Behind the Book with Rachel Lyndhurst

Social networking is now an important part of an author’s life, a valuable tool to gain exposure, talk about your books and interact with readers. It’s something that can be very enjoyable too, but I’m a relatively private person, so I don’t give it ‘all’. I can’t, it’s just the way I am. You won’t find me posting pictures of my children or a whole load of selfies (I always look so terrible in those. Skype is just the same *shudders*). No tattoo shots either because I don’t have any, but there is always a little bit of me in each book I write. So here’s a morsel of top secret info about my brand new Indulgence release: Blackmailed by the Billionaire Brewer.

Back in the summer of 2012 the only family pets we had were a rabbit and a rather violent Malawi Cichlid. That was until a very thin golden Bengal cat adopted us. I found him sleeping on the veranda on a sun lounger cushions and when a neighbour said she’s seen him eating bread off her bird table it was clear the poor boy was very hungry. So we gave him a little food on the back step every day until an urban fox nearly got him. From then on he had a dish in the kitchen and before we knew it he was on four meals a day, looking a lot fitter and asking to come in at dawn each day. Bengal cats are very noisy … Autumn came, the nights got colder and we had terrible rain so we let Max (as he had now become) stay indoors at night if he wanted to.

For an unneutered male, he was the sweetest cat we’d ever come across, but he did have fleas. And he did like to be let out for a pee in the early hours, so having done all we could to find his original owner we made the decision to make him properly ours and look after him. Within hours of making this family decision Max went missing and after searching for a few days we discovered he had been run over on the road and killed. We were devastated. And shortly after that, our rabbit got sick with bone cancer.

Throughout this time of sadness and multiple trips to the veterinary surgery I was writing the book that was to become Blackmailed by the Billionaire Brewer and channelling some of the heartbreak I was experiencing into the book became a form of therapy. The book simply had to have a cat in it and I wanted there to be lots of fun. It was a way of giving my family’s sad story a happy ending and a kind of tribute to the pets we loved so much. It helped me a lot. It helped me be brave and strong when the children were in pieces.

So, look out for the pregnant stray cat who threads her silky body all through Blackmailed by the Billionaire Brewer because she was inspired by Max and looks just like the silver Bengal cat who rules the roost in our house now.