Debut Spotlight: H.R. Kemp

Today it's my pleasure to be shining the spotlight on author H.R. Kemp and her debut novel Deadly Secrets which is published today.

A little about me
I live in a beachside suburb of Adelaide, South Australia and enjoy walks along the beach in a range of different weather. I grew up in the country area just outside of Melbourne, Australia. When I was young, my family moved a lot, hence I lived on a horse farm, a dairy farm, a sheep farm and in a small country town, before we finally settled on a small holding growing fruit trees (my favourite was cherries). Holidays were spent picking (and sometimes eating more than picking) cherries for pocket money.

I’ve always scribbled snippets of short stories, poems and random scenes from an early age. I started by writing mysteries for my younger brother’s entertainment. My first degree was a Bachelor of Science majoring in Chemistry which I followed a few years later with a Graduate Diploma of Education. However, making a living and raising a family preoccupied me for many years and the only writing I did was business documents which cramped any creative style. 

My working life had the usual casual jobs when younger then I built a long and successful career in the public service which spanned roles as diverse as Management trainer, Team Facilitator, Statistician and Laboratory assistant. Finally, when the family was grown and mostly independent, and my retirement was in sight, I returned to creative writing. I devoured short courses and the ‘how-tos’ started to supplement the ‘what-ifs’ in my head. A plot idea, focused on the politics of the time, grew, and a six-month Graduate Certificate in Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide propelled me forward. 

To my delight, I’ve had 3 short stories recently published. ‘A Present of Presence’ in the auspicious anthology ‘When Stars Will Shine’ (Dec 2019) which raises money for the help4heroes charity (UK), and ‘Reunited’ (Jan 2020) and ‘Unforgivable’ (Oct 2019) appeared in the Writers’ and Readers’ Magazine. 

The Write Stuff with... Andrew Shanahan

Today it's my pleasure to hand the blog over to Andrew Shanahan with a guest post asking 'Why aren't there more obese heroes?' 

When I was writing my new book Before and After, I made a conscious decision that I wanted my hero to be obese. This is unusual as generations of books and films have made one point very clear: fat people aren't heroes. If you are obese then you have two very specific roles in stories – you are either the comic relief and must look for the nearest puddle to fall into, or you must look on approvingly to what the thin, main character is saying and doing. It’s reached the point where the very idea of an overweight hero is absurd – can you imagine a BMI 30+ Gandalf? Or Batman leaping on a Batmobility Scooter? So why is it so hard for storytellers, who talk a great game about representation to give a starring role to obese people?

One obvious point is that society frequently perceives obese people in a negative sense. They are lazy or stupid, they are the butt of the joke. They wouldn’t be capable of chucking a Batarang, or edging their way down a heating duct if their life depended on it. And yet this goes against real world evidence. Sure, obesity has the potential to increase the risk of a number of medical issues, but it doesn’t follow that fat people are therefore stupid or lazy. You only need to switch on the news to see that obese people run the world’s biggest companies and countries – so surely we should be better at perceiving their positive traits?

Author Interview: Mark Romain

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Mark Romain to talk about his writing and his latest book Unlawfully at Large which is published next week.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your writing journey started? 
Well, Sharon, I’ve always been a voracious reader. As a kid, I would devour books, one after another, and even as I was reading them I would be asking myself what worked for me, what didn’t, and how I would change the bits that didn’t if I could. 

My favourite books growing up were the Just William stories by Richmal Crompton, the Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan series, the Robert E. Howard Conan adventures, and anything by Alistair MacLean and Agatha Christie – except for the Poirot books, which for some reason I didn’t enjoy.  As I got older, I progressed onto meatier stuff. I couldn’t get enough of writers like Frederick Forsyth, Eric Van Lustbader, John Le Carrie and Len Deighton. 

By the time I grew up, I was convinced that I had at least one book in me and I promised myself that, one day, I would get actually around to writing it, even if it was just to tick it off my bucket list. When I retired from the police in 2015, I decided that it was finally time to stop procrastinating and get on with it! That led to me writing my first instalment in the DCI Tyler Thriller series, Jack’s Back. Since then I haven’t looked back. 

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your latest book Unlawfully at Large, what would it be? 
Claude Winston’s a drug dealing pimp who’s been remanded to prison while awaiting trial for the attempted murder of two police officers. The evidence against him is overwhelming and he knows that he’s looking at spending the rest of his life behind bars so, when an opportunity to escape arises, he seizes it in both hands, leaving a trail of death and destruction in his wake.  

DCI Jack Tyler is the man who caught Winston the first time around, and now he has to do it all over again, before the fugitive can be smuggled out of the UK to begin a new life in a country without extradition. 

Tyler knows that this won’t be easy; there are very few clues to go on and his team are met by a wall of silence on the streets. Tyler’s not the sort of man to let to take no for an answer or let anyone get in his way, but even he is struggling to make any progress with this case. 

Describe DCI Jack Tyler in 3 words. 
Strong. Driven. Honourable.

Author Interview: John Nicholl

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author John Nicholl to the blog to talk about his latest book Mr Nice which was published earlier this week.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your writing journey started? 
I began writing after leaving my job heading up child protection services for Carmarthenshire. I self-published my first book in 2015. It sold better than I could have hoped, becoming a bestseller in 6 countries. Soon after, I signed with a literary agent and then a publisher. Bloodhound Books published my ninth novel on 25 March. 

