One of my favorite writers and bloggers, Deborah J. Brasket, will publish her first novel, When Things Go Missing, in just a few days! It’s a pleasure to participate in Deborah’s Book Blog Tour along with nine other bloggers. Please enjoy Deborah’s guest post below, and be sure to scroll to the end to find links to the other posts.
I hope you’ll leave comments here and on the other book blogger sites for a chance to win a free E-book with extra chapters of the novel! Here also is a link to my review of When Things Go Missing.
Here is what Deborah has to say about an important phase in the writing of her novel:
I thought I’d share something that I wrote six years ago about When Things Go Missing when it was still a novel-in-progress. At that time the working title of my novel was From the Far Ends of the Earth, and it was in the hands of an agent who was submitting it to publishers. This post shows how long and messy the road to publication can be and the choices writers must make along the way
Endings and Beginnings, A Writer’s Life
Well, I just finished rewriting the ending of my novel as requested by a publisher. We will see what they think.
Either way, I believe this new ending is stronger–-still hopeful, but less certain. More in keeping with the way things are for most of us when things we love go missing, or when struggling with our own demons and addictions.
I’ve decided something else too. Quite a few publishers wanted to see more of the missing mother in my story, yet I wasn’t willing to do that. It would have unraveled the very premise of my novel, which was, how do we cope when the center holding everything together falls apart? When the person upon which we most depend disappears?
I wanted the mother to be part of the puzzle, not a presence herself, but that “absent” presence we feel, even yearn for, but cannot quite pin down, and never really know for certain.
Do any of us ever, really, know our mothers? Don’t we only know them through our own often faulty and incomplete perceptions of them? What they’ve allowed us to see, or what we choose to believe? All knowledge is partial and open to revision. We may know the facts that lay before us. But do facts a person make?
Yet even while I’ve resisted the call to add the mother’s perspective to this novel, I can understand how a reader might want more of her, to hear about her journey as she travels away from her family and through South America. What does she learn as she discovers the world through the new lens of her photography? Does it lend insight into her past? Into herself as a mother and wife and now an artist? How does it shape her anew? Where does it take her?
So I’m considering a “sequel” to From the Far Ends of the Earth, if we can call it that, since it will cover the same time-space as the first novel.
I think it might be fun to give the mother her own voice and space, to see what shaped her past and how her journey shapes her future.
It’s the thing I love most about writing, discovering what I never knew I knew before I began to write it, as if the words themselves are drawn from some inner well of insight or vision I never knew I had.
“We create ourselves out of our innermost intuitions,” so writes a sage.
I believe that. And I also believe our characters are created in much of the same way. I wonder if we all contain multiple characters within us that make themselves known to us through our writing? Or are we just writing our larger selves?
Perhaps all the selves of all the people we’ve come to know, to experience, in this wider world, once known, become part of us, at least partially?
I believe there is a collective consciousness that we tap into from time to time, and writers, perhaps, most of all.
Sometimes I don’t know where I end and another begins.
My son says I have boundary issues. No doubt he’s right.
When Things Go Missing BOOK BLOG TOUR
Below are the bloggers, authors, and book reviewers participating in this tour promoting When Things Go Missing. Participants will either be spotlighting the book, posting reviews, or interviewing the author.
GIVEAWAY
Please bookmark this and join us on the tour! Those who leave the most likes and comments on the participating sites will have a chance to win a free E-book PLUS extra chapters of the novel (which the author reluctantly had to cut.)
BOOK BLOG PARTICIPANTS
• Sep. 15 – Sally Cronin, Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – SPOTLIGHT
• Sep. 16 – Valorie Hallinan, Books Can Save a Life – INTERVIEW / GUEST POST
• Sep. 18 – Laura Bruno Lilly, Classical Guitarist/Composer – BOOK REVIEW
• Sept. 20 – Margaret Moon, Book Chat – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
• Sept. 21 – Luanne Castle, Poet/Author – BOOK REVIEW
• Sep. 23 – Dr. Vicki Atkinson, Therapist/Author – BOOK REVIEW
• Sep. 24 – Jacqui Murray, Author, Book Reviewer – BOOK REVIEW
• Sep. 25 – Liz Gauffreau, Poet/Author – SPOTLIGHT
• Sep. 26 – Wynne Leon, The Heart of the Matter Podcast – INTERVIEW
• Sep. 27 – Liz Dexter – Editor, Book Reviewer – BOOK REVIEW
When Things Go Missing will be published by Sea Stone Press September 22, 2025.
PRE-ORDER NOW
Amazon Bookshop Barnes & Noble
Books Can Save A Life 
That was such a smart decision to keep the mother an absence (for the most part) at the center of the book and family. That’s exactly what the book is about!
I’m glad you agree, Luanne! It is what it’s all about.
[…] The making of a first novel, When Things Go Missing – Over at Books Can Save A Life, Valorie Grace Hallinan has joined the promotional tour for “one of [her] favorite writers and bloggers,” the American author, advocate and ‘Bluewater Sailor’, Deborah J. Brasket, whose forthcoming novel, When Things Go Missing is a tale of what happens when the pillar of a family disappears under mysterious circumstances. The book allows Brasket to ask questions about how well we really know those we love and, in this post, the author herself discusses “an important phase” in the writing of her work. You can also read Valorie’s full review, in which she describes the novel as “a powerful and authentic story” depicting a “tender, loving […] family contending with grief […] while fully embracing all the joy that life can hold.” […]
I am glad you chose not to showcase the mother, also. Because the book works just the way it is. I could see it as another novel, as you say, but in this story it’s perfect the way you wrote it.
So glad you agree about the mom, Valorie! Someday, I’d like to write about Fran’s adventure too.
I like that you were able to stick to your vision and not add in the perspective of the mother. I imagine it was really hard to resist that request from publishers.
Thanks, Stephanie. It was hard. But I sent the manuscript to another development editor I trust, and he agreed with me. That helped a lot.
Thank you, Valorie, for hosting this 2nd stop in my blog tour and allowing me to share something of my journey in creating this novel. Your support and encouragement has meant the world to me!
Of course! This has been fun and I’m so thrilled for you!