SECOND CHANCE DAD - Roxanne Rustand - Free Book

Readers, I will post the winners later today, but first an interview with my friend Roxanne.


Why did you become an author?

I started out as an avid reader, and that passion for books gradually evolved into dabbling at writing. I never expected that I would actually sell a book!  But as time went on, I learned about RWA and started going to the regional and national conferences, and met other aspiring authors.  The encouragement and education the organization offered really sparked my dreams.

If you weren’t an author, what would be your dream job?

If I could go back in time, I would go to vet school!

If you could have lived at another time in history, what would it be and why?

I love reading historical fiction, but I'm content in the era I'm in.  After working in health care for so many years as a dietitian, the realities of poor sanitation and lack of dental care, antibiotics and other aspects of modern health care just don’t seem very appealing!  That said, if I could go back--but could choose my socio-economic status--I might like the life of one of Georgette Heyer's heroines who ended up with a duke. 

What place in the United States have you not visited that you would like to?

I would love to visit the beautiful coasts of the upper Northwest, and also Maine.  I love the oceans, forests, rocky shorelines and cooler weather.

How about a foreign country you hope to visit?

I'd love to visit Ireland, England, Wales, and Italy.  A friend of mine went to Ireland for a vacation that involved riding horses every day--instead of hiking--and that sounds wonderful!  Perhaps the Scandinavian countries as well, as I'm Swedish and my husband in Norwegian. 

What lesson has the Lord taught you recently?

I lost my mom last fall.  I spent much of last year out of state to be with her, and though I was blessed with being able to be away from home that much---the kids are grown now, and I'm a full-time writer without a day job schedule--I realized that there really is never enough time.  We've got to make use of every opportunity to tell our loved ones how much we love them, because you just never know when that last moment will be.

Despite Mom's pain and weakness, she wasn't dwelling on that--she never complained.  Her last words to me were, "You know what's so bad about this?  I didn’t get to finish your last book, and I'll never get to read the new ones."  Even then, she was thinking about her children and not herself.  Through my mom, I received a lesson about the depth of selfless love in a mother's heart, and it has made me far more aware of how I want to love and care for my own children.

Tell us about the featured book?

SECOND CHANCE DAD is a story about a newly graduated physical therapist who will do everything she can to give her son the safe and nurturing life he needs.  The hero is a former emergency room doctor who is filled with guilt and remorse about a car accident that took the life of his pregnant wife.  He is disabled and has walled himself away from living, but she cannot give up on him or she may lose the one job that will allow her to stay in the town where her son is receiving the special programs he needs.

Please give us the first page of the book. 

Sophie stepped out of her ancient Taurus sedan but lingered at the open door, staring at the massive dog on the porch of the sprawling cabin.  The dog stared back at her with laser-like intensity, head lowered and tail stiff.  

            It was not a welcoming pose.  

            Set back in the deep shadows of the pine trees crowding so close, the cabin itself--with all the windows dark--seemed even more menacing than a wolfhound mix with very sharp teeth. So what kind of person would be sitting in there, in all that gloomy darkness? 

            "Don't worry about the dog," Grace Dearborn had said with a breezy smile during Sophie's orientation at the county home health department offices.  "He's quite the bluffer.  It's the owner who is more likely to bite."  

            Sophie looked at the folder in her hand again.  Dr. Josh McLaren. Widower.  Lives alone.  No local support system. Post-surgical healing of comminuted fracture, right leg with a knee replacement.  Surgical repair of fractured L-4 and L-5 lumbar vertebrae, multiple comminuted fractures, right hand. 

            Had he been hit by a truck?  She shuddered, imagining the pain he'd been through.  The surgeries and therapy had to have been as bad as the injuries. The only other documentation in the folder were scant, frustrated progress notes written by her various physical therapist predecessors.  The last one had ignored professional convention by inserting his personal feelings into his notes.  

            The man is surly and impossible.  

            Ten minutes spend arguing about the need for therapy.  Five minutes of deep massage of his right leg and strengthening exercises before he ordered me out of his house. 

            And the final note... 

            I give up.  Doctor or not, McLaren is a highly unpleasant client and I will not be coming back here. 

            Sophie scanned the documents again, vainly searching for a birth date or mention of the man's age.  Maybe he was an old duffer, like her grandfather.  Crotchety and isolated and clinging to his independence.  

             The job was just temporary--three months covering for the regular therapist who'd gone to Chicago for some advanced training. But if  Sophie did exceptionally well, Grace would try to push the county board to approve hiring her on a permanent basis.  

The thought had lifted Sophie's heart with joy, though now some of her giddy excitement faded.  She set her jaw.  If her ability to stay in Aspen Creek hinged on those stipulations, then no one--not even this difficult old man--was going to stand in her way.   Far too much depended on it. 

"Buddy, I'm going to overwhelm you with kindness, and your mean ole dog, too," she muttered under her breath as she pawed through a grocery sack on the front seat of her car. "See how you like that."

How can readers find you on the Internet?

www.roxannerustand.com

http://roxannerustand.blogspot.com
Free e-newsletter: http://roxannerustand.com/newsletter-sign-up

Thank you, Roxanne, for visiting with us again. I love the first of the book.

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