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your latest book Mr Nice, what would it be? 
Mr Nice is a dark and contemporary page-turner which draws on my experiences as a police officer and child protection social worker. 

Your worst nightmare is about to come true...

When Megan discovers that her young daughter is missing, she thinks that her ex-husband is to blame. 

But was it someone else entirely? 

Someone out for revenge? Someone with a grudge? 

As DI Laura Kesey begins her investigation, she discovers that the case is infinitely more wicked than she could ever have imagined. 

The clock is ticking. 

The search is on. 

But will Kesey find Lottie before it’s too late?

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. The greater the evil, the deadlier the game.

Mr Nice is the second book that features DI Laura Kesey, if you had to describe her in 3 words what would they be? 
Dedicated, determined, brave.

Emma's Review: The Forbidden Promise by Lorna Cook

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Can one promise change the fate of two women decades apart?

Scotland, 1940

War rages across Europe, but Invermoray House is at peace – until the night of Constance’s 21st birthday, when she’s the only person to see a Spitfire crash into the loch. Rescuing the pilot and vowing to keep him hidden, Constance finds herself torn between duty to her family and keeping a promise that could cost her everything.

2020

Kate arrives in the Highlands to turn Invermoray into a luxury B&B, only to find that the estate is more troubled than she’d imagined. But when Kate discovers the house has a dark history, with Constance’s name struck from its records, she knows she can’t leave until the mystery is solved . . .

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Debut Spotlight: Karen Moore

Today it is my pleasure to be shining the spotlight on author Karen Moore and her debut novel Torn which was published last October.

Karen Moore is passionate about all things noir – crime, mystery, thrillers – and writes in that genre.

She has been writing all her life, mostly for work purposes, and is now delighted to be able to spend more time developing her own creative work.

Her debut novel, Torn, is a dark tale of intrigue and betrayal set in Sicily and North Wales. She is currently working on the sequel.

Karen worked as a tour guide across Europe, North America and Canada, followed by a career in PR and marketing. She has lived in France and Italy and is now based in Cheshire, England.

You can find Karen on Facebook and Twitter.

What first got you into writing and why?
I’ve always enjoyed writing since I was a child – I was the one with lots of pen-pals who I’d write to regularly and at great length, in addition to all the fantastical stories I’d make up. I found language fascinating and relished the chance to discover and disappear into a world of my own creation. Being an only child with imaginary friends and a vivid imagination helped enormously.

I went on to develop a career in PR and marketing where writing was a key requirement and a creative streak certainly helped. It wasn’t until much later in life that I started to dedicate more time to developing my own writing.

Author Interview: J P Jackson

Today it's my pleasure to welcome urban fantasy author J.P. Jackson to the blog.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your writing journey started? 
That sounds like such an easy question to answer, but I’m struggling! Okay, well here goes. I’m a 50 year old gay guy from the prairie provinces in Canada, married to my husband for 10 years (almost, not quite), but we’ve been together for 23 years. I’m a bear. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s a way for gay men to categorize furry guys like myself, but as with any type of label, if you asked 10 gay men what a bear was, you’d get 10 different answers. So for me that equates to a little overweight, bearded, and furry. Let’s see, what else…pagan, city-slicker, artsy, an African violet grower, world traveller and knitter. Oh, I guess author and reader too! There, I think I covered off the big descriptors.

What got me started on my writing journey? In my early 40’s I sat back, took stock of my life, and realized that a good chunk of it was gone. I evaluated where I’d been, and where I still wanted to go. I ended up with a haphazard bucket list of random items. Things I wanted to achieve, places I wanted to go, and things I wanted to do. The list changes too. Some things have fallen off after a decade or so, they are no longer important. But the one thing that stuck was writing a novel and getting it published.

Why? My husband has a son and seeing as how I’ve been in his life for a very long time, he’s mine now too. But I personally don’t really have a definitive mark left on the world except for two things (by my eyes). The first are some plant hybrids I’ve made (see the African violet thing above), and the second are my stories. I hope one day I end up on the NYT list, but that’s not as important as to why I write, my motivation.

When I was growing up, and let’s face it, that was a long time ago, there were very few, if any stories that had gay men as the main characters in paranormal and urban fantasy books. Side characters? Oh sure. But the central character? Nope. So, write the book you want to read! I wanted to create magical worlds with light and dark elements, morally grey characters, fantastical creatures, and I needed to see men like me being the heroes. Then, after I got my first book published I realized something else when I found out that a lot of my readers weren’t gay men. The rest of the world needs to see that guys like me can be the hero.

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your latest book Magic or Die, what would it?
Magic or Die is about a broken psychic teacher, James Martin. James is forced into returning back to the facility that killed his lover in order to save five young adults with lethal supernatural abilities. The facility uses these magicals as a source of income, but they’ll euthanize them if they can’t get control of their gifts. James has one job. Make them employable, or watch them die.

James Martin is a teacher, a powerful Psychic, and an alcoholic. He used to work for the Center for Magical Research and Development, a facility that houses people who can’t control their supernatural abilities, but left after one of his students was killed, turning to vodka to soothe his emotional pain. The problem is he still has one year left on his contract.

When James is forced to return to the CMRD, he finds himself confronting the demons of his past and attempting to protect his new class from a possible death sentence, because if they don’t pass their final exams, they’ll be euthanized.

