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GUEST POST BY KEN LA SALLE

I am so excited to have you here today, Ken. I have read books from you that have dealt with cookies, zombies, personal success, magic, fantasy and love. I have enjoyed each and every one. You are here to share your thoughts about your Heaven series. So…let’s begin.

Grief is Funny

(Emotional Honesty in Heaven Denied)

So, I’m sitting in a radio-show studio, just before going on the air – this was a couple of years ago – and one of the hosts asks me a question I’d been hearing a lot that still took me by surprise. Were we going to see a sequel to Heaven Enough?

I say the question took me by surprise because, ever since the day I put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to write my first novel, I always had sequels in mind. Most of my brainstorming for any novel includes some strategizing as to where I take that story next.

But Heaven Enough was a different kind of novel for me. The idea sprang forth fully self-contained. For a novel about a man who had lost his wife to later find love on the Pacific Crest Trail; what more was there? I had even taken my wife on a drive through Warner Springs, telling her about the characters and pointing out where they would go, finishing with a definite conclusion – Heaven Enough would be a stand-alone story.

As so often is the case, life had other plans. The story of Matt Murphy and Heather Brooker and this unlikely pairing of one broken man who insisted he wasn’t with one indominable woman who bore a tragic secret caught on rather unexpectedly. Here and there, readers would inquire after a sequel. Until the day came when I was sitting in that studio and I realized that my readers were right: Heaven Enough needed a sequel.

… As it turned out, my publisher wasn’t interested. Too much time had passed since the first book’s release, I was told. I’d be smart to move on.

But if I was smart, I wouldn’t be a novelist. I had spent too much time thinking about a sequel to let it go – not just one but two! My publisher, Limitless, while not interested in the sequels, released me from my contract so that I could self-publish all of the Heaven novels. All that was left was to write them.

The smart move would be to follow that sad tale of Heather and Matt with a more upbeat chapter. Everyone was asking about Neal and Babette, the flamboyant cross-dresser who appeared towards the end of the first novel. Perhaps, some suggested, I focus more on them.

While I knew that might make for a more marketable title, I also knew Matt wasn’t finished with Heather. Babette and Neal will have their moment, of this you can be sure, but I couldn’t move on until Matt could move on. Only… how could Matt move on? Heather’s story was wrapped in a tight bow. Where could Matt turn to share his awful grief?

In Heaven Enough, I made it clear that Heather was not only alone in the world, she’d also never married and was still a virgin. That is ironclad. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t have a life, that she didn’t love. And, if the Heaven novels are about anything, they are about love and opening ourselves up to love. And, so, I planted an imaginary photograph on an imaginary Internet for Babette to find, a photograph of a much younger Heather with a much younger man posing outside of a chapel in Las Vegas.

That was all Matt would need. I knew Babette wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth shut, especially with a little help from Neal and Babs, Matt’s mother. Once he knew some strand of Heather’s life remained out there, somewhere, Matt would step onto the pages of a new novel, a more complicated novel than Heaven Enough. Part Bromance, part romantic comedy, part road trip, the new novel would touch on missed opportunities and regrets, love in all of its forms and coming to terms with who you are after who you are is almost unrecognizable.

That novel, I titled Heaven Denied.

Heaven Denied is now available in ebook and paperback, with an audiobook on its way. You can also pick up Heaven Enough in ebook, paperback, and audiobook. Look for the third novel in this series, Heaven For Now, coming late this year.

Congratulations, Ken, for having written a love story that has stuck with me, making me look inside myself, not just along for the ride. I am happy we will have a third book, and I hope you will put me at the top of list when it becomes available for review.

See My Reviews:

I didn’t realize I had read so many, each unique in their own way. I have laughed and cried my way through them, and I eagerly wait for the next one…

Take a look at these fabulous covers:

Wormfood Island Cookies: Sluts of the Snack World Once Removed False Starts: Mistakes & Missteps Growing Up In The 70s Work of Art: An Intention of Flowers Climbing Maya Max Dedge in The Time of The Uniborg Heaven Enough Heaven Denied