I
kind of secretly believe it’s not too late for me to train as a
professional dancer, MMA expert, or win an Oscar. I know! This is why
writing fiction is for me!
Growing up in locations like Botswana
and Venezuela gave me a taste for adventure and my love for romances
began when my mother shoved one into my hands in a desperate attempt
to keep me quiet during TV coverage of the Wimbledon tennis finals.
When I wasn’t consuming books by the
bucketload, I could be found pretending to be a damsel in distress or
running around solving mysteries and writing down my adventures. As a
teenager, I wrote countless episodes of TV detective dramas so the
hero and heroine would end up together every week. As an adult, I
worked in a library to conveniently continue consuming books by the
bucketload, until realising I was destined to write contemporary
romance and romantic suspense myself. I live in leafy Surrey in the
UK, a book-devouring, slightly melodramatic, romance-writing sassy
heroine with my very own sexy hero husband!
Hello Eve and welcome to Booky Ramblings of a Neurotic Mom
Thank you so much for hosting me, Shona and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.
Was there anything particular that inspired you to start your journey of being an author?
I was probably eleven when I started reading the romance genre and I definitely remember thinking it would be so much fun to write these when I got older. Fast forward, ahem, a couple of decades, and I reached the age where the possibility of getting to write for publication finally outweighed the fear of failure. Once I started writing seriously it was all very light-bulb moment! I was completely: Oh, I get it now—this is what I’m supposed to be doing for my work life.
What would you say is the hardest part of writing/publishing a book for you?
Probably just after I’ve written the set up and before I get halfway through. The crows of doubt start circling and I question why anyone would think my story in any way entertaining. Invariably at this stage I panic and let my characters get on a train to Tangent Land. Much angsting and sulking later I have to hop on a rescue train, drag them onboard and get us all back to Original Plot Land.
If you could only read four books for the rest of your life, what would they be?
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens,
the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling,
Emma by Jane Austen,
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.
Do you and your main character share any personality traits?
I guess it’s inevitable that a little of me bleeds onto the page sometimes. Nora King, from The Love List shares loyalty and determination with me. And she has this quiet strength that she doesn’t believe in until she’s tested. Probably most writers have that.
If you could live in any book what book would it be?
Ooh, what a fab question. Sometimes I have a hankering to live in Jane Austen land—somewhere in the vicinity of Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley! But I’d also love to live on Nora Roberts’ Three Sisters Island. The thought of being able to run the bookshop, which is steeped in magic and has stunning views out to the ocean…yep, I could definitely live there.
Where do your ideas for your books come from? Dreams? Music?
They’re usually ‘what if’ moments that spring from snippets of conversation, the news, or magazine articles. A scene will then pop into my head and won’t let go. The Waiting Game idea came from seeing a girl band audition for a reality TV show—they were all waiting to go on stage except one of them was standing slightly apart from the others—like she was trying to gather everything inside of herself. I started imagining what might have happened to someone to make them look like they had to summon all the strength they had, to do the one thing they loved. Her Best Laid Plans came from a conversation about whether life is more enriching if you plan every step of it or let it happen to you. And The Love List (which has linked characters from Her Best Laid Plans) was helped by a fascinating article on the roles siblings take on in a family (eldest child/responsible, middle child/peacemaker, youngest child/rebel).
Any advice for aspiring authors?
This is my favourite motto and relates particularly well to all things writing and all things publishing: Fall down seven times, stand up eight!
Do you and your main character share any personality traits?
I guess it’s inevitable that a little of me bleeds onto the page sometimes. Nora King, from The Love List shares loyalty and determination with me. And she has this quiet strength that she doesn’t believe in until she’s tested. Probably most writers have that.
If you could live in any book what book would it be?
Ooh, what a fab question. Sometimes I have a hankering to live in Jane Austen land—somewhere in the vicinity of Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley! But I’d also love to live on Nora Roberts’ Three Sisters Island. The thought of being able to run the bookshop, which is steeped in magic and has stunning views out to the ocean…yep, I could definitely live there.
Where do your ideas for your books come from? Dreams? Music?
They’re usually ‘what if’ moments that spring from snippets of conversation, the news, or magazine articles. A scene will then pop into my head and won’t let go. The Waiting Game idea came from seeing a girl band audition for a reality TV show—they were all waiting to go on stage except one of them was standing slightly apart from the others—like she was trying to gather everything inside of herself. I started imagining what might have happened to someone to make them look like they had to summon all the strength they had, to do the one thing they loved. Her Best Laid Plans came from a conversation about whether life is more enriching if you plan every step of it or let it happen to you. And The Love List (which has linked characters from Her Best Laid Plans) was helped by a fascinating article on the roles siblings take on in a family (eldest child/responsible, middle child/peacemaker, youngest child/rebel).
Any advice for aspiring authors?
This is my favourite motto and relates particularly well to all things writing and all things publishing: Fall down seven times, stand up eight!
**********
The Love List
Neither is accidentally super-gluing her shoe to her hand right before the biggest presentation of her life! With all the hard work she’d put into securing the family business after her father’s death, Nora has no choice but to accept help from a knight in shining armour.
Disaster relief worker Ethan Love is still haunted by his last deployment, and desperate for distraction. He’s in town to ask Nora for a major favour, and swooping in to save her presentation is a sure way to get her on side.
As Ethan sticks around and helps Nora through her grief, her barriers tumble down…but will she dare to swap her To Do lists for a How to Fall in Love list?
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