Tag: fiction Page 21 of 24

Interview with Shelley Wilson: Guardians

On September 1, 2016

In Blog, Books For Children, Contemporary fiction, Fiction, Interview

I’m delighted to welcome Shelley Wilson into the hot seat today- to talk vampires….Time to pop on the kettle and have a read…

Coffee blog- Full Bean Cafe Somerton- Hot Choc

Thank you so much for letting me invade your lovely blog, Jenny. I promise to behave myself.

What inspired you to write your book?

I write for two genres so have to call upon my split personality to find my inspiration. My personal development non-fiction books tend to come from real life events, issues, and my self-help motivational tools, whereas my young adult fantasy fiction comes from a deep desire to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

I’ve always loved mythology, the supernatural, and all fantasy subjects and have an insatiable thirst for young adult fiction. Although I’ve always wanted to write for this genre, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I finally published my first YA book. I’m a great believer in ‘if there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it!’ I think this was the driving force before my YA trilogy.

Having three teenagers under my roof is also a huge inspiration. If I can get them engaged in the writing process, then they will become more voracious readers – they are also very handy to have around when I get stuck on dialogue and have often told me ‘kids wouldn’t say that mum, try it this way.’

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Do you model any of your characters after people you know? If so, do these people see themselves in your characters?

I think my characters are a blend of everyone I’ve ever met. The ‘bad guys’ tend to be the bullies that often linger in the recesses of your subconscious right through to adulthood. My main character in the Guardian Series, Amber, is how I wish I would have been at sixteen. She is much stronger and more opinionated than I ever was.

If my children say something that I think would be quite humorous in the book, I will ask them for permission to use it. I also asked one of my daughter’s friends if I could use her name for one of the characters in my current WIP – she was thrilled.

Which Point of View do you prefer to write in and why?

In the Guardian Series, I opted for third person so I could capture the thoughts, emotions, and actions of a wider circle of characters. It ended up being the right thing to do as I needed the third person POV for a specific scene at the end of book three, Guardians of the Lost Lands.

The YA book I’m working on at the moment is written in the first person. I’ve found it quite easy to switch, which surprised me, as I’ve only ever written in third person. I sent the first three chapters off to my editor for a developmental edit as I was worried that I’d mess it up, but she loved it, so I’ve stuck with it – I’m delighted with the result.

Guardians-of-the-Sky---SL-Wilson_FC_Amazon

Do you prefer to plot your story or just go with the flow?

Plot, plot, and then plot some more! I used to go with the flow but ended up with hundreds of unfinished projects. It was as I prepared to take part in my first NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month whereby you pen a 50,000-word novel in 30 days), that I stumbled upon the art of plotting. It’s revolutionised my writing output. I couldn’t go back now.

What excites you the most about your book?

I would have to say the most exciting thing is how it evolved to become a trilogy. I never intended to write three books, but I became so immersed in the fantasy realms that additional ideas began to bubble up to the surface. As I got to the end of Guardians of the Dead (book 1), I began to picture another ‘big bad’, and the plot of a different story presented itself around the same characters. I had to keep going. The same happened when I wrote book two, Guardians of the Sky. I wrapped up this story but left a thread that led to the grand finale. It was the most fun I’ve had!

If you were stranded on a desert island with three other people, fictional or real, who would they be and why?

First off, I would have to say Dracula but only if we have enough shade, so he doesn’t burst into flames under the hot sun! I’d love to get to the truth of his origins and find out how he keeps his fangs clean.

Then, I’d choose J.K.Rowling so we could chat about magic, writing, and muggles for hours on end and be totally oblivious to the fact we are stranded.

Finally, we’d have Johnny Depp – not just because he’s gorgeous, but because he knows where the Rum is!

Anything else you’d like to share with us?

Guardians of the Lost Lands, book three in the Guardian Series is out on 11^th November in eBook and paperback. Here are the blurbs for all three books in the series.

The Guardian Series by S.L. Wilson

Guardians of the Dead (Book 1)

One girl holds the key to an ancient pact that could destroy the world…

When sixteen-year-old Amber Noble’s dreams begin to weave into her reality, she turns to the mysterious Connor for help. His links to the supernatural world uncover a chilling truth about her hometown and a pact that must be re-paid with blood.

As her father alienates her, and the Guardians take her best friend, her true destiny unfolds, and she begins a quest that will see her past collide with her present.

Drawn deeper into the world of witchcraft and faeries, it is only at the end of her journey that she realises how much she could lose.

Guardians of the Sky (Book 2)

Can one girl sacrifice herself to save the one she loves…

Following their daring escape from the demon realm, Amber and her friends become caught up in a war between good and evil. They must join forces with the Queen’s warriors to overthrow a malevolent force that has spread across Avaveil, the land of the Fae.

As her powers grow, Amber is faced with the real possibility that she is a danger to the ones she loves. Her full strength is yet to be tested in a way she can’t comprehend.

Dragons, faeries and humans stand side-by-side as they are drawn into a cunning battle of magic and surprising revelations. Can Amber survive long enough to see her dreams fulfilled?

