Meet the Characters!

Official release day of SAY YOU'LL BE MINE!! After months of writing, rewriting, reading copy edits, and weeks of marketing preparations, the book hits bookstores today! I'm very excited and am off to celebrate tonight.

For the next few days, I will post information to get readers better acquanted with the story. For today, let's mee the characters.

SAY YOU'LL BE MINE has a fairly large cast of characters and multiple view points. Although, this is undeniably Isabel’s book, each of the characters in SAY YOU’LL BE MINE really have their own stories that complicate and enrich the main plot-line.

ISABEL GALLEGOS
As the owner and CEO of Gallegos Wines, Isabel is used to having the power to make decisions and even more used to seeing them carried out. However, when her cousin dies and motherhood is suddenly thrust upon her, Isabel finds that she has no power to control even her own destiny.
Now, when she’s in the process of selling Gallegos, she must to travel to Mendoza, the wine country of Argentina where she and her parents once lived, to meet the children who need her to be the person her cousin Brenda hoped she would be.

NICK REEVES
Nick grew up the fatherless son of an alcoholic mother. He follows in her footsteps without even realizing what he’s doing. In his twenties, he falls in love with Isabel while attending college in Argentina. He is moved by the close relationship she has with her parents and encourages them to move to America to start their business. Eventually, he marries Isabel. His drinking becomes so bad that after repeated attempts to help him get healthy, Isabel gives up and divorces him.
After the divorce, he continues to work at Gallegos. When he gets sober and rebuilds his life, he meets a new woman. They are due to get married once the winery sells and he’s finally free of his entanglements with Isabel. When Isabel gets the call about her cousin’s death, he sees this as a potential obstacle to both their plans of selling the winery, and decides to accompany her to Argentina.

BRENDA AND ANDRES GARCIA
Isabel’s cousins who die in a skiing accident, leaving behind three children.

RAMIRO GARCIA
Brother to Andres. Ramiro was in love with Brenda back when he was young, wild and irresponsible. Brenda cared about him, but chose Andres to marry and build a life. This caused bad blood between Andres and Ramiro and they eventually stopped talking. Ramiro was accused of stealing from his mother, and disowned by all his family. But now Ramiro has turned his life around, or so he says. But no one trusts him, especially the children’s grandmother who makes Isabel promise to keep him out of the kids’ lives.

ADELMO GARCIA
Eight-year-old Adelmo is devastated to lose his parents in a skiing accident, but the agony is compounded when he learns that his mother appointed a cousin from America to be their guardian. Adelmo's Goal quickly becomes to make sure he gets to stay in Argentina even if he has to live with a man his father hated.

JULIETA GARCIA
Julieta is only four and all she wants is to be loved. She wants to find safety and reassurance and feel less afraid.


SANDRA GARCIA
Sandra is the oldest sibling at ten-years-old, and she is the one who has the most in common with Isabel. As the only one who actually met Isabel, she feels a connection to her and she wants to trust that her mother knew what she was doing when she appointed Isabel their guardian. She’s also convinced that if Isabel and Nick get re-married, they can all be a family again.

ROSA CALVO
Isabel’s best friend in Argentina who finds herself falling in love with the enemy. Ramiro is rude and obnoxious and dangerous. But he’s also incredibly sexy and is able to make Rosa forget that she’s an aging divorcee. So when it appears that there will be a battle between Ramiro and Isabel, Rosa has to choose between friendship and love.

TIA DOMINGA
Losing her only child is the most heartbreaking thing that can happen to a mother, and Tia Dominga avoids a complete break-down only because Brenda has three children who need an adult to comfort them. But she knows that she can only take care of them temporarily until Isabel returns from America and takes charge of Brenda’s children.

SAY YOU'LL BE MINE is available at all Barnes & Noble and online stores.

Enjoy!

Julia

I Won't Miss You, Mom

After flying on a redeye, I arrived in Boston this morning, pretty worn out. I can never sleep on an airplane, and to make things worse American Airline thinks it's a good idea to show a movie on those screens that come down from cieling on the center aisle so that the bright flickering light makes you feel like you're at a disco club from the 70's.

So, tired today, but I realized I'm not as worried about the kids as I used to be when they were younger. Maybe because I know they won't miss me as much as they did when they were little. I remeber leaving for writer's conferences and calling my husband a million times. I worried about who would read them a book before bed (my husband of course buy my mom ego told me he wouldn't do it as well), what they would eat, and how they would live without me there telling them I loved them.

Now, I drop them off at school and my daughter, who is still at the age where she can show affection and not be paranoid about it, will say, "I love you, Mom." My son, on the other hand, told her the other day that she should not say that so darned loud as she's getting out of the car. I sort of joked and said, "Hey, why not? And where is the I love you from you?" He shook his head and got out of the car. I yelled, I love you loudly and he ran away. LOL.

Well, I guess it's my job to keep saying it even if they don't want to hear it. But it does give me a feeling that they can be apart from me now without going through mommy withdrawls. Which makes me more relaxed on my trips.

I will call home tonight, and remind them that I love them. But, I'll also enjoy reading a novel in peace in my hotel room and getting a good night's sleep : )

And for any Bostonians out there, I will leave Say You'll Be Mine bookmarks at the BN in Copley Square and any other book store I run across.

Happy weekend to all!

Julia