BookLover Sue: Author Interview & Giveaway - The Second Man by Emelle Gamble

The Second Man

by Emelle Gamble

GENRE: romantic suspense

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BLURB:

Jill Farrell’s college reunion is coming up, but she wants no part of it. The man she once loved, Swedish exchange student Max Kallstrom, is rumored to be attending, but that doesn’t tempt her as Max disappeared from her life the night before the graduation, and has never been heard from since.

When her ex-husband, Andrew Denton, knocks on her door and announces he wants to make nice, and, “oh, by the way, one of their class alumni might be a murderer”, Jill’s resolve to avoid the event hardens.

Jill shuts Andrew’s efforts to reconnect down, and tries to put Max out of her mind.
And that’s that, until a second man knocks on her door, and the emotions of a time long ago overtakes her. Max Kallstrom tells Jill she’s the reason he has come to California. He asks her to please let him explain why she hasn’t heard from him for fifteen long years.

She’s willing to listen to what he has to say, but immediately realizes that her memories must guide her through a wrenching and dangerous few days. While her heart remembers a handsome young lover, she and her classmates are all different people now, and the reality of a murdered friend proves she can’t trust everyone.

What’s not so clear is if she should trust anyone . . . especially Max Kallstrom.

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EXCERPT:

Jill stared at her ex.

Andrew was much the same, auburn hair and icy blue eyes, but somehow completely changed from the man she last saw over a decade ago. He wore an expensive, dark suit, like an attorney, and any appearance of youth was now gone. He was lean and intense, the man behind the eyes more complicated than she remembered.

When they were together, he had worn his hair short around his neck and ears. It was longer now, combed straight back and gelled. There was a scar at his right temple, small and flat, and perfectly round.

“Because I can’t think of a single thing we have to talk about,” she finally replied.

“Grudge holding doesn’t become you.” He set the vase on the ground at his feet. “We should talk some things out.”

“No, we shouldn’t. I’m leaving the past where it belongs. Dead and buried.”

“Okay, so we won’t talk about the past. We’ll focus on going forward and celebrating all we have in common.”

“Which is nothing.” Jill swallowed, her mouth dry.

“Not true. We’re alumni from the same college. The same class. And our reunion is in two weeks.”

The reunion.

Twice in one day she was being forced to travel back and time and think about a man and a broken relationship. Although her short marriage to Andrew, four years after they graduated, was not the same thing as her college romance with Max Kallstrom, two reminders in one day that she wasn’t a very good judge of men’s characters was distressing.

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Talking with author Emelle Gamble:

When did you decide to become a writer? Why?

It is always an interesting question, the when. I think when I was very young, six or so, and I wrote my first little picture book. It was a ‘who is my mother?’ story about a little duck that didn’t know who his mother was. As to the why, there’s never any answer but one about that question. Because I had to write – to entertain, to work things out about life, to fantasize, to be a ‘writer’. It is the craft I have tried hardest to excel at, for the least money, and is by far the most satisfying endeavor in all my work life. In other words, I guess I do what I should be doing!

What are some of your favorite authors/books?

Top 5 – The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, Rosamunde Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers, Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds, In the Woods by Tana French, and The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles. All emotional, tragic in many ways, family centered huge books that take you to a different place and time. If you haven’t read these, pick one and you can send me a thank-you. HA!

Have you written a book where the ending surprised you?

Yes. My first women’s fiction/romance book, SECRET SISTER, was completely plotted out and perfectly attuned to my thematic concept that ‘no matter what changed about you, your true love would know it was you’. And the night I finished it, twenty pages over 4 hours of rapid writing, the ending shocked and horrified me. It just poured out of my fingers, upsetting everything I thought it should be. I gave myself a good shake and the next day redid the last chapter. I have asked myself many times over the years what would have happened to that book had I left it as I wrote it, but I just couldn’t be untrue to the characters and concept.

Can readers find you at any Author/Reader conventions in the near future?

I will probably go to RWA in Orlando next summer – it’s grueling but a great place to meet readers who turn out by the thousands.

If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go?

To Rome. It’s on the bucket list. And me and my darling husband, Phil-the-fist, whose people are from that part of the world, are planning on it next year.

If you could meet any person (dead or alive), who would it be and why?

George Clooney immediately springs to mind for all the most superficial reasons, but I think with a little thought it would be Shakespeare. Wouldn’t you love to ask him all these questions you’ve asked me here? I mean, he basically is the father of drama, and I would love to know how he managed such genius in such a short time.

Thanks for having me on your lovely blog, Sue! Readers, who would you like to sit across a table from and chat? Do share with us – I’m sure your first impulses won’t be as shallow as mine. XXX Emelle

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Emelle Gamble became a writer at an early age. At six years old, she was bursting with the requisite childhood stories of introspection, and this itch to tell tales evolved into bad teen poetry and tortured short works that, thankfully, never saw the light of day, or an editor’s red pen.

She took her first stab at writing a novel in an adult education class in Mobile, Alabama when her kids were in bed for the night. As ‘M.L. Gamble,’ she published several romantic suspense novels with Harlequin Intrigue. She now publishes novels of Ordinary Women in Extraordinary Situations with SoulMate Publishing and Posh Publishing …works ranging from women’s fiction to thrillers and romantic suspense.

Always intrigued by the words ‘what if’, Gamble’s books feature an ordinary woman confronted with an extraordinary situation. Emelle celebrates the adventurous spirit of readers, and hopes each will enjoy the exciting and surprising journeys her characters take.

Emelle lives in suburban Washington D.C. with her hero of thirty years, Philip, and two orange cats, Lucy and Bella. Like all good villains, the cats claim to have their reasons for misbehaving. Her children are happily launched on their own and are both contributing great things to society, their mother’s fondest wish.

Emelle welcomes any reader interested in emailing her at emellegamble@aol.com and hopes they will visit her website, www.EmelleGamble.com or her Author Emelle Gamble FaceBook page.

Emelle Gamble social media links and buy links:

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Emelle.Gamble

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/EmelleGamble

Amazon Author Page http://amzn.to/2eQvQe4

Website http://www.emellegamble.com

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Molly & Cruz :

AMAZON * AUDIBLE

Secret Sister:

AMAZON * AUDIBLE

Dating Cary Grant:

AMAZON