I posted all about my cover reveal in my previous post and then forgot to post the cover! 

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I found what I think is the perfect image for this. From the model to the background to the dog tags, it was perfect. Coming Home isn't a military romance as such, but the impact of the Hero having served is to come during the series. It was also a bit of a nod to my father, who died in March. He served 30 years in the New Zealand army in various capacities and the cause of his death was partially due to his service.

So a big thanks (again) to CJC photography and BT Urruela for taking the perfect photo in the perfect place. Part of the story involves an old garage, and in my head I pictured something like this:

I had this image of an old, maybe concrete building, the windows all boarded up. So the background was bang on as far as my imagination went. :D

This story is doing my head in a little. It's not like any of my Ariadne books and there are some quite dark moments in flashbacks. 

​I love it!

Yesterday, I shared my cover for my next book, Coming Home. This is something new for me. I'll be publishing under the name Wendy Smith (my real name), and this is a very different type of story.

My bigger vision for this series is that it's a series about a family who live in a small town. The town holds secrets, and so does the family. Each of the sons will have their own book, in which one of those secrets will be revealed.

The first book is about Adam and Lily. Adam is kind of the black sheep of the family. He and Lily fell in love as teenagers and were going to be married. Only, on their wedding day, Lily is nowhere to be found and the broken-hearted Adam is ushered out of town and goes to stay with friends of his parents, later joining the military.

The story is about his eventual return to town when he discovers his mother has cancer. Not everyone is happy to see him, and things aren't quite adding up.

This is different in that there are some flashback scenes that are quite dark. Otherwise, it's a second chance romance, and I adore those. 

I'm looking forward to sharing. :D

When I wrote In a Lifetime, the scene I pictured to kickstart it was the first chapter.  Guy spots girl  that he'd really like to know at party. He's a nice guy so when someone needs help he sets that aside to get them home, only to return to his best friend and said girl getting to know each other in an intimate way. 

That was it. I didn't know where it was going, or what a ride I'd end up on writing it.

I don't know why infertility became the thing that put strain on Ella and Sam's marriage. Perhaps because there seems to be so many people out there struggling and trying their best to work through it. Including close friends of mine.

I never thought of myself as lucky. My own pregnancies were straight forward, even when I was diagnosed while pregnant with my first child with PCOS. If anything it made me more aware of what was going on around me, seeing friends and family struggle to get pregnant, go through IVF, try to get in to IVF, go through multiple miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. And that was just among people I knew.

So, Ella struggled with infertility, and after I published the book I became aware that someone very close to me was going through the same thing. I had no idea. It's not a thing that gets talked about a lot. For this reason, the book became even more personal to me and when it came to Vanessa's book, I wanted to try to retain some sameness even if the story was different.

In a Heartbeat is about Vanessa suffering a miscarriage and how she deals (or doesn't deal) with it. It's reasonably early in the pregnancy, but it has lasting effects on her and impacts everything else in her life. Including her happy relationship with Connor. Where Ella was open and emotional about her fertility issues, Vanessa keeps everything close to her chest. The sisters have so much in common, but are so different. Their close relationship really shines through in his book.

Of all the books I've written, this series has become the most precious to me. I think because the situations depicted are so real and human. All I can hope is that I did Vanessa's story justice because I love her so much. 

I can't wait to share it. :)