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Relationship dilemmas explored in lonely-hearts novel  

CAROLINE by Christian-Eric Falardeau
ISBN 1-55369-888-6

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Fictional protagonist Caroline is going through life looking for love as a solution to all her problems. Surrounded by potential mates, she moves from failure to failure. Is she unlucky or doing it on purpose? After an unhoped-for meeting, which cannot yield immediate results, Caroline is torn between waiting for her Prince Charming and accepting life with another. Time moves forward, and events and dilemmas accumulate.

"Our lives are filled with people needing to be loved so badly that they always keep a 'backup' love," says Christian-Eric Falardeau, author of CAROLINE. "Those 'backups' start a domino effect resulting in a chain of 'unhappy waiting people'. Although considered a positive way of thinking, hope can become a very destructive force when confused with wishful thinking.

"Also, movies and television have created idealized models that have little in common with real life. The fact these ideas create unrealistic expectations is less important than the fact that they induce shame to have to 'settle for less', especially with young adults. If a person is interested in a 'substandard' man or woman, he or she has to first overcome the mocking comments of his or her peers, before even starting a relationship — that's a lot of energy wasted."

Many times Falardeau has been witness to, or been involved in, 'love chains'. As a witness, he was often the friend of many of the participants. "It always bugged me that at each level, there was a mixture of wishful thinking and true waiting. I was never that saddened by the wishful thinkers. Not that I was not sympathetic, but their real problems was not that the 'target' person was not available, but that they didn't really know who that person was. I was mostly interested to see how the ones who had a realistic interest were handling the situation. Their eyes were wide open on what was happening and yet it was out of their control."

Christian-Eric Falardeau was born in 1968, on a little farm near the village of Beaudry, now part of Rouyn-Noranda, in Abitibi-Temiscamingue (north-west of Québec). He has two brothers and three sisters.

In 1990, he graduated from Sherbrooke University with a degree in Computer Science, embarked on a career as a programmer analyst and, later on, became a software development manager. He retired from the industry in March 2002.

Falardeau wrote his first novel in 1993 (Saint-Jolivet of Pendleton) which was quickly followed by a second one (Paul III of Montréal) before he slowed down to accommodate the demands of a busy profession. Writing on and off over the next few years, he came back to literature on a more serious level with the completion of his third novel (Caroline) and various short stories.

Now a full-time writer, many new novels and short stories can be expected in the coming months and years. To learn more about CAROLINE or Falardeau's other books, visit his web-site at www.eric-falardeau.com.

Caroline
by Christian-Eric Falardeau
205 pages; paperback; $23.95 CDN ($15.95 US)
published by Trafford Publishing
ISBN 1-55369-888-6