So I’m still writing foremost to please myself, and until that thought in my head is completed to my satisfaction, nobody reads my story—not my editor and certainly not you. And then the delicate dance begins, and we all come together to engage in a universal conversation of love and hope and happily ever after.
Within days of my first book getting published, I started getting e-mails to my website from women the world over, telling me how something—a scene or character or situation—touched their hearts. I was blown away, as it still hadn’t really dawned on me that my stories might have any sort of impact on others.
Well … try as I might to keep my writing studio free of earthlyvoices, I can’t stop you—my reader—from sitting on my shoulder. Only instead of censoring or directing me, I feel you cheering me on! So this is my shout-out to you: Thank you for your letters, for enjoying my stories, and for telling me that you do.
That’s not to say that I don’t have my critiques, but realizing I can’t please everyone all of the time, I’ve decided to write stories for those of you who like reading them. If you like them, then feel free to tell me; if you don’t, then also feel free to tell me. Remember, it’s indifference that hurts. If I can’t get some sort of rise out of you, then I haven’t written a story that involves real people, much less the very real situations that greet each one of us every morning when we open our eyes.
So you just keep on reading, and I’ll keep on writing.
Until later, from LakeWatch … keep reading,
Turn the page for a special look
at the next novel in
Janet Chapman’s
Midnight Bay series
Coming soon from Pocket Books
“I’m going to be sick.” Maddy clutched her stomach.
Eve laughed, pushing her hands out of the way to finish buttoning Maddy’s blouse. “That’s just your hormones doing a happy dance.”
“I can’t believe I let you badger me into asking William on a date. When he said yes, I nearly threw up, and I couldn’t do a damn thing right the rest of the day.” She gave a nervous laugh. “I think I put Mem’s dentures to soak in ginger ale, and I know I sent Hiram home from the assisted-living center without any socks.”
“It’s August—he probably wasn’t even wearing socks.”
“But Hiram’s not a day camper; he lives there! Oh, what have I gotten myself into? It’s been so long since I’ve been on a date that I’ve forgotten what to do!” Eve laughed.
“You think this is funny?”
“I think this is payback,” Eve teased. “Are you forgetting helping medress for my first date with Kenzie? I have about as much sympathy now as you had for me that night. Come on,” she said, pulling Maddy over to her old vanity.
“I’m sorry. I know you’re just trying to help,” Maddy said.
“Because I love you. It’s killing me to see you running around with a huge smile on your face all the time, when you’re barely holding it together inside. When was the last time you did something just for yourself? The only new outfit I’ve seen you buy in the last six months is a new set of scrubs for work.”
“Oh, please,” Maddy said, rolling her eyes. “I do not have martyr’s syndrome; I just don’t have time to lie around with cucumbers on my eyes, sipping mint juleps.”
Eve led her toward the hall. “As of tonight, everything changes. You are going on a date with a handsome man, and you’re going to forget about everything except having fun.”
Maddy tried resisting. “Slow down, dammit; I’m not ready to have fun with William! You said yourself that he’s too much man for me. He’s going to eat me up!”
At the bottom of the stairs, Eve wagged her finger at her. “Honest to God, if you’re wearing your panties when you get home tonight, I will never speak to you again.” She unbuttoned the top two buttons of Maddy’s blouse. “The minute you get to the restaurant, order a drink and chug it down to relax yourself,” she continued. “But only onedrink.” Eve spread Maddy’s collar to expose some cleavage, then grabbed her hand to lead her toward the kitchen. “And you do the driving tonight.”
“I can’t drive if I’m drinking.”
“ Onedrink. But even if you drank an entire fifth you’d still be safer than letting William drive.”
As they entered the kitchen, William stood up from the table.
“I picked these for you, the prettiest lass around.” He held out a fistful of … goldenrod from off the side of the road?
Maddy reached for them, but Eve plucked them out of her hand. “Okay, you two,” she said, herding them toward the door. “I’ll put these in a vase. ’Bye. Have fun.”
William stopped on the porch and turned to Maddy. “When I was with Trace this afternoon, he told me that every Wednesday there’s something called ladies’ night at the bars in Ellsworth. Would ye prefer to go there instead of the restaurant?”
“No!” Maddy and Eve yelped.
“I’m quite hungry,” Maddy said more demurely.
William started to take her arm, but Eve took hold of hisarm and stopped him, her eyebrows raised. William sighed heavily, reached into his pants pocket, and took out his truck keys.
He handed them to Maddy. “I thought you might like to drive this evening,” he said, smiling tightly. “So I can concentrate on learning the road signs. I’ve been told there’s also a set of traffic lights in Oak Harbor.”
The knot in Maddy’s belly suddenly eased, and she all but skipped down the stairs to his shiny new, fire-engine red pickup truck. “Okay,” she said, climbing into the driver’s seat. “But it’s your job to watch for moose.”
William hated feeling out of his element. And Kenzie’s list of dating rules had confused him more than they helped. Why did this century have so many blasted rules?
In his homeland, when a man found a lass who was willing, they got straight to business. And if they both felt they’d had a good time, they continued on together until one or both of them found someone they fancied more. Permanent unions were political, not for love.
Love was a woman’s notion, anyway, invented to make her feel secure enough to have bairns. Whereas in this century, people got married and never had children, often staying together even though the woman was barren.
After explaining modern courtship, Kenzie had handed William a box of little packets. William had ripped open one of the packets, unrolled the little disk, and stared at the thin tube in confusion. When he realized what it was and exactly how he was supposed to use it, he’d started cursing.
Kenzie had walked out of the barn with a laughing warning that Eve would run William through with a sword if he knocked up her best friend.
Now William looked out the windshield, trying to remember the things Mabel had suggested he talk to Maddy about. “They’ve set the foundation for my house,” he said, grabbing the door handle when she brought the truck up to speed rather quickly.
“Already?” she asked. “So did you set it in the sheltered cove like Samuel suggested, or up on the bluff where Elbridge thought it should go?”
“I wished to place it far out on the point, where it would be surrounded by water on three sides, and every room would have a good view, but the men persuaded me that nor’easters would likely sweep it away. And they said it would cost a small fortune to heat, and that I’d constantly be washing the salt spray off the windows.”
“So where are you building it?”
“High up on the bluff where Elbridge suggested. Everyone seemed happy with the decision.”