The lovely piece of artwork that I chose for this post is something I unexpectedly received from a reader of “Infinite Stranger”. She messaged me to say that this is how she visualised the seaview bedroom of my protagonist, Leah Cavanagh, who lives with her single mother in Lyneham-on-Sea, on the western coast of Lancashire.
You can currently buy my novel on Amazon at the reduced price of 99p for a limited period of time.
Here’s the section of my novel that inspired my anonymous reader.
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INFINITE STRANGER
I adored my own room, way up in the gables and separated from the rest of our rambling three-story house by a spiral staircase. The room used to be nothing but a neglected storage area in the cobwebby attic, but once Dad disappeared into the mists of the Irish Sea, together with his young and glamorous secretary, you had the foresight to fill the gap that his departure left in my adolescent heart.
So, out went all the junk, in came the workmen, and within a few weeks I found myself transported into a room fit for a princess. I used to love leaning out of my dormer window and gazing at the exhilarating scene: the airborne seagulls, the Victorian bandstand way down below, the long pier that stayed open till late at night in the holiday season, the endless beach that played hide and seek with the sea twice a day, every day, throughout the year. The tide went so far out, at times it got completely lost in the horizon; but a few hours later the teasing waves would once again be lapping onto the wooden posts of the pier. I must have spent thousands of hours mesmerised by the stars hanging over the distant tide, dreaming, longing … but not for the things I should have longed for, silly me.
And silly you, Mother, it has to be said. Silly you for not snapping me out of at least one of those dreams.
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Wendy Skorupski 