Aug 3 2016

Happy Valley Pride Festival

Hebden Bridge will be host to a very special event next week and I’m proud to be part of it. I attended a volunteers’ meeting last night and came away enthused and excited about the whole thing.

The organisers have done a fantastic job of creating the Happy Valley Pride Festival and this is the inaugural event.

Information on the website

If you are in the area, please come along and take part. There are a series of fringe events leading up to the main day of celebration that takes place on Saturday 13 August.

I’ve volunteered to help out at the poetry evening on Thursday 11 August and although I don’t have any poetry to offer, I will very likely be able to do a short reading sometime during the evening. Also on Thursday I will be on hand at the Festival Box Office in the Town Hall, selling tickets and merchandise from 12 til 2.

Festival Day: Saturday 13 August

There are a lot of fun family-oriented things planned which will be free of charge such as a treasure hunt, pink dog show, plus a bake-off and cake auction – all taking place in the Town Hall where there will also be a number of stalls, and I will be there to sell and sign my books as well.

At 4pm, Peter Tatchell is giving a talk at the Birchcliffe Centre titled: The Unfinished Battle for LGBTQ Rights. Then on the Saturday evening it’s party time with the Happy Valley Pride Main Stage at the Trades Club –live music and DJs, also featuring David Hoyle and Huddersfield Ska rockers Wobbly Bob.

From 4 August to 1 September, the Happy Valley Pride Art Exhibition is available to view at Nelson’s Wine Bar showcasing a wide range of work by local artists.

That’s just a flavour of what’s happening. Please check out the progamme and see what catches your eye. If you can’t make it to the festival, there are two regular events that take place year round – the Happy Valley Pride Social Evening and the Happy Valley Pride Poets Society.

All good fun – with the aim of bringing the community together to celebrate just being who we are and being free to express that in so many ways, particularly through the arts.

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Where to buy my books:

The Circle Dance: Affinity eBooks /Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books/ Smashwords / Apple iTunes

The Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Arc Over Time: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Carved in Stone: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Jul 29 2016

Notes from Trouser town

I’ve just finished reading a fascinating book called Juliana by Vanda, which is set in early 1940s New York. The narrator in the story is initially a naïve young woman who doesn’t understand her attraction to a talented singer, Juliana, and fights the idea that she is one of ‘them’ – the pariahs that mainstream society then considered homosexuals to be. Still the case, I know, in many places now. But there was no public recognition at all back then.

Vanda’s portrayal of the times has been well researched. And I know I’ve read about it before – the time when women could be stopped by police and asked to prove that they were wearing the requisite number of items of women’s clothing. But in Juliana, the author really brings home the terror of just wearing trousers in public that could to lead to not just verbal and often physical abuse but also the threat of being imprisoned. (Read more about Vanda’s work here)

juliana

I was never subjected to abuse of this kind growing up as I did, mainly in Canada. At the schools I went to there wasn’t a uniform but girls were expected to wear skirts. In winter I would wear trousers to school with the understanding that I would change into a skirt when I arrived. However, I would try to get away with keeping the trousers on as long as I could.

The one time I was challenged about wearing trousers at work happened almost thirty years ago in London. My boss didn’t seem to mind that I wore trousers in the office. Then one day we were attending an event at Canada House and I spent an enjoyable few minutes conversing with the Canadian High Commissioner. The next morning my boss called me into his office and asked me if I was trying to make a statement.

I didn’t have a clue what he meant. He had to spell it out for me. It turns out he was enraged by the fact that I dared to talk to the CHC dressed as I was. I have no idea how I responded to this verbally but I’m sure the bubble over my head would have said, “silly old fart”, or words to that effect.

This was at the time when I had just started seeing the woman who is now my wife. I told her about my boss’s comment and that evening she came over to the office after everyone else had left. We took a great deal of pleasure in making out on his office floor. Thinking about that still makes us smile…it’s the little things…

Nancy Spain also came to mind when I was writing this. Rose Collis’s biography of her was called A Trouser-wearing Character. One of the stories told about Spain is that when she appeared on TV she was allowed to wear trousers as long as she was seated behind a desk.