James also discovers that his class isn’t bringing in enough sponsors, the agencies and world governments who supply grants and ultimately purchase graduates of the CMRD, and that means no profit for the facility. James and his students face impossible odds—measure up to the facility’s unreachable standards or escape.

Emma's Review: Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Three brothers are at the funeral. One lies in the coffin.

Will, Brian and Luke grow up competing for their mother's unequal love. As men, the competition continues - for status, money, fame, women ...

They each betray each other, over and over, until one of them is dead.

But which brother killed him?

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Giveaway: Win an ecopy of Containment by Vanda Symon

Today I was supposed to be reviewing Containment, the latest book in the Sam Shepherd series by Vanda Symon, for the the blog tour but sadly my reading mojo and concentration levels seem to have disappeared which has meant that I've only managed to read 3 chapters all week. Reading has always been my coping mechanism and escaping into the world of books usually helps me forget about everything that's going on around me so it's sad that reading and books are not helping me at a time when I need them the most 😟

To honour my blog tour commitment I have decided to host a giveaway using the gift an eBook option on Amazon UK (sadly you can only gift eBooks to someone living in the same country as you which means it will need to be restricted to residents in the UK only) for one follower to win a copy to read for themselves. I'll then review Containment at a later date once my reading mojo has returned.

Chaos reigns in the sleepy village of Aramoana on the New Zealand coast, when a series of shipping containers wash up on the beach and looting begins.

Detective Constable Sam Shephard experiences the desperation of the scavengers first-hand, and ends up in an ambulance, nursing her wounds and puzzling over an assault that left her assailant for dead.

Author Interview: Bill Arnott

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Canadian author, poet and songwriter Bill Arnott to the blog to talk about his travel memoir Gone Viking.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey?
Like most writers I started writing when I was young – poetry, lyrics and fiction, all of it awful. As I grew up (somewhat) and went to university, writing became a means to an end – essays, reports and case studies. But a writerly lifeline persisted by penning brief, inspirational messages, reminders of the strength and capabilities we all possess. A buddy spotted my scribbles, scattered over a bulletin board on post-its and index cards. “That’s a book,” he said. Which I hadn’t considered. 

A dozen years later I bundled my little empowerments into an offset print paperback, called it Wonderful Magical Words, and self-published it. To my delight it was a Canadian bestseller. Sales raised money for Make-A-Wish Foundation, granting wishes to children with life-threatening illness. Everything about the project felt good. Except the writing. Ten years after the book I began to find my voice – that lovely process of aging and no longer caring about appearances that tends to result in authenticity.

Your travel memoir is called Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, how did the title come about? And where did the inspiration for your trek come from? 
I was working on a follow up to my travelogue Dromomania (2014) when I learned the word viking was originally a verb, meaning to voyage (more or less). I’d already trekked around Scandinavia and realized with a few more years of travel and research I could effectively replicate history’s most famous Viking voyages, drawing inspiration from both verb and noun. As I left to complete this odyssey, I felt I hadn’t gone to lunch or gone fishing, I’d literally gone viking.

Author Interview: Jake Cross

Today it's my pleasure to join in the publication day celebrations and welcome Jake Cross to the blog to find out a little more about his latest book Hide.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your writing journey started? 
I’ve been writing since I was about ten. I started with pick-your-path adventure gamebooks, then tried my hand at film scripts and short stories. By the time I was fourteen, I was already thinking of a career and already submitting to agents and publishers. I never gave up, but the years flew by and the rejections mounted up. Kids appeared, wrinkles appeared, but no book contracts. But all good things come to those who wait. 

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your latest book Hide, what would it be? 
Well, here’s the blurb from the publisher:

When armed men infiltrate the tiny Peak District hamlet of Barkelow, Emil Torrance thinks they're here to kill him because of his past. After killing one of the gunmen he flees, but when he learns that the men have taken control of the entire hamlet, he realises his son is in grave danger. 

Believing that calling the police will cost lives, he decides to deal with the problem alone. But when he learns that he’s not the target at all, Emil realises he is facing and even greater threat.

How far are the armed men prepared to go? 

What is their motive? 

If Emil and his son are going to survive, he will have to become the man he has been trying to hide from…

We all have a past but obviously, but in Hide, Emil has a darker past than most so he's prepared to go to almost any lengths to protect his family, were there any situations that you wrote but decided to remove as maybe a step too far?
When I first had the idea for this novel, it was meant to be a very violent action thriller. The book it became was toned down, primarily because the bad guys didn’t turn out to be the wild lunatics I’d initially planned. I’d also sated my desire for the gung-ho with my first novel, The Choice. 

Emma's Review: Triumph of the Shipyard Girls by Nancy Revell

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Sunderland, 1943: With the future of Britain uncertain, the shipyard girls fight to keep their lives on an even keel.

Head-welder Rosie is just about managing to keep her double life hidden from little sister Charlotte’s prying eyes. But Charlotte senses something is up and, with a secret this big, the truth is bound to come out.

After a whirlwind wedding, Polly must bid farewell to her sweetheart as he returns to the front line.

And there is something odd about yard manager Helen’s newest recruit Bel. But in resolving to uncover the truth, Helen might discover more than she bargained for…

Only by rallying together will the shipyard girls triumph.

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Emma's Review: The River Home by Hannah Richell

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

The river can lead you home. Or it can take you under...