Guardians of the Lost Lands (Book 3)

Amber’s final quest could claim her soul, but it’s a journey she must make.

The evil that lurks in the Lost Lands threatens to infest the realms unless Amber, Redka, and Connor can destroy it. But Amber is more concerned about her father’s safety as he is held captive by the wickedness that terrorises them all.

Amber faces isolation and mistrust from her friends as they travel across land and sea to meet their most dangerous foe.

Will she be able to stay true to her destiny as the last Oracle, or will she be tempted by the darkness? The fate of the realms is in her hands.

Amber’s final quest will be her most terrifying yet. This time, it will be deadly.

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Links:

My Website is http://www.shelleywilsonauthor.co.uk

My Author/Reviewer Blog is http://www.shelleywilsonauthor.com

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ShelleyWilson72

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/FantasyAuthorSLWilson

Amazon Author Account http://amazon.co.uk/Shelley-Wilson/e/B00G5KPMJI

Instagram http://instagram.com/authorslwilson

Goodreads YA http://goodreads.com/author/show/13524443.S_L_Wilson

Goodreads http://goodreads.com/author/show/7362789.Shelley_Wilson

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Bio

My name is Shelley. I divide my writing time between non-fiction for adults and the fantasy worlds of my YA fiction.

My books combine lifestyle, motivation, and self-help with a healthy dose of humour. My approach to writing is to provide an uplifting insight into personal development and to help you be the best you can be.

I write my YA fiction under, ‘S.L. Wilson’ and combine myth, legend and fairy tales with a side order of demonic chaos.

I also write a motivation and lifestyle blog http://myresolutionchallenge.blogspot.com

I was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire but raised in Solihull, West Midlands, UK, where I live with my three teenagers, one fat fish and a black cat called Luna.

I was asked during an author interview to list my favourite things:

Pizza
List Writing (yes, it’s a thing)
Anything supernatural or mythological – especially Vampires!
Watching Game of Thrones/The Walking Dead/Vampire Diaries/Shadow Hunters
Johnny Depp!
Chocolate – in large quantities.

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Many thanks Shelley. Fabulous interview.

Happy reading,

Jenny xx

Interview with Carol Cooper: Hampstead Fever

By Jenny Kane

On August 30, 2016

In Blog, Contemporary fiction, Contemporary Romantic Fiction, Fiction, Interview, Romance

It’s interview time again, and today I’m pleased to have the lovely Carol Cooper dropping by for coffee and cake. Why not take five minutes to join us?

What inspired you to write your book?

I wanted to write the kind of novel that I enjoy reading myself, with a diverse cast of characters, each one complex and flawed, with problems and dreams that people can identify with. Chef Dan, for instance, is on the up, with a new job in a trendy Hampstead bistro. But his partner Laure is wrapped up in their young son and has no time for him. You can tell that’ll lead to trouble.

Do you model any of your characters on people you know? If so, do these people see themselves in your characters?

In Hampstead Fever, as in my first novel, I’ve used my imagination to create the characters. But I’ve been inspired by real people, including the patients I look after in my other life as a doctor. I’d be lying if I said anything else. Writers can’t help being influenced by what’s around them, just like everyone one. It was a lightbulb moment when I learned that everything you ever see, hear, or experience creates new connections between brain cells. Basically, daily life subtly changes the anatomy of your brain. The only characters who are modelled on real people are Laure’s aunts, who are like my own great-aunts, two wonderful individuals who seemed to be crying out to be put in a book. They’re no longer with us, so they can’t read my book.

What type of research did you have to do for your book?

I used the internet to look up details like bus routes to make sure characters are going home in the right direction, and I’ve checked which songs hit the charts when. That’s important for Sanjay, who loves music. I also hung around Hampstead village a lot, which is no hardship because I live nearby and it’s a lovely area. There’s a lot I didn’t need to look up, like the medical details that appear in part of the story. That’s stuff I knew already.

Which point of view do you prefer to write in, and why?

The third person, but it‘s a deep and intimate third person. Hampstead Fever evolves from each of the six main characters’ viewpoint, and each scene takes you right into the mind and heart of that one person. I think I write multi-viewpoint fiction because for most of my working life I’ve tried getting inside other people’s heads. As a GP, every ten minutes I see someone with a new story and a different perspective.

Do you prefer to plot your story or just go with the flow?

A bit of both. I like to have the gist before I begin, but then the characters grow and take over, telling lies, jumping into bed with the wrong people, and generally getting into trouble that I hadn’t anticipated.

If you were stranded on a desert island with three other people, fictional or real, who would they be and why?

Rick Stein to supply me with fish and seafood dishes, Barack Obama for brilliant conversation, and hairdresser Nicky Clarke to make my hair look great.

