Letters for Lucien

Synopsis:

Adopted at age one from a brothel-turned-mission in San Antonio, Mathew Ellis is no stranger to pain. Despite his wealth and success in the business world, he still bears the scars of his troubled beginnings. Losing his parents in a Long Island boating accident at age nine. Surviving adolescence with an estranged uncle in blue-collar Chicago. And now, watching his best friend and surrogate father, Lou Burns, fight for life following an aneurysm and stroke. Days in a lonely ICU waiting room, he realizes that he has no real connection to anyone. A single man of substantial means...and a life with very little substance.

The protagonist of my first novel is a highly successful, middle-aged businessman who is forced to reevaluate his life when an unexpected medical crises occurs. Set in Houston, this modern day work of mainstream fiction is a touching, character-driven story that explores love, trust, and loss as well as a variety of themes—fate, light, horses, and classic works of literature.

Raised on a horse farm in Virginia, Sunnye Addison enjoyed a privileged life as a young girl. But her father's money and the best boarding schools could not shield her from the pain of losing her mother to cancer at age eleven. An accomplished horsewoman, linguist and writer, Sunnye is a highly respected DC journalist.

The discovery of a spinal tumor leads wheel-chair bound Sunnye to the famed Houston Medical Center and Dr. Walsh, a renegade neurosurgeon who happens to be Lou’s attending physician. Undergoing tests for an innovative procedure, Sunnye meets Mathew while waiting for a hospital elevator. Their initial exchange is brief yet leaves both of them with the feeling that they've met somewhere before. After several chance meetings, Sunnye and Mathew find their connection goes beyond coincidence. And though the attraction they feel for one another is obvious, the timing couldn’t be worse. Mathew must sort through the guilt of Lou’s trauma as he tries not to fall for a woman nineteen years his junior—a woman with her own share of pain, both physical and emotional.

Letters for Lucien weaves together fresh, witty dialog and realistic emotion as Mathew and Sunnye embark on a journey, encountering an unplanned pregnancy and a heartbreaking tragedy. Secretly revealing their deepest thoughts through a series of letters to their unborn son, Lucien, Sunnye finds the strength to allow herself to be loved while Mathew discovers the two things he fears most, marriage and fatherhood, are suddenly the only things that truly matter.

Check out the completed manuscript at:
www.suzyengland.webs.com