In their ramshackle Somerset home, its gardens running down to the river, the Sorrells have gathered for a last-minute wedding.

Lucy is desperate to reunite her fractured family. Eve is fighting to keep her perfect life together. Their mother, Kit, a famous author whose stories have run dry, still seethes with resentment towards her youngest child. And Margot, who left home eight years ago under a black cloud, is forced to come face to face with her darkness...

As the family come together for a week of celebration and confrontation, their relationships are stretched to breaking point. But can you ever heal the wounds of the past?

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Emma's Review: The Sleeper Lies by Andrea Mara

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

ONE WINDOW, THREE LIES
I step forward, breathing fast. Movement. I force myself to take another step. I think about all of it, all of the deaths and all of the accidents and all of the pain. And I know what I need to do.

ONE WINDOW
It’s March 2018, and the country is covered in snow. Roads are impassable, shops are running out of food, and official advice is to stay indoors. Marianne lives on her own and works from home, so this isn’t a problem. Until she wakes one morning in her house in the middle of nowhere and finds footprints trailing all across her garden. Half-asleep, she is at first curious. Then she realises the footprints stop at her bedroom window, and curiosity gives way to unease. Who was looking in at her, while she was asleep?

THREE LIES
As the big freeze worsens and the stalker begins to leave disturbing mementoes, Marianne’s thoughts go back two decades to the schoolyard outburst that tore her childhood apart. Old feuds resurface, and the mystery of her mother’s death is pulled back into focus. Marianne begins to see patterns – is there a link between her stalker and the true crime story she’s been obsessively researching, or does the answer lie closer to home?

24 DAYS
In the end, 24 days is all it takes for everything to come crashing down.

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Emma's Review: Starting Over at Acorn Cottage by Kate Forster

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Buying a thatched cottage in the country may not be the usual cure for a broken heart. But after Clara Maxwell finds out her boyfriend and best friend have been sneaking around behind her back, packing her bags and leaving everything in London behind feels like it's the only way forward.

Clara knew Acorn Cottage would be a fixer-upper... Yet in person, the cottage is less charmingly ramshackle and more a real health and safety concern. When Henry Garnett, her (rather handsome) new contractor, turns up with his little daughter Pansy and a van shaped like a cottage in tow, she isn't sure whether to laugh or cry. What on earth has she gotten herself into?!

Still, there is something strangely lovable about the people in the little village of Merryknowe, from Rachel Brown, the quiet, lonely girl who bakes magical confections for the tearooms, to Tassie McIver, a little old lady with a lot of wisdom and a penchant for reading tea leaves. And Clara can't deny that Henry and Pansy are quickly worming their way into her heart...

With all the heartbreak of the year behind her, could Acorn Cottage be the fresh start Clara so desperately wants?

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Emma's Review: Clover Cottage by Christie Barlow

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Love Heart Lane – where friends are there for you no matter what.

When Vet Rory Scott inherits ramshackle Clover Cottage in the quaint village of Heartcross, Allie MacDonald just knows this is their happy ever after. A place to call home with the man she loves – it’s her dream come true!

Until Rory drops a bombshell. He loves Allie but he has dreams of his own to follow – to live and work in Africa. Clover Cottage will have to wait just a little longer…

Allie can’t imagine life without Rory, but she loves him too much to hold him back. And as he embarks on his adventure, Allie begins to rethink her own plans. She loves Rory and knows she wants him in her life, but maybe she can follow her own dreams too?

And always there, nestled in the beautiful village of Heartcross, surrounded by the people she loves, will be the place that will always bring them back to each other. Their forever home, Clover Cottage.

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Debut Spotlight: Drēma Drudge

Today it's my pleasure to be shining the spotlight on Drēma Drudge and her debut novel Victorine which is published today. Congratulations Drēma.

Drēma Drudge suffers from Stendhal’s Syndrome, the condition in which one becomes overwhelmed in the presence of great art. She attended Spalding University’s MFA in Creative Writing Program where she learned to transform that intensity into fiction.

Drēma has been writing in one capacity or another since she was nine, starting with terrible poems and graduating to melodramatic stories in junior high that her classmates passed around literature class.

She and her husband, musician and writer Barry Drudge, live in Indiana where they record their biweekly podcast, Writing All the Things, when not traveling. Her first novel, Victorine, was literally written in six countries while she and her husband wandered the globe. The pair has two grown children.

In addition to writing fiction, Drēma has served as a writing coach, freelance writer, and educator. She’s represented by literary agent Lisa Gallagher of Defiore and Company.

My debut novel, Victorine, features Victorine Meurent, a forgotten, accomplished painter who posed nude for Edouard Manet’s most famous, controversial paintings such as Olympia and The Picnic in Paris, paintings heralded as the beginning of modern art. History has forgotten (until now) her paintings, despite the fact that she showed her work at the prestigious Paris Salon multiple times, even one year when her mentor, Manet’s, work was refused.

Her persistent desire in the novel is not to be a model anymore but to be a painter herself, despite being taken advantage of by those in the art world, something which causes her to turn, for a time, to every vice in the Paris underworld, leading her even into the catacombs.

