And so the countdown begins...

The following is the first 500 or so words of the first short story I will be publishing via Kindle... I'm really excited about it as it is a collection of 7 shorts which I will sell both individually AND as a collection. The first will be released within the next 24 hours. Check out the Kindle store tomorrow for DEEPER by Mo James if you want to see the whole story in all of it's gory detail!!

It was Tessa’s last week of work before she went on a year long trip abroad to fulfil a childhood dream – she would be working as a volunteer on an African reservation where she would be playing surrogate Mum to an orphaned big cat. She wasn’t sure exactly which cat it would be, but she did know that there was a good chance it would be either a white lion or a cheetah.

In anticipation of her trip, she’d planned her previous months workloads meticulously, only taking on clients she knew she could complete therapy with prior to her leaving. She didn’t want to leave things un-finished for clients as she knew it could have a serious effect on their well-being once they couldn’t get hold of her. Unfortunately it meant that a lot of the candidates she had taken on were in need of relatively simple treatments – lots of smokers who didn’t want to smoke any more, a few dieters who had lost the ability to lose weight without outside intervention, several people in need of intense bereavement counselling and the usual bunch of over-achievers needing to learn new stress relieving strategies. But then there were the exceptions...

Seven clients – none of whom had been referred – had deeper rooted issues; emotional issues which had brought each one of them to the brink of suicide. It was Tessa they had come to for help after she’d spoken to them on the internet. Her introductions had been through a site which catered for no-one other than people thinking of ending their own lives and looking for support. To avoid un-wanted stalking Tessa had assumed a different name on the site – Verity Jones.

In addition to the name-change Tessa had opted for working with her alternative clients in a more public place – a hotel about sixty miles from where she normally lived and worked - but still fairly central to each of her client’s homes.

This being Tessa’s last week she’d decided to tie in her work with a week of sight-seeing, so the London hotel she had chosen was perfect. Her plan was to see one client a day – 10am start – then once the sessions were complete she could enjoy London’s sights for the rest of the day.

It was Sunday evening. Tessa was laid in bed reading the information she had been sent by the owner of the reserve she would be living on in 10 days time. She couldn’t wait. As she drifted off to sleep her thoughts turned to the final week of paid work she was about to embark upon, more so the clients she would be working with, and how she hoped that she would be successful in her quest to give them all something they would remember until the day they died…

Monday – 10am; Brian Donahue…

This was to be Brian’s eighth and final session with Tessa. He had actually told Tessa that he didn’t feel he needed her help any more by the sixth session, but Tessa had pointed out that he’d already paid for up to eight sessions, and, in her professional opinion, it was worth him seeing them through to the end so Tessa could be absolutely sure he would suffer no relapse in the future. On consideration he agreed with her, and in truth, he didn’t mind spending the time with her anyway as he found her so easy to talk to – so understanding.

The whole story finishes at around the 2500 word mark so it's a quick read.

PLEASE forward this on to as many people as you can - I'd love to see just how well a truly unknown writer can do with their first published story that hasn't been professionally edited etc!

To the Notepad...

MoJo xox