This week, I am delighted to welcome, my good friend Jane Cable to my blog, to share an uplifting extract from her forthcoming novel, Endless Skies.
How are you keeping in this strange new world? Do you have a top tip to promote wellbeing?
Because I normally work at home and I don’t have any family I visit regularly, lockdown is easier for me than it is for many people. Plus I can walk in beautiful countryside from my own front door, and that certainly helps to maintain a positive frame of mind – as does chatting with friends on audio and video calls. My top tip is to be as kind to yourself as you are to others – don’t sweat the small stuff and cut yourself some slack.
I love your tip, and I love the cover for your latest novel (revealed just last week), can you tell us a little about the story?
Endless Skies is a contemporary romance looking back to World War Two, set in the Lincolnshire heartland of Bomber Command. Archaeology lecturer Rachel has a habit of bad relationships (I think we all have friends like that!) and even with her most recent affair costing her her job she is reluctant to change her attitude towards men. But as the history of a former airfield begins to haunt her and she meets octogenarian Esther, she begins to wonder if the lessons of the past could teach her something too.
It sounds a great read, could you share an uplifting extract?
After a week in Lincoln, twiddling my thumbs and waiting for term to start, boredom has become my enemy and I’m in danger of the wine bottle becoming my only friend. As ever, running is my saviour, my sanity check. Pounding the pavements and towpaths in the autumn sunlight lifts my spirits and makes me feel rather less alone.
Tonight I decide to try the other side of the canal. My route crosses the road bridge that cuts the university campus in two, separating the student union and lecture blocks from the serried ranks of identical halls of residence. By Monday the place will be teeming with students and at least some of my days will be governed by timetables, thank the lord.
The road loops around the back of the buildings to the towpath. I pound alongside the water, my steps in time with the lap of the swell against the holiday barges. Then my route swerves behind a boatyard I hadn’t noticed from the other bank and I’m briefly shaded by trees. Out in the open again a car creeps along behind me so I divert onto the grass to let it pass.
The big black houseboat is impossible to miss, its Cornish flag fluttering in the breeze. The guitar player is flicking ash from his cigarette into the water. I look away, towards the makeshift allotments squeezed between the towpath and the railway, so I don’t see the terrier trotting alongside me until I have almost fallen over it.
I stop and gaze at the bright little eyes staring up at me and the wagging tail.
“Don’t mind him,” the guitarist calls. “He likes a run. He’ll go with you if I don’t call him back.”
“Doesn’t bother me.”
The man laughs. “Me neither. Don’t worry if you lose him — he knows his way home.”
The terrier is undemanding company as he scampers along, claws clicking on the concrete. Sometimes he races into the undergrowth and once he stops to bark at a train. The towpath on this side of the canal is quiet; most of the boats deserted, already shut up for winter perhaps, canvas stretched tightly over their decks. Eventually the road becomes a grassy track before petering out at a low industrial building with an elongated pond behind it. I watch a family of swans feed in front of the sluice gates before retracing my steps, the terrier once again at my heels.
Now there are two men sitting on the deck at the back of the barge. The otherbloke is much younger than the guitarist.
“Brought Toast back then?” the older man calls.
I stop to draw breath before answering. “You were right — he’s no trouble — quite good company, in fact.”
“You can take him any time you’re passing — just give him a shout.”
The younger man is leaning against the rail and I am acutely conscious of my none too clean leggings and the sweat-marks on my lycra top.
“Well, Jem,” he says, “perhaps we should offer our new friend a beer for her trouble.”
“Another time — right now I need a shower. I… I live opposite… not far…” I feel myself crumble beneath those black, black eyes.
“I know,” he says. “I’ve seen you.”
I try to recover myself. “Yes… well… you’ll see me again.” And I take off down the path at what I hope looks like an untroubled pace.
Oh goodness, that has got me hooked. I’ve preordered my copy and can’t wait to read it. To find out more about Endless Skies, and to preorder (release date 27/7/20) click here.
What can we expect from you next?
I have just completed my first dual timeline novel, which will be published by Sapere towards the end of the year. It’s set in 1815 and 2015 when two very different women arrive in Cornwall… but when you’re a stranger in a new place, how do you know who to trust? If I tell you the working title of the book is The Man Who Talks to Ghosts it will give you quite a big hint about one of the main protagonists!
I will look forward to it. Thanks so much, Jane, for stopping by and best of luck with Endless Skies; as our friend Caroline James says, ‘it’s got best seller written all over it!’.
About the author:
Jane Cable writes romance with a twist of mystery under the overall banner of ‘the past is never dead.’ Jane published her first two novels independently and has since been signed by Sapere Books. She is an active member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and moved to Cornwall almost three years ago, where she lives with her husband. When not locked down they enjoy exploring the county’s history, visiting pubs and restaurants, and travelling abroad.
Discover more about Jane and her work, here: Facebook | Twitter | website | Apricot Plots | Sister Scribes .
Don’t miss author Kirsten Hesketh, sharing an extract from her debut novel, Another Us, on Friday 8th May! xx
