Now that she’s in her thirties, Rainey’s best friend Natalie insists she take a leap and try online dating. Rainey connects with brian85 and becomes cautiously hopeful as a natural attraction grows between them. Fearful a face to face meeting could ruin the magic, Rainey enlists Natalie to scheme up an encounter between the two where Brian is unaware he is meeting his online mystery woman. Rainey is left feeling both guilty about the deception and disappointed by something Brian says.
When they finally meet in earnest, Rainey’s insecurities threaten to derail the blossoming romance. As she struggles with self-acceptance, she reveals the risks we all must take to have a chance for love.
My history of online dating:
Chance for Rain is a story about Rainey May Abbott, a thirty-something woman looking for love. She turns to the (fictitious) dating website: mfeo.com (Made for Each Other). Althought, I have not tried online dating in the current manner of E-harmony, OKCupid or Tinder, in 1996, I did dip my toe in the pond of Yahoo personals. I spent many hours corresponding with three very sweet, interesting guys. When I finally decided to meet them, I arranged three dates in a row, and brought my roommate along with me (her name was also Tricia). It was a dating marathon as the Trish and Trish duo had brunch, happy hour and dinner all in one day with three different dates. I didn’t end up with any of them!
How I met my husband:
I finally met my ideal match on New Year’s Eve of 2004. Steve was the Service Manager at a local bike shop where I took my handcycle to be repaired. When I picked it up, he walked me out to my car to put my bike inside. We stood in the parking lot for at least a half hour, talking. We realized we had many friends in common in the cycling world, though we had never met. When I left that night, I immediately knew that I wanted to see him again, so I had one of our mutual friends drop a hint that I might like to be asked out. He asked me out on our first date a short time later. It was a four-hour bike ride.
My “Character Book”
I created a mini guidebook to my characters, complete with photos and information about each character, so I could refer back to it for dates, ages, physical descriptions and more. I even cut pictures out of magazines or used photos of people I know to represent each of the characters. In the book, Rainey’s picture is my good friend Regan Linton, Brian is my husband Steve, Natalie is Kate Hudson, Thom Abbott is Richard Gere, Jake Coulton is the actor who played Sawyer in the show Lost, Amber is my cousin Jill, and Seth, Rainey’s mom, and Sunny are all random photos I picked out of a magazines.
Chance for Rain is my second published book:
I published my first book, Cycle of Hope, a memoir in 2010. It was then that I learned that writing a book takes a lot of work, but it was also a reachable goal. It was the beginning of the belief in myself that I could write, although, at the time, I hadn’t imagined that would eventually translate into fiction novels. Of course, I believe after finishing Chance for Rain, I’m hooked! I have a lot to learn about the craft, but am excited to see what comes next.
Chance for Rain was an opportunity to create an entertaining, yet educational novel:
Chance for Rain started out merely as a fun side project for me. The seedlings of the story came to me one night as I was falling asleep and nearly kept me up all night. Each time I put my head back on the pillow, another scene, sentence or paragraph came to me and I had to keep sitting up, pulling out the notebook and writing everything down so I wouldn’t forget it by morning. Once I got to writing and getting into the character of Rainey, it became an opportunity for me to highlight a character with a disability, and in the process of telling her story, I was able to add teaching moments into the manuscript that highlighted disability etiquette and awareness, to give the reader a perspective that might be something different than the norm. So often in the movies, we see characters with disabilities as being tragic, unhappy characters, or the opposite—overly inspiring; the character who overcomes his/her disability to do something that no one thought was possible. In Chance for Rain, my goal was to make Rainey an interesting and believable character, but one with a universal problem to tackle—a problem that could belong to anyone. And in this case, a concern about her ability to fall in love and to experience that love in return.
Chance for Rain took eight years to complete:
Although the first notes on Chance for Rain were written in 2010, the book didn’t come to fruition until 2018. When I began writing the book, I had no immediate goal for it, I mostly wrote when the mood struck me and put it away for months and years at a time. But when I mentioned to my husband about all of the half-written manuscripts on my computer, he suggested it was time to do something about them. He encouraged me, say if I felt I had something to share, I should get busy getting it out into the world. So, I would say, out of the eight years CFR was sitting on my computer, I actively worked on it for about two. The other six years were spent wondering if it was good enough to publish or if I had the guts to go through the editing process (and potentially see massive markups throughout). Eventually, I decided to give it a go and I was fueled by the opportunity to share my world with readers—what it’s like to live with a disability like paraplegia and to hopefully surprise people with how normal life can be even when a wheelchair involved.
Multiple chapters were written on my cell phone:
My most creative times seem to come just as I am falling asleep or as I am waking up in the morning, so now, instead of keeping a pad of paper by the bed, I use my cell phone. This way, when the right words happen to come along, I can open my notepad app and write to my heart’s content…all without waking up my husband on the other side of the bed. I have so snippets of writing on my cell phone, I could probably put them all together and have a great foundation for several new books. Now that I have Chance for Rain complete, it’s time to go back and see all of the scenes I’ve stored in that notepad and get to work on a second novel.
