BELOVED NEMESIS - out now!

BELOVED NEMESIS is my latest self published release, out this week.

It’s new, but it’s not absolutely, completely and entirely new because a version of it was published almost twenty years ago, in print, by a British publishing house. I was going to release it as-is, as a sort of period piece, but when I came to read through it I saw ways I’d like to change it, and update it… so I did!

Don’t get me wrong, I was proud of the original version, and I loved it. But it was slightly long and on the rambling side, and not as focused on the central couple, Florence and Jacob, as I would make the same story if I’d written it today.

It’s basically the same storyline, the same plot as the 1990s version, but it’s just tighter and gets to the point a bit quicker now, in 2018.

NB. It’s still not what you’d call fast paced… because that’s not what I do. I still tend to witter on and on a bit because it’s hard to change the habits of a lifetime. LOL

Here's the blurb...

A love-hate relationship… a stubborn estrangement… a fiery, reluctant attraction. Where better for a feuding couple to resolve their differences than the most dismal country shack known to humanity?

Rising journalist Florence Trevelyan doesn’t know whether to be thrilled or horrified when she’s tasked to interview a handsome, devastatingly talented actor who’s about to star in a breakthrough role as the dashing lead in a prestigious costume drama.

The thrill is that it’s an interview that can raise her profile and lead to greater things. The horror is that the actor is her adoptive cousin Jacob, who she hates. And while the two of them have no blood relationship, they do have an emotional history. Long ago, they shared a single night of passion and… it did not end well. The pair have studiously avoided each other ever since.

But Florence is a focused professional and she’s determined to get a great interview out of Jacob, even in the face of his extreme provocation and the sizzling chemistry that still sparks between them. An accidental weekend holiday together, in a ramshackle family cottage, could prove a great opportunity to get the job done and perhaps even end their years of enmity… even if ‘roughing it’ in such confined quarters is dangerously intimate.

Will the two cousins finally reach a rapprochement? Will they become friends again… perhaps even a whole lot more? Or will fate throw yet another spanner in the romantic works for Flora and Jacob?

Buy from Amazon :: US :: UK :: CA :: AU

Also available from :: Nook :: Kobo :: iBooks

Taster excerpt - click here

Working on Wild - cover preview

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...