Greg Messel has spent much of his life in the Pacific Northwest living in Portland, Oregon and in the Seattle area since 2008. He has been married to his wife, Carol, for 40 years. Greg and Carol were high school sweethearts just like the couple in “Expiation.” He has lived in Washington, Oregon, California, Utah and Wyoming. Greg grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from high school there and also attended a year of junior college. Greg went to Brigham Young University with Carol and then began a newspaper career in rough and tumble Wyoming town of Rock Springs. Greg and Carol have three married children and nine grandchildren.
Greg has always loved writing. He worked as the news editor and sports editors of the Daily Rocket-Miner newspaper. He won a Wyoming Press Association award for his column. He also submitted and had published articles in various sports magazines. He left the newspaper business in 1981 and began a 27 year career with Pacific Power. Greg retired in 2008 and moved to Seattle.
It was there that he returned to his first love of writing. He has written two unpublished memoirs and published his first novel with Trafford in September 2009. His first novel was called “Sunbreaks.” The second novel “Expiation” was published in the spring of 2010 with Trafford. A third novel is in the works.
Currently, Greg and Carol live on the Puget Sound in Edmonds, Washington, just north of downtown Seattle. They have three adult children who are all married and have nine grandchildren. He also enjoys running, he has been in several races and half marathons.
Visit his website at www.gregmessel.com.
Connect with him at Twitter at www.twitter.com/gregmessel and Facebook at www.facebook.com/greg.messel.
About Expiation
In 1968, Dan and Katie are one of the hottest couples at Ballard High School in Seattle. He is the hero football player, and she is the beautiful cheerleader. These high school sweethearts believe theirs is a love that will never die.
Life changes when Dan leaves Washington to start college at the University of California Berkeley and pursue his dream of working for a big time newspaper in the glamorous city of San Francisco. The quest for his dream occurs against the turbulent background of Berkeley and San Francisco in the 1970s as Dan and Katie go their separate ways.
Now, thirty years later, Dan is back in his hometown of Seattle attending his mother’s funeral. He’s never stopped thinking about Katie, his long-lost love. But the two former high school sweethearts reconnect in a most unexpected way as the rest of the world grows more fearful of Y2K and the dawn of the twenty-first century. They are hoping that their love, once lost, can now be reclaimed.
My Review
When Dan goes back home to Seattle for his mom’s funeral, he meets up with his highschool sweetheart after 30 years of not seeing each other. It just happens that both are now single, and they find that they still have feelings for each other. Join Dan and Katie as they reunite again and find the love they lost so many years ago. But with each settled in a life of their own, will they be able to make a go of it, or will it be another goodbye, and this time forever.
I have always been fond of books about second chances and that is why I chose this one to read. The story of Dan and Katie is a wonderful story of a couple getting a second chance at being together. Since they hadn’t seen each other in 30 years, Katie decided to go to Dan’s mom’s funeral to see Dan again. As they tell the stories of their lives spent apart for the past 30 years, you will feel the joys and hurts each feel as they spend many hours catching up.
I liked Katie from the beginning. Her past had caused a lot of sadness and loneliness and she had been alone for many years after a marriage gone bad. I was happy for her that she would finally find the love and happiness she deserved. Dan was a different story for me. He had a sad past, losing his wife to cancer and having to raise his daughter alone, he buried himself into his work to cover the loss in his life. But still its seemed that he was the one that lost interest after moving to Washington. He didn’t come home or keep in contact with Katie like he promised he would. And after coming home and not finding her, he left a letter she never rec’d. Why didn’t he let her know he was coming in to see her? You would think he would, right? And the fact that he didn’t seem disappointed that he never heard from Katie after leaving the letter didn’t go well with me either. And that was mainly because he had another girlfriend back in Washington, and was glad Katie got him off the hook by not contacting him. And then there was the all too goodie goodie with Katie, he was almost too good to be true. I know, I know a bit of man bashing, but not meaning too! Just what I feel!
But it did have a happy ending for both of them. So that part is good..
splashesofjoy 