PUBLISHED AUTHOR

How cool does that sound? It’s about four years since I was inspired to start writing a novel, and then to see if I could get it published. And now the novel ‘Grace’s Turmoil’ is to be published by Devine Destinies on 15th December.

I don’t come from a family of writers, or for that matter a family of keen readers. And until I started to write what was then to be a stand-alone romance novel ‘Not Too Old for Love’ I’d never read even one romance novel, let alone one that had mature characters in it. Now the novel has morphed into Grace’s Turmoil: Book One of a planned three book series ‘Not Too Old for Love’.

I wanted to write a novel that showed mature people (pensioners/seniors) in a positive light. A novel that showed they can enjoy life, have fun, romances and relationships.

The first thing I had to do was decide the environment the book would be set in and initially I tried setting it in a care home. But I was soon discouraged from that by someone who worked in that sort of environment. Apparently, the reality of such a place is that the residents wouldn’t have the freedom to move around, interact and socialise the way I needed them to. So, after some basic research and a visit to a retirement village I decided that was the sort of place that would work best.

The advantage of this setting was that I had a group of retirees on tap to call upon whenever I needed a character. The possible disadvantage was that all the characters, including minor ones, would be at least sixty-years-old and some quite a bit older. This would of course mean no everyday contact with younger people, but I felt younger people could be visitors, or people the characters see or meet outside.

The book started off as not much more than a series of conversations and developed from there. I had to work hard at creating a credible storyline and interesting and believable characters. Sadly, as I had no previous experience, and no idea of planning or outlining, the book evolved in a somewhat random manner.

This meant that when it was being critiqued a great deal of the work that had been done had to be dumped. This was generally because it was either poor quality, or because the plot just didn’t work. The next book will hopefully be planned somewhat better before I start typing it up and will therefore be finished much quicker.

I understand that recently demand has been growing for romance novels featuring mature characters aged at least thirty who have life experience and emotional baggage, such as being divorced or widowed. So, the timing of ‘Grace’s Turmoil’ couldn’t be better as the heroine is sixty-eight and the hero seventy-one.

The book will initially be available as an ebook  from www.devinedestinies.com/grace-s-turmoil/ and I expect it to be available from 3rd party sites just in time for Christmas. I’m not sure about other sites but it will definitely be available from Amazon as a paperback as well as an ebook.Here’s a little teaser to give you all a flavour for the book.