Why do I write? It’s like making a movie…in your head. You are the writer, you are the director, you are the set designer, and you are the actors. It’s like watching a movie unfold in your mind. When I finish a book, I send it out to about 5-10 different people. I covet their responses. I ask them to look for places where the writing might be slow, or complicated, or just not good! After I get some feedback I usually go over it again and make the necessary adjustments, where I send it off for a professional edit. I truly can’t imagine doing anything else better than this for a living.
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Return of the Giving
Synopsis
As one of the most successful divorce attorneys in the city, Garret Fandell is the standard for up and coming attorneys as well as the punch line for every good lawyer joke. Although he is quite proud of his professional accomplishments, he has spent the majority of his years overlooking the affect of his career on his personal life. He has everything that a “successful” person could or should have, except self-respect.
After a consultation with one particularly memorable client, Garret's foundation is shaken to the core when the client asks a question for which Garret has no answer. The life-altering question is: why? Why hasn’t Garret ever tried to help a married couple, instead of blindly walking them to the courthouse and calling it a day? Not knowing the answer bothers him even more than not having an answer.
Garret decides to take a long vacation from his practice, against the advice of his best friend Alex Hartell. Alex argues that lawyers are born, not made, and Garret’s identity lies within his profession. Garret disagrees and sets out to find the real him.
A chance encounter with Joanna Collier, an attractive distraction, stirs up emotions inside Garret that had long been buried. His newfound friendship revives a part of his heart that he abandoned years ago, and he’s not about to let it go again. After several attempts of asking her out, she finally agrees to coffee late one evening only to shatter Garret’s heart by her admission that she is married.
Garret is crushed, to say the least, and wonders if he possesses the ability to remain friends with someone who has captured his heart romantically. But the guilt of a potential affair is more than he needs. He decides not to pursue her any farther, but finds her calling on him for something; she needs a divorce attorney.
After learning of her husband’s affair, Joanna seeks council from Garret. A consultation with Joanna reveals more than just her hurt and loss of faith in her husband. Garret finds she still loves her husband deeply and doesn’t wish to end twenty-two years of marriage, but pride is getting in her way.
Garret is torn by the notion that helping her means stepping back into the arena, which has been killing him emotionally for years. Pursuing her guilt-free, once her divorce is final could mend his broken heart, while serving a sentence in a prison of self-hatred for years to come. Or he could play cupid's advocate, directing her towards the man that she dreams of being with, and bask in the freedom that comes with doing the right thing. Garret desperately looks for an emotional loophole that won’t chain him to his past.
Driven by desire to do one unselfish act for another person, he forms a plan. He casts himself in a double role, assisting Joanna with her divorce as her legal advisor and friend, while anonymously playing match-maker for Joanna's husband, Dr. Daniel Collier. Garret creates a legal smoke screen for Joanna, while secretly advising her husband on how to win his wife's heart back. The plan that allows everyone to attain what they want out of life; everyone except Garret.
As Garret keeps Daniel on a strict need-to-know-basis, Garret requires proof from Dr. Collier that he is sincere about his desire to rekindle his lost love and his wife’s trust. Both men are skeptical, but Garret tells Dr. Collier he must paint his mailbox. It’s a bizarre and seemingly ridiculous command, but one that makes perfect sense to Garret, and also one that is non-negotiable.
The doctor agrees and Garret sees his plan through to the bittersweet end, only to have his plan suddenly unravel before him once Doctor Collier figures out that Garret has been his romantic assistant. The confrontation between Doctor Collier and Garret pales in comparison to the confrontation between Joanna Collier and the “other woman.” It's nothing less than of a showdown of good verses evil, where the accusations fly, tables turn, and bad guys become good guys.
Garret finds the true reward of life is in the act of giving, but never expects what he gets in return. A thank you letter in the mail, along with a key to a beach house, is the beginning to a whole new career for Garret. The ever-rising divorce rate is also his unfortunate job security, and his expertise is required by one of his biggest critics, Alex Hartell.