Wednesday Writing: When Your Story Surprises You

So I'm nearly halfway into my current manuscript, Marry Me at Willoughby Close, and the story suddenly took an unexpected turn! I was preparing the hero and heroine to have a fancy dinner at a restaurant in London when my heroine decided not to go. (Spoiler--hopefully readers will have forgotten this by the time the book comes out!) I realized her decision to be independent was more important than the conversation (and flirting!) they'd have at the restaurant.

I love when a story surprises me, and the characters start to speak for themselves. I think it's usually a good sign that the story and characters have depth. I'm not just putting them through the motions. Here is a snippet of the scene I wrote that surprised me:

It wasn’t a date. She knew that. Of course she knew that. She wasn’t for one second imagining that Henry was interested in her. He was taking pity on her, for heaven’s sake, and pity was one thing Alice knew all too well.

She’d been pitied all her life. Pitied or ignored, and in all truth Alice didn’t know which one was worse. She didn’t want either, and she realized she was dreading this dinner because she didn’t actually want Henry gently instructing her on which forks to use or ordering for her because she so obviously wouldn’t know what to order herself.

She could see it all so clearly—Pretty Woman or Pygmalion—she’d read it for GCSE—it was all the same. The rich, sophisticated man telling the clueless girl what to do. How to feel. Introducing her to a world she never could have experienced or even found on her own, and then smiling smugly when she fumbled with the forks or marvelled at the taste of an oyster.

So now I've got to figure out what happens after they don't go out to dinner! Stay tuned. And in the meantime you can order the book here.

A new blog!

Well, revamped anyway. I've moved my blog from acumbrianlife.blogspot.co.uk, since I no longer live in Cumbria, and have restyled it a little bit. I also have an exciting new schedule for content, which is as follows:

Monday Meal: I'll share a meal with recipe, photos, and kids' reviews, that I've made this week.

Tuesday Treasure: I'll share a book I'm reading that I've enjoyed, or spotlight an author.

Wednesday Writing: I'll share a few lines of what I'm currently working on.

Thursday Throwback: I'll spotlight an older book of mine, with a possible giveaway.

Friday Photo: I'll post a photo from my daily walks or town life.

So hopefully there will be something for everyone, and it will be more interesting to visit with far more regular posts. So, to kick it off, I'm posting a few lines from my brand new work-in-progress, Marry Me at Willoughby Close, which is the last book in the Willoughby Close series and is out in July.  Here is the gorgeous new cover:

This story is a romance, but it is also about Alice James' journey to becoming a stronger, more independent woman. I've written three chapters so far, and am really enjoying how Alice is discovering her inner feistiness! Here is a snippet from the beginning, when Henry Trent is grilling her about being a companion to his aunt, Lady Stokeley:

Alice stared into Henry’s lean face with his bright eyes and straight nose and pursed lips and heard herself answering in a voice bordering on strident, “So I want to think about it for a moment. It’s a question I take seriously. The last thing Lady Stokeley should have is interrupted care.”

     Henry’s nostrils flared as he gave a quick, short nod. “A fair point, and yet you have already started your employment.”

     “True, but if I’m not mistaken, you are considering terminating it,” Alice returned, surprising both of them. She almost sounded bolshy. “So it’s worth making sure I want to fight for my cause.”

     Henry cocked his head, his gaze sweeping over her like a laser. “And do you?”

-->      “Yes.”

You can preorder Marry Me at Willoughby Close here. Stop by tomorrow for a Thursday Throwback and giveaway!

What I'm Reading and Writing

A few years ago I read Ann Voskamp's excellent and inspiring book, 1000 Gifts. It really challenged me to be thankful for the small and everyday things in my life, and I recommended it to many people. I was thrilled, therefore, to see that she'd written another book--and one that seemed to speak directly into my life. It's called The Broken Way and its subtitle is 'A Daring Path to the Abundant Life'. The essential theme is that we need to be emptied to be filled, we need to give to receive, we need to lose ourselves in order to be found. It's thought-provoking and poetic--Ann Voskamp's style takes some getting used to, as it is more stream of consciousness than straight narrative. But I'd highly recommend this book!

As for what I'm writing... well, I've already written it, but the second book in my Willoughby Close series is available for preorder. It's called Meet Me At Willoughby Close and it's about a Manchester single mum and an Oxford professor and their unlikely, funny, and heartwarming romance. You can preorder it here.

Inspiration all around

Our moving truck in New York City

For those of you who follow my admittedly sporadic blog, you have probably noticed that my family moves a lot. We always hope we'll settle where we land, but so far that hasn't happened. Since I got married I've moved from Cambridge to Yorkshire to Connecticut to New York City to Cumbria to the Cotswolds to Wales. Whew!

Starting over isn't easy, even when you're used to it. My children have all been in school a week and that feels like a relief. They are starting to know their way around and have made a few friends. The worst, I hope, is over.

One nice thing about living in lots of places is the inspiration I've found in each one. Most of my books are set in places I've lived, whether it's my women's fiction such as This Fragile Life (set in New York), my Tales From Goswell series (set in Cumbria) or one of my Christmas novellas such as A Yorkshire Christmas (set--well I'm sure you can guess).

Next month I have a new series coming out set in the English Cotswolds. I only lived there for a year but I was inspired to write about the beautiful village and countryside where I lived, as well as the interesting mix of people--London transplants and old farming families, and how they all managed to get along. A Cotswold Christmas is the first book in what is The Willoughby Close series, set in the entirely-fictional-but-a-little-bit-based-on-reality village, Wychwood-on-Lea. You can preorder it here.

In the meantime, I am trying to get to know my new surroundings, a small, friendly market town in Wales, built between two rivers, with beautiful, hilly countryside all around. Will I become inspired? Watch this space...