Twenty Years On...

 “Scout Patterson had been running away from home for twenty years.”

My first book, Scent of the Roses, was first released twenty years ago this month. Not exactly the book-birthday-to-end-all-book-birthdays, but still pretty, stinking cool.

The entire Oberon series has been languishing on my hard drive for the past several years, ever since my publisher and I parted ways (for the second and last time) and I got my rights back to the books. At first, I thought I'd update the books—but SO MUCH HAS CHANGED in the past twenty years. Not only would the task have been hopelessly daunting (not to mention time-consuming) but I just didn’t feel like it would hit the same or land correctly no matter what I did.

I also felt like I was being somewhat disloyal to my small band of fans who had loved the books as-is.

So, I decided to pivot. I'll be re-releasing the series (starting next month) in a new annotated edition. 

I talk about what scenes are my favorite (or—thinking of books 3, 7 and 8—my least favorite), or scenes that I particularly remember writing. I've added some fun facts that (hopefully) readers will enjoy. There will be a playlist. Basically, all my thoughts on what it was like to write this/these book(s).

Scent of the Roses is available for pre-order now. It’s due to release on September 25th. With luck, and barring any more of life's little surprises, A Sight to Dream Of, and Sound of a Voice That is Still will follow in October and November, respectively.

But the entire series is up for preview on my website now (http://www.OberonCalifornia.US) less the very cool covers I’ve made for the three digital omnibuses that will follow.

There will be print books, too, but these books are BIG. So, for the print versions, I'll be creating a separate document for the annotations.

But, in any case, what I really came here to say is that, regardless of whether you’ve read the series previously or not, I hope you’ll take a chance on the Oberon gang when they return.

To quote Sir Paul McCartney, these past twenty years have been a long and winding road—for me, and for Scout. 

Pre-Order your copy of Scent of the Roses at:  https://books2read.com/u/4EpR5Y

Scent of the Roses

Oberon Book 1.0

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For years, Scout Patterson has tried to run from the mistakes in her past.  Now, she's coming home--to face the ghosts she's never laid to rest, and the love she thought she'd lost forever.  Reawakening that love would be a dream come true.  Unfortunately, love is not the only emotion that can last forever. 

Memories and dreams are the only things that have gotten Nick Greco through the past twenty years.  Memories of the girl he loved and lost, and dreams of what his life would be like, if he could only find her again.   And if he can bring himself to believe that anything she tells him is true.

  Can the star-crossed lovers put aside the hurt and distrust they still harbor toward each other?  Or will the evil which already nearly destroyed them once, triumph yet again?

Going Home

I was planning on writing a post about Autumn and why it's my favorite season, and struggling with how to put a fresh spin on such a familiar topic, and then my mother fell and broke her neck. 

Yes, I mean that literally. Apparently it's becoming more and more common especially among older women. Something to look forward to, I suppose. 

So here I am back in my parents' home for the next several weeks (although I hasten to add that this is not the house I grew up in) and for all intents and purposes, our roles have been reversed. My mother needs help dressing and bathing and eating. I find myself nagging her to drink more water, asking her if she needs to use the bathroom, complaining about her stubbornness and lack of patience. It's odd to see how we've come almost full-circle. And it's fitting that we should do so in the Autumn of the year. 

This is also going to be the first Autumn I've spent on the East Coast in almost thirty years. Already there are things that seem different than before; and other things that I am re-discovering. I've also been reconnecting with relatives I hadn't seen in some time, catching up on things I've missed, hearing old stories I'd half-forgotten

All in all, it's been an interesting and very colorful time, full of nostalgia and melancholy and memento mori--everything that Autumn should be. 

It struck me tonight that homecoming is also the theme of two of the books I have on sale this month. 

In Scent of the Roses, the first book in the trilogy that makes up my new box set Welcome to Oberon, Scout Patterson finds herself back at home after twenty years, where she's faced with many of the same emotions I'm dealing with...less the serial killer. So far. I hope. ;-)

In In the Dark, (the first book in my Children of Night series) twins Marc and Julie return to San Francisco to find that nothing is as they'd expected and, in a classic role reversal, they have to rescue the parent who'd once seemed invincible.  

Both will be available for a limited time for only .99--Welcome to Oberon is on sale now and for the next two weeks, In the Dark is on sale from October 15th through the 31st.  More information on both can be found at www.PGForte.com

What about you? Do you have a favorite season? A favorite theme? A favorite family story? I'd love to know!

Win-A-Book Wednseday with...PG Forte!

PG Forte

PG Forte inhabits a world only slightly less strange than the ones she creates. Filled with serendipity, coincidence, love at first sight and dreams come true…it also bears an uncanny resemblance to Berkeley, California.

She wrote her first serialized story when she was still in her teens. The sexy, ongoing adventure tales were very popular at her oh-so-proper, all girls, Catholic High School, where they helped to liven up otherwise dull classes. Even if her teachers didn’t always think so.

Scent of the Roses

Scent of the Roses, the first book in my Oberon series, is also my first published romance. Authors talk a lot about ‘books of the heart’ and Scent has definitely been that for me.

The story began as a single sentence that popped into my head while I was driving along Route 80 one day on my way back to Berkeley from San Rafael. "Scout Patterson had been running away from home for twenty years." 

Who was Scout? Why was she running? It would take me several years and nine very long books to answer those questions! 

The series is set in the fictional town of Oberon, California—a place that combines everything I love about my adopted home state. The town became so real to me that, even now, I will sometimes find myself in one of the places I "borrowed" for Oberon and will experience a moment of disorientation as real-life and my fictional world collide. I’ve been so enamored of the town that I’ve warned my daughter that when I’m old and senile I will probably believe I live there. She’s agreed to play along with me.

There’s something magical about the tiny coast town of Oberon, California…

When a slumber party prank goes awry, magical forces are unleashed that will forever alter the lives of four teenaged girls. Twenty years later, Scout Patterson has finally returned to Oberon in search of answers. What she finds instead are lies and betrayal…and a second chance at her first love.

But Scout’s homecoming is marred by a series of deadly attacks, and officer Nick Greco must rush to solve an all-but-forgotten crime or risk losing her again—this time for good. 

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