BEHIND THE SCENES OF A HARLEQUIN ROMANCE....

If you've seen me anywhere on the web this month I've pretty well established that my clever husband helped me come up with the initial idea for the book. We were sitting in front of the telly watching Cocoon - you know the old eighties movie with Steve Guttenberg? - when clever hubby said, why couldn't your hero and heroine meet when he finds her secretly swimming in his pool?

Light bulb!!!

So then all I needed to do was trawl google images for the photo of the perfect pool…

Dear readers, I’d like you to meet the pool house…

Hud cricked his neck, pressed his hands into the tight small of his back and glanced upwards to find brilliant red bougainvillea creepers seemed to have swallowed half the long building, leaving the hundred odd remaining white-framed glass panels that had survived the tests of time, thick with dust and mould. He could only hazard to guess how foul the inside might be after not having been blessed by a human touch for a good ten years.

‘If memory serves correctly...’ he said out loud, the sound of his voice raspy and deep in his ears after hours of non-use. Then he made his way around the back of the building to find the door was ajar, at an odd angle, askew on rusted hinges, as though it had been yanked open.

Instinct born of years spent stepping unannounced into dark, secret places he stepped quietly - toe to heel - over a small pile of worn broken glass and inside the pool house where his feet came to a giveaway scraping halt of boot soles on tessellated French tile.

The pool house was clean. The mottled green tiles around the margins sparkled and the dozen white marble benches were spotless. Miniature palm trees in plant boxes edging the length of the room were luscious with good health. And the water in the pool shimmered dark and inviting against the black-painted concrete bottom.

A sound broke through Hud’s reverie. A soft ripple as water lapped gently against the edge of the pool. And he was hit with the sense that something was about to break the dark surface.

Cruel spot to leave you right??? Well, you’ll have to buy the book to find out what happens next!!!

Next week I’ll talk you through the evolution of my hero and heroine with more thanks to google images!!!