Hullooo,
I am excited!! Without further ado I give you the cover for my upcoming novel Painted Faces, which is due to be published next month December 16th…
And the synopsis:
Wilson considers herself to be an acquired taste. She has a habit of
making offensive jokes and speaking her mind too often. She doesn’t
have the best track record with first impressions, which is why she
gets a surprise when her new neighbour Nicholas takes a shine to her.
white existence is plunged into a rainbow of colour when she’s around him. When he walks into a room he lights it up, with his quick wit and charisma. He is a travelling cabaret performer, but Freda doesn’t know exactly what that entails until the curtains pull back on his
opening night.
on, Nicholas asks her if she would like to become his show assistant. Excited by the idea, she jumps at the chance. Soon she finds herself immersed in a world of wigs, make-up and high heels, surrounded by pretty men and the temptation of falling for her addictively
beautiful employer.
jealousy, emotional highs and lows, and the kind of love that only comes around once in a lifetime.
I actually just finished writing this book last night, so read on if you’d like to hear me rant about my experience creating the story..
I have to say, this was actually the easiest and the hardest book I’ve ever written. It was easy because the characters had been in my head for at least a year, so when I sat down to write about them they gushed out of me like they were breaking free of a cage or something. And then it was the hardest because all through my writing I was continually second guessing myself. In a way this book doesn’t fall nicely into a genre the way my previous novels have, and this scares the hell out of me. All I can say is that it’s a romance, it’s emotional and it’s humorous (though don’t hold me to that because some people might not find it funny at all!)
So although the book deals with the subject of drag/transvestism, I wouldn’t classify it as LGBT fiction because the romance is male/female and the narrator is a straight woman, so it’s kind of like her standing on the outside of this world and looking in for a time. I’ve also worried about the hero of my story and how he might not appeal to a very large number of female readers. I’ve been saying over and over again that he’s not an alpha male, but then again he kind of is, just not in the traditional sense. He’s certainly the sexual aggressor in most situations that transpire within the story.
And then, after all of these worries,(and more, I won’t bore you with them all) I just said to myself, fuck it, this book is in my head and it needs to be written, so it doesn’t matter if nobody ever reads it. It can be that one book I have that nobody reads except for a select few uber-fans(not that I have uber-fans, – yet!) It was actually quite heart-breaking to finish writing the story because it’s a stand alone novel so there’s no coming back for the characters, and they are like my friends now that I have to say goodbye to. I know, I’m a sad little loser who makes friends with people she’s created in her head, I don’t care! I’m going to miss them so much.
Anyway, I’ve had one of my beta readers give me feedback on the book as I’ve been writing it, and she’s had nothing but enthusiastic, wonderful things to say which really has kept me going. Freda is my first ever Irish heroine, so she’s particularly close to my heart and I really want people to like her. All I can say is I’m nervous as anything to be putting this book out, hoping for people to like it and praying there isn’t a backlash of people hating it. I’ll just have to wait and see..
Bye for now, and thanks for reading!!
P.S If any book bloggers out there would like an advanced review copy email me at lhcosway@gmail.com and I’ll put you on the list:-)