Guest Blog - Kristy Tate

Today my guest blogger is Kristy Tate, author of the new novel Stealing Mercy.

Mercy Goes to College

A huge THANK YOU to Tristi for inviting me to meet her blogging friends. I’m very happy for this chance to chat about my book, Stealing Mercy. I want to share a funny experience that I had shortly after I’d completed its first draft.

A friend who wanted to read my book asked her husband to print it out for her. He took it to his chiropractic school where he could print it out for free. But, about a third of the way through the printing, the machine ran out of paper. He had hundred pages printed and he figured he’d do the rest later--when there was paper.

The next day he goes to school and finds that people are passing around a two hundred page novel printed on pink paper. He tells a friend that he has to get it back. Friend replies, “That’s yours? People are reading that.”

This is what I think happened-- a medical student turned on a printer. It says no paper, he loads it with the only paper he can find… pink. And then the printer proceeds to shoot out the remainder of my novel. And of course, all the kissing happens in the remainder. Suddenly, all these students of anatomy have something less clinical to read.

My friend said, “My husband got it back, but I think there are pages missing.” (I wonder which ones. )

So, I learned that sometimes readers happen by design and sometimes by accident. Either way, if my novel provides an entertaining respite from a rigorous study program or a breather during a baby’s naptime, I’ve done the world a small service.

Today, more than just bored anatomy students are reading my novel. It’s no longer a pile of pink papers, but an actual book you can hold in your hands. It’s available on Amazon and most e-readers.

After a night of terror, Mercy Faye flees New York. Disguised as a boy, she sets sail for a new life in Seattle, but her nightmare, Mr. Steele, follows close behind. Armed with only her chocolates, laced tarts and wits, Mercy sets out to destroy Mr. Steele and his Lucky Island brothel.

Trent Michaels is searching for his missing cousin. He can’t afford complications--or romance--yet, at every turn he finds Mercy Faye. The night before the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, flames spark between Mercy and Trent leaving the life they know and the city they love in ashes.

Their story reaches forward through time to Bette Michaels, a genealogist, struggling with grief after the sudden death of her husband. Although generations apart, as Bette unravels Mercy’s story, she learns that a life can be rebuilt--even after everything is lost.

Through Mercy, Bette learns that sometimes the only way to find happiness is to steal it.

You can visit Kristy's blog here, and purchase her book here.