My Last Romance and other passions

It’s here! I’m.... I don’t know... I opened the box yesterday and there were all these beautiful books with... with... with my name on them! It’s kind of intimidating. I birthed this baby and now that it’s in the world, I have to do something with it.

Of course the big issue now is marketing and promotion but I’ll worry about that tomorrow. The book is on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble and, within weeks, it will be on a lot of other book sales sites. I’ll have to handle local distribution and the press releases but I can do that but, of course, that’s not what this is about. This is about the fact that the world now has a book in it with my name on it.

This book is actually a bit of a canary that I am sending down into the coal mine to see how I feel about being an author. After all I have been through with the submission-acceptance-rejection cycle of The Old Mermaid’s Tale I had to rethink whether I wanted to continue to go through that or whether I wanted to do something less emotionally chaotic and go the independent press route. I know I am too emotionally attached to Mermaid to plunge right in with it. I really admire Mark for the way he has approached this. But, being less brave, I decided to gather up these eight stories, polish them up, and send them down the mine to see how frightening the whole thing really is. Less than 24 hours into the process, things are good.

But I want to talk a little bit about the eight stories in the book.

The title story, My Last Romance, is the story of Ruby and Silvio, two characters I genuinely love. I think, in my “other” life, I am Ruby, a torch singer with a big band, led by Silvio. They’ve had a tempestuous life — and a tempestuous romance and now, in their senior years the past has stirred things up for them. I think it is my best story.

There are three short-short stories, Asa, Damian and Danse Avec Moi. Asa was previously published in Level Best Books’ 2004 anthology, Riptide: Crime Stories by New England Writers. All three of them are steamy little vignettes about passionate women who love interesting men. I have to say I am moderately intimidated by their steaminess just because I don’t think people who know me would think I would write that way — but we shall see.

Flynnie and Babe is a sweet little love story about two people who have been through a lot in love and have not noticed the most obvious thing in the world — each other. It’s an old theme and yet one that is so ubiquitous that it bears re-interpretation.

Waiting for Lindy is the only story in the book written from a man’s point of view. It was fun to write. Guy, the hero of the story, lost his wife a few years back and has now fallen under the spell of a “younger” woman in her thirties. He is crazy about her but too uncertain to believe it will last. I love both Guy and his son Hugh in the story. They are both men I know well.

Treat Yourself to the Best was the hardest one to write because it is the one that is closest to my own life. I am nothing like Fifi, the main character, but my world and her world are very much alike. The ending of that story was a profound revelation for me!

The longest story in the book is also the one I am most attached to. The Haven is the story of a married woman, Chrissy, who feels unworthy of both her husband and of the life he has given her. Stash, her husband's much older cousin, is a hard-bitten, tattooed, scrappy mariner who was once the terror of the waterfront. But in Stash, Chrissy finds someone who sees her — sees her completely. I have a feeling it will be a challenging story for some people — I’ll be interested to hear reactions to it.

So this is my book. It is available now through Amazon and Barnes and Noble online and will soon be available from my My Last Romance web site. Or just call me or send me an email (inquiry at parlezmoipress dot com). I’ll send you one. If you like it, please leave feedback on Amazon — or B&N. I hope you do like it. These characters are dear to my heart.

Thanks for reading!