My book True Gold is finally here! It’s been in the works a while, going through several rounds of edits, revisions, etc.
If you’ve read Redemption, you know the character Connor Forrest, who appears at the end after several glimpses throughout the book—he’s Claire’s boss, the mutual fund magnate (think Warren Buffet, only younger) who has just taken over Kaslow’s Department Store. I saw him as the male version of Claire: a quiet, contained, still-waters-run-deep kind of man. Very, very good at what he does, driven not to succeed but to prove something to himself—and his absent father. (Both he and Claire want nothing to do with their fathers, another similarity I just noticed.) He’s a perfectionist, a Spock-like lover of logic , and perfectly happy with his life, alone, wanting no interference.
Or so he thinks.
I was intrigued by the glimpses I caught of him in Redemption. I knew I wanted to write his story, figure out why he was so alone, why he was so driven, what could bring him out of his shell. What was he passionate about? What—or who—did he miss? What was under that business suit?
I needed someone who would totally upend his world. I needed his opposite as a counterweight. Even his opposite intellectually—someone whose skills were in an area completely alien to him. Fortunately, I am surrounded by smart women who excel at science and engineering and technology—a perfect foil for a financial genius. When I caught a glimpse of Rebecca Evans (and that’s really how characters come to me, as hazy glimpses in my mind) I knew she was the sort of woman who would break through his stiff demeanor and touch his heart. An animal lover, a dreamer, a wearer of vintage dresses—and a detangler of neural nets.
A woman who believes in fairy tales of frogs that turn into princes, and who refuses to settle for anything less than a true prince—and true love.
Rebecca and Connor don’t have an easy, breezy romance. Far from it—tragedy strikes, and Rebecca ends up raising her sister’s four-year-old twins. Her niece, Aubry, refuses to talk—a condition known as selective mutism. And Connor introduces Rebecca to a man who means more to him than anyone (I won’t add any more spoilers!).
Their story takes place in San Francisco, with side trips to Maui, Chicago, and New York. I don’t know much about any of those places, other than fleeting visits, so I enjoyed researching locations. I also loved the children—I’ll admit, the scenes with the twins were my favorite to write, but my editor axed about half their dialogue. They were starting to steal the show!
Here’s a tease of True Gold, and an introduction to Connor:
Connor Forrest wasn’t in the habit of picking up girls in the park—not literally, anyway. Of course, had he read his horoscope for the day he would have known the “outdoors offered opportunity for uplifting beginnings,” but Connor would no more have read his horoscope than he would traipse through Golden Gate Park barefoot.
In fact, none of his regular reading material—The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Financial Times—even featured a horoscope section, although some, including Connor, had compared their stock predictions to fortune telling.
Despite the fact he was only one generation removed from the emerald turf of his mother’s Ireland, Connor was a man who had forgotten he liked poetry, a man who had little time for introspection, a man who denied the existence of fairies, leprechauns, and true love. A piece of perfectly thought out logic, on the other hand, could make him weak in the knees.
I hope my readers grow to love Connor and Rebecca, and the twins Aubry and Alex, as much as I did.
To buy True Gold, check out these links:
It’s also available at most ebook distributors, and will soon be available in print.
Jen Gilroy
September 1, 2015 at 10:11 pm (9 years ago)Happy release day, Kathryn! ‘True Gold’ sounds like a wonderful read.