Title: Back to Yesterday
Author: Pamela Sparkman
Genre: Historical Twentieth Century Romance (WWII)
Release Date: May 2, 2016
Blurb
Everyone loves a good love story. The
stories that make you feel warm all over. The kind that leaves you the
slightest bit envious because the story belongs to someone else and not you.
The stories that make your heart race and on the edge of pain and pleasure.
Pain because your heart hurts and pleasure because your heart hurts. An
unlikely combination, yet, that’s the stuff good love stories are made of.
Ours could have been like that. We could have made a beautiful love story.
But when he was ready for that epic love story, I was afraid to fall in love, too hurt by my past to trust anyone. Then, when I was ready for the epic love story, he was gone.
And I was alone.
And the only thing I got was the pain.
It was time I told him the things that were in my heart but too afraid to say out loud.
I wrote the letter I needed to write and prayed it wasn't too late.
Dear Charlie,
You were right. I was wrong. I've never been more wrong in my life.
There - I said it.
I’ll say it a million times if you just come back to me.
Come back to me. Please!
I was so wrong. I do love you.
Sophie
Ours could have been like that. We could have made a beautiful love story.
But when he was ready for that epic love story, I was afraid to fall in love, too hurt by my past to trust anyone. Then, when I was ready for the epic love story, he was gone.
And I was alone.
And the only thing I got was the pain.
It was time I told him the things that were in my heart but too afraid to say out loud.
I wrote the letter I needed to write and prayed it wasn't too late.
Dear Charlie,
You were right. I was wrong. I've never been more wrong in my life.
There - I said it.
I’ll say it a million times if you just come back to me.
Come back to me. Please!
I was so wrong. I do love you.
Sophie
Purchase Links
Excerpt
Prologue
Charlie
Her best friend found me sitting alone in
the café. I guess she knew where to find me. It wasn’t hard. I was always
sitting alone in the café, because it was where Sophie worked and I liked being
near her. Though, she wasn’t here now and I likely wouldn’t see her again
anytime soon.
“She’s heartbroken you know.”
Never once stealing a glance her way, I
murmured, “I know.”
“You should go to her. I’ve never seen
her like this.”
I closed my eyes, recalling the last
words Sophie had said to me. It was what I’d been doing for the last two hours.
In fact, her last words felt like they were woven around my neck like a noose,
choking the life out of me.
“Charles, look at me.”
I didn’t. Instead, I chose to tell her
what I knew to be true. “She doesn’t want to see me.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Believe it.” I turned to face her so she
could see my pain, my broken heart, and then redirected my eyes back out the
window. “Besides, it’s probably better this way.”
Her friend slid in the booth across from
me. “Better for whom? Her or you?”
“For both of us I suppose.”
With a sigh, she made the request again.
“Please look at me, Charles.”
Hesitantly, I granted her request and
turned to her. Her eyes wore empathy, and her smile held regret. “I know you
told her you were leaving tomorrow and I know she hasn’t admitted it to you
yet, but she loves you. You have to know that.”
Swallowing the ache I felt, I nodded. “I
know.”
“Well if you know then why are you
sitting here? Why aren’t you with her trying to–”
“I know what I’m doing,” I said, standing
abruptly. I reached into my pocket, pulled out some money and slapped it down
on the table. “I’m giving her what she wants.”
Coming to a stand beside me and getting
in my face, she said, “Yeah? And what is that exactly?”
Ignoring her question, I headed for the
door. She followed, nipping at my heels all the way. “I can’t believe you!
You’re just gonna leave…without another word…just like that?”
I was coming unraveled at the seams. Once
outside, I spun around and gripped her shoulders, startling her when I did
something I never do…I raised my voice. “Yes! That’s exactly what I’m gonna
do!”
Her eyes darted back and forth between
mine while she tried to make sense of it all. “But…why?”
I loosened my grip and stated in a softer
tone, hoping I could make her understand. “Because… it’s the only way she’ll
ever admit that she made a mistake. I have to let her think she lost me,
Elizabeth, and you have to let her think that too.”
“I don’t understand. You should fight for
her.”
