Monday, May 28, 2012
Book Tour: Suspending Reality By Kelly Rimmer
Title: Suspending Reality
Author: Kelly Rimmer
Publisher: Self
Length: 62,000 words
Genres: Contemporary Women’s Fiction, Drama
BLURB
Everyone
has parts of their life they’d like to change - but if your whole life had
become a disappointment, how far would you go to find happiness?
Esther
feels stifled by her religious, judgmental family. Cheryl is unfulfilled by
motherhood and trapped by her poverty. Carla is beautiful and successful, but
haunted by the ghosts of her past.
For
these women to find peace, someone might need to die.
Suspending
Reality is a fast moving, intricate novel of character and suspense.
EXCERPT #1
In
some places, autumn is a month that is experienced with the fullness of the
senses. The first of a year’s
goose-bumps and shivers arrive with the dawn of cooler weather. The red and gold and yellow and brown of
dying leaves blanket the earth. Dusty,
smoky wood fires burn in fireplaces that have been unused for months, and the
smell hangs heavy over towns and cities.
There
are even sounds unique to the season — those first light coughs of children
adjusting to cooler weather, and the brisk brushing of men sweeping clear their
all-important driveways. The tastes are
rich — pumpkin soup with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of paprika, or
a creamy warm milk before bed.
Cheryl
parked her car and slid out awkwardly.
She looked up to another clouded sky that threatened rain that would
never come, and sniffed the air. It
smelt just like it always did — dusty.
She thought about her childhood and how autumn had once descended upon
life and left its mark, and was suddenly very homesick for the changing of
seasons.
Parkes
had no visible autumn. The eucalypts did
not lose their leaves, so there was nothing but the usual dust to sweep from
the driveway and where Cheryl lived, no one even did that. She did not know a single soul who made
pumpkin soup or heated milk, unless of course there was a baby involved. It wasn’t yet cool enough for children to
cough, or for anyone to light a fire unless they wanted to start a
bushfire. Autumn in Parkes felt a whole
lot like summer in Parkes if someone took the sting out of the sun.
Cheryl
pushed the door to the health centre open with her shoulder and stepped
inside. In one hand, she held a packet
of Tim Tams, in the other, a half-eaten chocolate bar. The dusty overhead fan swirled musty air
around the room. Cheryl threw the Tim
Tams down onto the low coffee table and stuffed the rest of her chocolate bar
into her mouth to free up her hands to work open the stiff windows.
Any
minute now, three other Young Mothers would waddle into the room and they'd
spend half an hour complaining about how bad their lives were. A well-dressed social worker would teach them
about good parenting. The Tim Tams would
be eaten — sooner, rather than later — and then they'd all go home.
Cheryl
made herself a cup of no-name coffee at the lukewarm urn and lowered herself
into a slouch in a wide vinyl chair. The
government-issue furniture in the health centre, much like every other object
she encountered on a day-to-day basis, was old and worn. The lino tiles on the floor were peeling and
chipped, and the counter where the urn rested had been covered in grey contact
which long-had since bubbled and cracked.
She
settled back against the dull green vinyl and sipped her coffee, washing the
last of the chocolate from her mouth.
Cheryl was generally bored and depressed, but was especially unsettled
today. The sheer shock of having tipped
the scales that morning at almost one hundred and fifty kilograms had knocked
her passive melancholy into an active slump.
Somehow, she was getting fatter, and there didn't seem to be a single
thing she could do about it. Sadder
still was the reality that her gargantuan size was almost the least of her
problems.
I
am completely, hopelessly trapped.
She
was stuck in a life that was going nowhere. It was a life that she couldn’t
remember deciding to live.
When
the meeting finished and the time came to leave, Cheryl would struggle to get
out of her chair because it was so low and she was so large. She dreaded that moment each week, it
brutally reminded her that what she really needed was some way to pry herself
out of the life into which she had slid.
The problem was, the technique required was a complete mystery and she
was beginning to suspect she’d die before she mastered it.
“Cheryl!
You forgot your frozen stuff again.
