Sunspots
by Karen S. Bell
Contemporary Paranormal Time-Travel Romance/Romantic
Suspense
Categories: Comedy, Mystery/Thriller
Publisher: KSB Press
Release Date: December 12, 2012
Heat Level: Sensual
Word Count: 102,300
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Description
“One can never be, and should never be, smug about life,”
says Aurora Goldberg. An aspiring New York actress who has never realized her
dreams, Aurora keeps herself afloat by doing odd temp jobs where her rich
fantasy life helps her get through the day. Aurora sees the world through the
lens of characters in literature and film and these fictionalizations are woven
into her interpretation of reality.
On one of her temp assignments she meets Jake Stein, a man
who could “charm the skin off a snake” and she decides to follow her destiny as
his wife in Austin, Texas. But Jake's sudden death after two short years
disintegrates her world and Aurora must reevaluate her life and let go of a
love that has become an obsession.
With the help of friends, family, and the ghost of Viola
Parker (her home's original owner), Aurora accepts her fate and the secrets revealed
about Jake's true character. She realizes that in this life she will finally
break the cycle of pain caused by her love for this man, Jake Stein, through
the centuries.
Excerpt
My passion for acting surfaced as a young child when my
so-called natural talent flung itself into the world full-blown and raw. Not
wanting to attend pre-school one morning, I laid my arm over my head and
“pretended” that my head hurt as I had seen my mother do many times before.
That deceit uncovered a truth made known by philosophers of the ages, but of
which I was certainly unaware. Pretending to feel and to really feel do not
appear differently to the external world—if you do it right. Aside from being
great fun, the stage was an obvious platform to hone that skill.
As Celeste Abbott, my alter ego, I spent most of my time as
either a receptionist or data-entry clerk. It was not by choice, because I
dreamed of being sought after by the best directors and to work continuously
like Julia Roberts or Nicole Kidman or have a great stage career like Patti
Lupone.
I had several fits and starts on the roller-coaster ride of
acting that kept me hooked and on the payroll of two temp agencies where I had
accumulated so many hours that I was eligible for health benefits—a situation
that pleased my mother but underlined my failure to get into Actors’ Equity, or
make enough money that AFTRA or SAG allowed me into their health plans. My
first paying gig was a commercial with five other girls that shot all day on
location at the Jersey Shore.
“Okay, ladies,” said the director. “Try and pretend it’s not
40 degrees. Look like it’s summer. I know you’re quite cold in those shorts and
tee shirts, so let’s get this done quickly. Chase each other. Laugh. Throw the
ball. Have fun. Okay, good. You over there, go sit in the parked car.”
“Me?”
“Yes, but can you do anything about those blue lips?”
There it was. I was chosen to sit behind the wheel of a
convertible and gaze sexily into the camera for a tight close-up—the money
shot. I could taste the possibilities of fat residual checks or even
better—being discovered by some producer who thought my look “perfect for the
lead” in some mega-funded movie, but instead I caught a chill and high fever
that kept me out of temp work for a week. When the commercial aired, I realized
that the only close-up not on the cutting room floor was my foot sporting the
running shoe I had been wearing.
My optimism, however, could not be thwarted because my real
passion was Broadway and it was the dream that kept my juices flowing. My
closest encounter with a stage career had been a part I landed in an off-off
Broadway play downtown. Off-off Broadway is where any basement or falling down
hotel can be a theater and anything can be a play. But more importantly,
off-off Broadway meant there was no real money, so budgets were tight.
This gig was in the Meatpacking District in a storefront of
what looked like a condemned building. The windows of the store were blacked
out so that the streetlights wouldn’t interfere with the stage lighting. The
audience sat in folding chairs and the house could hold about 60 souls who
weren’t turned off by the lingering odor of the daytime businesses. The stage
was a wooden platform that was long and narrow and made moving about a bit
risky. I was chosen to play the “unnamed woman,” one of three characters. The
other two characters were her “unnamed lover” and “death.” More performance art
than a play, it had one act with one scene. As the unnamed woman, I wore a mask
and gold body paint (that covered my exposed skin and bright-pink bikini) and
sang two songs that had no set melody.