Amazon link for Hampstead Fever http://mybook.to/HF

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Carol has a Goodreads running for Hampstead Fever until 3rd Sept- check it out here-

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30284643-hampstead-fever

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Blog http://pillsandpillowtalk.com

Twitter @DrCarolCooper

Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/onenightatthejacaranda/

There’s more about all my books on my Amazon author page https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dr-Carol-Cooper/e/B005C2ZZ10

Carol Cooper

Bio: Carol is a journalist, author and doctor. She graduated in medicine from Cambridge University. To support her studies, she worked at supermarket checkouts, walked dogs, typed manuscripts in Russian, and made men’s trousers to measure.

After a string of non-fiction books, including an award-winning textbook, she turned to fiction with her debut novel One Night at the Jacaranda. She is president of the Guild of Health Writers and has three amazing grown-up sons. Like her fictional characters, she lives in Hampstead and Cambridge. Unlike them, she remarried in 2013. She likes a happy ending.

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Thank you ever so much Carol. A fantastic interview!

Happy reading everyone,

Jenny x

Raising ‘Another Glass of Champagne’

By Jenny Kane

On August 20, 2016

In Blog, Contemporary fiction, Contemporary Romantic Fiction, Fiction

I’ve come on quite a journey with the main characters in the ‘Another Cup of….’ series of books, from the full length novel Another Cup of Coffee, through there Christmas novella’s, (Another Cup of Christmas, Christmas in the Cotswolds and Christmas at the Castle), and now to the full length novel, Another Glass of Champagne!

Amy, Kit and Jack were all in the their thirties when I began to tell their intertwined stories of love, friendship and coffee sipping. Now, they are all in their forties, and are facing the fact that age doesn’t give you the answers to yourproblems. In fact, all it does is add to them…

Blurb

A warm-hearted, contemporary tale about a group of friends living in a small corner of busy London, by bestselling author Jenny Kane.

Fortysomething Amy is shocked and delighted to discover she s expecting a baby not to mention terrified! Amy wants best friend Jack to be godfather, but he hasn’t been heard from in months. When Jack finally reappears, he s full of good intentions but his new business plan could spell disaster for the beloved Pickwicks Coffee Shop, and ruin a number of old friendships…

Meanwhile his love life is as complicated as ever and yet when he swears off men for good, Jack meets someone who makes him rethink his priorities…but is it too late for a fresh start?

Author Kit has problems of her own: just when her career has started to take off, she finds herself unable to write and there s a deadline looming, plus two headstrong kids to see through their difficult teenage years…will she be able to cope?

A follow-up to the runaway success Another Cup of Coffee.

***

If you’d like to see how the story ends, then you can buy Another Glass of Champagne from all good bookshop and e-retailers. (You don’t need to have read the previous novels to enjoy this one)

Buy Links

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Another+Glass+of+Champagne+Jenny+Kane

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/188-7813436-7626710?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Another+Glass+of+Champagne+Jenny+Kane

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Happy reading,

Jenny x

Guest Post from Karl Drinkwater: Thinking Manchester in the year 2000…

By Jenny Kane

On August 18, 2016

In Blog, Contemporary fiction, Fiction, Interview

I’m delighted to welcome Karl Drinkwater to my blog today to chat about his writing, and the influence the city of Manchester has had on his words. Why not put your feet up for five minutes and join us for a chat?

Karl Drinkwater

Hi Karl, where are you from?

I’m originally from Manchester. Therefore I grew up miserable. This gradually softened to a perpetual grumpiness and a desire to create a better world through fiction. I now live in Wales. It’s like Manchester with hills and greenery.

Manchester (1)

Which books did you want to talk about today?

Cold Fusion 2000, and 2000 Tunes. They were my most recent novels, both set in Manchester in the year 2000, shortly after I left for Wales. When you leave a place you see it in a different light, the good and the bad. And you see yourself in a different light too. A teeny bit of that will bleed between the covers.

Karl Drinkwater Cold What inspired you to write the books?

I think I was getting things out of my system with these books. They’re love letters to Manchester, its music, its city, whilst also being critical of some aspects. And they’re also more traditional love stories after a fashion, about nerds and difficult people being able to find love and happiness and contentment. Both books are set in the same summer with crossover places, themes, situations and characters that sometimes mirror each other.

Karl Drinkwater 2000 Tunes What type of research did you have to do for your book?

Since both novels were set in a very real place I wanted to reflect that, and show how the geography of an area affects our perception of it. The difficulty was that the city centre had changed a lot in the last sixteen years. Many of the places in the novel have already been lost, renamed, altered or closed. 2000 Tunes opens outside The Haçienda, one of the world’s most famous nightclubs: just before it was demolished for luxury flats. I had to combine my memories of the city at the time with archival photos and discussions; my diaries were useful too. I built the city back up as it used to be and then let the characters breathe into that space.

There were also the elements related to the protagonist nerds. In Cold Fusion 2000 we have Alex, who is obsessed with with poetry … and hardcore physics. Luckily I’ve studied literature and astronomy at university, but I still had to learn more to fully get into his head. In 2000 Tunes Mark is obsessed with the music of Manchester. Again, it’s a love of mine, but the amount of detail I had to research so that I could draw parallels between songs based on dates, musicians, locations and so on as Mark does … that was a whole other level. Some of the research led to a series of blog posts all about the songs Mark thinks are the best examples of Manchester music (and which also form the chapter names in the novel). You’ll find the posts here.

