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Official Site of Author Nanette M. Buchanan
Author Spotlight
Intimate Conversation with author Nanette M. Buchanan
EDC: WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS BOOK HAVE ON THE COMMUNITY?
• A. Our society has become one that holds embedded hurt a life time. We have angered homes, schools, jobs, and communities. Our relationships and how we treat others has an effect on everyone we meet. We need to recognize, without healing we can’t just walk away from severed relationships. Our solution has become one of avoidance. We will avoid our families, friends and lovers only to be confronted with building the same type of relationships with another. “Bruised Love” defines these relationships, the novel shows how fragile they become, the hurt and pain; it gives the reader insight on what can happen. There will be those who see themselves in these relationships. It asks the question, “When love leaves a bruise, can it ever heal?”
EDC: TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR MAIN CHARACTERS. WHO WAS YOUR FAVORITE?
• A. “Bruised Love” is Cassandra Smith’s story. As a young girl seeking love, after the death of her father, she falls for the high school bad boy Trevor Black. Despite her mother’s warnings she dates the ‘playa’ and is told by her mother to leave home. The tension builds between her and her mother, Brenda Smith, who is battling cancer. The strained relationship and the need for unconditional love, has a guilty effect on the widow. Brenda realizes she should have loved her child regardless to her choices. Seeking to gain what she lost, she wants to heal the relationship before it’s too late.
After talking with the family, she is convinced that Cassandra will come home if she believes her mother is close to death. Cassandra returns home, leaving the abusive cheating father of her children to care for her mother. Now faced with four children, a sick mother and no choice but to focus on her life, reality sets in. She finds the real definition for friendship, responsibility and commitment. All of which she’ll need to heal the bruised relationships she has been living with. As Cassandra’s life demands immediate decisions, her emotions are torn and her relationships are forever changed. Lamont Dearling, an old friend, is her constant support as she goes through a pivotal transformation. Lamont is that real friend who has always been in the shadows.
Cassandra is my favorite character. She literally transforms in the novel. She carries an emotional load, baggage that is not hers to bear. Through it all she grows, she learns, and she loves. Healing is ridding oneself of the discomfort we take on as we pick at the layers of others mistreatment toward us. Cassandra’s lost of her father leaves an emotional void. Filling it with the façade created by Trevor Black stripped her of the beauty of love. Cassandra returns home depressed and emotionally drained until Lamont gives her a reason to look beyond her troubles. I believe there are women who can connect with her and recognize her path to self love.
EDC: WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS STORY?
• A. I believe I wrote this story to rid a part of my feelings that I experienced off and on throughout my life. Love is a confusing emotion. We love openly seeking love in return and sometimes those who should love us don’t and those who we cling to as we fall tend to knock us down further. I can relate to Cassandra, her pain and her emotional turmoil. The character is not me at all but I can relate.
EDC: WHAT ISSUES IN TODAY’S SOCIETY HAVE YOU ADDRESSED IN THE BOOK?
• A. There are a few issues in today’s society that have been addressed in “Bruised Love”. Cassandra is a young, single mother. She fell in love with the neighborhood ‘playa’. His game slowly turned unbearable but it was what she thought was a loving relationship. His other women, the baby mama drama, the drugs, and his abuse became a part of her world. She lost sight of herself loving a man who didn’t love her. Cassandra had to find the strength to end what she thought was an endless love. She had to regain faith in herself for her children, reunite with a mother that didn’t know how to love her and build new relationships. There are women who struggle with this daily. What they overcome or fall victims to declares their fate. Unfortunately there are many who have walked the path that Cassandra walked.
EDC: IS THERE A MESSAGE IN YOUR BOOK THAT YOU WANT READERS TO GRASP?
• A. Yes, love thyself. Love thyself more than any other being that God has created or blessed you to know. Without self love you have nothing. Know what makes love important to you. It’s not about settling no matter who the love comes from. There are parents and other family members who know nothing about loving their offspring or each other. We have to build and keep building ourselves to be successful and it begins with self love. I won’t let you hurt me because I love me should be the outcry. It would diminish domestic violence, neglect, and child abuse. If the victims spoke out because they loved themselves more than they loved the abusers. They loved themselves more than accepting this painful love and returning to “Bruised Love”.
A bruise becomes tender, although the outer skin looks well the skin, the tissue below takes a longer time to heal…..sometimes it remains tender, easy to bruise again. We must learn to care for ourselves enough to heal. Love is beautiful and shouldn’t be feared. We shouldn’t have relationships after relationships scar us, or our children, who watch this dysfunctional love. The message is we must learn to love ourselves.
EDC: THOUSANDS OF BOOKS ARE PUBLISHED EACH YEAR. WHAT SETS YOUR BOOK APART FROM OTHER BOOKS IN YOUR GENRE?
• A. I think we’ve got so many genres that touch the surface of what reality is.
What sells as entertainment sometimes limits or sets the standard for most of the published works. “Bruised Love” has it all. The drama, love, sex, drugs, deceit, betrayal and murder, there is no exploitation, just reality. The way it happens, what could happen, and why. The story brings reality to the forefront, the bling for the reader is at the end. They will not be disappointed.
