If at first you don't succeed….Crash and Burn!
Crash and Burn
I've always been a voracious reader. So much so that for a short time when I was lucky enough to be a full time stay at home mum, it was not unusual for me to read a book a day. Not only the short, category length books, but full length single titles too. It became my routine after dropping my boys at school to sit down with a large cup of tea and start reading my latest book. And read. And read. And read all day until half an hour before I collected the boys again when I'd do a mad panic run around the house, pulling up doonas, straightening pillows, shoving dirty clothes into the washing machine and wiping down the benches in the kitchen. Sometimes I'd even roll around like a rollerblading messenger, but with a broom in my hand instead of packages. The adrenaline was amazing!
Anyway, I digress. I loved and still love books with a passion. They were my life for a long time and I simply couldn't do without them. One day I found myself totally discombobulated. It's important to note that this was the pre-eBook era, so at the time, paperbacks were the only media I had to indulge my addiction. Imagine my horror when I realised I had finished my book, and didn't have a replacement in site. My car was getting serviced, there was no public transport and I was stuck an hour's walk away from the only shop that sold my books-and it was closed! Oh the horror!
I immediately turned to my trusty bookshelves. All four of them. I looked for something that would catch my eye and say "read me again", but nothing would satisfy me. What was I to do?
So this is how I came to write my newest release - Crash and Burn. I mean, how hard could it be? I'd been reading for decades and I was passably good at essays. Piece of cake. Of course the rush of discovering I had a pretty good story beginning in my head had me typing away almost immediately. I sat at that old 486 PC tapping away for a couple and hours, and hey presto I had my prologue. If I could do that so fast, how quickly could I finish a novel? I was on a roll!
Of course I forgot I had a family of four boys who would interrupt and compete for my time, so the roll didn't last long. In fact I realised it wasn't an easy task at all to write a book. Loving to read helped, but I needed more. So I went online to find out how to do it properly. I joined forums, writing organisations, attended workshops and eventually - three years later - I finally finished that novel. I decided it had to be the best it could be before I submitted it, so I must have rewritten that first prologue at least six times before I finished it!
I'm excited to see it updated, extended and re-published by Totally Bound. Crash and Burn will always hold a very special place in my heart. At the time I started it my favourite genre was romantic suspense, so it's no surprise that's what I wrote about. Crash and Burn has it all! It's a roller coaster ride with a couple on the run. There's train crashes, bush fires, a rather risqué sex club, a sexy hero who bears a remarkable resemblance to Hugh Jackman, and one very vulnerable but strong heroine. What's not to love? I loved writing this book, and I hope you love reading it!