Synopsis:
High-profile divorce? Check.
Time away to heal? Check. Six months.
Distance from her celebrity ex Michael Day? Almost.
After ending the relationship that defined her, Tina is desperate to get her life back. But, a sexy bartender who happens to be ten years her junior might not be the best way to do that.
Shaking off the pain of the past, Tina decides the old rules no longer apply. For the first time in a very long time, Tina is free to do what she wants with whomever she wants. And Tina wants Josh.
Tina's first fling after her divorce has the potential to be something more, if only Josh wasn't a struggling musician.
She watched Michael's career soar beyond his wildest dreams, only to get swallowed up by the fame and fortune that came with it. In the end, Tina was left with a broken marriage, a broken heart, and a custody agreement.
Tina wants to focus on herself, to finally find a place in the world that doesn't come from marrying a celebrity. But if she ends this thing with Josh and focuses on a career, she might lose her one shot at happiness.
AFTER THE FALL is Abby Cavenaugh's second novel and a follow-up to her bestselling GOING HOME AGAIN.
by Abby Cavenaugh
"Write what you know." For whatever reason, those four words from my creative writing professor at Peace College many moons ago have stuck with me.
At the time, a young college student, I thought, "But I don't know anything yet! What am I supposed to write about?" Then, it dawned on me. And I wrote from experiences I'd had, of course embellishing to make them more interesting, as we all do. Those first few stories were not great, as you might imagine. I wrote an embellished story about a guy I'd met at the Army base, Fort Bragg. I wrote about my favorite New Kid on the Block.
This general idea of writing what you know (and my favorite New Kid) is what ultimately led me to the idea for my first novel, GOING HOME AGAIN, which was published in 2013 by Swoon Romance.
I spent my teenage years (ages 13-20, for the most part) pining away for Jordan Knight. Never got to meet him back then. Fast-forward nearly 20 years, and everything changes. I'm in my early 30s and New Kids are back, and now I'm seeing them in concert with my own money, with the same friends I last saw them with in 1991. Everything has changed. Jordan is married, I've been married and divorced, we're all older and wiser, but, when Jordan and the other New Kids meet up with fans in the parking garage under the arena, we're all teenagers again. It all goes nuts in a few seconds, fans screaming, running toward the guys. Somehow in the crowd, I find Jordan, and after never knowing I was alive in the 1990s, he says, "hey!" and gives me a big hug before his bodyguard leads him away.
It wasn't much, but it was enough to get my writer's mind going. Most story ideas begin with "What ifs?" at least in my case. I started thinking, "Wow, Jordan actually knows I'm alive! Or, he did for a few seconds anyway. ... What if, in another life or something, I actually had a chance with this guy I spent my teenage years lusting after?" From there, GOING HOME AGAIN was born.
I tell the story of GOING HOME AGAIN now because the follow-up, AFTER THE FALL, is a continuation of the same story, but from a completely different point-of-view. In GHA, Michael Day is the object of Alyssa's high school affections. Like Jordan, he never knew she existed back then. But, 20 years later, Alyssa's a journalist who gets a chance to interview former world-famous pop singer, Michael. Their romance blossoms from there, complicated by the fact that Michael is still married and has a son.
AFTER THE FALL is the story of Michael's wife, Tina, and how she deals with losing the only man she's ever loved, and picks up the pieces of her life, only to discover her own unexpected romance. Along the way, she deals with feelings of inadequacy when compared to Michael and Alyssa, who are able to have fun with Sam while she has to be the full-time parent. She wonders what to do with her life, now that she's no longer a “real housewife.” Should she get a job? Should she volunteer? Get her own reality series? She has no clue.
And then there's Josh, the sexy bartender she meets by chance, who just might turn her entire life upside-down. Tina's wary of making the same mistakes with Josh that she made with Michael.
Tina's story is not exactly "writing what I know," like my professor said. I've never been married to a world-famous star, I've never even had a child, and I definitely don't have the sort of lifestyle a marriage to Michael Day affords. But I do know the pain of being cheated on. I know the pain of a marriage ending. And I know the wonders of finding a new love, when you didn't even know you had the capacity to care for anyone again.
If you're a writer, I still urge you to write what you know. Just embellish on it a little. And if you're merely a person who enjoys books, I hope you'll be able to put yourself in Tina's position, and feel what she's feeling. That's what every author hopes for, after all.
Happy reading!
Abby Cavenaugh is a writer of romantic women's fiction. She is a newspaper editor by day, but dreams of someday retiring to the North Carolina coast to write books full-time. She lives near Charlotte with her twin sister, also a writer, eight-year-old niece, three cats and a crazy puppy. She is driven by dreams and chocolate.
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