Lovejoy : A Novel About Desire

I was having dinner at Bucky's at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear when I saw an older distinguished man sipping a martini and staring through the back window at the horizon of the Gulf of Mexico as the sun set. And I knew him-not his name or the name of the woman he was missing and privately toasting with his small sips of that martini. But I knew him, and the concentration of his memories filled the space around him and drew me to him, like a love song. Like the great old love songs, I grew up singing. Those songs fit his story. They had shared a life. They had most likely shared dinner right there at Bucky's where I was thinking my own thoughts and letting a story get born in me that I wouldn't be able to resist writing. I couldn't take my eyes off him in his state of reverie and heartbreak-kind of wanted to shift over and take the empty chair across from him where his gaze was solemnly focused, and say what any of us who have lived long enough can say, "I know how you feel. I know the story." I didn't know the whole story. But when I got home, I wrote this story that happened to me when I saw a man whose name came with the story: Franklin Lovejoy. But all the ladies who loved him called him Lovejoy. I hope you'll love him too. I do. So, in a way this story is autobiographical. I never met the man but he happened to me. LOVEJOY was inspired by a real-life sighting of a man who had been deeply in love. It's part of the mystery of writing that stories come this way from chance encounters or in this case, a chance sighting. This is Lovejoy's story-and mine, in a way. I hope it will be one you enjoy too. If you do like the story, feel free to let me know. I'm easy to find. Befriend me on Facebook, Twitter, LInkedin.com or follow my author pages on Amazon, Goodreads, or BookBub. You will also find me from time to time watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, and I won't be alone in Bucky's sipping a martini. There might be an empty chair in front of me, but Lovejoy will be with me in his mysterious romantic way.

• | Author: Daphne Simpkins
• | Publisher: Quotidian Books
• | Publication Date: May 27, 2019
• | Number of Pages: 284 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1732015821
• | ISBN-13: 9781732015821