Page 100 of Devotion: Isn't What It Seems (Love Isn't What It Seems 1)

I took a deep breath. This was my least favorite part of any book promotion. Smiling and chitchatting with strangers. Sometimes it was hard to be all bubbly and sparkling personality. Needless to say, I didn’t have a sparkling personality.

I stepped onto the little podium and applause greeted me. I placed a practiced smile on my face. I spotted Margaret with her ladies from the book club and just like that my fake smile turned into a real one.

I took a seat designated for me and slightly nervous, I placed my hands in my lap to prevent myself from fidgeting.

“Welcome, Eve,” the speaker greeted me.

“Yay,” my book club ladies cheered and I shook my head laughing. They really were my biggest fans.

“Thanks.”

“So I have to say, your latest book,” she started. “It is unlike any of your others. While all your other books were amazing, the knowledge of not being real never left you. But this one,” she put her hand across her heart. “With this one, it felt real. I was lost in it and would have sworn it was happening to me. I cried, I laughed, and I got mad, all the feelings came with it.”

“Thank you,” I chuckled. “If that’s the case, I did my job right.”

“You certainly did, my dear,” she commended me.

She pulled a piece of paper and read it. “One of the readers would like to know what inspired this story?”

“Hmmm,” I knew that question would be brought up. It was a question that is always asked and I certainly wasn’t going to say Lachlan McLaren and my short term marriage. “I guess hope. We all reach a point in our lives when it seems pointless to carry on. But then something or someone just brings it back.”

She nodded understanding.

“Ok, Eve. Next question is a bit harder. Nowhere in the book is it mentioned where it takes place. So where does it take place?”

I laughed. “Everywhere. I didn’t want to tie it to one country or one city. I hope when readers are getting lost in it, they imagine it to be wherever they want it to be. For this story to be their reality, their hope.”

“You certainly accomplished that,” she agreed. “But what I want to know, where is this reality for you?”

I smiled and shrugged my shoulders.

“Oh,” she exclaimed. “That smile, it is a challenge. I have a theory,” she continued. “Can I share it with you and you can tell me if I am right?”

“Sure,” I answered but I was never going to tell her if she was right.

“I think you were imagining Scotland as your setting in this story,” she announced.

I tilted my head, observing her. “I guess it could be.”

“Descriptions of the mountains, smell of the sea, it just sounds like Scotland,” she stated.

“For you, the reality in the book seems to be Scotland,” I told her smiling. “And that was exactly the point of not naming the place.”

She laughed out loud. “You got me. So you won’t tell us what place you specifically had in mind when you were writing this?”

“No, I will not.” I tried to soften the blow with a smile.

“Ok, I forgive you. Because I absolutely love your books.”

“Well, thank you. I will graciously accept your forgiveness.”

Chuckling, she announced turning to the audience. “Ok, now a few questions directly from the audience.”

Margaret and her ladies all put their hands up like little school girls and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Seems Eve likes the ladies in the right corner,” my interviewer proclaimed. “You know those ladies?” she whispered so I could only hear.

“Yes,” I spoke softly. “They are family.”

---