It feels like a life time since I released Retreating to Peace. The book was released on the 19th January 2018, which means we’re celebrating 7 years of Devan Raaj Coultrie.
For me this a big deal, a lot has happened since that release. Two more books followed, adventures to the US as well. Not to mention the writing, directing and release of a short indie film.
Writing Devan was a risk, and he brings with them adventure, courage and ambition. I think he’s contributed to my growth personally as a human, as a writer. I still have to make sure I count director as well. I worked with an amazing crew in writing him, then making the film. Lots of lessons were learned, there was a lot of development that might not have happened.
The 19th of January will always be special. I mean, Devan does have a birthday; some time in march. But this was the day his Universe was unleashed.
Keep an eye out next week. The Devan Coultrie Saga will be on offer on kindle.
The Devan Coultrie Saga Collection from the Peace Novella Series
19th January has a special place in my diary, on calendar. It is the date whereby Devan Coultrie was released into the universe in Retreating to Peace: A Peace Series Novella.
My second piece of non-fiction, but my first foray into the world of writing romance. There was a bit of romance in Fragments, but not a great deal.
I joined the Peace Novella Series group. Our task was to write stories based upon the fictional town of Peace, Montana. The town, a brain child of fellow author S.H. Pratt. The idea of romance appealed. Especially having written Fragments. I felt as though I had something left in the tank; I fancied writing something different. There were rules, a contract; not a problem. A novella, sweet, fade to black etc. All sensible stuff.
I inked up my fountains pens, I cobbled together a plan. I was literally making it up as I went along.
Who was this fella? Devan Raaj Coultrie, a former hedge fund manager who was born and raised in Rugby, Warwickhire. He was heart broken, a bit of a rebel and wanted to start again.
On the other side of the universe. He would be the centre of his 100 acres in Peace; he was going to a big hitter and perhaps wear a tux. There’d be a bit of South Asian Culture in there. No way, no how. Was this fella going to hit all the boxes on a Romance Writers trope bingo card.
He wasn’t going to be the average male romance book character.
And man alive. I read a few by of preparation. I worked my way through a fair few Mills and Boon’s. I looked at the data. There were very few male characters of South Asian origin. Many were feckless playboys, who were fly-by-nights, who left broken hearts, and sometimes babies in their wake. Oh, and would drop their kit at the sight of a heaving bosom to rip bodices. There was some aristocrats, royalty, you get the idea.
We didn’t yet have Hooch Baron.
Plus, as a therapist, I tutted, rolled my eyes at the traits that these fellas had. There are far too many for me to critically evaluate and assess with the application of therapeutic modalities and theories in this post. Alas, this made me think.
Devan Coultrie, was not going to be a door handle. He would also keep his kit on. Mostly.
The women in his world. They’d be different too. They too, wouldn’t be the conquests, the trembling bottom lip….tokens of characteristics. There’s Aditi, Avni, Aida…that’s a lot of A’s. Oh,and his sister-in-law, Libby. They would be present, realistic and of value. They’d have an authenticity to them, and not the typical ‘brittle’ quality that is so common.
Funny thing though. Aditi gets some interesting reader reactions.
Remember, how I mentioned the Peace Novella Series. Well. I did something. I met them, a few of them. In….drumroll….MONTANA. Now this is the stuff of romance. Who, because of a fella, books an adventure, takes a flight….erm. Me.
S.H. Pratt, or Stef! Created, hosted the inaugural Big Sky Book Event in Billings, Montana.
Let’s have a bit of flashback right here
“Why write books sat in Montana?”
“Why not?”
“Have you been, do you plan to go there?”
“Sure, maybe. Why not? I mean, never say never. This is me. I got to Reykjavík and back.”
And, back to the present. I went. Because of Devan Coultrie.
I met Stef, Ariel, Jenn and Susan. In 3D. And we were the Peace Novella Series Authors. I heard the radio jingle that mentioned the international contingent. Jenn, bless her, looked at me. “That’s you!” she said. I nearly fell to the floor.
I’ve done a fair few interesting things, because of Devan Coulrie.
There was the book launch in the Gunmaker’s Arms, as Storm Dennis raged.
Storm, bloody, Dennis.
I will never forgive the British Weather and because of that one night.
The Gunmakers and Devan, have history. Way back when, I stood near a pillar during a reading event. I read Costume Drama. That is where Britain met the hooch Baron.
I was petrified that day. I even had Lee Benson and Martin Tracey roped in to read. JA Media had the mic’s, the PA. I read from all three Devan books. Yeah, by 2020, there were three.
This was proper, Vive Le Hooch Baron.