I took a step back and looked her right
in the eyes. “I am fighting for her. I’ve been fighting for her.” I bowed my head,
feeling the gaping hole inside my chest where my heart used to be, and in a
whisper said, “It’s her turn to fight for me.”
Author Interview
Back to Yesterday is a departure for you in the Adult Contemporary Romance genre, as seen with your Stolen Breaths series and a rebirth of sorts into the historical arena. Did you always know you were going to go in that direction or was it a more out of the blue experience brought on by the characters themselves the more you wrote?
That’s a really good question. When I decided that Sophie’s story needed to
be told, I was halfway through writing Skin Deep. So I guess it was brought on by the
characters the more I wrote. I knew her story would take me back to when she
was very young. Her character in the
Stolen Breaths series was a very wise elderly woman and I knew wisdom is
something that’s gained over years of life experiences, complete with hard
lessons. But it was Charlie, a character
that was brand new to me, who really drove the direction of their story and the
way it had to be written. Her story
couldn’t be told without telling his. He
was the biggest part of her. That’s why Back to Yesterday begins with him. It had to be that way in order to understand
her.
What was the biggest challenge in
writing Back to Yesterday and why?
Without a doubt the biggest challenge to writing
Back to Yesterday was stepping into the shoes of an Army Air Force pilot, which
was Charlie. Writing his experiences
needed to be historically accurate so I spent the summer of 2015
researching. Once I felt I had a firm
grasp on history and aviation during WWII, I began writing, but even then I
would have to stop to study the mechanics of Spitfires and other planes used
during that era. I relied heavily on my
father to help with a lot of that.
Would you ever consider writing
another book set in that time period or do you think of Back to Yesterday as a
piece that will forever stand on its own in terms of the stories you tell?
Well, as a writer, I’ll never say never, but
at this time, I think Back to Yesterday should stand on its own. I never imagined I would write an historical
novel until I found myself writing one.
I don’t think I could duplicate it, nor do I want to. I want it to be alone on my writer’s shelf
for now.
What was the most enjoyable part
of writing Sophie and Charlie’s journey to love and why?
I loved Charlie’s heart. His love for Sophie was the purest, most
honest thing I’ve ever written. I feel
like I could literally hold his love in the palm of my hand. He made me a better person just by telling me
his story. Translating his love onto
paper so the reader could also hold his love in the palm of their hand was
probably the thing I wanted to get right above all else. It was the essence of who Charlie was. It was
the essence of who Sophie came to be.
Without his love she would have become someone completely different.
When a story is born, whether
ones like the Stolen Breaths series, or Back to Yesterday, is there a
particular process you have, or method to your madness if you will that you
follow when you set out to write it? (examples: Plotting, self-editing, etc)
Hmm…I don’t follow particular do’s and don’ts
and I don’t do a lot of plotting. I have
a general idea of how a story unfolds but more often than not, I allow my
characters to live and breathe like real people. That means, they learn and grow according to
circumstances organically. I don’t try
to shape my characters to fit a particular mold – premade – in advance. I allow them to mold themselves as the story
moves along. Their reactions are their
own and I step out to the way to allow them to be who they are and not what I
think they should be. But I never leave
a scene or a chapter halfway put together.
I perfect and polish as I go and even though it takes me longer to write
a novel that way, the upside is the editing process goes much faster. I never have to re-work a scene or do a ton
of revisions once I get to the end. I’ve
already done that. This method doesn’t
work for everyone, but it works for me.
I do have an editor, however, and proofreaders. I can only do so much perfecting. I need fresh eyes to point out what I may
have missed. But my objective is to
write clean from the start.
What would you like people (new
readers that may not have experienced your stories) to know about you and the
love stories that you tell?
Gosh, I don’t know. I guess if there’s one thing I would like
people to know is that I write with my heart more than my head. If I can’t feel it in my soul, then I don’t
put it on paper. If there is a word on
the page you can bet it has a purpose for being there.
And lastly, what, if anything is
on the horizon next for Pamela Sparkman?
I’m always conjuring up stories in my head,
but I haven’t picked my next story yet.
