Never Say Never! An Invitation to Adventure

Welcome to the adventure of ‘Never’!

I’m happy to be with you today! For those of you who don’t know me, I write clean contemporary women’s fiction, with dollops of humor, faith and romance. I love to weave a bit of mystery through each story, and end it all in a way that leaves warm-fuzzies and an injection of fresh grace and faith. (Have you ever felt smitten with God? He’s smitten with you…)

About Me

I’ve always loved writing. I was an incredibly shy child growing up and never wanted to speak in front of the class. But when it came to writing stories … I thrived. Fast forward a few years. I’d surrendered my life to God and I asked Him what work He had for me to do. This writing thing kept coming up, but I didn’t know what to write. I didn’t want to write a Christian ‘how-to’ book. Firstly, there are already books covering every topic imaginable, secondly, I didn’t know enough about anything to fill an entire book!

But then I heard that Jesus taught using fiction. He told parables. The lights went on! I sat down to plot (actually it all came to me in the shower – odd, hey?) my first novel, Shackles. That one took five years to write. I had small children and zero belief in myself as a writer. The second one, Finding Mia, landed me a contract with Pelican Book Group / Harbourlight. I went on to write another three books with them before launching out as an Indie and I’m loving it!

Look at these beautiful babies!

Onto my new release – The Never List by Dianne J. Wilson

So the big question of the day is – do you have a ‘never’ list? Things that you declare that you will never do. I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Mine aren’t deep – I will never eat sushi (the texture freaks me out), I will never bungi jump (heights, duh) and I will never ride a motorbike (speed and I aren’t friends.) I almost didn’t want to type these out because it feels like I’m slapping my big hairy toe across some invisible line and challenging the universe to prove me wrong. * mops perspiration *

For Isla-Skye Whitaker, her three are less specific, but still pretty clear – never surprise me, never keep secrets and never have expectations. But when her mom passes away, she finds a laptop in among her mom’s things and her tidy world starts to crumble. Her ‘nevers’ trigger an adventure and a half.

The Blurb:

Isla-Skye Whittaker knows exactly what she doesn’t want.

Years of caring for a reclusive, terminally-ill mother will do that for you. But when packing up Ma’s things after the funeral, Isla finds a laptop with emails that paint a very different picture. She begins to wonder how well she actually knew her staid-old mom.

Driven by a strong sense of curiosity, um … duty, she sets out on a quest to find Ma’s odd collection of friends and personally deliver the news of her passing.

~*~

Griffin Stewart used to be the boy-next-door. He was also Isla’s best friend until a momentously awkward moment shredded their friendship at the age of 12. They ditched each other and moved on.

Now, Isla’s travels take her back to the old neighborhood, and right into Griffin’s backyard.
Literally.

~*~

What starts as a simple road-trip soon escalates into an adventure that pushes Isla to the edge of all her never’s.

Isla’s Road Trip

I live in South Africa and I love to set my books in SA. We have such a rich, diverse country and I can draw on memories of places I’ve visited both while I was a kid, and as a mom with my own family. This could be Isla’s road trip album…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little glimpse into my latest offering. You can find some on my books right here on Inspiration with Coffee. Inheriting Ubomi is a small town rom com, first in the River Valley series. I’m currently working on book 2 – Running Ubomi and having so much fun writing it!

Thank you for taking the time to be with me today. I’ll be looking for your Never List in the comments! Here’s a little here is something for you that is on God’s never list about you …