Untangling the Knot, by Deanne Wilsted
“I did what?”
Twenty-eight-year-old Gabriella Bessu is St. Therese’s meticulous wedding ceremony coordinator. So the fact that she has mistakenly signed her newest couple up for an annulment, rather than a wedding, sends her Catholic guilt into overdrive.
But who can blame her? The groom is gorgeous and his two kids tug at Gabriella’s heart in a way that overcomes all her best intentions. Before long she’s in over her head, fixing her mixed-up plans and helping the children and dad come to terms with their haunting grief for the mother and wife they lost years earlier.
Can Gabriella untangle her own fears and accept the messy life that God has handed them?
NOTE FROM SUSAN: I know you're going to enjoy this wonderful article by Deanne Wilsted written exclusively for Susan Heim on Parenting readers!
Thank you so much, Susan, for inviting me to guest post today. As many who follow my blog know, I get to hear a lot of interesting things while doing my writing. I call these my ‘overhears,’ and they frequently offer a wonderful jumping-off point for my brain. This one was amazingly appropriate given what has been on my mind lately.
Overheard on… NPR
“When albatross take care of their chicks, the male and female both take turns feeding it, and they’ll forage about 1,000 miles from Midway to find food…”
NPR – All Things Considered, Feb. 6, 2013
As the parent of an eight-year-old, and a bit of a control freak, I can relate to this story. Searching out the right foods for my daughter and then tempting her to eat them has been a big part of my day-job. Thankfully, my writing has acted as a balance so that I never went as far as actually chewing her food and force feeding it to her like a bird.
And yet, writing is just as wholehearted an endeavor as raising a child. My new novel, Untangling the Knot, for example, has taken 8 grueling years from concept to publishing. And while often this has felt like a solitary endeavor, I really couldn’t have made it to this point alone.
This is something the albatross in my overhear must understand. She’s over 62 years old and has recently birthed a new chick, one of many throughout her life. Since albatross mate for life, this may be the same dad who’s helped with all the others… They might have been splitting their parenting workload for over half a century. Can you imagine?
Many years ago I was lucky enough to find Susan Heim’s book: Oh, Baby! 7 Ways a Baby Will Change Your Life the First Year. It is funny how much of the content can be applied to writing as well. Replace the words -a baby- with -writing- and the titles still make sense: Writing will challenge the way you see yourself; Writing will change you for the better; Writing will add challenge, change and chaos to your marriage; Writing will change your marriage for the better. Chapter after chapter, this holds true, so that the similarities between writing and having a child seem obvious.
In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a ship encounters bad luck when a sailor shoots down an albatross. As punishment, his shipmates hang the albatross around his neck, but the boat continues to be plagued by misfortune. It is from this that albatross came to be a metaphor for carrying a psychological burden.
Perhaps, though, it wasn’t the dead albatross that cursed the mariner; maybe it was the bird left behind, the one who had to shoulder the workload alone.
About Author Deanne Wilsted
With an English teacher for a mom, Deanne Wilsted grew up reciting conjugation instead of nursery rhymes. Now, forty years later, she’s sharing that special skill through her writing and her mothering. Her first book, a contemporary romance called Betting Jessica, was released October 2011. Her second novel, Untangling the Knot, was just published by Soul Mate Publishing. She is currently marketing her third book for publication and writing her fourth, fifth and sixth while blogging about the crazy stuff she overhears while writing.
Follow the Tour
Feb 18
1. Review: http://mommyreadstoomuch.com
2. Excerpt: http://mamasgotflair.com
Feb 19
1. Review: http://upliftingreads.blogspot.com
2. Review: http://takingtimeformommy.com
Feb 20
1. Review: http://adventuresfrugalmom.com
2. Interview: http://midwesternmoms.com
Feb 21
1. Review: http://tiffanytalksbooks.com
2. Review: http://blogspot.com/Randomfamilygal
Feb 22
1. Review: http://www.craftylife.net
2. Guest Post: http://susanheim.blogspot.com
Feb 25
1. Review: http://nikita-mattes.blogspot.com/
2. Review: http://www.hangingoffthewire.com/
Disclaimer from Susan: This post contains my Amazon affiliate link.
