I’ve featured all kind of books on Linda’s Book Bag since I started blogging almost three years ago but today is a first – a choose your own romance book for adults! College Secrets is the second in K. P. Chinelli’s Choose Your Own Romance Series, after San Francisco and as it’s publication day today I just had to ask her a little bit more.

Published today, 19th December 2017 Choose Your Own Romance: College Secrets is available for purchase from your local Amazon site.

Choose Your Own Romance: College Secrets

From the author of the addictive, standalone books in the contemporary Choose Your Own Romance series for adults comes the newest book: Choose Your Own Romance: College Secrets.

In the style of the old Choose Your Own Adventure books, this romance brings the fun of adventure to a new, more adult level designed for your busy life. You can skim through one heart-pounding path in twenty minutes, or sit back and luxuriate in deciding which of the six steamy opportunities you like best.

Have fun jet-setting around the world with the rich, gorgeous, playboy senior who sports sexy stubble and pressed dress shirts. Party with the charming, single “daddy” rapper who has an incredible physique and an alluring romantic side. Follow your heart when the tempting football hero from high school reveals his long-standing crush on you. Satisfy your urges to uncover the irresistible flirtatious side of the movie nerd in your class who has interesting surprises of his own. Feel free to explore the intense depths of your vulnerable art professor and his intriguing ability to make you want more. Or probe the mystery of your secretive, bad-girl roommate who persists in playing with your heart.

Never wonder “What If?” again. Don’t let someone else decide your fate. Pick up Choose Your Own Romance: College Secrets now, and create your own epic happily ever after.

An Interview With K.P. Chinelli

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Katherine. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing and Choose Your Own Romance: College Secrets in particular. Firstly, please could you tell me a little about yourself?

Hi Linda, thanks for having me. I’m a wife to a bodybuilder and pest control technician, a mother two to little ones aged 5 and 16-almost 17-months and an avid reader/writer. I’ve always written stories and devoured books since as far back as I can remember. I always have a book on hand. I’m a sucker for self-help books, especially. I used to be a massage therapist and own a small business in Berkeley, California. Now, since my husband is a bodybuilder and obsessed with everything nutrition, I am getting into that field as well. I’ve been gluten-free for two years. My newest diet focus is something I recently discovered called the stenogetic diet, better known as the circadian rhythm diet. It focuses on time-based eating in order to allow your organs to rest and re-set. The benefits include more endurance in your daily life. As a stay-at-home mom I jumped on that reason to start the diet immediately.

When did you realise you were going to be a writer?

I realized I was going to be a writer in third grade when the book my teacher was reading felt too boring to keep me interested. It was then I decided to pen my own. I didn’t know I would publish until long after.

You have quite an eclectic range of books including Young Adult graphic novel and horror books as well as self help. Why do you write in so many genres?

When I started writing, I did so to release emotions that were tangled up inside me. Since the emotions varied, so did the books that came out. The graphic novel was drawn for my friends at school. We were all obsessed with X-Files, and drawing was a large part of the school curriculum. The horror books were based on my own teen angst, X-File obsession (still) and the desire to escape into a fantasy world where I could experience both romance and adventure. The self-help evolved as my emotions overwhelmed me and I was diagnosed as bipolar (which, oddly, has since been diagnosed as “in remission.”) I always felt like if I could read enough self-help, I could “fix” my issues. And then the desire was born to write my own self-help, and help others as I had learned to help myself. My method to this day continues to be based on writing to examine what’s on the inside. Whatever evolves will dictate that.

Which aspects of your writing do you find easiest and most difficult?

The easiest part for me is the daily writing routine which I love. I love organizing my writing time and sitting down and churning it out. I have completed Nanowrimo 3 times and The Three Day Novel Contest 7 times just for the sheer joy of creating. The hardest part is marketing my work, taking myself seriously as a paid author and believing that I deserve to earn money from doing what I love. For a long time I felt icky about marketing. But very recently I realized that I enjoy feeling pride from receiving royalties and supporting my family financially. I also realized that receiving royalties is a physical measure of whether I’ve succeeded in reaching my audience or not, the cornerstone of what it means to be a successful author. It took a lot of introspection to get here, but I’ve finally decided I don’t want to just write, I want to be a successful author.

(I think many, many authors find marketing a real issue Katherine!)

What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?

My writing routines consist of daily work, even on the weekends. Currently I write while my daughter is at school and my son is napping. I write at home on my desk with my computer because the thoughts come so fast it’s easier for me to get it all down. I would love to have more time to write (wouldn’t we all) but I currently have about two hours of quiet time. When my son stops napping eventually I’ll have to figure out something else. I’ve been training him to go play while I write standing up at the kitchen counter (so he won’t grab it) and that seems to be successful with repetition. I love a structured schedule, so right now I devote one hour to working on the next novel and one hour to requesting reviews. On the weekend I get a three hour window courtesy of my husband where I go to the local coffee shop with my computer to do promotion for my free kindle days.

Choose Your Own Romance: College Secrets is reminiscent of the choose your own adventure stories many of us know from childhood. What made you decide to use this format?

I used to love those Choose Your Own Adventure books. And then I read the Twilight series and really wanted Bella to end up with Jacob. (My husband’s name is Jacob.) I was so frustrated with the fact that I couldn’t make her choose differently that I decided to write a book where you could. And so this series was born. And, if readers are curious, this is a series in name only. Each of the books is related in no other way than by title just like the old Choose Your Own Adventure books.

To what extent do you think we have the opportunity to choose our own romance in real life – or do you think fate plays a part?

I absolutely believe we have the ability to choose what we want in our life, especially when it comes to romance. I’m not sure to what degree fate plays a role, or if it’s kind of a sliding-scale, or even what “fate” is. I’ve recently read a lot of books that all point to our subconscious and thought patterns as being the main creators of our lives. I think if we can recognize this we have the power to change what we “get.” If we don’t recognize the influence of our subconscious and thoughts as being huge factors in our outcomes, our “destiny” will be chosen for us.

How did you manage the structure of Choose Your Own Romance: College Secrets as it must have been tricky to organise?

I kept the structure of College Secrets deliberately simple because of that very reason. It ended up being six short stories, really, instead of the grand branching tree of options I had envisioned. I think with a bit more practice and some meticulous planning I could work out a novel that has more intricacy. As it was, for this one I used a large wall space and a lot of index cards to make the plot work correctly. The formatting in the book itself is also tricky. I had to learn hyperlinking within the ebook manuscript in order to allow the reader to jump to the next scene. Since I got feedback from the first novel that it was confusing to some readers (who expected to just go to the next paragraph to read instead of click to jump around) I kept the stories in College Secrets contiguous (with the option of jumping secondary) for fluidity of reading.

(That sounds like a nightmare of plotting to me!)