Author Interview: Chris Calder

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Chris Calder to the blog to talk about his writing and his latest book My Brother's Keeper.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your writing journey started? 
I’ve always enjoyed writing, but as someone who has had plenty of life experience (OK, I’m old!) I came relatively late to novel writing. My wife and I retired to France and had barely settled when I was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. Whilst recovering from an operation, surrounded by lovely people with whom I was unable to communicate effectively (my French language skills being nil at the time), I took up a pen and drafted the bones of what was to become Payback, my first complete novel. Four more have followed since and fortunately, the cancer is now history.

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your latest book My Brother's Keeper, what would it be? 
To a Catholic priest, the vows he has made are sacrosanct. But priests are human and therefore vulnerable, morally and spiritually. 

Dominic Barratt is a priest who has a degree in Psychology. He is charged by his bishop to use his talents to help, in secret, other priests with problems. But he has his own demons to confront. Once engaged to be married, Dominic split up with his fiancée Hazel to join the priesthood. Now she comes back into his life, hoping to convince him that he has made a mistake. She wants him to resign and marry her.

Already unsettled by events that challenge his faith, Dominic is tormented by his reawakened feelings for Hazel. Bound in conscience by his vows of Chastity and Obedience, he now faces a seemingly insoluble dilemma.

What inspired you to write a story featuring a catholic priest who is conflicted between his emotional feelings and his vows? 
The idea was conceived initially as a vehicle for a possible television series. As such it needed to be episodic, dealing with one problematic situation after another, with a linking theme throughout. As a lifelong Catholic, I am fortunate to have been gifted the upbringing to help make the background credible. The linking theme is provided when protagonist Dominic’s former fiancée Hazel comes into his life again years later, determined to persuade him to leave the Ministry and marry her. 

The Write Stuff with... Catherine Kullmann

Today it's my pleasure to hand the blog over to author Catherine Kullman to talk about the Regency era which is the time period her novels are set.

Thank you for inviting me, Sharon. My books are set in England in the extended Regency period between 1800 and 1830 and I would like to share with your readers the political and social background of the time. 

It is the beginning of our modern society. The Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland of 1800, the Anglo-American war of 1812 and the final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 are all events that still shape today’s world. At the same time, the ruling aristocracies were being challenged by those who saw the need for social and political reform, while the industrial revolution which led to the transfer of wealth to the manufacturing and merchant classes was underway. Women, who had few or no rights, had begun to raise their voices, demanding equality and emancipation. 

In 1803, with the collapse of the Treaty of Amiens, Great Britain and Napoleonic France were once again at war. Over the next nine years, as Napoleon marched ever further eastwards, finally invading Russia, British forces attacked from the west, defeated him at sea and began to drive his army back from the occupied Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain). In 1812 he was forced to retreat from Russia with the loss of almost five hundred thousand men. As the remnants of the Grande Armée struggled home, Wellington continued his march through Spain, driving the French before him until, in 1814, his army crossed the Pyrenees and entered France.

Author Interview: Camilla Downs

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Camilla Downs to the blog to talk about her book of poetry Words of Alchemy.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your writing journey started?
Hi Sharon! Thank you for having me on your lovely blog. I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi and Houma, Louisiana, moving to the Seattle, Washington area when I was 19-years-old. The next move in 2006 took me and my two kids to Reno, in Northern Nevada, where we currently live. We absolutely love living here. I enjoy going for walks, writing, reading, and taking photographs of nature. 

I’ve been single parenting Thomas and Lillian since they were one year old and five years old. They are now 14 and 18. I have homeschooled them for the past 4 years, with Lillian graduating June 2019. Thomas and Lillian each have a published book, with my 2nd book being published December 2019.

I loved writing when in elementary school, but I don’t remember being incredibly encouraged by the teachers and adults around me, perhaps even discouraged with the red marks and comments on my writings. So, I did not pursue it, except for writing in a personal diary. I had several traumatic occurrences as a child, and I must have intuitively known that writing in a diary would help in some way. 

When I divorced in 2007, something told me that I needed to learn about this popular online writing tool called blogging. This began my journey of learning all I could about blogging, blogging platforms, and social media tools. At this time another shift happened, in that I felt an intuitive nudge to begin sharing my life experiences publicly via blogging and social media. I began to write and share life narratives, with a shift to free-verse poetry beginning in 2012.

What attracted you to writing poetry and where do you get your inspiration?
I didn’t set out to write poetry, an accidental poet, perhaps? I began an incredibly deep and profound healing journey after my divorce. A major part of the healing was going for walks, lots and lots of walks, allowing nature to help me in healing. When in nature, poetic words would simply bubble to the surface of my thoughts. That was the original inspiration. Following this, I began to receive intuitive nudges to take photographs while on these walks. So began the practice of taking nature photographs and posting on social media. One day I sat to look through the photos, choosing one to share, and as I began to type the accompanying message, a poem landed on the page! It was incredibly magical.

Debut Spotlight: Nathan Snow

Today it's my pleasure to be shining the spotlight on Nathan Snow and his debut novel You'll Be Back which was published last month.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing journey?
I’m Nathan, 38 years old and from Manchester.  As well as a writer, I work during the day in digital content and also I am a guest blogger, writing about everything from 80s nostalgia to national level motorsport.  

I started writing in 1995, when I was still a teenager.  I’ve always loved writing stories and reading but it wasn’t something that was encouraged when I was at school, so I just did it in my spare time.

