New Release Play The Game by Karen J. Mossman

I’m thrilled to finally bring this book out, It’s been a long time in the making.

It still remains the only book I’ve ever done ‘piecemeal.’ I used software called Scrivener, which I still have but haven’t used for a long time.

The idea for Stella and Kelly’s story came because I’d watched a programme about the homeless and the distribution of food. The storyline grew slowly over many weeks and I wrote the scenes as they came to me.

Stella works in call centre and I based that on the eight years I spent working in one. It was situated down the road from the Manchester United football stadium. We often saw celebrities arrive for photo shoots in our ‘Orangry’, where the staff restaurant was situated.

We worked in teams just as Stella does in Play the Game. The claims work was often monotonous. As I took calls, my gaze would wander round the room. As celebs walked down the central side, I wondered what it was like to be them or know them.

Over the years, I worked in three different teams, two were taking motor claims just as Stella does, and in the last one we paid commission to the agents who sold RAC breakdown cover outside supermarkets or at exhibitions.

All my colleagues were great and I didn’t suffer the abuse Stella does. I used based on the office I worked in where several hundred all took calls in one vast room.

Lastly, when it came to choose names for my protagonists, I had been engrossed in a love story between Kelly Severide and Stella Kidd in Chicago Fire.

The actor who played Stella was called Miranda Rae Mayo. I thought Rae sounded perfect with Stella. For Kelly, Ambrose was the middle name of my uncle, and that also worked well, and thus, my characters were born.

Excerpt

I stared at him with something akin to alarm. “You want to go into my house?” I repeated.

“It’s about time we talked about that too, don’t you think?”

I looked towards my paint-peeling front door; the boarded-up panel and the kick marks at the bottom. Each told a story of violence and neglect.

There was no hiding anymore. Kelly needed to know the truth.

As if reading my mind, he said, “I know there’s a reason you’ve kept me away, but now I think it’s time to be honest about it.”

I wiped my face as I sobered. “They’ll never be a right time, but I suppose this is as good as any.”

Taking his hand, I led him to the door and paused before inserting the key. As I inhaled, I realised this moment would make or break our relationship. I couldn’t guess which way it would go because I knew what lay behind that doorway.

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