I'm currently working towards self publishing this older title of mine, WILD IN THE COUNTRY. And this cover perfectly expresses my vision of Flora, the heroine. When we were discussing ideas for covers for Wild, my buddy Saskia Walker mentioned the dreamy sensuality of the old Cadbury's Flake television adverts, and that really inspired me! With that in mind, I was lucky enough to find this image fairly quickly on a stock site.
Although WILD IN THE COUNTRY has been published before and edited twice, I knew it needed a bit more work. Mainly to pick up odd little punctuation blips and things that slip in during file conversion and what have you. But as I worked on it, I knew I had to make some slight changes to the story. This book was originally written as a kind of crazy sex romp, with Flora as a free spirited girl, kicking over the traces of an old, more boring life, when she moved to live in a village full of rampant sensualists who enjoyed partner swapping and a host of wild erotic games. That's still the main... er... thrust... of the story, but thinking about Flora, and Declan, the central male character in the story, I wanted to give them a real romantic relationship. One that starts as part of the sexual experimentation they both enjoy in the village community, but growing and developing into something deeper, more forever... and in the end, exclusive.
But that has to develop properly, and Flora can't go straight from wild experimentation, with Declan just one amongst a whole bunch of equally important lovers, to snap, he's The One. So I have to build in some more gradual realisation of their growing affection, maybe even an evolution that neither she nor he are consciously aware of while it's building.
And of course, that takes much longer to do, and a lot more brain thrashing than just a simple check for misplaced punctuation and whatnot. I was hoping to get the new version of Wild out before Christmas, but if I'm honest with myself, I don't think that'll happen now.
Will many people read this new version when I've written it? Who knows... But I'll have had the pleasure and challenge of revamping and revising it. A bit of proper mind work, to keep the old little grey cells from atrophying!
And if anyone fancies a flavour of Flora *before* the revamp, you'll find her as Katy, in IN THE AIR TONIGHT. Many of the usual Wild suspects are there too, but under different names...
