Another Character

My first romance novel was about Wanda, who had been very comfortable with her life before the readers meet her. She was very happily married, with a husband, Hank, who thoroughly supported her efforts to be a full-time author. Wanda wasn’t sure how much money Hank was making with his IT job, but he paid the bills without complaint, and he told her he was saving ‘as much as he could’ in case they ever had any emergencies. They had friends they got together with regularly and life was pleasant in their apartment in Chicago.

The reader meets her shortly after Hank has died in a traffic accident going to work in a blizzard. She is deep into grief, not just because Hank is dead, but because she knows she can’t pay the rent on their apartment on her own. She will have to move.

As she is going through Hank’s papers, wondering what she can get rid of, Wanda comes across a deed for a house in a tiny town in Nebraska. The house was an inheritance from Hank’s grandmother, given to Hank and somebody named Charles. Charles had apparently sold his half to Hank, or gifted it, but whatever, it looked like the house was entirely Hank’s. It seemed strange that Hank had never mentioned the house, but he didn’t talk much about where he grew up. Except happy memories of his childhood.

Wanda contacted a real estate agent in Nebraska who might be able to answer questions. The agent knew the village of Belgrade well and assured her that the house was in decent shape and fully furnished, although it was likely to be dusty, since it had been empty a couple of years.

So Wanda moved, without even seeing the house she was moving to. Or the town where she would be living. Not having rent or a mortgage to make payments on, she was confident she could make ends meet. She took herself from a place where she had been happy to a place where she was an outsider.

The first person she meets in Belgrade—a bartender at one of the two local bars—looks an awful lot like Hank. Besides fixing her some lunch, he makes phone calls on her behalf to get her utilities turned on.

It only takes a few days for Wanda to realize there are 3 men in Belgrade who look like brothers to Hank; Bob (the bartender), Charles (who had briefly owned ½ of the house she now owned), and Lyle, a drunk womanizer. Bob tries to make her feel welcome. Chuck seems too busy to run into her very often. She wants nothing to do with Lyle.

But this is a romance I’ve written, and it takes place in a very small community, where gossip is the normal method of entertainment for the residents. It isn’t long before people are wondering which of the town’s young men will catch Wanda’s eye. Even though Wanda is still grieving and trying to keep her distance from the men, in a town of less than 200 people, that doesn’t seem to be possible.

If I’ve piqued your curiosity, you can get an e-copy of Hank’s Widow at www.smashwords.com/books/view/1090836 Use the coupon code JN73Q when you check out to get it for half off.

And just to put a little icing on the cake, so to speak, you can also get “The Game”, a story that explains the relationship between Hank and his look-alikes. This short story is free at www.smashwords.com/books/view/1091675 .