Description: 15+
What if the woman you envied most is the person you are destined to become?
In 1994, high school senior David Foster was the lackey and soundboard geek for his best friend’s grunge band. During spring break, the band lands a dream gig playing at a motel in Myrtle Beach, SC. David expected all the girls to ogle the guys on stage, but when a beautiful blond “Bond Girl” approaches him and calls him by name, he’s shocked to find out she knows more about him than a stranger should.
She even knows about his notebooks and his visions of time travel.
What she thought was a quick time-travel-sightseeing trip takes a surprising turn when she meets the young adult version of the man she’d heard stories about as a child. His fairy-tale romance with the woman he’d loved, Layla, inspired her to accept nothing less than a love just as strong…but hopefully not as tragic. When she won’t tell the younger version of him her name, he calls her Layla–and the world as she knows it changes forever.
I have to tell you that writing a 70K word novel is so much easier for me to write than a 500 word guest post, so I cheated and asked my beta readers to help me come up with this post. I’m also lazy and my personality turns most things I don’t love doing into a joke so I can laugh at it. This is what you get when you combine those things.
My facebook post in my beta readers group:
Me: OH MY GOSH!!!!! (Sorry, I’m a writer and a bit dramatic at times.) I’ve just received the hardest guest post topic EVER!!!! You guys have to help me. Here it is:
The Challenge of a Good Time Travel Story. (about what Time Travel story should have or not, the traps to avoid, etc)
A: Well that should be easy for you to write.
Me: How’s that?
A: Because you got it just right. You wrote it like Doctor Who, but better. Too many time travel novels aren’t plausible because of the science. You focused on the characters and left the science vague enough that it becomes a side issue, but explained it enough so that it felt possible. The characters had me hooked from the beginning and had me thinking about them for days after I’d put down the book. Great Job!!!
Me: Awww thanks.
S: Well I normally HATE time travel novels and I LOVED yours because you drew me in with the characters and their story, so by the time I was dealing with the time travel issues, I was too wrapped up in their lives and their love to be bothered by it being a genre I normally hate.
Me: Thanks guys. Anything else?
A: Well you didn’t fall into the loop cliché either with the same day repeating.
Me: Gross! I’d never do that to my readers. I remember watching Groundhog Day and by the time the guy was killing himself to end the day, I wanted to do the same.
A: Hahaha, yep! That’s why your time travel novel works and others don’t.
Me: Thanks for helping me. I’m going to use all this for my guest post.
TOUR SCHEDULE
GUEST POST
I have to tell you that writing a 70K word novel is so much easier for me to write than a 500 word guest post, so I cheated and asked my beta readers to help me come up with this post. I’m also lazy and my personality turns most things I don’t love doing into a joke so I can laugh at it. This is what you get when you combine those things.
My facebook post in my beta readers group:
Me: OH MY GOSH!!!!! (Sorry, I’m a writer and a bit dramatic at times.) I’ve just received the hardest guest post topic EVER!!!! You guys have to help me. Here it is:
The Challenge of a Good Time Travel Story. (about what Time Travel story should have or not, the traps to avoid, etc)
A: Well that should be easy for you to write.
Me: How’s that?
A: Because you got it just right. You wrote it like Doctor Who, but better. Too many time travel novels aren’t plausible because of the science. You focused on the characters and left the science vague enough that it becomes a side issue, but explained it enough so that it felt possible. The characters had me hooked from the beginning and had me thinking about them for days after I’d put down the book. Great Job!!!
Me: Awww thanks.
S: Well I normally HATE time travel novels and I LOVED yours because you drew me in with the characters and their story, so by the time I was dealing with the time travel issues, I was too wrapped up in their lives and their love to be bothered by it being a genre I normally hate.
Me: Thanks guys. Anything else?
A: Well you didn’t fall into the loop cliché either with the same day repeating.
Me: Gross! I’d never do that to my readers. I remember watching Groundhog Day and by the time the guy was killing himself to end the day, I wanted to do the same.
A: Hahaha, yep! That’s why your time travel novel works and others don’t.
Me: Thanks for helping me. I’m going to use all this for my guest post.
EXCERPT
TOUR SCHEDULE
Layla looked down at her salad. “At least your mom cares about your future. She’s just trying to get you somewhere good in life before she lets go.”
“Maybe.”
“But she’s wrong about what you’ll become. You will never be a dentist.”
“Because I’m going to discover time travel. So you really are from the future.”
Layla leaned in closer to whisper, “Do you see how hard it is for me to let you pay for my meals? To let you so much as put a bandage on my knee when I can do it myself. If getting to the airport is all I needed to do to get back to my work and my life, don’t you think I’d do it?”
I leaned in to whisper, “So is this conformation that you really are from the future? That this isn’t a hoax?” I was so close to her again. Her fragrance was everywhere, filling my senses. I could feel her presence and it electrified the air between us. My heart raced as I stared into her eyes that were huge saucers of warm hot chocolate.
She was in the same trance, looking back at me and having trouble forming her sentence. “I…can’t…tell…you.” She swallowed.
