I suppose we all have those moments in life when one sentence can change everything. In my character’s life it was waking up one day and her husband telling her that he was leaving her for somebody else.

When you have been together for twenty years and think that you have a happy marriage it would definitely come as quite a shock. This very thing happened to two friends of mine and I know how devastating it was to them and their families.

My own particular one was nowhere near on the same scale of devastation but something exploded in my head when my daughter innocently told me that in two years time she would be driving. Coupled with the fact that my husband was talking of retiring I went into a complete and utter middle aged meltdown.

My future life flashed before my eyes. I would be a grandmother before I knew it and have to resort to living out my hopes and dreams through them.

Well not if I had anything to do with it!

Suddenly I was inspired. I banned all talk of retiring and told my husband that he would 100% be getting another job. He would be 49 and has at least 20 more years of career left in him. My daughter on the other hand – well no longer a baby that much is for sure but still at school so I had a bit of breathing space.

It was almost as if the starting pistol was fired and I was off like Forest Gump.

Not like my character’s husband in my novel or those of my friend’s. No I was going to do what I had always wanted to do and seize the moment and write my first novel.

So I listened to audio books in the car and read almost everything on Google on how to go about it and then I just sat down one day in front of Word and began.

That was 18 months ago.

So here I am, a working mother (Yes I do have a full time job as well.) A wife and now an Author. You will find me awake before everyone else in the house writing my stories. My house is a mess and I can only dream of those days when I could don my Cath Kidston apron and bake a Mary Berry cake.

However what do you do when you have no family to support you and have to start again from scratch? The world is now very different. People reach for the keyboard when their relationships break down and register on online dating sites before they have even arranged a night out on the town. Who do you take with you on a night out anyway – most of your friends are probably married by now? What about getting a job if you haven’t had to work because you were committed to raising your family? Not only have you lost your marriage but may also lose your home. With no job, no money, no husband and soon to be no home what on earth do you do?

There is also the fact that you are heartbroken, scared and lonely. You no longer have youth on your side and your confidence has deserted you.

This was what inspired me to write My Perfect Life at Cornish Cottage. We all build our lives around what we like and think we want. The trouble is when one of you wants something else then that perfect life comes tumbling down.

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Sharon Crabb lives in Surrey England with her husband, daughter and little westie. She started life after school working in a department store but soon left to become an Air Stewardess. After five years she left to pursue a career in sales.

She started writing a short time ago and has been well and truly bitten by the bug. Her first book was actually Premier Deception but before she could edit this the need to write The Diary Of Madison Brown took over and became the first book that she published on Amazon.

She loves Florida with a passion, eating chocolate and listening to non stop Nickleback.

If she could she would have learned the guitar and played in a rock band.

Learn more at http://www.sjcrabb.com/home