Today I am so pleased to welcome R.J. Scott to Joyfully Jay. R.J. has come to talk to us about her latest release, Retrograde, the first book in the Flight HA1710 series. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving R.J. a big welcome!
Moments that changed my life – Princess Di , 9/11, 7/7
The idea of one event changing a person’s life is not a new one. Most films, books, in fact all stories, have some kind of moment where the path of a life changes. This could be a big event, like a loss (or a gain!) or it could be something small, like taking a different bus home! I was watching something on the TV, I don’t even know what but I am sure it was one of those *disaster* shows, like one about plane crashes. What I do recall is turning to hubby and saying I wanted to write a book about what happened after an event, how it impacted the lives of people who were involved, or who observed. Not just one person in the middle of it, but more than one story.
Then I had the inspiration of asking other authors to write a story in the same vein, all based around characters impacted by a plane crash in Ireland and Flight HA1710 was born.
So, it got me thinking about the events that have shaped my life, and in the Retrograde blog tour I will talk about some of them. Don’t forget there is a competition as well to win a $15 giftcard and free books. Tell us about an event, big or small, after the post!
I remember exactly where I was when I heard about Princess Di, when I heard about the planes, and when I heard about the bombings on the tube. These are my Kennedy moments. They were brutal and sudden and they did change my life in their own ways. I was caught up in the hysteria of grief around Diana, it seemed to me the entire nation was caught up in it as well, and I wasn’t even a real big royalist. 9/11 needs no explanation, but the horror of it, the sudden enormity of it was enough to have all of us questioning our place in the world, our safety, our futures. And 7/7, which is what we call the London Underground bombings, was just as brutal, just as shocking.
How did it change my life? Made me less certain in my own world, made me question things. And I hate the Underground (but that has been the same since the Kings Cross Fire. All of them made me hold my family closer.
What are your memories of these events? What are your Kennedy moments?
Blurb
Co-Pilot Lachlan Donaghue wakes up in hospital, a survivor of the crash of Flight HA1710, with memory loss and the suspicion that he could be at fault for the tragic accident. When everything becomes too much he goes home to hide, back to the small Scottish town he grew up in and to his family home.
Rory Kendrick watches the news, sees every hour of the disaster unfold but never thinks that Lachlan was in the middle of it all. Or that his friend will be forced to come back home to hide and to heal. What Lachlan needs is a friend, not a lover, but sometimes the lines are just too blurred to make any sense.
Bio
RJ Scott has been writing since age six, when she was made to stay in at lunchtime for an infraction involving cookies. She was told to write a story and two sides of paper about a trapped princess later, a lover of writing was born.
As an avid reader herself, she can be found reading anything from thrillers to sci-fi to horror. However, her first real true love will always be the world of romance where she takes cowboys, bodyguards, firemen and billionaires (to name a few) and writes dramatic and romantic stories of love and passion between these men.
With over seventy titles to her name and counting, she is the author of the award winning book, The Christmas Throwaway. She is also known for the Texas series charting the lives of Riley and Jack, and the Sanctuary series following the work of the Sanctuary Foundation and the people it protects.
Her goal is to write stories with a heart of romance, a troubled road to reach happiness, and most importantly, that hint of a happily ever after.
- rj@rjscott.co.uk
- www.rjscott.co.uk/
- https://twitter.com/Rjscott_author
- www.facebook.com/author.rjscott
- www.librarything.com/author/scottrj
- www.tumblr.com/blog/rjscott (some NSFW (not safe for work) photos)
- www.pinterest.com/rjscottauthor/
Giveaway
RJ has brought a $15 gift card to Amazon or ARE give away to one lucky reader on her tour. Just follow the Rafflectoper link below to enter.
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Sounds like another incredible story!
I was walking my daughter to school on 9/11/2001 and could hear snippets of news as we passed a house. It was clear that something major had happened, but it was a while before I got more of the story. It was a sad day.
Thanks for the post and giveaway, R.J. Scott. Retrograde sounds quite appealing.
I was at work in NYC on 9/11 with an unobstructed view of the Twin Towers. Watched it all and it was HORRIFYING!
Most of mine have centered around my girls. The day I told my then fiance that we were pregnant, the first ultrasound, when the blood tests came back high risk, the amniocentesis, her coming nine weeks early, when she needed a blood transfusion while still in the NICU………..
And that is just the first daughter 😉 I could go on and on. But each time my life altered, my path changed, my view of life and priorities readjusted, I became a different me. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. I grew. Thank you for the chance.
As far as 9/11? Was up with girls with the news playing in the background like every other morning. Stopped and started watching with my youngest in my lap. Had to tear myself away from the television to go and wake my husband up. We just sat in horror watching it unfold. The hubs called in to work that day. We had family who worked in the Pentagon. It will always stick out in my mind.
I remember on 9/11 I was alone at work listening to KSCS when they mentioned that a plane had hit one of the towers. It was early news and they were speculating that it must have been a small single engine plane. Then the news got worse and I ran over to the office next door to see what Anne had heard. She pulled out a TV and shortly after that the second plane hit. We kept it on and I remember the horror I felt when the buildings collapsed. In addition there was the plane that crashed into the field and the one that hit the Pentagon. Such a horrible day.
I was working in an office across the freeway from a Marine Corp Air Station, it was chilling to hear the fighter jets continue taking off and flying over head that day.
Definitely 9/11. I was on a plane getting ready to fly to CA when the planes hit. At that point no planes were leaving and planes enroute to other destinations were being landed at the closest airports. I was able to go home. But some of my co-workers ended up renting cars and driving back home from wherever they ended up following all the diversions. It was a horrible few days of trying to process how the world had changed, worrying about friends and co-workers, and needing to get back to some sort of new normal.
Congratulations on the new release! Looking forward to reading it!
9/11 is one for me too, but since everyone is saying that the other “event” (although it wasn’t a single moment, it was a few weeks) was when the DC Snipers were on the loose. I was in high school, and the sudden knowledge that at any moment there could be someone watching with a gun and no clear motive was terrifying. People in the area changed their habits to only visit covered gas stations with short lines of sight after someone was shot at a gas station, schools mostly stopped having outdoor activities after a child was shot, etc. It was pretty world-shaking, especially coming just a year after 9/11.
Yes Cody, I remember the DC snipers so clearly too. I was out with my daughter who was a toddler at the time, along with a friend and her son. We were at a strip mall and heard the news, which was scary because the first shootings were at a similar shopping center. I remember being afraid to take my daughter to the park, or to get gas, or do anything else that would put us outside in public places. So scary.
P.S. Didn’t realize you are in the DC area too!
Definitely 9/11. I was driving to work when I first heard of it. I worked in a no radio allowed facility so news trickled in as each co-worker arrived.