In 2013 we emigrated to Australia, I fell in love with this beautiful country when I travelled around it in 2002 so I was truly exhilarated to be bringing my family back. The space, beaches, warmth and landscapes were some of the things I couldn’t wait to show my children. Three months later the company that had sponsored us made my husband redundant, luckily within two weeks he had three job offers but he still had to spend the next year climbing back up the greasy pole. Six months later I found myself in a radiology lab being scanned to see what the growth was in my throat. I had been on antibiotics for two months and surgery was looming. Was it cancer?
They wouldn’t know until they removed it. Luckily it wasn’t but this is really what spurred my story into action.
What Emotion Fuels the Writing ?
I needed to take stock of my life, things weren’t right, on the inside that is. I dug out all of my old psychology books and embarked on some self exploration. I started writing to let go of the emotion that I had attached to a particular incident in my life. This incident that had become the Mammoth in the room, not the elephant. I needed to let it out and I wanted to let others learn by it. The emotions that fuelled me to start this novel were endless; anger, grief, confusion, sadness, loneliness but also passion.
Who Is Narrating the Story?
My character Milla started telling this story, she is me at age 23. Milla had it all on the outside just as I did when I started writing the story. Milla was working in London, had a great flat and good friends but she was lonely. One night when out with her friends she ended up very drunk or drugged (I will never know) with five men in their house. I probably don’t need to go into detail as to what went on in the house. You can buy the book to find out! Suffice to say She/I was left naked and unconscious in the back garden. The police where involved, at the time it felt like everyone was involved except me. So I wrote this story to let go of the emotion, I let Milla take her revenge on these men, I actually wrote that chapter in the second week, I knew I needed to regain my power about this situation. Forgive myself more than anyone else. It helped, it helped a lot.
My character Stacey arrived, I based her on a friend back home, I probably needed someone close to talk to and so I invented her. She could be seen as a version of me now I suppose, in her thirties two kids, nice house, hubby who works hard and whom she hardly ever sees.
Then Tabatha had to be in the story, looking back at my life I realised I was so much more responsible and sensible at age 18 when I was living with my musician boyfriend than I was at 23. Tabs and Milla are close friends, almost lovers you could say.
Harry is my hero, my favourite character. My knight in shining armour who has held my hand through this whole process. He is the loveable rogue. When I started to get a bit maudlin with Milla, Harry would stir it all up and make it all about him. This is a fictional work based on some truth, there is a lot of sex and I have been asked why. I wanted to portray all the different kinds of sex there are that we are lucky or unlucky enough to experience. There is the abuse, the affair, the prostitute, the love, the hate and of course the married couple.
My book Sharks & Lovers is available to download here: