Spotlight & Giveaway: Just Once by Lori Handeland

Posted January 1st, 2019 by in Blog, Spotlight / 128 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Lori Handeland to HJ!
Spotlight&Giveaway

 

Hi Lori and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Just Once!

 
Thank you and Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you had a great New Year’s eve whether you were out until the ball dropped or watching it at home. Or already snoozing. Like me.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Just Once is a book I’ve spent years thinking about, the book I just had to write. Spanning over four decades and sweeping from Vietnam, to Washington DC during the AIDS crisis and on to the present day, JUST ONCE tells the story of two women who love one man and how they come together when he needs them the most.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

She’d known the man she was marrying; she’d understood his passion, his conviction, his need to record how he saw the world through a camera. She’d shared that passion, but where Frankie saw light and color, contrast and composition—the way the world came together—Charley saw how the world came apart.
They said it was his gift; Frankie’d always thought it more of a curse. Charley’s view of life had been pretty damn dark. She’d spent a lot of her time lightening him up. Dragging him into the sun after he’d spent weeks in the rain. And if it insisted on raining, then she’d dragged him out anyway and convinced him to dance.

 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

Just Once came about after a meeting with my agent where she asked: ‘If I had one more book to write, what would it be?'”

The idea for the book had been rolling around in my head every since my father, a Pulitzer Prize nominated photojournalist, had asked me on his death bed “Where’s your mother?” as if she should be there. They’d been divorced for years, but he didn’t seem to remember that and I thought “What if . . .” The author’s best question.

I had tried to write the book many times, but it had not been working and then suddenly, voila, there was Frankie and Charley and Hannah. Authors say “the book wrote itself” and I always wanted one of those books! Finally I had one in Just Once.

Doing research for the sections set in the seventies, eighties and nineties was not only a trip of nostalgia but enlightenment. When you’re living it, a lot of things slip by. I did way more research than I needed on the photojournalists in Vietnam, the fall of Saigon, Daffy Duck’s birthday celebration, National Geographic Magazine, as well as many of the other events Charley photographs in his lifetime. Adding in the popular music of the time, movies, clothing–it was both a trip down memory lane and a revelation of all that I’d missed being distracted by my own life.

 

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Charley and Frankie meet with he is teaching a photography class and she is his student. They bond through the camera. Each is fascinated with the way the other sees the world through that lens. They might see the exact same thing, but they see it in a different way and for them they can never get enough of both this similarity and t his difference.

 

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

This scene is the first time Frankie and Charley meet and it explains so much about them.

