Another Day in Paradise

Several years ago, my Aunt, knowing my affinity for both the UK and a great television series, sent a text over to me that read…

“You HAVE TO watch The Five, on Netflix! You will love it!”

She knows me very well, so, there was no reason to think twice about viewing it and when I did, I made very short work of it’s 10 episode run.

Her prediction that I would love it was accurate, in fact, I couldn’t get enough. I loved the compelling characters, the story, the pacing and, in this case, the English setting.

Unfamiliar with his work at the time, I saw the “Harlan Coben’s…” at the front to the title and proceeded to watch anything else that was available to watch.

SAFE

The Stranger

Stay Close

Gone for Good

Hold Tight

With each viewing deepening my enjoyment and appreciation for Harlan’s writing style, I knew that it was time for me to find the written words.

In 2022, just before a beach vacation, I found The Woods at a local independent book shop.

I read it in about a day and a half, only stopping to sleep, eat and have an occasional chat with my Mom/Dad about how much fun it was to read.

Thrillers are very much my genre of choice for reading, so much so that my first novel, perhaps series, will be one.

There is something about the mixture of suspense and a fast pace that is a bit addicting to me. I like to feverishly turn pages and feel a sly smile form on my face when something clever happens, hear my audible chuckle when a moment of levity breaks the tension and challenge my own levels of deduction.

The way HC writes is the perfect satiation for my appetite for the genre. His settings are immersible yet able to meet the reader wherever they may be (as in written in suburban America but easily translatable to England, France or wherever else it may be adapted to for TV) and his characters are interesting. I get introduced to them, their story begins to unfold and then I HAVE TO know what happens. It’s as simple as that!

For the past two years, my beach vacation reads have started with a Harlan Coben title.

A beach read, for some, might be a romance, a memoir or something else lighter and breezy, like the surroundings.

For me, however, no matter where I am and no matter how many different directions my creative mind can take me, something always goes “bump in the night”, leaving a deeper set of questions to be answered.

Many a morning, whilst people watching from the balcony, I have made a writing prompt out of the early morning beach walkers, typically telling one sentence of what their story might be. There is always more that comes to mind though, especially by the end of a day and that process is what ultimately let me know that I HAVE TO become an author.

The road here has been long and even my faithful friends have grown tired of the joke “I could write a book about…” and have insisted that I actually write a damn book!! Yeah, having a ready made support system has never been the issue…I have, lol!

Thankfully, several books about the craft of writing, from well established authors themselves have served to show me that “the voices of doubt” never leave, no matter how successful one becomes.

I am in exceptional company!

And, at this point, I can either live in misery with all the stories in my head, doubting them at every turn OR I can do the work of writing them down, setting us all free…because either way, they aren’t going away on their own 😉

I am exceedingly blessed to have loads of people that support me in this endeavor of becoming an author and I have found an added bonus in discovering that the authors I enjoy reading, also, indirectly, support that endeavor.

Authors LOVE to/need to read, so, why wouldn’t they want to see more new content in the world!?

Reading Harlan Coben books has greatly added to my desire to see this whole thing through. From the moment I read the first page of the first book, I felt like he was sitting in front of me, telling me a story…not a superfluous, masked filled tale…an authentic story, even down to the way he brings modern music into it, especially the way he brings music into it!

This past month has been filled with the most amazing synchronicity when it comes to all of the things I mentioned above.

BBC Maestro unveiled new writing courses from well established authors and HC is one of them. His advertisement says “what’s my goal for this course? It’s to completely change your life!”. I believe that he means that so much, I’ve become a student!

I am currently 4 lessons in and I know that I’ve made the right choice in starting with his course. We’ve have many differences, I am sure, but we are kindred in what inspires us he’s already made me feel like my process doesn’t need a restructure, I just need to get busy doing the work! Haha, that pill is getting a little easier to swallow!

Last Thursday, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting the man himself at a stop on his Think Twice book tour. Though I am not yet familiar with the series he wrote this book for, I wasn’t going to give up the opportunity to catch him while he was in my state.

Dear Readers, I have to tell you that Harlan exceeded every expectation I had of him and I am so pleased to be able to tell you that. In a world where ego could have taken over, HC, was as down to earth as a New York Times Best Selling author could be and FULLY connected with the audience, which we all appreciated.

It was extra special having already started my courses with him, as a lot of the things he shared about his process where things I was already privy to and I just sat back and smiled 🙂

I wasn’t 💯 sure there would be a meet & greet after the event and I really was honestly content with the third row fan vantage point BUT he graciously did do one…AND…my heart was overjoyed!!!

There isn’t an ounce of poise in me when it comes to sharing my heart. I often present a face cracking smile, accompanied by my hand over the heart chakra and tear filled eyes. Harlan held space for that and in all of the unhurried atmosphere, I was able to tell him how much I appreciated him without taking up too much time!

It was extraordinary!

The entire evening as a whole was an aspiring author’s dream! From the intimate (but packed) theatre, the noted appreciation from the audience, a poster sized book cover and again, an intimate meet/greet line, it gave me so much to look forward to.

The best part was knowing that it’s Harlan Coben’s 36th book and he was just as excited about the process as I am sure he was the first one!

Now, I really have to believe that the best time for me to arrive at “author” are in these moments, when being fully present is all there really is because I don’t want to miss a thing!

Thank you all for being a part of this ❤