Out of the Blue: A Novel – Meet Sylvia's Mother

OUT OF THE BLUE is about Sylvia Gardner, a naïve cashier who lives with her mother in Richport, Illinois. Upset with being dumped by her first boyfriend; she falls in love with Alexander Thorpe, an English actor after watching him on a PBS drama.

In this flashback scene we learn more about Sylvia's upbringing.

Her mother would’ve disliked Alexander, even though he was a well-known actor. She would have referred to him as a dissipated old lecher for he was a man. An older man. And of course since he was a man, he wanted to get his rocks off. Vivian feared her daughter would wind up as unhappy as she had been once she got married.

After all, her mother had married an older man—Fred Gardner was almost a dozen years older than Vivian. But after the divorce and the move into the apartment complex, Sylvia found a small beige photo album when moving boxes in the garage. She sat down on a lawn chair and opened it up. A smiling Vivian looked at the camera. It was taken from the waist up and she recognized the canary yellow polyester minidress that her mother had bought back in 1969. It was always worn with white vinyl go go boots. Her dark hair was center parted and hung in loose curls just past her narrow shoulders. Her mom looked a lot younger in that picture. She turned the page and saw a bearded man standing next to Vivian. His long hair was thick and curly. A folded red bandana was wrapped around his head. Who was that man?

If you'd like to read more, OUT OF THE BLUE is available at the following online bookstores:

Paperback: Out of the Blue
Paperback UK: Out of the Blue

Amazon Kindle: Out of the Blue
Amazon Kindle UK: Out of the Blue

B&N [Nook]: Out of the Blue

Smashwords: Out of the Blue
Kobo: Out of the Blue

Out of the Blue ~ A Coming of Age Book

Out of the Blue is the second novel I ever wrote and finished. I was in the midst of working on Leaving Nadir, when the Olympics distracted me. So what does that have to do with writing? Seeing so much about the U.K. reminded me of the manuscript I'd been working on since the 1990s. It went from being on DOS to making the transition to Word for Windows to a 98,000-word contemporary romance in 2002 and to further revisions and a new title in 2008. So it was sitting on my hard drive as a future book file, which I'd work on whenever. Only whenever happened to be the summer of 2012.

What's it about? As you can see it has a tagline: A story of two drifters who have no clue about what they are searching for... and it takes place during the 1980s and mostly in a small, scenic village in the U.K. You'll find no mention of cell phones, Prince Harry, i-anything, 9-11…back then people actually smoked in pubs and ashtrays were even provided.

OK, without any more of an intro, here's the blurb:

Sylvia Gardner is a naïve cashier who lives with her psychologically abusive mother in Richport, Illinois. Vivian Gardner repeatedly tells her daughter not to trust men because they only want to use her. Upset with being dumped by her first boyfriend; Sylvia later falls in love with an English actor after watching him on a PBS drama. For two years, she researches Alexander Thorpe's life and career, saving her money to travel to his Cotswolds village, intent on meeting him. Staying in the village's only inn, she gets room and board in exchange for working at the Windrush Arms Hotel.

Alexander is going through a personal career crisis, as he wants to continue making art films. He still hasn’t embraced the notion of “going Hollywood.” Additionally, the walls of loneliness and booze are closing in due to a long stint between acting gigs.

Complications ensue when the drunken hotelier, Harry Livingstone, takes a fancy to Sylvia. As in her fantasies, Sylvia and Alexander get together—but with unexpected results. 

OUT OF THE BLUE is available on Amazon, B&N Nook, Smashwords and Kobo.

On December 4th, Out of the Blue will be available as a paperback!