UK author, Isobel Rey, is my guest today. I enjoy hearing how writers get ideas to write their stories. Isobel's started with a glass of red wine and telling tales from work.
Her topic is on the glitzy and glamorous life of the rich and the powerful and how hard it can be for women to navigate the high octane business world. She says that any workplace that draws big money and people with big egos and ambition attracts partying, champagne, and bed hopping. But regardless of your place in the social strata, everyone wants the same things in life.
I love telling stories and I love listening to other people’s
stories. So I guess it was inevitable
that one day I’d end up writing. I
fell into this genre almost by accident. I was out with a friend one evening
and she introduced me to a publisher friend of hers. The three of us ended up having dinner and a lot of wine, and I
mean a LOT of wine! I was talking about
some of the crazy worlds that I get a window into from my job and all the
politics and sexual tension that go with them. I work in advertising in London and I've worked with clients
from all kinds of industries, some of them pretty glitzy and glamorous. And what I've learned is, it doesn't matter
who you are, what you do, where you are from, how much bling you wear or how
much money you earn, everyone wants the same things in life and everyone
worries about the same things.
Several more glasses of wine into the conversation the publisher asked
me to tell her some of the stories of the things I’d seen and heard. Well the stories came tumbling out didn't they?! There’s a scene in Substitute
involving a one way mirror, three guys, two girls and a hidden audience, and many people have asked me how I made
that up, and they’re astonished when I explain that I didn't. And no, before you ask, I wasn't there, but the story was told to me by someone who
was. Even though the book is in the
Erotic Romance genre, I think you still have to have a ring of truth in your
stories!
I told the publisher how
hard it can be for women to
navigate the high octane worlds some of our advertising clients live in, when they are looking for love. There are a lot of very good looking,
charming guys out there, but they’re usually ambitious and ruthless and don’t want to get tied down.
So the publisher encouraged me to try my hand at capturing one of these
worlds in a novel. I already had
experience of writing advertising copy and I've been writing short stories for
years but never done anything with them.
I wrote three sample chapters and she loved them. So Isobel the novelist was born, almost
overnight! I can’t believe how lucky I
am, I guess it was fate having dinner with her that night.
I was worried that I’d find the process difficult, but once I started
writing I couldn't stop and the book almost wrote itself. I’d sit down after work with a very large
glass of red wine and start writing and then suddenly find it was 2 o’clock in
the morning. Alexia, my main character
took over my life! I went to work one
morning hardly able to keep my eyes open, and my very sweet boss, Mary, asked
me what I’d been doing all night, winking.
I said nothing, but Alexia has!
Mary still doesn't know what that means…….
Now I am planning my second novel,
and I've got quite a few ideas boiling away. I've had a great response since the book was published in the
UK and I’m really excited to know how readers the other side of the Atlantic
will find it! It’s set in London which
can be a pretty amazing city to live in, fast and glitzy. So let me know North American readers, I’d
love to hear from you! Right……..I’m
off for a large glass of red wine……..
- Does where you work ever spawned incidents in your writing?
- As a reader, do you like stories that put you in a high octane world?
She's driven by his desire...
It took all of Alexia's courage to leave her abusive boyfriend and strike out on her own. When she lands a job at a glamorous sports agency, she thinks she finally has it made. But shy, blonde and beautiful, Alexia is totally unprepared for the fast sexual politics of rich men and ambitious women that is waiting for her. Most of all, she is totally unprepared for her dazzling but damaged new boss, Nathan Fallon.
It took all of Alexia's courage to leave her abusive boyfriend and strike out on her own. When she lands a job at a glamorous sports agency, she thinks she finally has it made. But shy, blonde and beautiful, Alexia is totally unprepared for the fast sexual politics of rich men and ambitious women that is waiting for her. Most of all, she is totally unprepared for her dazzling but damaged new boss, Nathan Fallon.
BUY: AMAZON, B&N, BAM, INDIEBOUND, INDIGO
"If you enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey, you will enjoy this "
Isobel Rey is a Cambridge graduate. After interning at a stage/film talent agency, Isobel now works at a London advertising agency. This is her debut novel. Originally from Surrey, Isobel lives in London with her partner and a one-eared rescue cat called Thumper.