I studied Writing For Publication for four years when I was in my early 20s.  This was in the early 2000s, there wasn’t much help or support for indie publishing and the general advice was that being published was a distant dream.  I didn’t try to publish anything as there was no chance of ever getting into print. I worked in telecoms, insurance, and as a PA before settling on my current career.

Two years ago I reunited with an old friend that I used to study with, he challenged me to write 2500 words, that became You’ll Be Back.  The most surreal part was getting my first author copies, seeing my own words in print took some getting used to.

I planned on having a year off writing, but was advised that wasn’t the best idea, so a week after releasing the first book, the second book was started.

If you had to give an elevator pitch for You’ll Be Back, what would it be?
Nick moved to London from Manchester so his girlfriend, Nat, could pursue a dream career on national radio in London.  He finds out she has been cheating on him, so he returns to his hometown, Manchester. He wants to write his latest book and possibly find someone new, but life has other ideas.

Nick Carlson used to think he had life worked out. Having given up his dream of being a radio DJ, choosing to become a crime writer, he thought life would be simple. Then his girlfriend is offered the opportunity of a lifetime, hosting a breakfast show in London. Life looked to be just about perfect.

When he finds out she has been cheating on him, he moves to Manchester to start again.

All he wants is to release his next novel, find someone new and avoid both embarrassing situations and his ex.

He is about to find out, life isn't as simple as just walking away.

You’ll Be Back is a break-up comedy.  What inspired it?
It was actually my love of radio.  I wanted to set up my own internet radio station a few years ago, it turned out to be an impossible dream but I learned so much about the industry and turned that into the radio element of the book.

Author Interview: Nell Grey

Today I'm chatting to author Nell Grey about her Freshwater Bay series which was published late last year.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your writing journey started? 
I’ve always been a reader. Actually, it’s probably more accurate to say that I’m book-obsessed. From university, I was a high school and college English teacher for ten years before being swept into education management. When times were stressful as a college leader, I’d find myself getting lost in contemporary romance novels as a way to unwind. It wasn’t long after that I started to think up my own stories. Then, before a big birthday, I did it. I resigned and decided to take a new path in life. Nine months later, I published my Freshwater Bay four book series. The first novel in this series is The Strictly Business Proposal.

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your first book The Strictly Business Proposal, what would it be?
Two burned and feisty characters fighting against their fate, which is to fall in love. 

Is Beth Barnes a beautiful con artist or the genuine friend of Evan Morgan, an elderly Welsh chef?

When Evan dies, he hands talented London chef Beth her big break. She has the chance to realise her dream and run her very own restaurant in a village on the wild Welsh Celtic coast. But there are strings attached. Can she comply and gain her inheritance, her dream? Accused of being a gold digger by the family, Beth’s welcome to Wales is not quite as warm as she’d hoped for.

Burned from a recent divorce, the last thing on architect Gareth Morgan’s mind is another wedding. If he wants to realise his development dreams, he must marry.

It’s a strictly business proposal. But can Beth and Gareth really stick to the terms?

Emma's Review: The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

1927: When Fred Lawson takes a summer job on St Kilda, little does he realise that he has joined the last community to ever live on that beautiful, isolated island. Only three years later, St Kilda will be evacuated, the islanders near-dead from starvation. But for Fred, that summer - and the island woman, Chrissie, whom he falls in love with - becomes the very thing that sustains him in the years ahead.

1940: Fred has been captured behind enemy lines in France and finds himself in a prisoner-of-war camp. Beaten and exhausted, his thoughts return to the island of his youth and the woman he loved and lost. When Fred makes his daring escape, prompting a desperate journey across occupied territory, he is sustained by one thought only: finding his way back to Chrissie.

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Author Interview: Maggie Christensen

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Maggie Christensen back to the blog.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your writing journey started? 
After teaching primary school in Scotland for a few years, I got the travel bug and came to Australia lured by images of a bare-chested man in swimmers and a gown and mortar board with the slogan ‘Come Teach in the Sun’. I initially came for two years but when the time was up, I wasn’t ready to return home, and here I am, almost 50 years later! I taught in schools, then achieved my goal to teach in teacher education. It was there I met the gentle giant who is my soulmate.

Throughout my career I was kept busy writing course materials, conference papers and reports. It wasn’t till I was close to retirement that I began to write the fiction I’d always secretly wanted to write. I enrolled in a creative writing course but didn’t finish it as I found the exercises to write short stories didn’t fulfil my writing needs. It was then I began to write my women’s fiction books – fourteen now. But one thing I learned from the course is to write something every day.

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your latest book The Life She Wants, what would it be?
Sparks fly when a straitlaced, inhibited career woman meets an impetuous aging hippie.

Fran Reilly has hidden a secret sorrow for the past thirty years. But turning fifty and losing her mother forces her to re-evaluate her future. Returning to her home in Granite Springs, she’s determined to make changes to her well-ordered life. However there are more changes in store than she could ever have imagined.

When Owen Larsen applies for the position as Head of the new School of Music and Drama at the university in Granite Springs, his only concern is to leave the rat race of Sydney and find a more peaceful existence in the country.

Owen is the exact opposite of everything in Fran’s well-ordered world and reminds her of a past she has been at pains to forget. And Owen’s country idyll isn’t proving to be as peaceful as he imagined.

Can these two opposites find common ground and is there a future for them in Granite Springs?