“I think you already did.” I knew in my heart I was having a moment. It was just like the flashes that I had to jot down in my notebooks. This wasn’t just the attraction between a guy and a pretty girl. This went deeper. This was more. She was my future. Just as much as that vision of how time travel would work. I was seeing into my future and all the potential that came with it.”
I leaned in closer. I didn’t want anyone to hear the craziness of what I was about to say. “What if you are Layla? THE Layla. What if you are the catalyst sent to get me on the path to my destiny? What if you and the time travel go hand-in-hand and there cannot be one without the other? You want me to accept that I’m never going to be a dentist. Well if all you are telling me is true, maybe you need to accept that you are never going back home. You are Layla.”
She pulled back and took in a quick breath at my last statement. She looked like she was going to speak but never did. Maybe she was having trouble processing the idea.
“If I’m to be a time traveler and it all starts with my great love for the beautiful Layla and you have shown up in my timeline and I automatically call you Layla. Then you must be Layla. You either believe the stories you were taught or you don’t. Or maybe you liked them better when they were for someone else and didn’t require anything from you.”
She said nothing as I watched her take it all in. Her blonde hair was messy from the ocean breeze by the pool, but I liked it like that. It reminded me of how she looked when she got up from bed. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I could hardly believe I was sitting at a table with someone like her. It almost made her story unbelievable because there was no way that I’d end up with a woman like her.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked, her eyes becoming even more wet with emotion.
“Like what?”
She blinked and swallowed. “Like I mean everything to you.”
I thought about her words and what she had told me about my future. I thought about the time travel I’d told no one about. I thought about the notebooks and the Cheerwine and Philo T. Farnsworth.
“Because maybe you do.”
“Maybe.”
“But she’s wrong about what you’ll become. You will never be a dentist.”
“Because I’m going to discover time travel. So you really are from the future.”
Layla leaned in closer to whisper, “Do you see how hard it is for me to let you pay for my meals? To let you so much as put a bandage on my knee when I can do it myself. If getting to the airport is all I needed to do to get back to my work and my life, don’t you think I’d do it?”
I leaned in to whisper, “So is this conformation that you really are from the future? That this isn’t a hoax?” I was so close to her again. Her fragrance was everywhere, filling my senses. I could feel her presence and it electrified the air between us. My heart raced as I stared into her eyes that were huge saucers of warm hot chocolate.
She was in the same trance, looking back at me and having trouble forming her sentence. “I…can’t…tell…you.” She swallowed.
“I think you already did.” I knew in my heart I was having a moment. It was just like the flashes that I had to jot down in my notebooks. This wasn’t just the attraction between a guy and a pretty girl. This went deeper. This was more. She was my future. Just as much as that vision of how time travel would work. I was seeing into my future and all the potential that came with it.”
I leaned in closer. I didn’t want anyone to hear the craziness of what I was about to say. “What if you are Layla? THE Layla. What if you are the catalyst sent to get me on the path to my destiny? What if you and the time travel go hand-in-hand and there cannot be one without the other? You want me to accept that I’m never going to be a dentist. Well if all you are telling me is true, maybe you need to accept that you are never going back home. You are Layla.”
She pulled back and took in a quick breath at my last statement. She looked like she was going to speak but never did. Maybe she was having trouble processing the idea.
“If I’m to be a time traveler and it all starts with my great love for the beautiful Layla and you have shown up in my timeline and I automatically call you Layla. Then you must be Layla. You either believe the stories you were taught or you don’t. Or maybe you liked them better when they were for someone else and didn’t require anything from you.”
She said nothing as I watched her take it all in. Her blonde hair was messy from the ocean breeze by the pool, but I liked it like that. It reminded me of how she looked when she got up from bed. She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. I could hardly believe I was sitting at a table with someone like her. It almost made her story unbelievable because there was no way that I’d end up with a woman like her.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked, her eyes becoming even more wet with emotion.
“Like what?”
She blinked and swallowed. “Like I mean everything to you.”
I thought about her words and what she had told me about my future. I thought about the time travel I’d told no one about. I thought about the notebooks and the Cheerwine and Philo T. Farnsworth.
“Because maybe you do.”
About the author:
Melissa Turner Lee is a stay-at-home mom of three of the CRAZIEST boys ever. She’s also the wife to a wonderful man she met when at 17, who is also the inspiration behind her awesome Painter series. Melissa has a degree in Journalism and Marketing, which she has never used. One day her husband sent her to the local book store for a day to herself. Melissa picked up Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and her life changed. She remembered being 17, falling in love. But most of all she remembered herself. She’d become “Mommy” and forgotten all about Melissa, the girl who dreamed of being a writer, but suddenly she remembered and the writing started. And It hasn’t stopped.
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Author's Giveaway
This looks like a really good book. :)
ReplyDeletethank you for having this contest and looks like a great book thanks
ReplyDeleteLooks like great read.
ReplyDeletethank you for the nice giveaway and the good book
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for this book!
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