Someone recently asked me how I’d come by the idea for ROADRAGE. I explained to her that the seed of a plot came about quite by chance at about 2.30 am on the M4 motorway around Briton Ferry near Swansea in South Wales. I was driving, and my passengers, my son and wife, were both fast asleep. We were on our way to visit my mother who had not been widowed very long at the time. Almost at the end of a four hour car journey and late at night, you can imagine my eagerness to complete the last few miles. As I came onto a long, dark, deserted stretch of road, I saw, in the distance, a solitary car moving slowly up ahead. I was covering the gap between us fast, so as I approached I indicated to let the other driver know I intended overtaking. As I passed this car, it took me a few moments to realise that I wasn’t making the progress I might have anticipated. I still didn’t quite get it, and simply accelerated, thinking it would immediately be the solution. Yet the car alongside me maintained its position, despite my having increased my speed. Suddenly, I realised what was going on and felt, I’m almost ashamed to say, a sudden burst of anger at the other driver’s rank stupidity. For a minute or so I reacted (as I was undoubtedly meant to) by continuing to accelerate, but nothing I did could shake the other car off. Then, sanity came to me by way of a simple, clear thought: “The people I care about most in this whole world are asleep in this car, am I going to risk their lives, and my life too, for the sake of some daft vendetta?”
I slowed down to forty miles an hour and immediately dropped behind the other car. As soon as I’d reduced my speed, and had drawn in to the left hand lane, and was once again following, the car in front immediately dropped its speed down to forty miles an hour again. We remained travelling in convoy like this for the next few miles; fortunately, my exit from the motorway was fairly close. Incidentally, I made sure they’d passed the exit before giving them any indication that I planned on taking this route myself. It occurred to me that I didn’t want someone like this following me to my destination!
And there you have it. Naturally I make this incident considerably more dramatic in the book, fleshing out a back-story for my seemingly hapless hero, and take the antagonist’s malice well beyond the bounds of sanity. The underlying theme of ROADRAGE is the corrosive nature of hate. I used an appropriate classical quotation to set the mood for the book:
Hate is a bottomless cup; I will pour and pour.
Euripides, Medea
ROADRAGE, which has never been offered free on Kindle before (and may never be again!) is available to anyone with an e-reading device from midnight PST on Thursday 17 May - midnight PST on Monday 21 May.
It’s scary. Enjoy.
Here's the link: ROADRAGE free on Kindle
I slowed down to forty miles an hour and immediately dropped behind the other car. As soon as I’d reduced my speed, and had drawn in to the left hand lane, and was once again following, the car in front immediately dropped its speed down to forty miles an hour again. We remained travelling in convoy like this for the next few miles; fortunately, my exit from the motorway was fairly close. Incidentally, I made sure they’d passed the exit before giving them any indication that I planned on taking this route myself. It occurred to me that I didn’t want someone like this following me to my destination!
And there you have it. Naturally I make this incident considerably more dramatic in the book, fleshing out a back-story for my seemingly hapless hero, and take the antagonist’s malice well beyond the bounds of sanity. The underlying theme of ROADRAGE is the corrosive nature of hate. I used an appropriate classical quotation to set the mood for the book:
Hate is a bottomless cup; I will pour and pour.
Euripides, Medea
ROADRAGE, which has never been offered free on Kindle before (and may never be again!) is available to anyone with an e-reading device from midnight PST on Thursday 17 May - midnight PST on Monday 21 May.
It’s scary. Enjoy.
Here's the link: ROADRAGE free on Kindle
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