If you’re wondering about the title of this blog, Hebden Bridge, near where I live now, was known as Trouser town. Mills in this area were famous for manufacturing corduroy fustian cloth. When considering a suitable installation for the town’s square, a large-scale replica of a fustian knife was eventually commissioned. The sculpture also serves as a giant sundial with the point of the knife facing north.

The fustian knife sculpture pointing North

History in the square

No surprise then that this year’s Hebden Bridge Arts Festival had a Trouser town theme.

The Jen Silver collection

Where to buy my books:

The Circle Dance: Affinity eBooks /Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books/ Smashwords / Apple iTunes

The Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Arc Over Time: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Carved in Stone: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Jun 19 2016

On Ilkley Moor…

This was a golfing week for me and my wife – playing four courses in six days. Three of the courses were in North Yorkshire: Rudding Park, Harrogate and Bracken Ghyll near Ilkley.

Bracken Ghyll has fantastic scenery all around with many of the views looking out towards Ilkley Moor.

brackenview

Just the name Ilkley brings to mind the well-known folk song, ‘On Ilkla Moor, bar tat’ – which translates from Yorkshire dialect into English as ‘On Ilkley Moor without a hat’. The song goes on to outline the dire consequences of being caught out on the moor without a hat.

I found a use for this song in my latest book, The Circle Dance. One of the characters gets stuck on the moorland above Hebden Bridge when a sudden mist comes down. Phoebe is a crime writer, but has recently branched out into sci-fi/fantasy. Her prospective publisher has suggested some outdoor research might help to inject more atmosphere into her story. Now, while Phoebe isn’t a particularly likeable character, I didn’t want her to die on the moor.

Excerpt from Chapter 8

The mist descended from nowhere. One minute it was a bright, sunny day, the next she couldn’t see past her outstretched hand. The words of the song came into her mind “On Ilkla Moor bar tat,” which ended badly for someone she recalled, dying and getting eaten by worms. And all because they were out on the moor without a hat. She had brought a hat.

Phoebe shrugged the backpack off her shoulders and felt around in the main pocket for the nice red woolly hat with a bobble on top. She’d bought it only the day before in one of the local shops, thinking it might come in handy. It wasn’t an item of headwear she would normally be seen about in. Hat on, she felt better. No point in dying for the lack of a hat. Now she just had to remember which way it was to the road…

…Phoebe leant back against the rock and wondered how long she could survive on the meagre ration of a single pack of Kendal Mint Cake. It tasted vile. Why hadn’t she brought a Mars bar? She struggled out of her boots and sighed with relief. She couldn’t have walked another step with her ankles protesting in agony. She tossed the offending items away. No point dying with her boots on. But she wasn’t going to die. She had a hat.

Bloody Philip Pearlman. “Bring it to life,” he had said. Ha. Find a stone circle, feel the power. What she needed was power all right. A powerful light.

Closing her eyes, she took several deep breaths. Stay calm. Stay in the zone. She’d read that somewhere. One of the self-help books she sometimes bought, thinking they would help. Help with what? Help being a better lover. Maybe that’s why Sasha was running after her ex. What did that computer nerd have that she didn’t?

Well, she wasn’t lost on top of a fucking moor for a start.

Maybe she could find some wood, start a fire. Oh yeah, she hadn’t made it through the first two Brownie sessions without wanting to nut Brown Owl. She was a little light on outdoor skills. She could write, however. Write a light, light a write. Shine a light, had she even remembered to bring a torch? A torch. A flaming piece of wood. With a torch she could set fire to the mist.

What was that bloody poem, one she had to learn in school? Oh yeah, that oft-quoted ode by Keats, “To Autumn.” She spoke the first two lines aloud, just wanting to hear her own voice, “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close bosom-friend of the maturing sun…” All she could remember. That and giggling with her best friend over the word bosom. They thought mellow fruitfulness was pretty funny, too. How old were they? Thirteen.

