A Ground Shaking Romance!

Our book went up for sale and a day later the earth moved! I can remember times in my teens when I was always putting off doing something, my homework, cleaning my room or even getting up out of bed during the school holidays and my Mum would tease me and say "It would take an earthquake to move you". Well Mum it didn't, the book went up the day before, although in truth we did think of leaving it until Saturday.

Well on Friday the day finally came when our first book went live on Amazon. 'A Penny for Miss Spry (A Regency Romance)' is now available as an eBook across the world on Amazon and I have to admit to being more than a little excited about seeing it go up.

And along with the excitement of seeing the book finally online it also meant there was a lot of  writer's housekeeping to do. Author pages had to be set up, banners needed to be updated and life as normal had to carry on. So I shouldn't have been surprised when my to do list spilled over into Saturday, I was looking forward to a day with my feet up, laptop out with some music playing as I weaved my way down my to do list, which seemed to be expanding rather than shrinking.

With a morning gone and my list completed, I decided that I could fill the afternoon with the final edit of our next book, 'A Disguise for Miss Howe'. You can imagine my surprise when at 2.31 pm, just as I was editing a kissing scene the whole house shook. Not a general shake of say a large truck going past, but a proper chair moving shake! I could hear the room vibrating and my body moved back and forth. I felt like a rag doll. Now don't get me wrong it was over in seconds and no damage was done, but I have to admit I was in shock.

To say I was shaken (no pun intended), was an understatement. I went to my front door and looked outside wondering what it was. I thought of an explosion or a crash. But I could see nothing at all, in fact everyone was walking by as if nothing had happened. At this point in time I was beginning to wonder if I had imagined it. So to reassure myself I looked online and saw this on twitter.

Earthquake in Swansea area

(Image: European-Mediterranean Seismology Centre)

Now I know that Swansea does lie near the ends of two major disturbances,  the Neath Disturbance and the Swansea Valley Disturbance if I remember rightly from school. But you never expect to actually feel anything. There have been others over the past few years but I was never in Swansea when they occurred. The last one we had of any size was way back in 1906, the same year as San Francisco's big quake when luckily for Swansea, just like yesterday, no one was hurt.

Image Source: BBC

 But it did get me thinking. Ernest Hemingway was the writer who came up with the phrase "Did the earth move for you?". Although to be more accurate he actually wrote "But did thee feel the earth move?'' in his book 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' and where as in the book it is in almost gentle questioning between two lovers after they have made love. Today it is used as a knowing, almost clichéd question for asking if you found it enjoyable. I do wonder if I would have chosen those words for something pleasurable.  I suppose you could ask " Did the sky thunder for you?" instead. But it has too much of a flavour of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for me. Now as I go back to editing 'A Disguise for Miss Howe', Doris Day has just started singing "Shaking the Blues Away", now what are the chances of that?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
J & M