Welcome to CentreStage! What an amazing run of authors we’ve had of late… and the series continues to move from strength to strength!
CentreStage showcases fantastic authors from around the world, introducing in particular my fellow featured authors at loveahappyending.com as well as fellow authors in the Sapphire Star Publishing family. In this new, exciting feature, these authors might write for you about their lives, or their writing journey, or anything else that matters to them. Every feature will be different in format and flavour, so watch out for a variety of stories and tales.
Today, it is my honour and my pleasure to host a fellow Loveahappyending.com author, the one and only Sheryl Browne! Welcome Sheryl! Today, Sheryl writes about ships captains… and unappreciated swamp monsters!
Being a shy, retiring sort of person, I don’t normally like to be centre-stage, but as you’ve asked, I… Oi, Nicky, shove over a bit! You’re hogging the spotlight! Humph. Thank you. *Turns good side to audience.* Now, as I was saying, I don’t generally volunteer to be the main attraction, preferring to stay backstage as suited to my quiet disposition.
Launching into a new venture… in more than one sense!
I certainly would have preferred not to have been the main attraction on one of our recent boating expeditions. You may, or may not know, because it’s possibly not that riveting, but my partner and I have decided on a major life-change, the idea not only to downsize, but to stop and smell the roses.
We are in the process of swapping this …
…for this!
Our new des res will actually be a luxury (all essentials included, as in plughole for hairdryer) narrow-boat, rather than a tugboat, but still some people might wonder if I haven’t taken leave of my senses. I’m wondering if I haven’t taken leave of my senses, particularly as he who fancies himself as ship’s captain apparently doesn’t notice whether the crew are on board.
My audience didn’t seem particularly moved either, when I plopped silently off the back of the boat into the murky depths of the water.
Captain Unaware doesn’t miss his crew…
Canal banks, you see, don’t have streetlights, a fact I pointed out to ship’s captain, as he deftly wedged our boat in between two correctly moored (as in, they still has the benefit of daylight to moor by) early-birds, shouting instructions to me to jump onto the bank with the mooring rope as he did so. I did. I missed. I wasn’t missed.
I still hadn’t been noticed by my absence as I emerged from the water looking something akin to a swamp monster, nought to be seen for mud but the whites of my eyes. My audience, three men discussing their day’s sailing, glanced over from their ringside seats on the boat behind us, and then had another sip of their lagers.
The captain, by this time, had managed to negotiate bank from boat, and was admiring the view, clueless, whilst waiting for me to hand him the rope. I did. At which point, brow furrowed in obvious concern, he leaned forward to wipe a splodge of mud – from the boat. Otherwise, he didn’t bat an eye. Nothing. Not a flicker of an acknowledgement of my slimy predicament. I was off his radar.
Taking the sensible way out (just)
Next crew’s job: to fetch mooring pin and mallet, in order for captain to undertake crucial task of securing boat (this job only to be undertaken by person competent enough to accomplish, i.e. someone with scouting experience). Rather than hit him, possibly with both implements, I chose to bypass the possible murder weapons in favour of the shower.
Captain was still standing on the bank, rope in hand, as I emerged from the shower, cleaner, less pungent, and dressed in my jim-jams. “Aren’t you going to pass me the mallet?” he asked, peering through the porthole, clearly perturbed.
“*!!*!*!#*!!” I answered sweetly.
The clunk of the closing porthole shutters was echoed only by the hoot of an owl – and the hasty battening of hatches next door.
Moral of story. If you are considering sailing off into the sunset by way of relaxing lifestyle-change, you might want to suggest to your man he ditches the captain’s hat, before you end up ditching the captain. Glug, glug…………………………….
Sheryl, what an amazing story! I’m afraid to say that your humorous rendition of the mud monster experience had me in fits of laughter when you were probably looking for empathy. But if you will make it sound so funny….. Thanks for sharing this story, and now let’s find out more about you and your book. Book first!
Recipes for Disaster
The shortest way to a man’s heart
Mix romantic comedy and step-by-step cooking instructions. Bake at 200 degrees for an entertaining read and handy guide.
She’s a single. He’s a widower. She wants him. He wants her. She wants to impress. So does he. There’s just one catch – she can’t cook. To get him, she needs to get past the big fish – his mother. Lucky her, she’s got an Ace up her sleeve and all she’s got to do is impress this one time. Bad luck, though, her new guy can’t cook either, her dog Rambo is on the loose and now they’ve got to pull off the big lunch at the club. Will it be a match made in heaven? Will they be able to pull off a culinary miracle? Will their combined efforts result in love at first bite? Or is it simply a Recipe for Disaster?
Recipes for Disaster is available in paperback and Kindle format, and you can buy it from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, any local bookstore, or direct from Safkhet Publishing
And now let’s find out more about the lovely Sheryl Browne:
Sheryl grew up in Birmingham, UK, where she studied Art & Design. She wears many hats: a partner in her own business, a mother, and a foster parent to disabled dogs.
Creative in spirit, Sheryl has always had a passion for writing. A full member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, she has previously been published in the US and writes Romantic Comedy because, as she puts it, “life is just too short to be miserable.”
Sheryl’s new novel, RECIPES FOR DISASTER, combining delicious and fun recipes with sexilicious romantic comedy, has just been released by Safkhet Publishing. Sheryl has also been offered a further three-book contract under the Safkhet Publishing Soul imprint. SOMEBODY TO LOVE will be published July 1st 2102.
You can visit Sheryl on her website, on Facebook and on Twitter. Sheryl is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and a featured author with innovative reader/author project, loveahappyending.com.
Sheryl, this has simply been the most fantastic tale on CentreStage, thank you so much for sharing. I like your style and I adore your sense of humour.
And now it’s over to you, dear reader. Personally, I think Sheryl was remarkably restrained in her management of her misadventure. What would YOU have done, had you been in her shoes… sorry, mud?
Nicky Wells: Love & Thrills 