Survival techniques, books she should have read. It wasn’t too late—she could Google it. She poked her phone and the screen lit up. Her connection with the world, the world of safety. No signal. Damn, damn, damn! She was going to die up here after all. Her epitaph could say—at least she wore a hat.

That girl from Game of Thrones, Arya. She comforted herself in dire situations by reciting the list of people she wanted to kill. Phoebe started with Philip Pearlman, Jamie Steele, the girl in Year 5 who pushed her over in the playground and stole her ice cream—hell, she’d forgotten her name. Her list of real people was too short. She’d have to resort to the fictional characters she killed off in her crime series.

Maybe it was the mint cake. She was starting to see shapes in the dark. Sheep? No, there it was again, just out of reach. Dancing giants, forming a ring of light.

One reviewer said “The strength of this (story) is that whilst there is romance, the whole story is infused with a strong dose of reality. You can believe that these characters could exist and that life rarely works out perfectly, but it can get pretty close for some.”

If you want to find out how things work out for Phoebe, just check out the book links here.

Where to buy my books:

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The Circle Dance: Affinity eBooks /Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books/ Smashwords / Apple iTunes

The Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Arc Over Time: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Carved in Stone: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

May 13 2016

My Writing Time

When I’m working on a novel, my morning goes like this: out of bed by 6am or 6:30 at the latest (panic sets in if its later than that). Make breakfast for myself and my wife. This consists of putting together two bowls of oats, yogurt, banana, a few prunes, seeds, various dried fruit. I drink some orange juice while I’m doing this. We make our own coffee. I like proper coffee dripped through a filter, she likes instant (yecchh!). How did we ever get together, you may well ask?

That morning coffee

Take coffee and breakfast bowl into the living room, sit in chair, glasses on, open iPad. Quick scan of emails and Facebook. Open up newspaper app. Read a few articles that interest me and then look at the weather…endlessly fascinating for anyone living in the British Isles. As we live in the middle of the country, it’s often wrong.

After washing up my bowl, spoon, coffee mug, filter, I pour myself a large glass of water and go upstairs to my office. Resisting the temptation to have another look at Facebook, or maybe a peek at Twitter, I open up my writing program, Scrivener.

Usually I will have had some thoughts on waking up about what I think is coming next in the story, which scenes I need to tackle. If I’m lucky, the day before I might even have added a few notations into blank scenes with the name of the character so I have a clue as to what I was thinking then. Better still, I might even have made some notes in the notebook I have for the novel.

Distractions, other than social media…glancing out of the window I watch the young man across the way getting ready to cycle to work. He’s a bit OCD about it, taking a long time to check and double check everything. Then the neighbor whose garage backs onto the lane directly across from my window opens her garage door and I gauge by her clothing what her activity is… gym, golf, picking up her mother to go shopping.

Back to my own screen and a new blank page. I need to get into the head of this character and describe what happens next in the story.

The man with the bike is almost ready now. I know the signs. He’s locking the side door, checks it once, twice. Goes to the back of the house and checks the patio door is locked. Back to the side door, puts his cycling gloves on, carefully. Checks again to make sure the side door is locked and gets on his bike. He’s gone, so now I can get on with writing something.

My goal every day I’m working on a novel is to write one thousand words. This mostly works and generally averages out over the week if I miss that target for the day.

The closer I get to finishing the first draft, the more this writing time gains in importance. I’m monitoring my word count, checking the chapter lengths, wondering if the title makes sense now that I’m near the end of the story.

Mugs for writers

Five hundred words on the page. I finish my glass of water. Go downstairs to make another coffee. The cat next door is staring out of a bedroom window and follows my movements with inquisitive green eyes.

Sometimes the words flow, sometimes they don’t. I remind myself that no one is making me do this. It’s my choice to sit in front of a screen and try to put the words one after the other on the page. But when I’m not doing it, I miss it. So I need to make the most of my writing time and enjoy the process.

Is it time for another cup of coffee yet? It’s a nice day, maybe I should go for a walk.

