A Preview of Novel #2

Dear Friends,

Parting Gifts is seven years old. Seven! I’d already given birth to four babies in less time than that. Time flies when you’re raising babies—whether they’re book babies or human babies. It’s long past due, but I’m finally hunkered down with my next novel. It’s tentatively titled Open (which will most likely change, because Andre Agassi beat me to the punch…), and here’s a brief description:

They are neighbors, professionals, parents, and best friends. But when the Blanchards and Tenners spend a drunken night in Tulum—and in each other’s beds—life as they’d previously known it is irrevocably changed.

This is an incredibly short (and vague) synopsis by design. I’m leaving space for the story to unfold in new and different ways as I write it.

As an enormous thank you to my paid subscribers, I’m sharing the first chapter with you here, and I’d love your feedback. Are you interested? Intrigued? Is this a book you’d read? One you’d recommend to your friends? One you’d be embarrassed to be seen reading on a plane?

I’m torn about whether to pursue a traditional publishing deal with this one, or whether I’d prefer to serialize it here on Substack. (What that means, basically, is that I’d release a chapter to paid subscribers at a predetermined cadence until the entire book is online.) What are your thoughts on that? How do you prefer to consume your books?

As always, I’m so grateful to you, my readers and friends. I’d write no matter what, but it sure is nice to have you out there reading my words.

And so without further ado, here’s Chapter One of Open:

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