Your books all feature characters being offered second chances, what inspired you to write stories of this nature? 
My characters are all over forty – some fifty or even sixty. I write about mature women because that’s what I enjoy reading. My characters are men and women who have some life experiences – and baggage – and are usually in the throes of a second chance romance. I firmly believe there an audience for books like this – all those women who made Young Adult fiction popular in the sixties and mature women who don’t want to read -as one reviewer put it - about twenty-somethings who just want to get married and have babies. I like to write characters who my readers would like to have as friends.

Books Read: Messy, Wonderful Us by Catherine Isaac

In late 1983, a letter arrives from Italy, containing secrets so unthinkable that it is hidden away, apparently forever. More than three decades later, it is found . . . by the last person who was ever supposed to see it.

When Allie opens an envelope in her grandmother’s house, it changes everything she knows about her family - and herself.

With the truth liable to hurt those she loves most, she hires a private detective to find out what happened to her late mother in the summer before Allie was born. Taking leave from her job as a research scientist, she is led to the sun-drenched shores of Lake Garda, accompanied by her best friend Ed.

But the secrets that emerge go far beyond anything they were expecting. Now, Allie must find the courage to confront her family’s tangled past and reshape her own future.

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Giveaway: Win a copy of Messy, Wonderful Us by Catherine Isaacs

Today I'm taking part in the paperback blog tour for Messy, Wonderful Us by Catherine Isaac with not one, but two posts.  First up this morning I have an extra copy to give away and will be sharing my review with you this afternoon when I get home.

On Tuesday night I went to a blogger event in London at Catherine's publishers Simon & Schuster where I received a paperback copy of her book in my goody bag but as I already had copies to read for review I have decided to give one of you the chance to win and read this fantastic book for yourself.

In late 1983, a letter arrives from Italy, containing secrets so unthinkable that it is hidden away, apparently forever. More than three decades later, it is found . . . by the last person who was ever supposed to see it.

When Allie opens an envelope in her grandmother’s house, it changes everything she knows about her family - and herself.

Emma's Review: All You Knead is Love by Cressida McLaughlin (The Cornish Cream Tea Summer, Book 1)

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Everyone’s favourite bus goes on a summer adventure full of sunshine and the promise of romance…

Charlie has a new helper on her bus, her free-spirited and loveable cousin, Delilah, who’s paid a visit to the charming Cornish village of Porthgolow and is helping out on Charlie’s adorable cream tea bus.

When the Director of a new TV series filming further along the coast tells Delilah that the bus would be the perfect addition to their onsite catering, she takes him a bit too literally, and before long she and the bus have taken a rather unexpected journey…

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Debut Spotlight: T. L. Mahrt

Today it's my pleasure to be shining the spotlight on author T L Mahrt and her debut novel Withstanding the Enemy.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
My Pen name is T L Mahrt but I go by Traci. I have been a stay-at-home mom for four years, now, to two beautiful children (ages 9, 4). Before, I was a business owner of a salon and spa. When my son was born, he was diagnosed with DYRK1A Syndrome and about 5 months later, my daughter fell off a high-diving board onto the concrete and now is a warrior of a TBI (traumatic brain injury). 

I have been journal sense I was a young girl. So, with staying at home to raise my children, writing has also became like a life line to me at time. It was also allowed me to have the flexible schedule to accommodate my busy life.

If you had to give an elevator pitch for Withstanding the Enemy, what would it be? 
Emma Andrews desires a life of freewill and must learn her own personal strengths and reality, if she has any hope of escape the clutches her captor, she must win the battle between her heart and her mind, and she may be in luck with the help from someone, who can only see the fighter in her.

Emma Andrews was orphaned at a young age with no family to turn to. Tired of the broken foster-care system, and believing it was her only option, she runs to a multi-millionaire with a reputation of hiring young women. It is only then that she learns what real monsters look like…

Emma uses her overactive imagination to help her get through the toughest of days. By daydreaming a life full of love and freewill, she manages her colorless prison, but even in her wildest dreams, she would have never imagined it could become a reality. That is, until she meets Chance, a man willing to lay his life down to save hers.

But what Emma doesn’t expect is to fight her own personal demons—her heart.

Books Read: Mexico Street by Simone Buchholz

Night after night, cars are set alight across the German city of Hamburg, with no obvious pattern, no explanation and no suspect.

Until, one night, on Mexico Street, a ghetto of high-rise blocks in the north of the city, a Fiat is torched. Only this car isn’t empty. The body of Nouri Saroukhan – prodigal son of the Bremen clan – is soon discovered, and the case becomes a homicide.

Public prosecutor Chastity Riley is handed the investigation, which takes her deep into a criminal underground that snakes beneath the whole of Germany. And as details of Nouri’s background, including an illicit relationship with the mysterious Aliza, emerge, it becomes clear that these are not random attacks, and there are more on the cards...

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The Write Stuff with... Anne Stormont

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Anne Stormont to the blog with her guest post 'Getting Published is all about Perseverance'.

Ten years and five books later – I'm glad I didn't give up

It's ten years since my first book was published and since then I've published three more and my next one is due out this month. So that's five in all – four for adults and one for children. And I have to say, I do feel proud of what I've achieved – proud of my books, proud of the obstacles I've overcome on the way, and proud that I didn't give up.

