My latest book, In Another Life, is released a week today. Release days are always a strange beast; it's both a terrifying and exciting event. I love thinking that another story has flown the nest and is out in the wide world but then I'm filled with the nervous expectation of hoping people like it.
I had a lot of fun writing Marie's story, mainly because it draws inspiration from two of my favourite things; the movie, Pan's Labyrinth and the TV show, Once Upon a Time. It explores how we could all potentially be the stars of our own fairy tale without even knowing it.
To give you a little taste of what's to come I've posted the start of the story below. Like what you read? You can pre-order the book for £0.99 and have it promptly drop onto your kindle next week (on Friday 13th ominously, lol).
And if you like the book please let me know by way of a review online as they truly do make a huge difference and are greatly appreciated!
Hope you have a great weekend whatever you're doing and that you enjoy the start of In Another Life -
The unusually bitter
October wind pulled at loose strands of Marie’s hair as she walked briskly
along the busy pavement. Checking her watch she noticed with a plunging
sensation in her stomach that she was already running five minutes late.
“Damn it,” she cursed
aloud as she tried to increase her walk from brisk to fast. Her high heeled
shoes clipped manically against the floor creating a sharp staccato soundtrack
to her commute.
With as much speed as the
six inches of her stilettos would afford her, Marie descended down from the
pavement and the ominous grey clouds overhead into the underbelly of the city
and the tube railway system.
Despite having lived in
London for almost eighteen months Marie still struggled to accept the
infiltration of her personal space each time she rode the tube to work. People
would push up against her as though she were completely invisible. She’d learnt
to use her bony elbows as a weapon against the more persistent of intruders.
Clutching her handbag tightly to her chest she boarded her train, moving with
the same militant precision as the commuters around her. Everyone seemed to move
with such urgency, as though their very being depended on boarding the waiting
train before them.
As the train surged in to
motion and swept the passengers deeper into the city, Marie dared to remove one
hand from her hand bag to wipe wearily at her eyes, careful not to smudge the
mascara she’d barely had time to apply.
Marie was tired. The
previous night, like all the nights before, the twenty seven year old had
struggled to sleep. She lay awake, anxious, as though she were waiting for
something though she had no idea what.
It took twenty minutes for
Marie’s train to arrive in central London. Not quite long enough to remove her
Kindle and delve in to the latest fantasy novel she was reading. She thought
about the story as she looked forlornly out of the train windows. Endless miles
of nothingness sped by. She missed travelling through the countryside and
looking out and seeing endless fields of luscious, green grass. Marie Schneider
was a city girl by necessity, not choice. She’d grown up amongst trees and
fields not sky scrapers and stop signs.
Every morning as she stood
on the tube she wished the same thing; that she didn’t have to go to work that
day that instead she could stay home and read and get lost in another world.
“You spend far too much
time with your head in books,” her mother would note with disapproval.
“Reading stories won’t get
you anywhere,” she’d add callously. Marie would just roll her eyes. Her mother
didn’t understand the magic which existed within a great story. She was too
pragmatic, existing only in the moment. But Marie dared to dream bigger. She
always secretly harboured the belief that she was meant for great things, that
her destiny would somehow be wondrous.
Yet as she stepped off the
tube and an overweight man in a suit already covered in sweat pushed a little too
close up against her Marie realised she was hanging on to her romantic notions
of a better life with a very thin thread.
“Excuse you!” Marie
exclaimed as the man peeled himself off her and headed towards the escalators.
He didn’t so much as turn back and offer an apologetic glance.
“Chivalry is so dead,”
Marie muttered to herself as she straightened her blue dress which was adorned
with patterns of white tipped daisies. Checking her watch she realised she was
still running late, so taking the briefest moment to tuck back any loose
strands of hair which had wrangled themselves free of the bun at the nape of
her neck Marie headed out of the tube station, back up to the surface.
Emerging in to the dim
light of an autumn morning Marie squinted slightly, feeling momentarily as
blind as a mole squinting up from the ground. She could scarcely afford even a
second to get her bearings. Her boss, Amanda Pickens loathed tardiness almost
as much as she loathed those who opposed her right to wear real fur.
When Marie finally pushed
her way through the glass doors of the office building where she worked her
cheeks were flushed and a slight spattering of perspiration had formed upon her
forehead.