Lucky I saw the ice cream on the seat when I walked past. Sometimes I think you’d be lost without me.”
“I
know I would. Thanks, Lisa,” Cheryl
murmured. Lisa tossed Cheryl’s bag of
perishables into the fridge and opened her can of Diet Coke, before turning
back towards her friend and peering down at her pointedly.
“And
what’s with the lemon face? Jessica giving you problems again?”
Cheryl
shook her head and offered a smile.
“I
just didn’t sleep well last night.”
Lisa
sat opposite Cheryl and drank most of the can of Coke in one mouthful. She propped her feet up onto the table beside
the biscuits and motioned towards Cheryl with the can.
“You
need a man, Cheryl.”
Cheryl
instantly reached for the Tim Tams. She
opened the packet awkwardly with her thick fingers, then shook two out onto her
palm and tossed the packet back onto the table.
“So
you keep telling me, but you don’t seem so happy with Mick.”
Lisa
was already rocking a little, which she often did after more than a few minutes
without her Winfield Golds. She never,
ever ate in public — and seemed to live off a diet of cigarettes and soft
drink. Lisa was a proud size 6, and had
slightly stiff but perfectly peroxided blonde hair. Excessive smoking and her atrocious diet had
damaged her skin and Lisa looked much older than 35, but someone had forgotten
to mention this to Lisa and she carried herself like a 19 year old
supermodel.
EXCERPT #2
Carla
stuffed the plastic bag deep into a garbage bin and limped briskly across the
plaza towards the hairdressing salon.
Polished
white tiles gleamed on the floors and walls and sunken but glary lighting
couldn't have been kind to older patrons.
The familiar bitterness of perming lotion and dye was in the air, mixed
with the strange sweetness of strawberry potpourri.
Behind
the stainless steel reception desk, a young blonde woman in a black miniskirt
and tube-top was scribbling in a book with a bright pink pencil. At the sound of shoes on the tiles, she
looked up, paused dramatically, and then cringed openly at the sight of Carla’s
slightly patchy, orange and yellow hair.
“Oh,
dear,” she said. She placed her open
palms on the counter and leant forward with enthusiasm and concern. “Hello.”
“Hi,”
Carla said wryly. “My niece has just
started an apprenticeship and told me she'd learnt to colour and cut. She obviously lied. I need some repair work as soon as humanly
possible.”
The
receptionist grinned and glanced down at her desk. She twisted the pencil vaguely between her
fingers as she flicked the pages of the book with the flair of a performer.
“We're
booked out, but you need an expert and we are the experts.” The receptionist giggled. “I'll shift some people around, it’s
obviously an emergency. Perhaps we can
fit you in at eleven?”
Carla
glanced at the watch on her wrist. That
would give her two hours to kill, but she was dressed like a bag lady and
needed to refresh her wardrobe anyway.
“Terrific. Thanks.”
The
plaza was in the very centre of the city of Melbourne. Piped music adorned the ambience and people
in suits walked briskly and carried environmentally-friendly, designer shopping
bags. Carla stopped at a chemist and
purchased a hair-tie, several packets of bandages and some strong antiseptic
cream, then located an underwear store.
She took a selection of pink and tan bras from the racks and a fistful
of matching lacy panties, before rounding off the visit with several revealing
items of sleepwear. The shop assistant
seemed surprised when Carla didn't try a single thing on, but happily took the
wad of cash anyway.
Next
on the list was a shoe-store. The fitter
approached her a little nervously as she stepped inside and Carla smiled
confidently. She may have been wearing a
tracksuit and hiding beneath caravan-park hair, but she was the sort of woman
who was accustomed to spending money and receiving commanding service.
“I'm
a size seven,” she announced. “And I'll
take a pair of each of these.”
The
shoe-store had to arrange a luggage trolley for her to take all ten boxes of
shoes and her large bag of underwear on to the next shop. After her visit to the casual wear store, the
plaza provided her with a porter to push the trolley and carry her bags. He waited patiently while she visited a
makeup counter in a department store to buy the cosmetics items she would
require for her time in Melbourne. The
ever-growing pile upon the luggage trolley was completed with several suits and
some handbags, before Carla and her porter made a quick stop for accessories at
a jewellery store.
