Mixing things up

While there are only a few universal plots, that doesn't necessarily mean that a writer is in any way limited. You can change things around a bit. Let's take romance. Don't like the man bounding in to rescue the woman? Do it the other way. Like the Pygmalion plot of a man coaching a woman to be more than she is at present, but not necessarily in that order? Turn it on its head.

I remember watching the movie "The Bodyguard" and it occurred to me that all the things that make a successful bodyguard are the same across genders: skill, instinct, focus. So why not have a female bodyguard for a change? I know they exist. And have the woman guarding a very luscious male body?



Of course it's not gritty reality. After all, no bodyguard worth his or her salt would get involved with a client in the middle of an assignment. But a lot of romances require some suspension of disbelief, so if you're prepared to do that, then I think I have just the book for you.

Guarding His Body was the first contemporary novel I sold and tells the story of Australian martial artist, Helen Collier, and the French body she guards, Yves de Saint Nerin. Yves makes the initial mistake of confusing "Hel" Collier for a grizzly male type nicknamed "Hell". He tests her and she manages to impress him and so he takes her on as his bodyguard.

The action is set in the Australian sub-tropical city of Brisbane. Brisbane is a delightful city and a place I spent a few enjoyable years, so a big hi to any Brisbanites who might be reading this. (I used to live in The Gap, by the way. Great name for a suburb, isn't it?)

The Romance Studio has a digital copy of Guarding His Body as the daily giveaway today. And, as a taste, I have the entire first chapter of the book up at my website. Please feel free to have a read and, if it interests you, sign up for the giveaway. (TRS normally put up the new books around mid-morning.) And good luck.

* Kaz Augustin has trained in several martial arts and even ran her own martial arts school at one stage. Now she is reduced to wrestling between pets while they try to steal each other's food.