Tuesday 25 March 2014

Demelza Carlton chats about how she came up with the story behind her books.

So you may be like me and wonder where and how authors come up with their stories. Well Demelza Carlton is here today telling us how she came up with the story for 'Welcome To Hell' and 'See You in Hell'! I must admit, I giggled  :D

 
 

Now That's Dedication


For all my fellow commuters, corporate and civil workers.
May you never be inspired by a stranger’s briefcase.
  • Dedication at the front of Welcome to Hell by Demelza Carlton

I'd just finished what felt like the work day from Hell – working through my lunchbreak to meet an urgent deadline that only appeared that morning. The clock hit five and I raced for the train station and home.
The platform was packed and the train was five minutes away, but I squeezed my way through to the front, hoping I'd make that train so I could get home sooner to relax. Rushing air in the tunnel and brightening lights heralded my electric train chariot home and everyone moved closer, dying to board. The crush inside the carriage was nothing compared to what we were in outside.
"I survived the London tube every day. No worries getting on this!" a bloke behind me boasted. I thought of the trains in Osaka and Tokyo, but the sardine tin trains were the same in Perth.
Doors opened right in front of me and I slid in, an expert eel. So did a dozen other people behind me – but not Mr London Tube Survivor. We left him on the platform as the doors slid shut and the train accelerated.
And abruptly stopped.
All the standing passengers teetered dangerously, but we sardines were too closely packed to fall, so we all straightened up together and grabbed for better handholds to stop it happening again.
As I straightened, I felt something cold and solid slide up my skirt. Higher and higher…until the corner of the briefcase was wedged between my cheeks.
I thought of stomping on the pervert's foot and breaking his toes, but I realised the briefcase would only go higher first and that would hurt. Instead, I turned my head to glare at the prick instead.
I came face to face with a harassed-looking elderly man that I vaguely knew, who gave me a look of long-suffering patience, and I realised HE DIDN'T KNOW HIS BRIEFCASE WAS UP MY BUM.
I had two choices:
  1. Ask him to remove his briefcase, letting the hundred or so people in earshot know that I'd allowed a stranger to stick something up my arse and possibly let the poor man be mobbed for a mistake.
  2. Suffer in silence and hope I could walk off the stiffness in five minutes' time when I disembarked from the train.
I endured the five minutes in painful silence and walked stiffly home, reflecting that only an angel could put up with what I had that day.
That night, I wrote the first three chapters of my Mel Goes to Hell series – about an angel working as a temp in the HELL Corporation, Lucifer's attempt to take over the world, one privatised government department at a time.
Inspiration can come from anywhere. Mine was painful and came from below. I hope you derive some enjoyment from it. I still ache at the memory. 


The series book trailer:


Welcome to Hell (FREE) purchase links:

 
Author bio:

Demelza Carlton has always loved the ocean, but on her first snorkelling trip she found she was afraid of fish.
She has since swum with sea lions, sharks and sea cucumbers and stood on spray drenched cliffs over a seething sea as a seven-metre cyclonic swell surged in, shattering a shipwreck below.
Demelza now lives in Perth, Western Australia, the shark attack capital of the world.
The Ocean's Gift series is her first foray into fiction, followed by her suspense thriller Nightmares trilogy. She swears the Mel Goes to Hell series ambushed her on a crowded train and wouldn't leave her alone.

Links to me:

Google +: http://plus.google.com/+DemelzaCarlton/posts

3 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for inviting me to guest post today, Dee - though now I'm sure more people than those on the train know what I let a stranger do... *blush*

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was a great read! Love your background into these Demelza!!

    ReplyDelete

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