Delighted to be joining the blog blitz today for A Rock ‘n’ Roll Lovestyle by Kiltie Jackson, now available for Kindle from Amazon. Subtitled “A Christmas Romance”, I’m really hoping I can get round to reading and reviewing this one before the big day itself, but if I can’t it’ll be lovely to extend the festive season into January a little!
So who exactly is Sukie McClaren? A Christmas-loving Cat lover? A Sound of Music Fanatic? A Fiercely Independent Woman?
She is all of the above. And when she is sent to Salzburg for a business trip a few weeks before Christmas, she thinks all her dreams have come true. As she packs her suitcase, the only things on her mind are Christmas markets, lots of snow and finally seeing the Doh-Ray-Me steps. Becoming the new best friend of the world’s hottest rock-star doesn’t even get a look in.
Pete Wallace is a reclusive, reluctant, rock-star and the world’s Number One, best-selling, male solo artist. It’s been three years since his last tour and he’s now preparing to go back on the road again. A week in Salzburg, schmoozing with the music press, is one of his worst nightmares. He can’t wait for it to be over.
When Pete and Sukie meet, it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Lonely for too long, he begins to remember how it feels to be happy and, for the first time in six years, Christmas feels special again. Eduardo di Santo however, whose kid sister suffered life-changing injuries at a Pete Wallace concert, is all set on getting revenge. When Pete’s new tour is announced, he begins to make his plans. Plans that will culminate in Pete’s demise.
Will Pete and Sukie’s new friendship die before it has a chance to flourish? A Christmas tale full of love, laughter, friendship and revenge.
Lovely to see this book getting so many great reviews on Amazon!
I’m delighted to welcome Kiltie as my guest today, with a really different and rather lovely post about days out with her mother…
In my novel, A Rock ‘n’ Roll Lovestyle, the female protagonist – Sukie – is very close to her mother Beth. So much so, that she takes Beth back to Austria with her when she returns for a second visit. When I was writing this, I found myself reflecting on holidays and days out with my own mum and realising that she was totally off her trolley!
You see, my mum was a single parent with two children. We had very little money and my mum had to find cheap ways in which to keep my sister and I entertained. More often than not, this entertainment would be a ‘run out in the car’. At the time, we had a very old, white Volkswagon Beetle called Orville. He was, it has to be said, a bit of a rust-bucket but he was all we could afford and he did what was required of him. That being said, however, I’m sure if he had known some of the adventures my mother would subject him to, he’d have found a way of biting the dust much sooner than he did.
Knowing where to start with these adventures is a challenge so I’ll begin small and work my way up. The first one, if I am being honest, is an ‘almost’ adventure. In other words, I nipped the suggestion in the bud very damn quickly. It was January, in the early nineteen-eighties, in Glasgow. A time when we still had proper seasons, and it was not unusual to have deep snow in winter. This was one such winter’s day. Bored of being in the house, my mother suggested we go out into the country for a drive and take a car picnic with us – cheese sandwiches and a flask of soup. When I replied that this might not be such a good idea, she demanded to know why. I replied “We have a white car! If we end up skidding into a ditch, they won’t find us until March!” She pondered on my reply for a moment before agreeing that I had made a good point.
I did not have many of these small victories but this was one and here comes another…
My mother is a classic case of having zero percent sense of direction and one hundred percent sense of adventure. Meaning, whenever we went out in the car, she’d somehow find little roads and follow them with absolutely NO clue as to where they would end up. Therefore, a few months later, when we were lucky enough to be on holiday near Morecambe, she somehow managed to find the causeway that is in the area and proceeded to drive onto it, giving absolutely no heed to the thought that the tide may be on its way in. When I pointed out this small fact – at only fifteen I wasn’t yet ready to fall off this mortal coil – her reply was “Och don’t worry about it. These cars float!”
