Although every aspect of my book is based on fiction, I have experienced living with someone who lived a parallel life of which I knew nothing at the time. Unfortunately, the reality for many people can be that you don’t know whom you friends or even your partner is (as an author, this is more appealing in fiction than in real life!).

 

For Anna, however, who’s in a coma, lying quietly in a hospital bed, it’s the people around her who start to make assumptions. Her husband Erik for example, digs into her life, feeling increasingly frustrated by the police not involving him in their investigation. What will he find?

 

The importance of intimacy 

 

Sex is part of life. Most of us were born as a result of a sexual interaction. Mostly, intimacy is linked to love and since When I Wake Up focuses on a love story, I felt it was important to include sex scenes: to keep it real and to keep it honest. 

 

When I Wake Up is told through five different perspectives, which means you get to know the characters intimately, not just their actions and how they speak, but also their inner thoughts. Why shouldn’t you also know them sexually?

 

Sex is intimate and it can also feel private, secretive and mysterious. Just like love. Love can often be controversial and evoke emotions of judgment in others. In so many ways, however, love drives us. It can make us do something we wouldn’t otherwise have done. It might also be the best thing that’s ever happened to us. 

 

Would Anna have chosen differently is she had known the chain of events she set in motion? No one knows. Only Anna. Which leads us to the question: when she does wake up, what secrets will she reveal? 

 

The article first appeared on the Head of Zeus website.