Getting Ready for a Book Launch: My Latest Novel

I’m getting ready for the book launch of my latest novel.

Yes, I’ve finished it: my latest book, The Shade Under the Mango Tree.

I started it more than two years ago but, in the middle of writing it, my husband and I went through a crisis. He has had Parkinson’s disease for a few years and he suffered complications from it.

By year’s end, he gave up the fight.

For months after his loss, I couldn’t write. Couldn’t channel my grief into something creative. In fact, I couldn’t focus. I passed my days in disbelief, refusing to accept I’ve lost my soulmate.

Earlier this year, I resolved to focus on being a bit more productive. That meant getting back to books. Reading. Writing.

I had neglected not only my author site but my other two blogs where I posted book reviews or wrote morsels on art, travel, and food. I began writing blog posts again.

Eventually, I picked up the manuscript I was working on. It’s now in Edit mode. It has gone through developmental editing and four beta readers and will soon be copy edited. I’m getting a book cover designed for it. I’m already planning a book launch.
 
 

What is the book about?

Here’s a short blurb:

After two heartbreaking losses, Luna wants adventure. Something and somewhere very different from the affluent, sheltered home in California and Hawaii where she grew up. An adventure in which she can also make some difference. She ends up in place where she gets more than she bargained for.

Lucien, a worldly, well-traveled young architect, finds a stranger’s journal at a café. He has qualms and pangs of guilt about reading it. But they don’t stop him. His decision to go on reading changes his life.

Months later, Luna and Lucien meet at a bookstore where Luna works and which Lucien frequents. Still hurting from her losses, Luna finds solace in Lucien’s company and his tales of world travel.

Inspired by Lucien, she goes to Cambodia. What she goes through in one of its villages defies anything she could have imagined.

An epistolary tale of courage, resilience of the human spirit, and the bonds that bring diverse people together.

If anyone of you is interested in an advance reader copy (ARC) to review, please contact me.