One of my favorite authors, and dear friend, Dana Pratola, consented to answer a few questions and give readers an inside look at her latest book, VOICE OF TRUTH.
Welcome, Dana. Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born and raised in New Jersey, though I don’t consider myself a “Jersey girl.” That’s taken on a negative connotation thanks to certain moron-driven TV shows. I love Rascal Flatts and several other country artists, but don’t consider myself a country music fan. It’s sounding like I just can’t commit, lol, but I’ve been married to my husband, Rob, for 29 years. I make acquaintances easily, but not friends. I try to be very careful who I align myself with. Even Jesus had an inner circle, though he had so many followers.
You have a number of best-selling books, but I understand there’s a recent one, VOICE OF TRUTH, where’d the idea for it come from?
I’ve always wanted to be able to play piano. Not learn, just wake up one day and know how. Then I thought, wouldn’t that be amazing if it happened to someone, only with a singing voice?
That’s a fascinating thought! Give us an idea of the storyline.
Sophia Gallo is a school teacher, who can’t carry a tune in a bucket, until one day she’s miraculously gifted with an amazing singing voice. Her life takes some unexpected turns and she stores up some regrets, as well as some secrets. Enter Cade Fioretti, a biographer looking to unearth all those things she’s kept carefully hidden. And he’s hot, lol.
Of course, he is. Can we read an excerpt?
She washed the dishes as she spoke of her early memories of her grandparents. It was a good thing he had the recorder for he hardly heard a word. As he watched her in her baggie pajamas and old gray sweater, pushed up at the sleeves, he thought how nice it would be to have the freedom to come up behind her, wrap his arms around her waist and nuzzle her ear.
She might appear the sophisticated temptress to the rest of the world, but in her personal life she was green as a forgotten garden well, full of water sweet and deep, but too long overlooked and untended. Even his objectivity told him this ought not to be. Something special and beautiful, particularly a woman, should be cared for, loved.
He swore under his breath and clicked off the recorder. Objectivity, he told himself, was in danger of falling into that well and drowning. It was certain to be a slow and magnificent death.
Sophia glanced over her shoulder. “What’s the matter?”
Cade stood, ran his hands down the thighs of his jeans. “I need to stretch my legs.”
Sophia reached for a dishtowel and dried her hands. “You weren’t sitting that long.”
“Yeah, well, I need to stretch.”
She tucked the rag into the handle of a cabinet door and faced him. “Why are you so edgy all of a sudden?”
“I’m not edgy,” he snapped.
She arched a thin, perfect brow. “What do you call it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m having a reaction to your waffles.”
She laughed, not a little, but with her whole body, leaving him no choice but to follow.
He was having a reaction all right, but waffles had nothing to do with it.
VOICE OF TRUTH
By DANA PRATOLA
Available at: http://www.amazon.com/Voice-Truth-Dana-Pratola-ebook/dp/B00VUBNRB2 and http://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_46&products_id=663
Suzanne D. Williams, author, can be reached at: http://suzanne-williams-photography.blogspot.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/suzannedwilliamsauthor