs of their children and dueling careers while Jack continues to care for his wife, Clare. Just when Jack thinks his life is once again settled, he is confronted with a new challenge that tests him in ways he never could've imagined, leaving him to wonder if "happily ever after" is in the cards for him.

Readers have responded with tremendous enthusiasm for Jack’s story. One of them called it “riveting, wrenching and unforgettable.” I liked that! What I’ve also loved is readers telling me the book makes them question what they would do if they found themselves in Jack’s situation. It was a lot of fun to write a story about a man who thinks he knows himself very well and has a good sense of what he’d do in any given situation. Then he finds himself in an untenable situation in which black and white beliefs become tinged with shades of gray.

Yesterday, Amazon sent an email to my past customers letting them know that TREADING WATER was now on sale. By the end of the day, the book was ranked at No. 19 for all of Kindle and No. 2 on the contemporary romance Kindle list. The book of my heart is now a Kindle bestseller! Yesterday was a VERY good day!

I’d love to hear from readers today about a dream you had that you never gave up on. Did your dream come true? I’ll give away a copy of TREADING WATER to one commenter AND 5 handmade bookmarks as well (your choice of those pictured above)...6 winners in all.
Enter! (International!)