Blog Tour, Guest Blog & Contest: Kristen Bearisto’s Going After the Heart

Fun Tidbits

Thanks so much for having me!!

At the moment, I’m in the process of editing my next release. It’s a novella, something new for me and I’ve been slashing and condensing left and right. The other day it struck me how many things can change during the editing process.

So I thought it would be fun to share some of the things that changed through the process of writing and editing Going After the Heart. Then if you read it, you can let me know if you like the changes. 🙂

• Originally, along with the main love story of Lizzy and Gavin, the heroine and hero, there was going to be a small side story where Gavin’s father falls in love. I decided to scrap it after I met one of Gavin’s brothers. 🙂
• Lizzy and Gavin’s daughter’s name started out being Elizabeth, after her mother, but I changed it to Sky as a nod to my older daughter, Skylar, and the inspiration for the story. Going After the Heart is loosely based on a bad dream I had about my husband and I in the future.
• When I first wrote out notes for the story, the book was going to start with the fight where Gavin walks out. (No, I’m not giving anything away. You find out about it right in the first chapter. 🙂 ) But I decided the actual fight didn’t matter since it had been a build up over time that makes Gavin decide to leave.
• Lizzy started out as a blond, but then I realized the heroines in my last two books were also blond. When the realization hit, I closed my eyes and started to think about all the things that made up Lizzy Bergstrum and discovered she really had black hair in a pixie cut.

Do you ever wonder what the early drafts of your favorite books looked like? Ever wonder what kind of scenes or details got cut out?


Title: Going After the Heart by Kristen Bearisto
Publisher: Self/Indie
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Length: 234 pages

Summary:

Lizzy Bergstrum thought she finally reached a point in her life when she could honestly say she had it all. A thriving writing career. A wonderful daughter. And a marriage to the love of her life. But looks can apparently be deceiving because her husband just walked out on her and their eight year old daughter hates her.

Gavin Bergstrum can’t handle the direction his life has taken. Not only did he get laid off from his job, but his wife seems to barely remember he exists. Convinced he’s tried his best to change things, he begins to wrestle with the possibility of divorce. But he can’t think straight in the same house as Lizzy. Hating to leave his daughter, but needing time to think and come to terms with what he feels he needs to do, Gavin decides to return to his small home town in Oregon and stay at his family ranch with his father and brothers.

In shock, Lizzy gives Gavin his space. But as time passes and he doesn’t say a word about their marriage, Lizzy decides it’s past time she takes matters into her own hands. Without a word, she follows Gavin to Oregon.

Now facing a daughter who blames her for everything, an irritated husband, and a small town that feeds on the drama, Lizzy finds herself trying to figure out how to convince Gavin to give her another chance, teach her daughter it takes two to make a successful marriage, and overcome her own insecurities – all without compromising who she is.

Warnings: This title is intended for readers over the age of 18 as it contains adult sexual situations and/or adult language, and may be considered offensive to some readers.

Purchase Links: Amazon * B&N * Kobo * CreateSpace * Smashwords


Excerpt

He could kill her.

At this exact moment, Gavin Bergstrum could easily reach out and gladly kill his wife of ten years. Well, almost ten years, in another two months anyway.

If she lived that long.

Gavin watched as the woman—who may or may not survive the next two months to be his spouse of ten years—pulled her Cadillac Escalade to a stop a few yards in front of him in the wide open dirt area serving as the driveway of his father’s ranch. She climbed out of the driver’s side door of the big vehicle as though she belonged there, as though there weren’t a wall of issues between them.

Despite the dark trendy shades covering what he knew were deep violet almond shaped eyes, Gavin felt the heat being aimed his way and felt a morbid satisfaction in the fact she clearly wished violence on him at the moment too.

Well, at least they still had something in common.


Author Bio:

In between her to-be-read pile and trying to bring the characters in her head alive, Kristen spends as much time as she can with family and friends. Much to her husband’s dismay, she enjoys collecting purses, shoes, and jewelry. During those rare times she’s not working at her day job, rushing her daughters somewhere, watching movies with her husband, and trying to meet a deadline, she can usually be found energetically cheering for one of her favorite New York sports teams.

As with just about every other writer on the planet, Kristen grew up an avid reader. She started with young adult before she technically hit the age range and moved on to sci-fi classics by Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. At fifteen, her best friend gave her a book she just had to read! The book was Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts. Always a sucker for a happy ending, she was a goner and fell in love with the romance genre. Having started writing novel length stories at the age of eleven, Kristen’s stories all took a romantic turn from that point on.

Connect with Kristen Beairsto: Website * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads


Giveaway

Prize is 5 eBook copies (1 each to 5 winners) of Going After the Heart from Kristen Beairsto. Contest is tour-wide and ends June 16. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. To enter today’s contest:

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Follow the rest of the tour HERE.

2 Comments

Filed under Blog Tour, Contest, Guest Blog, Kristen Bearisto

2 Responses to Blog Tour, Guest Blog & Contest: Kristen Bearisto’s Going After the Heart

  1. Timitra

    Sounds good!