@GoddessFish Interview & Giveaway: Anything for Love by Darry Fraser

Anything for Love

Darry Fraser


Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Steam eReads Publishing
Date of Publication: February 12, 2014
Number of pages: 168
Word Count: 54,000
Cover Artist: Niina Cord

Available at the following retailers:
Amazon     Kobo     ARe

Tilla is the managing director of a temping staff agency who finds herself enmeshed in Kent Taylor’s business world, which includes an IT takeover. When she decides to work in his office as one of his temporary staff members they clash, so she keeps her identity to herself. When they both decide to take a break from their crazy business lives, they have no clue it’s at the same place, in the same house and at the same time, on the isolated north west coast of rugged Australis Island.

She tells herself she can’t bear to be near him one moment longer... until they find a way to be together. But when he has to suddenly leave their hideaway and doesn’t give her a backward glance, she realises she shouldn’t have done just anything for love.

Excerpt: 

Her dream was a loud one. There was stumbling and cursing, unlike any of her dreams before, but she was reluctant to come awake ... too tired. She tossed and moaned her protest, but when she heard the crash of a dozen bottles of wine she bolted upright, wide awake, heart hammering and her throat suddenly constricted.

She clutched the bed-clothes to her chin, gulped in great breaths of air. Tried to shake herself fully awake.

The cursing and snarling continued, the bottles crashing and clanging on the slate floor.

Terror struck her very soul.

There was a drunk in her little haven.

Oh no, oh no ...

She couldn’t see a thing—it was pitch outside, no moon. She leapt out of the bed dragging the sheet with her and groping in the dark for her clothes. Where were her clothes—? Oh God—in the bathroom ... how’d she possibly defend herself ... ?

Another curse and then another. “What the bloody hell—?”

Stopped her frantic panic, covered her mouth with one hand. She knew that voice. It was unmistakable. Tilla shook herself. It couldn’t be. She must still be asleep … It just couldn’t be. Her heart pounded.

“Who the bloody hell put that there?” the gravelly voice boomed.

She tried to distil the solid block of fear which weighed on her chest like a sack of potatoes.

There was no mistaking that voice. No mistaking it at all.

Interview: 

Today, we welcome Darry Fraser to Musings and Ramblings. Let's all give a great big Geeky welcome!

Let's start with some writer specific questions before moving into the fun stuff. That way everyone can really get to know the person behind the writer. We will finish things off with round of Think Fast. Ready for the interrogation to begin?

Writing Specific

1. When is your favorite time/place to write? Do you write structured or patchworked?

I write anywhere it’s quiet and secluded mostly to entice the muse. Now I find the muse is even more enticed if I have a good red in a glass on my desk.

I don’t think I have a ‘favourite’ time… the only time I can make space to write is from about 8pm to midnight (if I last till midnight) and on the weekends.

I usually write structured and I don’t mean so much as a plotter would; I mean that I write chapter by chapter - as a pantster. BUT – I’ve found that sometimes the little fun competitions that come by can help create a new scene, or an edge to an old idea I’d had for a new scene. Often, if you move ahead of yourself three or four chapters, write that chapter then have to go back and fill in, your catch-up chapters are more interesting. I don’t do it deliberately, just when the challenge is there, but each time I’ve done it the work seems to be fresher and more succinct. Might do it more often!

2. How do you deal with Writer's Block?

The only times I feel I’ve had writer’s block is when I’m tired or when I’ve just finished editing / polishing / submitting /doing the rounds after the book is finished. It’s almost as if it’s ‘out with the old in with the new’. So I give myself a few days to refresh. Sometimes it’s more than a couple of days, sometimes a week.

The ‘block’ seems to go away by itself and suddenly a new story is ready for tackling.

Having said all that, I have had occasion to really force myself to get the words out. My mistake at the time was trying to write what the characters didn’t want. When I got what they were trying to convey, the book found itself published very quickly.

3. What one thing do you wish someone had told you before you started writing?

Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever EVER give up. (But learn your craft as well).

I don’t think I did give up –life just got in the way, and I found that I was very easily led (by myself I hasten to add) to let everything else come before me and what I wanted for me. I always dabbled, returned to moth-eaten manuscripts, re-hashed older stories, got new ones down but I never took it further.

