Border Line (as print and ebook) in the UK and ebook worldwide will be on sale from December 5th 2014
“Of course love is the ultimate luxury, but I am unwilling to continue the trek in the certainty of its absence.”
Eleven people travel across Slovenia in a small coach. Grace and the other nine members of the group all wish to die, while their leader, Daniel, appears only to want to help them. He involves them in actors’ exercises and therapeutic games. They tell stories, travel like tourists and surprise themselves with laughter. Daniel promises he will take them, at the end of the trek, across another border to die. Though they are free to change their minds at any time, by day twenty-one they must make their choice.
Border Line is written as an entertaining and comfortable-to-read story about ordinary people. That said, its USP (Unique Selling Point – see, I have the jargon) is: ‘An upbeat love story about suicide’… So, any sane person may conclude that I have either trivialised a very serious subject by wrapping it in a love story, or the reverse; I have spoiled a decent love story by weighing it down with the heavy subject of how we choose to die. (I am long past judging whether it is either or neither).
Three things kick-started Border Line:
- Some lines in a poem titled Rehearsal by Eleanor Green … for an exercise/I look at his hands/to improve our relationship/onstage?…
- A strange and wonderful day with a Frenchwoman, an American/Hungarian(?) woman and a taxi driver from Ljubljana, in which we communicated in many tongues while trying to see most of Slovenia. We got lost in a forest in fog.
- Curiosity about people who feel a particular kind of guilt. We try to help victims, but what happens to decent people who cause bad events.
The Borders in the story are Slovenia’s. This amazing country, about the size of Wales, and has four of them and, being at a cross roads in Europe, a lot of nations have tramped through it. 
The borderlines in the title are also those of the mind. Suicide causes untold distress to relatives and friends. We all know this, and most people who contemplate it at some time in their lives recover and go on to complete their natural span. Yet living is, for some people, unbearably difficult and I personally have never felt I could blame someone who chooses the exit route. I also feel, ever more strongly, that we should have some choice about how and when we end our lives.
I also believe that there is much to live for and that the majority of people are kind, trustworthy, interesting and loveable and the world is an endlessly fascinating place that I will be reluctant to leave when my time comes.
Green Writing Room 
Exciting times Hilary. I can almost see you smiling as you look at your shelf of books. What an accomplishment. Congratulations. –Curt
Yours will soon be there too. Emotions are a bit mixed as this phase is all about selling and, as the Uni Careers advisors said, as they looked at my test results, “Don’t even try to sell a pat of butter.”
I understand, Hilary. And empathize. I am not excited about selling. 🙂
We had dinner guests last evening and this very topic came up. It seems more and more of us, as we deal with our aging population, are coming around to at least considering the dignified assisted death as an option. Congratulations on the release of your novel. I can only imagine the excitement.
That is exactly what another friend discovered, when she talked about the book at a dinner. It is exciting, but I am missing my garden as I deal with being an author and a publisher.
I was going to console you with the fact it is winter and so there’s little to do in the garden and then I remembered just where you are. Next book you must schedule with these things in mind!
It is winter here in the UK, but I need to spend some of my time weeding to stay sane… and fit.
How can I get a book-book, not an e-book?
Are you in the US? I don’t know if Amazon UK would ship to the US, but if not I could post a copy, though either way the postal charges would be very high (probably cheaper direct from me).
Hilary, here’s my email: menomama3sblog@gmail.com. If you send me an address and an estimate of the cost, I’ll send you the money in the appropriate currency so you can ship it to me. I’m in Canada. I’d love to read your book!
But you will not do that for a VERY long time. That is a direct order.
Heel click and salute.
Like the new gravatar !!!
That is a very good summing up Hilary. Life for some or perhaps most, can at times be a bummer. As long as the good outweighs the bad, we keep going. Putting words down can be therapeutic as well, depending on their order, 😉 so is growing petunias or giving Milo his chicken neck and sharing a coffee with a loved one. Not always in that order.
Indeed, I can go to bed deliriously happy, because I have seen the hedgehog with his nose in the trough I left out for him.
This is a lovely new gravatar Hilary. Congratulations on publishing Border Line. I will have to find some time for it in 2015 🙂
Oh thank you. I realised the old gravatar was, well, rather old, so as I had a friend take some pics for the local newspaper, I thought I’d better update a bit.
I like your approach, Hilary – your USP certainly got my attention! Keep doing what you’re doing and I’m sure this will be a great success for you. I’ll be hoping to get my mitts on the digital edition in 2015 too. Well done 😀
Thanks for the encouragement, I’m in need of it. At the moment the only version you will get your mitts on is the digital one, Amazon have managed a superbly timed cock-up and the print edition – due for release tomorrow – is currently listed as unavailable. Still, I will be signing books in the local farm shop tomorrow, which will make a welcome distraction.
From what I’ve been seeing from you, I think you’ve already done extremely well! I hope you’re not feeling discouraged, although I understand that the last thing anyone needs is trouble from Amazon. Self-publishing is a slow, slow burn, but your start seems to me to be better than most. Sit tight and enjoy your considerable achievement to the fullest!
Thanks for the encouragement. I had a good day at the Farm Shop – I’ll be posting about it.