For the first time since I released Silver Scars back 2015, it’s back on Kindle Unlimited.
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If you’ve not read this book yet, prepare to dive into a story of pain, fear, hurt, and comfort. It’s a story of hope, compassion, healing, and unexpected love that you’re invited to watch unfold from the first time Gil travels since a bomb destroyed his life until he finds his HEA with Keith.
I won’t lie and tell you it’s an easy read. It was one of the hardest things I’ve written. So much of the story comes from my own experiences with PTSD, anxiety, and learning to live with chronic pain and life-long conditions I will never heal from.
Silver Scars came at a dark time in my life. I wasn’t sure I was going to write again, my career in education was no longer something I even wanted to think about let alone do, my boss was clearly trying to force me out, and my daughter was struggling academically, socially, and dealing with significant anxiety. Doubt crept into everything I did, every word I put on the page.
Anxiety hit a new low for me. It went from something I’d learned to manage to waking me in the middle of the night. I started having flashbacks again, ruminated about minutiae, and all the coping technics that had worked in the past were now useless.
So I wrote. I wrote down my thoughts and fears so they didn’t eat me alive. If that sounds a bit familiar, that was part of what also inspired me to write Love on a Battlefield, where Andrew works through his PTSD by journaling. That’s on KU now as well.
At first I wrote Silver Scars in past tense, but every time my fingers would fly and the story flowed, I switched over to present tense. I fought that like crazy, always bringing it back to past tense. But no matter what I did, Gil insisted his story be told in present tense. I didn’t get why at first, but then it suddenly came to me.
Gil was unable to even fathom a future.
He was terrified of looking ahead. The past was filled with if onlies and what ifs. Gil was stuck living moment to moment, too afraid of looking anywhere but where his feet were planted at that exact second. Until he meets Keith, the man who truly makes Gil want to live for something again. And because of Keith’s own disablities, his knowledge is first hand and inspiring.
So as you’re reading, the first-person, present-tense narrative can feel close. Intimate. I’ve been told by readers that this book stuck with them for days, so read this when you can handle being dragged through Gil’s journey through his recovery. Where he ends up is a beautiful place.
Gil sees hope for the first time since an explosion left him shattered. His name is Keith.
A bomb destroyed lawyer Gil Lemieux’s seemingly perfect life, and PTSD has ruled every decision since the explosion that left him scarred inside and outside.
Moving home with his mom was meant to be temporary, just like proofreading for a medical editorial firm. But two years after taking on the wrong court case, he’s still living in fear.
Keith Kramer might be based 1,500 miles from Gil, but their shared work brings them together—a chance meeting that’s life-changing. Gil is drawn to Keith’s good looks and intelligence, but it’s his innate understanding that Gil is more than his scars that’s truly attractive. He’s everything Gil used to be and more. It blows Gil’s mind that his attraction might be returned.
Only doubt could widen the distance between them. Keith’s hopefulness, borne out of surviving some tough challenges of his own, isn’t enough to bridge the distance alone. Gil will need to believe he has as much to offer as Keith if they’re to build a life together.
Contemporary, gay romance. A story of hope, compassion, healing, and unexpected love.
And for a lighter book that addresses PTSD, check out Love on a Battlefield.
