#TeaserTuesday - Walking Wounded

Since I've been unfairly teasing, let's have a real teaser for #TeaserTuesday:

Excerpt from Walking Wounded

Copyright © 2016 by Lauren Gilley

“Your father-in-law,” Luke says when they’re sitting side-by-side at the bar, breakfast well under way, plates keeping warm in the oven for Hal and Maddox (he can’t think of him as “Matt” yet, he just can’t).

            “Mm.” Sandy takes a sip of coffee and says, “Now there’s a literary character for you.”

            Luke crunches a piece of bacon. “Between the original news story, and the way everyone’s building him up, I’m starting to get an impression.”  

            “Ah. An impression,” she repeats, using his exact inflection.

            He flicks a sideways glance her way. She’s messing with him, and if the curl of her mouth is anything to go by, she’s enjoying it.

            “I’m also starting to think this is some elaborate practical joke.”

            Her smile widens, truer now. “No. Definitely not that.”

***

With every book, I try to do something new that I haven't done before. Whether it's to do with characterization, plotting, or style, I always want to stretch myself and my skills.

Walking Wounded represents a lot of new things for me, the most obvious being the use of present tense, the more subtle you'll have to discover when you read the novel. Another new thing: I want to keep the plot and subject matter under wraps until release week, so I can have lots of fun playing around with pre-release marketing.

Of course, all of this means I can't share too much with you guys, which means you're going to wonder why you should be excited about this book. So here are some things I can say:

- At it's core, this book is a love story. More than one love story, in fact. Romantic love, family love, friendship love.

- Despite a notable lack of outlaw bikers, this book is extremely character-focused, just like all my work; it uses individuals to speak to larger issues, and vice versa. And of course the driving force is the bond between these individuals. It's a relationship book.

- We explore different cities and different professions, but it's still me at the helm, so you can expect the usual worldbuilding and attention to detail.

- A little heat, a little angst, a little sweetness, and a whole lot of ambition on my part. It's a moments-folded-into-moments sort of book, rife with memory, nostalgia, and subtle nudges. If I can pull this off - please let me pull this off - I have a feeling it's going to be one of my favorite works in my arsenal.

- If you like a good, emotional, thoughtful story full of memorable characters, you'll like Walking Wounded, trust me.

*Expected Dec '16/Jan '17