My goal for this part of my writing career is to showcase characters with disabilities:
In my life as a Paralympic athlete, I have the opportunity to know hundreds of others with disabilities and have learned about so many walks of life, how different disabilities make for an interesting and creative stored and I look forward to introducing these characters to mainstream fiction. And because I am a sucker for Chick lit, I’m sure that romance and happy endings will always be involved.
Chance for Rain is a story about Rainey May Abbott, a thirty-something woman looking for love. She turns to the (fictitious) dating website: mfeo.com (Made for Each Other). Althought, I have not tried online dating in the current manner of E-harmony, OKCupid or Tinder, in 1996, I did dip my toe in the pond of Yahoo personals. I spent many hours corresponding with three very sweet, interesting guys. When I finally decided to meet them, I arranged three dates in a row, and brought my roommate along with me (her name was also Tricia). It was a dating marathon as the Trish and Trish duo had brunch, happy hour and dinner all in one day with three different dates. I didn’t end up with any of them!
How I met my husband:
My “Character Book”
I created a mini guidebook to my characters, complete with photos and information about each character, so I could refer back to it for dates, ages, physical descriptions and more. I even cut pictures out of magazines or used photos of people I know to represent each of the characters. In the book, Rainey’s picture is my good friend Regan Linton, Brian is my husband Steve, Natalie is Kate Hudson, Thom Abbott is Richard Gere, Jake Coulton is the actor who played Sawyer in the show Lost, Amber is my cousin Jill, and Seth, Rainey’s mom, and Sunny are all random photos I picked out of a magazines.
Chance for Rain is my second published book:
I published my first book, Cycle of Hope, a memoir in 2010. It was then that I learned that writing a book takes a lot of work, but it was also a reachable goal. It was the beginning of the belief in myself that I could write, although, at the time, I hadn’t imagined that would eventually translate into fiction novels. Of course, I believe after finishing Chance for Rain, I’m hooked! I have a lot to learn about the craft, but am excited to see what comes next.
Chance for Rain was an opportunity to create an entertaining, yet educational novel:
Chance for Rain started out merely as a fun side project for me. The seedlings of the story came to me one night as I was falling asleep and nearly kept me up all night. Each time I put my head back on the pillow, another scene, sentence or paragraph came to me and I had to keep sitting up, pulling out the notebook and writing everything down so I wouldn’t forget it by morning. Once I got to writing and getting into the character of Rainey, it became an opportunity for me to highlight a character with a disability, and in the process of telling her story, I was able to add teaching moments into the manuscript that highlighted disability etiquette and awareness, to give the reader a perspective that might be something different than the norm. So often in the movies, we see characters with disabilities as being tragic, unhappy characters, or the opposite—overly inspiring; the character who overcomes his/her disability to do something that no one thought was possible. In Chance for Rain, my goal was to make Rainey an interesting and believable character, but one with a universal problem to tackle—a problem that could belong to anyone. And in this case, a concern about her ability to fall in love and to experience that love in return.
Chance for Rain took eight years to complete:
Although the first notes on Chance for Rain were written in 2010, the book didn’t come to fruition until 2018. When I began writing the book, I had no immediate goal for it, I mostly wrote when the mood struck me and put it away for months and years at a time. But when I mentioned to my husband about all of the half-written manuscripts on my computer, he suggested it was time to do something about them. He encouraged me, say if I felt I had something to share, I should get busy getting it out into the world. So, I would say, out of the eight years CFR was sitting on my computer, I actively worked on it for about two. The other six years were spent wondering if it was good enough to publish or if I had the guts to go through the editing process (and potentially see massive markups throughout). Eventually, I decided to give it a go and I was fueled by the opportunity to share my world with readers—what it’s like to live with a disability like paraplegia and to hopefully surprise people with how normal life can be even when a wheelchair involved.
Multiple chapters were written on my cell phone:
My most creative times seem to come just as I am falling asleep or as I am waking up in the morning, so now, instead of keeping a pad of paper by the bed, I use my cell phone. This way, when the right words happen to come along, I can open my notepad app and write to my heart’s content…all without waking up my husband on the other side of the bed. I have so snippets of writing on my cell phone, I could probably put them all together and have a great foundation for several new books. Now that I have Chance for Rain complete, it’s time to go back and see all of the scenes I’ve stored in that notepad and get to work on a second novel.
My goal for this part of my writing career is to showcase characters with disabilities:
In my life as a Paralympic athlete, I have the opportunity to know hundreds of others with disabilities and have learned about so many walks of life, how different disabilities make for an interesting and creative stored and I look forward to introducing these characters to mainstream fiction. And because I am a sucker for Chick lit, I’m sure that romance and happy endings will always be involved.
“Sometimes going shopping is work,” Natalie announces as we head back to her house after a morning at the mall. “You can’t be creative when you’ve been jammed up in an office for five hours. You have to get out for new ideas to come to you.”
“I love how you can rationalize almost any of life’s indulgences,” I say. Nat turns and winks in response to my playful smirk.
“Life is too short to deny yourself all self-indulgent behavior.” The words hang in the air slightly, as we both know it was an off-handed comment, but our minds go immediately back to the event that reinforces her words.
