LOCAL emerging author Robyn Windshuttle wants to live a big life.
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Her autobiographical novel, Dancing with a Cocaine Cowboy – a true story of love and life with a Colombian drug trafficker, promises to reflect just that.
The novel follows a 21-year-old Robyn’s journey from Sydney’s pristine northern beaches to Paris, where she has landed herself a job as a showgirl with one of the most prestigious cabarets in the world, the Moulin Rouge.
A classically trained professional dancer, Robyn meets Daniel on her first day in Paris and is instantly drawn to the Columbian photographer (the photo gracing the cover was taken on her first day in Paris).
Robyn’s novel mostly covers the 10-year period she spent with Daniel, during which she was “unwittingly drawn into the cut-throat world” surrounding his dark secret.
Written almost 30 years after the end of the relationship, Robyn knew she had a story to tell after attending a writing course at the Sydney Writers Centre.
“We had to write something about a piece of jewellery. I wrote about some jewellery Daniel had given me, which he later swapped in a nightclub in Paris for some cocaine,” she said.
“The class was captivated. I knew then I had it in me to write a book.”
With her two adult children gone from home, she began a task which has lasted five years, and which will no doubt enter a new stage when the novel, published by Allen and Unwin, is published today.
Robyn describes the book as similar to chick lit, but real. She credits Allen and Unwin with taking a chance with her as an unknown author. As for that period of her life? Robyn says she has no regrets.
“It’s been a fantastic rollercoaster ride. You can’t go back, and you can’t regret”.
She is now working on her second novel.