This year is also the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. My hero, Seth, was a witness to the terrible events of that war as an ambulance driver. Sara discovers his letters home in a trunk hidden in the attic of the island house she's renting.
Along with the excerpts, I'll be sharing some photographs that inspired me as I was writing the novel.
Along with the excerpts, I'll be sharing some photographs that inspired me as I was writing the novel.
Today's excerpt comes from when Sara begins snooping around in the attic:
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There were more boxes to be opened. Sara refolded the paper and laid it back in the box. The one behind it held books. She took out the first book and groaned.
It couldn‘t be . . . She opened it to the copyright page. “Oh, my God in Heaven!”
She was holding a treasure. This was Seth Fortner’s first book, A Reluctant Farewell, of which few copies had been printed and even fewer survived. Sara had only seen pictures of it.
Horrible temptation swept through her, along with a wave of intense book lust. She wanted this book. Badly. She wanted to sneak it out of this box and take it downstairs to add to her Fortner collection, and no one would be the wiser.
She sighed and set it down. She couldn’t do that. It was wrong, on so many levels. Ginny had been good to her and Sara wouldn’t repay her by stealing her family treasures. She should tell Ginny the book was here, just in case she didn’t know. This sort of treasure shouldn’t be stuffed in a box in a hot attic. But then she’d have to confess to snooping and that would be terribly embarrassing.
There were two other Fortner books tucked inside along with a pile of forgettable fiction by other authors of the same time period. They were more common, less valuable. Sara had one of them, herself. She opened the cover of The Precipice, his most famous work and found an inscription inside in sharp, angular handwriting she recognized: To Marcella, my love, my everything. Seth.
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Photo by Lin Kristensen
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How sweet. Sara felt tears sting her eyes. She tried to remember what had happened to Marcella, but couldn’t recall. Most of his biographers tended to skim over the subject of his wife. Maybe Marcella had been a boring subject for the biographers, but it seemed Seth had loved her deeply. The more Sara thought about it, the more she became convinced the heart carved on the tree with the initials S + M had been carved by him. Sara traced his inscription with her finger. Seth had held this book in his hands at one time, right where her hands lay now. She couldn’t shake the feeling of awe.
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About the book:
Newly single, unemployed, and with her savings dwindling to an all-time low, Sara thinks things are finally looking up when she lands a job ghostwriting a popular politician’s biography, and rents the affordable island home of her favorite author, Seth Fortner, who mysteriously disappeared in 1925. Strange things begin to happen as objects break, go missing, and terrifying visions appear, making Sara wonder if Seth ever left, or if she is slowly losing her mind.
She gets no answers from his family who closely guards the secret of his disappearance. Through an old trunk of letters Sara discovers in the attic of her seaside cottage, Sara unravels the mystery and becomes caught up in a tale of greed, lost love, and the horrors of WWI. Will she be the one to break the “Fortner Curse” by helping Seth conquer his demons, and heal both of their hearts in the process?
Available from:
TWCS
Abe Books
Powell's
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