Manchester (4) Why the year 2000?

It was a time when people thought the world might suddenly change for the better. What fools we were. But it’s an interesting liminal time, totally appropriate for coming-of-age stories about obsessive nerds, the amazing women they fall in love with, and the life-changing decisions they confront.

Do you prefer to plot your story or just go with the flow?

It has to be a bit of both. I plot so that macro-scale events work well, with escalation, reversals and so on. So if I sit down to write a scene I know that the two characters will begin arguing, and eventually come to blows, and say things they’ll regret, or reveal things they shouldn’t – but the details of what, and when, and how aren’t decided in advance. They come naturally from the characters interacting. Reviews often praise my realistic dialogue, and I think if you let the words and actions be authentic to the characters then the scene will flow; and often surprise the author.

Links

Website: http://karldrinkwater.uk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karlzdrinkwater/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/karldrinkwater

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/bIkYp5

Purchase: Amazon UK / Amazon US

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Manchester (6)

Extract from 2000 Tunes

Samantha Rees thrust money into the taxi drivers hand and hurried away. Stopped, smoothed down her black skirt. Was it too short?

Too late if it was.

The white-washed Presbyterian chapel was built on a hill and the graveyard sloped down to dry stone walls. A bank of dying daffodils bent their heads towards her in the breeze. When she was a little girl her uncle had tricked her, making her believe they were really called Taffodils. She shook her head and climbed the steep stone steps, worn from two centuries of comings and goings.

People in black milled around outside under incongruous sunshine. She spied smokers having a quick ciggie behind the holly trees. She’d have joined them if she wasn’t so late. Just a one-off to settle her emotions.

The mourners admitted her, welcomed her. Hugs and questions but she pushed her way through as quickly as she could without seeming rude. It smelt like a flower shop. Overpowering sweetness of the white lilies. Snippets of conversation heard in passing.

“Such a nice day for it …”

“Aye, booked the weather in advance, knowing her.”

“Joined her husband, that’ll be a reunion.”

“Always said they didn’t want to outlive each other.”

“Shouldn’t be in here really, I’m a pub man …”

Inside was dark polished wood set off against pale walls. Pews and a small gallery were filling with those too tired to stand around. She spotted her mam and they hugged. Seconds without words, but which said everything, before Sam moved to arm’s length. “Sorry I’m late. I dropped my bags off at your house first, and the trains were –” but Mam silenced her with a waved hand.

“I knew you’d be here, bach. We waited. She’d have wanted that.”

Despite all the murmurs the atmosphere was hushed, heavy, like a gap in sound before an approaching storm. Noises seemed further away than normal, vitality cut off from conversation, words disconnected from their source, just as Sam’s mother was now disconnected from her source. Organisation rippled through the crowd as people moved to seats. Some mourners had to spill over into the small gallery.

Mamgu was in the coffin at the front. It hurt to look at the box, to picture Mamgu’s face without a living smile on it; so when the minister stepped into the pulpit and began speaking Sam was glad to focus on him instead. The service was in Welsh. Soon there was sniffing and nose blowing as the eulogy continued.

They stood to sing. Calon Lân began, beautiful music and strong voices. Sam tried to sing along but her throat tightened so she mumbled, “Calon lân yn llawn daioni, Tecach yw na’r lili dlos.” A pure heart full of goodness, Is fairer than the pretty lily.

She had to look up as her eyes brimmed, lights hung in threes, the images spilt over and she realised she hadn’t brought a hankie but would definitely need one…

***

Bio

Karl Drinkwater is originally from Manchester but has lived in Wales for nearly twenty years, ever since he went there to do a degree: it was easier to stay than to catch a train back. His longest career was in librarianship (twenty-five years); his shortest was industrial welding (one week).

Sometimes he writes about life and love; sometimes death and decay. He usually flips a coin in the morning, or checks the weather, and decides based on that. His aim is to tell a good story, regardless of genre. When he is not writing or editing he loves exercise, guitars, computer games, board games, the natural environment, animals, social justice and zombies.

http://www.karldrinkwater.uk/p/about.html

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Many thanks for a great blog Karl.

Happy reading everyone,

Jenny x

Interview with Julia Roberts: Liberty Sands

By Jenny Kane

On August 15, 2016

In Blog, Contemporary fiction, Contemporary Romantic Fiction, Fiction, Interview, Romance

It’s interview time today, and I’m delighted to welcome Julia Roberts to my blog. This is an excellent interview- I advise you to pop your feet up for five minutes to join us for a chat and a cuppa. What an amazing life!

Over to you Julia…

coffee and cake

What inspired you to write your book?

