Who's your favourite character?

Who's your favourite character?
Mine's a tie between Tomas Fletcher from Riverside and Dylan from The Retreat - although Dylan first appeared a while ago in Zoe's Wedding... Check out his heroic moment here...

“Oh, my God!”
I looked up at Phoebe from where I was trying to fit a load of the freshly delivered button-holes and bouquets into our special chiller cabinet, “What?”
“My water just broke.” She wailed.
I stared at her. No way. This couldn’t be happening. “What?” I repeated. Yes. I know I’d heard her perfectly well but I really didn’t want her to have just said that and I was stalling.
“MY WATER JUST BROKE!” She screamed at me at the top of her voice, “DO SOMETHING ZOE!”
I panicked. Running to the bottom of the stairs, I called for back-up “DYLAN!” I yelled, “I NEED YOU!”
He came belting down the stairs, “What?” he asked, his massive blue-green eyes full of fear, “Are we being held up?”
I shook my head, wondering what sort of a person would hold up a wedding planner business. “Phoebe’s gone into labour!” I shouted, even though we were now practically nose-to-nose, “Do something!”
He looked at me as if I was quite mad. Pulling out his mobile phone he calmly dialled 999, “Ambulance, please.” He said politely as I panted next to him, a total sweaty mess. Of course. I could have done that…
He ended the call and smiled at me, “We just have to keep her calm and safe while we wait.” He said.
Cool…
Only it wasn’t cool. The baby wasn’t prepared to wait for the emergency services. She was as impatient as her mother and she wanted out of that cosy space.
“Oh, God.” Phoebe whimpered, “I need to push.”
“Oh, my God.” I whimpered, “I think I’m going to pass out.”
“Oh, God.” Dylan whimpered, “I’m not good with girl-parts.”
“Well, I can’t do it.” I said.
Phoebe looked at the pair of us, hatred for our pathetic-ness oozing out of every pore, “Please.” She said, “Just pretend I’m your pet cat or something.”
Dylan nodded resolutely, “I can do that.” He said bravely. He turned to me, “Zoe.” He said, “put a couple of towels or something under her while I go and wash my hands.”
I nodded. Running around like a headless chicken for a good minute, I finally found something that would suffice as ‘a couple of towels or something’ and Dylan re-appeared wearing a clean apron (I know – he really was amazing). He’d discarded his suit jacket and had rolled up his sleeves and he was talking to someone on FaceTime, “They haven’t turned up yet,” he was saying, “And the baby is definitely crowning.”
How did he even know what he was talking about? I had no idea what he was talking about.
The person on the other end of the phone clearly did though, “Okay, sweetie,” she said, “Ask Phoebe if she went to classes and learned how to breathe through the pain....”

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Riverside... The full series so far...

I didn’t blame my parents’ death for my bad behaviour. Oh, I’m sure some do-gooding psychiatrist would be able to lay the blame at someone else’s door – but the truth was – I just enjoyed being bad. It made me feel better for a while. It was just when Will looked at me with disappointment in his eyes and almost a look of disgust that I felt bad about myself. That hurt…

 Our story starts on 27th November 2011 – possibly the worst day of my life. It was the day my parents died, leaving me to fend for myself – oh and my four brothers…
Yes, there were five of us – Tatum, my older brother, me, then Tomas and finally the twins, Trey and Toby.
I can almost see you rolling your eyes at our names – and believe me, I’ve done the same on many an occasion. I adored my parents but imagination clearly wasn’t their strong point…Anyway...like I've already said, they died tragically, in a car accident, leaving us with a very healthy bank balance and a great little business to run - but with absolutely no idea how to go about it - being only eighteen and all that... So, I had four brothers, three to bring up on my own, as they were all younger than me, and all three of them were full of testosterone with no idea what to do with all of those raging hormones. No I had to get creative... Now I had to become Mum...