He was only twenty-three, but he’d been to Vietnam and back; so had many of them. The GI Bill was in full force on campuses across America. Former soldiers going to college on Uncle Sam’s dime. It was the least they deserved.
Charley could have taken advantage of the bill himself. No money for college meant he’d been drafted, and while he had spent time as a grunt with a gun, he’d also had a camera. He could have come home after his first tour; instead he’d stayed and kept on shooting. The pictures he’d taken while marching through the jungle, in the midst of firefights, faces, bodies covered in blood, the tears and the laughter, then his insider’s view of the final days in Saigon had landed him here.
For the summer semester he would teach Advanced Photography, and in the fall he would begin his new job with the Associated Press. This was the life he’d dreamed of while growing up on a farm not very far away.
“Are you Charley Blackwell?”
In the middle of searching for his notes, which must be at the bottom of his camera bag, below every camera body, lens and filter he owned, Charley glanced up and into the prettiest green eyes he’d ever known.
“I am.” He smiled. “And you are?”
The girl blushed, her cheeks turning apricot instead of crimson, a shade lighter than the auburn streaks in her dark brown hair. Her summer weight short skirt and tie-dyed T-shirt were replicated all over the room, but she wore them a lot better than anyone else.
“I’m Francesca Sicari.”
“Fancy,” he said.
She lifted her eyebrows and her mouth quirked. “People usually call me Frankie.”
He rarely did.
Charley managed not to touch her while she was his student, but it wasn’t easy. That skin—dusky with a hint of peach—begged touching. Those eyes, like a wise Egyptian cat’s—he found himself staring into them when he should have been teaching. Her hair, which hung to her waist as so many women’s did then, was thick and straight and whenever it swayed a different shade revealed itself. He wanted to photograph that hair at dusk, at dawn and every hour in between.
She was his best student, as well as his most talented student. Frankie saw things in a way no one else did. When Charley looked at her photographs he found a world he wouldn’t have without her, a world that was different from the one he saw through his lens. That’s what photography was all about.
She sat in the front row of his class for six weeks and drove him mad. Whenever she was near he smelled lemons. Charley had always liked lemons, usually in his vodka and lemonade.
He later learned the streaks in her hair were from lying in the sun after combing lemon juice through the strands. Something all the girls were doing. Strangely she was the only one who smelled like lemons even after she’d washed the juice away.
They would go out with the other students—take pictures, have a beer afterward, talk about photography, the war, the election, the death penalty, the meaning of Bohemian Rhapsody—anything, everything—then go their separate ways.
Charley dreamed of her every night.
It wasn’t appropriate. He was her teacher. But he wasn’t a teacher. This was a short-term gig. He started counting the days until the summer semester was over.
After that final class, the students filed out, shaking Charley’s hand, thanking him, wishing him well. Frankie sat in her chair until everyone was gone.
Charley had been waiting for a time when there would be only them; now that it was here he wasn’t sure what to say. They were two years apart in age, but he felt so much older. Probably too old.
He still woke sometimes, screaming in the night. A lot of the guys who’d come back from Vietnam did. Charley had witnessed plenty of horrors. Recording them seemed to have imprinted the images on his brain as well as on film. The thought of Francesca seeing him screaming, crying, thrashing . . . he wasn’t sure he could stand it.
“I hope you enjoyed the class.”
Her lips curved. She didn’t speak.
Charley opened and closed his hands, a nervous gesture he usually soothed by picking up a camera, so he did. He trained the lens on her.
She placed her palm over the glass. “Maybe later.”
“Later?” he repeated stupidly.
She took his hand and led him home.
Later—after—he took pictures of her and she took pictures of him. They were the first set of many.

 

Readers should read this book….

If they enjoy big books like The Nightengale or The Notebook, full of life and emotion, spanning decades.

 

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

Right now I’m exploring the Summer of Love in a novel I’ve been referring to as “Stand By Me with girls” and titled (for the moment) SUDDENLY THAT SUMMER. The book takes place in small town Wisconsin and Vietnam and is written in the POVs of a brother and a sister who come to the same conclusion about life in very different ways.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

 

Giveaway: A signed copy of Just Once. US only. A $25 Amazon gift card

US only

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Have you explored women’s fiction? If not, why not? If so, what’s your favorite women’s fiction novel?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from Just Once:

