Guest post by author Rob Ashman
You’re never too old to be told off by your mum …
I wanted to write a guest post that was a little different, so please bear with me.
In February this year my mum passed away suddenly. It was a huge shock to us as a family and everyone who knew her. She was a prolific reader of crime novels and would consume every book the local library had to offer. She used to have two Tesco bags full of them delivered to her flat every fortnight.
When I started writing seriously my mum became one of my first BetaReaders. With her sharp eye for a mistake and her keen sense of what made a good book, she was brilliant. She was always blunt and to the point and was spot on with her observations and feedback.
All was going well until I wrote Pay The Penance, which is the third book in the Mechanic Trilogy. In it, I wrote a sex scene.
The two characters involved were … how can I put this … a little unusual, and so the chapter was not a vanilla, run-of-the-mill type of scene. Mills and Boon this was not!
My mum read it and rang me.
‘I’ve just read a sex scene in your book.’
‘Ah yes, I forgot about that. It’s okay isn’t it?’
‘In a word – No.’
‘Why what’s the matter with it?’
‘I won’t go into detail but suffice to say I would have expected a man with your writing ability to have done a better job.’
‘Oh so you didn’t–’
‘I have one word … crude!’
And that was it she banged the phone down.
Since then I’ve written three more books and, on each occasion, when I sent my mum the manuscript she wasted no time in lambasting me again for my sex scene. Which would have been fine if they were the only opportunities she took. I wish I had a pound coin for every time she told me off – I’d be a rich man.
And now she’s no longer with us.
She never got to read Jaded, which is a shame, I think she would have enjoyed it. I know she would have enjoyed giving me another bollocking for a chapter I wrote four books ago. A bollocking that would have mainly centred around the word ‘Crude’.
I have to admit, I’ve missed that part of the publication process.
I’m fifty-eight years of age and it just goes to show, you’re never too old to be told off by your mum. Jaded is dedicated to her.
Rob is married to Karen with two grown up daughters. He is originally from South Wales and after moving around with work settled in North Lincolnshire where he’s spent the last twenty-two years.
Like all good welsh valley boys Rob worked for the National Coal Board after leaving school at sixteen and went to University at the tender age of twenty-three when the pit closures began to bite. Since then he’s worked in a variety of manufacturing and consulting roles both in the UK and abroad.
It took Rob twenty-four years to write his first book. He only became serious about writing it when his dad got cancer. It was an aggressive illness and Rob gave up work for three months to look after him and his mum. Writing Those That Remainbecame his coping mechanism. After he wrote the book his family encouraged him to continue, so not being one for half measures, Rob got himself made redundant, went self-employed so he could devote more time to writing and four years later the Mechanic Trilogy is the result.
When he is not writing, Rob is a frustrated chef with a liking for beer and prosecco, and is known for occasional outbreaks of dancing.
Rob will be publishing all three books in the Mechanic Trilogy with Bloodhound Books – the second novel is titled In Your Name and the third is called Pay The Penance.
Twitter Handle: @RobAshmanAuthor
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Rob-Ashman-Author
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