Please help me welcome back guest author Liza O’Connor. Liza has just published the fifth book in her Long Road to Love series, The Hardest Love. I hope you enjoy Liza’s works as much as I do!
Our memories How reliable are they?
When I was in college, I roomed with a very strange woman, and together we made the strangest occupants of our dorm hall. Without even trying, we managed to terrify our dorm ‘mother’ into thinking we were witches. (or so I recall.)
I will state right now, I am not, nor ever have been a witch. However, my roomie later in life did become a good Wiccan. But there was no witchcraft going on during college. We were just two theatrical young women in a very bizarre college where classes would be shut down and all students corralled into giant auditoriums to watch fake healings. During that particular week, I took a puppet ostrich, a pillow, a blanket and the book Elmer Gantry to the never-ending pontification and healing event. There I read aloud the first page of the book over and over for a very long week.
I still remember the words: Elmer Gantry was drunk. Lovingly and pugnaciously, he was drunk.
If you google Elmer, you will discover that quote isn’t correct. However, it is what my brain recalls clearly, and I did read those lines over a hundred times.
So why aren’t they right? How could I read a sentence a hundred times, and still have it wrong? When did I start getting it wrong?
I probably had it correct when reading it directly from the book. But somewhere during the week, I stopped actually reading it. I’d just open the book and burst out in oration. Thus, it probably started to change then. I also remember the cult leader finally seeing me with my pillow blanket and puppet ostrich far back in the balcony and sending his security goons after us, thus requiring us to scatter.
I’ve no idea if that really happened. Before I found out how terrible memories are, I would have sworn it was true. But now, I’m not swearing to anything. The human brain is a terrible recorder of facts. If you want semi-factual memoirs, write it down as they happen. They’ll still be wrong, but that’s as close to factual as you’ll get to the truth. Unless you are willing to walk around with a video cams & mics attached to you. That would get you closer to the facts.
Turns out you will alter a memory every time you recall it. The more you recall it, the more you change it. Thus, the memories you remember the best are very likely your most inaccurate memories. I don’t know about you, but I find that concept highly annoying and unfair.
The Hardest Love
A Long Road to Love Series
By Liza O’Connor
BLURB
THE HARDEST LOVE IS TO LOVE YOURSELF.
Sam Lancaster is a lost man. Since returning from the war in Iraq, his life has been spiraling out of control. Attempting to escape his troubles, first he moves to a small town of Denton, Iowa, where he becomes the sheriff and beats up the local trouble. When that ceases to work, he seeks peace at a Vermont hunting lodge, where he gets arrested for shooting fish rather than throwing them a line. After spending five months in a work camp to pay for his many crimes, he gets out only to discover Carrie is in danger—again. Convinced he’s the only one who can keep the little Pint Size safe, he rushes back to NYC.
During his absence, Mars has turned the Lancaster estate into a sanctuary for injured vets. Sam agrees to take a test that proves he has Swiss cheese memories that are inaccurate and dangerous. Even knowing this, his PTSD continues to worsen. While he’s deemed to be a poor candidate for a new method of self-correction, his many friends will try anything to save him.
When danger shows up at the Sanctuary, Mars gives him a mission to evaluate the potential threat from certain staff members. On top of his list is Sam’s new girlfriend. Figures!
EXCERPT
Sam dreamt of rescuing Carrie from the bullet ridden car. There were over forty assassins, some on the rooftop, others in windows, and over a dozen on the ground. With a single gun, he took them out. When he opened the door to secure Carrie, she ran past him and into the arms of Dan.
After she ended her ‘Near Death’ kiss with her husband, she turned to him and her eyes rounded in fear. Sam followed her gaze. Damn it! I’ve left one assassin alive. He raised his gun, aimed and click. Out of bullets.
With only one option remaining, he jumped in front of the slow-moving bullet. Pain exploded in his chest.
Sam sat up, his heart pounding. As the pounding continued, he sought another source of the noise. Pissed that he’d just died for unrequited love, he stormed to the door and yanked it open. “What?” he snapped.
A tall, muscular young blonde grinned at him. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”
Her words made no sense. Was he still dreaming? He followed her gaze to his crotch. Shit. He’d gone to bed naked. He chucked her under the chin bringing her eyes back to his face. “Is there some reason you’ve woken me in the wee hours of the morning? I’m a guest, not a patient.”
She laughed. “I’m to take you to see Carlos.”
“Oh, sorry I yelled at you. Come in, I’ll be dressed in a second.”
He grabbed the pants lying on the floor and put them on.
“You prefer commando, eh?”
Sam glanced over at her. While she was a bit plain, he liked her smile…and her ability to appreciate a well-toned body. “Are you Carlos’s physical therapist, by chance?”
“Use to be, but he prefers Colin.” She grabbed his shirt from the floor and tossed it to him.
While in the process of buckling his belt, he still managed to snatch the shirt from the air and drop it to the bed.
“Quick reflexes,” she said with admiration. “How do you keep in such good shape?”
He shrugged. “Just normal stuff. Yank drunks out of their cars and cuff them. Kick the hell out of the local thugs. Carry grown men down two flights of stairs.” Curious to see if he’d terrified her, he glanced up. Nope. She still wore a gorgeous smile.
“So you’re a cop with martial arts training who takes care of his drunken buddies?”
He pulled on his shirt. “Not bad. I was a sheriff with martial arts training who helped my sick buddy to the car so I could get him to a hospital before he died.”
“And did you?”
“Of course. Why would you think otherwise?”
“You seemed a bit grumpy at the door.”
BUY LINKS
The Hardest Love
Amazon
Book Five
Other books in the A Long Road to Love series
Book One
Worst Week Ever
Amazon
“Love this book and couldn’t stop laughing from beginning to end.” 5 stars – Alves – Amazon
Book Two
Oh Stupid Heart
Amazon
“Be warned though, this book is completely different from The Worst Week Ever. Yes, there is still humor, dry wit, situations that you would think…NOT AGAIN but this one humanizes Trent more.” 5 stars – Brian’s Mom – Amazon
Book Three
Coming to Reason
Amazon
Once again, Ms. O’Connor has written a brilliant book about the complexities of relationships, good and bad. Again, to me, the book is the best break up book EVER and it left my heart singing in the end. Best.Book.Ever…
Book Four
Climbing out of Hell
Amazon
“In typical @Liza0Connor fashion, crazy things happen which make you laugh out loud.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Liza O’Connor
Liza lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels. She loves to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
LIZA O’CONNOR & UPCOMING BOOKS:
Liza’s Blog and Website Facebook Twitter
Jenna Jaxon Romance--because passion is timeless. 