“Hey ho, hey ho. The setting sun sends swords of gold. Hey
ho, hey ho. The light. The light. Please light my love.” Or some such nonsense
was my opening number. My challenge was to improvise the music every night to a
drum that was my sole accompaniment. One night, I believe I crossed into
copyright infringement when this melody came very close to sounding like the
song for the seven dwarfs in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the
other song sounded like, The Sound of Music. I was paid a small amount of money
that included cleaning up the stage and backstage afterwards. Unfortunately,
the show closed after one week and ended my brush with stardom.
About the Author
Walking with Elephants was my first novel, although I am not
new to writing. I was a theater critic and celebrity interviewer for a weekly
tabloid in Jacksonville, Fl and I earned a Master’s in Mass Communication from
Oklahoma State University. For 15 years I worked in Corporate America as a
technical editor/editor/writer. I experienced first hand the politics and
intrigue that goes with that territory and the balancing act that comes with
being a working mother. I salute all those mothers who are the glue that holds
their families together while pursuing the nine to five brass ring. And that is
what inspired me to write that novel.
With my second novel, Sunspots, I continue to be in awe of
the magical and wondrous phenomenon called life. As an observer and obvious
participant in feminine values and approach to our human challenges, I bring
this perspective to my work. Fascinated by the mysteries of the unseen forces
that perhaps play a role in guiding our choices, I search for answers in the
mundane as well as in the cosmic forces that surround us.
Connect with Karen S. Bell
Email: karen.bell@yahoo.com
Twitter:
Review
Tahlia Newland Awesome Indies
“SUNSPOTS is a moving, beautifully-written mystery about the
devastating consequences of obsessive love.
Bell’s elegant prose not only describes the events and
scenery of this self destructive love story in riveting detail, but also
skilfully evokes the atmosphere both internal and external. The structure of
the story is very clever. At the beginning of the book, our empathy is aroused
for grieving widow Aurora Goldberg. It appears that she had the perfect
marriage to charming Jake, but as the story progresses, we and Aurora discover
Jake’s secrets, so shocking to her that she is forced to re-evaluate their
love. Through eyes opened by the truth—and helped along by the visions provided
by a ghost—she sees that all was not as rosy as she had believed. Not only
that, but the legacy he left her could be life-threatening.
Popular fiction tends to romanticise love where one looses
themselves in the other, or feels completed by the other, or feels they cannot
live or be happy without the other; Sunspots takes this kind of notion to its
extreme to show how disempowering an obsession with the object of our love
actually is. Obsession not only blinds you, it makes you weak, needy and
boring. Your partner is likely to turn elsewhere to get away from your
clinging, especially if you end up harping on at him that he never gives you
any attention anymore. It’s dangerous to let your whole life revolve around one
person, for when they leave you—by death as it is in this case—you are
devastated. As the book progresses we come to see how much Aurora has brought
her crippling grief upon herself. She literally looses herself in this
obsession.
Bell brings a metaphysical element to the story with the
addition of Viola Parker, the ghost of the sister of Aurora’s last incarnation.
With her help, Aurora sees that this pattern of obsessive love and betrayal by
Jake—in his previous incantations—has been repeated in past lifetimes that
ended with Aurora’s suicide. Viola urges her to take a different path in this
life and cut the cycle of self-destruction.
Bell deals with interesting themes here, that we tend to
repeat patterns until we make a conscious effort to change them, that the past can be changed by actions in
the present, and that when someone ‘saves’ us with love, in a healthy, balanced
relationship we also to some extent ‘save’ them.
Highly recommended to anyone who likes psychological depth
in their romance. I give it 5 stars and a place on the Awesome Indies list.”
Giveaway Info:
Prize is a Kindle (Mobi) copy of “Sunspots”. Contest is tour wide and ends Apr 30. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
Giveaway Info:
Prize is a Kindle (Mobi) copy of “Sunspots”. Contest is tour wide and ends Apr 30. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
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