Richard Brawer writes mystery, suspense and
historical fiction novels. When not writing, he spends his time sailing and
exploring local history. He has two
married daughters and lives in New Jersey with his wife.
Hi Richard, please
tell us Five Secrets we may not know about Love’s Sweet Sorrow or you, but will
after today!
1) This
is embarrassing, but I did very poorly in college English courses especially
creative writing. Writing a novel was the last thing I ever thought I would do.
However I was an avid reader of newspapers and mysteries novels.
One day I read a horrendous newspaper story about a baby
born with a brain impairment and the father refused to take him home from the
hospital. The article quoted the nurses’ outrage.
My imagination took over and I asked: What happened to the
baby? Was it murdered? Was it switched for a healthy baby? Thus in 1994 my
first mystery book, Secrets Can Be Deadly was born and I was hooked on writing.
2) All my books have a strong woman
as a counter to the protagonist and end up challenging him and making him grow
as a character. Since my protagonist in Love’s
Sweet Sorrow is the head of the legal department of America’s largest weapons
manufacturer I decided to make his love interest someone completely opposite to
him, a Quaker. The book started out as strictly a suspense novel titled The
Bishop Committee, but as I wrote it quickly became a romantic suspense. The
publisher changed the title to Love’s Sweet Sorrow because it closely resembles the story.
3)
Don’t confuse the Quakers with the Amish. The Amish are withdrawn from
modern society. Quakers fully participate in the modern world.
Quakers are
Christian. I am Jewish and except
for the obvious, I found the Quaker religion very interesting. The general
perception of a Quaker is that they are all pacifists. They are not. Some do
fight in wars.
Please don’t misunderstand me here. Love’s
Sweet Sorrow is not a religious book. There is no preaching. The Quaker
religion is used to explain the conflicts between the characters and is
presented minimally in dialogue and actions.
4) I had
entered this book in the Chesapeake Romance Writers, “Finish That Damn Book”
contest. The rules were you could not have a contract to publish. When I
entered the contest I did not have a publisher. However I had to withdraw the
book because I did get a contract before the winners were announced.
They sent me my scores anyway. I received 137 out of 150
points. That’s 91% like. Everyone who has read Love’s Sweet Sorrow found it fresh and unique. The book had
not been professionally proofed when I sent it to the contest and I lost some
points because of punctuation and editing. It seems I can spin a good yarn, but
those pesky Ds in English still haunt me.
5) Now I would like talk about something not
related to this book, but very dear to me. My daughter and son-in-law live in
Annapolis within walking distance of the Naval Academy. They volunteer as
sponsors for plebes (freshmen). Once approved as a sponsor the academy assigns
a plebe to them.
As a sponsor they invite the young man/woman into their home
when he/she has time off so they can unwind. They feed him/her with food
everyone craves, but is not readily available at the academy―pizza, hotdogs,
hamburgers, chips and assorted sweets. The first year at the military academies
is very intense. Not only is the caliber of education on par with M.I.T.,
Sanford, U.C. Berkley and the Ivy League, but in addition there is military
training.
Mu daughter told me two interesting stories about her “charges,” one
funny and one serious. The funny one first. Twin girls who live in Maryland
within the allowable distance for weekend travel do not go home when they get a
pass. They go to her house because that’s where the gathering is.
The serious one is about a young man who was struggling.
They encouraged him to keep plugging away and helped him with his studies when
they could. Instead of flunking out, the
young man will graduate in 2015.
Blurb:
It is
said opposites attract. There can’t be two people more opposite than Ariel and
Jason. Ariel is a traditional Quaker with an absolute aversion to war. Jason is
the lead council for America's largest weapons manufacturer.
Their
budding romance is thrown into turmoil when Jason uncovers evidence linking his
employer to international arms deals that could devastate America. His
determination to stop the treason puts Ariel in the middle of dangerous
territory.
As the chases to retrieve the evidence intensify Ariel is forced
to kill to save Jason’s life. She withdraws into a battle raging inside her, unable
to reconcile whom she has been to whom she has become. Delving deeply into hers
and Jason’s long-held opposing convictions she questions whether they are truly meant
to be together.
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