Inspiration is the theme of today's Muse Monday. Martha O'Sullivan's love affair with California inspired her to write books that sound enthralling and entertaining. Please welcome her to Discover...
My love affair with California began at the tender age of fifteen and continues today, over four decades later. So it should come as no surprise that the book of my heart, which ultimately became the Chances Trilogy, as well as Christmas in Tahoe and my new release, Sierra Fall, are set there.
I was an only child of the seventies, growing up in a place where short, precious summers became long, cold winters seemingly overnight. In high school I often opted for the city bus because it stopped in front of the public library. It was just a branch, but they had loads of paperback books. And I always found myself drawn to the wire rack of slightly musty and lovingly tattered romance novels. The books took me to places all over the world where effortlessly beautiful, determined heroines were swept off their feet by handsome, larger-than-life heroes and lived happily ever after. And if I found the book’s ending disappointing or the story ended too soon, I would simply finish it in my head to my liking.
Writing such ideas down, however, took another thirty years. In the interim, I went to college and met my own hero. And we went to San Francisco on our honeymoon. And, as cliché as it sounds, that’s where I left my heart. Part of it anyway. Until a few years later when I went to Lake Tahoe for the first time and my love affair with California moved farther north.
I hope my books, Second Chance, Chance Encounter, Last Chance, Christmas in Tahoe and Sierra Fall, will take you there. And you’ll leave a little piece of your heart behind too.
Sierra Fall by Martha O’Sullivan
Blurb:
Mackenzie Bishop was looking forward to spending the summer in Lake Tahoe. Recently widowed with two young kids, a change of scenery would do them all good. But she never expected Bren Banks to be part of that scenery. Or that he would come to mean so much to her in such a short amount of time. Bren is just as surprised as she is; he’d long ago accepted that falling in love wasn’t in the cards for him. But keeping his promise to wait until she's ready is proving increasingly difficult. And while Mackenzie tries to find the courage to trust Bren with her broken heart, Bren has to decide if he can trust her with a secret. One that could cost him everything, including her.
Excerpt:
The news had been a shock to say the least, but the gossamer, cocoon-like brume that followed had been a bittersweet blessing, a double-edged sword. A seductive, insidious blanket that swaddled Mackenzie Bishop and held her tight, then cruelly and indiscriminately released her with no respect for time or place. And as that fog lifted, reality set in.
She
was a widow.
Telling the kids.
She went through the motions on autopilot—the service, the luncheon, the Honors Ceremony. Whenever reality tried to rear its ugly head, Kenzie traded it for denial. Matt was deployed. One of those missions where he was out of touch for weeks at a time. If something happened, she’d know.
But she did know.
A routine training exercise had taken Matt away from them forever. It was ludicrous, really. He was only two states away, not flighting on some foreign battlefield. He was coming home in time for the Spring Fling at school next weekend.
But he didn’t.
*****
Brennen
Banks killed people for a living. And as is often true of things we love, he
was good at it. But the best part about it, aside from the inordinate amount of
money he made doing it, was that nobody knew. It was his little secret. Well,
his mother knew. But she wasn’t going to tell anybody. She liked her swanky
condo with the sporty two-seater parked in the garage. All courtesy of her
favorite son and only child, the greatest thriller writer who never was.
Bren had loved sports growing up. It had been an outlet for his boundless energy, a channel for his unrelenting competitiveness and had served as a coping mechanism for not having a father in his life. But unlike most of his teammates, his passion for reading was just as voracious as his passion to win. And from an early age, Bren had seen no reason why he couldn’t combine the two things he loved most into a career. He’d sell millions of copies, sign over his movie rights and live happily ever after writing his next novel from his yacht with his beautiful wife and two perfect children.
Instead,
Bren found himself rejected time and time again. So he’d had little choice but
to take freelance work. What started as copy editing evolved into reworking
storylines, creating subplots and layering characters before he knew it. And
that had not gone unnoticed by the literary agency representing an aging thriller
writer who shall remain nameless.
But his mother not so much, which is why he’d set her up in a retirement community in Scottsdale where she could want for nothing. To his mind it was the least he could do. She’d raised him alone, rarely thinking of herself, while never ceasing to remind him that he was the best thing that had ever happened to her, her life’s greatest gift. However unexpectedly that gift had been bestowed.
He’d
always assumed he’d get married, have a family. Not to any woman in particular
and without much thought to a timeline but eventually, someday.
He hadn’t given it much thought again until lately, but something about turning forty last year had brought it top of mind. Sometimes when he grabbed a beer to watch the sunset Bren wondered what it would be like to have someone to share it with. Someone to run dinner ideas by, someone to ask about their day and relay the highlights of his, someone to plan a vacation or a holiday celebration with. Maybe even someone to watch play baseball or help with homework. A partner, a family. The family he’d never had despite how hard his mother had tried to check all the boxes—mother, father, sibling. There was always something missing and that something eluded him still. He couldn’t help but wonder if it always would.
Bren remembered his first visit to Tahoe all those years ago like it was yesterday. They’d pulled over just past the fork in the road where the lake first comes into view, peeking through the gaps in the trees. He’d dropped his mother’s hand and ran to the water’s edge, then looked back at her. She’d nodded in silent permission and within an instant the cool water covered his shoes and spit spindrift on his ankles. The sun’s rays bounced off the sharp crests of the waves like millions of tiny diamonds glittering under a cobalt blue haze. And that was it. He was hooked.
It had taken him a couple of decades, but Bren owned his own piece of Tahoe now. Where the crimson sun burst through the charcoal dim of the mountains in the morning. Where the air carried the sweet scent of pine straw and was so fresh and crisp it snapped. Where the star-studded night sky guarded the lake and cradled the basin as he slept. Where he had the privilege to live.
Alone, Bren reminded himself and took a deep pull from the bottle.
Buy Links:
https://books2read.com/marthaosullivansierrafall
https://www.marthaosullivan.com/
Martha O'Sullivan has loved reading romance novels for as long as she can remember. Writing her own books is the realization of a lifelong dream. She is a graduate of Illinois State University where she wrote for the school newspaper and was a member of Zeta Tau Alpha. She is also a former Acquisitions Editor at MacMillan Computer Publishing. Martha writes contemporary romances with male/female couples and happy endings. Her Chances Trilogy, Second Chance, Chance Encounter and Last Chance, and fourth novel Christmas in Tahoe, are available in print and digital formats at online retailers everywhere. Her new book, Sierra Fall, was released on February 18, 2025. A native Chicagoan, she lives her own happy ending in Florida with her husband and daughters.
Social media links:
https://www.marthaosullivan.com/
https://www.instagram.com/authormarthaosullivan/
http://twitter.com/@m_osullivan26
https://bsky.app/profile/mosullivanauthor.bsky.social
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7254612.Martha_O_Sullivan
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