Okay- I admit it, I have a serious coffee shop habit! I am addicted- not just to the caffeine- but to the coffee and teashops themselves. I just love them- all of them! I love to watch the people around me, to smile at strangers to see how they respond, to wrap my hands around a coffee mug and inhale the aroma of the drink within. For me, there is something very soothing about these places. Whether they are jammed packed and noisy, or as quiet as the proverbial grave, with myself as the only coffee swiller in residence, I simply feel at home in cafes.
It won’t surprise you to learn then, that every novel I have ever written has taken shape in various coffee shops up and down the UK. I can’t write at home, with the distractions of ironing and dusting, so I pen all my words at cafe tables. There is even a plaque on the wall of my cafe, denoting where I write! It seemed totally natural to me therefore, that when it came to creating my first non-erotic novel, to make a coffee shop the focal point of the story.
For the last five months, I’ve been sat at my usual table in a local coffee shop each day, working on my latest novel, Another Glass of Champagne, the fourth in my Another Cup of… series.
It is eighteen months since the first in this contemporary romance series, Another Cup of Coffee, was released. I never dreamt it would become a series! (Book 2 – Another Cup of Christmas. Book 3- Christmas in the Cotswolds)
Another Cup of Coffee Blurb-
Thirteen years ago Amy Crane ran away from everyone and everything she knew, ending up in an unfamiliar city with no obvious past and no idea of her future. Now, though, that past has just arrived on her doorstep, in the shape of an old music cassette that Amy hasn’t seen since she was at university.
Digging out her long-neglected Walkman, Amy listens to the lyrics that soundtracked her student days. As long-buried memories are wrenched from the places in her mind where she’s kept them safely locked away for over a decade, Amy is suddenly tired of hiding.
It’s time to confront everything about her life. Time to find all the friends she left behind in England, when her heart got broken and the life she was building for herself was shattered. Time to make sense of all the feelings she’s been bottling up for all this time. And most of all, it’s time to discover why Jack has sent her tape back to her now, after all these years…
With her mantra, ‘New life, New job, New home’, playing on a continuous loop in her head, Amy gears herself up with yet another bucket-sized cup of coffee, as she goes forth to lay the ghost of first love to rest…
The coffee shop that features most within Another Cup of Coffee is Pickwicks, a tucked away cafe in Richmond, run by the ever bubbly Peggy, and her husband Scott. It is there that, newly arrived in London from Scotland, Amy Crane finds a refuge from her troubles, a temporary job, a possible future, and a potential friend in Kit.
In my latest work in progress (which should be out in early 2016), Amy, Jack, Kit and the Pickwicks crew are all five years older. Life has dealt them each a life changing situation to overcome- all of which should (if things go to plan), lead to the chance to celebrate…
Of course, until I have consumed a great deal more coffee myself, and edited at least another 80,000 words, the Pickwicks regulars won’t be getting anyway near that glass of champagne!!
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If you’d like to read Another Cup of Coffee, you can buy it from all good bookshops, as well as from…
Happy reading,
Jenny x
Marie Laval
I can relate to your coffee shop addiction, Kay. I love them too. I think it comes from my student days in France, when I could happily spend whole days chatting, reading, dreaming, spending all my hard-earned pocket money money in the juke box or the pinball machine. Good luck with your series. It’s a great idea!
Jenny Kane
Thanks Marie- like you, I spent many hours as a student sipping coffee in various cafes. Although in Leicester- so not so glamorous as France! Thanks for good wishes- I have been overwhelmed with how well the series has gone down so far. xxx
Phaedra
Great blog and I love all your books. Sharing