Guest Post: Catherine Bybee + Doing It Over

Happy Friday Everyone! Today I have a very special guest post from author Catherine Bybee as part of the promotional tour for her latest contemporary romance release, Doing it Over. You guys know there's never a time I'm not in the mood for a good romance, so I'm thrilled to welcome Catherine back to the blog. She's here to share a little bit about Doing It Over and life during her high school years, so I hope you guys enjoy and add this one to your lists!

THE HARDEST PART ABOUT MY HIGH SCHOOL LIFE

Jumping off a new series based on three high school besties, was both cathartic and fun. It helps that I have two teenage children either in high school, or just out of high school sparking my muse.

So when asked…what was my worst high school experience, and one that truly shaped my life…this is what I came up with:

I didn’t have a lot growing up. My mom fell in and out of love a lot, dragging her children along for the ride. My older siblings dropped out of school leaving me to set the example of doing it right. I was determined to graduate and go on to college. I learned early on that a university was out of the question. My grades weren’t such that I could compete on that level to get in, and money wasn’t there at all.

I worked as a waitress every day I could and still found time for after school plays and homework. Not that I gave much attention to the latter, but I did manage to pull halfway decent grades. My senior year in high school offered me the lead in two plays, which thrilled and challenged me. I was skating toward the finish line with the couple of academic classes I needed and the rest revolving around my passion. Theater and choir. I’d made the jazz choir, was vice president of the drama club…and lets not forget the lead roles of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker and Marty in the musical Grease.

Then… during the Christmas break, my mother came home to the apartment she was renting, and told me we were being evicted. She was moving in with her friend ‘Stoney’… name given for obvious reasons…and I should find a place to live.

Holy Shit! 

Yeah, that isn’t made up folks. I was six months away from graduating high school, 17 years old…and being told to ‘figure it out’.

I did!

I dropped out of all my fun classes, acting, directing, choir…gone were the after school roles in the plays. I added classes like computers…remember MS DOS?  I took a ten key class, and left school around noon to work so I could pay my way.  I had two families over the next six months take me in and offer a room. I paid them rent…not a lot, but something. I often only came to their homes to sleep.

I was on my own!

So there you go… the hardest part of my high school years.
The drive and determination I learned during that time has sat with me my whole life. But boy it sucked at the time!

Happy Reading
Catherine 

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DOING IT OVER

One small town. Three close friends. True love to last a lifetime.

Voted Most Likely to Succeed, Melanie Bartlett ended up anything but. The down-on-her-luck single mom wants a complete do-over—is that too much to ask? With her family long gone from River Bend, strong, independent Mel is as surprised as anyone to end up in the quaint small town she once called home. But with her friends, Jo and Zoe, by her side, and a comfortable room at Miss Gina’s quirky bed-and-breakfast, she just might have turned the corner on a new life.

Wyatt Gibson never liked the big city. River Bend suits the ruggedly handsome builder just fine. Wyatt knows he’s home, even if that means being charmed by the appearance of Melanie and her spunky, adorable daughter. Is Wyatt’s calm devotion—even amid a coming storm—enough to convince Mel she may have found a home to call her own, a family that never leaves, and a true love to last a lifetime?

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CATHERINE BYBEE

New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bybee was raised in Washington State, but after graduating high school, she moved to Southern California in hopes of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full-time and has penned the Weekday Brides Series and the Not Quite Series. Bybee lives with her two teenage sons in Southern California.

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