Kim is really treating us at the moment as today she is sharing with us the inspriation behind her second novel Escape to Giddywell Grange.
Kim, the floor is all yours!
Where did the inspiration for Escape to Giddywell Grange come from?
Years ago I was unexpectedly made redundant from a job that I absolutely loved. It came as a bolt from the blue.
It really had a huge impact on my life and my health, both financially and mentally and it took me years to recover. In some ways, I think I’ll never recover from it fully. It knocked my self-confidence, my self-worth, my self-esteem and my bank balance.
My job was everything to me and a way of life, which I threw my heart and soul into, which is why it came as such a blow. I didn’t really know anything but work at that time in my life. I had neglected people in my life and time is something that you can never get back.
People always say write what you know, so I’d had the idea for a while and wanted to explore those emotions that I had felt so strongly at that time. So I created the character Maddy in contrast to her life-long friend Beth, who was someone who had always stayed closer to home and had a life that Maddy thought was dull and boring.
Maddy, and I think so many of us these days, needed to learn what is really important in life and that it’s not always about the things you have, but the people you care about, those who care about you, how you can help people and the memories that you make along the way.
I also wanted to incorporate dogs into the book. Our rescue dog Roni, goes to kennels and doggy daycare places and we’ve viewed a few and I wanted to think about the type of place that I’d like to leave Roni at. It is based very loosely on somewhere he goes.
There is a lot of me in Maddy Young, but it’s great because I can make up all this other stuff and even those people closest to me always say ‘did that bit really happen?’
Obviously, that information is totally classified and between me and my keyboard.
Oh what a tease! How can you do that to me?!?!?!?!?!??!!? Thanks Kim for sharing this with us!
Until next time xxx
Jules_Writes says
Great post! I LOVE dogs in a book 🙂
nickimags @ The Secret Library Book Blog says
Lovely post xx