EDC: WHAT IMPACT WILL THIS BOOK HAVE ON THE COMMUNITY?
• A. Our society has become one that holds embedded hurt a life time. We have angered homes, schools, jobs, and communities. Our relationships and how we treat others has an effect on everyone we meet. We need to recognize, without healing we can’t just walk away from severed relationships. Our solution has become one of avoidance. We will avoid our families, friends and lovers only to be confronted with building the same type of relationships with another. “Bruised Love” defines these relationships, the novel shows how fragile they become, the hurt and pain; it gives the reader insight on what can happen. There will be those who see themselves in these relationships. It asks the question, “When love leaves a bruise, can it ever heal?”
EDC: TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR MAIN CHARACTERS. WHO WAS YOUR FAVORITE?
• A. “Bruised Love” is Cassandra Smith’s story. As a young girl seeking love, after the death of her father, she falls for the high school bad boy Trevor Black. Despite her mother’s warnings she dates the ‘playa’ and is told by her mother to leave home. The tension builds between her and her mother, Brenda Smith, who is battling cancer. The strained relationship and the need for unconditional love, has a guilty effect on the widow. Brenda realizes she should have loved her child regardless to her choices. Seeking to gain what she lost, she wants to heal the relationship before it’s too late.
After talking with the family, she is convinced that Cassandra will come home if she believes her mother is close to death. Cassandra returns home, leaving the abusive cheating father of her children to care for her mother. Now faced with four children, a sick mother and no choice but to focus on her life, reality sets in. She finds the real definition for friendship, responsibility and commitment. All of which she’ll need to heal the bruised relationships she has been living with. As Cassandra’s life demands immediate decisions, her emotions are torn and her relationships are forever changed. Lamont Dearling, an old friend, is her constant support as she goes through a pivotal transformation. Lamont is that real friend who has always been in the shadows.
Cassandra is my favorite character. She literally transforms in the novel. She carries an emotional load, baggage that is not hers to bear. Through it all she grows, she learns, and she loves. Healing is ridding oneself of the discomfort we take on as we pick at the layers of others mistreatment toward us. Cassandra’s lost of her father leaves an emotional void. Filling it with the façade created by Trevor Black stripped her of the beauty of love. Cassandra returns home depressed and emotionally drained until Lamont gives her a reason to look beyond her troubles. I believe there are women who can connect with her and recognize her path to self love.
EDC: WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS STORY?
• A. I believe I wrote this story to rid a part of my feelings that I experienced off and on throughout my life. Love is a confusing emotion. We love openly seeking love in return and sometimes those who should love us don’t and those who we cling to as we fall tend to knock us down further. I can relate to Cassandra, her pain and her emotional turmoil. The character is not me at all but I can relate.
EDC: WHAT ISSUES IN TODAY’S SOCIETY HAVE YOU ADDRESSED IN THE BOOK?
• A. There are a few issues in today’s society that have been addressed in “Bruised Love”. Cassandra is a young, single mother. She fell in love with the neighborhood ‘playa’. His game slowly turned unbearable but it was what she thought was a loving relationship. His other women, the baby mama drama, the drugs, and his abuse became a part of her world. She lost sight of herself loving a man who didn’t love her. Cassandra had to find the strength to end what she thought was an endless love. She had to regain faith in herself for her children, reunite with a mother that didn’t know how to love her and build new relationships. There are women who struggle with this daily. What they overcome or fall victims to declares their fate. Unfortunately there are many who have walked the path that Cassandra walked.
EDC: IS THERE A MESSAGE IN YOUR BOOK THAT YOU WANT READERS TO GRASP?
• A. Yes, love thyself. Love thyself more than any other being that God has created or blessed you to know. Without self love you have nothing. Know what makes love important to you. It’s not about settling no matter who the love comes from. There are parents and other family members who know nothing about loving their offspring or each other. We have to build and keep building ourselves to be successful and it begins with self love. I won’t let you hurt me because I love me should be the outcry. It would diminish domestic violence, neglect, and child abuse. If the victims spoke out because they loved themselves more than they loved the abusers. They loved themselves more than accepting this painful love and returning to “Bruised Love”.
A bruise becomes tender, although the outer skin looks well the skin, the tissue below takes a longer time to heal…..sometimes it remains tender, easy to bruise again. We must learn to care for ourselves enough to heal. Love is beautiful and shouldn’t be feared. We shouldn’t have relationships after relationships scar us, or our children, who watch this dysfunctional love. The message is we must learn to love ourselves.
EDC: THOUSANDS OF BOOKS ARE PUBLISHED EACH YEAR. WHAT SETS YOUR BOOK APART FROM OTHER BOOKS IN YOUR GENRE?
• A. I think we’ve got so many genres that touch the surface of what reality is.
What sells as entertainment sometimes limits or sets the standard for most of the published works. “Bruised Love” has it all. The drama, love, sex, drugs, deceit, betrayal and murder, there is no exploitation, just reality. The way it happens, what could happen, and why. The story brings reality to the forefront, the bling for the reader is at the end. They will not be disappointed.
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