BLIND FAITH

It's almost release day for Blind Faith!  

So, to celebrate I'm giving away TWO copies!

I know it's common for all authors to say they fell in love with their characters. I know, I've done it. I've said it. 

These boys were no different. 

I adore them. I love Carter's ability to love so completely. I love Isaac and his defensive arrogance. I love Brady's loyalty.

*sigh*

But I adored Isaac the most. He's flawed, not by his blindness, but by his reluctance to let himself be loved. 

Carter has the patience of a saint, but by the same token, he takes no crap from Isaac. He refuses to let Isaac's inability to see stop them from having a normal relationship. 

Blind Faith is the story of how these two men meet in the middle, and how Carter can get Isaac to see what's in front of him before it's too late.

The story is told in first person, from Carter's POV, but it's Isaac who I fell in love with.

He's arrogant, short-fused and foul-tempered. This character has flaws, and he'd rather push people away than risk being hurt.

There is a song that I listened to while writing Isaac. And every time I've heard this song since, it makes me smile. 

The song is Better Than I Know Myself by Adam Lambert.

Copyright of RCA Records, a division of Sony Music 2012.

Here's an excerpt...

My next house call to Isaac's didn't exactly go as planned. I certainly didn't go there with the intent of asking him out, but that's exactly what happened.

 It was a Thursday, and since Isaac worked later on Thursdays, it was already getting dark. He and Hannah had only gotten home about ten minutes before I arrived. Isaac was in a good mood, he even smiled at me when I walked in.

He was just finishing up on a phone call on his cell, so he walked into another room, giving himself some privacy. I greeted Brady with a good pat and when I looked up, Hannah was grinning at me. She pointed toward the room where Isaac had gone, and whispered, "I have to whisper, because he has impeccable hearing, but I think he likes you."

Before I could respond, or even turn her words over in my head, Isaac walked into the room. "Sorry about that," he said, putting his phone back in his pocket. "Just sorting out details for work next week."

I was almost glad he couldn't see me, because I was still staring, open-mouthed, at his sister.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

Hannah giggled, and I recovered quickly. "Oh, sure. Everything's just fine."

Isaac turned his face toward me. "Did she say something to you?"

Jesus.

Isaac was blind, yes. But he didn't miss a thing.

He turned his face in my direction. "Silences, pauses in conversation… you'd be surprised at how the lack of sight improves other areas of interpretation."

Hannah rolled her eyes and changed the subject. "Isaac, I'll just be finishing up in the laundry, okay?" and with that, she left us alone.

So I checked Brady over, just as Dr Fields had told me to, asking a few questions about his diet and his behavior, which seemed to please Isaac. I noticed he was wearing another well-fitted suit like the one he wore the other day, and I wondered where he worked. So while everything was still going well, I decided to ask him some questions.

"Okay, my turn," I said.

"Your turn for what?" he asked quietly, hesitantly.

"For Twenty Questions."

Isaac sighed, and after a few seconds, he frowned. "Okay."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "We don't have to if you don't want to."

"Is that one of your twenty questions?"

"No," I replied. "Should I start again?"

"Jeez, Carter, that's eighteen to go."

I smiled, and with a laugh, I asked, "Okay, where do you work?"

"Hawkins School for the Blind."

"How long have you worked there?"

"I went there as a student," he explained. "Now I work there."

"What do you do?"

"I teach English, and I'm on the Board."

"Are all the students you teach blind?"

"To some degree."

"That's excellent," I told him. He turned his face toward me quickly, and I realized how my words might have sounded. "No, I mean your job is excellent, not that the students are blind."

"Oh," he said quietly.

Shit. Okay, next question. "How do you get around your house so well? You walk around like you can see."

He almost smiled. "I know where everything is. My mind has this house mapped out."

"That's pretty cool."

He gave me a half smile. "That's not a question."

I found myself smiling back at him. "How do you buy clothes? I mean, you're always impeccably dressed, and… and… "

"…and what?" he finished. "Everything matches?"

I laughed. "Well, yes. Do you just call Bloomingdale's and order their season collection?"

Isaac tried not to smile. "Hannah."

"Hannah what?"

"Hannah orders my clothes for me. She knows what I like, what suits me."

"Um, I don't mean to sound rude, but how do you know what suits you?"

Isaac smiled, but then he shrugged indifferently. "I don't. I can tell which fabrics are which by feeling them, and the quality, but as for color… or what's written on them."

"As in written on your clothes?"

Isaac nodded. "A few years ago, there were a few occasions where I'd, well, I'd pissed Hannah off, and she paid me back."

"Paid you back with what?"

"Well, apparently I've worn Sesame Street and Disney to school."

I looked at Isaac. "Really, Isaac? She did that to you?"

Isaac nodded. "Apparently. Of course I didn't know until I got to school and someone told me the Big Bird shirt I was wearing was so yellow even they could see it, and they only had ten percent vision." Then he added, "She hasn't done it in years though. Well, not that I've known."

I laughed incredulously. And then I laughed some more because it was funny.

Isaac scowled at me. "It's not that funny."

"Oh, yes it is," I told him. "What else does she do to you for payback?"

Isaac sighed. "She'll put broccoli on my plate and not tell me."

"And that's bad?"

He screwed his nose up. "Anything that tastes like broccoli is bad."

I laughed again, but he just shook his head and smiled. "You're really not very good at twenty questions, Carter. You've used up nineteen of your twenty and haven't really asked me anything."

"Oh, come on!" I said. "We were having a conversation! That's not fair!"

He smiled victoriously. "You have one more question, Carter. Better make it a good one."

I wanted to ask a lot of things. I wanted to know about Rosie, his guide dog before Brady. I wanted to know what he did for fun, if he had a girlfriend, or preferably a boyfriend. I had no clue if he was gay, and I realized, even if he wasn't, I wanted to know a lot of things about this man. So instead, I asked something else entirely.

"What are you doing on Saturday?"

* * * * 

Eeeeep!!  Aren't they gorgeous? lol

Don't forget, the sequel to Blind Faith, titled Through These Eyes, has a release date of March 30th 2013.  So there's more of these boys to come! :)

So for my give away, to celebrate the release of a story about two men and a remarkable dog, I'm giving away two copies.

All you need to do is leave a comment below.

Oh, and I'll be back next week with some big news!!