Thanks for all the Submissions

Mega THANK YOUS to everyone who submitted stories for my upcoming (and final) widower relationship guide. I ended up with way more stories than I expected. Give me a week or two to sort through and figure out which ones will work best in the book. Hope to have this all over to my editor by the end of the month and the book available soon after. Look for more details in the weeks ahead and thanks again for all the stories!

Widower Stories Due Today!

This is the final call for stories from women who are or have been in a relationship with a widower for my final widower relationship book. I need any submissions by midnight tonight. If you haven’t sent yours in yet, you can email them to me here. If you need guidelines on what I’m looking for, you can find them here.

Thanks for your help with this important project.

Share Your Story

I’m in the midst of writing my final widower relationship guide. Tentatively titled Life with a Widower, the book will focus on the most common problems and issues not covered in my first two books. I’m hoping to have the book available before the end of the year.

And this is where I need your help.

My other two relationship books, Dating a Widower and Marrying a Widower have included wonderful stories from women who were dating or married to a widower. These stories have added insight to the chapter and helped countless others who are in a relationship with a widower. For this book I need stories from those who are or have been in a relationship with a widower. It doesn’t matter if you just dated a widower once or have been happily married to one for 30 years, if you have a story to share, send it in.

I’m looking for stories that can address the following situations:

  • How did the late wife’s Facebook page or other online memorials affect your relationship?

  • What happened when you gave your widower a second chance at the relationship?

  • How did get the strength and courage to end the relationship with a widower even though you were still in love with him?

  • If the widower told you about his sex life with the late wife, how did this impact your relationship?

  • How did memorial tattoos interfere with or enhance your relationship?

  • What are some ways you learned to better communicate with a widower?

  • How did you forgive a widower that dumped you, used you, or otherwise hurt you?

  • What did you widower do when friends and family kept trying to memorialize the late wife?

  • How did a long distance relationship with a widower work out?

  • Does your widower participate in annual events (like 5k runs) for the late wife or work in behalf of charities, foundations, or scholarships for the late wife? If yes, has that hindered or helped your relationship?

I’m looking for success stories as well as ones where things didn’t work out. Basically if you have a story that you think can help other girlfriends of widowers and wives of widowers with their current relationship I want to hear from you!

Please keep submissions between 250-750 words. You can submit more than one story but please send them in different emails. (This way I can organize them for quick reference.) Stories are due no later than Thursday, November 1, 2012. You can submit them by sending me an email here.

If your story is selected, you’ll receive a free copy of the new book as soon as it’s published. To protect your privacy, you can publish your story under a pen name if you wish.

Thanks for your help,

Abel

Worth Reading: Wool by Hugh Howey

Even  though I read a lot of books, it's not often I like them enough to recommend them on my blog. But when I do, I'm happy to let the world know about an awesome read.

Last week I finished a series of 5 short novels called Wool by Hugh Howey. It's the best science fiction I've read in years. Wool is about a society that lives in a giant underground silo because the outside world that can only get glimpses of is uninhabitable. The writing it stellar, the characters are real, and there's enough tension and mystery that kept me up night after night way past my bedtime. Howey has a way to draw you into his world that makes you feel like you're living in this underground world.

So if you like dystopian science fiction, I highly recommend giving Wool a shot. In fact I like it so much that four co-workers and Marathon Girl are currently reading it and all are all enjoying it. (It's all I talk about at work with some of the guys.)

If you have a Kindle and aren't sure if the book is for you, click here and download the free sample. That will take you a read of  Book 1 and partway into Book 2. And if you buy it, get the Omnibus edition which combines all the short novels and novellas into one giant book.

Happy reading!

5/5 starts for Wool by Hugh Howey.

Books in Progress

For those who have been asking or are curious about my upcoming books, here's the latest: Currently I have four books, two novels and two works of non-fiction, in various stages of development. You can see their progress (draft and word count) below. I'm hoping to have at least one of the non-fiction projects and possibly one of the novels done by the end of the year.  As I haven't settled on titles for any of them yet, they all have code names and a summary which you can find below. I'll be adding these to the sidebar of my website soon. In addition, keep your eyes open for a call for stories for one of the non-fiction projects in the next 30-45 days! White Whale (novel) | Draft 1

A mystery about a young boy's death on a remote Wyoming mountain.

Watcher (novel) | Draft 1

A thriller about a man who's figured out the secret to eternal life.

7 Hearts (non-fiction, relationship) | Draft 2

A relationship book that focuses on the 7 things that matter most in any romantic relationship.

Widower 3 (non-fiction, relationship) | Draft 2

My final book in the Widower series. This one will touch on topics not covered in Dating a Widower or Marrying a Widower that keep coming up in the inbox or discussion boards.

The Influence of Ray Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury was one of the few people I always wanted to meet but never got a chance to do so. Since he passed away yesterday at the age of 91, it appears that meeting might never happen.

I wasn’t exposed to Ray Bradbury until high school. My junior year the Honors English teacher assigned Fahrenheit 451 to the class. I read the first page and was hooked. At the end of the year the teacher asked the class to vote on their favorite book we had read that year. I was the only one to vote for Bradbury’s classic. The themes in Fahrenheit 451 were something that always stuck with me and that book was one of the major influences for my novel The Third.

That summer I read a lot of Ray Bradbury books and enjoyed every one of them. Despite the deep messages that were a part of many of his works, there was always an innocent quality to his worlds and characters and a call to adventure that made me feel like a kid on a grand adventure whenever I read his novels. (Sadly, I don’t think any of that simple innocence will ever come across in my fiction.)

One of the great things about being a writer is that so long as someone, somewhere is reading your books, you never really die. So even though Bradbury is no longer with us in person, part of him will continue to influence readers for generations to come.

Rest in peace, Ray. Though we never got to meet in this life, maybe we’ll get a chance to talk in the next.

Books FINALLY Arrive

My copies of Marrying a Widower finally arrived.

So if you pre-ordered a copy, contributed a story or were a beta reader, then your copy will be mailed first thing tomorrow.

All I can say is that it's finally nice to hold them.

Now Available: Marrying a Widower

Are you in a serious relationship with a widower? Are you considering tying the knot? Any lasting relationship takes a lot of work, but a successful marriage to a widower requires the ability for both of you to work through unique issues that most couples don’t face. Are you up to the challenge?

Drawing on a decade of experience as a remarried widower, Abel Keogh gives you unique insight into what it takes to make any long-term relationship with a widower successful, including:

  • How to make sure your marriage is new, exciting, and fresh instead of a rehash of the widower’s previous relationship.
  • Suggestions and tips for making sure both of you can talk about the late wife, his grief, and any other widower-related issues.
  • What role, if any, the late wife’s family should play in your relationship.
  • How to make the home feel like yours instead of theirs.
  • Ten real-life stories from women who are engaged or married to a widower.

Marrying a Widower will help you decide whether or not the widower you’re dating is prepared to make the ultimate commitment. More importantly, the book will walk you through many of the challenging circumstances that come with tying the knot and help you decide if taking this step is right for you.

Read Chapter 1

Paperback | Kindle | Nook | Smashwords | Personalized Copy

Marrying a Widower: Done

The writing and editing part of Marrying a Widower is done. The final manuscript has been sent to the designer for typesetting. I formatted it for the various eBook formats last night. Depending on how fast the typesetting goes the book could be available as early as next week. I'll post Chapter 1 on Wednesday. Until then I'm going to catch up on sleep and spend some time with Marathon Girl and the kiddies.

May 1 I start another writing project and the process starts all over again.