Getting It Right This Time

Happy Monday to everyone! My special guest today is Rachel Brimble. Rachel, welcome. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work, please.

I live in the beautiful Wiltshire countryside in the UK, just a half an hour drive from the historical Georgian town of Bath. I am married with two young daughters and love reading and walking when I’m not writing.
I am published in romantic suspense, contemporary and historical romance with three different publishers. You could say I like variety! I am fortunate enough to only have to work part-time so when I am not taking the kids here, there and everywhere I write – the housework is often an afterthought…or panic when someone is coming for a visit!

Sounds like we have the same views on housework. What event triggered you to become a writer? Any major inspirations?

I’ve always wanted to be a writer since about the age of eight. First of all, my dream was to be a journalist but as I grew older, I knew my real love was fiction. Once I started reading the Sweet Dreams series (remember them!) in the eighties, romance became my calling. It wasn’t until about six years ago that I started writing with publication in mind.
My first novel ‘Searching For Sophie’ was accepted by The Wild Rose Press in 2007 – I was thrilled!

My goodness! The Wild Rose Press published my Purple Heart in 2007. How many manuscripts did you submit before you were published? How did you feel when you got “the call”?

See above – Sophie was my first completed novel and the first publisher I queried accepted it, yay!
The ‘call’ came in the form of an email and I must have read it at least half a dozen times before it actually sank in that the editor was offering me a contract. But once it did? It was party time! Starting with my husband and me dancing around the kitchen and ending with a friends/neighbors and family book launch on our front driveway a few months later. We had a fabulous day with loads to eat and drink – and I sold thirty copies of my book, happy days!

Very happy! What’s the very best thing about being an author?

For me, it’s receiving the book covers, lol!! I love that part. But on a less shallow note…I’d say creating the characters and find that moment when you see them changing into better people and then great people when they are finally in a committed relationship with the hero or heroine.
I love romance and being paid to write stories has to be my dream job. Long may it continue! Although the way my current work in progress is going, I think I might be stuck with this one for a while…

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Keep writing, keep writing and never stop believing in yourself – I truly believe writing is a craft to be learned rather than a god-given talent. Anyone can do it if you have the discipline and tenacity to understand rejection comes, bad reviews but they are all just one person’s opinion. Believe in yourself…always.

Excellent advice, Rachel. Would you share your links with us so we can find you on the web?

www.rachelbrimble.com
www.rachelbrimble.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/rachelbrimble

We’d love to read an excerpt from your book. Be sure to give us a buy link.

Getting It Right This Time

She's back, but this time she’s a mother…intent on protecting her young.
Two years after her husband’s death, Kate Marshall returns home seeking security and stability for her three-year-old daughter. But when her path crosses with ‘the one who got away’…her husband’s best friend, she has to fight the desire to be with him for the sake of further heartbreak for her and her daughter.

A tough, straight talking theatrical agent, Mark Johnston is dangerously handsome, exceedingly rich, irresistibly charming – and branded by the tabloids as one of the UK’s most eligible bachelors. So even though Mark lost the girl of his dreams to his best friend, he finds no hardship in being single. Or so he thought.

Determined not to lose her a second time, Mark has to find a way to convince her they can work. But can Kate cope with the media interest and ruthless, money-hungry clients surrounding him, being anywhere near her daughter? Or accept that Mark Johnston is really the family man he claims to be?
http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_25&products_id=296

Excerpt

“You came.”

She lifted her eyes to his. “Didn’t you think I would?”

“No.”

“Oh.” His gaze lingered over every inch of her face, and Kate’s cheeks warmed under the soft study in his eyes. “Aren’t you going to sit down?”

He started as though remembering where he was. “You look beautiful.”

Her heart lurched in her chest as Kate forced herself to keep her eyes on the clear hazel of his. “Thank you. You don’t look too bad yourself.”

He smiled and reached for the menu. Once he was sufficiently engrossed, Kate picked up her own menu and opened it like a shield. But she didn’t read the offerings, instead she used the advantage to surreptitiously check him out. Peering over the top of the leather-bound pages, her gaze wandered over the charcoal gray suit, the open neck collar of his snow-white shirt and the casual style of his newly washed hair. He looked up and she quickly looked at the menu.

“Do you know what you want?” she asked quickly.

“I knew exactly what I wanted years ago.”

She snapped her head up, the menu slipping from her hands. His unwavering gaze burned straight through her skin and flesh to her very center. An intense heat flared behind her breastbone and between her legs simultaneously. She opened her mouth but no words came, and the only sound stretching between them was her pathetically feminine struggling gasps of breath. She couldn’t take her eyes from his and knew he would recognize her shock, her confusion…and worst of all, her desire. His fingers lightly touched hers.

“Kate, I’ve wanted to see you for so long…”

“Yet you never contacted me for five years.”