#ReleaseDay and #GuestPost - "Burning Bridges" by Anne Krist

Writing Burning Bridges

Today, January 20, is the release day for my book Burning Bridges. I should say that it’s the second release day, since it was first revealed to the world in 2008. I recently received the rights back and decided—because I’ve always loved the book—to publish it as an indie. When people give advice on writing a book, they say to write the “book of your heart.” Well, Burning Bridges is that book for me.

I’d had the idea rattling around in my mind for a year or two. Never as a book—back then I didn’t think in terms of writing. It was just a story I played with. The original idea came from a news report I’d heard while visiting my mom in Virginia. A U.S. mail carrier decided one day that he didn’t feel like working so he went home, stored two bags of mail in his garden shed and took the day off. The mail wasn’t discovered until he died, many years later. The idea came to me that those bags of mail might have changed lives—who got into financial trouble because they didn’t receive a check, or who missed paying a bill, or…who didn’t receive a love letter they expected? Suddenly it formed in my mind. Vietnam and the war served as the reason for the letters, and betrayal took it from there. I’d fallen in love with Beaufort, South Carolina on a short visit, so I made it the setting. Still, it was all just a “story” because I wasn’t yet a writer.

When I did start writing, it wasn’t my first book, or even the second, third, or fourth. When I was stuck writing Passionate Destiny and needed a break from Civil War ghosts, I finally decided to try and get some of the mail down. This book of my heart started its life as a filler and a way to clear my mind so I could finish the book I was meaning to finish. Instead, I started writing and didn’t stop until I’d completed all 83K words. It took one scant month. Passionate Destiny took another eight months to finish!

I read through what I called the Beaufort book. I liked it. Hubby read it…and like me, cried at the end. I took that as a good sign! A friend edited it, and he proclaimed it good (several men have read Burning Bridges and liked it a lot). I needed all of that affirmation because I’d written the book so fast, I simply wasn’t sure of what I had. Isn’t it like that whenever we create something? We think it’s good. We want it to be good. And then because we love it so much, we need it to be good. But we don’t trust our own judgement, so it’s not really good until someone else says it is.

After all that, the book sat on my hard drive because the publisher I was with only worked with erotic romance. While Burning Bridges is a love story, it’s not erotic (thus the new pen name, Anne Krist). When I did find a publisher and sent Burning Bridges out for reviews, they were wonderful.

That was 11 years ago. Now, after all these years and with my rights returned, I’ve updated the story—which I’ve left in the time frame of 2005—and added a new cover. The funny thing is, I feel as nervous with this release as I did back then. I’m still hoping readers see Burning Bridges as I do. If you give it a try—through Kindle Unlimited or in paperback, please let me know!

Blurb:

Consider the role of strangers in our lives. An unknown postman in Virginia hides a bag of mail one day. His simple action set in motion untold consequences for many others—strangers—all over the country. How many bridges were burned in that forgotten mail pouch?

Sara Richards’s world is rocked when three love letters from 1970 are delivered decades late. The letters were written by Paul Steinert, a young sailor who took her innocence with whispered words of love and promises of forever before leaving for Vietnam. Sara is left behind, broken hearted and secretly pregnant, yearning for letters she never received.

Then Paul died.

Now, years later, she discovers the betrayal wasn’t Paul’s, when her mother confesses to a sin that changed their lives forever. How can Sara reveal to Paul’s parents that they have a granddaughter they’ve missed the chance to know? Even worse, how will she find the words to tell her daughter that she’s lived her life in the shadow of a lie?

Picking her way through the minefields of secrets, distrust, and betrayal, Sara finds that putting her life together again while crossing burning bridges will be the hardest thing she’s ever done.

Buy Link: mybook.to/BurningBridges

Excerpt:

Sara stared at the letters arranged before her in numerical order. The moment in time she and Paul shared was long ago, yet her dream had conjured his presence as though she’d just seen him. In her mind, his blue eyes darkened with passion before his lips captured hers, and he moaned his appreciation when their tongues met. She tasted his sweetness and knew the steel of his arms as he held her. How many nights had she put herself through hell reliving those memories? Too damn many.

After the concert, they’d met clandestinely on weekends, mostly at Sandbridge, where they could walk and talk undisturbed. With each meeting, stirrings built deep in Sara that pushed her to want more, but Paul insisted they restrain themselves because of her age. 

Then the weekend before he shipped out, she'd planned a surprise and her life changed forever. 

The kettle screeched, bringing her back to the present. Sara prepared a cup of tea and then picked up the envelope marked twenty-eight. At one time, she would have given her right arm to hold this letter. Now, curiosity and the desire for a brief escape drove her more than the passion of youth. Blind love had faded when she’d had no word to bolster her during the long weeks after the ship left.

First had come the waiting. No letters arrived, even though she wrote him daily. There were no phone calls, no notes, no anything, for days that dragged into weeks then crept into months.

Anticipation morphed into anxiety. She worried he was sick or hurt and unable to write.

One day she admitted that Paul must be afraid to write for some reason, and she feared what he would say if she did receive a letter. That their time together had been a mistake, that she was too young to be in love. That he really loved someone else and Sara had been only a stand-in while he was in Virginia. Perversely, she began to sigh with relief when she arrived home and found no word.

Now, knowing why she hadn’t received mail, what would she feel if she opened this letter and her old fears proved to be true?

“Nothing,” she murmured. “Paul’s dead. He can’t hurt me anymore.” At the very least, his letters might allow her to put his ghost to rest. For that reason alone, she had to read them.

She slid her thumb under the flap and ripped the envelope open. A single sheet held his hurried scrawl. 

Author Dee S. Knight, writing as Anne Krist:

A few years ago, Dee S. Knight began writing, making getting up in the morning fun. During the day, her characters killed people, fell in love, became drunk with power, or sober with responsibility. And they had sex, lots of sex.
After a while, Dee split her personality into thirds. She writes as Anne Krist for sweeter romances, and Jenna Stewart for ménage and shifter stories. All three of her personas are found on the Nomad Authors website. Also, once a month, look for Dee’s Charity Sunday blog posts, where your comment can support a selected charity. For now, Anne and Dee are sharing social media.

Website: https://nomadauthors.coml
Blog: http://nomadauthors.com/blog
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