Behind the Scenes

I really don’t know what to call this post…it’s kind of behind the scenes and kind of like those directors comments you get on the DVD extras.

So, anyway, let’s get into it!

I re-released Walk of Shame this week. This was the first full-length novel I ever published–the first full-length novel I actually finished writing. It wasn’t perfect–far from it–but I published it anyway because I knew that if I didn’t do it then, I never would.

Three years later and my writing craft has improved as I’ve written and published book after book. A few months ago I decided to remove Walk of Shame (and its subsequent series) from sale and rework it. You can read about that decision here. It took longer than I thought to get Walk of Shame ready for re-publishing, but I’m so glad I did it and to make it even more special, it was ready in time for its 3rd anniversary!

As a special tribute to the book that started my career, I decided to photograph some of the places that appear in the book and share it with you. The books is primarily set in the place where I live and work and I wanted to show of the amazing Sunshine Coast to those of you who may never get a chance to visit.

This first pic is Mooloolaba Beach. In the book Claire has a shop opposite this beach on the Esplanade. I also had a cafe opposite this beach, although it looked nothing like Claire’s bakery.

And this is my shop. We sold the shop almost two years ago now and it has changed hands several times since then. This is a pic of it when we had owned it.

And it was literally across the road form the beach. This was my view every morning when I opened the doors…

In the book, Claire and Ben walk along the boardwalk…this is it:

And this is where they stop to have their picnic:

This is a photo of Mooloolaba taken from the end of the rock wall at The Spit (which is one side of the channel into Mooloolaba Harbour) Ben stayed at Oceans, an actual, real-life high rise that you can see in this pic.

When Claire was getting ready for her date with Ben, she was worried that he might ask her to climb Mt Tibrogargan. This is a real mountain and people really do climb it – although I haven’t. The photo below is of The Glasshouse Mountains of which Tibrogargan is one.

Ben did in fact climb a mountain, but it was Mt Coolum which is at the other end of the coast from Glasshouse. You can see it across the water from Mooloolaba…it’s the funny shaped lump in the middle of the pic.

I have climbed Mt Coolum and I’m with Claire on this…it’s not a fun date! My son can run up and down it and the two times I’ve climbed it, people have run past me. It is steep and rocky and I don’t do sweat well. I don’t ‘glow’ I’m more of a tomato coloured beacon burning brightly while sweat drips from me and I struggle for breath. But here is proof that I have actually climbed it!

The day we climbed it, the weather wasn’t great so the view wasn’t very good. I have been up there on a clear day and you can see for miles over the ocean. it is quite spectacular! Here is a photo from a couple of years ago from the top of Mt Coolum.