How much can one woman take?
Heather Roth has little to look forward to. Her two sons, who have occupied most of her adult life, have grown and left her alone in the house in which she grew up. Her ex-husband, for whom she still has feelings despite his abusive nature, lives hundreds of miles away. And she’s being treated for Huntington’s, a disease that ravaged her mother, and for which she knows there is no cure.
Then the news she wasn’t expecting. Her father is being paroled from prison in Texas where he has been serving a sentence for the murder of his wife, Heather’s mother.
She’ll do anything to keep him out of her life, but when she is forced to take him into her home, she learns that the lives of her family weren’t what they seemed to be. A story of heartbreak and hope, Heather Girl, delivers compassion and love, even in the darkest hours.
March 27, 2018 at 8:22 am
You did a nice job with this. I know it’s not easy to condense your novel into a brief, compelling summary.
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March 27, 2018 at 8:27 am
thanks. you just gave me an idea. I should write another summary that will appeal to a wider audience.
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April 8, 2018 at 8:26 pm
You’ve piqued my interest. I’m glad to see you’ve got a novel in the works!
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April 8, 2018 at 9:02 pm
Almost finished.
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April 8, 2018 at 9:33 pm
How about you?
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April 9, 2018 at 10:21 pm
Nice! I’m glad to hear it’s coming along.
I’m currently writing an outline for a new novel. I entered my last novel in a revision contest that pairs writers with more experienced mentors (people who have agents or published novels), and I got picked! I revised like crazy for about three months, then got quite a few full and partial requests from agents… and not much has happened since then. But I learned a lot and made some friends! Onward and upward, right? 🙂
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April 9, 2018 at 10:24 pm
That sounds like good progress. Keep working.
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April 8, 2018 at 8:32 pm
I’m going to just have to ask this question, as it keeps nagging at me.
Would she not be notified that he was having a parole hearing? She definitely has an interest in knowing, I would think her notification would be required. Please tell me you researched it and his parole surprising her is legit
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April 8, 2018 at 9:01 pm
A few things enter into this particular situation. First, my research indicates that you have to register in order to be notified of parole hearings. Spoiler Alert! We learn late in the story that the judge essentially gave her father a life sentence with no chance of parole. Heather’s hatred of her father was so great that she wanted nothing else to do with him so she wouldn’t have registered to receive notice of a parole hearing that would not happen anyway. The parole her father ultimately receives is a “compassionate release” due to his advanced Alzheimer’s. Her brother, by contrast, has stayed in contact with her father during his entire sentence. So when he comes up for compassionate release, her brother agrees to take custody. So there is the plausible chain of events.
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April 8, 2018 at 9:08 pm
Besides, the “surprise” is a relatively minor point. If my US Attorney beta reader (Larry) tells me I’m off base and she would be notified by the parole board, it’s an easy adjustment that doesn’t really affect the arc of the story.
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