Andrew Grossett is an established natural bodybuilder, Personal Trainer and Coach based in South East London. As a boy he enjoyed getting lost in the adventures of “The Famous Five” and “Secret Seven” and dreamed of one day writing books that enabled imaginations to thrive. After finally plucking up the courage to put pen to paper he wrote his first novel, “Love, Lust, Love,” Austin Macauley Publishers, Ltd.
- So, tell us a little about your book and what it means to you personally.
“Love, Lust, Love” is a love story, it tells the tale of Stephen and Tina as they leave the world of being single and attempt to merge their lives. The story isn’t fanatical its real life told through their eyes, the situations they face are real and the feelings they embrace are, too. The really interesting part for the reader is that you get to hear both sides of the coin as its happening.
The book means the world to me especially because of the time in my life that it has come about and the circumstances surrounding it. While I have always had aspirations of becoming a novelist, I didn’t sit there and think, “Let’s write a book today.” The story found me at a point where I needed it most.
I had just left my company with nothing after working away at it for the past six years after suffering from what turned out to be a series of panic attacks induced through stress. I had various issues going on through my private life which left me in a position where I felt lost and alone. Don’t get me wrong. I had people around me, however even in a room full of people, I didn’t feel that I could reach out to anyone. I had built up a persona online as being a life coach and posted several videos a week trying to give people hope, little did they know that at this point all the messages that went out were personal and at times the only thing keeping my smile alive.
It was a Thursday and so I was preparing for a video to which my point was that two people couldn’t be the same after a significant event had occurred and so I used the metaphor of a first kiss, I thought everyone could understand that. I then thought it would be fun to write a paragraph of how a woman might feel after a first kiss had occurred. When I sent it to a friend of mine she nearly broke my phone with messages stating that I must have been a woman in a previous life to have known that level of detail. But then she said the it would be interesting from a woman’s point of view to understand what a guy was thinking as sometimes it was difficult to work out. After that the principal for the book was set.
- What motivated you to write this book, and the biggest inspiration behind it?
I wrote the book to prove to myself that I wasn’t a loser, I wrote the book to silence the voices in my head that said I was a failure. You see at that point my life was on the ropes, at that point I was hanging over the edge and the project of writing something that most people couldn’t was my restoration point. The biggest inspiration behind it was my obsession with the ways that humans communicate and it gave me a medium to express those thoughts and theories. I wanted to do something that was for me, something that meant no matter how bad things got in the future no one could ever take away the fact that I had written a novel.
- As you’re a personal trainer and coach, an erotic romance book is not something we would expect – did your career help the process of this book in anyway, or are they completely separate entities?
Believe it or not the book made me realise for the first time why I became a Personal Trainer in the first place, it wasn’t for the physical changes you could impact on an individual it was the mental and emotional. As a Personal Trainer you get to really connect with people and help them past the various issues that they face. When you spend an hour with someone two – three times a week they tell you all sorts. The two worlds are separate, though, as in there are no clients’ secrets in the book I couldn’t do that to anyone, but I may write “The diary of a Personal Trainer” in the future.
- How you finding the journey of being a published author? (highs/lows, best bits and any tips
Being a published author is still sinking in, I get messages from people on social media with the book in their hands and too think that people are getting enjoyment out of something you have created is surreal. There haven’t been any lows so far really, I have loved every minute of it. Raising the finance for the contract I suppose was a challenge. As for highs, nothing beats when you receive the initial box of books through and smell that new book smell coming from your own title!!
- Tell us what the biggest challenge around writing an erotic fiction book, as well as why you loved it.
The biggest challenge I found was keeping it real. There is a massive pull to write something massively fanatical and therefore take the story down the whips, chains and shinning castle route, but from what I have read and heard from others while those stories have been successful in the past people are wanting something more down to earth now. I loved writing the story because everybody loves falling in love, regardless of who you are, where you come from and whether you are falling personally or hearing someone else’s story. “Love, Lust, Love” is there to give everyone hope that in a digital age where everything comes next day delivery and mostly disappointing, there are somethings that may take a little longer, but last a lifetime.
- Do you have any last motivational words for readers?
The plan for this book wasn’t originally to publish it, it was simply to write it and now it’s being sold and shipped all over the country. Whatever your dream is, dream it big, shout it loud and make a start at making it come true. You may not complete the journey in one step, but each step will be closer than yesterday.