Books and Broomsticks: BETWEEN HURT AND HEALING by Jackie Melvin

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BETWEEN HURT AND HEALING

Jackie Melvin

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Tate Publishing

Date of Publication: February 2, 2016

# of pages: 424

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Introverted Denise Staukhill just wanted a quiet life. She never dreamed she would find a man like Darren Olsen to share it with. An unexpected tragedy ends their fairy-tale romance, and Denise once again finds herself alone and devastated.

Years later, the handsome head football coach from the local high school and Darren’s best friend, Eric Ortellio, tries desperately to help her find peace. As their relationship starts to grow, the manipulative Coach Nick Nelson, trying to protect his secretive past, steps in to ruin both of them.

Will Denise and Eric’s friendship sustain the lies and manipulation that the evil Nelson has weaved? Can Denise find the strength to let go of Darren and hold on to Eric, or will her faithfulness to Darren keep Eric out of her life forever?

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Denise talking to her twelve-year-old daughter Cissy, about her own mother:

“She loved color in her drawings, bright colors: greens, reds, blues, yellows. All her pictures were happy. She told me when I was your age to take whatever makes you sad and color it in. I guess she just meant that colors are happy and sad is black and white.”

Cissy’s response:

“Maybe that’s what Grandma meant when she said, “color it in.” Celebrations are colorful like birthday balloons and wedding cakes. Funerals are black, and hospitals are white. Funerals are always sad and hospitals can be sad sometimes too. So if you find what makes you sad and color it in, you can be happy."

I have never pretended that I have adjusted well to my empty nest.  I spent my first year as an empty nester in a new town with no friends and no job. I was lost and for the first time in my life, lonely. As someone who calls herself an extreme introvert you know when I say that I’m lonely, it must be really bad.  I had to do something with my time, so I decided to do what I love and write; Between Hurt and Healing is the result. 

I have been married for thirty years; Denise Olsen was married for seventeen when she is suddenly widowed.  I have not stood in her shoes, nor have I had to say goodbye to my children forever, like her high school friend.  But because I have lost others in my life, I do understand the void that is left within when we lose someone we love.  And that is what I wanted to focus on with this book.  That although we will never understand and even though we shouldn’t, we will always ask why, but ultimately we must find peace.   

Maybe writing this story was therapy because of all the people that I have lost or the times I have grieved with friends who have lost loved ones. I also believe that at different points in our lives we will go through the stages of grief when we don’t actually suffer from the death of someone close to us. I think we can feel something of a loss when we have a severe life change or when relationships end. Long time friendships are broken or family ties severed. Trusts are broken, forgiveness isn’t given or maybe not accepted -- either way a loss has occurred. 

So as I watched my kids leave one, then two, then three, and I turned them totally over to God, I found myself alone. And in my grief of letting them go, this book was born. It took many twists and turns while I was writing but God knew that I needed something to occupy my time without the sounds and activities that a full house brings. So I created this family with all the activity, love, support, and excitement that households endure everyday. But also with this grief that is hanging over their heads. 

I wanted to portray the strength of this family.  And how life does go on, the kids grow and change, friends are made and relationships develop.  But because God did instill in us a spirit of resilience, I wanted to show this family having fun and laughing and doing the things that they love to do.   

I hope I did just that.   

Enjoy! 

Jackie Melvin is a hopeless introvert: hasn’t seen the inside of a movie theater in a decade. She is despairingly sappy: will cry at commercials, songs and memories. She is a disheartened housekeeper: good before the kids, great with the kids, now the laundry room doubles as the master closet. An unexceptional athlete, the weather matters! A wanna be nutritionist, if only chocolate had nutritional value. A mediocre musician: been playing the same songs for thirty years. A happy wife, she married up. A reluctant empty- nester, miss those kids so much. And she is a writer: the author of a series of children's books, and Between Hurt and Healing is her first novel.

She currently lives in Lubbock, Texas with her husband, her dog, and her cat, and spends as much time as possible visiting those kids.