Long Before I Knew You...: An Email Love Story

By Judi McMahon

A dynamic story about two strangers, one originally from England, the other a transplanted New Yorker now living in Arizona who meet through an on-line personals ad. They're both bright, accomplished, but at different stages of their lives. His name is Kiernan. He's divorced, has four grown children and has returned to graduate school to obtain a doctorate. And so he's living meagerly on student loans and teaching stipends in a trailer in California in order to achieve these goals. Her name is Julie. She's successful, has led an exciting life in New York, where she was a newspaper columnist, magazine writer and author of how-to books for major publishers. Also divorced, (twice to the same man) Julie decides on her own to adopt a child, a little girl named Maya, who is almost 7, from an orphanage in Russia.Maya quickly becomes the light of Julie's life. Eventually, in August of 2001, the two move to Arizona, where Julie continues writing, as well as running her own holistic skin care website, RebornAngel.com. (Many of her how-to books and columns focused on health and beauty.)Maya now grown and a beautiful young woman of 20, gets involved with an older man of 38 who is married and with Julie's disapproval soon moves out. This disappointing turn of events is hurtful, and for the first time, Julie recognizes she's invested all of her time and interest in her daughter and is now suddenly alone. Soon she decides to place an on-line personals ad for companionship. She is seeking a man who shares some of her interests, which includes Broadway musicals, especially by Stephen Sondheim and the Gershwin's. Kiernan, who hasn't begun his school term yet, answers the ad -- and thus begins a magical relationship. They write and share about their past lives and current dreams and goals and soon decide to co-write a murder mystery based on a serial killer.Soon, the emailing is intense and the co-writing project stirs them to phone conversations and text messages, and quickly the desire to meet. He must travel 200 miles from California to visit her in Tucson. Because of some health issues and also his lack of funds, this makes for some difficulties, but still he comes to meet with her...and so the relationship develops even more. What happens after this is fascinating, the kind of book you want to keep on reading to find out what will happen next. And a lot does happen. To Kiernan, to his only son Edward, age 20, and to his and Julie's book project. Finally, a surprising turn of events develops which deeply affects Julie.The emails are real, written by two individuals but in order to protect their identities and privacy, names and locations have been changed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1494827530
• ISBN13: 9781494827533
• Release Date: March 2014
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 516 Pages
• Weight: 1.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.2" x 6.0"