A little treat from the previously reviewed 5** House of Secrets by Lynda Stacey from Choc Lit.
We have a guest post from the lovely Lynda today and she's here answering questions about the book!
And here she is answering some questions for our enjoyment!
On the 4th
July my novel House of Secrets was
turned into a paperback and I couldn’t have been prouder at the moment I got to
take it back to where it all began, the beautiful Wrea Head Hall hotel in
Scarborough.
It was
at this time, I got to look back at how I created Bandit, the hero of House of Secrets.
I’ve often been asked where the
name for my hero came from.
Well,
I’ll try and explain. Christopher Lawless, the hero of House of Secrets is an ex-marine, and like all marines I wanted to
give him a name that gave credit to his profession, and in actual fact the
nickname Bandit, came first and his ‘real’ name came after. So, his surname is
LAWLESS and a lawless man is a Bandit… hope that explains it.
Who is Bandit?
Bandit
is obviously gorgeous but has just an edge of vulnerability that quickly shows
in his personality. He suffers with post traumatic syndrome after his time
working in Afghanistan where he saw both his girlfriend and his team blown up
by a roadside bomb. He’s been discharged from the marines and has gone back to
live in his childhood home, the gatehouse at Wrea Head Hall. Here, he has taken
the job of game keeper, and does all the general maintenance around the hall.
It’s a job he loves, purely because it means he gets to spend a lot of time
alone, with nature.
When we
first meet Bandit, he’s getting through each day the best he can. He’s a little
unkempt. His hair is longer than it should be and he rarely shaves. But, we see
a very gentle, caring side to him, that comes over as being a little more than
overprotective, especially when he meets Maddie and her three-year-old daughter
Poppy.
What makes a good hero?
And of
course this is only my opinion.
A good
hero is hard to find. I often read books where the hero isn’t that appealing
(to me), they are often flat and without much of a personality, which is why I
like to give my heroes a history. I feel that they need depth of character and
a big personality. They don’t necessarily have to be gorgeous, but of course it
helps. I feel that it’s more important for them to be kind, respectful,
passionate and sensitive. I also feel that the hero needs to be interesting, a
little flawed. He needs to feel emotion, even if sometimes that’s anger or
hatred, especially towards someone who is trying to hurt the people he loves.
All of this helps the reader identify with him, they take the journey with him
as he overcomes those flaws, and what’s more they begin to root for him to
achieve and succeed.
Who would be the perfect Bandit?
I think
someone like Stuart Martin who played Silas in Jamestown. He’s a little
vulnerable, a little rough around the edges, yet still gorgeous. Yes, Stuart
Martin would definitely be my Bandit.
An extract of the novel from Bandit’s
point of view …
‘Damn woman,’ Bandit cursed as he
glanced up at the hotel and saw Madeleine watching him from the window. Raising
the axe high above his head, he brought it down with a satisfying thud, making
the log split in two and fall to the ground. He scooped up the logs that he’d
previously cut and threw them into the wheelbarrow that stood by his side. It
was still early autumn and without the glow of embers in the open fires, the
house could easily turn cool at night. Besides, the reception rooms always
looked much nicer with the logs alight, the guests preferred it and it was his
job to ensure that there was enough dry wood to keep each of the three fires
going right through the winter. But he knew he had to be ahead of his game,
this wood would need to be stacked and dried out for at least six months before
it would be ready to burn.
He
saw the back door open and watched as Morris Pocklington emerged.
‘Look, I’m really
sorry about last night. I didn’t know that Madeleine was your daughter,’ Bandit
said, pre-empting the conversation that he guessed was about to happen.
‘She’s pretty pissed
at you,’ Morris replied with a laugh. ‘I’m not sure I’d want to get on the
wrong side of her.’
