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Monday, August 26, 2013

Kat Cantrell: Finding Your Courage

Theme is really important to me when I’m telling a story. In THE BABY DEAL, Shay is a larger than life hero who never met an adrenaline-inducer he didn’t like. Skydiving, rock climbing, fast motorcycles—you name it, he’s doing it. The heroine, Juliana, keeps her feet on the ground. Danger is not only not attractive, she can’t understand why Shay courts it. They’re two different personalities who approach life in a vastly dissimilar way. A relationship between them will never work out. Right?

The old cliché “opposites attract” probably has a lot of truth to it…but Juliana doesn’t think attraction is enough of a basis for a long-term relationship. She broke up with Shay the first time they were together eight years ago. On the surface, her reason was pretty clear: if he ended up seriously hurt or died as a result of his dangerous pastimes, she’d rather not have invested time and energy in a relationship or even worse, married him and had a couple of kids who’d be left without a father. She thinks he’s selfish for not considering how hard it would be on her if something unthinkable happened. So she ended things and damaged Shay’s ability to believe in love in the process.

Juliana’s also dealing with the wounds of an uncertain childhood. Her parents weren’t good with money and her family constantly had to move to stay ahead of creditors. She never felt safe. Never felt like she could count on tomorrow to be the same as today and she began to crave stability. Shay never represented stability and was the opposite of what she needed—why would she ever look twice at him?

Because he was exactly what she needed, but she was too afraid to believe it.

When Shay comes back into her life, she’s determined not to fall for him again. He’s determined to show her their differing philosophies are actually what makes them work so well together.

The theme of THE BABY DEAL is finding your courage. Not just to love someone who isn’t the person you saw yourself with, but also finding courage to embrace what life has given you, even if it’s not anything close to what you imagined it would be like.

How do you find the courage to do something hard?

I’ll give away a print copy of THE BABY DEAL (US residents only, please!) to a random person who answers the above in the comments. Thanks for coming by!

Kat Cantrell
2011 Harlequin SYTYCW Winner | 2012 RWA® Golden Heart® finalist

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***Kat's winner is Linda.  Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing address!***

6 comments:

Pat Cochran said...

We lost a sister to breast cancer and
were instructed to begin having mammo-
grams. Four times over the years, I've
shown suspicious results, calling for
biopsies. I've turned to God in prayer
and a good surgeon. They have seen me
through with all positive results!

Pat C.

Anonymous said...

Hi Pat! Thanks for sharing your story. Prayer is a great way to find courage--one I use often myself. :) I appreciate you coming by today!

Di said...

You have to just put one foot in front of the other and keep going, doing what you can - if you don't you may well regret it or wonder "what if".

But I think you also have to weigh the price of your actions - are you willing to pay it or will others have to pay?

sallans d at yahoo dot ocm

Linda Henderson said...

That's kind of hard to say, it depends on what it is. With me if it's health related I just suck it up and do it. Otherwise I sometimes have to talk myself into it gradually.

Anonymous said...

Interesting point Di. Consequences should be an important part of the decision making process. Thanks for commenting!

Anonymous said...

Both sound like good strategies Linda. :) I agree, sometimes the strategy has to change depending on the circumstances. Thanks for coming by.