THE HEART OF ANNIE tells the story of Lilly Roche and Curtis Walker, whose lives have flourished socially and professionally, but who find themselves single through a combination of circumstance, choice, and heartbreak. Lilly’s mother passed away when she was a teenager, leaving her to an adolescence spent coping with her father’s depression and her brother’s ceaseless bullying. The divorce of Curtis’ ill-matched parents at age thirteen, and later his own failed engagement, leaves him on emotional cruise control, surfing through dozens of patchwork relationships, unwilling to fully connect.

But one fall when Curtis’ uncle Bob Walker, dear to both Lilly and Curtis, suffers a heart attack, it brings Curtis from Los Angeles to Lilly’s Austin. Their unexpected reconnection—after first meeting as children—shocks them both awake to the desire to pursue love, and more awakened lives for themselves.

What genre is this?
Contemporary fiction.

Surprisingly, a lot of men like it.  But I generally think it’s a book for woman aged 30 to 60.

Tell us about Lilly and Curtis.
Lilly is in her late 30s, still a bit broken hearted from her failed engagement, and callous to those feelings by virtue of the emotional blocks she built when she lost her mother to cancer as a young girl. Curtis is in his early 40’s, a tad emotionally lazy, but at heart a good guy who can’t get out of his own way.

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a lawyer in Austin, Texas. Before I got my law license I worked as an editor for Family Life magazine, which was published first by Wenner Media and then Hachette Filipacchi. Besides my years in New York and a stint in Washington DC, I have lived most of my life in Texas, by design.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
http://ccmediatx.wix.com/the-heart-of-annie

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
@JSFoote

What’s next?
I’m working on the sequel. It’s still in its early phases and I prefer not to talk about it until the second or third draft, but it is a continuation of these characters, with a bigger focus on Bob, I think.