#12 Giving stories second chances

It seems stories do get better with age, and my 2014 recently re-released novel A Walk Before Sunrise is proof of that. The contemporary love story narrated through the eyes of the book's main character Neil Phillips, had the rare opportunity to be re-released for the North American market. While A Walk Before Sunrise is a stand alone tale of love and misfortune, it is also serves as a companion book to my other novels Last Wish of Summer and The Rag Doll Cafe, meaning that the bigger picture the three novels collectively paint, either begins or ends here. Depending on which book you read first.

I first wrote A Walk Before Sunrise back in 2007, in a year where my personal life was about to reflect the sea-change spirit of the characters in my book. A great deal of that time was spent meeting with fellow Australian Author Louise Cusack who mentored me through the process of writing my second novel shortly after the euphoria of self-publishing my debut novel had passed. While I almost became another success story in Louise's growing list of clients in Australia who have been accepted for publication. It was not to be. Despite having the manuscript in the hands of a leading Australia publisher who strongly considered signing me for almost a year, they regretfully passed. I self-published A Walk Before Sunrise through Trafford in 2009. And so began the long process of travelling between libraries, bookstores, arts & crafts markets, anywhere really that would allow a struggling writer to pedal his books to passers-by.

I went back to writing, deciding that I really needed to raise the bar. Last Wish of Summer was written as a prequel to A Walk Before Sunrise, simply because I adored the character Anton so much. It was later picked up by a publisher in the USA, with the request that I Americanize it and make the setting more generic. That I did, and the sequel The Rag Doll Cafe followed. After parting ways with my publisher and taking back control of my own work, I was faced with the problem of what to do with A Walk Before Sunrise. While each book was written to be enjoyed on their own, collectively these three novels form a bigger picture, courtesy of Anton's uniquely interesting, yet adorable philosophy. But A Walk Before Sunrise was set in Australia, the other two books were not. So I spent 2013 and the early part of 2014 effectively re-writing the book. It was something that I had previously done with Last Wish of Summer, and something that I find more challenging than starting afresh on a new project.

A Walk Before Sunrise is a story I wrote for my wife, and being married for 21 years was something that I did not want to see disappear overnight when I also cut ties with the self-publishing label of the original book, (new eBook cover on the left, original paperback cover on the right). So I put everything into giving the book a second chance. Alchemy Book Covers designed the new cover, and while a completely new ending means much has changed, much still stays the same.

Readers of The Rag Doll Cafe will be delighted to return once more to Lighthouse Bay, and anyone picking up this book for the first time will be relieved to know that you don't need to read my other books first. Now, as a sister book to Last Wish and Rag Doll as I affectionately call them, Sunrise can justly take its place beside them. In keeping with the humorous misadventure theme of the other two books, Anton is once more waiting in the wings to give some quirky advice to a couple desperately wanting to give love another chance. Better days lay waiting just around the corner in this humorous contemporary romance, and I hope that the book that was originally a 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel official second round selection, gets a second chance at the success it rightfully deserves. Writing, much like love, doesn't happen overnight. You have to continually pour all of yourself into it.