If you could choose to be a character from Choose Your Own Romance: College Secrets, who would you be and why?

Since YOU get to make all the choices, I would be YOU. (Lol.)

What are you working on next?

Next up is a young adult contemporary fantasy. It’s about a girl who just wants to have her first high school love experience, but she’s also dealing with these superpowers that seem to get her in trouble.

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

I’m definitely what they call “addicted” to the self-help genre. I have read so many that I became disgusted with myself and told myself I wouldn’t read them anymore. I started going to the library and picking up some fiction. And then just recently, I couldn’t help myself and bought The Power of Now, which is fantastic, and Tony Robbins’ Awaken the Giant Within, which is still in the mail. I guess I have this nagging feeling like my life could be even more awesome than it is, and I feel as if there must be a secret in one of those books to reveal it. I definitely found some really simple but powerful secrets in The Power of Now, so I am satisfied I was correct in going back to self-help.

(I think many of us can identify with the need to be just that little bit better, no matter how successful we are!)

If you had 15 words to persuade a reader that Choose Your Own Romance: College Secrets should be their next read, what would you say?

You can get your new book boyfriend fix in twenty minutes. Buy coffee, start reading!

Thank you so much for your time in answering my questions Katherine and Happy Publication Day.

Thank you so much for interviewing me!

About Katherine Pierce Chinelli

After completing a three-inch binder containing illustrated family portraits and personal information for over one thousand made-up town residents at the age of sixteen, Katherine Pierce Chinelli knew creativity was undeniably her calling. She used that binder to get her foot in the door at Mills College, where she graduated with a B.A. in English. Since then she has gone on to self-publish nine books that include romance, YA adventure, screenplays and self-improvement. She has thrown away more books than she has published in the search for the perfect story, and continues to file ideas away for her next project.

You can find all Katherine’s books here and you can follow her on Twitter @authorkpc.

I’m delighted to welcome Marie Gameson to Linda’s Book Bag today. Marie’s The Giddy Career of Mr Gadd (deceased) is one of the books that has got away from me this year and I haven’t been able to read. However, I am thrilled to be part of the tour for The Giddy Career of Mr Gadd (deceased) and to host a post from Marie today.

Published by Salt, The Giddy Career of Mr Gadd (deceased) is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here.

The Giddy Career of Mr Gadd (deceased)

The Giddy Career of Mr Gadd (deceased) explores the painful themes of having to grieve for someone who is not yet dead, and trying to find one’s identity through an absent father.

Winifred Rigby follows a Zen-like path of serenity and detachment, whilst leaving havoc in her wake. When Fred, a stranger haunted by poltergeist activity, contacts Winnie, he insists that stories she wrote as a teenager hold the key to his supernatural problems, and she is forced to renew acquaintance with her younger self.

Where will it all lead?

Grieving for the Living

A Guest Post by Marie Gameson

The Giddy Career of Mr Gadd (deceased) does have lots of humour, but the main theme is grief – not so much grief for the dead as for the living. The main character, Winnie Rigby, is exasperated that her conversion to Buddhism and attachment to the Orient are strongly resented by her family, who seem in perpetual mourning for the person she used to be. Needless to say, Winnie’s family don’t share her joy when she recounts that the best experience of her life was a moment of profound insight whilst on a mountain in Taiwan – an experience which has left her with no sensation of her head.

Taroko Gorge, Taiwan (where Winnie ‘saw the light’)

I wrote this book to explore an issue which has long bothered me, and more so recently:  how do you cope when someone close to you has substantially changed? The reason could be because they have had some physical or mental trauma, joined a cult, become an addict, or simply because they have adopted a new political or spiritual belief system. Of course, in the case of the latter, the grieved-for person can be annoyingly positive about the change; most of us have come across a new zealot, and have good reason to avoid ‘born-again Christians’, or ‘born-again anythings’. But whatever the reason for someone changing, that person is still alive, still looks pretty much the same, and yet is no longer the person you remember.

Having been tricked back to the UK, Winnie’s only objective is to get back to Taiwan just as soon as she can figure out how to replace the funds that have mysteriously disappeared from her account – (on her instructions according to the Bank) – but which seem to have gone to a cause that sounds suspiciously close to her mother’s heart. Winnie feels alienated and out of touch with her old life; in fact neither her old neighbourhood nor her old acquaintances seem familiar, which is inconvenient, as people who insist they know her turn up with irritating frequency. Determined to resist her family’s attempts to make her remember who she used to be, Winnie’s resolve is compromised when an elderly man turns up on her doorstep begging her to stop the late Mr Gadd from haunting him. Winnie finds out that Mr Gadd meant something significant to her younger self – if she could only remember what. And then her next challenge: she has to find him.

Many thanks Linda for giving me a guest spot.

(My pleasure Marie and what a fascinating premise for a book. I’m only sorry I haven’t had chance to read The Giddy Career of Mr Gadd (deceased) yet.)

About Marie Gameson

Marie is half of the mother and daughter writing team who published The Turtle Run as ‘Marie Evelyn’. Her latest book, The Giddy Career of Mr Gadd (deceased) was published by Salt this summer and is available on Amazon.

You can find out more about Marie and her books at her website. You can also follow Marie on Twitter @MarieGameson.

There’s more with these other bloggers too:

One of the reasons I began blogging is because I used to review KS3 books for Hodder and write teacher resources to go with them. As a result I discovered a whole world of children’s and young adult (YA) books. However, some of my reader friends tell me they don’t read YA books because they won’t be ‘good enough’! I know that is absolutely mis-guided so I invited Clare Littlemore, author of the YA novel Flow, onto Linda’s Book Bag to tell me what she thinks on the subject. The only reason I haven’t read Flow is because my TBR pile is so high!

Flow is available for purchase on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Flow

A world in tatters. A society where rebellion is not tolerated. A girl desperate to discover the truth.

Sixteen year old Quin lives in The Beck, a saviour society. Her community has risen from the ruins of a land shattered by Mother Nature. But Beck law is tough. Quin knows that the rules must be followed in order to sustain life in a place where floodwaters constantly threaten existence. A single violation could land her in Clearance.

But some laws are harder to follow than others. And as Quin discovers the horrifying truth, she knows she cannot stay silent forever.

Flow is the first in a series of books about a group of people struggling to survive after their world has been annihilated by devastating floods.

Warning: contains violence and some upsetting scenes. Recommended for a 13+ audience.

What’s in a Name?

A Guest Post by Clare Littlemore

I love Young Adult literature, and I’m proud to admit it. That said, it’s a difficult category to define. Unlike horror, romance or thriller, a YA book can be on pretty much any topic you’d care to imagine. The only thing tying books of the genre together is their target audience: teenagers between the age of thirteen and eighteen. And the fact that, in reality, they are read by many people outside that age range, yet many adults won’t admit to reading them due to their ‘YA’ name.

