#NewRelease from Karina Bartow - UNDEVELOPED MEMORIES
- Sep 16
- 5 min read
I love a good secondary character. Today's guest talks about an important secondary character in the her story and the part he plays. The #newrelease from Karina Bartow is UNDEVELOPED MEMORIES, a contemporary romance with hints of mystery as Lorelei attempts to uncovers the secrets of her uncle's past. Karina is a fellow Wild Rose Press author. Welcome back, Karina!
The Friend-in-Chief of Undeveloped Memories
My seventh novel, Undeveloped Memories, explores a niece’s journey to discover a side of her uncle’s life she learns about from developing an old roll of film. As she noses around trying to unravel the truth behind the photos he abandoned, Gabe Douglas stands in the midst of her quest, torn between loyalty to his long time-friend and his loving care for a woman who wants answers before it’s too late.
While Gabe is a secondary character to Lorelei and Reed Carmichael, he represents the friend everybody wants. He and Reed share a lasting friendship built on trust, mutual respect, and loads of humor, particularly about bodily functions! From their days as ambitious young men to their golden years, Gabe maintains the ideal balance between keeping silent and speaking up in his friend’s behalf.
When we first meet Gabe, he works as editor-in-chief at Mountainscape News, a periodical in Sedona, Arizona. Reed may be his employee, but it’s clear their relationship is more than just professional. Wanting to reach for higher peaks in his career, Reed had traveled to Alaska to write an article about the aftermath of the most powerful earthquake recorded in North America. A lot more happens throughout the course of his trip, which Reed confides in Gabe through their correspondence. When it all meets with tragedy, however, Reed deserts the dreams born in Alaska.
From that point forward, Gabe is barred by Reed from discussing the possibilities he left behind. Their pact remains intact for five decades, until Reed’s niece, Lorelei—who’s also a journalist—mentions her opportunity to write a piece commemorating that very same quake. Gabe slips, to his and Reed’s dismay…and to Lorelei’s insatiable intrigue.
Despite his attempts to cover up the blunder, Lorelei doesn’t drop the subject. When she beholds pictures on the undeveloped film from that unspoken adventure, she asks Gabe for his insights into it. Conflicted over divulging his friend’s precious secret, he continues to hold back. Because of Reed’s sad diagnosis, though, he ultimately surrenders letters and drafted articles Reed sent him that pull back the curtain on his life-changing experience.
In this act, Gabe again teaches meaningful lessons about true friendship. It’s important to establish trust and loyalty in relationships, as he did with Reed for so long. All the same, there are times when it’s in someone’s best interests to reveal what they may be hiding from. Often, we get in our own heads about dreaded implications and imagined scenarios. It takes somebody who loves us to remove that lens and put us where we need to be.
I hope readers take away these messages from Gabe’s special bond with Reed and enjoy the levity his clever quips imbeds in the book. While family plays a central role in the plot, this beautiful companionship enriches it with compassion, laughter, and kinship the best friendships bring.
Blurb:
We assume we know everything there is to know about those who raised us…until we discover that we don’t!
Lorelei Carmichael returns home to check up on her aging uncle, but another investigation awaits her. An undeveloped roll of film, abandoned by her photographer uncle, beckons her attention. Also a photographer, she develops the images and discovers an Alaskan journey he never disclosed, alongside a woman and child.
When an opportunity provides her the chance to peek into the past, she retraces his footsteps through the Alaskan countryside. Will she figure out the whole picture of this unfinished love story? And might the trail of breadcrumbs lead her to capture a love of her own?
Excerpt:
In preparation for the cold snap, she searched for her warmer quilt, the one cherished possession missing from her room. Her mom made the pastel blanket for her, starting it while pregnant and not completing it until Lorelei grew out of her crib. She asked Uncle Reed its whereabouts, but his memory failed him in that area. She hoped he stashed it away someplace safe, rather than the alternative possibility that her brother snatched it for one of his kids.
She did a second sweep of her closet before scouring through the others on the main floor. When none of them presented it, she tried the attic, where her sentimental uncle stored a lot of the family’s keepsakes. She started her quest in the boxes that held select belongings of her mom and dad’s. On countless occasions, she lingered in the photo albums, trinkets, and the sparse collection of clothes her grandma gave them after settling the estate. With dust covering them and the order of their contents the same as she left them, however, he clearly didn’t disturb them.
She checked some of the other boxes, such as the ones where he secured her old toys, but they, too, appeared untouched. Running out of options, she gave up on the meaningful spots, many of which would be hard for the older man to access. She reverted to practicality, treading back to the alcove beside the stairs. The area didn’t harbor many boxes but primarily stowed old furniture he should’ve just hauled away.
Lorelei noticed a blue tweed suitcase she never remembered Uncle Reed using, and despite her doubts, she knelt down for a gander. The fabric on it didn’t show dust like the other surfaces, but its stale odor indicated its lack of use. Her logical brain needled her for even bothering to unzip the case, but she proceeded. Right before she opened the lid all the way, she caught a glimpse of her blanket on a rocking chair behind a nearby desk, but a glance into the suitcase commandeered her interest.
The canister lying in the shadows netted her attention first, as she guessed it to be from the sixties or seventies. Meticulous Reed Carmichael kept track of his unused rolls so as to not waste any, and she wondered why he missed this one. Fetching it, she spied the envelope in the opposite corner and picked it up, too. She extracted the photos inside and flipped through the stack. Frame after frame captured devastated houses, roads, and landmarks, along with a splattering of majestic mountains, lakes, and glaciers. One featured a wooden sign that was split in two but still bore the name Chenega Village.
All at once, she understood Gabe’s statement about Uncle Reed being a resource for the story of the Alaska earthquake: he witnessed it first-hand. But how?
And why wouldn’t he disclose that to her?
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Author Bio:
Karina Bartow hails from Northern Ohio. Though born with Cerebral Palsy, she’s never allowed her disability to define her. Rather, she’s used her experiences to breathe life into characters who have physical limitations, but like her, are determined not to let them stand in the way of the life they want. Her works include a mix of mysteries and love stories. She may only be able to type with one hand, but she writes with her whole heart!
To learn more, visit www.KarinaBartow.com
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Congrats on the new book, Karina. Thanks for being my guest!