Sea Change — Anne Weale

Anne Weale said:

"If you'd like to read the first ever Web-illustrated novel, this is it.

When I discovered the Web, in 1997, it was love at first sight… as it often is for the characters in my romances, though they always have complex problems to unravel before they can fall into each other's arms. Luckily, apart from occasional technical glitches, there have been no obstacles in the way of my grand passion for the Web.

SEA CHANGE is the love story of an Italian-American yachtsman, Scott Randall, and a Guernsey-bred yachtswoman, Maddie Sardrette, who are competing in a round-the-world yacht race which Scott is expected to win.

The action moves from Charleston, South Carolina, via South Africa and New Zealand to the Southern Ocean where the outcome of the race is literally overturned. Later, the story moves to the little island of Guernsey off the north coast of France, then to a palazzo in Italy, and finally to London and Spain.

At the end of each chapter there's a list of carefully selected URLs (website addresses) readers can click to see the story's locations

If it hadn't been for the Web, this novel would never have been written. The idea came to me while I was reading the daily online logs of the skippers competing in the 1999 Around Alone race. Contrary to popular belief, not all romance writers "churn out" their books at lightning speed. Many of us spend a year or two researching the background, perfecting the plot and polishing our prose.

In 2001, while I working on the final draft of SEA CHANGE, it struck me that the book would be greatly enhanced by links to Web-sites. Since 1998 I've been writing the Bookworm on the Net column for The Bookseller, the UK's leading book trade weekly. In that time I've become a connoisseur of websites, praising the good ones and criticising the bad ones. So it wasn't a problem to find the right websites for SEA CHANGE, not only for the locations but for other aspects of the novel.

It's a little surprising that an author who's been around as long as I have - 5 million words of popular fiction translated into more than 25 langages - should be the first to harness the Web in this way.

But I'm sure that, in a few years' time, there'll be lots Web-illustrated books. Because the Web is such a magical place that it's a natural partner for the equally magical world of fiction - life's most reliable escape hatch.

Do let me know if the sites I chose for SEA CHANGE enhanced your enjoyment of the story."