Molly, known for her unflagging optimism and constant cheeriness, is thrilled to win an all-expenses paid vacation to Mauritius.

She packs her camera and a few colourful bikinis and can’t wait to have some fun in the sun.

Little does she know there’s a catch.

Guest Post by Author Cassandra Piat

Thanks so much for hosting me on your blog today.

It’s funny, when I started writing Stuck with Me, I told myself that it would be new for me to write a book that had nothing to do with me or my life because my first book What’s it gonna be? was loosely based on me and people I knew. Lucy, the main character in it, was all me. Whereas this time I thought that I was going into unchartered waters as I would have to make up the characters, their lives, thoughts and feelings and tell their story from scratch – and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to.

But I did, and it was easier than I’d anticipated. But one thing I realised as the story unfolded was that without planning to, I snuck a bit of me here and there in the story. Not through the main characters this time, but through secondary characters. Molly, the main character of Stuck with Me, has a mother who suffers from anxiety – like I do. Somehow it just seemed right to put that in there as I know that it’s something so many people suffer from and I wanted to talk about it a little and maybe make those who are in that situation feel a little less alone.

Then there’s Samantha, a lady Molly meets at the hotel in Mauritius. She’s a mother of three who’s burnt out and just can’t keep up with all the demands her husband, children and life put on her. She’s disorganised and has a lot of trouble keeping up with up everything she’s expected to do. Once again, that’s me. I try so hard to keep up with everything that I need to do and remember, but never quite manage to, and it’s so exhausting. For example, the other day my son had tennis and we have a tennis run organised with a few mums so that we don’t have to go every week. So I tell my son to get ready and wait outside for one of the mum’s to pick him up. Fifteen minutes later he’s still there and I’m about to phone the mum in question to ask her if there’s a problem… and that’s when I suddenly realise that maybe it was my turn to do the run! And it was…

Another recent example – I had to go buy pellets for our rabbits, and in the small town of Curepipe where I live, there are only two little pet shops and they close at 5.30pm. I, of course, manage to run late and get there at 5.30pm sharp but luckily I find a parking on the opposite side of the road not far from the shop. I grab my bag to jump out the car when I realise that… I forgot to wear shoes! So I can’t get out the car. Who even does that?!! Anyway, might as well tell you the rest… So there was no way I was leaving without the pellets because it had been two days since I was meant to have bought them. So I did what anyone would do … I rang up the shop and told them that I was outside in my car on the other side of the road and really needed pellets for my rabbits, but had forgotten my shoes! The guy burst out laughing – of course – but kindly agreed to come and deliver the pellets to me in my car!! Okay, so I know you’re probably laughing, and I am too because it was funny, but it’s just that things like that happen all the time and it gets exhausting in the end. Anyway, back to my book, I needed to find a reason for Samantha to be at the hotel alone, and putting that seemed fitting somehow, and it worked.

Anyway, all this to say, that no matter what genre we write or who our characters are – I realise that there’s always a piece of us in our stories somewhere. Sometimes it may be in a significant way – like for me in What’s it gonna be? – but most of the time it’s just in glimpses such as a way of thinking, a sense of humour, an opinion on something, an experience we had, our dreams. But we’re always in there somewhere…

Author Cassandra Piat

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