Like many authors before me, I was inspired to write when I lived on the Cote d’Azur. Over twelve years we lived in beautiful Antibes, Biot and Mandelieu-la-Napoule.
A sizeable chunk of ‘Substitute Child’ was dictated into an old fashioned recording machine while I walked to the beach at La Napoule in the south of France in the sultry summer of 2018.
My first novel, ‘Over Byron Bay’ had taken thirty years to write and publish so I was keen to improve on my timing. I knew it was an easy target to beat but wanted to smash it. I’d listened to a podcast by the indomitable Joanna Penn who had advocated the use of talking my book out rather than writing it down. So I accepted the challenge. I know a few people thought me odd and I excited a number of dogs on my daily walk.
Discovery of a bottle by a sailor is the catalyst for Charlotte Wyatt’s journey from Byron Bay in Australia to the Cote d’Azur in France.
The reason for the title of the book is revealed in Chapter 1.
Scott Wyatt had been a constant presence in her life, which was surprising given that he’d died before she was born. Because of this, Charlotte Wyatt never quite felt she was an only child. In fact, some days she felt like the substitute child, a child born of grief, to replace the memory of a child who only lived a day.
No one ever called her substitute child to her face, but she heard it in the words not said. For example, when her mother would introduce her, she felt as though she could hear them thinking, ‘Oh you’re the child who came after Scott died’.
Her mother had been married before she met her father. She didn’t know the details. There was definitely a back story to their relationship …
Charlotte Wyatt’s story includes: a journey across the world to collect a bottle with a message inside; living vicariously as a ‘substitute’ and getting swept up in someone else’s story; love interests from three potential suitors; search for identity and future career direction; analysis of what makes a story go viral and exploration of her relationship with her mother and best friend.
There are also fabulous fashions, beautiful places and a few famous folk in walk-in and run-in roles.
Here’s a map of where the story is set on the Cote d’Azur.
Charlotte also visits London, Paris, Los Angeles, New York and Rome. I’ve posted a few snaps from the trip on SlideShare.
I’ve also included a walking tour of Antibes and Cannes in the back of the book for those who want to vicariously follow Charlotte’s journey.
If I could turn my book into a screen play and choose who would play which role, I think that Saoirse Ronan would make a wonderful Charlotte Wyatt and Chris Hemsworth a striking Scott Harmon, (well Chris and Scott are both from Byron Bay).
Apart from a few celebrities, many of the characters in Substitute Child have been influenced by people I’ve met and of course my own experiences.There’s a conversation in Substitute Child between Charlotte and her mother which closely mirrors my own conversation with my mother when I was intent on going overseas after finishing university and she was afraid to let me go.
I had a lot of fun writing Substitute Child and early reviews indicate that readers are smiling too. You can buy it on Amazon here.
Article originally published in the Australian Romance Readers Association newsletter.
