Hi there! I’m Summer Thompson, and my author Allie Boniface was gracious enough to let me step into her shoes and talk about my story in this blog post.  Of course, I guess it’s really her story, since she came up with the idea, but I have the starring role, as well as all the angst, so I figure I can talk about it just as well as she can. Believe it or not, I’ve been around for about 10 or 11 years. Way back around the turn of the century, my author created me, along with that hunk of a handyman I eventually end up with, Damian Knight. She wrote this really cool story about how I come back to my hometown after a decade away, sent it off to a bunch of different publishing houses, and heard back from one of the biggest.

Well, we were thrilled, of course, and figured it was just a matter of time before I was immortalized in print.  Then reality hit. The editor loved the story. Pitched it to her boss. Waited. Told Allie again how much she loved the story.

And then we got The Letter of Rejection. We love the writing. We love the characters. And we love the idea of a woman coming back to her hometown…but we aren’t convinced that she had enough of a reason to stay away.

Enough of a reason? Heck, the love of my life had just broken my heart and my father was an alcoholic who didn’t want me around. Why on earth would I sacrifice a life in San Francisco to return to a tiny Adirondack town where exactly one friend waited for me?

Sigh. Allie was pretty disappointed. In fact, she put me and Damian away for almost 3 years, while she worked on other stories like One Night in Boston and Lost in Paradise.  Yeah, I was jealous, I’ll admit it. I wanted to be on the shelves on Borders! I wanted my excerpts to appear on review sites with 5 stars next to them! But I guess I didn’t blame her.

Finally, after she published 3 other books, she pulled out my story and dusted it off again (you know what? she never changed my title – Summer’s Song – and neither did the editors at Samhain. I think that’s pretty cool). She threw herself into revising my story, and before I knew it I had a lot more reason to stay away from Pine Point, including a younger brother who died in a terrible car accident and my own amnesia. Okay, I liked it. I even told her so.

It got better, though. My hero Damian originally settled in Pine Point with his mother and sister after his mom got divorced and his own heart was broken but good. Sounds like a good reason to build a new life, right? Well, before I knew it, Allie had given Damian another major problem of his own, namely an angry ex-husband who was tracking down the family. Oh, and did I mention that I inherited a rundown mansion with a rental house on it that Damian and his family were calling home – until I got there ready to sell it out from under them?

The more I watched Allie work on this story, the more excited I became. Finally she finished it and sent it off to her editor at Samhain Publishing. We both held our breaths. Then came the email…no, not the acceptance or the contract. More suggestions for change, having to do with both the kidnapping of Damian’s little sister and my own gradual realization of what happened the night my brother died.

Yikes. I never thought it could get any worse!

But she did it…she buckled down again and made the changes. Sent back the email. Waited. And then…finally! We had a home! The reading world was going to hear my story once and for all (okay, it’s Damian’s story too…he keeps looking over my shoulder and telling me not to forget him. Like I could forget a guy like that? Please).

Anyway, you can buy Summer’s Song today by visiting Samhain Publishing, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble – or if you’re a listener rather than a reader, wait until the audio book releases from Audio Lark in September!

I hope you enjoy the story…’cause Allie Boniface worked really, really hard on rewriting it, over and over again. And I’m partial to her, you know, since she created me and gave me a perfect ending that’s happily-ever-after. See you on the shelves!