I have to be honest and say that it was a holiday to the beautiful island of Mauritius. I had been receiving treatment for almost a year for a type of leukaemia and the medication, whilst working effectively to bring the condition under control, made me very tired. What was needed was a relaxing ten days in paradise but on the first morning of the holiday I sat on the beach under the shade of a straw parasol, the sound of the waves crashing on the distant reef and the seed of an idea for a novel started to grow. Over the course of the holiday I lived and breathed the story and the characters, as did my poor long-suffering other half, and by the time we were waiting at the airport for the journey home I had the plot for not just one book, but the entire Liberty Sands trilogy. Book one, Life’s a Beach and Then… begins in Mauritius and the final book, It’s Never Too late To Say… concludes there, so it comes full circle.

Do you model any of your characters after people you know? If so, do these people see themselves in your characters?

A lot of people have said that two of the characters in Life’s a Beach and Then… reminded them of me. Rosemary is a sixty year old ex-dancer who has CML, but there the similarity ends, and Holly is like me in looks but twenty years ago. I think Holly’s son Harry was definitely modelled on my own son and our relationship, whilst the character of Amy has a lot of my daughter in her. I guess the answer to that question has to be a resounding yes – it’s a good job I know a lot of people.

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What type of research did you have to do for your book?

All of my books to date have included far flung destinations as my main female character, Holly, is an undercover travel blogger. Fortunately I have travelled to all the places I have written about, either on holiday or for work, apart from Cuba which I had to rely on my daughter’s experience of. One of my characters in the first book had Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia, which I have firsthand experience of but in the final part of the trilogy I had to rely on the internet for my research into alcohol induced dementia.

Which Point of View do you prefer to write in and why?

At the moment all my writing has been in third person close. I like getting inside the heads of the various different characters. I hope as my writing skills improve I will feel confident enough to experiment and write in first person but obviously it will depend on the plot.

Do you prefer to plot your story or just go with the flow?

I like to have a general outline of the story rather than just sitting down to write but I have found with all three of my novels that some of the best passages of the book have just come to me during a writing session, almost as though they are being given to me. Sorry if that sounds weird.

What is your writing regime?

I have a full time job working as a presenter on QVC which means I don’t have as much time to write as I would like. My shift pattern is that I work eight days out of nine, which is tough, but I then get a five day break – these are my writing days, my creative days, although I don’t mind doing a bit of editing before or after my QVC commitments.

What excites you the most about your book?

Sharing it with my readers and getting their feedback. There is nothing better than when someone is so engaged in the story that they will come up to you and start talking about your characters as though they are real people. I remember one of our QVC guests, Gill, coming up to me and saying, ‘Don’t you let anything happen to my Rosemary.’ I had to avoid her for about a week after that.

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If you were stranded on a desert island with three other people, fictional or real, who would they be and why?

Tom Hanks – he’d have some great anecdotes from all the movie stars he’s worked with and he might be quite useful at surviving based on his role in Castaway.

Bear Grylls – because he really does know how to survive in extreme conditions.

And the other Julia Roberts – just because I would like to meet her.

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Links-

My twitter is @JuliaRobertsQVC

My Facebook page is www.JuliaRobertsTV

My current webpage is www.juliarobertsbooks.co.uk BUT we are currently working on a new website which should be up and running before this goes on your blog www.juliarobertsauthor.com

My current WIP is a short story which will be available to download free on my new website.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lifes-Beach-Liberty-Sands-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00X8U1M9C

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017V6PMZI/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Never-Late-Liberty-Sands-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B01FOFAUOQ/ref=pd_sim_351_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=515QlVN3-BL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_UX300_PJku-sticker-v7%2CTopRight%2C0%2C-50_OU02__BG0%2C0%2C0%2C0_FMpng_AC_UL160_SR105%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=MQ347317FRQBNYX9RGGG

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Julia Roberts QVC

Julia Roberts is probably best known as the trusted face of the UK’s most successful shopping channel, QVC, but she had enjoyed a rewarding and varied career in the entertainment industry for many years prior to launching the channel in 1993.

She was born in Nottingham in 1956. At fourteen months old she contracted the deadly disease Polio which left her fighting for her life and subsequently hospitalised for five months. Swimming and dancing lessons, which helped her to walk without the aid of a calliper, have both played an important role in her later life.

Julia started her professional career at the age of 16 as a dancer in a summer show in Guernsey. This was followed by pantomimes in Leeds, Croydon and Watford as well as further summer seasons in the Channel Islands. Deciding to leave the UK and see a bit more of the world, she danced on cruise ships, in a theatre show in Barcelona, and performed as a singer/dancer in a cabaret show in Hong Kong. In 1980 Julia appeared in The Song for Europe as part of a band called The Main Event performing alongside Cheryl Baker, who went on to join Buck’s Fizz the following year while Julia signed a record deal with her band Jools and the Fools before moving into television.

Having featured in various TV commercials, notably the Woolwich Building Society and Head & Shoulders shampoo, and small television acting roles in Citizen Smith and Doctor Who, Julia became a hostess on the first and second UK series of the hit American game show, The Price is Right. This was followed by becoming a member of the ‘Hit Squad’ on comedy series Beadles About before she took a short career break to have her two children.

