David Bridger - Guest post - Obstacles! (+Giveaway)

I'm delighted to welcome David Bridger to the blog today. David's a fabulous writer who writes urban fantasy and romance. His new urban fantasy Quarter Square came out not long ago. David's here to blog about obstacles! Thanks so much for being here, David and the blog's all yours!

Obstacles

Thank you, Suzanne, for inviting me. It's no secret that I consider you to be the most talented British author writing urban fantasy today, and I'm thrilled to be here. (Aw, thank you! *beams/blushes beetroot red*)

So. Obstacles.

Mine come in three flavours: external; internal; and health related.

The health thing is easy to explain. I got hurt in the navy and, although I recovered mobility eventually, some of the damage to my internal organs is permanent. It also damaged my immune system and left me with severe fibromyalgia, which hurts like hell.

Getting back on my feet was a marathon of hard work. I was paralysed for the first two years, bedbound for another five, in a wheelchair for five more, then up on sticks. But I was an endurance athlete before the injury and the distance runner mentality never really goes away. Don't give up. Get through this wall. Keep going. That sort of thing.

I kept my mind active all that time by learning how to write novels. It was another marathon, but with better scenery.

My wife gave up her career to become my full time carer. Shortly after I finally stood unaided, she fell seriously ill and we swapped roles for a while. She recovered, thank goodness, and now I'm buggered up again so she's back on watch. What's happening now is that long term side effects of the drugs that keep me alive are causing me constant, intense pain and - irony of ironies - crippling me all over again.

Do I put this stuff in my books? You betcha. :-D

Then there's the internal stuff, which I suppose is pretty much the same as everyone else's. A big soup bowl of goal-creating target-setting determination sprinkled with self-doubt, displacement activity and Gaviscon.

And do my characters get heartburn? Course they do. :-D

External obstacles, for me, mostly take the form of other people's drama. I walk away as soon as I recognise it, if I can, but it isn't always possible to do that right away. Especially in this industry. Just saying. Sometimes I have to deal.

This too? Hell, yes. :-D

So those are my obstacles. What are yours?

Thanks so much for a great post, David! And David's very kindly offering a giveaway:

Giveaway

Leave a comment about anything, obstacles or otherwise, for a chance for one random winner to receive a free (e-book) copy of my urban fantasy novel, Quarter Square.

Please leave a way to contact you (email in comment: Please remember to replace @ with [at] to forestall spam - or your twitter name - no way to contact you - no entry).

Giveaway is international and closes end of day (GMT time) July 18th 2011.

Full General Terms and Rules at the bottom of this post here.

x/posted to LJ. Comment here or there. One entry per person.

Bio: David Bridger settled with his family and their two monstrous hounds in England's West Country after twenty years of ocean-based fun, during which he worked as a lifeguard, a sailor, an intelligence gatherer and an investigator. He writes urban fantasy and paranormal novels, and you can find him on his blog, Twitter and Facebook.