The PlaceholderTHE PLACEHOLDER, a mash-up of Thelma and Louise besties meet Eat, Pray, Love and Me Before You.
Middle-aged Serenade Kincaid has lost everything: her stepchildren, her house, half her earnings, her sports car, and her husband, all to a decades younger–and more fertile–woman.
Sera now drinks boxed wine from a plastic cup as she attempts to start over from her new home, a seedy motel, as she kills time scrolling dating apps in search of a semi-decent-not-mass-murderer-please-just-spend-time-with-me port in the storm.
As Sera discontentedly leapfrogs through men, her snarky, meddling boss and sometimes-best friend, Carolyn, encourages her to focus more on finding a friend with benefits, just until Prince Charming comes along, of course. Zac fits the bill.
He’s a self-proclaimed “unsuitable boyfriend” who looks to have jumped straight from the pages of a romance novel. Zac also insists he, too is only looking for some fun, which is perfect for Sera.
Cue the booty calls. And wow, are they hitting the spot. But just when Sera is starting to figure herself out, get her life back on track and think she may have found someone, life takes a sharp left. And all fun and games come to a screeching halt.
Now, Sera, Zac, and Carolyn must race against time to disentangle their web of lies and deceit before it’s too late.
The Placeholder is an unconventional, unforgettable, unputdownable story of loss and love.
Purchase Links
Amazon US - https://www.amazon.com/Placeholder-Lynda-Wolters/dp/163755219X
Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Placeholder-Lynda-Wolters/dp/163755219X
Author Bio – Lynda was born and raised in a tiny farming community of 400 in northern Idaho. She worked on the family farm, with her first job being picking rocks out of the fields with her dad and grandpa. She graduated to driving both the truck and combine during harvest season. After high school, Lynda traveled to New York to be a nanny for a few months before moving to Las Vegas to further her schooling.
Lynda has worked in the legal field for 30+ years and enjoys ballroom and swing dancing, horseback riding, kayaking, and river rafting. She has a heart for people and regularly volunteers. Following a diagnosis of incurable cancer, Lynda began writing. Her first non-fiction book, Voices of Cancer,was released in 2019 (a piece was done by Jane Brody on January 20, 2020, and published in the NYT, and a grant purchased the Chinese translation rights, and Voices of Cancer is now offered to medical students in the Tawain area), and her second non-fiction book, Voices of LGBTQ+, was released in 2020.
The Placeholder, Lynda’s debut novel, will be released on November 1, 2022. Lynda currently has a middle-grade historical fiction manuscript about her in-laws, who were children in the Netherlands during WW2, in editing.
Social Media Links –
Web: Lynda Wolters
Facebook: Lynda Wolters
Instagram: Lynda Wolters
Twitter: Lynda Wolters
Giveaway to Win 5 x PB copies of The Placeholder (Open to US Only)
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As an author trying to grow my platform, I post a lot. In return, I receive some very random and creepy messages and questions. In the random category, I would say the thing I am most oftenasked is: I want to write a book; how do I start? And in the creepy category, the strangest one was a request for a video of me washing my hands. Enough said on that one.
As to the question about writing a book, I will try to give my two cents, as that is the best I can do. The first thing I always try to do is to get the point across that, first and foremost, there must be a desire for people to read what is written. In other words, just because you think you have a great story, or even if everyone around you tells you your story should be a book, doesn't mean that people who don't know you want to read what you've written.
For example, most people want to write their memoir (I did). And the most challenging and most direct response is: But who are you, and why would anyone want to read what you wrote? If you are not a celebrity, have not discovered how to split atoms, or did not have five minutes of viral social media fame for blowing the world's largest bubble, people simply aren't likely to pick up your book. Advice: Write something even a stranger to you (beyond your relatives and friends) would want to read. Note: I did not do anything with the manuscript of my memoir. I used it as a personal writing exercise. Because, after all, why would anyone want to read about my life?
The next thing I would suggest is to read. Read. Read. Read. And when you think you've read enough, find another book. Writing is about putting words on paper; good writing is about making those words sing to create a song whose lyrics are remembered long after the music stops.
But what do I write, you may ask? Anything. Really. There are plenty of story-starting sites that will help give you some ideas. When I started the just write phase, I used the old fashion pen and paper. I thought I wanted to be one of those romantic, old-fashioned writers. Then, after a few days of wrist cramps, I took to the keyboard. On days when I am not writing or editing a story, I go to my starter site, pick a topic, and just let the words flow. These writing times are not for the consumption of others. They are simply practice for you until something concrete clicks, and you figure out your style, genre, and plot.
I am no expert. I have no MFA. I don't even have a degree that correlates to writing. Still, I have a huge (let me try that word again) HUGE desire to be an author and strong nose-to-the-grindstone willpower to keep reading and writing to make that happen.
I often get asked about an excerpt in The Placeholder: What is a Wax Sister?
In the way-back days, growing up in my little rural community of 400 people in northern Idaho, I had a gaggle of good friends. When I say good, I mean the kind that you don't knock on the door before you enter. Instead, you announce yourself as you run through the house on the way to the back door looking for your friend in the backyard. Of these friends, four of us bonded particularly well during the end of junior high and throughout high school; Jill, Jennifer, Kate, and me.
We were like the girls from the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, thick as thieves. But we were also fraidy cats. Imagine how un-worldly you would be if the nearest movie theater or drive-through were twenty-five miles away and the closest mall was sixty.
So, we 'sisters' did what nowadays would be considered simple things to bide our time and entertain ourselves. We rode our bicycles everywhere, sang a lot to the AM radio, made-up skits,and played cards. Then, during the summer months, we played kicked the can. The town's younger population would meet at a designated spot, learned about by an old-fashioned telephone tree system, and gather to kick a can and hide from whoever was the chosen seeker.
In that vein of simplicity, when it was time for us four friends to prove our bond to each other,we soon found out that becoming blood sisters was never going to happen. We did try to prick our fingers with a sewing needle, but none of us could manage. As it happened, we sat around Jennifer's kitchen table with a candle in the middle as a centerpiece. Someone got the brilliant idea that we should stick our fingers in the hot candle wax. So, we did just that. We all dipped a forefinger into the hot wax. We held onto each other's fingers until the wax dried. And just like that, we became the Wax Sisters.
Then, as was our community's tradition, we went out to the canyon just outside of town and memorialized our friendship. Using spray paint, we inscribing the words, Wax Sisters on a rock wall. Shortly after that, one of the Wax Sisters passed away. And albeit faded with time and elements, the words can still be seen, Wax Sisters.
There is a reference in The Placeholder to that place on the canyon wall. So that part of the book is true and is an ode to my Wax Sisters. I hope everyone knows true friendship like that of a Wax Sister.
I want to dispel a writing myth. More specifically, I'd like to dispel a writing myth about me: I don't finish everything I start.
It came across my desk recently that, for some reason, there is this weird notion that people have that writers finish everything and that everything becomes published. I guess those same people probably think that everything published also makes money for the writer. Well, let's just put a stop to that crazy thinking right now.
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