Preconceptions and Misconceptions with Mona Karel

Well, it's Saturday, and here in the States, it's the start of a holiday weekend. And here in Seattle, it's uncharacteristically sunny. I can't think of a better way to wrap up a crazy busy week than by welcoming a guest to the blog. I'd like you to meet Mona Karel, one of my fellow Black Opal Books authors. Mona is celebrating the recent release of Teach Me To Forget, her second book with Black Opal. She's got an interesting spin on how a books jacket blurb can give you the wrong impression....

;)

The Blurb for Teach Me To Forget reads like this:

Her past was behind her...or so she’d thought.

Bethany Acton has come a long way from the day she was an abused child-bride of a dissolute jet setter. Now divorced and single, she writes for a lifestyles magazine, lives out of her motor home, and answers only to her boss—when he can find her. She has overcome her horrendous past and taken control of her own life. But when Jonathan Merritt, a rising star in wildlife photography, enters her world, she learns control is a tenuous thing.

His past was despicable, but it hasn’t affected his future...until now.

Jonathan knows he has met the woman with whom he wants to spend his future, but first he must admit his role in her past. Afraid the truth will turn her against him, he tries to gain her trust and affection before confessing. But the longer he hesitates, the harder it becomes to tell her. Can Jonathan gain enough of her love and trust for her to forgive what he did—or will his past indiscretions destroy his only chance for happiness?

***

            I feel so fortunate to have Black Opal Books to help with the blurbs!  I can come up with the basic information but Lauri has a way of polishing the words until they sparkle and grab attention.  My late husband’s cousin was putting out the word on Teach Me To Forget, and shared this comment from a friend of hers (reproduced here with permission)

“So there are lots of steamy scenes, and then Jonathan tells her his secret, and she's shocked and hates him and throws him... and then discovers, when he's gone, that she loves him and needs him? (Is that close? lol)”

            To which the cousin said “No, not in the least,” and left all of us laughing.  But also set me to thinking.  The cousin’s (male) friend had formed an opinion based on his knowledge of romance books and for a lot of books he got pretty close to the truth.  Romance books all too often do (at least loosely)  follow a set pattern.  Is this lazy writing, or is it writing the book people want to read?  We often praise a book for being “different, outside the norm.”  But too often the success goes to the book that is “the same, but different.”

            And people wonder why writers are strange?

Nah, we're not strange, Mona. Are we?

Heh.

I think Teach Me To Forget sounds awesome. Thanks for telling us about it.

Peace,

Liv

Teach Me To Forget is available from Amazon and Black Opal Books.