Presenter

It was during this break in her career that Julia decided to try her hand at presenting. Her first presenting job was for Vauxhall motors at the 1989 Motor Show at Olympia during which she was approached and offered a job presenting several weekly ‘magazine’ style shows for her local television channel in Croydon. One of these was called Palace Chatback and led to her passion for Crystal Palace Football Club, a team she still supports today. In addition to this show, Julia has produced and presented several features for Sky Sports.

In 1993 Julia successfully auditioned to become a Presenter for a new shopping channel, QVC, and appeared in the opening sequences which launched the channel with co-presenter, Jon Briggs. Little did she know that this was the start of a long, successful career with the channel which now boasts over 25 million viewers in the UK alone, with over 1 million active customers. Throughout this time, she has shared the screen with many famous names, including the likes of the late Joan Rivers, Marie Osmond, Sir David Attenborough, Joan Collins and Lulu, to mention a few.

Writer

Julia has now written and released 4 books. Her first book, a memoir entitled One Hundred Lengths of the Pool, was published in 2013 by Preface Publishing for Random House and sold out of 5000 hardback signed copies exclusively on QVC. The title of this book was inspired by her battle against polio in her early years, and the huge part that swimming played in allowing Julia the chance to walk unaided. A percentage of proceeds from her book sales were donated to the End Polio Now campaign as well as the British Polio Fellowship.

Close to completing the finishing touches to her first book, Julia was faced with a new health challenge. She was diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer, Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia. After such a tough year continuing to work full-time at QVC, signing her book deal, and battling her new illness, Julia needed some R&R so booked a much needed holiday for herself and her partner, Chris, to a place she had always longed to visit, Mauritius.

On the first morning of the holiday Julia had an idea. Using her recent experience of Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia as a basis for one of her main characters she began to write her debut novel Life’s a Beach and Then… she donates a percentage of profits from this book to the charity Bloodwise (formerly Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research).

Julia published Life’s a Beach and Then…, part one of the Liberty Sands trilogy, in May 2015, followed by If He Really Loved Me… in November 2015 and the final part of the trilogy, It’s Never Too Late To Say… in May 2016. All three books have featured in the top 100 Amazon Kindle Romance charts and enjoy an average 4.8 star rating from more than two hundred and fifty customer reviews.

Now living in Berkshire with Chris, her partner of 38 years, Julia divides her time between QVC, writing, Pilates, attending Crystal Palace matches and supporting the two charities that she holds close to her heart; British Polio Fellowship, for whom she is an ambassador, and Bloodwise.

***

Wow!! What a CV!!! Many thanks for joining us today Julia.

Happy reading everyone,

Jenny xx

Guest Post from Nicola May: Fast Love

By Jenny Kane

On August 2, 2016

In Blog, Contemporary fiction, Contemporary Romantic Fiction, Fiction, Romance

I’m delighted to welcome Nicola May back to my blog today, to chat about her brand new novel, Love Me Tinder.

Over to you Nicola…

When I started dating not everybody had a mobile phone, so you would arrange to meet somebody at a certain place, at a certain time and it just happened.

Now to be honest I’m exhausted by all the technology that comes along with it. I mean what happened to good old fashioned courting? Rather than having to work out which is the best mode of communication for progressing the relationship; is he a Facebook messenger type of guy or does Skype float his boat? Can I not instead just pick up the remarkable object that was designed originally for vocal, yes vocal communication and talk to him?

I feel that so much gets misconstrued through messaging and I’m the sort of person who wants to know someone’s real honest feelings from the get go. Modern dating doesn’t encourage this level of intimacy. When someone likes me, I want them to call and show me that, instead of playing the texting game, which seems to have become the norm right now.

The current information overloaded digital world, where people’s minds need to be fed with whatever it is every ten minutes has transferred to the dating game and I think that this fast way of looking for love should slow right down.

To be honest, I don’t think the majority of people give relationships a chance anymore; a slight imperfection in character or looks and you can cruelly replace someone with the touch of a button if you so wish.

love me tindeeeer change position

Maybe you are just looking for Fast Love as in George Michael’s hit song, but if you are looking to settle down I think you should take note of writer, Margaret Atwood who said. ‘If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.’ There is no such thing as a perfect relationship or person for that matter. And, sadly as you get older you realise that there are rarely the happy ever afters you read about in novel’s like mine.

And, if today’s reality is thinking that you never have to compromise on something to make it work, there are going to be a lot of shocked single people left out there.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all doom and gloom. I kept my internet love search as real as I could and actually went on some very fun dates and met some interesting men. I didn’t find my Mr Right, however what I did find was that there was so much to write about!

In fact, almost immediately I realised that the minefield of good, bad and indifferent dates I encountered was a gift for creating interesting and amusing plot fodder, and so the idea for Love Me Tinder was born.

In brief Love me Tinder revolves around heroine, Cali Summers who decides to hit the world of fast love after her marriage breaks down.