The canal in Hebden Bridge

Books by Jen Silver

The Circle Dance: Affinity eBooks/Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books/ Smashwords / Apple iTunes

The Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Arc Over Time: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Carved in Stone: Affinity eBooks / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Mar 21 2016

Flood thoughts

I haven’t said much about the flooding that affected the whole of our valley and others. On Christmas Day 2015 the rain started to fall and it continued through the day into the evening, the night and the following day – and will now be forever remembered as ‘the Boxing Day floods’.

The village of Mytholmroyd, little known to the outside world, was suddenly headline news.

The water on the left is usually a small brook flowing peacefully a good ten feet below the level of the road, on the right is the road.

We were away at the time, ironically, in the ‘Lake District’. They’d already suffered from heavy flooding with ancient bridges being swept away; people having to make big detours for what had once been short journeys. Watching the waters rising on the news reports, we knew that our house would be safe, but so many just a few hundred yards away, were inundated with floodwaters of biblical proportions.

Mytholmroyd, the name – according to one of my sources – means ‘the meeting of the waters’. It is, in fact, where the Turvin River (now called Elphin or Calder Brook) meets the bigger Calder River that runs through the valley. Through the course of the valley there is also the canal that runs between Manchester and Sowerby Bridge. Too little, too late perhaps – dredging operations are now taking place in the canal. The river is also heavily silted up.

dredging

Some businesses have recovered well. The local independent bookstore in Hebden Bridge, The Bookcase, had their grand re-opening last week. They had no insurance, having been completely flooded out in the summer flood event of 2012. Through the help of their landlord, friends, the community, and generous book donations from well-known authors, they are now back in business. Others haven’t fared so well. There are many shop premises and houses still empty, stripped back to the brickwork, under floor cavities exposed.

Time stands still

The church tower in Mytholmroyd is symbolic, I feel, of the extent of the catastrophe. The clock stopped at 11:30. And it hasn’t been fixed yet. The congregation of St Michael’s church has to meet in the local cricket club’s pavilion for their services.

wall_fall

One of the public houses in the village, the Shoulder of Mutton, isn’t likely to re-open until the summer. The collapsed wall behind the car park has yet to be repaired.

building_fall

The main street through the town has a gap, like a missing front tooth, where one of the buildings fell into the river. Fortunately those premises had been vacant for some time.

The valley will recover. It will take time but the surrounding hills have a timeless quality that permeates not just the landscape but also the consciousness of the inhabitants. We will endure!

If you want a flavour of the area, before the floods, take a look at my latest romance, The Circle Dance – set very much in the heart of the Calder Valley in Hebden Bridge.

Ebook links for The Circle Dance: Affinity eBooks/Amazon US / Amazon UK / Smashwords / Apple iTunes

Chapter One of The Circle Dance is available to read on the Affinity eBook Press website.

Ebook links for The Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Arc Over Time: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Carved in Stone: Amazon US / Amazon UK

(All three books are available on Kindle Unlimited)

Feb 26 2016

Introducing The Circle Dance

Returning home from our holiday in Tenerife, it was straight into editing mode for me. My next novel, The Circle Dance, is due out in mid-March.

I’m very excited about this one. It’s completely different from The Starling Hill Trilogy books. Be prepared to meet new characters embarking on a rollercoaster ride of emotions as they experience numerous ups and downs in the course of the story.

The action takes place in northern England, mostly in the market town of Hebden Bridge, with forays into the city of Manchester. Most of the characters are in their mid to late forties so you would think they might have settled down by now. But, as often happens in real life, the path to true love isn’t always strewn with rose petals.

circle_final

One of the main characters is a keen cyclist and Irish Dragon Designs has done a fine job of depicting her on the cover with a very English-looking village in the background.

This is the short version of the synopsis:

Jamie Steele has moved to another town trying to forget the heartbreak of losing her lover. She now has a low paying job as an IT technician, lives in a rented room, and mostly failing, at the forgetting part.

