Books, Banter & Bites on my Dock…featuring Patricia Yager Delagrange

Photo by Brianne Boulton

Welcome to my virtual dock in the wilds of Muskoka, where it’s always sunny and warm no matter what time of the year it is. Please pull up one of the dock chairs, sit your butt down, and be prepared to be entertained and enlightened. Today, I’ve got contemporary fiction author, Patricia Yager Delagrange—a.k.a. Patti— in my circle of writing friends, stopping by for a visit. If you’ve never heard of this awesome author, here’s her mini bio:

Fascinated by broken-hearted couples and atypical families, Patricia weaves engaging tales of men and women who create cohesive families where love reigns supreme. She sprinkles her books with intriguing characters who struggle to find balance in life after tragedy. Whether an unwed teenager, desperate widow, abandoned father, or a couple who stray from their marital vows, her characters form relationships impacted by their desire to create a family.

Aside from writing, her favorite things to do include riding her Friesian horse, Maximus, dot-to-dot for adults, and watching Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington movies. She spends a majority of her days writing while her two very large Chocolate Labs lounge on the couch cuddled next to her and her MacBook.

Patti is a fellow animal lover like me, so I’ve asked her to bring along her Chocolate Labs to play with my Yellow Lab in the lake while we’re chatting on my dock this afternoon. Need any SPF, Patti? You being from California, I bet you’re used to this heat pretty much all year round! And here, let me pour you a large glass of your favorite soda, caffeine-free Coca Cola®. I got up early this morning to go to The Independent grocer in town. Had a devil of a time trying to score some See’s Scotchmallows for you. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find them anywhere, so I picked up some Decadent Chocolate Chuck Cookies instead.

Now, before we get started, here’s the blurb for Patti’s most recent release Moon Over Alcatraz:

Following the death of their baby during a difficult birth, Brandy and Weston Chambers are grief-stricken and withdraw from each other, both seeking solace outside of their marriage; however, they vow to work through their painful disloyalty.  But when the man Brandy slept with moves back to their hometown, three lives are forever changed by his return.

 Such a sensitive subject, Patti. Where did you get your idea and inspiration to write Moon Over Alcatraz?

My inspiration came from Amber Alerts. I’d always wondered how the death of a child affects a family. My story starts with a couple losing their baby at birth and how they deal with that together. In their case it pulls them apart.

Heart-wrenching! What sets Moon Over Alcatraz apart from other books in the same genre?

I’d never read a fictional book that dealt with losing a child at birth and I wanted to write about that, now that I’m a mother. It was a hard thing to write about in an emotional sense.

It must’ve been, Patti. How long did it take for you to start and finish Moon Over Alcatraz?

I can write a book in about two to three months. It’s the editing that takes the most time - another three or more months and then several more months after it gets to an editor.

Quite the process! Do you have any advice for writers wanting to write in your genre?

I think it’s hard to sell the women’s fiction genre to an agent. It seems they want to call it romance. I’d be more comfortable calling it contemporary fiction since that’s what you’d call books written by Nicholas Sparks or Richard Paul Evans.

So, what's next for Patricia Yager Delagrange the author?

I just started my fifth novel. It’s another women’s fiction book and deals with a woman whose husband doesn’t exactly have the same philosophy about raising children. That’s one of the main factors which pull them apart, especially since she wants another child. She finds out he’s had an affair and though there’s a happily ever after, a bit of drama unfolds during the course of their lives together.

Your fifth novel? You certainly are a writing machine! More Coca Cola? Great, let me top up your glass. Um, Patti, isn’t that one of your dogs swimming toward the middle of the lake? Thought so. Okay, before we hop in the boat to go fetch him, please let readers know where they can buy your book, and how to connect with you. Thanks for taking the time to share your novel and your wisdom with us on my dock this afternoon. Cheers and best wishes in ALL your publishing ventures, Patti.
 
Moon Over Alcatraz Buy Links:
 
Musa Publishing

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

 
Learn more about Patricia Yager Delagrange on her website and blog

Stay connected on Facebook and Twitter

Wenches of Words Wednesday: Patricia Yager Delagrange

I’m excited to feature fellow Wench of Words, Patricia Yager Delagrange, an author of contemporary fiction, on my blog today! Take it away, Patricia…

Inspiration Behind the Book by Patricia Yager Delagrange

How many times have I seen an Amber Alert on the news which ends in the child’s death? How many times have I been driving down the freeway and read about another child kidnapping in yellow lights across a billboard? How many times have watched on the news that another child has been murdered?

Too may times. One time is too many.

And each time this occurs I wondered how in the world do the parents make it through such a tragedy? How do they go on? How can they return to work? How can they face interacting with family and friends after their child’s death? How do they go on living?

This question had burned in my mind for years and I wanted to write about it. People have asked me how I can write about something that’s never happened to me. I counter with: I write fiction. All fiction writers tell a story they’ve made up in their heads. But they imbue that story with their own feelings. Which is what makes a good book. And I have a wealth of feelings that I used when I wrote Moon Over Alcatraz. I have two children. I know what it’s like to love two human beings unconditionally, with no reservations. My kids often ask me, “Do you love me, mom?” And my answer is, “Always and forever.”

So I took a happily married couple, excited to have their first child, placed them in the delivery room, and had the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby’s neck, which produced a still birth.

And that’s pretty much what happened to that couple - their lift stood still. They didn’t know how to move on from there. Instead of looking to each other for solace and renewal, they turned away from each other. Both of them, unbeknownst to the other, dealt with their grief in a way that broke them apart, instead of pulling them together.

Losing a child is devastating. And each person deals with that emotional turmoil in their own particular way. I’d go so far as to say that no one can predict how they would act in that circumstance. Emotions can be unpredictable, surprising even to the person who’s experiencing them. This is what happens to Brandy and Weston. You have a difference in their emotional upheaval. One character is the mother who carried her baby to term, and the other is the father who didn’t have that same physical experience.

BLURB:

Following the death of their baby during a difficult birth, Brandy and Weston Chambers are grief-stricken and withdraw from each other, both seeking solace outside of their marriage; however, they vow to work through their painful disloyalty. But when the man Brandy slept with moves back to their hometown, three lives are forever changed by his return.

EXCERPT:

Three days later we were standing at the edge of a hole in the ground at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Hayward, the silence so thick, the insides of my ears buzzed like a distant swarm of angry bees. Mr. Peralta and another gentleman stood off to the side while Weston and I held hands next to a tiny casket.

Weston had chosen a simple mahogany box with gold handles, a bouquet of white lilies graced the top of the small box. I knelt down and laid a kiss on the smooth wood then wiped off the tears that had fallen on top. Weston joined me, placing a single red rose in the middle of the lilies. He helped me up and we stood side-by-side in silence, my guilt over her death like a stone in my empty belly. I missed everything I’d dreamed would be happening right now, yearned for all that could have been.

Weston nodded at the man standing next to Mr. Peralta and our baby was slowly lowered into the gaping maw. She reached the bottom, and a bird landed on the rich brown dirt piled next to the grave. It pecked around, chirping a little song then flew off - as if saying goodbye. My heart squeezed inside my chest.

I picked up a small handful of soft dirt. “Goodbye, Christine,” I whispered, throwing it on top of her casket.

Weston wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me in close to his side. Why her? Why my baby? Was this supposed to make sense? And, if so, to whom?

We drove home in silence. No words existed to express my grief.

BUY LINKS
Musa Publishing Amazon Barnes & Noble

Learn more about Patricia Yager Delagrange on her website and blog. Stay connected on facebook and Twitter.