I’ve Been Tagged: I’ve Got the Look!

Well, I’ve finally done it! Got involved in a blog hop! My dear friend and wonderful author, Su Halfwerk, http://www.suhalfwerk.blogspot.com.es/
has persuaded me to take the plunge with “You’ve Got the Look.”
The concept of this tagging is to take my latest work in progress or current manuscript and search for the word "look" then post some of the surrounding text/paragraphs and tag 5 authors.

My current WIP is but a weak and tiny thing and does not yet contain the word ‘look’, so I’ve chosen ‘All in the Mind’, my new release.

Years ago I read about an old folks’ home where they did the experiment of making the residents’ environment like that of their youth. I can’t remember where I read this or what they were attempting to prove, but I do remember that one surprising result was that the subjects’ hair darkened.
I’ve had the idea lurking at the back of my mind ever since. What if you carried the experiment to its logical conclusion?
Last year I entered Nanowrimo for the first time (a competition to write a novel in a month) and this was the idea that resurfaced when I sat down at my computer. I managed to fulfil Nano’s requirements and produced a first draft of slightly over the 50.000 word required minimum within the 30 day time limit.
It took almost a year to get from that first draft to publication, but it finally made it in October 2012, published by Melange Books.
One of the problems I have with my books is trying to decide what genre they fall into and ‘All in the Mind’ was no exception. Is it historical, inspirational, romance, science fiction? It is all those things, but I finally settled for ‘speculative fiction’, which will probably spell its doom. Who searches for speculative fiction?
The other problem is that it isn’t much like any other book I can think of. My previous novel, ‘Domingo’s Angel’ could be compared to Louis de Bernières’ ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ in that it takes place in a Mediterranean country during a period dating from before the second world war to the late 20th century and is basically a love affair set against a background of war. I had not thought of the connection but a lot of my readers subsequently commented that it was like ‘Chocolat’ – the stranger arriving in a closed village community and changing everything.
But ‘All in the Mind’ is not like that. I seem to remember Stephen King did a television series about an old man who started to get younger but I can’t remember much about it and I don’t think it was very similar to my story.
Some commenters say it reminds them of ‘Benjamin Button’, but that is before they have read it. Benjamin Button aged backwards, like Merlin. That is, he was born old and gradually grew younger until he died as a baby. The couple in my story, Tilly and Johnny, are born and grow old in the usual way, but in extreme old age something happens to make them get younger. Does this continue until they become babies and die? I’m not telling you. A girl has to preserve some mystery!
I am just hoping that the unusual plot will pique interest. Few romance stories begin with the protagonists in their eighties!

Blurb
Tilly wakes up in the dark, alone and very frightened. She finds she is in a strange room inexplicably furnished in 1940s style. However did she get here? Has she somehow slipped into the past? Has she been kidnapped? Of one thing she is absolutely certain, she has never seen this place in her life before.
All in the Mind is a fascinating tale exploring the human capacity to overcome any obstacle, no matter how great, as long as you believe you can.
Tilly is part of an experiment working on a cure for Alzheimer's disease. She and most of the other patients taking part in the experiment seem to make a full recovery, but there is a strange side effect.
Tilly and her fellow experimental subjects appear to be getting younger.
Can the same experiment be repeated for Tilly's beloved husband so that he can recover from a stroke? Tilly thinks it can and she will move heaven and earth to make sure it happens.
A charming and thought-provoking story full of reminiscences of a bygone age, All in the Mind also deals with the dilemmas posed by new developments in a society whose culture is geared to the idea that the natural span of a human life is three-score years and ten.

The story begins with Tilly dreaming about her past when she was a nurse at the end of the Second World War. The war in Europe is finally over and she has just met a handsome young soldier coming back from France …

“What? This weekend?”
They were in the hospital cafeteria, Tilly leading the way, looking for a free table, Johnny following on behind with a tray of tea and cakes.
“I'm being posted next week and I don't know when I'll get another chance.”
Tilly found a table and sat down, placing her bag carefully between her feet.
Johnny placed the tray on the table and sat opposite.
“I'm supposed to be on duty,” she said.
“Supposed?” Johnny began, taking a mouthful of tea. He spluttered, but managed manfully to swallow it.
“For f – heaven's sake,” he exclaimed, suppressing the more robust army oath which had risen to his lips. “What on earth is this?”
Tilly smiled. “The general consensus amongst the staff is that it's the floor sweepings from the tea warehouse, but some of us think it comes from a less salubrious place – a stable, for example. Of course,” she mused, “its unique flavour is enhanced by making it with lukewarm water and leaving it to stand for at least twenty minutes.”
“Jesus,” Johnny muttered under his breath, afraid the other customers might hear him blaspheming, “It's worse than the stuff they give us in the NAAFI.”
“You should try the cakes,” Tilly said sweetly.
Beneath the merry banter, she was in a terrible stew. She was terrified of meeting Johnny's parents. She saw them in her mind's eye – his father, stern and forbidding with a military bearing and mutton chop sideburns, looking, now she came to think of it, very much like Kaiser Bill - his mother very stiff in bombazine, her grey hair piled on top of her head, a lorgnette held before her piercing grey eyes – both of them scrutinizing her with obvious disapproval.
She found herself tracing the rings on the table left by countless tea cups and wondered how long she could postpone the fateful meeting. Her instinct was to put it off as long as possible. There was no way they could possibly find her acceptable. She had been foolish to even consider it. The minute they met it would be all over for her and Johnny. They would put a stop to it and look around for a more suitable daughter-in-law.
“I can't wait to get home and have some real food for a change.”
“What?” Tilly said, startled out of her thoughts.
“Real food, you know. Fresh eggs, proper meat, butter.”
She fixed her eyes on his face, searching to see whether he was joking. He wasn't.
“Fresh eggs,” she repeated in reverential tones.
Suddenly they were sitting in a circle of silence. Tilly realised that the customers at the nearby tables were all looking at them with an identical hungry expression. She could feel the same expression on her own face. It wasn't that they were starving exactly, the ration was adequate, but that was all it was and everyone craved more interesting food.
“Yeah.” Johnny seemed entirely unaware of the effect he was having. “I can't wait to get my teeth round a nice pork chop or a leg of chicken.”
Tilly felt her mouth water and was afraid she might begin to dribble.

I hope you like the excerpt.
It's time to pass on the torch to 5 authors who I believe do possess The Look, but sadly all my friends seem to
A. Already have done it
B. Be up to their neck in NaNo or launching a new book
C. Have no blog. Or
D. Are not speaking to me.
Except for the lovely Anne Ashby, Antipodean novelist extraordinaire. This is her site:
http://www.anneashby.com/blog/
And my new friend, Susan Hughes: susanrhughes.weebly.com/blog.html
And the fabulous Christopher Carrolli: www.christophercarrolli.blogspot.com
You see? I DO have friends, they were just being shy. I might even make 5 at this rate!