Still A Soft Place by Liz Flaherty

In 2013, Harbourlight books, an imprint of Pelican Book Group, released my only inspirational novel, A Soft Place to Fall. The cover was beautiful and the reviews good. The editing was excellent, although--as always--there were house rules I didn't like. (I still flinch when I see OK in a book instead of okay. During the editing of this book, I took all of them out I could, just to save myself.)

The book pretty much tanked. This isn't the only time I've ever had a book not do well and I don't blame anyone for it, but this was one that niggled at me. (In my second set of parentheses, I hate the word niggled, too, but I can't think of another one that fits.) 

One reason it may not have been successful is that what I call inspirational is more likely "inspirational-light." I don't say stuff when I mean crap, or darn when I mean damn. I can't pretend forgiveness doesn't leave scar tissue in its wake. Pam Thibodeaux says she writes inspirational with an edge, and I like to think I do, too. 

Back to that niggle. It just wouldn't stop. Maybe because marriage resurrected is one of my favorite plot points ever. To me, it is an actual trope, but I'm not sure about that. I think it's my favorite for personal reasons, in that I have a long and happy marriage that we've breathed life into more than once. It's important to me to share that the "breathing life into" doesn't preclude "long and happy."

So, in a move I don't take lightly, I got the rights back to A Soft Place to Fall and released it again at the end of December. It has a lovely new cover created by Nancy Fraser and okay is spelled out. I didn't change much because, even though the book itself might be dated. I believe the story is not. 

While Early and Nash's story hasn't achieved bestseller status anywhere but it in my own mind, it has done better this time around. I have learned lessons from this. 

• Sometimes you need to go with a gut feeling even when your gut is notoriously wrong.
• I really can write inspirational, but I should never try to be something I'm not. (Third parentheses. Yeah, I already knew that, but it bothered me I didn't fit into the community of inspirational writers. It kind of still does.)
• Even when a new release is not New but Again, it's still so much fun. 

Thanks for listening. I'll just tack Early and Nash's information here on the end. I hope, if you read it, you enjoy their story. 

Early McGrath doesn't want freedom from her thirty-year marriage to Nash, but when it's forced upon her, she does the only thing she knows to do - she goes home to the Ridge to reinvent herself.
Only what is someone who's spent her life taking care of other people supposed to do when no one needs her anymore? Even as the threads of her life unravel, she finds new ones - reconnecting with the church of her childhood, building the quilt shop that has been a long-time dream, and forging a new friendship with her former husband.
The definition of freedom changes when it's combined with faith, and through it all perhaps Early and Nash can find a Soft Place to Fall.

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/hn9m6t4s

D2D: https://books2read.com/u/bW57yx