What's it all about, then?

My book, that's what I mean.

Have you ever had a dream so visually real that, on waking you can remember nearly every detail ? I have them rarely, but when I do, they stay with me and tend to bump around my head for several days, even weeks.

My book is a result of one of these dreams, and in fact I recount the dream in Chapter 2. Sounds a bit silly when I describe it, but it writes up less silly...

In my dream, then, I am with a group of old university friends who decide to go on holiday, something we do every two years. This time we decide to go the the US for a week and stay in a different hotel every night starting with a decent place and gradually getting worse and worse until we are sleeping under the stars on the last night.

Have I ever done this or anything remotely like it? No, and I have no idea where it popped up from.

Anyway, day one, in the decent hotel everyone is on their way to the bar for drinkies when I realise I've left my purse in my room. I go back to get it and am just heading off back down the corridor when I think I've forgotten something else, turn round, decide to just forget it, and turn again to bump into a gorgeous guy.

Yes, well this may seem as corny as hell, but then it was Oct 2003 and I was going through the beginnings of a divorce and just starting to come out of the relationship coma. This dream heralded, if you like, the path to recovery.

So, yes, there was a gorgeous guy, and he was tall, with dark hair and blue eyes. Totally gorgeous, and we bumped into each other as he was backing down the corridor after taking his leave from one of the rooms. The bump was a pretty big one and sent us off-balance onto the floor, and that's how we meet.

The book, I hear you cry! What about the book!! Well, after this dream, which got very hot but I won't go into that here; this is a family show, I thought and thought about the dream and a story started to form around it.

The story of a woman like me, but not me - a more extreme version of me, to make things more interesting - has this dream and likes the guy so much she wonders if he really exists. A highly unlikely prospect I admit, but hey, this is fiction and anything's possible. Don't spoil things by nitpicking about realism and probabilities!

Well, should I say that she finds he does exist? I have to really, as a love story with only one person is a bit one-sided. She goes out to the US to find him and meet him and take it from there.

The characters then, are Eleanor, 41yr old woman living in the south of France (hey, that's just like me!!) with two young boys, divorced for 2yrs with no liaisons since. Then the hero is John, 43 successful businessman living in Manhatten, New York, divorced after short marriage in his 20s and no real long term relationships since. Krista, Eleanor's friend who is based on a very dear friend of mine who helped me big time during the darkest days of my pre-divorce period. Chris, John's best mate who meets up with John in their favourite bar sitting in seats with a preferential view of female bottoms on stools to discuss women. There are one or two other characters, such as Eleanor's little sister Rachel who is a femme fatale, and one of John's brothers, Matthew who is insecure and an unlikely target for Rachel.

Does the book have sex in it? Well, we are talking about couples and a book about men and women which doesn't mention sex is rather missing an essential part of what makes a couple tick, so YES, there is sex! YAY!!

Is there a happy ending? Now that is a secret!!

You'll just have to hope that I find a publisher brave enough to take me on. hehe.