Carla will be giving away an e-book copy of her new release Second Chance to one lucky commenter! I really enjoyed the story. Flora's a great character!
***
What ifs
Anyone who’s human – or breathing – would
have experienced “what ifs” in their life. I have many times.
One particular incident that sticks out in
my mind is when I moved from Adelaide to Sydney with my husband. Being a
journalist, I was offered a job as a subeditor at a kids’ magazine at a big
publisher. I ended up not taking the job, considering it beneath my skills and
pay level, having previously worked as a reporter at a daily newspaper in
Adelaide. I didn’t realise that, while in Adelaide I was a big fish in a little
pond, the opposite was true in Sydney. I had to start again – prove myself.I’d always dreamed of working at one of the big women’s glossies and that opportunity would have been the perfect stepping stone, but now I’ll never know. After turning down the offer, the GFC happened and jobs dried up. I’ve since freelanced for many of the big guns, but never worked in their pristine, manicured offices during my three-year stint in Sydney. And it’s something I’ll always wonder about…
Similarly, everyone would have a war story
about The One Who Got Away. Like many women, I’ve spent too many hours fretting
about relationships gone sour, wondering if only I’d said this or done that…
I recently interviewed life and business
coach Lisa Phillips, behind Amazing Coaching, and she had some good advice for
keeping the “past in the past”. She told me: “Let it go and instead of
concentrating on someone else, concentrate on being fabulous. We can spend too
long on ‘if onlys’.”
It’s so true. My heroine, Flora, in my
latest novel, Second Chance (Destiny
Romance), has a serious case of what-if-itis. On the night of her 36th
birthday, she’s full of regrets and the celebrations have turned sour. She
wishes she could be 20 again. Then she finds herself zapped back in time,
landing in the summer of 1998 when she was, indeed, 20. The Spice Girls are at
the top of the charts and The X-Files is the hit TV show. It’s also
the week Flora’s life unravelled.
For Flora, this is a chance to change her
future: win back the love of her life, stay friends with her former best mate
and succeed in landing her dream job. It should be easy. But her ex’s best
friend, Lance Devic, who she never really noticed before, keeps popping up and
messing with her head.
And, after a while, Flora begins to wonder
if living in the past really will deliver her the happiness she seeks... It’s a good lesson. Check out more here: http://www.destinyromance.com/products/9781743480748/second-chance
Carla around the web:***
Awesome story and I LOVE the phrase 'what-if-itis' - I'm definitely going to have to borrow that!
I tend to use my What if... questions to flesh out my plots and my future, rather than looking back to the past.
What about you? Are you a forward or a backward What-iffer?
17 comments:
That's great advice. I sometimes think about the what if's but not too much. Great advice not to.
Great premise for the book! Yes, it's easy to wonder "what if?" isn't it? Good advice to let it go. Best wishes for the new release!
We can't change the past, so why worry?
Congratulations, Carla!
Hi Jemi! Hi Carla!! Well I hope Flora's second chance helps her to find happiness! Take care
x
Natalie - the backwards What Ifs can be very dangerous!
Elizabeth - it is! And the books is a lot of fun! :)
Alex - exactly - much better to worry about the things we can work on!
Old Kitty - it's a fun book and Flora faces all kinds of challenges! :)
Cool premise for the book, and very apt writing advice.
Damyanti - it's a fun book too! :)
Love the premise & kind of fun to go back to the 90s.
Nicki - the 90s were fun! If we ignore some of the hair choices anyway :)
Congrats to Carla and great idea for the book. It's interesting to wonder where we'd be if we'd done something different, also asking what if is a great way to generate stories in general!
Nick - that's how I usually use my what ifs too. And the book is a lot of fun! :)
I tend to use my 'what if's' on the future. More possibilities and more fun that way.
Michelle - I totally agree - they're lots of fun! But Carla sure had a lot of fun in her book going backwards :)
Another antipodean! All the best with your novel, Carla.
And I'm not a 'what if' kinda person, (which is saying something) as my head more often than not in the clouds. Go figure!
Wendy - that's the kinds of what ifs I tend to do - the forward ones :)
Thanks for all the lovely comments. Glad to see not too many have a case of the what-if-itis then. And hi to Jemi!
Hi Carla - we do seem to have a forward thinking bunch in the writing community!! :)
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