A warm welcome to author Brooke Edwards joining us today. Brooke talks about her new release “When Fate Falls Short”, shares an exclusive excerpt and brought with her a giveaway!

Welcome Brooke 🙂

Many thanks for having me here with the release of “When Fate Falls Short” from Dreamspinner Press! I’m so grateful to all the blogs who have been involved in the release and am so excited to be here as my last guest post for this novella.

I wanted to talk about something different for my last post. I’ve already covered lots of the things that were involved in the writing of this novella so I had to dig a little deeper to come up with something new. I’m lucky enough to have a few wonderful friends who help me bring most of my ideas to life and “When Fate Falls Short” was no exception. I think that for all that there is normally only one name on the front cover of a book and that person gets the vast majority of the credit, there is usually a whole village who needs to be mentioned for different reasons. My village is a huge part of why this novella even made it to completion and submission and also in making sure I didn’t lose my mind during the wait for a response.

Sometimes stories come out all on their own and an author can manage it by themselves but sometimes there are stories that need to be dragged out or pieced together. For those stories, the extra hands always help. Collaboration is one of my favorite parts of writing. There are lots of parts of writing that are solitary, some more than others, but I find that I almost always reach a point where I need a second pair of eyes before I can go any further.

It can be as simple as having someone listen to you when you’re trying to figure out a coherent timeline, as complicated as someone reading your mess of a rough draft and telling you to scrap entire pages because you’ve gone entirely off the road with it, or anywhere in between. My village consists primarily of a cheerleader, a voice of reason and my brain twin. They each give me different things that are no more or less valuable than the others but sometimes circumstances demand more from one than the others. This particular story wouldn’t have made it to release without my voice of reason and my brain twin especially and I dedicated it accordingly. They kept me on track when I got bogged down in the emotion of it all and when I found myself completely lost and floundering in Sean’s grief, I was told in no uncertain terms to leave the story alone for a while before I ruined it.

Having someone who knows exactly what I’m trying to achieve without being swamped by all the little details helped get through all the stages of production that were completely new and a little overwhelming. They managed to fill all the gaps I left as well and rounded everything out until it all worked and it still seems a little unreal to know that it’s out there for everyone to buy right now! Support networks are what get us through in the toughest of times and are there to celebrate the best of times with us too, which played a huge part in this story as well. Sean lost the biggest part of his village and had to rely on the rest of it to get through the loss. Jesse’s village had to adapt and grow with him as his life changed after he got a new heart and a whole new chance at life too. Positive changes can be just as overwhelming as negative ones.

Tying this all together, we’re all part of someone’s village – I want to know what role it is that you play for those closest to you? For all that I have someone who fills that role for me, I find that I usually end up as the voice of reason for most of my friends and family. That, or the person who brings dessert. I can always be counted on for dessert!

I have a $5 DSP credit for one lucky winner, picked at random from the comments. Here’s an exclusive excerpt from “When Fate Falls Short” and be warned, it isn’t the fluffy childhood adventures from some of the other excerpts!

– Brooke

August 2015

It’s the twentieth anniversary of the day they first met when Nathan doesn’t come home from running errands, and Sean is in a panic. He’s over an hour late for dinner, and none of Sean’s five calls has been answered.

Sean is staring at the entryway expectantly, knees bouncing with anxiety, when his phone lights up and starts vibrating across the edge of the kitchen table. Sean lunges for it and sees the picture of Nathan, a candid snap with his eyes crinkled in laughter, flash on the screen. He’s filled with a strange combination of worry, anger, and relief all at once.

“Where are you?” he asks, a little garbled and strangled as he holds the phone to his ear. “Are you okay? Nate, it’s seven thirt—”

“I’m sorry, I’m not him!” an unfamiliar voice, shaky and female, rushes to say, and Sean’s words die in his throat. “You’re the emergency contact in this phone? I picked it up and checked. It’s not a name, it just says ‘Light of your damn life,’ so I assumed but I wasn’t sure, and I’m—” The woman breaks off suddenly and makes a garbled sound of her own. “Wow, I’m so sorry.”

Sean feels a heavy chill weigh him down suddenly. “What happened to Nathan?”

“There was an accident,” she says. “A couple of hours ago, I think? I’m sorry I couldn’t call earlier, but your—Nathan, you said? Nathan was crossing the road. A car hit him—”

Sean’s chest grows tight. “Where is he?”

“Cedars-Sinai. My name’s Katie. I was across the street when it happened. I called the ambulance and came to the hospital after them. I—he must have dropped his things. His phone. It’s kind of banged up. I grabbed it and realized I had the emergency information, so I came after them. Sorry I didn’t call right then, but everything happened really fast. It was—it was pretty bad.” She swallows audibly. “I’m here, but they won’t tell me anything so I can’t give you any news. I’m sorry, but you should come.”

“It’s okay.” Sean stands on unsteady legs, heavy and unbalanced with Katie’s words. He glances around for the keys. “I’m leaving now. Thank you. I’ll—I’ll see you there, okay?” He hangs up before Katie can say anything more.

He swipes the keys from the counter and leaves their dinner, cold and abandoned, on the table.

Blurb:

Childhood sweethearts Nathan Maxwell and Sean Adams took ten years to realize they belonged together, followed by ten years of bliss. When it is snatched away, Sean is left alone with the aftermath. Lost and grieving in a world that doesn’t make sense without Nathan by his side, he struggles to keep himself afloat… until he meets Jesse Lawrence.
The shadow of a congenital heart defect has hung over Jesse like a dark cloud all his life. Nathan’s death saves Jesse’s life—providing the heart Jesse needs to survive—and a chance encounter between their best friends plants Jesse in Sean’s orbit. But how well can a love triangle between a dead man, his grieving lover, and the one with his heart beating in his chest possibly turn out? Real feelings and pure intentions might not be enough.

Buy links:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon

Author, dreamer, fangirl and foodie – twenty-something Brooke Edwards will always call Australia home no matter where the wanderlust takes her. Her tertiary education bounced from history and linguistics to criminology and history and even went as far as nutrition and sports/exercise science. Making ends meet through a similarly wide variety of jobs from education, retail, fitness, hospitality and finance means she never has any shortage of inspiration for characters or their adventures. Writing, closely followed by the culinary arts, has been her longest-running and most consistent passion and her greatest dream would be to one day not have to do anything else but write. Until then, she can probably be found in a caffeine-induced haze either behind her computer or in the kitchen.

My social media links are:
www.brookeedwardsauthor.com
https://www.facebook.com/brooke.edwards.52459
http://twitter.com/bedwardswego