Using room 102 in the hotel where she works as her dating ‘lair’, she opens herself up to a world of sex, lies, deception, as well as personal discovery and passionate romance.

This book is for anyone who has immersed themselves into the crazy world of app or internet dating or in fact anyone who wants an insight into what it’s all about.

It is a romantic comedy, but I also wanted to address the issue of fast love in today’s modern world and I hope I have managed to do this in a sympathetic, realistic and head nodding creating manner.

Link to book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Me-Tinder-Nicola-May-ebook/dp/B01HD2QN4O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469186443&sr=8-1&keywords=love+me+tinder Twitter: nicolamay1

Website: www.nicolamay.com Love Me Tinder is out NOW as an eBook.
nicola orba

Biography

Nicola lives in Ascot in Berkshire with Stanley her rescue cat. She has a penchant for Prosecco, ripe peaches and flapjacks. Love Me Tinder is her eighth novel.

***

Many thanks Nicola,

Happy reading everyone,

Jenny x

Release Blitz from Laura Wilkinson: The Family Line

By Jenny Kane

On July 23, 2016

In Blog, Contemporary fiction, Fiction

I’m delighted to bring you the blurb, and an exclusive extract, from the first novel to leave the well aimed pen of my lovely friend, Laura Wilkinson.

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Set in a much-changed Britain in the mid-twenty-first century, The Family Line is the debut novel from acclaimed writer Laura Wilkinson, now revised and proudly reissued by Accent Press. An original exploration of identity, love and what it means to be a parent.

The Family Line

Blurb

Three women. One secret. A child with a deadly disease

Megan is a former foreign correspondent whose life is thrown into turmoil when her son is diagnosed with a terminal illness: a degenerative disease passed down the mother’s line. In order to save him, Megan will have to unearth the truth about her origins and about a catastrophic event from the past. She must confront the strained relationship she has with her mother, make sense of the family history that has been hidden from her all her life, and embark on a journey of self-discovery that stretches halfway around the world.

An exclusive extract:

Megan sat alone outside the office of an eminent doctor resident at the hospital. It was nine fifteen; her appointment had been scheduled for nine o’clock. She was grateful for the reprieve and didn’t understand why she didn’t want to go in.

She wore heeled sandals and a knee-length dress, cut from black cotton with bracelet sleeves and a slash neck. Her cheeks were dusted with a soft pink blush and her lips coated in a sheer gloss. She had looked elegant and quite lovely in her bedroom mirror but now she felt overdressed and wished she had worn her regulation black jeans. She had been keen to make a good impression, but she resented this desire to impress. What was she trying to prove? That she was a good mother? Surely only a vain, selfish woman would be concerned about appearance when discussing her child’s development? She wiped away the gloss with the back of her hand. She studied her pale shins, the blue veins visible beneath the surface in the harsh hospital light. A nurse told her the consultant was ready. Megan took a deep breath and stood.

He faced the window, his back to the door, and looked out onto a pleasant garden bordered with hydrangeas, hebe and St John’s Wort. The air was cool in the sparse, smart office though Megan felt perspiration gathering under her arms and across her brow with every click of her heels on the floor. The doctor commented on the fine weather, reminding her that each day comes but once, never to return, and as such should be treasured. Platitudes. She looked at the garden. It was beautiful but nothing compared to her boy.

When the doctor finally spun his chair to face her, Megan knew the news wasn’t good, and though her stomach churned she told herself it would not be anything insurmountable. After all, this wasn’t oncology or the ER. After asking her to take a seat, Mr Barnet, a phlegmatic, saturnine individual, informed her that Cerdic had a rare congenital condition, a hereditary disease, passed from mother to son, which would rob Cerdic’s body of its ability to function. ‘AMNA. It stands for Alekseyev Motor Neuron Atrophy, named after the Russian scientist who first discovered the defective gene. For reasons that have never been quite explained the condition appears to be more prevalent amongst the peoples of the East, the Slavs in particular,’ he said.

Megan’s mouth dried, her lips seemed to be welded together. She struggled to push the words out. ‘How serious is it?’

‘Very. I am sorry.’

‘What will it do to him?’ She could feel the thick white spit at the corners of her mouth. She went to wipe it away and realised that her hands were shaking.

‘It starts in the muscles as cells break down and are gradually lost. The muscles weaken over time. Your son has trouble jumping and climbing, yes?’ He didn’t wait for a reply. ‘By five years old AMNA boys are unable to walk far, and by seven or eight most are in a wheelchair. Nerve cells in the brain weaken, eventually failing to send messages to muscles and other vital organs like the lungs. Sufferers lose control of their bodies and minds. The average life expectancy …’ Megan watched his mouth move without hearing more words. Sunlight illuminated his form and she felt angry with the sun for shining.

‘How long do we have?’

He curled his lips inward. ‘If he reaches sixteen, it will be a miracle, of sorts,’ he said, delivering the news as if it were quotidian, finishing with a standard, ‘Do you have any further questions?’

Megan experienced a sensation similar, she imagined, to being eviscerated. It was as if he had ripped out her intestines, thrown them to the floor and squashed them underfoot, before asking if there was anything he could do to help with the pain.

