Something new In the Works. April 18, 2009

For those of you who have been patient with me as I worked slowly on another book, with the ever-interfering real life getting in my way, I have good news. You may now release your held breath! After creeping along at the relative speed of a glacier, I have completed a brand new novel. Yes, the writing, the revising, the editing, and all the attendant work is done.

Is it possible to be humbly proud? If it is, then I am. I humbly and proudly announce my new book, In the Works, is at the printer and now available through Blue Feather Books. Officially, this is the synopsis:

Civil Engineer Anne Schneider and her business partner, Patrick Ford, are struggling to make their new business enterprise, Clearly Perfect Water Systems, successful. They land a contract for a major project involving tainted wastewater from the Big Tree Paper Plant near the tiny town of Wood Mill, southeast of San Francisco. The job requires Anne to be on site for six months, under the watchful eye of Adehm Trent, an executive from the plant's corporate headquarters in Detroit.

Anne takes on the job, despite the fact that it takes her away from her parents in Albuquerque. Her mother's health is failing badly, and her father relies on Anne to help with her care. Confident she can handle both her personal and her professional responsibilities, Anne heads to Wood Mill, ready to prove to Mr. Trent that Clearly Perfect Water Systems is equal to the task at hand.

One tiny problem... Mister Trent is really Ms. Trent, and not only that, but she's drop-dead gorgeous to boot, not to mention a demanding employer.

Anne and Adehm find their way to workable relationships, both as colleagues and as something much more satisfying - until Anne's mother's condition deteriorates, forcing Anne to choose between fulfilling her obligations to Adehm and Big Tree and returning to Albuquerque to help her parents.

In the aftermath of Anne's choice, Adehm must face old demons that have haunted her for years. Like Anne, she too must decide what really matters in her life.

Everything was going so well, but now both Anne and Adehm have to contend with serious derailments of their plans. What will happen to their goals and dreams that were In the Works?

Unofficially, this is a love story, but one I think that has the challenges, humor and choices we all experience in real life.

I need to say I bow to the combined efforts of Jane Vollbrecht, who edited the book, and Emily Reed and Nann Dunne who polished it so it shines like the top of the Chrysler Building. I am indebted to that trio of special women. Their renumeration was small, but my gratitude is large. Of course, my gratitude and 4 dollars will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks, but my thanks are sincere.

Everything about this book is brand new except for one thing. I have still tried to put a bit of my heart into each page. I hope you'll think I succeeded.

Val

>> Send a comment.

Back to top

Up, up and away. Oct 18, 2008

I went to the Golden Crown Literary Society convention in Phoenix in August and found out many of my friends and fellow writers had websites. After due consideration and a lot of encouragement, I figured I might dip a toe into the strange and interesting world of the Net.

First of all, I knew I needed a domain name. (Excuse me, while I giggle. I can't think of the word "domain" without being reminded of the Seinfeld episode "Master of my Domain.") I'd seen those Danica Patrick Super Bowl ads for Godaddy.com, so I headed there. For a relatively small fee, I now own the name valbrownwrites.com (Not to be confused with valbrownsings, valbrowndances and valbrownsucks) for two years. I suppose after two years that means I'll have to pay up again or stop writing. I'll leave that up to my visitors here to decide.

Having a domain is like having the land, but no house to live in. The website is an abode built by HTML, instead of bricks and wood. This is where the hard work comes in. Every little thing has to be chosen: colors, pages, buttons, links, pictures... I haven't been as overwhelmed since I tried to figure out why McCain chose Palin. Fortunately, none of the hard work was done by me. Except for the approval of a lot of very good choices, I trusted this website to Karen d'Almeida, the Singapore Web Goddess. I owe her a lot for the time and effort she put into this. Everybody knows I only have a thimble full of knowledge about any of this. Many, many thanks!

Anyway, in the future, this will be my blog space. I have no idea whether this will be brilliant musings or blatant blatherings, but I promise you it will only be one woman's opinion. I am willing to debate, and even concede, some points. Remember, it's only a point of view; it doesn't necessarily have a point.

Until next time,

Val

>> Send a comment.

Back to top