"In this story there is a moment, a long moment despite being so brief in real time, starting in the month of February when I felt so deeply loved, I thought the world was mine and anything was possible..."
Bernie hadn't been looking for love. Recently divorced, she has her children, her writing, her house on a hill near Byron Bay. Then Jack comes back into her life. What starts as the reunion of two old friends turns into an intense affair.
Their love is fuelled by the fevered exchange of emails and texts. Bernie is free, but Jack is married and it soon becomes clear he won't leave his family to follow his heart.
Bernie seeks solace in the strange world of internet chatrooms, where she encounters men hungry for her in a way that Jack is not. Virtual sex is addictive and it's never enough. Before long, Bernie is meeting up with her online pursuers, and engaging in acts of increasingly deviant and dangerous sex - whatever it takes to feel desired.
Losing February is the story of love without sex and sex without love. Explicit, compelling and confronting, it describes what happens when a capable, passionate woman tries to flee the pain of having loved and lost too much. Susanna Freymark works full time as a journalist and education editor for News NSW. She holds a Master of Arts in creative writing from UTS and is a qualified teacher. She spent two years teaching in a remote Aboriginal community in South Australia and lived in London for fifteen years where she owned a bookshop. Susanna's short stories have been published in the UTS Anthology and numerous other publications. She lives in Sydney, is married and has three children.
