I am delighted that my second book is going into the US. Especially because this is one of my favourites. I’m totally intrigued to see how it goes down over there. There’s a lot going on in this one and I haven’t got enough room on my website to list them all.
I will warn you – I start off the book with a heart attack.
Yes, folks. At the beginning city-big-noise Lew Harley thinks he’s heading off to the clouds in the sky and when he recovers, he realises that it’s time he lived out his dreams before it’s too late. Lew has always wanted to run an antiques shop. So he relocates and buys one. But his knowledge is limited and he needs help.
Along comes Bonnie Brookland, a woman who knows a LOT about them. She isn’t having a great time, trapped in an awful marriage that she can’t leave, unhappy, lonely. She is a godsend to Lew because she brings a whole host of colourful antiques dealers through his doors. It isn’t long before Bonnie finds herself having feelings for Lew, not that she could ever declare them because Lew is married. But it makes Bonnie realise that she has to leave her own marriage and risk her world exploding due to something she did in her past that is being held over her head to keep her ‘in line’.
It is a story of friendship and community and love… and antiques and there are some quite harrowing threads in it, so be warned. But hopefully there are some parts of it that will make you laugh too. I particularly loved writing about Patrick and Regina, what a pair they are. And I also had to work quite closely with a solicitor for this one.
There’s also quite an emotional part about a lion in the book because I HAD to put it in, based on a family I knew in Barnsley – my hometown. In the 1970s, a local scrapyard dealer was fed up of getting his yard broken into and he’d heard about someone with a pet bear that put robbers off (yes really) to guard it. He couldn’t find one, but he did find a lion cub for sale. So he bought it. – Ben. The lion used to lie on the rug in his house and watch the TV, he would take it out in his wagon. He loved the lion dearly and was heartbroken when it died (at the hands of a stupid vet), But yes, this really happened. The neighbours could all hear the lion roaring. And it did, on occasion, get out and the neighbours found it walking down the road and had to get hold of Dennis – quick. All true.
So I do hope that America takes Lew and Bonnie and ‘The Pot of Gold’ to their hearts. Do let me know if you enjoy it (better still write me a lovely review on Amazon, that would be FAB!)
Oh… and do I believe that ‘Wishful Thinking’ works? Absolutely. Once upon a time I was a wannabe writer with no connections in the industry, no training, just a dream. But, I could imagine it happening, so I went for it. And I made it happen. So there you go.