‘I’ll put together the crib,’ he said. ‘You should lie down.’
‘I don’t want to lie down!’ She threw up her hands. ‘I want to put the crib together before the baby comes.’
‘I think we’ve got time.’ A thought occurred to him. ‘Don’t we? Are you feeling . . .?’
What would she feel? How would she feel?
Why hadn’t he gone to the birthing classes with her? Because he wasn’t here. He was never here.
Charley started grabbing random pieces of the crib and hoping they fit together. They did not.
‘You never read the instructions.’ Frankie waved them around. ‘I hate instructions.’
‘You also hate putting things together.’
‘Things never go together right.’
‘Because you don’t read the instructions.’ She opened the booklet. ‘Find part A.’
He stared at the jumble of parts. ‘How?’
Frankie threw the booklet at him. Since it was paper, it fell harmlessly on the pile of parts between them.
‘You should probably calm down.’
The glare she gave him . . . Shit, why had he said that?
She clenched her fists, closed her eyes. Her face had turned an
alarming shade of fuchsia. ‘I feel like I’m going to explode.’ ‘Baby . . .’ he began.
Her eyes opened. She glanced down. Her shorts were wet; so
were her legs and the carpet too. Had she exploded?
‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘Baby. Now. We should probably go.’ She started for the door.
‘Go?’ he echoed, hurrying after.
‘To the hospital. It’ll be hours yet, but Dr Creviet said to come in right away if my water broke.’
Her water had broken, so kind of an explosion, though it had been more of a trickle. He’d always thought when a woman’s water broke it was like a tidal wave.
Frankie started down the stairs, waddling precariously.
‘Whoa, hold on. I’ll—’ He tried to figure out how he could pick her up.
She waved him off. ‘I outweigh you now. Forget it.’ Then she doubled over. ‘Ouch.’
Panicked, Charley dived forward to break her fall.
She didn’t fall. She sat on the step, put her head between her knees and breathed. A minute later she straightened. ‘I should have some time before the next one.’
Then she went down the rest of the stairs on her butt while Charley hovered helplessly at her side.
‘My bag’s in the front closet.’
He retrieved it, snatching his cameras along the way.
Frankie picked up her purse, tossed him the car keys. ‘You drive.’ He opened the door. ‘What would you have done if I wasn’t
here?’
‘Same thing I always do, Charley.’
He opened the passenger door of the Dodge Caravan in the
driveway.
‘I handle it.’ She plopped into the seat.
He closed the door. Since when did they have a mini-van? The drive to St Michael Hospital on Villard Avenue was a blur, as was checking in and registration. He walked alongside Frankie’s wheelchair, biting his lip every time she experienced a contraction.
The room was so white – walls, tile, sheets, pillows – he felt like they were in a Stanley Kubrick movie. The only color in the place was Frankie. The only color in any place was always Frankie.
He stood around feeling helpless while a nurse assisted his wife into a hospital gown, also white, then peeked beneath it. ‘You’re at four,’ she announced. ‘I’ll be back to check on you. Use the call button if you need me sooner.’
Charley wanted to beg her to stay. He had no idea what he was doing.
‘Where’s the doctor?’ he asked.
‘On a gorgeous day like today, probably playing golf.’ ‘Shouldn’t he be here?’
‘Not when I’m at four.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘My cervix is dilated to four centimeters.’
‘Ow.’
‘Yeah. I can’t wait to find out what ten feels like.’
‘It’s going to keep happening?’
‘How do you think I get this basketball out of me without
something . . .’ She illustrated a widening circle with her hands. Charley gulped at the thought of any part of him widening that much so something that big could come out. Why on earth did women give birth? And after they did it once, what nut job
did it again?
Another contraction came and Frankie closed her eyes,
breathing slowly until it was over.
‘Does that help?’
‘Nope. But it gives me something to do.’
‘How long will this take?’
‘Hours.’
He’d known that; he’d just hoped he was wrong.
‘This is going to get worse before it gets better. Maybe you
want to . . .’
‘Yeah!’He jumped up, headed for the door. ‘You’re right. Thanks.’ He snatched his camera bag, found his favorite Nikon body
and a wide-angle lens. He made sure he had color film in it – though with all this white . . . maybe he should shoot black and white. He pulled out a second camera, added a portrait lens, then loaded it with black and white film.
When he returned to the bed, Frankie stared at him oddly. ‘What?’ he asked.
‘I thought . . .’ Her eyes lowered. ‘Never mind.’
He glanced at his bag, sitting right next to the exit, and knew what she’d thought. That he was going to keep going straight out that door. She had every right to and he felt like a slug.
‘I promised I’d be here for this,’ he said. ‘I’m not leaving.’ ‘Because you promised.’ Her disappointment was obvious. She wanted him to say he was there because he wanted to be,
because he was as excited about the baby as she was. But he couldn’t lie. However, there was one truth he could give her.
‘Because I love you, Fancy. I will always love you. Nothing will change that.’ He kissed her. ‘Nothing . . . As long as we both shall live, right?’
She peered into his face for a long time and he started to get scared. Then she smiled, though it was still sadder than he liked, and she took his hand. ‘Right.’
The nurse returned and announced, ‘Still at four.’ Hours passed that seemed like days.
A different nurse arrived and announced, ‘Five!’ He thought Frankie might eat the woman alive. He helped her walk.
She called him names.
They played some cards.
He wished he hadn’t quit smoking.
Through it all, he took pictures. He couldn’t help it. Pictures
were what he did.
The third nurse peered between Frankie’s legs and announced,
‘Six. One more and I’ll call the doctor.’ Then she frowned at Charley and said, ‘You need to put away the cameras. No one wants to see this.’ She waved her hand in the general direction of Frankie.
‘No,’ Charley said, and kept shooting. He’d been told to put away his cameras by bigger, badder, crazier people than her.
He continued shooting right through the next few announcements. ‘Seven.’
‘Eight.’
‘Nine!’
‘Time to push.’
Another nurse said, ‘You need to be coaching your wife, not playing with your new toy.’
He glanced at Frankie, who rolled her eyes and said, ‘I can handle this. Do your thing.’
God, he loved her.
‘We’ll see what Dr Creviet has to say about this.’ The nurse stalked off.
Dr Creviet merely gloved up and moved to the end of the delivery table. ‘Just stay out of my way.’
Bleeding, sweating, cursing, straining. His wife was a goddess. Charley recorded all of it. He couldn’t stop.
But when the tiny dark head emerged from between her legs,
then the equally tiny body slid out too, he was stunned into inertia. All he could do was stare.
‘You have a daughter.’ Dr Creviet plopped the baby on to Frankie’s belly.
Charley had thought he’d seen beauty before. He hadn’t been impressed. Now he understood why.
He’d never seen beauty until right now.
‘Lisa,’ Frankie said. She was crying.
Strangely, the baby looked like a Lisa.
Frankie stared at the child as if she’d never be able to stop. Charley’s finger, poised on the trigger, twitched, fired.
He hadn’t thought beauty could change anything. But in that moment, beauty changed him.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

