My work-in-progress!
And oh my goodness – what conversations it is provoking. The term ‘mistress’ feels quite old-fashioned, but I’ve been learning that its connotations are anything but. Women I’ve talked to have been mistresses, or ARE mistresses (that was an eye-opener bottle of Chardonnay), or have confronted mistresses.
The book is about Kate, a long-term mistress who is falling in love with someone else.
Kate’s a fiercely independent woman, single mother of two almost-grown kids and owner of a successful high-end catering business. She lives in Wychelm, once her parents’ tied cottage, on a country estate in Oxfordshire.
The story begins in late Spring, as a delivery lorry carrying wine careers into a ditch, and Kate’s horse bolts into woodland. Kate is helped by an old flame, Lochie, whom she’s not seen at home for years, and who’s just returned from a ranch in Montana. After the crash, Kate invites Lochie for a drink. It becomes clear they are still attracted to each other, but Kate is still involved with Max Knightbridge, her married landlord and powerful owner of Swansbrook, the country estate upon which Kate lives.
I’m having the MOST fun writing this, and I’d love to know, if you’d like to read it?!
I’m still working on the emerging themes, but I read somewhere that every book has a couple of lines that demonstrate its story. I think I’ve got mine, for this (or ones that are working for me at the moment)…
‘I cannot begin to explain my relationship with Max. I cannot begin to defend it.’
Poor Kate! She’s in a real devil-and-the-deep-blue-sea moment, and I still don’t really know what she’s going to do (I mean…I know what the synopsis says, but HEY, she’s very much her own woman).
I’ve done a pitch reel for it on Insta, here, if you’d like to come and comment, and you can also see the pitch reel for ‘I am not your muse’, if you’d like to join the conversation there, too.
I’d really love to hear what you think!
Carlie Lee 