Fools' Gold

Fools' Gold (2000) Post 260

Fools' Gold is a paranormal romance published as an ebook in 2000. It was supposed to come out in paperback, but the company ceased trading (I think) and so it never did. This is the only cover picture I can find, blown up from a thumbnail and so blurry. I'm sorry about that, as I like it and it's well representative of the book.

Fools' Gold is one of the twisty time-travel stories I love writing, and also one of those that, like O'Connor's Last Stand,  (March 17th post) turned up some nice logical conclusions more or less without conscious effort from me. (Gotta love writers' serendipity.)  There's an unsolicited review of it HERE.

Abigail Reed is out looking about an old goldfield close to where she lived as a child. She shelters from a rainstorm in what's left of a mine, and inevitably gets hit on the head in a collapse. Through the (painful) agency of a lump of gold known as the wandering nugget. 

Here is some material from a 2001 website (one of my own) where I showcased this book when it was new. 

The time is the 1860s, and Matthias Gilchrist is disillusioned with life. His betrothed, Jemima Snow, has been persuaded to marry someone else. Hoping to strike a fortune and persuade Jemima's father to change his mind and honour his promise, Matthias leaves his carpenter's shop and heads for the goldfields of Nugget Creek. With his taciturn companion Henry Boatwright, Matthias stakes a claim and begins to search for gold.

Here, in the aftermath of a thunderstorm, he meets the love of his life, who has fallen out of the future.

The time is 2001 and Abigail Reed, editor of Aurora magazine, is in limbo. Her fiancé, John, has been called away on urgent family business. The wedding is postponed, so Abigail decides to walk down memory lane. With her cousin, Zac, she heads for her childhood home in the ghost town of Nugget Creek - and tumbles out of time to meet the love of her life.

Falling in love is easy, but how can Abigail marry her man when he believes she is a foundling who has lost her memory?

And what will happen when they hear that Matthias' first love, Jemima Snow, is dying? Jemima could be cured in the future, if only Abigail dares to make a stand.

There are so many questions and so many answers, but the key to them all is the wandering nugget.

The first chapter is there too, so if you'd like to read that, go HERE. If you want to read the rest, let me know in the comments. I probably have an old file somewhere and it would give me a reason to convert it to PDF or (finally) to paperback. The publisher who brought it out appears not to exist any more and after a decade and a half I can't even remember the editor's name.

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. If you enjoyed a post, or want to ask about any of my books or my manuscript assessment service.