Her Name Was Rose - Guest Post

Her name was Rose. You watched her die. And her death has created a vacancy.



When Emily lets a stranger step out in front of her, she never imagines that split second will change her life. But after Emily watches a car plough into the young mother – killing her instantly – she finds herself unable to move on.



And then she makes a decision she can never take back.



Because Rose had everything Emily had ever dreamed of. A beautiful, loving family, a great job and a stunning home. And now Rose’s husband misses his wife, and their son needs a mother. Why couldn’t Emily fill that space?



But as Emily is about to discover, no one’s life is perfect … and not everything is as it seems.




Guest Post:

One of the most common questions writers are asked is “How do you come up with your ideas”?

There is no clear, defined answer unfortunately. For any of us who have spent days or weeks, or even months trying to find the next idea to stick for the next book, it would be really handy if we had a go to method for picking what our next book will be about.

The truth is, you never really know when inspiration will strike or what will fire off an idea that you can take and transform into 90,000 words of a novel that will grip a reader.

Over the years, different things have inspired my stories. My own experiences of Post Natal Depression inspired my first novel Rainy Days and Tuesdays. A real life love story I reported on during my journalism career inspired The First Time I Said Goodbye. My grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s inspired Still You.

There were elements of real life experiences in all my women’s fiction books. But it’s a bit harder when it comes to finding ideas for thrillers. Thankfully most of us would have found ourselves under threat or under the control of a twisted individual!

But sometimes a kernel of a story can kick of something very different. When it came to ‘Her Name Was Rose’, there were a number of ideas that came together to make me sit down and put pen to paper.

First of all, the opening line ‘It should have been me’, popped into my head and wouldn’t go away.

Secondly I’d noticed how social media had become a very public way for people to express their grief, particularly after a tragic death and how people increasingly used the likes of Facebook to write messages to the deceased expressing their sorrow.

At the same time, I knew that Facebook and all other social media isn’t really real. They are showrooms for our actual life. We show people the good things, the happy memories, the days when we look at our very best, when we are being the best friends, mothers, partners and people we can be.

Quite often there is something very different going on behind the scenes of what we choose to share with people.

It has taken “keeping up with the Joneses” to a whole new level as we battle not only to have what others have, but to be as happy as they are.

The pressure to be happy, and grateful is immense.

So with those ideas in mind, I came up with the characters of Rose – who has the picture perfect life – and Emily, who craves it more than anything.

From there a story of intrigue and twists and turns followed and the ideas kept coming. Sometimes I would see an interaction between people and be inspired. More often than not the idea for the next twist would come to me while I was doing something really mundane like taking a shower or walking on the beach.

And now I’m preparing to start writing another book and waiting for that moment of divine inspiration to get me back at my writing desk.

All ideas welcome!