Guest Post: F J Curlew – The Making of ‘To Retribution’

Its a pleasure to welcome to the blog, F J Curlew. Fiona Curlew is the author of psychological/political thriller ‘To Retribution’, published in e-book and paperback in September 2015.   Fiona has written a very personal and honest post about how she came to write her debut novel.

The Making of ‘To Retribution’

‘It’s cancer.’ I feel like I’ve been punched.

‘The treatment will leave you unable to swallow.’ I sit and stare.

‘You’ll have to be fed through a tube in your stomach.’

No! No I’m not doing that. I’m not going to let this beat me. I refuse!

The tube feeder was inserted, they insisted, but I kept on swallowing. I refused to give in, give up, let it have that power over me. It battered me. I couldn’t work. Hell, I couldn’t do anything but force my way through day after day of brutal horribleness.

When I was well enough to think, to focus, I wanted to do something…keep my brain active. I couldn’t work but I could study. The Open University. That’s what I would do. I chose creative writing and it gave my life back to me. Made me feel like I was valuable again. I had a purpose. I studied and learned and wrote. It was almost magical. Being told I was good at something again. Having a future? Dare I dream? Too damned right!

I had written a short story, ‘Catharticism’, which I had set slightly in the future in the scenario of a Britain after a military coup. The story was very well received by both my tutor and fellow students. I thought I might have something. An idea, characters that could be developed into a book.

I wrote, almost obsessively, loving it. I sent chapters to close friends who encouraged me to keep going. Eighteen months later, ‘To Retribution’, was published.

The military is in control. Tight control. Media is censored, movement restricted. There are re-education camps for trouble makers, repatriation camps for non-nationals. Jake, Brian and Suze, three idealistic young journalists, are used to hiding as they try to keep their online news channel open. They publish the truth about the repatriations, the corruption and the deceit. New Dawn, the feared security force, is closing in yet again. The trio run, yet again. This time, however, they are pursued with a relentlessness, a brutality which seems far too extreme for their ‘crimes.’

A trail of death is left in their wake as they try to escape New Dawn and find out what is really behind this hunt. They are drawn into a web of human trafficking, child abuse and murder. Only it’s closer than they think. Much closer.

It wasn’t until recently, when I was talking about the whole cancer thing, that I realised what the underlying theme was really about. The fight of one person, Suze, against a darkness, a seemingly insurmountable evil. The refusal to give up, to relinquish control of herself. To die. It was me, wasn’t it? My fight. My battle with cancer talking through my writing.

No spoilers but I have just had my five year check up and have been told I am ‘officially cured’. Life sparkles. Everything is just so much more beautiful and I love it. Every day. The simple things make me so very, very happy because it is all special. Every day is special.

About the book:

The military is in control. Tight control. Media is censored, movement restricted. There are re-education camps for trouble makers, repatriation camps for non-nationals. Jake, Brian and Suze, three idealistic young journalists, are used to hiding as they try to keep their online news channel open. They publish the truth about the repatriations, the corruption and the deceit.

New Dawn, the feared security force, is closing in yet again. The trio run, yet again. This time, however, they are pursued with a relentlessness, a brutality which seems far too extreme for their ‘crimes.’

A trail of death is left in their wake as they try to escape New Dawn and find out what is really behind this hunt. They are drawn into a web of human trafficking, child abuse and murder. Only it’s closer than they think. Much closer.

Who would you trust?

About the author:

Fiona dropped out of school aged 15, because being the consummate rebel, she hated it! After becoming a single parent she decided to return to education, graduating in 1996 with an honours degree in primary education. Ah, the irony!

As soon as she graduated she packed everything she owned into her Renault 11, including her daughter, two dogs and a cat, and headed off to Estonia to become an international school teacher.

After fifteen years of teaching, predominantly in Eastern Europe, she returned to the UK to focus on her writing.

She now lives on the east coast of Scotland with a rescued Ukrainian street mutt, a Scottish black lab and a Portuguese cat who doesn’t like the weather!

‘To Retribution’ is her first novel.

If you want to find out a bit more about Fiona, fellow blogger Joanne of Portobello Book Blog has previously interviewed Fiona for her ‘Author in the Spotlight’ feature.

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Sample or purchase at
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/619821