It gets better. JA Media is a big part of the Devan Coultrie Journey.
Somewhere in between the two 2020 lockdowns. I volunteered to make a film. JA Media planned to work with local authors, to make films. Only, it would need a script. Human beings too. I taught myself how to write a script. We then needed a cast.
JA Media and I, had to find them. The human beings that would be Devan, Aditi, Mike the Barman….we needed locations.
We found Devan. There was a lot of stress. I mean, who wants to work on something that’s a huge leap, and for free? There was no budget for this. Then, with the magic of social media and also A.A.Abbott sending out a re-tweet.
Habemus Une Devan.
A certain Vimal Korpal, was cast. He’d be donning the Dr.Martens.
The Dr.Martens. The minute he put those on. I didn’t keel over; I was leaning against a wall, clutching my director’s folder. There it was again.
Habemus Une Devan.
Vive le hooch baron
I will never forget Vimal uttering Devan’s lines. I was only just able to stay say on my chair-I didn’t have my bond villan chair at that time. Oh, and the grin! He had Devan Coultrie’s grin.
The Hooch Baron. That was him, the other side of zoom.
That’s hard to wrap your imagination around. The fella who for years has been inside of a book, inky squiggles. Was all very real. Then came the rest of cast, the crew. Through the magic of the Universe. We had a cast/crew. Make Up Artists, Production assistants.
Even Ruby the dog was part of this experience.
We shot the movie. Over three days, during the highs and lows of the pandemic. Through, around everyone’s real life, real job commitments. There was rain, snow, heat waves…..samosa chaats, pizza and of course, biryani.
I had to conquer my fear of motorways to edit the movie with JA Media.
I’ve danced around the Bond Villain chair to the Devan Coultrie Theme tune. That’s a nice feeling.
There was the big, whoop do moment of releasing the poster. I knitted that hat….
As I write this, I am days away from the fifth anniversary of Devan Coultrie going live. It’s been an interesting five years.
Without Devan, his saga and the Peace Novella Series, a lot might not have happened. I’d probably still be avoiding motorways, to be honest.
Not sure yet when the movie comes out. It will. I promise. In the mean time, go read the books.
The Devan Coultrie Saga, with it’s three parts, from the Peace Novella Series. He leaves Rugby, a broke-hearted man, to land in Peace Montana. His past catches up with, and Devan’s life changes in interesting ways.
Gorbind and Padmi have anything but a simple, straight-forward romance. Their family are involved for one.
Fragments, gave us a whole universe! But it started with six interlinked stories about loss. See how Gorbind and Koby came to be.
Behind The Scenes has characters as you’ve never seen them before. As well short stories inspired by Birmingham. Also contains the Battle of Gravelly Hill, as a bonus.
Winter is a good time to consider your garden. What might you grow, what could you then cook in your kitchen? How to grow things, how to make chutneys, jams and jellies; learn from my mistakes and see how easy it is to grow your own fruit and veg.
This year has been a busy year for the books and I. As well as the assortment of stops on the Book Odyssey-from Telford to Montana-there have been three releases since last Christmas.
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 counted down since November, it is now nearly time. Time to formally launch the third book in the Devan Coultrie Peace Series Saga. Time to formally launch it all in the middle of the United Kingdom.
Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?
Three years ago, I became involved in the Peace Series of Novellas. A group of more than a dozen authors, all writing stories set in the fictional town of Peace. Montana.
Montana, somewhere in the American Mid-west.
‘Punam, have you even been to Montana?’
Not yet, but hold that thought
Anything is possible.
Having scanned the shelves of the Mills and Boon’s in a library in Warwickshire, I felt a little perplexed. Well, intrigued, actually. Whilst the shelves all contained pure-fantasy, where are the books that had characters of South-Asian ascent? And, was it really necessary to have a cover where there was a bare-chested fella, woman in lingerie and the central premise of country squires bodice ripping?
(Actually, there are quite a few rich millionaires, penthouse apartments, quivering lips, and some really strange gender politics. From lots of different places on the globe too, actually. Europe features quite heavily.)
I had questions, and lots of them.
I also had a book to write. I was trying to rise to a challenge; that of stepping outside of my comfort zone, I had just finished Fragments, there were two gardening books.
Retreating to Peace, opens with sheet fluke. Devan sticks a pin in the map of North America.
(This map does exist, long story.)
Devan. A dual-heritage former banker in the City of London, who used to live in Rugby.