“Right,”
Carla announced, surveying the packed trolley.
“Could you lead me to a bathroom? I'd like to change out of these rags
before I go to my hairdressing appointment.”
“Certainly,
Miss,” the porter said, with a level of enthusiasm that was clearly
conditional. He'd obviously been
watching her tip the shop assistants.
Inwardly, Carla sighed. Good help
was so hard to find these days, and to her constant frustration, people truly
seemed to prefer money to the joy of effective service.
When
she returned to the hairdresser five minutes before her appointment, the
receptionist surveyed her designer jeans and leather shoes, scanned her slinky
black singlet and the heavy silver jewellery she wore, and smiled.
“I
see you've been shopping.”
Carla
smiled back.
“My
luggage was lost when I flew in,” she lied easily. “I've had to replace everything, I simply
don't have time to wait for that damn
airline to find it. Is the stylist
ready?”
“Certainly,”
the receptionist said. “Can I get you a
coffee or tea? Perhaps a mocha?”
* * * *
There
was so much to do, but Carla was riding on the shockwave of motivation that
arriving in Melbourne had created. The
hotel room was everything she needed it to be, and once she'd unpacked her new
clothes, it felt like home. She sat on
the expensive camel bedspread with a newspaper and red pen and circled six
potential jobs, then made six phone calls, did some very smooth talking, and
managed to arrange four interviews the next morning.
Carla's
skills and work history were strong, and she knew she'd have her pick of the
jobs she'd phoned about. She would demand
a high salary, but couldn't imagine that being a problem. Her references were gushing with enthusiasm
and she could talk her way into anything.
Not for a single second did it occur to her that she might not get
exactly what she wanted from the Melbourne job market. She was Carla Davies, a beautiful,
successful woman who knew how to navigate life with ease.
After
a trip to the hotel gym and a light salad for dinner, Carla crawled between the
Egyptian cotton sheets on the bed and shut her eyes. The trip to Melbourne had been long and the
shopping expedition had been tiring.
As
she drifted off to sleep, Carla reflected on how at-peace with the world she
felt. It was a nice concept, and a
lovely thought to close the day with.
At
three am, she woke suddenly to find her heart racing and her sheets drenched
with sweat. Her thigh ached and her face
was covered with hot tears. She sat up
and reached for the bedside lamp. When
light flooded the room, she carefully surveyed her surroundings, and then sank
weakly against the pillows. When Carla
was finally calm enough to sleep again, she left the light on.
BUY LINK
Amazon
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kelly Rimmer is an Australian author
based in Orange, New South Wales. Her debut novel, Suspending Reality,
was published in March 2012. In writing Suspending Reality, Kelly says
she wanted to capture a moment most women experience at some point in their
lives, wondering what it would be like to just get in a car and drive away to
become someone else. How exactly would someone go about that, and what would
the consequences be?
Kelly fits her passion for writing
around her other full time jobs, which include raising two adorable children
and trying to keep the impossible polished tiles in her living areas reasonably
clean. Her next novel, Me and My Barefoot Lover, will be released in
June 2012.
Visit Kelly at http://www.facebook.com/Kellymrimmer
VBT SCHEDULE:
May 21: Love, Laughter, Friendship (Giveaway/Guest Post)
May 22: My Devotional Thoughts (Giveaway/Guest Post)
May 23: Black Hippie Chick's Take on Books & the World (Giveaway/Guest Post/Review)
May 24: The Bunnys Review (Giveaway/Interview)
May 25: More from Mom (Giveaway/Interview)
May 26: Storm Goddess Book Reviews & More (Giveaway/Guest Post/Review)
May 27: Full Moon Bites (Giveaway/Guest Post)
May 28: She Who Blogs Behind the Rows (Book Feature)
May 29: Sapphyria's Book Reviews (Book Feature)
May 30: S.O.S. Mom (Giveaway/Guest Post)
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