About this item
Set on the enchanting island of Cedar Key, Terri DuLong's new novel weaves a warm, welcoming tale of second--and even third--chances, of long-held secrets, and newfound loves. . .For the second time in ten years, Grace Stone is starting over on Cedar Key. Grace first moved to the serene island to escape a disastrous relationship. Now a visit with her Aunt Maude is interrupted by unwelcome news: Grace's apartment and coffee shop have been destroyed by fire. Grace is devastated, yet ever-practical Maude has a plan. While she helps Grace resettle, Maude even has a business venture in mind--weekend knitting retreats where women can craft, chat, and support one another. But other surprises await, including the return of Grace's estranged sister, and a tentative romance with the local bookstore owner.
About the Author
Author of the acclaimed women's fiction Cedar Key Series and NY Times/USA Today best seller, Terri DuLong is the author of Spinning Forward (Kensington Books, November 2009) .
Born and reared in the Boston area . . . Salem, the Witch City, to be exact, DuLong was an only child, who relied on imaginary friends for playmates. All these years later, she believes those playmates (and her love for books) led her to her passion for writing.
Married young, with three children, then divorced, Terri went to college to become a legal secretary. After remarrying, with the children getting older, she decided to pursue a career as a Registered Nurse. She also continued her love for reading women's fiction. As for her own writing, well it was limited to extremely long letters to friends and keeping a journal. After working in Critical Care as an R.N., the thought of writing "seriously" became stronger, and Terri took a creative writing class at college. Encouraged by the professor, Terri began writing with the hope of publication.
With the transfer of her husband's job to the Tampa, Florida, area, she began to work part-time as a home health RN and devote more and more time to writing. She began attending writers' conferences to not only improve her craft of writing but also to understand the complicated world of publishing.
Attending more and more writers' conferences, networking, reading, always working on her writing, Terri never gave up. She couldn't. Writing was her passion and filled her soul. Queries went out; rejections came back. But she noticed the rejections were now not form letters but very nice personal correspondence. Believing there had to be an agent, editor or publisher out there who would love her work, she kept writing.
When Terri's husband retired in 2004, the couple relocated two hours north to Cedar Key, an island off the west coast of Florida. They knew from many previous visits that the small town, surrounded as it is by Mother Nature, was the perfect place for them. And Terri's muse went into high gear . . . lots of quirky characters, people who actually waved to you and knew your name, a place that touched her soul. She was in her element.
She wrote a women's novel set in Cedar Key, and then she attended the Romance Writers of America Conference, summer 2007. Upon returning home, she sent off a query to Kensington Books with the required first three chapters, promptly forgot about it and got on with life . . . until December 11, 2007.
That was when Terri received an e-mail from her editor's assistant, requesting the full manuscript. And on Feb. 26, 2008, Terri was offered a two-book contract from Kensington. Her debut women's fiction novel--the first in her Cedar Key series--was released Oct. 27, 2009. Now in its second printing, Spinning Forward has been named a finalist for "Long Contemporary Novel" in the 2010 New Englan
