BY ANY OTHER NAME is a story about a
Latina woman going home to her high school reunion with a big secret:
Up-and-coming mommyblogger and single
mom Marisol Herrera Slade returns to her old hometown in western Pennsylvania
for her 20th high school reunion, reluctant and yet compelled to see her high
school sweetheart, Russell Asher, who dumped her for the homecoming queen.
Russell’s marriage to the golden girl,
however, ended in a nasty divorce, and he has been systematically excluded from
his sons’ lives. In his Internet wanderings, he’s found feminist
blogger Jerrika Jones, who glorifies single motherhood, essentially
putting a stamp of approval on what’s happened to him.
He’s vowed to take this
woman down if they ever should meet.
What he doesn’t know, when he thinks to
rekindle what he had with Marisol, is that Marisol and Jerrika are one and the
same. When he discovers the truth, will his drive for revenge derail any chance
they have to reunite? Or will they find they have more in common than they ever
expected?
EXCERPT:
Marisol sipped the
tea, the bite of spice and sweet tang of citrus refreshing her, if not sparking
her tongue to chat. Analisa, always the talkative one, hardly let Marisol get a
word in, and that was just fine with her. Her forte was the written word; even
back home, she remained shy and soft-spoken.
What she needed was a little Jerrika Jones in her
face-to-face presentations.
The thought reminded her of her resolve to reveal
herself this weekend as the popular blogger. Analisa was asking her where she
worked. Time to try out the truth.
The words tripped over her lips, though,
when she went to speak.
“I…Well, you know, bloggers. I mean… Do you use
the Internet?” She flushed red. “Stupid question. Of course you use the
Internet. Who doesn’t?”
Analisa stared at her blankly.
“Mira, I’ll show you.”
Marisol pulled her netbook out of her purse and set
it on the table. “Do you have wireless?” she asked.
Analisa cracked up. “Wait, wait, wait. Little Marisol
Herrera who sewed her own finger on the machine in Mrs. Martin’s home ec class?
The girl who couldn’t figure out which end of a plug to put in the wall? You’re
a computer whiz?”
Marisol rolled her eyes. “Please, querida.
Just hook me up and I’ll show you.”
A few minutes later, she was surfing online, and she
pulled up Jerrika’s bold page, Mothering Without a Man splashed in
strong white letters across a dark red banner at the top of the screen. In the
corner above the sidebar, posed the cartoonish drawing of Jerrika, a tall,
thin, sharply-dressed woman with features reflecting Marisol’s own mixed
heritage, posted in the column’s sidebar. A friend of hers had drawn the toon,
making the image chic and sassy. Definitely all Jerrika Jones.
She turned the small computer screen to Analisa.
Her friend’s eyes narrowed as she scanned the page.
“Oh, yeah. I’ve heard about her. She was on the radio with Katy Blaine last
summer. We were all listening on the floor, in the nurses’ lounge. She was
funny as heck, that Jerrika. Giving men in general what-for, ragging on
deadbeat dads. She…”
Analisa trailed off as Marisol looked her steadily in
the eye.
“She…Dios mio. Mari. Are you telling me
you’re…her?”
Marisol grinned at her friend’s trembling finger,
pointed at the screen, and confessed, “I’m her.”
Analisa’s gasp seemed to go on until Marisol wondered if she
would ever breathe again.
“That’s where you work? You make money? Do
they really pay you to write the column, Mari? Are you going to be rich and
famous?”
Gratified at the hint of envy in her friend’s eyes,
Marisol laughed. “I don’t know about rich and famous, Ana, but so far the ads
pay the bills. That’s all I need, for now.” She winked. “After Mark goes off to
school? Who knows?”
Buy Link:
Bio:
Alana Lorens (aka Barbara Mountjoy) has been a published writer for over 35 years, including seven years as a reporter and editor at theSouth Dade News Leader in Homestead, Florida. Her list of publications includes the non-fiction book 101 Little Instructions for Surviving Your Divorce, published by Impact Publishers in 1999, stories in A Cup of Comfort for Divorced Women, in December 2008, and A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Parents, in June 2009.
Her Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series (as Lyndi Alexander) is available from Dragonfly Publishing; THE ELF QUEEN in 2010 and THE ELF CHILD in March 2011, with THE ELF MAGE in early 2012.
Her first release (as Alana Lorens) was SECRETS IN THE SAND, in the Crimson Rose line from The Wild Rose Press. Since then, the Wild Rose Press has also published CONVICTION OF THE HEART, another romantic suspense novel, the first in the Pittsburgh Lady Lawyers series, and Zumaya Publications published the second in that series, SECOND CHANCES.
In September 2012, The Wild Rose Press released the contemporary novella THAT GIRL’S THE ONE I LOVE.
2013 will see both the third in the Pittsburgh Lady Lawyer Series, VOODOO DREAMS, as well as the sweet contemporary novella BY ANY OTHER NAME, from Desert Breeze Publishing.
In a little different vein, Alana contributed a story to the collection SIDEKICKS! coming out in spring 2013 from Alliteration Ink. The story may be set at a wedding, but does love really have anything to do with it?
Alana also takes care of a husband and a bunch of kids and blogs on a variety of subjects, including autism, science fiction and life at Awalkabout. Find her on Facebook ! Here’s her Amazon author page! She’s on Goodreads, too! Contact her by email at lyndialexander AT gmail DOT com.
Thanks for hosting me, Rachel!!
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