The name bothered me. How to use an Anglo-Indian-esque name. He’s got some vague Scottish Ancestry; that was echoed in his surname. For six months, he was faceless. I didn’t have a clue as to what he might look like. I wrote him blind, in that respect. As a figment of my imagination, I wasn’t the one who was supposed to fall in love with him.
(Mates, maybe. I’d buy him a pint; perhaps tolerate him. We’d have a mutual acknowledgment of one another. I don’t think for one moment, he’d be within my universe, Oh, the irony….)
Sheer fluke. Retreating To Peace, was written trying to avoid the rules, the tropes. I sulked a the prospect of a Happily Ever After. Thankfully, S.H.Pratt, the Godmother of Peace, reassured me.
‘How about a Happy For Now?’ she wrote, in correspondence.
That, I could deal with.
Retreating to Peace, is experimental. I’m throwing things together, to not follow the rules.
A year later, I’d got a restless pen. Devan Coultrie had got his happy for now. But he wasn’t done. I’d written a few short stories; seasonal ones mostly. There was a massive great big Christmas Day one, a couple of Diwali ones. There was a world to be filled, created; jumped into to flesh out a life. I was also having fun; that helps.
Postcards from Peace, a collection of short stories, saw a year/eighteen months in the life of Devan Coultrie. His universe filled out, we got to see more of who he was, and the people in his world.
Most, if not all, of the stories in that book, are dedicated to the important people in my world. Some of them, have crept into the books, as muses, characters. They are immortalised, and probably haven’t a clue!
I still wasn’t interested in Happily Ever After. Happy For Now, was still the main motive.
Then I had a conversation, with a fellow Peace Author, Sandra Hurst. I had an idea, or she had an idea; I don’t actually remember. A huge light bulb went off, I remember giggling with some menace. Postcards from Peace, had a kicker.
The kicker, was Peace Betrayed.
Oh, my. How I wanted to smack the figment of my imagination. I sulked, he sulked. This book was a fight to write. For once, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do with the guy.
(I won’t give anything away, you’ll have to read it.)
Devan Coultrie’s story, was conceived to be different, to not follow the traditional tropes. In Peace Betrayed, there is character development, there are changes to a sense of being. There is also the underlining of the notion, that no, you don’t have to fall in love with characters. As with life, there are people you like, people you don’t; people, who you have no idea, as to what is going on in their heads.
Three years later; three books later. There is a book launch in the pub.
The Peace Novella Series is officially two years old. It feels as though it was yesterday, when the first novella-Songs of Peace- was released as part of an ambitious, dynamic and diverse anthology series. Sixteen authors worked together to build the fictional town of Peace, Montana.
Two years ago, we would have seen Songs of Peace, Love in Peace and what Peace Remains, go public. This Saturday, marks the anniversary of Reclaiming Peace.
Running from Autumn 2017 to Summer 2018, we saw the novellas release on e-readers every other week. It was an exciting time, in reading and collecting what felt like a whole Peace Library. This is a series where there truly is something for everyone.
My contribution was Retreating to Peace, and this arrived in January 2018. This year, a year and bit later, I published Postcards from Peace. The Devan Coultrie Saga needed to be continued. To be honest, with Postcards, there were more questions. Things were to develop a little further.
There will be a third contribution!
Slated for January 2020, Devan Coultrie’s Peace journey arrives at it’s conclusion.
Stand by.
There will be further details in the run up to Christmas.
Well, how about a few books, and to keep your thoroughly entertained?!
Set in the fictional town of Peace, Montana, there is a whole canon of novellas that will draw you into a world of riveting romance.
Written by an armada of different authors-me included!-there is something for everyone.
Most of the books are available from kindle, at less than a couple of quid for e-books. There are paperbacks too, and these are approximately a fiver a piece. Not bad really, for either an electronic library or paperback. If you have kindle unlimited, then I think some might be even be free to download!
Yep, I’m part of that armada. I have two runners and riders in the Peace stable. The first is Retreating to Peace, and we meet Devan Coultrie. Devan travels to The USA in something of a state, he’s after a new beginning and Peace is where he wants that to happen. Following on from that, is Postcards from Peace. Devan has settled into Peace, and here we get a snapshot of how his life has evolved.
If you fancy a copy of RTP or Postcards, the links are on the sidebar.
In Retreating to Peace, Devan Coultrie moved kit and caboodle to Montana. Before long, he was joined by Aditi Rao. Their history laid the foundations for a rosy future together.
Devan now calls Peace home and his life has become eventful.
This collection of short stories sees his family visit, his romance with Aditi develop further and his dreams in Peace blossom.
Devan Coultrie’s life in Peace is a picture postcard with more to it than meets the eye.
horticultural 'obbit 