What do you do when you are forgotten after twenty years? What do you do if you are the one who is remembered?

JUST ONCE tells the heartbreaking story of Francesca (Frankie), whose marriage to Charley fell apart years ago after tragedy struck their family. We also meet Hannah, the younger woman dealing with her own heartbreak, whom Charley married after leaving Frankie; and Charley, an award-winning photojournalist who has seen countless horrors throughout his career. When Charley shows up on Frankie’s doorstep believing that they are still married—with no recollection of the past twenty years—or his current wife, Hannah, Frankie is mystified.

After medical tests determine Charley has brain cancer, Frankie finds herself reluctantly caring for the man who devastated her twenty years earlier, while Hannah, his current wife, is relegated to the sidelines. How can Frankie forgive Charley, who left her when she needed him most? And how can Hannah cope with the impending death of the man she has loved for the last twenty years, as now more than ever she is faced with the hard truth that he has never stopped loving Frankie?
Book Links: Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Lori Handeland is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with more than 60 published works of fiction to her credit. Her novels, novellas, and short stories span genres from paranormal and urban fantasy to historical romance. After a quarter-century of success and accolades, she began a new chapter in her career. Marking her women’s fiction debut, Just Once (Severn House, January 2019) is a richly layered novel about two women who love the same man, how their lives intertwine, and their journeys of loss, grief, sacrifice, and forgiveness.

Lori set her sight on being an author at the age of ten. She remembers sitting at a typewriter before she knew how to type, pecking out a story about a family who went into space. As an only child, her summers were spent with that typewriter, television, and, above all, books. She recalls thinking that if she could write books of her own, she would never run out of books to read. As a young adult, she got sidetracked by the need to make a living. She worked as a waitress and later enrolled in college to become a teacher.