Let’s consider that. I know a ten year old who is mature enough to manage some YA books. And I know a few fifteen year olds who are possibly not. As for me, well, I’m forty one. And I’m far more likely to turn to a YA novel than I am any other genre, because I think a good YA novel is written with honesty, and with the harshest critics in mind.

Teenagers are nothing if not honest. When I began writing the first in my dystopian YA series, Flow, I wasn’t originally aiming at teenagers. The book is set at an unspecified time in the future, where the world is hugely flooded and the citizens living in my society are struggling for survival. Flow has been read and enjoyed by readers of both gender between the ages of eleven and seventy. But of all the people who have read it, the teenagers were by far the most inquisitive, the most engaged, the most interested my world, taking it not at face value, but digging beneath the surface, questioning elements of the nightmarish dystopian future I had created and demanding answers.

I recently ran a couple of creative writing workshops where the young adults in attendance made me consider things about the world of my novel which I had honestly never contemplated. Afterwards, when I went home and continued writing the sequel, their questions were ringing in my head, and made me consider the books in a different light. As a high school teacher, I should have known that teenagers would be engaged with the minutiae of the book in a way that adults rarely have the time or energy to be. That’s why YA books are so enthralling: they have to be.

I have had many adults read Flow and state ‘It wouldn’t be my usual genre, but I really enjoyed it.’ It made me wonder why they wouldn’t have considered a YA book before, but I suppose there is a kind of stigma to admitting as a fully grown adult that you enjoy YA books. I have stated myself in the past ‘I love YA books!’ and then followed it up hastily with ‘because I’m such a child!’ Yet why should I have been embarrassed to admit I was enjoying what was a truly brilliant book?

Because the title of the genre is very misleading. I was discussing this with a friend the other day, and she said she felt the YA genre was capable of bridging the gap between parents and their teenage children, encompassing books which could be enjoyed by both generations. Not books which parents read to young children when helping them learning to read, but books that are entertaining and engaging to both child and adult. This type of book often forges a connection at a time when teenagers might find it difficult relate to their parents.

Book are powerful. I have always felt this. A good book can stay with you throughout your entire life. And the shared experience of a book can be magical. The ten year old I was referring to earlier is my son. He has just begun to read suitable YA books which I have enjoyed in the past, and in discussing their contents we have discovered a whole new side to our relationship as the shared experience brings us closer together. He questions parts of the books I never did, and in a way which only a young adult could, and that’s what I love about the age he is entering.

That’s why I’m proud to say that I read and write YA fiction. And I’m really looking forward to the day he recommends a YA book of his own for me to read.

(Fabulous Clare. I agree with every word and as an adult approaching 60 I love YA fiction!)

About Clare Littlemore

Clare Littlemore was born in Durham, in the UK. Her parents were both teachers, and she grew up in a world surrounded by books. She has worked for most of her life as a teacher of English at various high schools in England, where she has shared her passion for books with hundreds of teenagers. In 2013 she began writing her own fiction. Clare lives in Warrington in the North West of England with her husband and two children.

You can find out more by visiting Clare’s website, finding her on Facebook or following her on Twitter @clarelittlemore.

With Christmas just around the corner, what better time to turn to love as a theme? I’m thrilled to be hosting an extract from The Season for Love by M.W. Arnold on Linda’s Book Bag today because I think we could all do with a bit of love in our lives.

The Season for Love is published today, 16th December 2017 and is available for purchase here.

The Season for Love

Believing she was responsible for the death of her husband, Chrissie Stewart retreats from all those who love her. A chance meeting with mysterious stranger, single-parent Josh Morgan and his bewitching young daughter Lizzy, breathe new life into her and gradually, she feels able to start to let go of the memory of her lost love.

Unexpected links are revealed between the two families that strengthen the growing bonds she feels to this man and with the encouragement of her best friend Annie, herself hiding a hidden conflict from Chrissie, she battles with her demons to believe in her ability to trust and love again.

Everything comes to a head on Christmas Day; which all goes to show that this is truly The Season for Love.

An Extract from The Season for Love

Chapter One

You never get over a broken heart. You just paper over the cracks and try to keep going.

Goodnight Richie. I miss you.

Pressing a kiss to the picture she kept on her bedside table, she placed her diary down and turned off the light. Staring into the darkness, Chrissie could do nothing but wait for the tears to start. It had been the same routine each and every night since that terrible day eighteen months ago and tonight would be no different. So, drawing the duvet tighter, she succumbed to reliving the day that her husband had been killed. Drawing her knees towards her chest, she let the guilt and tears flood out until exhausted, she collapsed into the usual haunted slumber.

—

The next day dawned way too early and through bloodshot brown eyes. Swinging her feet out of bed, Chrissie shuffled into the tatty pair of her husband’s slippers, tugged on her old fluffy white dressing gown and reluctantly made her way to the bathroom. She shrugged her shoulders and slid the mirror on the bathroom cabinet sideways. Looking at her reflection was not something that she wanted to deal with that morning. Ten minutes later, she’d tied her shoulder length auburn hair back into a pony-tail and pulled on a pair of black jeans, matching pullover and a pair of yellow Doc Martens that clashed horribly with the rest of her outfit. Everyone at school had been nagging her to add a bit of color to the predominantly black she’d taken to wearing and she’d found that Richie’s old boots fitted her perfectly; so long as she wore a thick pair of socks.

Working in the school’s IT Department had been her first job after she’d left university and it was where she’d met Physical Education teacher Richard Stewart. It so happened that they’d been starting on the same day and consequently, they’d spent the whole day trawling through the usual endless orientation and paperwork and found they’d gotten on like the proverbial house on fire. When they’d been introduced and he’d said, ‘call me Mr. Fit Guy or MFG for short,’ and she hadn’t either laughed out loud or slapped his face, an unspoken understanding had flashed between them and, as they left the premises later that afternoon, they’d wandered off to the nearest pub and spent until closing time talking about everything and nothing and loving every minute.

Grabbing her bag, Chrissie locked the car and trudged up the steps of Parkway Grange Primary School, through the still empty atrium and down the corridor towards her shared office. If she was lucky, she’d be able to settle at her desk before her boss got in. She loved Annie Suso, but though they were best friends, she was getting a little tired of starting each day by being asked how she was doing? Annie wasn’t saying the actual words these days, but Chrissie was finding it very annoying at how much you could put into a raised eyebrow!

As the door opened, she knew her luck was out, so she plastered on her most convincing smile and looked up into her friend’s emerald green eyes. The daily routine followed its expected course. Annie didn’t need to know that she’d rushed out of her cottage that morning because the stupid radio DJ had insisted upon playing “their song”.

