4th Novel On Its Way

This past Thursday evening, I sent off my 4th of 5 novels under contract with Revell. It's as ready as I can make it. But my editor, Andrea Doering, will see wonderful things I've missed or ways to make it even better. She'll send it back after a while, I'll make some changes, and then it will be ready for print.

Like my first book, The Unfinished Gift, it's a Christmas novel. But this one is set in 1980. It's tentatively titled, The Book Nook, about a nearly enchanted little bookstore owned and run by Art and Leanne Bell. The day after Thanksgiving, Art collapses at the store and is found by a homeless man he's been helping. It's the busiest shopping time of the year, but Leanne needs to stay by Art's side, as he clings to life in the hospital. Her son, Rick, a successful CPA in Charlotte, reluctantly agrees to come home to help out with the store. Over the next few weeks, Rick meets a young woman there he can't stop thinking about. And he gets re-introduced to the mother he's ignored for almost a decade, and the step-father he's rejected completely, as he listens to a host of charming and eccentric characters, whose lives have been forever changed at...The Book Nook.

As with my first three books (the 3rd isn't out yet), Cindi and I both cried numerous times in the last 50 pages. Which is rather odd, if you think about it. You'd think since I made it up in my imagination, I'd be able to know that as I read it back. But I get sucked right in, every time.

I am such a sap.