From Procrastination to Perseverance to Publication

As a child I was a total bookworm (still am) and reading inspired me to write my own stories. I wrote them for myself and also to entertain my four younger sisters. But much as I loved writing it wasn't something I ever thought I could do for a living. And adult life as a wife, mother and primary school teacher left me little time to do more than write the odd short story for my own entertainment. However, I did daydream of maybe one day – one day I might actually write a novel. But busyness made procrastination all too easy.

Then I got a wake-up call – a brush with mortality that showed me 'one day' might never come and I should blooming well get on with chasing my dream. It was just over twenty years ago and I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Long story short, I did a deal with fate and promised that if I survived the illness, I'd stop procrastinating and get on with all the things I'd been putting off – most especially writing that novel.

Debut Spotlight: Eleni Kyriacou

Today is my pleasure to be shining the spotlight on journalist and author Eleni Kyriacou and her debut novel She Came to Stay which is published tomorrow.

How She Came To Stay was created
There are so many ways to write a novel. This is how I did it.

Rejection: it can make you (after it breaks you)
I’d always wanted to write a novel but just didn’t know what it should be about. Like most people, life got in the way and I didn’t apply myself seriously until I was in my 40s. 

But the first novel I wrote wasn’t very good – I got several rejections and had feedback from one agent that can be summed up as ‘you can do better than this’. It was heart-breaking after a  year’s solid work, while looking after our children and also being self-employed as a freelance journalist, but I knew in my bones that the agent was right. I put that novel to one side (to this day I haven’t looked at it again) and decided to start something fresh. 

She also told me that in her experience, many debut novelists already had at least one, if not more, books in a drawer that would never be published. Once this had sunk in, it actually made me feel a lot better and I realised that my first book was my practice run. Now it was time to get serious. 

Author Interview: Diana Jackson

Today it's my pleasure to welcome author Diana Jackson to the blog to talk about her writing and her latest book Missing, Past and Present which was published last week.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your writing journey started? 
I’ve always written stories and poems since I was a teenager, inspired by a fantastic English teacher, Mrs Yates, who used to critique my poems just because she loved doing it. She encouraged my love of the classics too. An inspiring woman!

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your latest book Missing, Past and Present, what would it?
Is life just a roll of a Dice? Dot, a homeless character in my novel thought so as she grappled with memories of the past and survival as a homeless person in the present. Her own sense of loss led to her writing the story of an eighteenth century aspirant nun, Millie, who also went missing; parallel lives.

Following the mysterious disappearance of her husband, Dorothy Gibbons, affectionately known as Lady Pink Hat, trudged the lanes around Drumford, homeless and directionless. Alone she rolled a dice, reflecting on her life, times both painful and pleasant. She stumbled upon The Grange, which changed the course of her life. 

In her isolation Dot began to write ...Millie, an 18th Century aspirant nun, ran away from The Grange ...Jamal Hussain, a Syrian refugee and asylum seeker, was fostered under the careful wing of Dorothy until leaving school and finding work. He and his brother settled in a nearby flat until the misguided Ahmed Hussain also disappeared. With three missing people, who will discover the truth? Is Millie still haunting The Grange until her story is told?

The Write Stuff with... Rosie Travers

One of the things I enjoy about blogging is getting to know a little more about authors and their books and/or writing processes. Today is the first of a few author features this week and it's my absolute pleasure to welcome author Rosie Travers back to the blog.

Looking for Inspiration? 

Writers are often asked where they get their inspiration from. For me it’s very easy.  I don’t go looking for inspiration - it seems to find me. I’m naturally inquisitive and it doesn’t take much to trigger my imagination. What if, why are they doing that, when did that happen…are all questions that regularly pop into my head. I’m one of life’s great nosey parkers – and when there is no obvious answer, I’ll make something up. The perfect life skills for writing fiction!

My debut novel The Theatre of Dreams follows of the adventures of a devious octogenarian who is determined to save her family’s neglected seaside pavilion from a ruthless property developer and see it restored to its former glory. She recruits a young actress to play a part in an elaborate plot of deception and intrigue. There’s a love interest thrown in from a handsome building conservationist, and the mystery of a past family tragedy to solve.  So, where did the initial idea come from?

The answer is a building. While taking a stroll along the seafront at Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire,  I noticed a sign commemorating the site of  a vast art deco entertainment complex, the Lee Tower, which had stood on the esplanade for less than forty years before being demolished by the local council. I immediately wondered why the building hadn’t been saved, why hadn’t the community rallied round? Of course, I later looked it up and discovered the building had been a complete white elephant, far too ambitious a design to make money for its owners, but by then it was too late. I’d already come up with my own version of events, which was far more interesting and entertaining!  When I wrote the story I wanted to keep the plot surreal; my pavilion owner concocts a totally hairbrained scheme to save her building, which of course wouldn’t happen in real life, but that’s why we read (and why I write) to escape from our ordinary lives and into someone else’s!

Giveaway: Win a copy of Deep Dark Night by Steph Broadribb

Today it's my pleasure to be kicking off the Deep Dark Night blog tour with a giveaway for a paperback copy of the latest book in the Lori Anderson series by Steph Broadribb.

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A city in darkness. A building in lockdown. A score that can only be settled in blood…

Working off the books for FBI Special Agent Alex Monroe, Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson and her partner, JT, head to Chicago. Their mission: to entrap the head of the Cabressa crime family. The bait: a priceless chess set that Cabressa is determined to add to his collection.