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After getting blacklisted from the venture
capital industry, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Vaughan will do anything to avoid
telling his wife what happened. Even if it means agreeing to her dream of
bicycling around the world. Kara, tired of being married to a workaholic, was
readying for a divorce. Now, she’s packing bags of a different kind. Together,
they pedal away from Seattle, headed east on the open road across America,
Europe, and beyond.
Theirs is a decision that reverberates
across centuries, shattering a continuum that bound their souls throughout
time, and traps Edward in a battle with a past life over an eternal love.
As the miles roll by, and the couple's
sordid secrets begin to surface, the couple encounters several men plucked from
history, each one a vessel of Edward’s soul in a prior life. Of them, a 19th
century art dealer proves dangerous, believing Kara is his ticket back to the
past.
Tailwinds Past Florence is a contemporary
love story with a magical twist, landing readers in the saddle of a global
bicycle adventure.
Read an Excerpt:
With no kids on the horizon or in-laws
willing to travel all that way, the second bedroom had become a land of
forgotten hobbies. Dust-covered mountain bikes leaned where a dresser may have
stood, a paint-splattered drop cloth took the place of a guest bed, an empty
easel in lieu of a mirror.
As he rose from picking up the shoe, an
unexpected absence caught his eye. The map was gone. For months it had hung
opposite the door, above a bookcase lined with old college texts and a copious
collection of brushes and paint tubes. Now, in its stead, only thumbtack holes
in the same not-quite-white (Kara called it Saffron Lace) that covered every
wall in their Seattle apartment.
She brought the map home last fall, a
laminated Rand-McNally depicting every country on earth in shaded relief.
Accompanying it was a proposal to bicycle around the world. She wanted him to
take a sabbatical—a laughable notion in the world of venture capital—and spend
a year or three traveling.
Issues of Adventure Cyclist appeared in the
bathroom soon after, borrowed travel guides rotated across her nightstand, and
seemingly every conversation held an air of wanderlust, with Kara pining for
small towns and country roads, campfire beers at sunset. Just the two of us,
she’d say in a coquettish whisper. While we’re still young. Edward could only
guess what spurred her restlessness and expected it to vanish as abruptly as it
emerged.
The map hadn’t gone far. A quick search
found it crunched into a football of discarded fantasy, punted behind a pile of
bags and boxes. By the looks of things, she’d cleaned out the closet.
He unfurled the map, exposing a runaway
squiggle of black ink. His eyes locked on the map’s northwest corner, where a
star marked the departure point. Home. From there, the line dipped and danced
across the northern United States and Canada before dashing south from London
to Spain. Onward it went, around the Mediterranean to Greece, Turkey, and
beyond. Edward followed the trail, past a who’s who of countries he knew
nothing about, to China and Vietnam and a hand-drawn smiley face clear on the
other edge of the poster, in Bali.
She’d given up on it. No. She gave up on
me.
About the Author:
Doug Walsh made his fiction debut with
Tailwinds Past Florence, a road-tripping love story with a magical twist,
inspired by the two years he spent cycling the world. The novel was a prizewinner
in the PNWA Literary Contest. He's also authored One Lousy Pirate, a travel
memoir, and over one hundred officially-licensed video game strategy guides.
Travel guides to fictitious places, as he likes to call them. Originally from
New Jersey, he now lives and plays in the mountains of western
Washington.
Web/Social Links
Twitter: https://twitter.com/doug_walsh75
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dougwalshwrites/
Purchase Links
Tailwinds Past Florence is available at the
following locations:
Hi, this is Doug Walsh, the author of Tailwinds Past Florence. Thanks so much for hosting my book today!
ReplyDeleteI'll be stopping by periodically throughout the day to answer any questions someone might have, so keep them coming.
Looks very interesting!
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