Ariel’s Cottage

I published it again.

The first time it was A Price for Love: Ariel’s Cottage.  I left that one the large print and kindle editions, adding the copyright I finally got for the reprint.  Now it’s Ariel’s Cottage: A Price for Love.

It was my second book, written in forty day, edited in 60 more.  Wish I could do that again. I’ve learned more about editing as I go so that won’t take as long in the future.  Yes, I’ve become an editing freak and still miss stuff.  It sends me to those ballistic zones.  I try to fix it, but if I can’t I try to block it out and hope others are more forgiving of my errors than I am.  Mostly, I hope they can understand what I meant in spite of the error.

When we read we skip so much.  Most people don’t notice the errors.  Some look for them.  If it’s passed on kindly, without a smirk like my brother’s, I appreciate it.  I appreciated his, too, but he hasn’t gone back to read.  Not a reader, huh?

Well, there are too many of those, apparently.  I thought writers were readers.  We’re supposed to be. We probably started out that way.  But I guess it’s not the failure to read so much as the failure to pick up a book to read.

I have to read a lot on the computer.  I have what I learned is blurry eye syndrome.  Yeah, it’s got a name.  I read anyway, sometimes up close when it’s bad.  It’s a little scary when it’s bad and I have to drive somewhere.  Eye drops for my glaucoma don’t help.  One, in fact, makes it worse, for a while.

I guess if I hadn’t published I’d still be a reader and want one of those electronic gadgets.  I was gifted one and still don’t read it much.  It’s just not like holding a book and flipping the pages.  I would leave all my books to Captain Kirk in the future if I thought he might exist in some real form.  He appreciated books way after they went out of style…scary thought.  Take a breath.  Yeah, I’m okay.  He also had an eye problem and had to wear glasses due to being allergic to a miracle eye-adjustment drug.  Imagine, a drop to fix vision, but nothing to fix the allergy.  Hmmm.  Must be real, or damn good fiction.  Not everything is perfect.

I digress.  Back to the book.  It’s a romantic suspense with suggestive adult situations.  There is nothing explicit in the telling of those situations, in spite of one reader (obviously not a professional reviewer) calling it erotic after stating she couldn’t tell from the writing if the characters actually had sex or not.  Small mind; limited imagination.  If you’ve got that syndrome, don’t read any of my books.  Mickey Mouse would be more for you.  He’s simple, cute, an old-fashioned kind of guy.  He’s ears must be grey by now; probably needs a walker.

Again, I digress.

In the novel, a young woman — once a victim; now in WITSEC — has been trying to get her life together for three years, coming more out of her self-protective shell after her regression recovery, and telling all.  She’s stymied in her mental and emotional growth, so her crush on the 18-year-old college-bound hunk who cuts her grass on her country secluded acreage brings out desires she missed at seventeen when dealing with her trauma.  She begins an experiment to become more enlightened about men and especially Jerry’s affect on her.  But her risky trysts are interrupted by a puppy that brings trouble to her quiet setting.  It also brings Danny, the deputy investigating the crimes the puppy escaped from.

There is more going on around Ariel’s cottage than she realized until this event brought it out.  Her Advocate visits and meets Danny.  Risks of exposure of her true identity puts Danny on alert, but Ariel knows her situation risks hurting two men she’s come to trust and love.  She’s told her story in a novel which enlightens Danny of her true vulnerability, and strength.  He swears to protect her, but even as a law enforcement officer he can’t always be there.  Ariel disappears, possibly kidnapped…again.

The FBI becomes involved, further risking her identity becoming known.  Her fears overwhelm her and in her haste she’s wounded.  And Danny has a confrontation with a derelict agent.  But it’s Jerry’s connections putting him in the public eye as the hero who saved her which most frightens Ariel.  Her WITSEC agreement wears thin with his continuous television exposure.

Danny proves the hero we all long for, able to step past his own difficulties to stand by this special young woman he’s falling deeply for, even as he learns he could lose her to another.  He protects them both, able to control his emotional responses for her sake.  His sister tested him and he learned that hard lesson only to lose her.  He can’t risk losing Ariel, even if he can only remain her friend forever.

A shooting confrontation exposes the culprits with Danny whisking her away to his safe house. Once the dust settles there’s still the threesome.  Ariel wishes she could keep them both, but knows it could never be.  A hasty reaction to a situation makes her choice for her when a promise is broken.

Long years pass before all hearts are healed.  And a new generation continues with a more hopeful future.

The End

Try it; you might like it.  Ariel’s Cottage: A Price for Love.  Available now, a free ebook PDF download to your computer for Goodreads.com members. Check out A Price for Love: Ariel’s Cottage.

Please, give me a review comment that makes sense and does justice to this write-up and the story.

Gardening weekly?  Really?  Try flowers for romance.  jvd

Related articles

• ebook available (booksbyjudithvictoriadouglas.wordpress.com)
• Recommend a…Book You Read on a Vacation! (timeforreading.wordpress.com)