Tell us what your book, “The Choice Was Yours,” is about!
Sure! Here’s the summary:
Six weeks. No phone. No contact with the outside world. Elena Ward arrives at Vallière, a secluded Swiss clinic, believing she has chosen to disappear from her life long enough to save it.
But inside its carefully controlled routine, the story she has accepted about her marriage — and about herself — begins to fracture. Memories no longer fit as neatly as they once did, conversations take on different meanings, and Elena starts to question whether the choices that brought her there were ever entirely her own.
The Choice Was Yours is a psychological suspense novel about marriage, memory, power, and the invisible line between protection and control.
What did you love most about writing this book?
The ambiguity. I loved writing scenes where the facts themselves were not necessarily changing, but Elena’s interpretation of them was. That gave me room to explore how easily the same event can become reassuring, suspicious, manipulative, or harmless depending on what someone already believes.
I also enjoyed resisting the temptation to make everything simple. People are rarely simple in real life, and I did not want the book to become simple just because it would be easier to explain.
How did you start writing?
I first decided I wanted to write a book when I was twelve. I published my first one thirty-three years later, so apparently I like a long development phase.
Writing was always somewhere in the background, but eventually thinking about doing it became less interesting than actually doing it. The Choice Was Yours was the result.
Tell us a little bit about your self-publishing experience.
It has been equal parts freedom, learning curve, and accidental career expansion.
I like being able to make decisions quickly and keep control over the final book. I like learning by doing. What surprised me was how many different jobs appear once the manuscript is finished. You suddenly become responsible for formatting, metadata, covers, distribution, websites, samples, reader outreach, and all the small technical details nobody imagines when they say, “I want to write a book.”
It has been complicated, occasionally absurd, and genuinely rewarding.
What was your biggest challenge in bringing the book to market, and how did you solve it?
Discovery, without question. Finishing the book turned out not to be the same thing as helping readers find it.
I initially assumed that publishing, building a website, and posting on social media would create some natural visibility. It does not. So I have been gradually shifting away from trying to “make content” and toward finding places where readers already are — Goodreads, book communities, author interviews, reader outreach, samples, and direct conversations.
I am still solving that problem, which may be the most honest answer.
What's one piece of advice you have for other writers?
Finish the book before you build an imaginary publishing empire around it.
Then get other people to read it, listen when several of them stumble over the same thing, and learn enough about publishing to understand what you are doing without letting publishing research become a substitute for writing.
Also, keep copies of everything. The file called FINAL will not remain final for long.
Anything else you want folks to know?
Lena R. Halden is a pen name. I prefer to keep my private life private and let the books do most of the public work.
I’m always happy to hear from readers, especially when they disagree with a character, an ending, or with me.
Where can people find your book?
