Please give a warm welcome to Ros Baxter, author of , an unique mermaid urban fantasy story as she tells you about how she copes with books, which don't end the way she would have liked. Share your story and you could win a copy of !
My characters or yours?
by Ros Baxter
When I was a kid, I read a lot. A lot. And you know what I hated more than anything? When the book didn’t end like I thought it should. I used to wail and rail and gnash my teeth, and generally throw myself around. How could they have done that to my precious hero/heroine? The one in whom I’d invested so many pages and hours.
One day, my mother saw me getting all hot under the collar. I don’t remember the book, but I do remember the moment, and the problem.
“They cut his arm off!”
(Honestly. They did. On the last page, they cut my handsome, sword-fighting hero’s arm off.)
Mum looked at me carefully, those grey eyes measuring my pain. She shrugged. “So grow it back,” she said.
“Huh?” My mind was spinning. What was she suggesting? Surely you couldn’t just...? “Are you serious? I can’t do that.”
“Why not? Are they real people?”
“No.”
“Where do they exist then?”
“In the book.”
“Where else?”
My brain struggled to catch up, as it so often did with her. “Erh, in my...”
She nodded encouragingly.
“...imagination?”
She clicked her fingers. “Exactly. So grow it back. Make like it never happened. Change the ending.”
Change the ending. At first it seemed like sacrilege. Then it was incredibly liberating. Those three words, and a whole universe of artistic licence. Of course, she also said “Even better, write your own book” (which, of course, I began to do, with a vengeance).
But I’ve thought about that moment with my mother a lot these last few days, as this battle over Charlaine and her Sookie ending has raged. Quite apart from my sympathy for this wonderful, rich, funny writer, I’ve kept thinking of all those readers, so indignant. I’ve kept thinking: just change the ending.
She gave you hers. Make your own.
What do you think? Is it sacrilege? Did you ever change the ending? I’ve got a free copy of my sexy mermaid mystery, , for the best change-the-ending story from a reader. You can read a little about the book below.
“It’s Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum meets Splash in a sexy, smart-talking debut about a mermaid in a desert, a city under water, and the secret that no-one is supposed to uncover.”
Dirtwater's straight-talking Deputy Sheriff has a lot on her plate: a nicotine addiction that's a serious liability for a mermaid, a solider-of-fortune ex who's hooked on her Mom's brownies, a gorgeous, naked stranger in her shower, and a mysterious dead blonde with a fish tattoo on Main Street.
Oh, and one other thing.
She's scheduled to die on her thirtieth birthday - in three weeks - unless she can 'change the course of destiny and save the world entire'. Throw in a Mom who's the local Mayor and a Dad who's been locked in the county jail for twelve years, and that's all the trouble she needs without her mermaid roots coming back to haunt her.
Rania's heading home to Aegira for a family wedding but she's starting to have a sinking feeling that's got nothing to do with hydroporting seven miles under the sea and everything to do with some weird connections that seem to be emerging between her, the dead blonde, her Mom's shady past and a ten thousand year old prophesy. Now if she can just steal a corpse, get a crazy Aegirian priest off her case, work out who the hell's trying to kill her and stop sleeping with the fishes, she might be able to unravel the prophesy, the mystery of the missing choirgirls and the secrets hidden in her Mom's past. And maybe even save her own ass while she's at it.
Ros Baxter has been writing since she was eight and penned a whimsical series of short stories about a race of tiny people who lived on a rainbow. While they were a hit in the playground, a few things intervened – including a career in social policy and four noisy children.
Ros started writing again in earnest three years ago. In that time, Ros has secured a two-book deal with Harper Collins Australia, published Sister Pact (a romantic comedy co-written with her sister Ali) and Fish Out of Water (Escape Publishing on 1 April), been a contributing author to the e-anthology URL Love, and finaled in the STALI competition.
Ros writes fresh, funny, genre-busting fiction. She digs feisty heroines, good friends, quirky families, heroes to make you sigh and tingle, and a dash of fantasy from time to time.
Ros also runs a successful business consulting to government and the private sector. She teaches professional writing skills and has authored a writing guide, Clarity.
Ros lives in Brisbane, Australia, with her husband Blair, four small but very opinionated children, a neurotic dog and nine billion germs.
GIVEAWAY RULES:
Ros has generously offered a copy of
to a lucky commenter!
All you need to do is just leave a comment, answer Ros' question and share with us one of the endings of a story/book you have changed and how.
Giveaway is open worldwide and ends on 10 May 2013!
Good luck!
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