While student teaching, Lori started reading a life-changing book, How to Write a Romance and Get It Published. Within its pages. the author, Kathryn Falk, mentioned Romance Writers of America. There was a local chapter; Lori joined it, dived into learning all about the craft and business, and got busy writing a romance novel. With only five pages completed, she entered a contest where the prize was having an editor at Harlequin read her first chapter. She won.

Lori sold her first novel, a western historical romance, in 1993. In the 26 years since then, she has written eleven novels in the popular Nightcreature series, five installments in the Phoenix Chronicles, six works of spicy contemporary romance about the Luchettis, a duet of Shakespeare Undead novels, and many more books. Her fiction has won critical acclaim and coveted awards, including two RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America for Best Paranormal Romance (Blue Moon) and Best Long Contemporary Category Romance (The Mommy Quest), a Romantic Times Award for Best Harlequin Superromance (A Soldier’s Quest), and a National Reader’s Choice Award for Best Paranormal (Hunter’s Moon).

Lori Handeland lives in Southern Wisconsin with her husband. In between writing and reading, she enjoys long walks with their rescue mutt, Arnold, and occasional visits from her two grown sons and her perfectly adorable grandson.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads |
 
 
 

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128 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: Just Once by Lori Handeland”

  2. janinecatmom

    I do like women’s fiction. I have quite a few favorite authors and titles, but my all time favorite is Flirting With Forty by Jane Porter. I have loved all of the books she has written.

  3. Onyinye Elochukwu

    I have not explored women’s fiction. I have just not thought about it.

  7. Sonia

    I don’t think I have read any but that’s usually because I normally just read romance

  10. Rita Wray

    I read a lot of women’s fiction. I have read some really great books. One I loved was The Choices We Make by Karma Brown.

  12. Nicole (Nicky) Ortiz

    I am not good at knowing different genres. I don’t think I have and it would be because I haven’t gotten to it yet!
    Thanks for the chance!

  15. Mary C.

    Yes, I have. One of my favorites is Kristan Higgin’s Good Luck With That.

  16. Glenda M

    I honestly can’t name a favorite since I’ve read so many great ones.

  17. Monique D

    Some, it depends on the subject. My most recent favourite was Good Luck with That by Kristan Higgins. Sophie Kinsella is my all-time favourite, I think.

  18. Diana Tidlund

    Some but I prefer romance but
    I loved Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone

  19. Sarah L

    Technically yes, but I hate that it is called “women’s fiction”– there’s no such thing as “men’s fiction”

    • lorihandeland

      True. I don’t think women’s fiction is meant as a label of who the book is “for” but what the book is about. My agent explains it to me as books about women’s relationships.

  20. Teresa Williams

    I have read some and loved them all.My favorite was Kristan Higgens Good Luck With That.

  21. Lacey Waters

    I love women’s fiction 🙂 I couldn’t possibly pick just one favorite!

  22. Debra Branigan

    I sometimes read women’s fiction, but because I read a large variety of genres, I don’t read it as much as I should.

  23. Victoria

    I have several women’s fiction books on my TBR list but I haven’t read any of them yet – I am definitely intrigued by the genre overall.

  25. Martha Lawson

    No, I haven’t read woman’s fiction! I adore Lori’s books and can’t wait to read this one. It has intriqued me since I first read about it.

  28. Didi

    I think I read women’s fiction but then again I’m suck at identifying one genre to another, I tend to think they’re overlapping anyway. I like Debbie Macomber’s and RaeAnne Thayne’s (can theirs be put as women’s fiction?).

  29. John Smith

    “Have you explored women’s fiction? If not, why not? If so, what’s your favorite women’s fiction novel?” I guess I have–mostly in the last year or two, just as I’ve read “thrillers” for the first time, also! Some books have been typical romances or “chick lit.” I hugely enjoyed “How Hard Can It Be?” by Allison Pearson!

  30. Barbara Bates

    Just read The Christmas Sisters by Sarah Morgan and loved it!

  31. JenM

    I occasionally read “women’s fiction” although I really dislike that label. The most recent book I read and loved that I guess would fit in that genre was What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.