Picking up the To-Do list, she scanned down it for the most mind-numbing job, quickly locating a teacher who’d been using his DVD tray as a cup holder. Grabbing her diary from her bag, she told Annie where she was going and that she’d see her later. One of the benefits of working with her best friend was that she had the freedom to do pretty much what she wanted, it being just the pair of them in the whole department. The children were just starting to arrive so hurrying along the corridor she nipped into the staff toilets, opened a cubicle door, sat down on the seat and took out her diary.

‘Hi Richie. Well, things are still the same as yesterday, and the day before and the day before that. You know, I visualize you watching over me, it’s the only comfort I have. Oh, I could sit here all day and talk to you, just like we used to in the common room. Do you remember how many times we were called in to see the Headmistress because I’d made you late for your classes? Felt very much like a kid, but I miss those times so much.

Right, sorry, got to go and see some idiot about a computer now.

Love you babe. I miss you.’

—

Driving home that night, Chrissie wondered for the thousandth time why she didn’t change jobs and move away. Truth was she didn’t want to be too far from Richard’s grave. He’d grown up in Parkway Grange, been educated in the same Primary school, then the neighboring village’s Secondary and finally the College in the nearest town five miles away. He’d only been away to University to get his Physical Education Degree and then hot-footed it back when he’d lucked out with the offer of Physical Education teacher at the Village’s Primary school. Then, he had died in the village.

Automatically, she took a left turn before her cottage and parked up outside the cemetery. It was a typical late November evening so sighing resignedly she put up her umbrella as she got out of the car and, shielding her face as best she could from the rain, pushed open the gate and strolled down the pathway to the shade of an ancient beech tree. Sitting down on the bench, she leant forward, ignoring the dripping of the rainwater down her neck and brushing some leaves off the small granite headstone, focused on the most important words in the world:

See you in my dreams Richie. Forever, Your beloved Chrissie.

About M.W. Arnold

M.W. Arnold (Mick) is a hopeless romantic who was born in England, and spent fifteen years roaming around the world in the pay of HM Queen Elisabeth II in the Royal Air Force, before putting down roots, and realising how much he missed the travel. This, he’s replaced somewhat with his writing, including reviewing books and writing a regular post at the www.NovelKicks.co.uk blog site.

Mick’s the proud keeper of a cat bent on world domination, is mad on the music of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, and enjoys the theatre and humouring his Manchester United supporting wife. Finally, and most importantly, Mick’s a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, with the forthcoming publication of this, his debut novel, The Season for Love.

You can follow Mick on Twitter @Mick859 and find him on Facebook.

I’m frequently approached these days by new and aspiring authors asking me how best to go about getting a book published. I’m afraid I don’t have the answers so I’m delighted to welcome L K Chapman, author of The Stories She Tells to Linda’s Book Bag today to describe some of her route to publication. I also have an extract from this fabulous new psychological thriller to share.

The Stories She Tells is available for purchase here.

The Stories She Tells

When Michael decides to track down ex-girlfriend Rae who disappeared ten years ago while pregnant with his baby, he knows it could change his life forever. His search for her takes unexpected turns as he unearths multiple changes of identity and a childhood she tried to pretend never happened, but nothing could prepare him for what awaits when he finally finds her.

Appearing to be happily married with a brand new baby daughter, Rae is cagey about what happened to Michael’s child and starts to say alarming things – that her husband is trying to force her to give up her new baby for adoption, that he’s attempting to undermine the bond between her and her child, and deliberately making her doubt her own sanity.

As Michael is drawn in deeper to her disturbing claims he begins to doubt the truth of what she is saying. But is she really making it all up, or is there a shocking and heartbreaking secret at the root of the stories she tells?

My Self-Publishing Journey

A Guest Post by L K Chapman

My journey towards being a writer started quite early – I wrote my very first novel while I was at school, and another while I was at university, but it was 2012, not long after I got married, when I first decided to try to write “seriously” with the aim of getting published. I initially tried to rewrite and work on the sci-fi novel I wrote while at university, but in the end I abandoned that and worked on a new idea instead, after taking a bit of time to focus on learning more about writing and editing and how to structure a book. It took me about eighteen months to write my first “proper” novel, then I approached a few literary agents, but I didn’t pursue that avenue for long and decided I would self-publish instead. My first novel Networked was released in 2014.

Initially I used a self-publishing company to format and publish the paperback version of my book and I also had a cover designer, but unfortunately this strategy didn’t work out well for me as I ended up not liking my cover and on top of that the self-publishing company went bust just a few months later and I never received my royalties from paperback sales. I never even found out how many copies I sold. That was a real low point for me, and it cost me a lot of money for things that I never even used as I had to re-publish the book myself, but it did push me to learn a lot of new skills. Now I publish my e-books using Amazon’s KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), and independent publishing platform Createspace for the paperback. Self-publishing was daunting to start with as I’m responsible for every aspect of my book – the cover, the contents, the formatting and the marketing, plus about a hundred other things! But it is possible, as I was amazed to discover when I first managed to do it! Publishing the paperbacks is really interesting – I don’t have to have a big stockpile of books in my house to try to sell (which is the vision I used to get when I thought about self-publishing!) Instead, copies of the book are only printed when somebody buys the book online. The book is printed in the country it is ordered and sent out to the customer, which is called print-on-demand. I didn’t know about any of this until I set about publishing a book myself, so it was a lot to take in!

One really hard thing about self-publishing is that it’s difficult for your book to get any visibility or any sales. I went for weeks on end sometimes without a single sale, and it wasn’t until 2016 that things started to turn around for me with my second novel, psychological thriller Anything for Him. The sales of that book enabled me to invest some money in publishing my latest novel The Stories She Tells, so I had the book professionally copy-edited and had a cover designed.

This time I followed a recommendation from a highly successful independent author to find my cover designer and that worked out a lot better for me than my experience with my first book! I’m so pleased with the cover my designer produced for The Stories She Tells – I gave him a blurb for my book and a small list of existing book covers that I liked and felt were comparable to what I wanted in my cover. He then came back to me with a few initial designs and I picked my favourite. I loved the initial design so much I didn’t ask him to change anything! I think the overall atmosphere of the cover is almost more important to me than what is actually on it – I think the cover needs to be representative of the genre and give some hint of the mood of the book – is it fast and thrilling or slower paced and thoughtful? Friendly and bubbly or dark and creepy… I felt that the cover for The Stories She Tells captured the way that one of the characters is in quite a controlled, almost sterile environment that is suddenly shattered, like the wine glass on the cover.

I get lovely reactions from friends and family about my books – they are all very happy and pleased for me. I think being an author is one of those careers where if you say you want to do it you get a lot of people basically telling you that you can’t, but with how relatively straight-forward it is to self-publish books there aren’t so many barriers any more. It’s not been a particularly easy road, and when I look back now it’s amazing how much I’ve learnt and how much I continue to learn, but I’m hoping to publish many more books in the future!

