AWW Guest Post & Giveaway: Erin Golding Explores Love

Born and raised in Australia, Erin Golding currently lives in London. Passionate about film, Erin can often be found at the cinema and she blogs about movies at www.backtothefilm.com. She is also a spiritual seeker and Reiki healer. Erin wrote the first draft of her novel ‘Run to Me’ while studying for her MA in Creative Writing. As a self-confessed hopeless romantic, Erin’s writing focuses mainly on relationships and the power of love. Wanting to give Run to Me a life outside of her computer, Erin self-published her novel in 2012.

Run To Me is the unconventional love story of Abby Fox and Paul Beckett. Abby is a teacher tortured by her unfulfilled dreams. When she takes on the role of running coach at Whateley School in the small Australian town of Jungilla , she never imagines it will unravel her whole life. Paul is sick of watching his back. His father seems to hate him and he’s got a bully after him as well. All he needs is something worth fighting for. Told in the alternating voices of Abby and Paul, this story explores what can happen when life takes us somewhere unexpected. My review will be published later today.

Today I am happy to host Erin at Book’d Out discussing the inspiration for her first novel, Run To Me and offer readers the chance to win one of two paperback copies. Read on…

Exploring Love

I’ve always been a curious person. I like to know what makes people tick, and I especially like to explore the complexities of relationship. What is it that attracts us to certain people? How do we fall in love? Why is desire so powerful? The strength of our desire is one theme I focussed on while writing Run to Me. I liked the idea that we can make bad choices when fuelled by desire and by love.

I’d read about teacher/student relationships in the news and I was intrigued by the stories. How does someone get themselves into that situation? And what if someone really did fall in love this way? While I didn’t want to ignore the moral issue of a teacher’s breach of duty, I knew that some things aren’t always black and white, especially when it comes to love, and I wanted to explore the grey areas.

Run to Me is Abby and Paul’s story. I decided to tell it from both points of view so I could immerse myself fully in each of their personalities. I wanted to work out what inspired them, what annoyed them. Abby and Paul are flawed in their own unique ways and I enjoyed getting inside their heads, trying to make sense of their behaviour. Mostly I liked letting their desires guide them, even if it meant they might lose their way or choose a path they normally wouldn’t.

Running pushed its way into the story because I’d taken it up as exercise not long after I started the first draft. Both Abby and Paul enjoy running, but as I dove deeper into their story I realised it was more than exercise to them. Running was their way of escaping reality, of trying to find peace. I became fascinated with the idea that running away from our problems might be the only way to set ourselves free. That maybe the consequences of a bad decision can actually release us from whatever is holding us back.

As for love – it’s tricky, but it’s the one thing everyone can relate to. We’ve all been caught up in love’s embrace at some point in our lives. Love inspires me; it’s all I’ve ever wanted to write about. As clichéd as it may sound, I do believe love has the power to save us. That’s why we all long for it, why we all run towards it. But falling in love doesn’t always solve our problems. It can actually create some. With Run to Me I set out to write a love story in all its tangled, chaotic glory. I didn’t want a nice, neat, gift-wrapped package of love. Life is more complicated than that.

But love does change us, for better or worse. That’s life. We’re all constantly growing and shifting, aren’t we? It doesn’t matter how old you are, there is always something more to learn about yourself, about others, and about life. In creating Abby and Paul’s story I realised that adults and teenagers can have more in common than we think. Anyone, at any age, can act irresponsibly or make mistakes. Anyone can crash headfirst into love.

Erin can be found at

@BackTotheFilm  I  @Healing Scribe I @Twitter I @Goodreads

Run To Me is available to purchase

@AmazonUS I @AmazonUK I @BookDepository I  @Barnes&Noble I @FeedARead 

ENTER TO WIN

Erin is offering

two signed print editions of Run To Me

Open worldwide

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Entries close November 18th 2012

Winner drawn via Random.org