Good morning, campers!

It's almost July, which means it's almost time for my writing colleagues and I to escape to a safe place for a few days to flex some creative muscles in a relaxed environment.  Camp NaNoWriMo (a writing event sponsored by the Office of Lights and Letters) is a fun way to get a story on paper, edits be damned (for the moment).  And it's just around the corner.

My camp project finds me working on a redo of sorts.  My first novel, Broken Together, was written at a pretty dark time in my life.  While I love the characters I created there, I've had several years to distance myself from the premise of the story and looking back, I can see I had it all wrong.  Oh the times I've sighed and said what I didn't know then...

As a young writer, I didn't know how to right the ship so I did what we all do at times, I jumped and let it sink, which is to say I abandoned my first series before I completed the third and final novel.  And you know what?  I've thought about those characters and their stories nearly every day since. 

Six years (and a boatload of experience later), I can't help but feel the time is right to step back and revisit the words on the page.  By the end of July I should have a new story well in hand.  And I won't be kicking myself for not doing the hard work of crafting a better story.

All that said, here's a sneak into my 2016 camp project--Twelve Corners...

It's not about a paycheck...

After Bryn Baxter’s world is nearly destroyed by a mortar attack while on assignment in the middle of the Afghan war, she finds herself in the grip of a soul-crushing depression so encompassing, most days it’s all she can do to leave the safety of her bedroom.  She’s shut out her friends and family, determined she can make it own her own.  But as loneliness sets in, the voices in her head don’t offer the wisest counsel. 

Desperate for anything to fill the void that’s taken up residence where her life used to live, it doesn’t take Bryn long to find comfort in the words of the men she meets online.  Unable to sleep and scared of the dark, Bryn seeks solace from the soft glow brought to her through a few strands of fiber optic cable.

It's about building a life...

Beck Reynolds would rather eat dirt than help another “lost soul,” especially the daughter of a friend.  He isn’t a therapist and he doesn’t have a degree in any of the ‘ologys.  Heck, he can barely manage to get the lid on the seat down most days. So he survived being shot by a madman intent on revenge and knows about unexpected life change firsthand.  Big deal. 

Still, when Beck reluctantly decides to help his buddy’s daughter find some inner peace, he never dreams he’ll be ignored.  Come to think of it, the woman he’s decided to help hasn’t said a word to him for nearly a month. 

As Beck tries to lift Bryn out of the shadows, she thwarts his every effort.  While his heart breaks for her on one hand, he has to admit there’s a part of him that wants to wring her neck.  Determined to end Bryn’s pitiful attempts at playing cat and mouse, Beck devises a game of his own, forcing Bryn from behind the screen and out into the open.   Every part of Beck is now focused on saving this wreck of a woman.  Question is, can he save her from herself?