The time it takes to get everything ready just for submission in the first instance if massive. Then if your work is accepted, the edits are usually time consuming (all very worth it) and these days, unlike the good ol’ days, your own level of self-promotion and book marketing is as much time consuming as was the writing of your novel.

But never give up. Never give IT up.

4. What do you like to do when you are not writing?

I like to walk my dog, catch up with friends, read, cook, entertain. I like to work in my day job which happens to be my own shop where I support local business – either with printing of business cards, or artist’s greeting cards, weddings services, funeral services, birthdays or in clerical assistance – book-keeping, manuscripts, family histories. Living in a small community there’s no shortage of stories to spin around the happenings of real life.

5. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author?

That I write in the genres I’m currently published in – romance and romantic suspense. My friends are all readers, but not of this genre. I have one friend in particular who buys my books but hasn’t read one. One day I will write something she wants to read. I suppose technically it’s not a criticism of my writing but of what I write.

I’m sure there has been tough criticism, but I guess I turned it from a perceived negative into a positive and got on with it.

What has been the best compliment?

That my style is lyrical; that it’s easy to read and real to life; that my stories are more real than fiction, though without all the bad news.

Fun Stuff

6. What was the last movie/concert/show that you saw?

(Australian band) Daryl Braithwaite- he was the lead singer in the 80s with a band called Sherbet – and they were big in Oz.

7. What was the name of the last book you read?

Sing You home – Jodie Picoult

8. Tell us 2 positive and 2 negative character traits you possess.

I’m happy, I’m honest. I procrastinate, I hermitise

9. What would we find in your refrigerator right now?

Castello blue cheese, local wines, local smallgoods, olives, sundried tomatoes, home made fig jam… oh, and some vegetables I suppose.

10. If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?

She Never Gave Up (Though She Often Said She Was).

Think Fast

Elvis or Sinatra? Sinatra … but that’s a really tough one.
Meat or Veggies? Meat
Italian or Chinese? Italian
Coffee or Tea? Coffee
Cake or Pie? Cake

Thanks for coming by and spending some time with us.

And thank you for having me.

Any final words of wisdom to pass along?

If you want to write – anything – write. And write and write and write. Then revise and chop all the trash. And never give up. Did I say that already??

Giveaway: 

Darry will be awarding a $25 Amazon gift card and an ecopy of Berry Flavours to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. 

So follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.

Book Tour Info: 
Don't forget to check out the other stops on the Book Tour:

April 24th:
Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews

May 1st:
Room With Books

May 8th:
Writers and Authors
Musings and Ramblings

May 15th:
Queentutt's World of Escapism

May 22nd:
Booklover Sue

May 29th:
Books Direct
Aly's Miscellany

June 5th:
Nana Prah

June 12th:
The Book Review
Long and Short Reviews

Author Bio:

I have been writing since a very young age. I was the one at school with the home-penned plays and stories, the entertaining ideas and the grand vision, believing I had great talent. Wrong.

I believed that because I could put words on a page in a grammatically acceptable way and tell a reasonable story that I was ‘an author’. Technically, I suppose I was, but the apprenticeship as a ‘writer' – to labour the difference - is a long and hard road.

One day, I had what I still call a little ‘thing’ – I saw my late grandfather in his World War One trench gear talking to ‘me’ at my desk and suddenly the words flowed and so did the short story which was published within two weeks in an Australian national women’s magazine.

So I revisited all my short stories and my novel-length stories and found success again with four short stories and then two short novels in 2001/2.

Alas, life got in the way once more. I kept writing, but in the dark so to speak. I used it as a means of escape, as a retreat and I was able to create my own HEA or HFN.

Then life took another turn and I figured that I had nothing to lose. I dusted off quite a number of manuscripts and began to whip them into shape. At a serendipitous meeting with my current publisher, Nicola at SteamEreads, she agreed to read my current work at the time. It was a 67,000 word unedited novel, which she accepted. It was published in June – Money For Blood.

Since then I have had three other novels and two novellas accepted, all HEA/HFN.

I currently have four books published with Steam eReads.

To connect with the author online:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Steam eReads | Goodreads