by Eva Scott
Fish-out-of-water (FOOW) stories are a main staple of romance novels. I love writing FOOW stories, probably a reflection of how I’ve lived my life. In Red Dust Dreaming, our heroine, Elizabeth Langtree, hails from New York City so when she finds herself in the middle of the Australian desert on a cattle station with a super-hot man and an orphaned little boy she is well and truly a FOOW. Nothing is like home at all: the food, the people, the environment, the romance – everything is different and challenging.
While being a fish-out-of-water is uncomfortable, confronting, and exhausting, it is also the time when magic can happen. When you crack open the boundaries of your life and let new experiences, places, and people enter, anything can happen.
Here’s 4 ways you can get a little change happening in your own life:
- Travel – I was bored with my job/life/romance to the point I didn’t think I could stand it one more day so I took off on a do-it-yourself tour of Papua New Guinea. Everyone told me terrible things would happen to me travelling there by myself, but the truth is I met the love of my life while visiting the Royal Papua Yacht Club. Now I have the relationship I always dreamed of. You don’t have to go somewhere quite so remote. A good adventure to somewhere you’ve never been or to do something you’ve never done before might just yield you a fabulous connection you might not have found at home.
- A New Job – I’ve had lots of jobs completely unrelated to one another. Who needs a career path, right? Egg Candler, roof tiler, fruit picker, project manager, business analyst, training manager, superannuation advisor, nanny, bakers assistant, dishwasher at a curry house – writer. So many of our friendships occur through work. Change your job and widen the circle of your acquaintances. You never know who you might meet.
- Move to the country/small community – The really great thing about moving to the country is the novelty you present to a new town. You’re new blood and everyone will be interested in who you are and how you’re going to fit in. The disadvantages are small towns are pretty insular and before long the novelty will wear off and everyone will know your business. But by then you’ll be having so much fun you won’t care.
- Be true to yourself – You remember that old dream you had? The one you nursed through your younger years before career/family/obligations took over and it became a distant memory? The one everybody said was a pipe dream? Yeah, that one. Time to reignite it and connect with that part of yourself that got trampled in the rush of Life. You never know where it will take you.
In the battle of duty versus desire, only one can survive the hot Australian sunshine.
Elizabeth Langtree’s has her life in order – safe, organised, planned. Sure, she has her troubles, but they are nothing she can’t handle. Then everything is turned upside down when her family send her to Australia to collect her orphaned nephew.
It all seemed so simple in New York, but Australia is nothing like she expected, and she soon falls under the spell of the Outback – the station, the lifestyle, and the seriously sexy owner who has been caring for Luke since the death of his mother.
Elizabeth soon discovers that what seemed simple a world away is anything but, and her duty is at odds with the dictates of her heart. She must choose, knowing that a mistake will not only cost her everything, but destroy the future of a devastated little boy.
The Escapades 