Sometime, Somewhere

by Kalyn Fogarty

Jimmy and Wren Knight appear to have the perfect life- young, beautiful, hopelessly in love. But beneath the surface of every marriage are fissures that threaten to break even the strongest of bonds. Wren desperately wants a baby, despite her ongoing battle with ovarian cancer. Against all odds and recommendations, she is hell bent on getting pregnant and starting their family. While Jimmy wants to be a father, he’s afraid Wren is not strong enough to carry a baby and fears losing the thing that is most important to him- Wren. As if this wasn’t enough, they also have ghosts.

After a fatal accident, James awakens as a ghost in the Knight family living room. Recognizing that Jimmy is a different version of himself, James realizes that rather than haunting his past life, he’s watching an adaptation of his life had he married his high school sweetheart.

Karen hoped that suicide would finally end her suffering. Much to her dismay, her death resulted in her haunting an alternate version of her life. As a ghost, she finds herself watching a life where she’s married to her long-ago lover, but still battling cancer.

Karen assumes she is alone in this parallel limbo until she encounters another ghost, James. With some coaxing on both sides they rekindle their lost relationship. James finally forgives himself for past mistakes and Karen allows herself to be loved. It seems they finally have a chance at happiness, but as events in the real world spin out of control, they worry that fate may still work to keep them apart. Although the ghosts cannot change the world they haunt, it becomes apparent that their redemption depends on the survival of Jimmy and Wren’s marriage.

298 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 12, 2013

Reviews

[Dave Manning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good piece of creative fiction. I was confused initially with the dimensional and timeline switches (not just different periods of time for the same two people, but also different time periods for different dimensional versions of the same people-- it's a lot to process). Had there been a disclosure up front to tell me "pay attention to the names and dates" or something, even though this would have taken away from the "reveal" later on, I would have appreciated it more and not been flipping back and forth like a choose-your-own-adventure novel. My suggestion would be for less dates and less flipping-- condense the story with "I remember when" memories rather than writing as though it's the present. This would allow for more mainstream / less intelligent people to read it easier (gotta aim for middle market sometimes, especially if targeting younger people).