A-Z Challenge: B - Bug

B is for Bug

Left: Bug

I first laid eyes on him when I was at boarding school. I was only thirteen years old and had never had a boyfriend. He was a couple of years older and had an air of confidence and experience about him which made the age difference seem more than that. He looked so cool, with a faded denim jacket casually worn in place of his school blazer, the top few buttons of his white shirt undone, and fashionable black boots under the school uniform trousers. He was small and skinny and I remember him staring at me, all floppy black hair and intense brown eyes looking out under enormous bushy eyebrows, like a giant hairy caterpillar crawling across his forehead. I wasn't the least surprised when he said his name was Bug.


This was a very short extract from my memoir 'Mr Right From The Start' which I am currently editing so I can send it some agents, who have actually requested the manuscript (eeeek!).

I have made a first stab at a summary. What do you think:


The hilarious, heartwarming, true story of how two High School sweethearts find each other after a 30 year separation, only discover they are living on opposite sides of the world.

Claire, forty-something, saggy-boobed, cellulite-thighed single mother of two, has not set eyes on her first boyfriend, Bug, since she unceremoniously dumped him at the age of thirteen while at boarding school in the leafy suburbs of England. Re-discovering him over 30 years later she is surprised, yet somewhat relieved, to find him living 5,000 miles away in California. But with one short, innocent email Claire reignites Bug’s love for her with such passion that he throws caution to the wind, prepared to give up everything he’s worked so hard for, to win back the love of his life. But as the childhood sweethearts hilariously encounter one obstacle after another: from volatile teenage step-daughters to over-protective sisters (who nick-name him 'The Black Deathwatch Beetle'); from humiliating shopping expeditions to buy sexy lingerie to overwhelming Immigration beaurocracy; from drunken Monty Python madness to psychotic dogs; they begin to wonder if they really were meant to be together after all.

Deathwatch Beetle

This beetle gets its name from the tapping sound it makes as a mating signal. An old superstition said this was an ominous warning of impending death.

Well - not the best nick-name for your soulmate, is it?




What unusual nickname do you have? And I would love to hear feedback about my summary.