Kat Martin – My Mother’s Dream

Years after running away with her boyfriend in her junior year of high school, Marly Hanson returns to Dreyerville at the request of her daughter, Katie, who has recently been treated for brain cancer. Katie has never met her grandmother, Marly’s mother, Winnie. But Marly and Winnie have been estranged for years and confronting the past for each of them is painful. The homecoming is bittersweet, but revisiting the conflict between them is crucial if Marly and her mother are ever to find the bond they shared before Marly left Dreyerville.

To complicate matters, living next door to Winnie is handsome sheriff and widower Reed Bennett, and his son, Ham, who is close to Katie’s age. Ham and Katie become fast friends, while their parents find their attraction to one another going deeper than mere friendship. But Marly’s time in Dreyerville is limited and risking her heart isn’t something she’s willing to do.

As the days slip past, and though she tries to avoid it, Marly and Reed become more deeply involved. Can she risk loving the handsome sheriff and give up the the futer she worked so hard to forge for herself and her daughter? Can she make a life in Dreyerville after what happened all those years ago?

Will Marly finally realize that her true destiny and ultimate happiness lie in coming to terms with her past?

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My mother dreamed of being a writer. When I was a girl, she talked about it often. In high school, Tulare Union in the San Joaquin Valley, she was the editor of her high school newspaper. She loved writing and more than anything, she wanted to go to college and become a journalist.

But the country was at war back then, and my grandparents were poor. My mother never achieved her dream, but I could hear the yearning in her voice when she talked about it, and maybe that was the seed that set me on the path to becoming a writer.

Or maybe it was the love for reading she instilled in me.

As a young woman, I saw reading as something I had to do to get through high school and then college. I enjoyed learning new things, and especially enjoyed reading history books. But reading just for fun? I couldn’t really imagine it.

Then I discovered the Bestseller List.

My mother loved every sort of book and particularly true crime murder books. But my tastes were not the same and other than the textbooks I read in college, I had no idea what to choose. I began picking up books off the top 15 bestseller list in the grocery store and discovered the wonderful world of fiction.

Books by Wilbur Smith and Danielle Steel, Sidney Sheldon, Frederick Forsythe, Herman Wouk, Arthur Haley, Robert Ludlum, Jack Higgins. Anya Seaton, Kathleen Winsor, and Frank Yerby wrote heartwrenching Romance novels.

I was hooked.

Over the years, my mother and I often traded books and then discussed them, which lots of moms do with their children today.

I loved reading, but a career as an author never crossed my mind until I was in my thirties and I met my husband, Larry, who was had written a western novel. It was a wonderful book and I couldn’t understand why he hadn’t been able to get it published. I thought maybe I could help him by doing a little editing and during the process, realized how much I was enjoying the work.

I decided maybe I should try writing something myself and jumped in with both feet.

MAGNIFICENT PASSAGE was the result, my first published novel, which I am happy to say is being republished this July with a magnificent new cover.

More than fifty books later, my mother is gone, but I’m still reading, and I am still writing and I thank her every day for introducing me to the career I love so much.

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Many thanks to Kat for joining us today!

For more information about Kat and her books, please visit katbooks.com. And to be entered for a chance to win a signed copy of A SONG FOR MY MOTHER (US/Canada only), just leave a comment below. Good luck! 😀