When asked who has guilty pleasures in reading I raise my hand with pride. There are those stories that on the surface make no logical sense and if I placed myself in the shoes of the characters I’d make drastically different choices. The rational part of my brain that keeps me from committing felonies and out of foreign prisons looks at those story lines and thinks, “This is utterly ridiculous”, but there is a part of me, that little mischievous sprite that toys with doing all of those things my rational brain disapproves of, that claps it’s little hands and squeals out “More!”. I am a contradiction like that and when it came time to start on a new project (or complete a forgotten one) I’d latched on to the guiltiest of guilty reading pleasures I enjoy; The Secret Baby Story.

I can’t even begin to explain why I enjoy these stories but it may be rooted in the idea that at their heart they are the greatest fantasy one can tell. There is always a happily ever after that is larger than life with a baby to boot. Possibly, there is a voyeuristic quality to the narrative that is so closely tied to a lived experience I could have, the plausibility of the positive outcome feels more real. Whatever the reason I also enjoy a challenge and decided to write one of my own.

All of Me is several years in the making because 1) I wanted to tell the Secret Baby story in my own unique way, 2) That takes a lot of time, because 3) I’m easily distracted. I also discovered that it was hard to keep a balance of the whimsical fantasy of a story that could go so horribly wrong if housed in reality. I wanted there to be apprehension, guilt, fear, betrayal, but at the very heart of the story joy. I wanted my characters to discover that they not only loved the child they’d created but each other, separate of the little life they shared. I wanted so much for this story but didn’t want the love story to get bogged down with too much narrative.

In the end I think I’ve accomplished what I’ve set out to do and have released it out into the universe for all of you that enjoy The Secret Baby Story too.

All of Me

Blurb

As a man who spent the majority of his time calculating for a living there wasn’t much that Grant Carter couldn’t account for. Or so he thought until he found himself suddenly snared by eyes the color of jade and an inviting smile. A smile that haunted him once it was suddenly gone. After one night with Charlie Ambrose he finds himself more than a bit obsessed with the woman who slipped quietly out of his bed leaving a simple note along with the remnants of her scent. When Grant starts his mission to locate her, he wants nothing more than to get her to admit she felt what he did but the moment he lays eyes on Charlie again, it’s brought to his attention that he wasn’t the only one left with a reminder of her time in his bed.