VBT# - The Brat - Sherry Gloag

 Today readers , is my first book tour with Goddess Fish Promotions http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/ and Im proud as a reader to promote today Sherry Gloag and her book "The Brat". Sherry has kindly given s a quick blurb of her book and an excerpt into the life of "The Brat" as well as written readers today @ The Phantom Paragrapher- a beautifully written guest blog post.

                                         
                                     Synopsis of The Brat- Sherry Gloag- September 2010


Gina Williams is a 35-year-old famous children’s author, who also writes detective mysteries under the name of George Williamson.

She was robbed of her childhood when aged ten by the late mother of the hero, Ben Kouvaris.

When he was ten-years-old his mother sent him to her ex Theo Kouvaris, multi-millionaire, who lives in Greece. When he returns to her funeral he is haunted by the beautiful woman who organised the funeral.

When his father orders him to marry he thinks of Gina Williams.

They have to overcome the horrors of the past and forgive their parents for their betrayals. Will their past destroy their future?

                       
                                                              Author Guest Blog Post :
                                                        “Do you remember when she sent you and Paul off to the beach?” Ben’s laughter ran loud and clear at my expense. “Did the woman really think she’d get to keep that scene in the book?” he added, casting a merry glance in my direction. Ben may be the hero in The Brat, but did he have to be so scathing about the first draft of that chapter? I clamped my teeth shut, and waited.


“Be gentle with her, Ben,” Gina responded. Her compassion warmed my heart, where Ben’s laughter had me cringing.

I couldn’t deny he had a valid point.

It is generally accepted there are two main types of writers. ‘Pantsers’ and Plotters. I am firmly in the first camp, with the teeniest smattering of the latter in there when I read the end of a chapter. But in the case of the now phantom beach scene, I had to accede Ben had a right to laugh. The scrapped scene was, indeed, cringe-worthy.

Oh, it carried plenty of information about Gina’s compassionate spirit, her need to help others, her loyalty, but none of that moved the story forward.

On the contrary, it stalled the story completely.

So why did I include it if I knew the consequences of retaining it? Well, at some level I thought the information might carry it through.

When I discovered my error, I did what I usually do when I get stuck. I opened a blank page and just started writing. On this occasion I did not create the alternative scene – that came later. Much later!

Instead I ended up with a scene, included in the final edition of The Brat, which could stand alone as a short story.

This scene started the day after Ben took Gina home from a friend’s party when she all but collapsed from a migraine. Gina visits her hairdresser. On each visit the stylist asks Gina whether she wants her hair cut, and she declines. On this occasion two gossiping women enter the salon and it becomes apparent a photograph of Ben entering her home the night before is on the front pages of all the tabloids. Fearing recognition, Gina demands that the startled hair-dresser cut her hair.

This may sound trite but it’s full of wit and a warped kind of humour at the gossips’ expense.

Sometimes, while searching for that elusive, phantom comment, or scene, letting go and free-writing will reveal little gems that might never have surfaced during a normal writing routine.

My little ‘free-writing’ forays started during my first NaNo experience, (National Novel Writing Month) and I’ve found them fantastic releasing tools.

Ben may scoff, but I changed that abysmal scene he laughs about and created some powerful revelations.

What about, you ask?

Why! Ben, of course!

 

                                       Excerpt from "The Brat" - Sherry Gloag - September 2010
                              
The Brat - Excerpt One - Page One




From the shadow of the ancient yew tree, Benedict Kouvaris observed the two people standing at his mother’s graveside. The clergyman’s voice carried on the still air, as he intoned the funeral rites for the woman who’d sent him to another country on his tenth birthday, two and a half decades ago.

He thrust his anger and confusion beneath the surface of his consciousness and focused his attention on the elegant Armani-suited woman, whose blonde hair contrasted with her black suit and concealed her face from view. The wind sighed through the branches, and the man beside him shifted from one foot to the other. “Who is she?” He raised an eyebrow in query.

“Miss Williams, sir.” His mother’s solicitor, Mr. Cranborne, cleared his throat. “She cared for your mother for the last five years.”

The clergyman bent to lift a small clutch of soil, which he threw into the open grave. His action was replicated by the woman.

And who, Ben wondered, was Miss Williams?