(We hope so too! Thanks for this fascinating insight into your publishing journey. I’m sure readers can’t wait to look at the extract from The Stories She Tells that now follows.)

An Extract from The Stories She Tells

‘Not again,’ Sadie said, ‘please, not again.’

Michael looked down at the pregnancy test in her hand, and saw that it was negative. He sat down beside her on the bathroom floor, and put his arm around her awkwardly. ‘Sadie…’ he said.

‘No!’ she shouted, the suddenness and loudness of her voice taking him aback. She shoved his arm away. ‘No,’ she said again quietly.

Michael gave up. He knew how desperate she was for a baby and never had a clue what to say when she got a negative result. When he tried to talk to her he usually ended up putting his foot in it and making things worse. Sadie put the test down on the floor and rested her forehead on her knees, her hair falling forward and brushing her bare legs. It was six-thirty in the morning and she’d done the test the second she got up, so she was still wearing a baggy old t-shirt of his that she wore in bed. When she’d called him into the bathroom to wait for the result she’d looked glazed with sleep. He watched her as she slowly lifted her head again, took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. ‘I’m all right,’ she said. ‘I’m going to be all right. Just… just give me a minute.’

Michael left her and when she appeared half an hour later she was dressed and ready to go out. ‘Come on,’ she said when she found him in the living room eating a bowl of cereal in front of the TV, ‘we’re going to the shop today, aren’t we? You wanted to go in early before it opens―’

‘You don’t have to come,’ he said. ‘If you can’t face it I can go on my own―’

‘What would I do here? I don’t want to rattle around the house all day. I want to be busy.’

About L K Chapman

Louise Katherine Chapman was born in Somerset, UK, in 1986. She studied psychology at the University of Southampton and has worked as a psychologist creating personality questionnaires for a consultancy company. She has also spent some time volunteering for mental health charity Mind.

L K Chapman loves to write because she loves learning about people and she loves stories. A major turning point in her life was the day she realised that no matter how strange, cruel or unfathomable the actions of other people can sometimes be, there is always a reason for it, some sequence of events to be unravelled. Since then she is always asking “why” and “what if” and she is fascinated by real life stories capturing the strength, peculiarities or extremes of human nature.

LK Chapman’s first novel, Networked, was a sci-fi thriller but now she’s turned her attention to writing psychological suspense. Her first psychological thriller, Anything for Him, was published in 2016, and her new novel The Stories She Tells was released in October 2017.

LK Chapman lives in Hampshire with her husband and young family. She enjoys walks in the woods, video games, and spending time with family and friends.

You can follow L K Chapman on Twitter @LK_Chapman and visit her website. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

I’m desperate to visit China to see the tomb of the ancient warriors so when Will Ruff got in touch about his novel The Tomb of the Primal Dragon, I had to invite him on the blog.

The Tomb of the Primal Dragon was published on 27th November 2017 and is available for purchase here.

The Tomb of the Primal Dragon

Arthur Biers is an aspiring historian looking for his path to graduate school when he gets invited to help tell the story of one of history’s deadliest tombs.

In 1974 two farmers digging a well outside of Xi’an, China, discovered a clay statue and a pot that belonged to China’s first Emperor. The site they discovered was the second pit of his mausoleum, and is one of the most interesting historical finds of the 20th century.

But the Emperor’s Tomb has yet to be excavated as claims have arisen from conspiracy theorists that the site is a fraud. The Tomb of the Primal Dragon tells the story of a group of researchers vying for the inside scoop on the tomb’s excavation as each source they investigate suggests there’s much more going on at the Museum than the excavation of historical relics.

Led by worldwide bestselling pseudo-historian, Bruce Philips, and technologist, Wyatt Waller, Art embarks on a journey across mainland China as they hunt down every lead to show the world what deadly secrets are buried inside the tomb.

Why We Need Fiction In A Rapidly Moving Technological World

A Guest Post by Will Ruff

When you look at how fast technology is moving in the world today, and you look at how few people read, it’s become evident that the art of storytelling is more important than ever.

And in a world that’s grown politically divided over every single topic, skepticism of the source is a concern that’s causing the general population to refuse to read news stories altogether. Everyone seems to do it.

This is why fiction is more relevant now than ever, because fiction at its best, can explore the world as it is, as we’d like it to be, and as we fear it will become, and when it’s done well, whether that’s in the form of a romance novel, a thriller, or a work of contemporary fiction, when it resonates, it creates unity within humanity instead of division. It celebrates the curious detours, and the inevitable challenges of life, and reminds us that we’re all a part of the same journey, that it’s the persistence through these struggles that makes us human.

Fiction challenges us to think about our core emotions, and successful fiction does so in a way that the reader is left looking inward at something else that gave them a similar feeling, and when they have none, and the writing is exceptional, the reader can’t help but feel empathy. When it’s done well, fiction is a unifying medium for all mankind.

Technology by contrast should be a similar force, but the trend in technology has been more brevity, more shallow appeal, and more “what can I get right now?” There is very little deferred gratification, and there is very little thought in the words you consume on these mediums. Let me be clear: they have value, and I don’t reject these tools, but the goal of these platforms is making as much money as quickly as possible with no regard for how it affects society.

To take a more optimistic approach, fiction has the power of influencing business and technology. It can draw attention to this technology, and start a conversation among crowds to better educate them about its abilities, and it can inspire people to celebrate their line of work. This is more evident in film and television, but I can think of a handful of doctors who celebrate every drama, and comedy out there that highlights their lifestyle. I can think of security people who praise the authenticity of shows like Mr. Robot, and I know that a combination of reading Jurassic Park, and watching Indiana Jones, inspired me to pursue a degree in history. Finally I can think of someone who went into the world of information systems when she was a young girl watching the original Tron in theaters.

What is the power of fiction? What is the allure of watching a story we know isn’t real? It’s exactly that. We have plenty of fields of study that try to explain the way things are, and they’re all incredibly important to follow, but fiction is the format that challenges us to ask, what if?

The next time you find yourself endlessly scrolling through some social media feed, I hope you’ll consider moving over to your bookshelf and picking up a novel you haven’t read. You might just find what you were looking for.

About Will Ruff

Will Ruff is the author of the newly released The Tomb of the Primal Dragon, which is available on Amazon Kindle. The novel follows a young historian who gets invited to help research one of history’s deadliest tombs. You can learn more about Will here and follow him on Twitter @WilliamLRuff.

Having had a tricky few recent years, it gives me very great pleasure to welcome Harriet Cabelly to Linda’s Book Bag to tell us a little bit more about her book Living Well Despite Adversity as I know I need some advice and I dare say many blog readers do too!

Living Well Despite Adversity is available for purchase in e-book and paperback here.