But when I do, it’ll be something with heart and meaning, or I won’t
bother writing it.
Title: Back to Yesterday
Author: Pamela Sparkman
Genre:
Series or Standalone: Standalone
Rating: ★★★★★
Reviewer: Melyssa
Reviewer: Melyssa
I’ve tried multiple times to sum this
book up in the most descriptive review that I can. One filled with all the
right words that will in the end adequately describe and bring you into the
story within the pages. I have failed every single time. So instead of telling
you what the books about, let me tell you about what the book made me feel,
because in my world, if you’re a romance reader, that’s what you’re after
anyway.
Books that make you feel.
Anyone that has ever watched my reviews,
knows that I am a big Pamela Sparkman fan. Right from Stolen Breaths, straight
on through to Skin Deep, each story has been deeper and more beautiful than the
last. But none of those, and I do mean none of them compare to this one.
Sophie, upon first meeting, is a
spitfire. A smart cookie with a comeback seemingly for everything. But also a
woman who is very guarded based on the things she’s already experienced in her
short life at the point this story begins. So much so, that she’s not willing
to open her heart, much less give it to another, without some serious work
involved, and even then, she’s taking baby steps.
Enter Charlie.
In all of the world at the time of this
writing, through all of the different men that would have existed, there has
never been one so completely made for Sophie, than Charlie. Right from the
start, you easily see the type of man he is. Loyal, strong, funny. A man with a
heart that people only wish they could have. A heart unlike any other, and one
that only beats for Sophie.
This is not your typical love story and
it takes place in a time that I swear when I first heard it was being written,
I was afraid I would get lost in the details of, but it’s also a story that
turned out to be unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Sophie and Charlie…the
more I read, the more I pictured my own grandparents and their marriage that as
of this writing, has spanned over 70 years. A story based in a time period, but
timeless in the way it was written. The way it was given to the world.
A love story that I believe, even after
they both leave this earth, will never truly die. And that’s what you want in a
romance right? A story rich with realism, the author and the characters
unafraid to show the real risks of the period as well as Charlie’s position in
them (along with Sophie’s), but also filled with a love that no matter what
obstacle is thrown in its path, is never ending. One that is as pure and
beautiful as the two characters themselves were.
Is this a sad story? Yes. It will break
your heart, but as with all of Pamela Sparkman’s books, it will also put you
back together and make even the most hardened heart believe in the true life
changing power of love. At least I know that’s how it affected me. It’s moving,
it’s poignant and it’s so very beautiful and if you take the chance on it, I
can guarantee you will be altered by the time you finish it.
Exactly the same way I was.
My thanks to the author and all others
involved for letting me be a part of Sophie and Charlie’s journey. No matter
what book I go into from here, Charlie and Sophie will stay with me always.
Right in my heart.
Author Bio
I grew up in Alabama and have always been
an avid reader. I had a stack of those Little Golden Books and I can remember
reading Three Little Kittens over and over and over again. It was my favorite.
Fast forward and the older I got the more in love books I became. So, I'm admitting that I am a huge nerd. The only reading I don't like are those math word problems. And I'm okay with that because no one has ever asked me in real life... "If I give you two bananas and take away six apples, how long will it take the southbound train to collide with the northbound train if Johnny left his house at midnight?" It just doesn't happen.
So, yeah, books are my thing.
Fast forward and the older I got the more in love books I became. So, I'm admitting that I am a huge nerd. The only reading I don't like are those math word problems. And I'm okay with that because no one has ever asked me in real life... "If I give you two bananas and take away six apples, how long will it take the southbound train to collide with the northbound train if Johnny left his house at midnight?" It just doesn't happen.
So, yeah, books are my thing.
Oh, and writing. I love to write. So, I
did. Write, I mean. And when I was finished I had a story in front of me about
a girl named Lily, and a guy named Cooper. And when I reached the end, I felt -
lost. Like, I was saying good-bye to old friends. It snuck up on me and I
realized I wasn't ready to let go. It was then I decided that I needed to keep
writing - keep telling stories - and hopefully some other people may enjoy them
as well.
Author Links
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