Next up for me is a novel called ONE TRUE THEORY OF LOVE, and I had so much fun writing it. I adore Meg, the story's main character, as much as I adore Tami from Veil of Roses. Meg is at a very different place in her life, but she's equally spirited and equally deserving of happiness.
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Here's what you should know before you read the first chapter, which I've posted below: Meg Clark’s finally got it all figured out. After a humiliating divorce, she’s come to a few conclusions: One, men just aren't worth it. Two, the only man she wants in her life is her little man – Henry, her nine-year-old son. And three,
men just aren't worth it!
Meg’s not bitter. Really, she’s not. She loves life and her place in it as a kindergarten teacher on Tucson’s south side. She’s happy. She just doesn’t want a relationship because experience has shown her that despite her best efforts, she’s not going to get her happily-ever-after. She considers herself bold for embracing that fact rather than fighting it. But Meg fails to recognize another crucial fact – that sometimes love just
happens whether you want it to or not. And when love happens to
her in the form of Ahmed Bourhani, an Iranian-American with George Clooney eyes and an ability to see straight into her soul, she’s faced with quite the dilemma.
Second chances take courage. They require you to acknowledge your baggage and take a leap of faith anyway. Meg’s baggage is this: She doesn’t trust. Not men, not their motivations, and not her own heart or mind or gut when it comes to them. Her central question: Is she a bigger idiot to give love another chance and risk being humiliated yet again, or is she a bigger fool to walk away from a man who gives every indication that he might be the one with whom she can finally get it right?
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Here's a quick peek at the opening scene -- enjoy!
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Chapter One
Meg Clark stood in front of her twenty-three kindergartners at Foundation Elementary School and waited. It was the last ten minutes of the school day, and at this hour they were rumpled and tired. They were ABC’d out, Ring-Around-the-Rosy pooped. The time might have been better spent with them resting on their mats. But Meg always took this moment, because to her it was the one that mattered most.
She began and ended the day with song, and now, six weeks into the new school year, she and the kids were finding their stride together. They knew when she clapped and announced afternoon circle time, they were to push the small-person tables and chairs out of the way and gather in a standing circle for one last time that day.
They’d already sung “Down on the Banks of the Hanky Panky.” They’d jumped like bullfrogs from one imaginary lily pad to another. They’d done Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, and they were almost through their last song when Meg put out both arms like Mr. Jim, the school crossing guard, and said, “Stop!”
The kids came to a dead standstill. Meg waited.
This pause was important, and she stretched it out as long as she could--long enough for her students to tilt forward on their toes, squirm in anticipation, and exchange excited glances. Scanning the circle, she looked at each in turn. There was Antonio, with his grin so big she wanted to scoop him up and smother him with hugs. There with the long black braids was Marita, who watched Meg’s every move with wary intensity, as if she was afraid Meg might disappear should she for one moment let down her guard. There were Isaac and Maria and Kira and Remi and Carlita and Lucas – all of them, with their beautiful, soulful eyes. Most were dark-featured, the opposite of Meg, but as of yet that didn’t matter to them. As of yet, they adored her.
As of yet, they’d listen.
Under her guidance, they’d put their right feet in, they’d pulled their right feet out. They’d put their right feet back in and they’d shaken them – extravagantly -- all about. They’d done the hokey pokey and they’d turned themselves around, one body part at a time.
And then, at Meg’s direction, they’d paused. It was important to her that this next part – the part in which they’d leap, with their whole selves into the center of the circle -- be momentous.
Meg finally clapped her hands together and broke into a broad smile.
“Is everybody ready?”
“Yes!”
“It doesn’t sound like you’re ready. Are you
really ready?”
“Yeeeessss!”
“Are you
sure you’re ready?”
“We’re ready, Miss Meg, we’re READY!”
Meg liked to fantasize that one day, when these kindergartners were doctors to the dying and mothers to the drug-addicted and employees who’d been heartlessly shown the door, some of them might think back to the last ten minutes of their kindergarten days, when their spirits still soared.
She hoped they’d remember the woman they’d known as pretty Miss Meg, and how she’d dressed for them in polka-dot skirts and parrot earrings, and how she’d tried to impart to them in a meaningful way the best piece of advice they were likely to receive in the entirety of their lives: That when life turned, as it invariably would – when it seemed near impossible to summon the courage to go on -- there was only one best thing to do.
“All right, then,” Meg said with a smile. “And a one, and a two, and a one, two, three -- let’s do it!”
It was an imperfect circle into which they jumped, but together they did what it was they were supposed to do, with joy and without hesitation, in a way Meg knew that only children can.
They Put Their Whole Selves In.
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And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed the opening chapter of ONE TRUE THEORY OF LOVE. Don't forget to email me if you'd like me to keep you updated.
