Touch the Stars
Authors: Pamela Browning
Touch the Stars
The Keeping Secrets Series
Book Four
by
Pamela Browning
Award-winning Author
TOUCH THE STARS
Reviews & Accolades
"Pamela Browning's characters are warm and human with unique personalities and endearing quirks."
~
Romantic Times
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ePublishing Works!
ISBN: 978-1-61417-438-7
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Copyright © 1986, 2013, 2015 by Pamela Browning. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
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This book is dedicated to the memory of my two wonderful grandmothers, and also to the memory of Caroline Zabovnik Browning, who made delicious goulash.
"Some say that only a fool walks the high wire. But am I a fool to want to touch the stars?"
—
Stephen Andrassy
Dear Reader,
When I was a child, I loved the circus. One of my earliest memories is of attending a small one-ring circus where I sat with my parents and sister on a pile of hay close to the ring. What with the elephants and their special delivery packages slightly upwind, I decided then that if I ever joined a circus, I'd take to the high wire.
Maybe that's why I was fascinated by the great Karl Wallenda, a wire walker who died in a fall at the age of 73. As one of his biggest fans, I was immeasurably saddened when I heard the tragic news. But I had to hand it to the guy. At an age when he was entitled to sit on the sidelines with the elephants, he was still vigorous, healthy, and living the life he wanted. He never ceased to reach for—and touch—the stars.
What goes into a lifelong passion? How does it affect relationships, family, children? I couldn't know, ever, how it was for Karl Wallenda. But I could invent a family with struggles such as his must have faced. And I could create beautiful Julie and charismatic Stephen to fall in love within that milieu. Add some quirky characters plus a never-revealed secret and you've got a book. A good one, I hope.
So that's how
Touch the Stars
came to be. I enjoyed living within my imaginary wire-walkers' world as I wrote it, and I assure you that this invented world has no basis in fact, nor are any of the characters based on real people, living or dead. It's a work of fiction that took place only in my head, and I hope you'll find it a fascinating read!
Please look for the other three books in the Keeping Secrets Series:
Through Eyes of Love
,
Ever Since Eve
, and
Sunshine and Shadows.
With love and best wishes,
Pamela Browning
Prologue
From
Entertainment Now
:
Las Vegas—Former Moscow Circus headliner Stephen Martinovic-Andrassy stepped off the high wire and into a media blitz.
The personable wire walker announced last week that he's filed for permanent residency in the United States.
"As soon as my contract at Cirque du Soleil is finished, I will reunite my family's performing troupe," he said at a televised news conference on Friday.
Andrassy's performances since arriving in the U.S. have been solo. His family, the Amazing Andrassys, fell from the wire at the New Orleans Superdome eight years ago while performing their signature nine-person pyramid walk. Several family members were killed.
"It is time to put the past behind us," Andrassy said. "Yes, it is a dangerous way to make a living. But we are Andrassys."