I got in my battered old VW Golf. I loved this old car and I missed it when I was away on an operation. I sat in the seat, my mind going at a million miles an hour. I could hear my dad’s voice in my head, “Now then, Tate – you might be seventeen and think that you’re king of the road – but you’ve got to consider other drivers too you know – you’re not the best driver the world has ever seen, no matter how much you think you are.”I couldn’t help myself smiling at the memory but my eyes had filled with tears at the same time. Dad had always been really careful and considerate – so how the hell had they managed to end up killed in a road traffic accident? I sighed miserably. No doubt True would fill me in on all the details when I got home.

 Okay – so my family isn’t perfect – but then, whose is? And besides, it’s a loving and wonderful family and I love every one of my brothers – I have three of them; my sister and my brothers in law – and yes. I did say brothers in law – Tomas and Will are married now too.

I’m aware that we might appear dysfunctional. I’m aware that my relationship with my twin brother seems weird to some – but it’s what we are and they’ll just have to deal with it.

Oh, and to top off all of the madness - I'm in love with an actress - and of course she's never going to want me - but there it is. Ever since I saw the movie 'Captivated' - I have been....










I shook her hand and I was a little alarmed to find that I was really kind of taken with her.
I was totally used to calling the shots. Women fell at my feet – not the other way around. What the hell was going on here?
I took my pint off the bar where I’d set it down and took a sip. I nodded approvingly – the girl could totally keep beer.
She was smiling at me with one eyebrow raised, “Good, huh?” she asked, amusement tingeing her tone.
I grinned back at her, “Yeah, very good.” I admitted, “So – do you ever, like, get a day off?” Oh my God – I was at it again. I really wanted to take her out on a date.
She cocked her head to one side, “Are you asking me out on a date?”
She was forthright too – a quality lacking in most of the girls I’d dated so far – they were all the same really – coy and giggly and wanting something from me I didn’t want to give them – my heart. This girl, however, didn’t seem to want anything from me except to talk and to get to know each other...



I stared at True. “A letter from my mother?” My insides felt all wobbly and I was starting to lose feeling in my legs. I pulled out a chair and flopped down. Nausea threatened to have me running for the sink but I tried my best to stay calm.
She nodded, biting her lip. “I didn’t know whether to tell you or not…”
I swallowed. “It’s fine,” I lied, “I can handle it – give it here.”
She passed me the envelope and I took it with slightly shaky fingers. This was surreal. She’d never been able to write in all the time I’d known her – she lived only for the skunk and the sex… I shivered. She’d sold me to anyone for her next fix – and had enjoyed the whole sordid show too – I guess she could argue that she wasn’t fully aware but I’m not sure I would agree. In my opinion she just wasn’t quite right in the head…
“What does it say?” True asked quietly.
I shook my head, “Nothing much – just that she reckons she’s clean now and wants me to meet her and that she has a wonderful new boyfriend – how has she got a new boyfriend when she’s spent the last two years inside?”
True sighed and shook her head, “I have no idea – he must be one of those weird people that writes to the inmates.”
“Freak,” I muttered.
“Freak’s right.” She agreed, “Are you okay?”I
I looked up into her beautiful face, all concerned for me and not in any way other than that of a sister who cared about me. This was my family - the Fletchers. They were the ones who had given me their surname to give me a new start in life and to make me less easy to find. Mum's letter had come to me via the prison service. She didn't know where to find me. I could just ignore this letter and never see her again....

I couldn’t wait to marry Will. Seriously, I could not wait. He was the love of my whole life and I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else – ever.
We had a really great relationship but there was one thing I regretted not telling him when we first got together – and that was the small fact that I was named on my best friend’s daughter’s birth certificate… I know, right…

 Riverside the Weddings is now available for pre-ordering exclusively to Amazon

Release date 31st July 2019

By popular request....

For those of you who have asked me to pull my finger out and get this one done, I am pleased to announce that "Riverside... The Weddings" is finally on its way!
Come and join us to celebrate Tomas and Will who embark on married life first, followed by  True and Sawyer, Tate and Maddie, Toby and Robyn and Trey and Clarissa, and finally, Sam and Luca... Well, that's it for now, anyway...

The release date is set for 31st July 2019 and you can pre-order now, exclusively from Amazon.