Herta has recently completed her next novel. Here's a little about the story:
THE STRANGE SHAPE OF LOVE , a suspenseful women’s novel of revenge porn with a twist, recently made the longlist in a novel excerpt contest held by Uncharted Mag.
Thirty-year-old New Yorker Charlotte Cooper is an unfulfilled journalist sent on assignment to London, a place she’d rather avoid. It dredges up old memories of her year at Oxford, of a failed romance, and a broken promise. The death of her cousin Abbie, for which she feels responsible, kept her from returning to England.
But this second time around turns out to be a reset. She’s offered a chance to become a serious TV reporter and bypass the fluff pieces for more meaningful stories. In her work as a reporter, Charlotte unearths stories about human trafficking, revenge porn, and sexual harassment of women on the dark web.
Too, with the help of best friend Celia, Charlotte finds the courage to reconnect with the young man she fell in love with at school, a talented sculptor named Rafe Jackson. She hopes they can pick up where they left off, but there are challenges, some stemming from her past, and also his.
Just as her life turns around professionally and personally, Charlotte receives an envelope containing five nude photographs of herself with the anonymous threat that they'll go viral if she doesn’t quit her job and return to New York. She has two weeks to find the culprit.
Charlotte struggles to keep her new life together while trying to find out who's behind the threat—a task further complicated by the unwanted advances of a powerful boss, old secrets she can’t reveal to Rafe, and a figure from her past whose intentions are far more dangerous than she could have imagined.
THE STRANGE SHAPE OF LOVE , a suspenseful women’s novel of revenge porn with a twist, recently made the longlist in a novel excerpt contest held by Uncharted Mag.
Thirty-year-old New Yorker Charlotte Cooper is an unfulfilled journalist sent on assignment to London, a place she’d rather avoid. It dredges up old memories of her year at Oxford, of a failed romance, and a broken promise. The death of her cousin Abbie, for which she feels responsible, kept her from returning to England.
But this second time around turns out to be a reset. She’s offered a chance to become a serious TV reporter and bypass the fluff pieces for more meaningful stories. In her work as a reporter, Charlotte unearths stories about human trafficking, revenge porn, and sexual harassment of women on the dark web.
Too, with the help of best friend Celia, Charlotte finds the courage to reconnect with the young man she fell in love with at school, a talented sculptor named Rafe Jackson. She hopes they can pick up where they left off, but there are challenges, some stemming from her past, and also his.
Just as her life turns around professionally and personally, Charlotte receives an envelope containing five nude photographs of herself with the anonymous threat that they'll go viral if she doesn’t quit her job and return to New York. She has two weeks to find the culprit.
Charlotte struggles to keep her new life together while trying to find out who's behind the threat—a task further complicated by the unwanted advances of a powerful boss, old secrets she can’t reveal to Rafe, and a figure from her past whose intentions are far more dangerous than she could have imagined.