Today I'm delighted to welcome my wonderful RNA pal, Catherine Miller back to the blog. It's literally years since she's visited so this catch up is long overdue! Her new book, THE GIRL WHO COULDN'T LEAVE is out now and today Catherine is sharing some insights into the inspiration behind the book. Hello Catherine!
Lockdown Inspiration?
Even though my new release, The Girl Who Couldn’t Leave, is about someone staying at home, the idea came about before we were all in lockdown. My publishers wanted a second synopsis ahead of my contract last February and the initial idea was called Six Yards From Home. I liked the concept of someone never going further than their front garden, but managing to find love anyway. It was partly inspired by a poem my mum wrote at school and when I was a teenager she told me the part she remembered. It’s included at the end of the book as I felt this completed that poem.
Little did I know that after the idea was approved, we’d all be living in our very own version of the plot! I’ve said a few times that I’ve heard of method acting, but this is the first time I’ve undertaken method writing.
The truth is, being in lockdown did help to steer the storyline. It gave me a much greater understanding of what a person might do in those circumstances. Fiona and Bethany even have their own in-out nights, which without home events becoming popular, I might never have thought of.
I think authors and editors have had to face difficult decisions as to whether to include the circumstances of covid in contemporary novels. My editor and I decided not to, but the circumstances actually gave the book so much more meaning and I hope readers enjoy Fiona’s story and find it as cathartic as writing it was.
It’s been 1,825 days since Fiona Dexter last set foot outside 14 Wellington Drive.
Five years ago, something happened that changed Fiona forever. Now she is too afraid to walk beyond her front gate.
It’s not the life Fiona had dreamed of but she has made it work, finding happiness in the safe routine of her days. On Mondays she treats herself to a glass of Chardonnay. On Tuesdays she has a working lunch at her desk (usually peanut butter on toast). On Wednesdays and Thursdays, she alternates spinning classes in her shed with yoga in the garden. Saturdays are for tidying up and Sundays are for relaxing in her favourite armchair.
But today is different. Today, her perfectly planned Monday is suddenly interrupted by a knock at the door and a stranger on the other side. Someone who could change everything.
Now Fiona is faced with an impossible choice. Is she brave enough to open the door? And if she does, will it set her free from her past or close her off from the world forever?
To buy the book click the link in the post!
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