This is my latest series of books. The second book in the series,
A LOVE TO CALL MINE, is currently on sale for 99 cents. Be sure to get a copy while it is on sale. You can find buy links for the different online retailers by clicking
here.
Here is a short excerpt from the book.
“Do I have a
terrible disease?” The words tumbled from Max Reynolds’s mouth as he sat alone
in the exam room and stared at the pale-yellow walls. Even the supposedly
cheerful color failed to cheer him today. Instead, the hue sent up a caution
signal. What would the doctor have to say?
Bad news?
It had to be
bad, or the office coordinator wouldn’t have called him to come in immediately
after the doctor received the results of Max’s recent medical tests.
For months
he’d been dealing with a series of maladies, including rashes, night sweats,
and a cough. All previous appointments with doctors had resulted in a diagnosis
followed by a prescription that cleared up each problem temporarily. He hadn’t
been concerned until he’d unexpectedly lost ten pounds in the last two months
and a painful cough had reoccurred.
This time—no
prescription, only tests followed by an urgent phone call. He took a deep
breath, then let it out in a harsh rush of air. He hated the uncertainty. He
hated the vulnerability. Most of all, he hated the waiting. Why were they making
him wait when they had insisted he come in right away?
Maybe he
should leave. He’d been to enough doctors—doctors who had done little for him.
Why should this doctor be any different? Max stood, but as he took a step, he
heard a muffled conversation outside the door. He returned to his seat as the
doctor walked into the room, a stethoscope dangling around his neck.
Dr. Vargas
immediately pulled up a chair and sat facing Max. “I have bad news. Your test
results show that you have lymphoma. Hodgkin lymphoma.”
The word
lymphoma sliced through Max’s mind. He couldn’t speak while a sinking sensation
filled his gut. He swallowed hard.
Cancer.
How could he
have cancer? At twenty-seven, he was too young…but that wasn’t true. Cancer was
no respecter of age. He’d spent the last four years working in labs and looking
at other people’s cancer cells through a microscope—people of all ages and
occupations. Cancer could change a person’s life in an instant.
His moment had
come.
When I first wrote a proposal for this story, Max, the hero, did not have cancer, but he was searching for his father's family. When I talked to my editor at the time, she thought it would be a good idea for Max to be the character with cancer because Heather, the heroine, is an oncology nurse. I questioned whether the story would work when the main character has cancer, but my editor insisted that it would. So I rewrote the proposal and sent it to my editor. What did I get back? A rejection, saying that the story just wouldn't work with the hero having cancer.
So I set this story aside and worked on another series. After I finished that series, I decided to come back to this story because Max was a minor character in several of my earlier books, and I wanted to tell his story. Even though I was skeptical at first about giving him cancer, I decided to give that storyline a chance. I loved writing this book, and I hope you'll take a journey with Max as he battles, not only, cancer but a lot of self-doubt.
Has there ever been a time when you decided to forge ahead with something even though you weren't sure it would work?
Merrillee Whren is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award presented by Romance Writers of American. She is married to her own personal hero, her husband of forty-plus years, and has two grown daughters. Connect with her on her Facebook page and sign up for her newsletter.
Have you signed up for the