Ivana Spencer is introduced to Jamie over dinner at her friends’ house. She can see herself falling for Jamie, but Jamie hasn’t got over her ex, Sasha, and perhaps never will.

Sasha Fairfield, finds her thoughts taken up with her ex-lover of six years and thinks she wants Jamie back. But given the acrimonious nature of their breakup will Jamie want to even talk to her? After all, Jamie lost her home, her job, her car…and most importantly, the cat…all at the same time.

Follow this captivating romance as love dances through the lives of these women to its surprising conclusion.

Chapter One is available to read on the Affinity eBook Press website.

Book links for The Starling Hill Trilogy:

Starting Over: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Arc Over Time: Amazon US / Amazon UK

Carved in Stone: Amazon US / Amazon UK

(All three books are available on Kindle Unlimited for the next 2 months)

Sep 10 2015

September is here and winter is coming!

It’s only the first half of September but it feels like the end of summer. And what a summer it has been. The trip to New Orleans for the GCLS conference was the main feature. That was quite a week. The impressions and experiences will stay with me for some time – probably until next year’s event.

On Saturday I’ll be taking part in a much smaller, but no less significant event. The Hideaway Café in Urmston (Manchester UK) is holding an inaugural Lesbian Authors Festival. This is the line up:

Andrea Bramhall 2:15pm

I Beacham 2:25

Cari Hunter 2:35

Michelle Grubb 2:45

Break: 3:00-3:30

Jen Silver 3:30

Karen Cambell 3:40

Veronica Fearon 3:50

As I’m reading after the break, everyone will probably have filled up on cake and won’t be paying me much attention. This is only my second public reading – the first was at the aforementioned GCLS where I almost lost my voice halfway through. Maybe, fortified by cake, I will get through this one without choking.

Homemade salted caramel cake from the Hideaway Cafe

As well as preparing for this event, the editing process for my next novel, The Circle Dance, has started. It’s due out in February, published by Affinity eBook Press. This book features a different set of characters from the first two but is still set in the same part of the country where I live. (An excuse to show another photo of the canal near Hebden Bridge).

Boats moored on canal near Hebden Bridge

It’s also been a busy time for reviews. Last week the Wilde Times Tavern website posted a review of my debut novel, Starting Over. And this week, they put up an excerpt from the sequel, Arc Over Time.

Wilde Times Tavern review and excerpt

Although it’s called a ‘quick review’, the reviewer goes into some detail on what she liked and didn’t like about Starting Over. I was pleased that, although she didn’t like Robin to start with, after finishing the book she thought Robin was the character she would most likely want to take home.

Earlier this week I was also interviewed by the wonderfully talented Clare Lydon and you’ll need to tune into the next episode of the Lesbian Book Club on My Lesbian Radio to hear the result of that – which will be sometime towards the end of the month after Clare gets back from sunny Spain (at least she’s hoping it’s sunny). Check out Clare’s previous interviews here: http://mylesbianradio.podbean.com

So, that’s enough about me. Hope you’re all enjoying sorting out your winter wardrobe for the months ahead and snuggling down with a good book.

Arc Over Time – available from Affinity eBook Press /Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk / Bella Books / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords / iTunes

Starting Over – available from Affinity eBook Press / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Bella Books / Smashwords / iTunes.

Mar 13 2015

I sold a book today – and this is news – why?

Because, of all the cafés in all the world, I chose to walk into this one at eleven o’clock in the morning. Taking a break from writing, I had just popped in for a small cappuccino. Only one customer was sitting at a table across from the counter and as soon as I came in asked, ‘What do you think of men?’

Only one answer occurred to me in that moment – ‘I don’t think of them.’ The two young women who work there laughed, nervously.

It turned out there had just been an incident with a man. The female customer, a visitor from the US, had asked if he could read what was on the monthly newsletter that advertises what’s happening in town. The print is so small on this paper that I’m sure no one can read it without a magnifying glass. Obviously he couldn’t, so one of the girls told him to put his glasses on. And he went off on one. Very loudly. Telling her, with appropriate exaggerated hand gestures that she shouldn’t be putting him DOWN, she should be building him UP. And then he stormed out. It turns out he works there and his co-workers weren’t at all surprised by his behaviour.