Living Well Despite Adversity

Join Cheryl Strayed, Temple Grandin, Meredith Vieira and others as they share their honest accounts of heartbreak, and the secrets they discovered that led them to triumph ‘despite it all’.

In this collection of interviews, Harriet Cabelly has dug deep to reveal the critical wisdom found in the midst of huge challenge or loss. She highlights themes such as purpose and gratitude that all of us can incorporate into our lives as we go through our own difficult times. In particular, she reflects on the importance of developing resilience and a positive attitude, even in the face of insufferable odds.

The people in this book don’t flinch from telling it how it really is. Their stories are raw, at times, as they openly describe their struggles and how they have learned to cope with loss, disability and addiction.

Their stories will strengthen and inspire you.

They will show that you, too, can come out the other side of heartbreak intact and go on to rebuild a life filled with renewed meaning and joy. That, despite it all, you can thrive.

An Interview with Harriet Cabelly

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Harriet. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing and Living Well Despite Adversity in particular. Firstly, please could you tell me a little about yourself?

I am a social worker, positive psychology coach, speaker and workshop facilitator.  And I now can add in author!  I am a guest coaching expert on WOR radio’s, Change Your Attitude, Change Your Life show.  I journey with my clients as they cope with and grow beyond their painful circumstances,  supporting and guiding them towards their best life.  I am a life-long learner and I love taking on new and challenging experiences – saying Yes to new opportunities.  I believe we can all rebuild our lives with renewed meaning, purpose and joy despite and through our personal challenges and adversities.  Hence my website – rebuildlifenow.com

Please could you tell us a bit about Living Well Despite Adversity?

This book is a compilation of interviews of people who have been able to transcend their personal challenges and losses and gone on to live with renewed meaning and joy.  The wisdom, teachings and inspiration are from the interviewees who share with open hearts their pain and the journey they’ve been on to come through whole and richly engaged in  a thriving life.

As well as being a writer, you’re also a social worker and positive psychology coach. How did these other roles lead you to writing Living Well Despite Adversity?

First and foremost I’m a parent of a daughter with special needs who miraculously survived a year-long medical crisis, which I write about in the book.  This book is really the outgrowth of her miracle, as I was searching for a way to honor it.   I have always been interested in this theme of people overcoming adversity; the idea that it’s not how we can avoid bad things happening since it’s inherent in the human condition, but rather when they do happen, how can we cope and still manage to have a good life, despite.  Since we’re only given this one life, it behoves us to make it as good as possible.

Combining my professional expertise and interest in people and their stories, together with my personal experiences, I decided to take my life theme on the road, so to speak, and when I started my blog years ago, I began my project of monthly interviews with people who exemplified this theme.

How did you decide whom to interview for Living Well Despite Adversity?

I wanted a variety of challenges and adversities, to show that it wasn’t the circumstance per se but rather how the people responded to their situation.   Since I’m a book lover and specifically of memoirs, I found many of my interviewees through their books.  I took the liberty to request a blog interview by email or phone and most surprisingly said yes.  As an unknown interviewer,  I was thrilled, especially when some more well-known people agreed.

Many of the stories in Living Well Despite Adversity show people with extremes of problems or emotion. How would you say their messages can be incorporated into anyone’s ordinary life?

These are stories of grief and resilience.  Research is now pointing to the fact that we can build our resilience, that it’s a learned set of skills we can develop and enhance within ourselves.   Although each person/interviewee’s circumstance is different, the themes that are gleaned out are universal: faith, support, purpose, gratitude, attitude, choice….  A main theme in the book that I hope comes across loud and clear is that it’s not our circumstance that defines us but rather our response to it; and we are responsible for our response.  We can intentionally and purposefully choose how we respond.   Another predominant theme is that feelings are to be felt – in other words, permission to feel.   We must allow ourselves to feel – the bad and the good.  In fact we need to grieve, that’s how we go through the pain.  As someone once said, “We can’t heal what we don’t feel.”

These vital messages of choice, response, allowing for our feelings, gratitude …are all ingredients for a life of well-being.

As a result of producing Living Well Despite Adversity what have you learnt?

I’ve learned that living well beyond loss and extreme challenges/adversity is very intentional.  It’s a choice.  It’s all too easy to fall prey to our circumstances and remain stuck in our pain.  All these interviewees made the decision to continue on living and learning how to do it well; not just to survive but to grow, create meaning out of their suffering and to thrive.

If you had 15 words to persuade a reader that Living Well Despite Adversity should be their next read, what would you say?

A book to guide and inspire us to cope and live well beyond our struggles.

Thank you so much for your time in answering my questions, Harriet.

About Harriet Cabelly

Harriet Cabelly is a social worker, speaker and workshop facilitator who has appeared on ABC News as a parenting coach and is a guest coaching expert on WOR Radio’s, Change Your Attitude, Change Your Life Show. As a positive psychology coach, Harriet journeys with her clients as they cope with and grow beyond their painful situations.

You can follow Harriet on Twitter @rebuildlife and visit her website. You’ll also find her on Facebook.

A few weeks ago I received a top secret email telling me I had been short-listed for The Romantic Novelists’ Association Industry Awards Media Star Award. I was, quite literally, astounded.

I knew that last year it had been won by the most amazing lady, Kim Nash who is not only a fellow blogger at Kim the Bookworm and someone I consider a friend, but the publicity and social media manager at publishers Bookouture.

I had no idea who had nominated me (and still don’t know – but if it was you, then thank you!). I was in Mauritius on holiday when the news was released and was beside myself with excitement but really didn’t expect to win.

The awards ceremony was held on 15th November 2017 and I was all set to go, although I needed to rearrange a few things in order to get there. Unfortunately things didn’t quite go according to plan!

As my father had died last November and the 15th was bang slap in between his death and his funeral, I had arranged to take my mother on a coach trip to Milton Keynes to see Vincent and Flavia in Tango Moderno as a distraction. My sister was willing to go in my place and I was all set. Unfortunately, my sister then developed a problem in the foot she had totally reconstructed a few years ago and we thought it was broken or some of the screws had come adrift. Either way, she was unable to walk and certainly couldn’t support my unsteady mother. It meant that I couldn’t attend the ceremony as I had to look after Mum.

Some of you know that day was a bit of a challenge. We had lunch in a restaurant and just as I was ordering my meal a large, heavy Christmas Bauble somewhere between a football and basketball in size dropped from the high ceiling on top of my head leaving a large lump and a thumping headache for the rest of the day! When the waiter said, ‘That’s the second one to drop down today’ I did feel maybe a lesson could be learnt.

However, we headed off to the theatre only to find Vincent wasn’t in it as he had injured his back…

On arrival home, Mum was very unsteady on her feet and couldn’t make it across the road. My husband duly collected us in the car and we took her home. About 30 minutes after he had said to me that he wouldn’t be surprised if she had a fall, the phone rang and it was Mum. She had fallen and broken her hip. She’d crawled to the phone and rung us. We called the ambulance and some six and a half hours later it finally arrived at 3.45 in the morning. It’s been a bit of a nightmare ever since!