Once again, I had to come to the rescue of my family by voicing my concern that, as Orville had more holes than a colander and it was his rust spots holding him together, I didn’t really fancy his chances on that front. Fortunately she took this on board and did make a U-turn back towards safety.
The following year, however, was her ultimate moment. Nothing could have prepared me for this one.
We were, once again, on holiday, and we had, no surprise here, gone out for a drive in the car. We were down in the Border region of Scotland and mother had done her usual – “Oh look, there’s a wee road, let’s see where it goes…”
As we’re driving along, we began to notice small posts with flags flying and so presumed we were driving along the side of a golf course. Our mother mentioned that the locals were very friendly and waving to us so we should wave back, which my sister and I duly did.
A few minutes later we passed a signpost which read:
Ministry of Defence. Target Practise Area.
DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH
WHEN RED FLAGS ARE
FLYING.It would appear that the ‘locals’ were NOT being friendly at all. They were telling us to get out of the bloody way!
Not long after that I left home (while I was still in one piece!) and Orville finally went to the big scrap-heap in the sky. My younger sister has informed me that his replacement, a little orange Polo called Suzy, also had a few adventures but nothing that quite matched Orville’s.
I’m happy to say that Beth and Sukie don’t have any such adventures when they go off to Austria together but I can’t help but feel that, just maybe, they might be the ones who have missed out.
Kiltie, that was wonderful – thank you so much for sharing your adventures!
Giveaway
With thanks to Kiltie and tour organiser Rachel’s Random Resources, I’m delighted to be able to offer the chance to win a£40/$40 Amazon voucher.
Here’s the rafflecopter for entry:
About the author
Kiltie grew up in Scotland, Glasgow to be precise. A very unique city with a very unique way of looking at life. When she was old enough to do so, she moved to London and then, after several years of obtaining interesting experiences – which are finding their way into her writing – she moved up to the Midlands.
She currently lives in Staffordshire with five cats and one husband. The cats kindly allow her and her husband to share their house on the condition they keep paying the mortgage. Her little home is known as Moggy Towers, even though despite having plenty of moggies, there are no towers!
She loves reading, watching movies, and visiting old castles. She really dislikes going to the gym. Her biggest desire is that one day she can give up the day job and write her stories for a living.
Kiltie first began writing A Rock ‘n’ Roll Lovestyle over ten years ago. The project was shelved on Chapter Seventeen as she felt the story wasn’t flowing as she would like it to. In her own words “The images in my head would not come out of my fingers!” Fast forward to November 2016 when, having finished reading Lizzie’s Christmas Escape by Christie Barlow, she read more about the author and was inspired with how Christie herself came to be a best-selling author.
In that thunderbolt moment, Kiltie knew – with a deep certainty – that she needed to reacquaint herself with A Rock ‘n’ Roll Lovestyle and begin writing again. She did this in January 2017 and found the words flowed faster than she could type them. Finally, the time was right for her to write her novel. Her determination to finish what she had started all those years ago was absolute and the first draft was completed on Sunday 16th April 2017.
Since beginning to write again, the ideas have not stopped flowing. She has begun typing up her second book, Of All the Unlikely Places, and book three (not yet titled) has been worked out and is waiting in the wings for its turn in the spotlight.
She currently has a further ten plots and ideas stored in her file (it’s costing a fortune in USB drives as each story has its own memory stick!) and the ideas still keep on coming.
She now lives her life around the following three quotes:
“I love having weird dreams, they’re great fodder for book plots!”
“Why wait for your ship to come in when you can swim out to meet it?”
”Old enough to know better, young enough not to care!”
Wishing you lots of success and happy writing days. x
Gosh, sounds like life was really an adventure for Kiltie and her mother. What a fab post.
It didn’t always feel like it at the time… lol 🙂 xxx
Lovely Christmas story. Sounds like adventures with mum would also make for a great tale.
Oh, that made me laugh! Best of luck, Kiltie. 🙂 xx