About
Gary is a novelist living in the northeast of England. His work, largely literary fiction, focuses on themes that touch us all — love, death, loss and aspiration — but always with an eye to finding an unusual angle or viewpoint. Quirky and highly readable, his writing aims to entertain first and foremost. If he can also offer a previously unfamiliar perspective or insight, all the better. His first novel, If I Never, is published by Legend Press and is now available from all major bookstores.
Description
<p>FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES<br /><br />At barely nineteen, Angelica Donovan became one of the more successful winners of the T.V. show Our Next Super Model. The world assumed she was destined for a happy, fairy tale life as ‘Angel,’ the beautiful girl who was living the dream; sadly, that wasn’t to be the case. As the years passed, she flashed her million dollar smile to all her fans and fought to stay on top in a profession where you never knew who it was safe to trust while the fashion industry took big bites out of her heart and soul. And trust was a constant challenge for Angel due to the painful childhood secret she guarded as carefully as she did her heart. As a result, she never did find her true love on earth.<br /><br />When she wakes up ‘dead’ from a heart condition a month before her thirty-fifth birthday, Angel is at first relieved to find there is no death, just a change of state, like ice to water, and then she’s scared because her biggest and most important adventure is about to begin.<br /><br />Angelica is chosen to be an angel in training as a spirit guide for three souls on earth! Her assignment is to help two women to gain the courage and confidence to find, recognize and embrace the love that had eluded Angel in life. But her biggest challenge will be to save a very special little girl from the same evil experience that had poisoned Angel’s own earthly happiness and altered the course of her life.<br /><br />Will Angel be able to heal her own shattered soul in the process? And will the three souls she is guiding be able to recognize her, not as a ghostly threat, but as one of those ‘friends in high places’ we all have; the kind who often end up earning their wings.<br /><br /> </p>
Story Behind The Book
If I Never was written at a time in my life when I was very determined to write the novel that I wanted to write, rather than the novels I've been told I should be writing. I very consciously broke many so-called writing rules and, to a degree, stuck two fingers up at those who said I couldn't write this kind of novel and get it published. I wrote it and the first publisher I sent it to accepted it.
A lesson there for all aspiring writers!
Reviews
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;" class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="color:#000000;font-size:12pt;" lang="en-us" xml:lang="en-us">"[If I Never is] a book with a mind as well as a heart, and is all the better for it." -- </span></em><span style="color:#000000;font-size:12pt;" lang="en-us" xml:lang="en-us">Able Magazine.<em></em></span></p><p></p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;" class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="color:#000000;font-size:12pt;" lang="en-us" xml:lang="en-us"></span></em></p><p> </p>
<p style="text-align:justify;margin:5pt 0cm 5pt 36pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><em><span style="color:#000000;font-size:12pt;" lang="en-us" xml:lang="en-us">"If I Never is a novel as dark as the late British afternoon in winter. As rich as blood sausage, and as satisfying as a full English breakfast." -- </span></em><span style="color:#000000;font-size:12pt;" lang="en-us" xml:lang="en-us">Gregg Farley, innovation consultant and author of Jack's Notebook.</span></span></p><p></p>
