Author Interview: Maxine Morrey

Today it's my absolute pleasure to welcome Maxine Morrey back to the blog for a bit of a catch up since her debut spotlight feature in 2015.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
Of course! I’ve been writing in one form or another for as long as I can remember. I was a very early reader and devoured books like they were going out of fashion. Creating my own stories seemed like a natural progression from this and I always dreamed of being a writer, but being quite shy, I didn’t really have the confidence to think I could really do something like that.

I continued writing and although I did have an agent at one point, nothing happened and life went on. Over the years, I sold some articles and continued working on a few different novels. I’d won a ‘New Voices’ competition in America in 2006 – unfortunately the recession swallowed the publisher before the book came out – but it did boost my writing confidence. In 2015, I decided I was going to enter as many competitions as I could. Making the long list in the first one I entered gave me the confidence to keep trying. In the August, I had a phone call from Carina (now HQ/HarperCollins) to tell me I’d won their ‘Write Christmas’ competition with the book that would become ‘Winter’s Fairytale’.

I live on the south coast of England, and when I’m not writing, I love to read (obviously!), listen to podcasts, and sew. As a writer, I spend a lot of time sat down (and possibly snacking…) so I now make a point of walking or doing something up the gym a few times a week when I can too. 

If you had to give an elevator pitch for The Christmas Holiday, what would it be? 
Wedding reporter, Mia, has been offered the assignment of a lifetime accompanying her boss’ daughter and her fiancé on an adventure holiday in the run up to their spectacular Christmas wedding in London. Her dreams of writing travel seem to be finally coming true! But when the photographer for the trip turns out to be none other than hot shot adventure man, Hunter Scott, Mia has to fight to keep the opportunity. Looking as gorgeous as ever, it’s clear from the moment he walks in that he hasn’t forgiven her for handing back his engagement ring five years ago…

I love the idea of Mia travelling around the world to write a romantic travel piece, where did the inspiration come from and how did you research the locations you decided to include? 
Thank you so much for having me on the blog, Sharon, and I’m so glad you love the sound of it! The idea itself came from two little sparks which then came together and grew. A few years ago, I was sat in a café in London and overheard parts of a conversation about someone’s ex going off to pursue an amazing career opportunity. More recently, I read an article about a writer being contracted to produce a journal about someone’s wedding day. I began to think about the possibilities of expanding something like that and, remembering back to the overheard conversation, the character of Hunter Scott wandered into my head.

As for the locations, I’ve been incredibly lucky to travel in the past, and also lived in America for a couple of years, so most of the travel side was based on personal experience with a little creative licence. For example, whilst I’ve been to Malaysia, the secluded luxury resort was a fictional creation - athough I rather wish I could go there! However, the ‘oar incident’ that takes place whilst they’re kayaking with manatees in Florida was definitely inspired by real life events 😉

Describe Mia and Hunter in 3 words.
Mia – Talented, Caring, Cautious
Hunter – Adventurous, Gifted, Protective 

Debut Spotlight: Maxine Morrey

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Maxine Morrey into the spotlight here on the blog to find out what happened next after winning the Carina UK #WriteChristmas competition with Winter's Fairytale which saw her winning a publishing deal to publish her first novel with them. 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…

A few weeks before Christmas and a sudden blanketing of snow has closed the roads and brought public transport grinding to a halt, stranding Izzy miles from home and in desperate need of rescuing.

That doesn’t mean she’s looking to bump into Rob and spend a cosy weekend holed up in his swanky flat watching London become a winter wonderland! Because Izzy and Rob have history…

Six months ago, they were standing in the vestry of a beautiful country church, while best man Rob delivered the news that every bride dreads on their big day.

But at the time of year when anything is possible, can Rob and Izzy let go of the past and let Christmas work its magic? Or will this be one holiday wish that Izzy lets walk right out of her life…

Maxine Morrey has wanted to be a writer for as long as she can remember and wrote her first (very short) book for school when she was ten. Coming in first she won a handful of book tokens – perfect for a young bookworm!

As years went by, she continued to write, but ‘normal’ work often got in the way. Finally, she really decided to go for it, and wrote. Really wrote. And after a while she had a bunch of articles, and a non fiction book to her name. But her real love is writing novels and the magical escapism it affords – for both writer and reader. After self publishing her first novel when a contract fell through as the publishers succumbed to the recession, she continued to look for opportunities.

In August 2015, she won Carina UK’s #WriteChristmas competition. Her first romantic comedy, Winter’s Fairytale, was published on the 10th of November. 

Maxine lives in Sussex, England with her husband and when not wrangling with words, can be found adding to her To Be Read pile, sewing, walking and wondering when they are going to invent a robot for ironing.

Her website is: www.scribblermaxi.co.uk
You can also find her on Twitter @Scribbler_Maxi
On Facebook www.facebook.com/MaxineMorreyAuthor
On Instagram @Scribbler_Maxi
On Pinterest @ScribblerMaxi

When I got The Call, I distinctly remember the lovely Victoria Oundjian at Carina telling me that the deadline for the book was just under a month away. I also distinctly remember me saying the words ‘I can do that’ without any real thought as to whether I could or not! But I’d been waiting a long time for this, so I knew I was going to make it happen somehow. You see, my teensy tiny issue was that I’d actually only written the first three chapters of the novel and I had to find about another sixty to seventy thousand words in the next four weeks!