There were a few hitches along the way and I needed to learn an awful lot in the process, but - Bingo! - 77 is up and running. It is available through Amazon as a Print on Demand book. Now I must learn the gentle art of marketing: not, I must admit, my favourite pastime. It uses up good writing time.
Those who read my first book, The Presence, a Memoir of Miracles, which was not fiction, may be surprised that, in 77, I have written a number of explicit sex scenes, no holds barred. And while most would perhaps describe 77 as a romance, I prefer to call it a love story. 'Romance' is, for me, a word all to often associated in fiction with glitz, glamour and exotic surroundings. 77 is set mainly in the terraced streets of a Midlands city. It takes detours through Paris, London and Edinburgh. Whatever, it is a story of the deep and abiding love between two people. It is a love story.
The two protagonists are David Andrews and Kate Harper-Jones. At the start of the story they are 17 and 35 years old respectively. He is a repressed 6th form grammar school student, she an ex-teacher and a mother of two separated from her husband. The development of their relationship, with some emphasis on the long and painful process to maturity suffered by David, is the main theme of the story.
Adolescent trauma and its long term effects, rejection, bitterness, forgiveness, humour, horror and self-sacrifice all find a place in the unfolding plot.
Let me here be brutally honest. From start to finish 77 has been written with an eye on on its appearance on screen. Film makers and TV producers please note.
