New book on the horizon...

Hello again!

If you have heard any of my talks, you will know that I am compelled to write according to which characters shout the loudest to attract my attention. That's why I am now working on a new book entitled Saving Grace.

Grace is a young girl who is torn between her parents as the adults struggle to cope with their disintegrating marriage. The story is told from her perspective and is darkly comical. I think you are going to like her a lot.

Here is the very first page of Saving Grace. If you enjoy it please take a look at my other books.

N.B. Split Decision will be out in March.

The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons, The Plan and Ascension will follow shortly.

Chapter 1

 

 

The rain slashed at the window pane, thick tears of anger streaming down the glass before running off the window sill to puddle on the ground outside. Grace turned her face away from the crying window and closed her ears to its wet misery.

“Well maybe it isn’t YOUR fault but it isn’t MINE either you know!” The shrieking voice had a quiver at the end which tugged painfully at Grace’s heart.

A momentary silence followed, during which the continual cry of the rain seemed to become deafening. “No it’s never your fault, is it? That would just be ridiculous.”

Even heard through the closed toilet door she could hear his strident tones, full of sarcasm.  It was a funny word – sarcasm. She had learned it only last week during an English lesson. What had struck her at the time, was that she had always been able to recognise it in his voice, she simply hadn’t had a name for it. Now she did.

It was a shame to use such a pretty sounding word for such a vile meaning. Perhaps that particular tone of voice could have been called ‘I’m being nasty but pretending it’s funny’ instead, or inpif for short. His voice was hard and brittle, his sentences so sharp and cutting, she almost couldn’t remember the soft tones and rounded words of so long ago.

Grace stood rooted to the spot, hands outstretched in the bathroom sink. As if hypnotised, she watched the water swirling over her soapy fingers, washing away the suds and the dirt together, making no distinction between one or the other, rinsing her free of anything and everything.

Sometimes she wished she could do that with her whole life… just rinse it clean away. Gurgling, the water swirled away and down the drain, the sound so much like laughter it made her wince. It was a sound which lived only in her memory.