Burlington Author Self-Publishes First Romance Novel

A Burlington author has jumped into the self-publishing world and will be presenting her new novel at a book signing this weekend.

Lynn Ricci, of Burlington, has completed her first novel "The Dating Intervention."

According to Ricci, the book is a 78,000 word novel about a woman whose world is thrown upside down due to a cheating husband and divorce. She reaches into her past to a man she had feelings for before her marriage and although she desperately wants to be with him, she is torn between responsibilities of raising her two children, working full time, and him not fitting into her world due to multiple factors. 

When that fails, her four close friends devise a dating intervention and they send her out on one bad blind date after another which ultimately allows her to embrace a new adventure in life and break out of the small town suburbia mold. 

"Basically, its a romantic mix of drama and comedy about enduring friendships, and second chances with love and life," Ricci said.

Ricci will be signing copies of her novel at this Saturday, Sept. 8, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event is free and all are welcome to attend.

Ricci said that although she hasn't always focused on writing, putting word on paper has been a life-long pursuit.

"I began writing short stories in high school, I had a creative writing class that I really enjoyed, but my passion at the time had been painting," she said. "My focus at that point was fine arts for enjoyment and graphic arts for a career - but my career took an opposite turn and I eventually went into the corporate world.  Much of professional life revolves around financial communications and as my financial writing increased, I found I wanted to get back into writing creatively."

Ricci said she decided to self-publish after seeing the success of other authors who have taken the route. For example, Stephanie Haddad, of Burlington, self-published her books. There have even been self-published works in the top 30 of the New York Times best sellers list, including "On the Island," by Tracey Garvis Graves, "Bared to You," by Silvia Day and "Fifty Shades of Grey," by E.L. James.

"The stigma of self-publishing has fallen away over the last few years with more and more authors - some well established - becoming their own publishers to gain better control over their work, have more of a say in cover art and other details, and retain a higher percentage of the royalties," she said.  "Some authors that are traditionally published are putting their back lists through self publishing channels.  And, with fewer agents out there to review queries for fewer big publishing houses, many good writers are passed over because the story may not fit with what mainstream publishers are demanding.  Agents want to take on immediately marketable work and self publishing offers authors an alternative that is not only working but turning traditional publishers on their heads to compete."

Ricci also supplied a Q&A that she put together after receiving many questions from family, friends and people interested in the book on her Facebook page:

• What genre is the book? Contemporary romance.Drama infused with humor.

• What is it about? A woman who has a heart breaking end to a relationship and her friends send her on blind dates to try to find a guy,but she finds herself instead. 

• Is it funny? Sometimes. 

• Is it sad? Sometimes. 

• Is it you? They say write what you know - I used the experience ofbeing a divorced woman, who had a breakup and some bad dates - but the plot,situations, characters, family members, blind dates, etc. are just good 'olemade up story.

• Is it just about the romance? No, a lot of the story revolves aroundher relationship with her friends and how although they have differentopinions, they share a strong and enduring friendship. 

• Would a guy read it? Hmmm, he could but not sure if he would understand the perspective as well as a woman - but one can always hope.

• Are you working on a next novel? I have several more I am working on - the closest to being finished is a paranormal roman cecalled Cursed, and then a more lighthearted romance called Matchless.