Driven Press would like to announce that our upcoming release
The Maddest Kind of Love
by Christine Hillingdon
by Christine Hillingdon
to be released on 14 August 2016, is now available for pre-order.
Blurb
When Carissa and Jaye fell in love, it wasn’t their time. She was planning a wedding and he was already married. Now, twenty years later, they find each other again, but he is planning a funeral and she is married. Cyberspace becomes a confidant to Carissa and Jaye’s staggeringly honest emails about themselves. Things they’ve never shared with anybody. And despite everything, Carissa falls for Jaye all over again.
Their affair is renewed, fraught with guilt and the dangers of being caught. This time it’s so different. Cancer, menopausal sex, and getting to know each other is frustrating, exciting, and exhausting, both mentally and physically. Life is more complicated. Is this the right time?
Excerpt
AS I QUEUE in line at the
post office with half a dozen precious copies of my newly published book, I
begin to reflect over the last few years ...
So much has
changed in my life. The most significant is being diagnosed with breast cancer
in 2010. Add to that a marriage that has by one means or another dwindled down
to the mere sharing of a house, maintaining a social life, and travelling
together. The latter providing the inspiration for my published work of
non-fiction.
It has been
many years since intimacy has had any part to play in my life. I don’t mind
this. Don’t want to encourage reconciliation with Nathan in that area at all.
We sleep in separate rooms. Nothing wrong with that. So many couples do, it
seems. I have violent night sweats; he snores. I am a light sleeper; Nathan
sleeps through thunderstorms and nearby house alarms going off!
There is
nothing bad in this marriage. More sad really; sameness and complacency. I
experience nothing sexual towards Nathan these days. I love him in every sense
of the word—but that.
To sum it up
in one-line: There is nothing there
anymore.
Add to that
my self-loathing for what now lays under my clothes. My plasticized, deformed
numbness.
I am almost
at the post office counter. Two more people in the queue, and then I’ll be
there. I check for the umpteenth time that the books are sealed properly inside
their padded bags, the addresses are all correct, and that my details are on
the back.
This is
particularly important in the case of Jaye’s copy. Twenty odd years ago we were
madly in love, having a wonderfully romantic affair. I had already begun living
with Nathan at the time when Jaye first entered my life. Yet, things felt
simple, straightforward, in spite of beginning an affair. Yes, I felt a bit
guilty, but the two men in my life were both so easygoing and totally
unconnected to each other. Life as it was at the time flowed along. My wedding
plans with Nathan were not immediate. It was something we were planning a
little way down the line. All very low-key stuff.
Eventually
the affair with Jaye ended in an uncomplicated way. It simply died a natural
death, and I moved on. No dramas, no pain, no worries.
Jaye, a
fellow writer, was lucky enough to have a book published during our time
together. His free copy, presented to me carefully signed, resides on my wooden
bookshelf at home.
Now, I am
sending him a copy of mine. A gift in return for receiving one of his all those
years ago. What was between Jaye and I is long gone. I hold no regrets and no
lingering impressions. My book is simply a gift to a man I once knew.
---
The Maddest Kind of Love is available for pre-order
from the following vendors:
Apple
B&N
GogglePlay
Kobo
Pre-order special
$3.99
Limited time - ebook only.Author
Christine Hillingdon was born in England and migrated with her family to Adelaide, South Australia in 1963.
She has been writing since school days and received a highly commended prize for a short story in her final year of high school. Since then she has had many short stories and poems published in a variety of literary magazines on and offline. Christine has won a few competitions along the way, including Poems for Passengers. This was a joint initiative between TransAdelaide and the Department for the Arts and Cultural Development, South Australia.
She has been writing since school days and received a highly commended prize for a short story in her final year of high school. Since then she has had many short stories and poems published in a variety of literary magazines on and offline. Christine has won a few competitions along the way, including Poems for Passengers. This was a joint initiative between TransAdelaide and the Department for the Arts and Cultural Development, South Australia.
In 2011 Christine self-published a book through Peacock Publications about her twenty-seven years working as a psychiatric nurse at Hillcrest Hospital, South Australia. In May 2016, her children’s book titled The Girl From Far Away was published through Gnome On Pig Productions.
Her first novel of women’s fiction, The Maddest Kind of Love, is through Driven Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment