Kelly Dawson's on the couch today to discuss her latest book "Rachel's Journey." But before we begin, I asked Kelly for a personal tidbit, like whether she had any unique or quirky habits she'd be willing to share with us, and she said:
"I have
Tourette’s Syndrome. So while the strange things I do aren’t exactly habits, it
looks like they are. Other than my visible tics, I have to peg all my washing
on the line using colour-co-ordinated pegs, and things must be hung up a
certain way. If anyone helps me hang out the washing it drives me insane,
because I’m going along after them, “fixing” it all LOL.
Author’s Note about Rachel’s Journey: Rachel’s
Journey is very close to my heart. Like Rachel, I
too, have Tourette’s Syndrome. I have tried to portray what it is like to live
with this neurological disorder, and while Tourette’s affects everyone
differently so each person’s experience is unique, it is my personal
experience, how Tourette’s affects me, that is told in Rachel’s Journey. In
some ways, Rachel’s Journey is my biography, only fictionalised. Rachel’s
circumstances are nothing like my own, but in all the ways that matter, Rachel
is me.
Excerpt:
James caught up with her in a few strides and
picked her up around the waist, throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of
spuds where he landed a solid swat to the seat of her jeans.
“Owie!” she yelled, pummelling his back with
both her fists. “Put me down!”
“Be quiet,” James hissed, “unless you want
everyone to see you getting spanked like this. Is that what you want?” He
slapped her backside again, even harder than before, putting his whole body
into the swing, as he continued walking to the ute.
“Ow! You put me down!” Rachel snarled, but
her voice was lower than before – she was mindful of the position she was in
and she didn’t want to attract attention. Being surrounded by people wasn’t
deterring James any, that much was obvious. He smacked her butt twice more
before they got to the where the ute was parked, and when they were out of
sight behind a neighbouring horse float he started spanking her in earnest,
holding her firmly in position over his shoulder and landing half a dozen
blazing hard blows to the seat of her jeans. She pummelled his back with her
fists again, but all that she succeeded in doing was making it worse for
herself – James increased the strength behind the swats, landing another six
viciously-hard blows. Then, with a super-hard wallop that made her shriek in
pain, he set her on her feet, holding her firmly by the shoulders so she
couldn’t get away.
“What’s gotten into you?” he growled at her.
“There was no call to act that way!”
“So you don’t really love me then?” it was a
rhetorical question; more of a statement really – at any rate, she didn’t
expect an answer.
“You like being spanked, don’t you?” James
asked her incredulously.
“No, I most certainly do not!”
James chuckled. “Yes, I think you do. You’re
wanting to prove whether or not I care about you, and you know that a spanking
means I care. Admit it – you know I’m right.”
“So what if you are? What’s wrong with
wanting to know that you care?”
James held her face in both his hands,
brushed the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs, and kissed her full on the
lips. “I care.”
Blurb:
Rachel
was such a loser. Growing up with Tourette's Syndrome has taught her that. Who
could possibly want someone who contorted their faces in bizarre twitches or
snorted at random? Not even Mike, the man who had promised he loved her, had
been able to put up with it. She broke up with him when she caught him cheating
on her during their great overseas experience, promptly flying back home to
hide and lick her wounds.
James
was the manager for the 850 acre farm she and her brother Simon had
inherited. She liked James. He'd always treated her nicely, like an
honorary little sister, and she'd had a crush on him forever. Not that she
could ever tell him. She wasn't going to set herself up for rejection ever
again.
But
when it seems that someone is out to harm her, can she count on James to come
to her rescue?
Set in rural New Zealand, this epic romance
will thrill you and keep you captivated, enchant you with charming detail and
inspire you, as learning to overcome adversity ultimately is Rachel's Journey.
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/rachels-journey-kelly-dawson/1122049218?ean=2940151622905
About the Author:
Kelly
Dawson loves anything to do with horses, rodeos and cowboys, and loves to get
lost in a good book - preferably a rural romance where a strong woman falls in
love with a ruggedly-handsome, tough but gentle cowboy, and these are the types
of characters who feature in the stories she writes. Only in Kelly’s books, the
cowboys are even better because they spank!
She lives literally at the bottom of the world in the South Island of New Zealand, with her husband, four kids, a dog and a cat.
She lives literally at the bottom of the world in the South Island of New Zealand, with her husband, four kids, a dog and a cat.
Social Media Links: I can be found all over the web. Check me out
here:
Visit the other participants joining in the
Thanks so much for hosting me Kathryn!
ReplyDeleteHi Kathryn and Kelly, I really enjoyed reading this. I think it's wonderful that you are able to speak of your own experiences through your writing Kelly. Wonderful excerpt, sweet ending :) I am totally the same with pegging washing and colour coordinating the pegs lol.
ReplyDeleteThank you both for sharing :)
Hugs
Roz