Cate Ellink on Secret Confessions: Down and Dusty

Rachael Johns couldn't make it today so she sent her friend Cate Ellink to chat with us!  

Thanks so much for joining us, Cate.  :)

Do people ever share secrets with you? When I was young, a family friend nicknamed me Mother Confessor because people always seemed to be sharing their deepest secrets with me. I didn't have to question them, for example, strangers would sit next to me on the train and share all manner of personal details. I heard about finances, love affairs, relationship problems, lies they'd told in the past and still felt guilty about, job issues, family problems, career hopes, and lots of thoughts on the world, life, pets, animals, business, politics. You name it, I've probably heard it.

Secret Confessions, especially to a stranger, must be cathartic. Secrets have a habit of swelling inside you, filling every thought, consuming you. Maybe when you tell a stranger, it's no longer a consuming secret but, because of the anonymity, it remains safe.

Escape Publishing has been putting out some Secret Confession series. The first was Sydney Housewives, then Back Stage featuring rock stars, and now Down And Dusty, set in an outback Queensland town. I've been lucky to have been involved in the first and third of these series. In both cases, I've tried to give an insight into a character that others around them may not know (a secret).

Lana, in the Housewives series, liked younger men. Those were the guidelines I was given for the story. I then pushed this so Lana not only enjoys a young man, but she enjoys a secret none of her friends know. The other housewives are unaware of this secret side of Lana.

Lucky, in Down and Dusty, is the local publican. I wanted her to be well-respected but tough. I created her and Dare, the new cop in town, and I liked them, too much not to give them a future. Lucky’s secret is about her holiday life. In a small town there aren't a lot of secrets she could have, but she keeps secrets from Dare. He knows because she's guarded, so he pokes holes in her wall. 

My friend Rachael Johns, who kicks off the Down and Dusty series wrote the story of Casey and Joel, two estranged lovers who are secretly still madly in love. And there are plenty more secrets among the rest of the stories as well.

Secrets are interesting things. Sometimes you can blurt your secret out when you don’t mean to. And maybe some people are secret magnets and drag these from unsuspecting people.

If you like secrets, you might find the Secret Confessions stories an interesting mix. Pick a series, or grab one story that catches your eye, and get ready for a steamy read…you might want to read it in secret ;)

You can find Cate on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/CateEllinkAuthor/?fref=ts and Twitter: https://twitter.com/CateEllink