‘Shouldn’t be going
round pretending to be a burglar then, should she?’ Bandit fired back as he
picked up another log and brought the axe down to split it. There was no way he
could have known who she was. He hadn’t even known that the boss had a
daughter, so he couldn’t be blamed for not knowing who she was when he’d seen
her creeping around like a hunting tiger, looking for its next meal. But
tigress she was not. He’d seen the way she’d looked up at him like a frightened
doe in the darkness. Her eyes wide open with fear. She’d appeared vulnerable
yet powerful, and timid yet fiery, all at once. She was so similar to the type
of women he’d encountered in the marines. Women who could cut you down with
words at ten paces, or shoot you from a distance and, to be honest, he wasn’t
sure he wanted to encounter women like that again. Not after Karen.
‘You don’t like her?’ Morris asked as he
stepped up on the log to perch on the fence and pushed his hands deep in his
pockets.
Bandit bit his lip.
‘I barely know her.’
He thought of the
deep musky perfume that she’d been wearing; its scent had annoyingly stayed
with him through the night. She’d had a feisty personality, a spark about her
that could have lit a campfire from a distance, yet he couldn’t work out what
annoyed him the most; her high spirits, her feisty personality or the
vulnerability that shone from within. None of them could possibly be a good
thing.
‘Afghanistan, it
changed you, Bandit.’
It was true.
Afghanistan had changed him. Karen had changed him. ‘I know.’
‘Do you want to talk
about it yet?’
‘No, I don’t.’ The
words were sharp, harsh and meant to stop the conversation. The very last thing
he ever wanted to talk about was Afghanistan. Just the thought made his palms
begin to sweat and he rubbed them down his jeans as he felt his whole body
begin to tremble. He wanted to close his eyes, but couldn’t. On some nights
there was no sleep at all, some nights he’d sleep for an hour or two, but then
the nightmares would begin. Every sudden noise reminded him of the explosion,
every beach reminded him of the desert and every woman reminded him of Karen.
Everything that had happened played on his mind. One minute he’d been part of
an elite group, the next he was flying home: inadequate, alone and uncertain of
his future.
About House of Secrets:
A woman on the run, a broken
man and a house with a shocking secret...
Madeleine Frost has to get away. Her partner Liam has become
increasingly controlling to the point that Maddie fears for her safety, and
that of her young daughter Poppy...
Desperation leads Maddie to the hotel owned by her estranged
father – the extraordinarily beautiful Wrea Head Hall in Yorkshire.
There, she meets Christopher 'Bandit' Lawless, an ex-marine and the gamekeeper
of the hall, whose brusque manner conceals a painful past.
After discovering a diary belonging to a previous owner, Maddie
and Bandit find themselves immersed in the history of the old house, uncovering
its secrets, scandals, tragedies and, all the while, becoming closer.
But
Liam still won't let go, he wants Maddie back, and when Liam wants something he
gets it, no matter who he hurts...
About the author:
Lynda, is a wife,
step-mother and grandmother, she grew up in the mining village of Bentley,
Doncaster, in South Yorkshire.
She is currently the Sales
Director of a stationery, office supplies and office furniture company in
Doncaster, where she has worked for the past 25 years. Prior to this she’d also
been a nurse, a model, an emergency first response instructor and a PADI Scuba
Diving Instructor … and yes, she was crazy enough to dive in the sea with
sharks, without a cage. Following
a car accident in 2008, Lynda was left with limited mobility in her right arm.
Unable to dive or teach anymore, she turned to her love of writing, a hobby
she’d followed avidly since being a teenager.
Her own life story, along
with varied career choices helps Lynda to create stories of romantic suspense,
with challenging and unpredictable plots, along with (as in all romances) very
happy endings.
Lynda joined the Romantic
Novelist Association in 2014 under the umbrella of the New Writers Scheme and
in 2015, her debut novel House of Secrets won
the Choc Lit & Whole Story Audiobooks Search for a Star competition.
She lives in a small rural
hamlet near Doncaster, with her ‘hero at home husband’, Haydn, whom she’s been
happily married to for over 20 years.
