A Life Less Lonely

Last time I visited Liz, my Toni Sands hat was tipped saucily over one eye. As Liz has kindly invited me to call again, wearing my Jill Barry hat this time, I’d like to tell you about my contemporary romance, A Life Less Lonely, published by Endeavour Press. 

Like many authors, I’m often asked where I find ideas or why I chose to write a particular story. In this case, I’d written Chapter One of a book original entitled Twice a Bride. I uploaded my work to the Mills and Boon New Voices competition website in 2012, rose to the top of the list, but didn’t progress to the next stage. That’s life! Certainly it applies to a writer’s life and I decided, having received so many lovely, positive comments about Chapter One, to write the full story of Andrea, young military widow. Sadly, we’re all too aware of the real life Andreas, forced to deal with the trauma of their late husband’s repatriation, often putting on a brave face in order to help family and friends cope.

Dr Andrea Palmer has a young son and I’ve also given her an elderly mum, whose increasing confusion causes concern. Before you reach for the Kleenex, there’s also humour and hope for the future in the shape of a fresh challenge involving a delicious consultant called Keir Harrison. Sparks fly. Of course. Keir has a broken marriage behind him. As for Andrea - well, I do hope you’ll download the book and see what happens.

I enjoy a challenge but writing about memory loss and problems many of us have to confront, all wrapped up in a romantic jacket could have been more daunting than it actually was. Fortunately my other half refused to pass me the smelling salts and gave me some insight into pharmaceutical trials though the book is more contemporary romance than medical. I also received valuable advice from a dear friend who for some years did the job which Keir’s PA does.

What next for Jill Barry? I’m delighted to say there’s a sassy, spicy contemporary romance, this time with two younger main characters than Andrea and Keir. Devilish Delights is scheduled for publication by Accent Press on 19^th December 2013. The title refers to a fictitious musical and the action takes place partly in an idyllic part of Wales and partly in London’s theatre land.

As I write, I’m waiting to hear whether my second pocket novel, Girl with a Gold Wing, is to be published. This one’s set in the 1960s and as the title suggests, has an aviation theme.

So thanks again for inviting me along, Liz. And thank you, followers of this lively blog, for putting up with me.

Love

Jill  x

It's always lovely to have you drop by Sandra/Jill :) and tell us about your latest projects.  Liz x

Here's an Amazon link to A Life Less Lonely
Follow Jill @barry_jill and @tonisands
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ELIZABETH OLDFIELD'S VINTAGE BABES

I first met Elizabeth Oldfield just as my third book, Instant Fire, had been published. A group of Mills & Boon authors had been invited to tea at the historic Brown's Hotel in Albemarle Street for afternoon tea, by the fabulous Charlotte Lamb. A very memorable occasion for a very new author.

We met in the cloakroom; I was trying to get my shaking legs under control, while she was so cool, so authorly. But then Elizabeth Oldfield was the author I'd been advised to read when my first Mills & Boon was turned down. She was the stellar author held out as an example...

Now, for the first time in several years, she has a new book. Not a straight romance, but a book for the baby boomer generation. A story to make us all realise that the first chin hair isn't the end of the world. Or having a life...

Here's Elizabeth to tell you a little about it.

After writing 40 Mills & Boon romances over 18 years, I retired from the romantic genre. I wanted time to relax, go travelling with my alpha male husband and, finally, to attempt a long-held ambition of writing mainstream women's fiction. VINTAGE BABES is the result.

Whereas a proliferation of chick-lit is targeted towards younger females, few books cater for the older women - yet more than 50% of women readers are over fifty. VINTAGE BABES explores the sometimes scary, sometimes comic business of being female and of 'a certain age'.

Carol - divorced, fifty-plus and a reporter on a small-town newspaper - has one grumble; the way friends and family will try to fix her up with a Mr Wonderful. No thanks! She's perfectly content on her own, free to wield the TV remote control and shave her legs in the bath with no-one bellyaching. Then life shifts into the kick-ass mode.

Jenny, Carol's meek plump housewife friend, is eager to find herself a job, but her husband disapproves. Can she summon up the confidence to do what she wants?

Tina, a glamorous, recently-widowed gold-digger has one major problem - she hates getting older.

When the three women work-out together with Max, an exotic personal trainer, all their lives are changed.


And here's an excerpt:

'OHOC, OHOT, WLTM a WOCA with GSOH. That'd suit you.'

I looked across at Melanie. 'I beg your pardon.'

'Own house, own car. Own hair, own teeth,' she translated. 'Would like to meet a woman of a certain age with good sense of humour for a long term relationship. Interested?'

'No thanks. And you shouldn't be logging onto encounter sites and printing out details in company time and at company expense. Eric may have let you get away with murder, but Mr Lingard would not approve.'

'He isn't here.'

'Makes no difference.'

If she had a spare moment and, I suspected, whenever she was left in the office alone, Melanie scanned what seemed to be a never-ending scroll of lonely hearts 'males eager to contact females.' When I had asked why a girl in her twenties should need to forage for dates in such a way, I had been informed that 'everyone does it.' I'd also been informed that there are specialist sites catering for vegans, poets and herpes carriers. Wow!

Courtesy of the net, Melanie had even gone speed-dating where, in the course of one evening and after sipping a free cocktail, the organisers had introduced her to eighteen members of the opposite sex and allotted her three minutes to talk to each. So much for romance! Whatever happened to old-fashioned courting?

Melanie had subsequently met up with two of the men and afterwards given me a detailed - too detailed- account of what had happened. While not wanting to go all the way on a first date and be viewed as 'easy', she had agreed to blow jobs. Crikey! In my youth, a lad would've considered himself fortunate if a girl had held his hand. Melanie had not, however, felt inclined to see either of the guys again. And vice versa.

'I am a well-mannered, healthy and intelligent businessman, looking for an older solvent lady who -'

'No!'

Melanie popped a Smint in her mouth. She sucks them continuously. ''Wouldn't you like to team up with a guy? There's a lot on offer for the silver surfer market.'
I stiffened. 'I am not a silver surfer.'

'You are nearly.'

I disagreed. To my reckoning, you don't rate as a silver surfer until you clock at least sixty and more like sixty-five. I was a long way off that. A mere chick. A funky chick, too. But I wasn't prepared to argue the point. Not with someone who regards thirty as 'past it'.

'What I wouldn't like,' I said, 'is to fix to meet a guy over the Net and find myself lumbered with a well-mannered, healthy and intelligent serial killer. Or rapist.'

Melanie rolled her eyes skywards. 'That is so last millenium. On-line dating is just window shopping. You chat for two or three weeks, then arrange a get-together in a public place. If you're sensible, it's perfectly safe. How about this one? JLFAS. Just looking for adulterous sex.'

I shuddered. I'm not saying my moral compass is superior to anyone else's, but I would never sleep with a married man.

'Spare me.'

VINTAGE BABES can be viewed at Accent Press or on at Amazon.

Question: Who is the woman over fifty whom you most admire - and why?

A signed copy of VINTAGE BABES will be sent to the provider of the most impressive answer.