However, as a result of this the American woman was declaiming that ‘Men are the new women’ – which is all very well as a catch phrase – except that I feel it’s an insult to women.

Anyway I started chatting to her, asking where she was from, who she was visiting. Then she said how she liked Hebden Bridge because it was full of artistic types. She asked me what I did and for the first time in my life (in a public place anyway) I said, “I’m a writer.”

“Oh, wow! What do you write?”

As it happened, a paperback copy of my novel was sitting on the café bookshelf. They have selection of books that customers can either read with their coffee or buy to take away and I had donated a copy of Starting Over for this purpose. So I found it and gave it to her to look at. Then I sat at the table next to hers and we talked some more. She said she would like to buy my book and I was able to tell her that it was available from the bookshop across the road.

After we’d paid for our coffees, and she asked another customer take a photo of her and myself with the staff, we went across to the shop. She bought my book and I signed it for her.

Outside on the street we hugged and said goodbye.

I walked back home in the sunshine and thought about this unexpected encounter and the joy it brought into my life. I hope reading my book brings some joy into hers.

Feb 28 2015

Black Pit Lock

This bench, created by a local sculptor, faces the Black Pit lock on the canal where it passes through Hebden Bridge and when I first saw it, I thought the horses must represent pit ponies used in coalmines. It turns out, however, the ‘black pit’ refers to the meeting of the Calder River and the Hebden Water. In full spate, the area where the two rivers meet creates a powerful churning mass of water and the impression of a bottomless ‘black pit’ below the surface.

The canal plays a large part in the life of the valley even though it is only pleasure boats that now use the vast network of waterways that were once the main transport links for industry. Unfortunately by the time building work had finished on the canal system, road transport was taking over.

The Rochdale Canal runs through the Calder Valley starting in Sowerby Bridge and ending in Manchester, winding its way for 32 miles across the Pennines. The towpath that was once used by the horses pulling the heavily laden barges, is now the province of ramblers, dog walkers, joggers and cyclists,

Black Pit, Lock number 9, is located in the centre of Hebden Bridge at the Hebden aquaduct, a rather spectacular piece of nineteenth century engineering enabling the canal to pass over the top of the two rivers. (This link on the Canal River Trust website gives a graphic depiction of the meeting of the waters here.)

Even though I have lived here for twenty years I’m still learning about the history and the heritage of this place. Still an ‘incomer’ in many ways. My depiction of the town in my stories probably differs from that of the true ‘natives’ but it is how I’ve experienced it. I love it and each walk I take along the canal offers something new to be appreciated.

Now for the plug:

Starting Over, my debut novel published by Affinity eBook Press, is set in the hills above Huddersfield and also partly in Hebden Bridge. Please visit the other sections on the blog for links to reviews and outlets for purchasing the book.

Dec 28 2014

Love me, love my cat!

Finding different ways to promote my book is quite a challenge. So I decided today to let you know – in case you haven’t read it yet – that there are two cats who feature in Starting Over. The cats are called Soames and Fleur. Fleur is the mother of Soames (just to mix things up a bit – Forsyte Saga fans will appreciate this). She’s a tabby cat and is more active than Soames, the ginger one, who can generally be found resting on top of the Aga cooker in the kitchen. I imagine he looks something like this:

Here’s a quote from the novel featuring the two main characters and Soames:

“Ellie was in the kitchen, sitting at the table, Soames sat contentedly on her lap enjoying the sensation of her fingers stroking him; long, leisurely strokes, starting at the top of his large ginger head continuing down his spine and caressing the length of his tail. Both Ellie and the cat had their eyes closed, but only Soames was purring.

Robin watched from the doorway. Lucky Soames. It had been a long time since Ellie had stroked her with such tenderness.”

So, come on, cat lovers – get the book and start reading!

Starting Over is available from: Affinity / Amazon / Bella Books / Smashwords