It was amongst all of this chaos that I learnt I had actually won The RNA Media Star Award. I can’t begin to tell you how much it meant to me after a such a day of frustrations. I’m thrilled and delighted. Runner up was the wonderful Kaisha Holloway who blogs at The Writing Garnet. You can read all about the awards ceremony and the category winners here. but I confess to shedding a tear of joy when I read:

Media Star of the Year

Blogger Linda Hill was awarded Media Star of the Year for her continued support for romance novels through retweeting, reviewing and blogging. Friendly and professional, even when her TBR pile is overflowing, she’ll take more books on, going above and beyond the call of duty, and all with a smile. This award recognises those who have helped raise the profile of romance writing and/or the RNA in a positive way.

What wonderful words. Thank you, thank you, thank you RNA. Today postie has reignited all my excitement having delivered my certificate, closely follwed by my gorgeous award.

Now, I may have won the award, but if it were not for fabulous authors whose books I have the privilege to read, the generous publishers who send me copies for review and my fellow bloggers and others who share my posts this couldn’t have happened. As a result I would like to say an enormous thank you to all of you. I have found the bookish world to be supportive, friendly and talented and it is a joy to be part of it. By way of a thank you I’d like to run a small giveaway and you can enter below.

Giveaway

To say thank you for all the bookish love and support I’ve received, not just through this Romantic Novelists’ Industry Award, I would like to offer an Amazon e-gift card of £20 or $20 to one of Linda’s Book Bag readers. To enter click here. Giveaway closes at UK midnight on Christmas Eve.

Good luck everyone and thank you all once again. Merry Christmas x

 

I’m delighted to be part of the paperback launch celebrations for East End Angels by Rosie Hendry as I love historical fiction.

available in e-book and hardback, East End Angels is released by Sphere, an imprint of Little Brown, in paperback tomorrow, 14th December 2017 and is available for purchase here.

East End Angels

Strong-willed Winnie loves being part of the crew at Station Seventy-Five but her parents are less than happy. She has managed to avoid their pleas to join the WRENS so far but when a tragedy hits too close to home she finds herself wondering if she’s cut out for this life after all.

Former housemaid Bella was forced to leave the place she loved when she lost it all and it’s taken her a while to find somewhere else to call home. She’s finally starting to build a new life but when the air raids begin, it seems she may have to start over once again.

East-Ender Frankie’s sense of loyalty keeps her tied to home so it’s not easy for her to stay focused at work. With her head and heart pulling in different directions, will she find the strength to come through for her friends when they need her the most?

Brought together at LAAS Station Seventy-Five in London’s East End during 1940, these three very different women soon realise that they’ll need each other if they’re to get through the days ahead. But can the ties of friendship, love and family all remain unbroken?

My Review of East End Angels

Three women from very different backgrounds find common interests when they become ambulance drivers during the Blitz.

What a lovely story East End Angels is. Rosie Hendry’s style is effortless to read making for a heartwarming and feel good reading experience, perfect for lovers of what is traditionally termed women’s fiction.

The settings make East End Angels so authentic. I thoroughly enjoyed the insight into the way women supported the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service in the desperate days of bombing and through perfectly chosen language found myself transported to that era with the sound of the bombs, the smells and the dust. I thought the details had been meticulously researched, beautifully handled and woven into the narrative with enormous skill.

There’s a great plot too, with a few surprises along the way that draw in the reader completely. I know there is to be a sequel to East End Angels and will be first in the queue to read it as I both want, and need, to find out what happens next. As I read about the events I found myself questioning my own personality and wondering how I would have coped and behaved in similar circumstances. The themes of the book such as friendship, values and family mean there is something for every reader to identify or empathise with. I found the dynamics of the class structure of the era and the way it was altered by the war extremely interesting too.

However, it is the characters that make East End Angels such a compelling story. I completely forgot that these are fictional people. Partly, this effect comes through the direct speech. Frankie, in particular has a voice I could hear in my head as if I were listening to a friend speaking. I most identified with Winnie and despised Ivy with every fibre of my being. Is it awful of me to hope throughout that she would get a direct hit from a bomb? All three of the main characters, Bella, Frankie and Winnie, felt real and vivid, but so too did the more minor individuals, even Trixie. I believed in them all completely.

I finished East End Angels feeling I had been thoroughly entertained and drawn in to the worlds of Bella, Winnie and Frankie. I’d love to see this book taken up for Sunday night television as I think it would be classic material for such viewing. I’m highly impressed by Rosie Hendry’s historical writing and look forward to more in the future. I really recommend East End Angels.

About Rosie Hendry

Rosie Hendry lives by the sea in Norfolk with her husband and two children. East End Angels is the first book in her uplifting and heart-warming saga series that follows the lives and loves of Winnie, Frankie and Bella, who all work for the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service (LAAS) during the Blitz. Listening to her father’s tales of life during the Second World War sparked Rosie’s interest in this period and she loves researching further, searching out gems of real life events which inspire her writing.

You can find out more about Rosie by following her on Twitter @hendry_rosie, finding her friend on Facebook or visiting her website.

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I know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but Solitaire by Jane Thynne is so gorgeous that I’m thrilled to be part of this blog tour to support it. My thanks to Sian Divine for inviting me to take part and for my review copy of Solitaire which I’m saving up to read over Christmas.

It gives me great pleasure to find out a little more about the concept of Solitaire and its protagonist Clare Vine today. I’m doubly lucky as I have an extract to share as well as Jane’s super guest post.

Published by Simon and Schuster, Solitaire is available for purchase here.

Solitaire

To save her own life, will she sacrifice another?

June 1940: the first summer of the war. Berlin is being bombed and nightly blackouts suffocate the city. Then France falls and a shadow descends.

A shadow has fallen over Clara Vine’s own life, too. She is an Anglo-German woman in a country that hates England. Then she is summoned to meet the Propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, who has decided that Clara should adopt a new role – as his spy.

Much as she dislikes the idea, Clara realises this might be the chance to find an escape route to England. But Goebbels has other ideas and soon Clara is drawn into a web that threatens to destroy her. As everything she holds dear is taken as ransom, she must fight to protect her family – and to survive…

The Clare Vine and Solitaire Concept

A Guest Post by Jane Thynne

Welcome to Linda’s Book Bag, Jane. Would you talk to us a little about the inspiration for the Clare Vine Series? Where did the concept for the Clare Vine Series come from?