  33. Jennifer Beyer

    I have read some women’s fiction. I love JR Ward’s Bourbon Kings series.

  34. Marisela Zuniga

    No, I haven’t. Lately I’ve just been stuck on reading romance

  35. Janie McGaugh

    I haven’t really explored women’s fiction. I have so many other books to read in my preferred genre that I’ll never catch up!

  37. eawells

    Yes I’ve explored and read women’s fiction since a few of my favorite contemporary romance authors are now writing in this genre. Favorites include Kristan Higgins and Robyn Carr.

  38. BookLady

    I have not yet explored women’s fiction, but this book sounds fascinating. Great scene and excerpt. Thanks for sharing.

  39. Patricia B.

    I haven’t read much women’s fiction lately. Life has been too busy and I have been reading the Harlequin category books. The authors and stories are well done and easy to fit in to that lifestyle. This book starts during what were my college years during the Vietnam War. Reading the excerpt brought back many memories. I am intrigued and would like to follow these interesting people to see how life treats them. You have done a nice job of capturing the time and the people. I wish you the best in 2019.

    • Patricia B.

      I just read the second excerpt and it is so real. Took me back to my water breaking the first time. It parallels some of the separation issues we had while I was pregnant, only in our case it was due to military deployments. This will be a book I will definitely be reading.

  40. Jeanna Massman

    I do like women’s fiction but I haven’t read any for awhile for no particular reason. So many books, so little time. Jan Karon is a a favorite author.

  41. ELF

    I tend to shy away from women’s fiction because I like my HEAs, and I don’t always get one in women’s fiction.

  43. hartfiction

    Women’s fiction is my favorite genre! I don’t know if I could pick a favorite, but some of my favorites are written by Lisa Wingate, Denise Hunter, and Katie Ganshert.

  45. Celeste Herrin

    I haven’t read very many, but my favorite so far is Night of Miracles by ELIZABETH BERG.

  46. laurieg72

    I enjoy a lot of women’s fiction authors: Nora Roberts, Debbie Macomber, Sue Monk Kidd, Susan Wiggs, Jodi Picult, Jane Ann Porter, Sarah Morgan, Kristan Higgins , Robyn Carr, Carla Neggers and Sherryl Woods to name a few.

    favorites: Susan Wigg’s The Apple Orchard, Debbie Macomber I read all of her work. Kristan Higgins If You Only Knew

  47. Natalija

    I don’t think I have read a women’s fiction novel. Why? I guess that’s due to the fact that I need my romance to be front and central and that’s no the case with this genre.

  48. Amy Woolard

    I really have not explored women’s fiction, although I am not sure why that is. I must say that I enjoyed this post very much & I would love to read this book. Thank you for opening my eyes to Women’s fiction!!

  49. Amy R

    Have you explored women’s fiction? No, not really
    If not, why not? I prefer romance and sex in my books

  53. Kelly D

    I usually just stick to reading mysteries so I haven’t explored this topic of reading yet.

  56. Amy Donahue

    I’m not sure what counts as women’s fiction but I read every Jodi Picoult I can get my hands on.

  57. erinf1

    wow… this sounds fantastic! Umm… I read and loved Rainy Day Friends by Jill Shalvis. Thanks for sharing!

  58. Stacey A Smith

    What is woman’s Fiction? don’t know if I read it or not.

    • lorihandeland

      Books that deal with women’s relationships–mother/daughter, friends, sisters, etc. They may or may not have romance or end HEA.

  59. Dianna

    I read a lot of women’s fiction. Right now, I’m reading “All We Ever Wanted” by Emily Giffin.

  61. Banana cake

    I love women’s fiction. I love that some of my favorite romance authors are also writing women’s fiction. Susan Mallery, Jill Shalvis and Sarah Morgan are some of my favorite romance authors now also writing women’s fiction.

  62. Cassandra D

    I haven’t explored women’s fiction yet, just reading contemporary romance books lately.