Sarah's Gift began as a short story. I had recently finished the first four books in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.
At the behest of a good friend, who told me I could write something just as good, I put pen to paper and the short (rather long, actually) story of Sarah was born.
A few years later, I used Sarah's Gift for an assignment for a Creative Writing course that I took. With the help and encouragement of my instructor, I turned my short story into a novel.
Sarah's Gift is, as yet, unpublished.
View Trailer
The Anniversary, also began its life as a short story and is the sequel to Sarah's Gift.
In January 2007, while perusing the BBC Scotland website, I saw the advert for Write Here, Right Now. Being of a curious nature, I delved further. It seemed simple enough. Write 1000 words a day for the month of February. So I signed up. What I didn't know initially was that Write Here, Right Now was a themed project. Luckily for me, when the theme for 2007 was announced it was Romance! I would have participated anyway, but the daily e-mails were definitely geared to the romance genre.
During the writing of The Anniversary, I found myself writing erotica. I still maintain that my characters took on a life of their own and that's why I went in that direction.
The Anniversary is currently with a publisher. I live in hope of receiving good news.
View Trailer
Second Chances will be the third and probably the last in the Sarah Shand series.
I came up with the idea of having a helicopter ditch in the North Sea in this one. Well, if it didn't happen a short time after the idea popped into my head. Thankfully, everyone on that particular flight survived. Then, if it didn't happen again! This time in Canada off the coast of Newfoundland. The outcome this time wasn't good. To really shake me up, it happened a third time! Another chopper ditched in the North Sea with total loss of life.
A colleague told me I should write about winning the lottery and see what happens!
I'm hoping to complete the initial draft of this novel before the end of the year. Time will tell.
I signed up for the online 2 year novel course. Unfortunately, since signing up I've not had the time to dedicate to the project. At first I thought the idea would be my first foray into crime writing but now I think it will work quite well in the romance suspense genre. I guess I'll have to wait until I've got it written to decide.
I did manage to complete the first two assignments before more pressing duties took me away from it.
This is what I came up with...
North-central Lincolnshire is rocked by an early morning earthquake. What rocks the area even more is the discovery of the skeletal remains of a young University student, missing for twenty-five years. A post mortem on the remains indicates foul play and it will be up to Detectives Heather Park and Anne Vernon to solve the case.