Virgin No More: Donnell Ann Bell!

Welcome again to the Virgins’ Blogs:  Today’s guest is Donnell Ann Bell!

Donnell Ann Bell

Donnell is a lovely lady from Colorado whose debut romantic suspense is THE PAST CAME HUNTING.  This book had already garnered attention before it was even published:  in 2007, under the working title, WALK AWAY JOE, it was named a Contemporary Single Title Finalist in the prestigious RWA Golden Heart Awards.  Her second book, currently titled DEADLY RECALL, is due out in late 2012, and was a finalist in the 2010 Romantic Suspense category of the RWA Golden Heart Awards.  You see a pattern here?  The lady can write.  Check out this summary of THE PAST CAME HUNTING and you’ll see…

 

The Past Came Hunting

Fifteen years ago a young Colorado Springs police officer arrested a teen runaway accused of aiding a convenience store robbery and attempted murder.  She was innocent, but still served prison time briefly.  Her testimony sent the real thief to jail for much longer.  Now she’s a young widow raising a son, and the man she put in prison is free and seeking revenge.  She moves to a home in a new neighborhood—then learns that her next-door neighbor is the by-the-book officer who arrested her.  Now he’s a Colorado Springs P.D. Lieutenant.  Like it or not, he may be the only one who can protect her and her son from the past he helped create.

Doesn’t that sound like a suspenseful read?  It is.  I couldn’t put it down and highly recommend it.

So read on about how coincidences can alter your life, then leave a comment, and you’ll be entered in the drawing for a copy of THE PAST CAME HUNTING (either in print or digital—winner’s choice).   And for more information about Donnell and her books, drop by her website at www.donnellannbell.com.

And now…Take it away, Donnell!

—————————————————————————————————————

Conflict or Coincidence:  I had to Choose

If you’ve been writing as long as I have, chances are you’ve received your share of rejections.  There are myriad reasons a book is rejected– Pacing’s off, too much backstory, failure to hone one’s craft, the story doesn’t resonate with the editor or agent, lack of conflict, the story feels contrived, it’s cloudy, the agent doesn’t care for her new haircut. . .

In my case, however, my book was rejected because the agent or editor couldn’t buy a coincidence.  Which for me was a little hard to accept because I’ve been the recipient of coincidence my entire life.

When I was in grade school, my mother took my little sister, my friend and me to the movies.  Charlene and I coerced my mom into letting us watch the show from the balcony, and eventually Mom relented.  Excited, my schoolmate and I gathered our popcorn and soda, scrambled  up to the second floor like the big kids, and while tugging off my coat, I knocked my soda off the railing.  On the way home, my sister cried that some idiot above her had drenched her with a drink.  Oops.

In fourth grade I had my appendix removed.  A nurse entered my room and said that a boy around my age had been severely burnt in a fire.  The nurse wondered if I might be willing to spend some time with him.  I agreed.  Turns out, I dated that boy my sophomore year in high school.  At a dance I  put my arms around him and felt the scars through his shirt.  He explained he’d been in a fire as a boy.  When I asked how it happened, we were both amazed as we remembered our talks in the hospital.

Last February when my husband and I went to Key West, my cousin ad her significant other gave us a tour of the island.  After she took us back to our bungalow, she said, “You’re staying here?”  Worried we were staying in a disreputable place, I replied, “So far.  Why?  What’s wrong?”  “Nothing,” she replied.  “It’s just that this is the same bungalow your mother stayed in with your brother when your dad shipped off to Okinawa 55 years earlier.

My future daughter in law and I were born in the same hospital in Lubbock, Texas.  She lives in Fort Worth, I live in Colorado Springs.  An innocent conversation about where we were born confirmed we were both born at St. Mary’s Hospital.  I ask you:  What are the odds?

Last but not least, the coincidence that hit me the hardest was learning that my dad passed away on the same day as his father, sixty-one years apart.  That is an incredible, emotional coincidence I  find myself thinking about every June 29^th .

As you can see, I’m no stranger to coincidence, which brings me to the focus of this article.  During my stint at the Citizen’s Academy, I asked some deputies what’s the worst thing that could happen during the course of their career?  Without hesitation, one deputy answered, If an ex-con moved next door to me.

I’d been plotting THE PAST CAME HUNTING for some time by then, and that comment provided the ideal solution for me.  I needed a conflict for my protagonists, one an ex-con, the other a police lieutenant.  I heaped on additional conflict by adding their teenage boys to the scenario and making them inseparable.  Contrived?  Maybe.  But I think I made it work.  Further, if I would have moved Melanie down the street or into a different neighborhood, I would have lessened the conflict, and it wouldn’t have been the same story.

Conflict or Coincidence, I simply had to choose.  For me, it made sense to pick the latter.

Have any coincidences altered your life for the better or worse?  Leave a comment and maybe win a copy of THE PAST CAME HUNTING.  Good luck!

THIS JUST IN:  KOBO Books is promoting THE PAST CAME HUNTING in its Great Reads for under $4.99. http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Past-Came-Hunting/book-bAE7VJ2fa0mouqeVy6gpIg/page1.html   And now Amazon Kindle has matched it.  Check it out!

 

Advertisement