Back to school, my darlings!!
Until these summer school holidays I always thought I was pretty good at time management…but how very wrong I was! Oh, lordy, lordy! Six long weeks of barely typing a word and when I did it wasn’t very good – not a great recipe for producing something polished enough to submit to a publisher come the Autumn.
I’m mum to two young daughters of twelve and ten – the age where I stupidly assumed they would be out with their friends playing in the sunshine. Remember when we did that? Yes? Well, as other writer mums out there reading this undoubtedly already know, such nonsense is laughable. I soon discovered kids don’t need to go out with friends when they have virtual ones all over the internet and TV, arrghh!!
Alas, the holidays are over and my little darlings are back to school so I am feverishly writing once more, hoping to finish a novella and another novel by the time they break up for Christmas…she says. The interruptions were mammoth, the moaning and fighting worse than ever or maybe it was just my own frustration and naïve expectations that caused me to drink far too much wine and break out in hives over the holidays.
But anyway, onwards and upwards, we are into September now and don’t have to think about the summer holidays again for another ten months, yay!
The novel I am here promoting today, Paying The Piper, is a darker, grittier story than I usually write – it focuses on the romantic union of two lost souls searching for escape from their fathers’ expectations and abuse.
Here’s the blurb:
Nightclub manager Grace Butler is on a mission to buy the pub where her mother's ashes are scattered but the owner wants to sell to anyone but her. And that owner happens to be her father...who has a secret she will do anything to discover.
Social worker and all around good guy Jimmy Betts needs funds to buy a house for three special kids before their care home closes. Time is running out and he's desperate for cash. He agrees to to a one-time 'job' for bad-man Karl Butler. But in a sudden turn of events, Jimmy finds himself employed by Karl's beautiful, funny and incredibly sexy daughter, Grace. Their lives couldn't be more different, yet one thread binds them: they're both trying to escape the bonds of their fathers. Maybe the only way they'll be free is by being together, instead of alone.
Buy Link:
http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=81&products_id=424
I love writing a TOTALLY different sub-genre with each book I write. It keeps things fresh for me and also, I hope, my readers. So far I have had two romantic suspense novels (the third is under consideration as we speak!), one romantic comedy, one Victorian historical (the second is with my agent) and two contemporary romances published. They are all entirely different – except for my voice which people say they always recognize, which is great.
So as gritty as Paying The Piper is, the book I am working on now is funny, sexy and bright. A complete contrast in every other way apart from the best bit – the romance.
My question I’d like to throw out to Clare’s visitors today is how you guys read? Do you often swap romance sub-genres or stick to the same one? Do you vary your genres completely from book to book?
I have recently acquired an agent and wonder how long I will be able to continue with my enjoyment of changing sub-genres with every new novel, or will my publisher want me to stick to one until I ‘make it’ so to speak?
Does it irritate readers rather than interest them? What do you think? I’d love to hear from you!
Bio
Rachel lives with her husband and two young daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK. Having always believed there’s someone for everyone, Rachel started writing her own tales of love once her children were at school. Since then, she’s had several books published with The Wild Rose Press, Eternal Press and Lyrical Press. She has recently acquired a US agent with her second Victorian historical. A member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America, Rachel cannot imagine her life without romance or writing!
When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family. And in the evening? Well, a well-deserved glass of wine is never, ever refused…
