Laurie Boris is our author of the day and she is giving away a signed print copy of “Sliding Past Vertical” in the US/Canada or an e-version for the rest of the world (enter via rafflecopter below!) and today she is a guest poster on Dandilyon Fluff:

laurie 2About Sliding Past Vertical

Sarah Cohen doesn’t mean to hurt anyone. But lately every decision this twenty-nine-year-old graphic artist makes ends in varying degrees of disaster. Fortunately for her, nursing home orderly Emerson McCann is always there to clean up the mess.

Years after their brief college romance, Emerson still longs for her, even though she moved to Boston and left him behind in Syracuse. Even though he can only dream about being with her, stuck in the friend zone and offering comfort as guy after guy breaks her heart.

When her latest fling lands Sarah in deep trouble, she runs to Emerson yet again, and he sets her up in his rooming house. But with her history, an innocent graduate student living down the hall, and Emerson ready to boil over, Sarah may be too close for everyone’s comfort. And Emerson’s dream may become a nightmare.

——

A little background behind the story

laurieSliding Past Vertical started as a creative exercise in a writing workshop. Our group leader asked us to return to a time in our lives where we made a critical decision. Except we, in the form of a character, were to take the opposite road. I wrote a scene about the consequences of my fictional choice—to stay in a broken relationship instead of having the courage to walk away.

The exercise rattled me emotionally, because the choice would have hurt a good friend of mine. I was so shaken that I wrote him an apology letter for something I hadn’t even done! (I never sent it, of course.) Eventually the scene grew its own legs and became a novel, where I had to let the main character make the “wrong” choice and deal with the fallout.

I have a lot of empathy for Sarah, my female lead, and her unfortunate tendency toward rash decisions. But Emerson is my favorite character in the story. He’s real, emotional, romantic, compassionate, loyal, smart, funny, and a little broken but still lovable. He started as an amalgam of a few guys I’d met, and I let him evolve into his own character.

I was careful to let him be who he was instead of the “perfect guy” because, really, who is? Although I hoped that he’d end up being a good, noble sort and not a jerk. He had a tough childhood, and I like when characters can rise above that and become good people.

I’m giving away one signed print copy in the US/Canada and an e-book if you live anywhere else. If you’d like to pick up a copy, the e-book will be on sale for $0.99 until June 15.

Thank you, and I’d love to hear from you!

Laurie’s Website/Blog: http://laurieboris.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/laurie.boris.author

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LaurieBoris

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4824645.Laurie_Boris

Amazon author’s page: http://www.amazon.com/author/laurieboris

Book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGSi3xKfpTY
a Rafflecopter giveaway

By Angela Yuriko Smith

Angela Yuriko Smith is a third-generation Ryukyuan-American, award-winning poet, author, and publisher with 20+ years in newspapers. Publisher of Space & Time magazine (est. 1966), two-time Bram Stoker Awards® Winner, and HWA Mentor of the Year, she shares Authortunities, a free weekly calendar of author opportunities at authortunities.substack.com.

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