“Yes, life is short.” I say this in a way that reassures her that her comment was taken in the spirit it was said, rather than meant to dredge up bad memories. Though I can’t help but elaborate on the subject. “Do you realize I’m only six years shy of my mom’s age at the time of the accident?”
“Yep,” Nat answers a bit too quickly. “I do. And I also realize something else. Your mom was thirty-eight, married to the love of her life and had two charming young girls.” I quickly realize I have given her the perfect segue into a lecture that has been constructed, rehearsed, and delivered to me many times in many different iterations over the past ten years. Now, as if she is attempting an intervention while we drive down Colorado Boulevard, Natalie blurts out, “Rainey, it’s about time we found you a man.”
“Why? Are you getting tired of hanging out with me?”
“It’s not that,” she says. “It’s just. That. It’s time,” the words spit out of her mouth. It’s obvious she wants to punctuate her points. “You can’t keep running away from it. You’re an incredible catch—beautiful and charming to be around. Athletic. Everything most girls would die to be.”
I know she is keenly aware of my resistance, but I get the feeling she isn’t going to fall for it today. But I also can’t ignore my feelings or my truth.
“I love how you can rationalize almost any of life’s indulgences,” I say. Nat turns and winks in response to my playful smirk.
“Life is too short to deny yourself all self-indulgent behavior.” The words hang in the air slightly, as we both know it was an off-handed comment, but our minds go immediately back to the event that reinforces her words.
“Yes, life is short.” I say this in a way that reassures her that her comment was taken in the spirit it was said, rather than meant to dredge up bad memories. Though I can’t help but elaborate on the subject. “Do you realize I’m only six years shy of my mom’s age at the time of the accident?”
“Yep,” Nat answers a bit too quickly. “I do. And I also realize something else. Your mom was thirty-eight, married to the love of her life and had two charming young girls.” I quickly realize I have given her the perfect segue into a lecture that has been constructed, rehearsed, and delivered to me many times in many different iterations over the past ten years. Now, as if she is attempting an intervention while we drive down Colorado Boulevard, Natalie blurts out, “Rainey, it’s about time we found you a man.”
“Why? Are you getting tired of hanging out with me?”
“It’s not that,” she says. “It’s just. That. It’s time,” the words spit out of her mouth. It’s obvious she wants to punctuate her points. “You can’t keep running away from it. You’re an incredible catch—beautiful and charming to be around. Athletic. Everything most girls would die to be.”
I know she is keenly aware of my resistance, but I get the feeling she isn’t going to fall for it today. But I also can’t ignore my feelings or my truth.
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On September 17, 2000, Tricia Downing went from being a competitive cyclist to a paraplegic requiring a wheelchair for mobility. Her life was changed forever, but Tricia’s competitive spirit and zest for life continued on. Making the transition from able-bodied cyclist to an athlete with a disability, Tricia has completed over 100 races, including marathons and triathlons, since her accident. She was the first female paraplegic to complete an Ironman triathlon and qualified for the Hawaii Ironman World Championship twice. Additionally, she was a member of Team USA at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Tricia’s professional life has been immersed in sports as she earned a master’s degree in Sport Management in 1995 and worked at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. She was the press officer for the USA Table Tennis team at the 1996 Olympic Games.
She has received many sports accolades, including the USA Triathlon Physically Challenged Athlete of the Year (2003), Sportswomen of Colorado—Inspiration (’03), Triathlon (’05), Hall of Fame (’12) Awards, the 2006 Most Inspirational Athlete from the Challenged Athletes Foundation and the 2008 Courage Award from the Tempe Sports Authority.
As a community leader and disability advocate, she was a member of the 2013 class of the Girl Scouts Women of Distinction. She also received the 2019 Inspiration Award from Craig Hospital for outstanding community contribution from a Craig Hospital “graduate.” (Craig is a world-renowned spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation hospital) Tricia has truly excelled despite her life-altering injury.
In addition to her sports pursuits, Tricia has taken an active leadership role in her community as a peer mentor to others experiencing spinal cord injuries, she founded Camp Discovery (and subsequently The Cycle of Hope non-profit) dedicating 10 years to helping female wheelchair users gain confidence and self-esteem through a yearly sports and fitness retreat. Additionally, she serves on the board of USA Shooting, which is the National Governing Body for the Olympic sport of shooting.
Tricia published her memoir: Cycle of Hope—A Journey from Paralysis to Possibility in June 2010, with the second edition released in January 2017. In August of 2018, she published her first fiction novel Chance for Rain.
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ReplyDeleteWho is your favorite author that is currently still writing?
ReplyDeleteTwo authors I most enjoy reading these days are Jodi Picoult and Emily Giffin.
DeleteThis sounds like it will be an emotional read.
ReplyDeleteHi Sue! I hope you will enjoy the read. Thanks for stopping my blog tour today.
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DeleteThanks for sharing your book with us. I think we all enjoy hearing about new books we previously didn't know about. Also, thank you for the giveaway.
ReplyDeleteHi Lauren: Thanks so much for hosting me today!
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ReplyDelete@tisonlyme143
Like you, I never participated in online dating - thank all the powers (real and imaginary) that ever existed! I have friends with stories!
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