Life vs. Books with Sharon Cullen

First of all, I want to thank Fatin for inviting me to her blog. I’m a frequent lurker and love reading the excerpts and comments. So thank you, Fatin!

I know a lot of authors say their books are near and dear to them and I don’t doubt it. Our stories are like our babies. But Obsession really is the nearest and dearest to me because a lot of it is autobiographical.

Two days before our first child was born my husband lost his job. He was a Federal Investigator and was caught up in the cutbacks in the mid-nineties. All along we’d planned that I would be a stay-at-home mom but of course that all changed when he became unemployed. It was tough. He took a job that he absolutely hated to get us through and we tag-team parented for many, many months.

His college degree is in Criminal Justice and his dream had always been to be a police officer. When he lost his job with the government we both figured this was the time for him to follow that dream. Looking back, we both realize that neither of us had a clue what that meant. The life of a police officer? Couldn’t be much different than any other life, right? WRONG.

It’s a very difficult way to live. I’m not saying it’s the most difficult. Certainly the men and women in the armed forces have it much tougher, but being a police officer, being married to a police officer, has to rank right up there.

I could never count on him to be there for holidays, birthdays, anniversaries or any other celebration. Because we were determined that one of us would be at home while our kids were growing up, it was very difficult for me to work around his crazy hours.

Not that I’m complaining. I’d take employment over unemployment any day and he absolutely loved what he was doing. It’s been fifteen years and we’ve worked out the kinks through determination and just plain hard-headedness. But a lot of couples can’t weather the storms that this career throws at them and hence the birth of Obsession.

Obsession is about Tess and Alex, a couple who love each other but can’t see the forest for the trees. Alex’s job as a police officer has come between them. Tess is tired of taking a backseat to Alex’s career. When a life altering tragedy strikes, their marriage crumbles and Tess files for divorce. But when Alex is shot in the line of duty and the doctors don’t know if he’ll survive, Tess realizes how much she loves him.

Just like their marriage, their road to reconciliation is not an easy one. Alex doesn’t understand Tess’s worries and Tess fears they’ll fall back into the same routine that drove them apart. Throw in a villain bent on destroying both of them and things get even worse.

I hope you enjoy reading Obsession. The book is dedicated to all of the spouses of police officers, for their dedication and for keeping the home fires burning while their loved ones put themselves on the line every day.

Just for fun, if you comment on this post, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free download of Obsession.

Thanks for stopping by!

Only a year ago, Officer Alex Juran and his wife Tess had it all. Love, a solid marriage and a baby on the way. Then in one heartbeat they lost everything.

Now, Tess is doing her best to move on. She has a thriving business and while she may be lonely at times, she’s proud of the new life she’s built without Alex.

Two days before their divorce is final, Alex is shot in the line of duty and left for dead. He faces a difficult recovery so Tess finds herself postponing the divorce and offering to care for him until he can live alone again.

At first, cohabitation is little more than combat. Alex’s incapacitating injuries, the looming divorce, and his inability to remember who shot him have him lashing out at the nearest target: Tess. When someone begins stalking her, he suspects his shooter has returned. Convinced that Tess is in danger, Alex becomes desperate to recover his strength.

Because no matter how much she’s hurt him in the past, they’ve been given a second chance—and he’ll do anything to protect his wife.

Excerpt —

Eventually, he reached the living room and stopped in front of the bay window that overlooked the backyard. Moonlight reflected off the falling snow, making the room glow. Tess had put up a Christmas tree and he looked for the ornaments they’d purchased together. Before they were even married they’d had a tradition of buying an ornament in each city they visited.

Sort of a holiday scrapbook that hung on the tree. He’d always loved decorating the tree with her. They would laugh and remember their vacations together.

This year Tess had decorated with glass balls found in any discount store. Just another reminder that their memories meant so little to her. He turned back to the window only to encounter Tess’s reflection in the glass. Face scrubbed, her hair brushed and falling almost to her waist, wearing flannel pajamas that were two sizes too big, she looked sixteen. Too young to have been married and divorced. Too young for the sadness in her eyes. He wondered if he looked older to her.

Had the divorce aged him as well?

“I didn’t wake you, did I?” he asked her reflection.

“I couldn’t sleep.”

He touched the needles of the tree. “Where are our ornaments?”

“In the basement.”

“Why?”

“Because it hurts too much to look at them.”

Adopting a nonchalance he didn’t feel, he said, “So, get rid of them.”

“I can’t.”

“You got rid of me. What’s a box of ornaments?”

She sighed, pulled her hands up into her sleeves and stepped closer to the tree. “Getting rid of the ornaments would have hurt more than putting them on the tree.”

“So you want the memories, just not the person attached to them.”

She spun away. Instead of mere inches separating them, a couch, a dog, five years of marriage and six months of separation lay between them.

“I need to go to bed. You need to sleep too. Tomorrow’s your first physical therapy session and I need to get up early to start baking. Barbara’s been handling my business for the time being, but she can’t do it forever.”

“Tess?”

A heartbeat of time passed. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry. For everything.” He’d never said that before.
Never apologized for all the pain he’d caused. Too little, too late, he knew. Two simple words couldn’t even begin to heal a marriage full of broken promises.