H9: Adult Contemporary Women’s Fiction: DESIGNER YOU

TITLE: DESIGNER YOU

AUTHOR: Sarahlyn Bruck

AGE CATEGORY: Adult

GENRE: Women’s Fiction

WORD COUNT: 92,000

PITCH:

Pam checked every box: marriage, kid, career? Check. When her husband dies suddenly and their DIY empire goes on life support, Pam must fix the relationship with her troubled daughter and save the family business.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

Pam had been the one who’d found him. Thank God she’d made the gruesome discovery. If she’d been held up in traffic or stopped someplace else on the way home, Grace would’ve arrived first after school.

Pam would never have forgiven herself.

Now, a mere twenty-four hours later, she could no longer avoid it. It felt too soon, too unreal to share the unavoidable news with their legions of followers. She closed the door to her home office, sat down at her laptop, and forced herself to type.

It’s with a sad, heavy heart I must inform you, our faithful readers: Nate died yesterday.

She paused after she typed that sentence. Her husband would’ve hated having his death announced on their lifestyle blog. Better than on Good Morning America or in the pages of This Old House. An inappropriate giggle escaped Pam’s lips, immediately followed by more tears. In one day, she’d cried more than maybe her whole life. She grabbed a Kleenex and blew her nose. This was the hardest thing Pam had ever written, but it was necessary. Their fans deserved to know, and the full story needed to come from her.

You may have already read about it in the ‘People’ section of the newspaper, or heard about it on a brief report on the local news last evening, or this may come as a complete shock to you. It did to me. And I’m still in shock. I haven’t fully absorbed the fact that Nate is gone.