LET THE TRAIN ...leave without you.

Just returned from seeing a show in town, although we didn't get to see it coz the trains were delayed and cancelled as the notice boards noted, due to someone being hit by a train in Elmbridge, or between Elmbridge and Clapham Junction.    These things happen.   I remember when I commuted from Essex they happened at least once a month. There would be hour long delays while guards would apologise profusely for not knowing what was going on and apologise for having to apologise and they would understand how this may have (never must because there's a legal issue I'm sure with saying 'we have screwed up your day, not we may have screwed up your day), just may have caused us inconvenience. It made us late for work, more tired than we needed to be, more stressed, more anxious.  One lost the will to live not just the will to get up in the morning and make way to a job one invariably hated.    There were those who could read and get into a book and then click in and out of the delays treating it as two, three or even four more chapters they could read through. One woman I knew completed the book. Then she got as pissed off as the rest of us.  Of course now you have iPhones, iPads, mini iPads to keep you amused unless you've forgotten to charge it.  

At Clapham Junction the apologetic guard urged people to get off and take the Victoria Line to Waterloo and Vauxhall.     Point is the Victoria Line doesn't' stop at Clapham Junction, something I had forgotten and 100s of others didn't know either.   We were left stranded. The train went off and we decided having been given options to either get on a bus - no number given - or a train to Shepherds Bush or one via Willesden Junction, I'm not sure.   Neither was anyone else sure including the train guards we asked.  We didn't swear, we didn't shout because it wasn't their fault.   We just wanted them to stop apologising and tell us the options.  They couldn't. They didn't.     Shit happens.  People get hit by trains.     But tonight SW Trains just made a drama out of a crisis. Their service and the staff we encountered were misinformed - so they misinformed their customers. The service was utter crap.

MADASATRAVELLER - you would need to be. My next book.

I was recently tagged by Janey Fraser (www.janeyfraser.co.uk) to participate in The Next Big Thing, where authors answer ten questions about their current works in progress. If you haven’t read her post about what she's working on now, jump over to her blog to take a look. I've never considered having an au pair, which is what her latest brilliant novel is about. It makes the politics in Parliament look like child's play. Fabulously wicked book to buy mothers who think an au pair is a good idea...

In turn, I tagged excellent writers and dear friends, established author, lecturer and journalist Anne Sebba (www.annesebba.com) who writes exquisite biographies including her latest 'The Other Woman' about Wallace Simpson.   It's a fascinating and engrossing story elegantly told.      Author and columnist Simon Hoggart (http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/simonhoggart) writes wonderfully pithy prose about anything and everything.  He observes with better eyes than the rest of us, but then he does comment often but not exclusively on politics - so he needs to.    His Long Lunch titles available as ebooks as well as in bookshops - the few that are left - will make you weep for all the right reasons.

I have also chosen two first time authors Dodie Hamilton (www.facebook/dodiehamiltonbooks) and her debut novel, the beautiful haunting romance in Second Chance and Julia Chambers first novel My Rennaissance which is elegant erotica at it's very best, putting Fifty Shades and any other variation on that theme completely in the shade....

So thanks, Janey, for asking me what I’m up to with my writing. Here’s what I had to say:

What is the working title of your book?

I have been working on three.   The Diary of Guilty Secrets, The Charm Bracelet and 

Madasa traveller..  I am currently working on a comedy thriller. 


Where did the idea come from for the book?

Diary of Guilty Secrets is what I've wanted to write for a long time, just like the protagonist.    Charm Bracelet is a series of stories, some sad, some sexy, some tragic, some hilarious and Madasatraveller.....

My email address is madasatucker and I've been twenty years a travel writer.  How I got there is a journey in itself and I'm still on it.   It's a dream job but it has it's share of nightmare scenarios. I thought it would be interesting for people to see that the pieces to camera along the golden beaches has it's fair share of quick sand and the azure blue bath warm Indian Ocean seas have their sharks....

What genre does your book fall under?

travel fiction(alined)
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

In madasatraveller - ex husband playing a very haggard looking Hugh Grant type.  lover played by a young Rufus Sewell.     main character Emily Watson as someone who looks naive but isn't and is deeply flawed - like the author.   Or Goldie Hawn when she was very young.   And it must have the actors Ed Harris in it and Bill Nighy.   Just because..

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Bridget Jones meets Bill Bryson, occasionally with bursts of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Foul Play.   

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

by an agency  Wordcents.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

a month. I know the story. 

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

A Bridget with real problems who prefers the romance of travel to the romance with Darcey.   

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Going through my old school books and diaries and realising where I started and how far I've come....so far. 

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

There's better sex in it than there is in Fifty Shades but I think there is in most novels.   And it's very funny and inspiring. you'll want to get on a plane and keep going (and take the book with you...)