Best Seller: my new book ~ that's the title, btw, but one can hope :)

So there I was, just writing the first couple of chapters of the first draft of the sequel to The House of York, when this idea popped into my head for a novella. I scribbled down a few notes for looking back at later, but then thought, perhaps I could just write the first chapter now... three months later, I'd written Best Seller ~ the tale of three writers :)

The Blurb in progress:

Three women, one dream: to become a successful author. 

Eden Taylor has made it—big time.  A twenty-three year old with model girl looks and a book deal with a major publisher, she's outselling the established names in her field and is fast becoming the darling of the media. 

Becky Hunter has money problems.  Can she earn enough from her light-hearted romance novels to counteract boyfriend Alex's extravagant spending habits, before their life collapses around them? 

Hard up factory worker Jan Chilver sees writing as an escape from her troubled, lonely life.  She is offered a lifeline—but fails to read the small print... 

In the competitive world of publishing, success can be merely a matter of who you know—and how ruthless you are prepared to be to get there. 

BEST SELLER is a novella of 40k words (roughly half as long as an average length novel), a slightly dark, slightly edgy drama with a twist or three in the tale.  Enjoy!

....well, it's back from its first test/proofread, and was given the thumbs up  - PHEW!!!  I hope it will be out around mid March, all going well, fingers crossed and wood touched :)  Now for the second proof/test reader.... 

Meanwhile, it's back to Elodie, the sequel to The House of York!

The strange inspiration for my novella, Round and Round

Round and Round on Amazon

(universal link)

Round And Round is a novella of approximately 36,000 words, which means it's about a half to a third of the length of a novel. 

This is the sort of mood I was looking for with the cover ~ I just love this picture, it's my current wallpaper on my laptop.

 

Two things gave me the idea for the story.  

In the early 1990s I had to make two decisions that both had a huge impact on the rest of my life.  A few years later, I had a dream in which I'd chosen the other fork in the road. When I woke up, I just thought, "oh, so that's what it would have been like".  That dream has always stayed with me; it was so vivid and I never doubted for a moment that it was showing me 'what if...'

The other thing was very strange indeed - you'll like this! In early 2001, my then-husband's father died.  A couple of months later we were out shopping and Alan suddenly said, out of the blue, 'get some batteries for the smoke alarm'.  We'd been in our new house about nine months; neither of us had ever looked at the smoke alarm. I don't think I even knew where it was!  I got some batteries, anyway, and put them in. That night we had too much to drink, I put something under the grill and forgot about it, and went to bed.  I was woken up by the smoke alarm a while later. As it was, we had to get a new cooker and have the kitchen redecorated.  I dread to think what would have happened if I hadn't heard that alarm (though I did have a houseful of firemen at five in the morning, ladies, so it wasn't all bad!).  Alan always thought it was his father who put the smoke alarm batteries idea into his head ~ a guardian angel?

The blurb:

Sophie Heron’s fortieth birthday is looming, and she is fed up with her job, her relationship, her whole life – not to mention her boyfriend’s new ‘hobby’, in which she definitely doesn’t want to get involved…

Back in 1998 she had the choice of four men, and now she can’t help wondering how her life might have turned out if she’d chosen differently.

The person to whom Sophie had always been closest was her beloved Auntie Flick, her second mother, friend and advisor. Before her death in 2001, Flick said, “when I’m up there having a cuppa with St Peter, I’ll have a word with him about making me your guardian angel, shall I?”

As Sophie’s fortieth birthday draws near, she visits her aunt’s special place: a tree by a river, hidden from the world. Here she calls on Auntie Flick to show her the way forward – and help her look back into the past so she can see what might have been…

***

The firemen weren't like this, I'm afraid!

 
I hope you enjoyed the pictures, too!