I knew I wanted to write a spy thriller, and I was fascinated by WW2, but I always found Nazi Germany a very male story. I wanted to know about the women – mothers, wives, brides and schoolgirls – whose lives were tightly controlled under the regime. The Third Reich was extremely gender segregated – there was even a female Führer, called Gertrude Scholtz-Klink – yet these women get very little attention from historians and their lives are largely hidden, so I decided to use a spy to penetrate their world. My heroine, Clara Vine, is Anglo-German and an actress, because actresses are accustomed to playing a role, and trained to observe detail. Clara’s entire life in Berlin is an act, but her glamour blinds the Nazi VIPs to her real purpose. Her adventures start in Black Roses, which is set in 1933, just after Hitler has come to power in Germany. She arrives in Berlin at the age of 26, hoping to make a career at the famous Babelsberg studios, and by chance comes into contact with Magda Goebbels, wife of the Propaganda Minister, and becomes privy to the gossip of the VIP Nazi wives. Later, she agrees to relay information to British Intelligence, and thus becomes actress by day, spy by night. Although Clara herself is not modelled on any specific historical character, I read a lot of letters and diaries by young British women who had visited Germany before the war, and observed the build-up of Nazism. They came back and warned people about the rise of the Nazis, but their warnings fell on deaf ears.

Without spoiling the plot for readers, would you tell us about the storyline for Solitaire?

It’s 1940, and Germany is now at war with Britain, so Clara’s life is more perilous than ever. Unaware that she is a British agent, Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister, summons her to carry out a mission for him. The job takes her to neutral Lisbon, where a flood of refugees, aristocrats and spies has congregated, waiting to escape Nazi Europe. Among them are the Duke and Duchess of Windsor – and Ian Fleming.

What’s next for Clare Vine? How many books do you see her series carrying?

The next Clara Vine story is set in 1941, with locations in Vienna, Hamburg, Berlin and London. Clara is filming the most expensive Nazi movie ever made, called The Sinking of the Titanic, when she is presented with a daunting task, to track down a rogue British agent. The only problem is, this man was once her lover. I enjoy so much writing the Clara stories and being in her world, that I have no desire to stop. But I do have another protagonist who is longing to be written about, and she’s a rather different character, so I may start another series soon.

And what’s next for Jane Thynne?

My next novel is a standalone, provisionally titled The Typewriter. It’s a split time narrative set in the 1940s and the present day featuring two English sisters, Cordelia and Irene Capel, who are divided by ideology and war. Part of it is set during the fall of Berlin, when Russian soldiers rampaged through the city, raping every woman in sight. After the war Cordelia Capel becomes a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, yet she is never able to confront the secret that has created a lifetime rift with her sister. At the time I was writing it, the Brexit debate was raging and the potential for ideology to divide families was all around. The family rift in this novel features spies, love and lies, and its repercussions stretch right into the present day.

Thanks so much for telling us a bit more about your writing Jane.

An Extract From Solitaire

In this extract from the prologue of Solitaire, a glamorous German nightclub singer is in Lisbon, waiting restlessly outside the casino at Estoril  for someone to emerge.

The night was rich and dark, dense as a wedding cake, and the sky powdered with stars. The young woman stood to one side of the casino’s pillared door, trying to remain inconspicuous as knots of people drifted through the glass doors and across the thick red carpet to the gaming room. Inside, chandeliers hung on gold painted ropes, bored croupiers raked the tables and a layer of cigar smoke was intercut by musky drifts of Chanel, Lanvin and Worth. The atmosphere was the same as in any casino the world over: joyless, thick with alcohol and moneyed voices. Occasionally the woman would venture out of the shadow and peer past the porters and bellboys, trying to catch a glimpse inside, but each time she hesitated and withdrew again, drawing her silk jacket closer around her. A black, strapless evening gown, decorated with silver faux-Chinese motifs, hung on her like a negligee and a single strand of pearls circled her neck. She had a gleaming drape of charcoal-coloured hair, eggshell skin, a soft pillow of lips, and a face that had broken a hundred hearts.

The night air raised goose bumps on her flesh and she braced herself, as though she could shrug off the shadows like a sable stole. On the opposite side of the square the red neon sign of the casino expanded and contracted like an artery and a short way away the shivering glitter of the sea was advancing and receding, tugging the shingle outwards to America and back to Europe again. Raucous laughter and the crash of bottles rattled from a nearby bar. The splayed branches of pine trees fractured the dark sky and as she stood there shivering, a momentary waft of resin transported her hundreds of miles, back to the pine-scented Grunewald of Berlin.

Berlin. Nothing about her life in that city could have predicted her presence here, all alone, in an unfamiliar town on the far westerly edge of Europe. Not the ranks of teachers at school or the marching and massed parades and gymnastics in the Tiergarten. Not the dancing and singing, nor the nightclubs, nor the stint at the Haus Vaterland, draped across a grand piano, trying to be Marlene Dietrich. At the thought of it she instinctively flexed a leg with the toe pointed and circled it slowly, as though she was warming up for a performance.

It was love that had brought her here. Damned, inconvenient love. She had always imagined herself immune, as though she’d had an injection against it, like you had for a disease. She prided herself on her indifference. Her heart was as hard as a Wehrmacht helmet. Melting eyes and tender protestations glanced off her like raindrops from the windshield of a pale blue Mercedes convertible, the kind she had always dreamed of owning. But somehow, love had undermined her defences and left her stranded here, three countries away from home, frozen, uncomfortable and very afraid.

She shivered again, shuffling toes that were growing slowly numb in her high heels, and tried to calculate the time. She was, in fact, perfectly used to high heels and late nights; back in Berlin, midnight was nothing. Usually, two o’clock in the morning was her favourite time, when everything slowed down and the harsh edges of the city relaxed. Often she would still be out at dawn, when the housewives first appeared at their doors, clutching their dressing gowns to their necks, looking for the milk cart. But on this particular night, the waiting was a strain.  A numbing exhaustion was seeping through her body, up from her legs, coaxing her into a waking doze, forcing her to shake herself awake. She wished yet again that she could find a cigarette, but smoking might draw unwelcome attention. Coffee would help, and the bar across the square was still open, its light fizzing over a few plastic tables, yet she dared not desert her post. Instead, she took out a chunk of chocolate and let it dissolve slowly on her tongue, staring restlessly at the casino from her vantage place in the shadows. It helped that her performer’s training had instilled a certain vigilance in her, a hypersensitivity to her surroundings, and she told herself that standing here was no different from waiting in the wings, poised to enter the stage for her moment of action.

About Jane Thynne

Jane Thynne was born in Venezuela and educated in London. She graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English and joined the BBC as a journalist. She has also worked at The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent, as well as for numerous British magazines.

She appears as a broadcaster on Radio 4. Jane is married to the writer Philip Kerr. They have three children and live in London.

You can find out more by visiting Jane’s website, finding her on Facebook or following her on Twitter @janethynne.

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