I like to try new things as new experiences provide new fodder for my imagination. In 2013 I did Tough Mudder (I thought it would be fun and challenging and it was). For me it was a way to experience a range of things that I wouldn’t normally get to do. I jumped into the ice bath. I leaped from a 5 meter high platform into cold muddy water. I climbed a mountain made of hay bales (those things are prickly, so a roll in the hay would be most uncomfortable). I also go to experience what it was like to be cold and wet and exhausted (it was a 20 kilometer course—I completed it in 4hrs). All things that I can use later to draw in when I write.
More recently hubby gave me a gift voucher to do some hot laps at a local track. So I suited up watched the safety lecture and got into the race car. My first few laps weren’t that fast as I had to learn when to brake and when to accelerate around the turns. By the end I was hurtling around at 180km/hr…at the speed it looks like the track is going to run out before it’s time to brake.
The hot laps were useful when I came to write the first scene for Maid of Ice as the hero plays a racecar driver on a soap opera. The only way he can save himself is to use magic…but how many people will notice?
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She lives in Western Australia and when she isn’t writing or reading she loves to cook, cross stitch and research places she’d one day like to travel.
Find Shona and her books
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Maid of IceBlood and Silver #3
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Stalkers and death threats . . .Excerpt:
For Finlay Ryder, danger means playing a racecar driver on a daytime soap. That is, until he’s forced to reckon with his true identity as an Albah, a magical ancient race, by one of his own kind. Someone wants him dead. And worse, an ancient vampire is on the prowl, drawing blood left and right. Now, Finlay has no choice but to hunt enemies with unspeakable powers—or risk being hunted himself . . .
. . . and that’s just the first date
Ice skater Alina Nyx is using her broken wrist as an excuse for a career change. And when she falls for handsome Finlay, Albah drama feels like her new full-time job. Learning about magic and vampires is exciting, until her life is threatened. Now, as she begins to uncover her own mysterious powers, she must combine forces with Finlay to eradicate their foes for good, or all Albah will suffer . . .
The steering was heavy, which wasn’t a good thing at racetrack speeds. Finley Ryder didn’t know enough about cars to determine what was wrong and keep the race car on the track while it hurtled around the corner at over one hundred miles an hour. He eased off the accelerator and tried to remember all the lessons he’d had before being allowed to drive the car himself.
Nothing came to mind that would save his life. The steering was getting harder. He wasn’t going to make the next corner and it was coming up way too fast.
“Car’s not responding.” Finley said into the microphone in his helmet. The microphone wasn’t there for his team to call out tips. It was there for the film crew to give him instructions and for him to spout any lines they needed said.
“What do you mean?”
What he meant was he was jelly in under ten seconds. “No steering.”
He pressed the brake, to slow the car so he didn’t hit the wall as fast. He swore. It wasn’t going to stop in time, that much was clear. “Make sure you get the accident. You might need it for a later episode.”
When they’d have to kill off his character.
Finley didn’t like his chances of walking out of this. Panicked voices filled his headset. They were never going to let him do his own stunts again after this, no matter how qualified he was.
His heart beat fast, pumping fear into his body. This was not how he’d planned on dying—he hadn’t made those plans yet. He didn’t give a shit how expensive the gearbox was. He tore his way down through the gears trying to slow the race car. There were sirens, emergency vehicles were already on the track. He didn’t take his eyes off the concrete wall to find out where they were. He knew what they were doing.
They were coming for him.
The car slowed, but not enough.
He drew in a breath to calm the rising panic. This counted as dire situation, and he didn’t care who saw or what questions they asked. He drew the air around him into a shield. He’d tested his magical abilities before, but not like this. He wasn’t sure any Albah had.
He was making history.
With an exhale, he pushed every bit of will he had into cushioning himself, and the car, from the impact. If he’d been able to access some skin under all the safety gear, he’d have added blood into the mix.
His eyes closed as everything collapsed around him.
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