At last. Koby Anand appears to have it all. A good job, a beautiful wife. A family that would do anything for him. They have been with through thick and thin. They help him stay standing.
Koby has been broken, bruised and in both physical and emotional pieces. His road to recovery, hasn’t been easy. The road he travels, is about to get bumpier and then some.
This automatically made me thing of Behind the Scenes. The first third of the book at least.
The first third of the book is a compendium of Flash Fiction that relates the to the Fragments Universe.
What is the Fragments Universe?
Well, it stared with the book of the same name. Fragments, a book based upon a grief model that had six inter-related stories. There have been subsequent spin-offs; Kangana for one, as well the Gorbind Phalla Novelette that is The Battle of Gravelly Hill Interchange.
This selection of flash fiction is a behind the scenes peek into the lives of fictional characters. What is it, that they get up to when they aren’t clogging up my fountain pens.
We have Gorbind, Padmi, Devan Coultrie as well as Hades,Lord of the Underworld and the vampire, Lady Aurelia. Some of them, are established characters from fountain pens. Aurelia and Hades are waitig in the wings.
To be honest, Aurelia and Hades have two interesting stories in Behind the Scenes. Aurelia’s a business woman in the eighties, with Hades visiting The Women’s Hospital where meets The Angel Gabriel.
They both have respective works in progress sat next to my desk.
Aurelia also has a second book, that involves werewolves and a cabal of vampires.
When it comes to flash fiction, there is a second volume to be worked upon and developed. We see more of Gorbind and Padmi, which might be rather interesting.
Whilst Tolkien was inspired by Sarehole Mill, I’m at a loss to identify other pieces of fantasy, apocalypse or such drama to be set in the West Midlands.
I mean, why do aliens, zombies and creatures otherwise unspecified go to other geographic locations?
Why shouldn’t Birmingham not be a backdrop?
Please don’t get me wrong. I love Birmingham; Brummie Born and Bred. I am not tempting fate, being disparaging. Not in the least.
Working with Author city for the book event anthology, I picked the theme of a city of a thousand trades.
And chose to marry that with Dragons.
Here we have ten short stories that see Birmingham become home to some rather interesting creatures.
Writing assorted characters is rather fun, to be honest.
Imagine though, what they might get up to when I’m not trying to write them.
Behind the scenes contains three different things.
First, an insight into the lives of the characters that I write, beyond my ink pens and my imagination.
Second, there are short stories inspired by the City of Birmingham. We have some historical romance with Lady Eleanor. A counsellor-there’s a surprise-romance in Digbeth. There’s even a space ship!!!
And what might happen, if Hades Lord of the Underworld came to The Women’s Hospital.
Second, GORBIND!!! Gorbind and zombies. But hold on. I’ll tell you about that in abit.
This was a book-of a few- that I wrote as the world started to get to grips with global pandemic. As such, it’s got a little bit of everything in there,
What started with Devan Coultrie moves on with Gorbind Phalla
(Gorbind is my favourite. Please don’t tell Devan)
I’ve not come across many romance books with characters of South Asian Origin. I felt that there was something missing. In all the mills and boon’s that I would walk past in the library, there was something missing.
As with Devan. I decided to do something about it.
This is a sweet romance between Gorbind Phalla and Padmi. A romance that integrates family dynamics and cultural experiences.
Yes, Gorbind is my favourite.
I might date a Devan-get my heart broken in the process-but I’d marry a Gorbind. Or try to, at least.
He is also my attempt to broaden out books, add characters from diverse backgrounds. Tell stories that might not otherwise get told. He like Devan is a slightly different male lead for a romance.
He started off a bit-part character in Fragments, and he continues to grow.
You’ll see how, in the rest of the book breakdown.
There are three books, and a movie currently in editing that help us understand who he is.
A former hedge fund manager from Rugby, UK who flies off to Montana, USA to start a new life.
He sticks a pin a map, and off he goes.
Devan Coultrie was my first foray into Contemporary Romance. I grew frustrated with the lack of South Asian Characters in books that I was reading. There were also so many not so savoury tropes in these books. So I decided, with the help of the Peace Novella Series Authors to create one.
Start with Retreating to Peace, where we meet Devan. He’s about settle in the fictional town of Peace in Montana. He’s all for a new beginning, and has a bruised heart.
He then settles, his life get busy with Postcards from Peace. It all seems okay, with the odd bit of drama thrown in,
Then, things take a turn, and we have Peace Betrayed. Devan does things that might stretch our love for him.
Now, I mentioned a movie!!
Yes, a short film is in the works. Devan Coultrie is Unwell is currently in Editing. The exact mid-point of the Devan Coultrie Saga was shot and developed last summer/autumn.
WE HAVE A VERY REAL DEVAN COULTRIE!
There is also a real Aditi Rao.
More news on that later. In the mean time, go read the books!
Having made a foray onto non-fiction, I took a turn and into fiction. I was going through my Counselling Training and also had experienced bereavements. This was part of that interesting journey.
Loosely using Worden’s tasks of grief, Fragments is six inter-linked stories about grief and bereavement.
As a society, we don’t tend to talk about such thing. Very often, we sweep such experiences and the emotions associated with them under the carpet.
This is a book about the human condition, about human stories. There is love in there, loss but also the human ability to change, develop and grow.
The writing journey started with this blog. Recording my journey on the allotment was about learning from mistakes, about sharing the experiences with others and generally to keep developing myself.
This was a learning curve. How to write a book, taking the photos. Making a start on something, where I had no idea where it might go.
The first book was Playing with Plant Pots; Tales from the Allotment. Or, The Yellow one! This has bits pulled together about what I had grown on the allotment and then recipes based upon that produce.
The second is Sow, Grow and Eat. Whilst there is still some allotment and growing information in there. This concentrates on jams, jellies, preserves and chutneys. I mean, when you have that many courgettes. You have to work out what to do with them!
These books were written to demystify gardening, debunk some myths. Above all, they aren’t perfect. These are books to start gently with the gardening and to have a support hand guiding you. That, and you can also eat what you grow.
horticultural 'obbit 