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Deborah has worked as an occupational therapist, a health service manager, a freelance journalist, and management consultant in health and social care.<\/p>\n
After writing serious case reviews and domestic homicide reviews for work, Deborah now chooses to write happy endings for her protagonists. Her page-turning, feel-good stories are about self-discovery, second-chances, friendship and community.<\/p>\n
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I did not set out to write a book about Christmas. The premise for Just Bea<\/i> was what would happen if a woman invited a homeless man to take shelter in her home. It is a conversation I have had with compassionate single women who have been tempted to offer a spare room to a refuge or homeless person. When I thought about being homeless, I tried to imagine what it would be like in the dead of winter. I could not write about winter without including Christmas.<\/p>\n
In Just Bea,<\/i> the protagonist, Bea, works in a prestigious department store based on Harrods of Knightsbridge. The countdown to Christmas is the busiest time of year for the sales staff and so the story starts twenty-nine shopping days before Christmas.<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
What\u2019s your favourite scene in your book?<\/b><\/h3>\n
Bea has had too much to drink at the floor manager\u2019s Xmas party. She is feeling sorry for herself as she was passed over for promotion. That morning on her way into work she introduced herself to a homeless man, Ryan, as he was handing out fliers with information about a man Bea once knew who had gone missing.<\/i><\/p>\n
Bea stumbled out of King\u2019s Cross Station and into the scene from a Christmas card. Powder soft snow, already a few inches thick, coated everything. A scattering of footprints was fast disappearing as more snow fell. She saw Ryan, the man with the fliers, straight away; he was helping an old woman create some shelter out of cardboard boxes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018You can\u2019t sleep out here,\u2019 Bea slurred as she carefully planted one foot in front of the other, her feet sinking into the new snow. Nobody should need to sleep on the street in this weather.<\/p>\n \u2018Careful.\u2019 Ryan reached out his hand to Bea and she jolted away.<\/p>\n A heel skidded and she landed hard on her bottom. Cold, wet snow stung her calves and thighs.<\/p>\n \u2018I saw you going, but I was too late.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What was he talking about? If he hadn\u2019t tried to grab hold of her, she wouldn\u2019t have fallen and now she was sprawled, legs akimbo.<\/p>\n Ryan bent over her, as though she <\/i>were the one in need of help. Oh God, the humiliation.<\/i> \u2018It\u2019s okay,\u2019 Bea said as she struggled up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I told you it was snow boot weather.\u2019 Ryan held up one of Bea\u2019s shoes and in his other hand, the heel.<\/p>\n Bea used the railings to hoist herself up; the sting of ice on her shoeless foot was unbearable. How long did it take to get frostbite? She\u2019d get chilblains, for sure. Bea slid back down the railings and landed on Ryan\u2019s sleeping bag.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s not fair. I work bloody hard. Nobody appreciates me. And now this!\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The old woman muttered something and then burrowed into her cardboard shelter.<\/p>\n \u2018Life\u2019s shit. But you have to make the most of what you have and you \u2013\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Are a selfish cow. I know. Everyone thinks so.\u2019 Bea\u2019s throat clogged with tears.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ryan was staring at her again \u2013 but maybe now he had cause to stare. She was making a spectacle of herself but Bea didn\u2019t have the energy or will to control her emotions. Losing the heel of one of her Jimmy Choos wasn\u2019t a catastrophe in itself but it felt like it on top of everything else she had endured that day. Then when she tried to be a good Samaritan \u2013 to show this man the compassion that she would have wanted Declan to experience \u2013 he bloody well threw it back in her face.<\/p>\n \u2018Why didn\u2019t you let me buy you a coffee this morning?\u2019 she wailed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Because I don\u2019t drink caffeine.\u2019 Ryan spoke softly, a lilt to his voice.<\/p>\n Big flakes of snow that reminded Bea of ones she had cut from paper in school rested and then melted on her nose and eyelashes. They felt like tears, and maybe they were. Bea buried her face in her scarf, wishing that she could curl up and go to sleep right there. Let the snow bury her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ryan coughed. \u2018I don\u2019t want to seem inhospitable but you\u2019re sitting on my bed and it\u2019s getting late. Maybe you should go home and sleep it off.\u2019<\/p>\n Her mother would be appalled. She was slumped on a homeless man\u2019s bedding at eleven thirty at night, on the street at King\u2019s Cross. Bea<\/i> was appalled. She scrambled to her feet. The snow was falling thick and fast.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019ll put something over the cardboard, Sal, make it waterproof,\u2019 Ryan said to the old woman.<\/p>\n It was almost impossible negotiating the snow with one heel missing, but Bea could not bear the feeling of ice on the sole of her foot. She headed for Denny\u2019s because that had been in her mind when she got off the train \u2013 to buy a strong coffee. But when she was at the counter, Bea had an idea. Hot chocolate. A hot chocolate would warm Ryan and Sal up and make amends for her bad manners. Hot chocolate didn\u2019t have caffeine. Then she would go home to bed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When Bea returned balancing two large hot chocolates, Ryan was securing thick bin liners over the cardboard shelter. Triumphant in her act of generosity, Bea held up her offerings. \u2018I got you both a \u2013 ouch!\u2019 The lid slipped off one of the cups, scalding her hand, and Bea lost her grip. Almost in slow motion, she watched both cups tumble through the air. The brown liquid made an arc before landing on Ryan\u2019s sleeping bag.<\/p>\n \u2018Jesus Christ!\u2019 He whipped up his bedding but it had already absorbed the hot, sticky drink.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m so sorry.\u2019 Bea tried to help but he elbowed her away.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This year, in the twenty-nine shopping days before Christmas, Just Bea<\/i> will be reduced to the bargain price of\u00a0 <\/span>99p or 99c.<\/p>\n Just Bea<\/i> is available as an e-book and paperback. It is free to Kindle unlimited.<\/p>\n Amazon.co.uk <\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Where can you find Deborah?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n