Dear Reader…
I’ve been asked to write a letter to you about my latest
book, Along Came Jones, and, as
usual, I don’t know what to say.
I could tell you how the book started life as approximately
four different stories and ended as something completely different from all of
them. That’s sometimes how my writing
works, especially since I don’t outline/plan a novel before I start. I could talk about the blissful way a first
draft comes together for me and how it feels like I’m bounding through a meadow
while strewing rose petals and rainbows all around, even when there are competing
tones and storylines in my head. I could
then start sobbing and eating ice cream while I tell you about the Editing Hell
I descended into while I tried to smooth the first draft into a coherent story.
I could then tell you this book is a love song, of sorts, to
my home province of Saskatchewan; to the endless prairies and the small-town
atmosphere that were my world when I was a child, and that would be true. It’s also a love song to the sweet romances
that still make me smile, albeit with a few more swear words and a more modern
take on it all.
I could also tell you that Along Came Jones is about love and loss and second chances; about
the value of friendship, the desire to help others, and the ability to accept
help. It’s about finding courage when
there seems none can be found; of holding on to hope even when hope seems lost. It’s about truly living the adage that ‘a
stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet’.
It’s about Lou and Ferrin, their friends and family, and the ways both
their lives change because they meet.
I could tell you all of those things…but the only thing I
truly want you to know is that Along Came
Jones is meant for you, Dear
Reader; to be fun and funny; entertaining; something that makes you feel it was
time well-spent with characters you like (or are supposed to hate). It’s meant to make you laugh and smile as you
while away the hours of a long summer afternoon or a long winter’s night.
I hope I was successful and that you enjoy it as much as I
enjoyed creating it (even the Editing Hell was kinda fun, to be honest…)
Love, Author
About the Author
Victoria Bernadine (a pseudonym) is, as the saying goes, a
"woman of a certain age". After twenty-something years of writer's
block, she began writing again in 2008.
Victoria enjoys reading all genres and
particularly loves writing romantic comedy and post-apocalyptic science
fiction. What those two have in common is anybody's guess.
She lives in Edmonton with her two cats (The Grunt and The
Runt). Along
Came Jones is the second novel she felt was good enough to be
released into the wild.
About the Book:
Benjamin
Ferrin Macon-Jones has it all: a luxurious lifestyle in Toronto and the love of an intelligent,
ambitious woman…until that same woman refuses his marriage proposal, tells him
he’s a detriment to her career, and leaves him. Unable to deal with his
cantankerous family trying to be supportive, he quietly slips away into the
Canadian countryside.
Lou Upjohn
has problems of her own. She’s a recluse and agoraphobic, staying safely within
the walls of her ancestral home in small town Saskatchewan and depending on Ike, her best and
only friend, to deal with the outside world. Only Ike’s just married another
woman and now he’s moving to Vancouver. Before he leaves, he hires the new
guy in town, Ferrin Jones, to run her errands and do her yard work. Lou isn’t
happy, but even she has to admit the stranger looks mildly interesting.
Both their
lives could be changed forever if she only has the courage to open the door.
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