Guest Post + Paperback Giveaway: Secrets of the Apple by Paula Hiatt

Here with us today is Paula Hiatt, author of Secrets of the Apple.

About Secrets of the Apple

“Exceptional” –Kirkus Starred Review

“A captivating love story” –Lisa Oliver Monroe, Kirkus Magazine

“When the door shut behind Kate, some invisible detail changed in the room, maybe something to do with the air pressure, or possibly the temperature. Gradually minor noises took on a strange magnification, like the grinding tikka tikka of the antique clock on the credenza and the splatter of raindrops against the windows as the long drizzle finally turned ardent. He felt a chill in his arms and rose to put the clock in a drawer, wondering how he could have occupied this room for two weeks without consciously noting such an irritating sound. Back at his desk, he picked up a pen, reminding himself how rejuvenating it was to work in solitude, free to swear all he wanted. He put the pen down, remembering he didn’t need it. He sat back in his chair. The office felt dead.”

Ryoki is comfortable is his custom-built hell, making money with both hands and slashing his path through the world of men. But there’s something about Kate, something important dangling just at the edge of his consciousness. She can’t read a map, she falls off her heels, and yet she saves his life with a button and a bit of thread. Terrified she’s privately plotting to marry him, he studies her with hooded eyes, attempting to discover her secrets for himself. But understanding Kate will challenge everything he thought he knew.

I’ve always wanted to read a romantic story told from the perspective of a man, and by romantic I don’t mean the arrogant bag o’steriods who shoves the Double D pseudo feminist against the wall and shows her who’s boss. I want this man to make me laugh, of course, and I don’t want him to make me cry, though sometimes he might because sometimes people do. I want to know he is intelligent without being told, to feel the baggage in his life without a single instance of the phrase “ice around his heart,” and I want to watch his strengths and weaknesses gradually unfold with the complex subtly of any creature possessing a birth certificate. 

In real life I’m an American living in mainland China where an ordinary firecracker is powerful enough to break a flower pot, and the safest place outdoors is on a set of stairs that won’t accommodate any wheeled vehicle. Truthfully I love it here, but as I am careening through the streets with a taxi driver who may have gotten his license from the back of a cereal box, I am constantly reminded that this is a Disneyland where I could actually die. For me the true key to survival in China is paying attention, learning to love China and Chinese people by trying to understand the life experiences that would lead a forty year-old woman to be fascinated by the mechanical mystery of my can opener. In the modern world of self-interest and train wreck divorces, it seems that writing the story of a man and a woman is much the same skill.

In Secrets of the Apple Kate Porter enters Ryoki Tanaka’s life wearing a pink plaid suit that reminds him of wrapping paper, a silly gift with no place in a serious office. Actually our hero is a bit of a jerk, a taxi driver careening through the streets endangering paint and fenders at every turn. But as the pages pass we forgive him, even come to love him because we have a front row seat to all the challenging absurdities of his life. With Kate we are not so lucky. She really is a gift, wrapped up tight and tied with a big red bow and no desire to give up her secrets. No one is in possession of all the facts, and we must stand back, watching from the outside as a murderer, a thief, and a homeless child teach Ryoki to slowly pull the ribbon and tear the paper until they both stand man and woman, exposed as the day Adam and Eve first tasted the apple, good and evil, grief and betrayal, love and divorce, all wrapped up in the complicated power to choose. I wanted to write the story of a real man falling in love with a real woman, and in doing so I discovered that real life lived fully is a terrible risk, a Disneyland that could kill you, if you let it.

My apologies if the love of your life is an arrogant bag o’steriods who won your heart by shoving your Double Ds against the wall. Feel free to write your own story.

About Paula

Born in Rexburg, Idaho, Paula Hiatt has also lived in Utah, Pennsylvania and California, as well as Brazil and is currently living in mainland China. She holds a master’s degree in English from Brigham Young University, and when she is not writing, she is reading, traveling, or attending board game conventions with her husband and three children. Secrets of the Apple is her first novel.

If you want to know more of Paula Hiatt’s adventures in China, visit her blog at www.paulahiatt.net .

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Paula is giving away ONE paperback copy and TWO digital copies copies of Secrets of the Apple!

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