She remembered the night Cerdic was born. Sweltering and still. Even the sea was silent. She stayed up all night, her body throbbing, unable to take her eyes from him, afraid that if she blinked he would disappear as miraculously as he had arrived. She remembered how, when he was tiny and slept in a cot in her room, she would wake to the sound of silence and rush to his bedside, placing a palm in front of his mouth, checking he still breathed. Like all mothers in the black moments she imagined a hundred ways he might be taken from her but nothing like this. She never, ever, imagined this.

Reeling from the shock, and working hard to control her spiralling emotions and liquid gut, she said, ‘There must be something we can do.’

‘As you will appreciate much research was abandoned, or more accurately put on hold, after 2025. Cerdic’s condition is, mercifully, extremely rare, and as such it has not been high priority for many, many years. In the past decade research has restarted. But it is a slow process, Mrs Evens.’ He returned to his garden as he spoke, and Megan thought there was nothing merciful about this disease.

‘Has this research thrown anything up yet?’ she said, adding, ‘It’s Miss Evens.’

Mr Barnet commented on a blackbird that hopped on the lawn before replying with indistinct mumblings.

Megan’s patience evaporated though she believed the consultant’s rudeness was not deliberate. She pressed for a clear reply.

‘There are signs to indicate that matching stem cell and blood plasma transplants, from suitable donors, can slow the progression of the disease. It works best if the donors are relatives, close relatives. Scientists believe they can stop the disease in its tracks altogether if administered early enough with a perfectly matched donor though there is no conclusive proof as yet.’

‘It is worth a try, Mr Barnet.’

‘Worth a try.’ He nodded absentmindedly.

‘Then we try it.’ Megan’s tone was polite but firm – this was not a request.

‘There is no sibling?’

‘There’s me.’

The consultant spoke of the viability of samples from her, Cerdic’s father, compatibility. He explained that it was most unusual, unheard of, for the mother, the carrier, to match, to be a suitable donor. She knew he meant no malice or blame – why would he? – but it pained her nevertheless. He rambled on, explaining the minutiae of technical detail. She twisted the ring on her left hand. Her mind flooded with images of Hisham. She would have to contact him. She knew there would be no question of him not helping but she allowed herself the irrational hope that contacting Hisham might not be necessary, that she might be the one in a million, in a manner of speaking. She left Mr Barnet’s office brim full of fear and hope, clutching a referral and a name for her son’s killer.

To buy: http://amzn.to/2ahSStC

Praise for the first edition:

Wilkinson ably navigates the tender, sometimes fraught exchanges between her protagonists. Though its scope is ambitious, and could easily have veered off-course, deft interweaving of complex themes makes for a haunting début.’ For Books’ Sake.

‘This is a  compelling story that raises important issues and will linger in the mind long after the last page has been turned.’ Joanna Caney, New Books Magazine.

‘This mind-blowingly original novel asks big questions about a woman’s right to choose when to have children… Ultimately, it questions how far is too far… This is a book that will haunt your dreams.’Pam McIlroy, Books at Broadway.

‘ This is an interesting and emotional début, and is highly recommended.’ Michelle Moore, Book Club Forum.

‘… a fantastic debut novel which surpassed my expectations. I totally agree with one Amazon reviewer; this has got BBC 3-part drama written all over it! Simply fabulous!’ Kirsty, Book Love Bug.

LW 2 No 1 - dark, smile

About Laura

After working an actress and journalist, now Laura writes novels and short stories. She is published by award-winning independent press, Accent. Her novel, Public Battles, Private Wars, was a Welsh Books Council Book of the month; Redemption Song, is an insightful look at learning to forgive and love again after significant loss. The Family Line is set in a near future Wales and looks at identity and parenting. ‘It will haunt your dreams’ Books at Broadway. Alongside writing, she works as an editor for literary consultancies, Cornerstones and The Writing Coach, and runs workshops on self-editing and the art of fiction. She’s spoken at festivals and events nationwide, including London Metropolitan University, GladLit, University of Kingston, The Women’s Library and Museum in Docklands. www.laura-wilkinson.co.uk Twitter @ScorpioScribble Facebook: Laura Wilkinson Author

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Happy reading everyone,

Jenny xx

Guest Post from Jackie Buxton: Glass Houses

By Jenny Kane

On July 15, 2016

In Blog, Contemporary fiction, crime, Fiction

I’m delighted to welcome Jackie Buxton to my blog today. Jackie is currently celebrating the launch of her brand new novel, Glass Houses, and is sharing some of the background- and a juicy extract- with us today.

Over to you Jackie…

BLURB

‘When she sent that text, all our lives changed for ever…’ 51 year old Tori Williams’ life implodes when she sends a text while driving on the M62 motorway and allegedly causes the horrific crash in which three people die. Public and press are baying for her blood, but Tori is no wallflower and refuses to buckle under their pressure or be a pariah in society. Instead, she sets about saving the nation. But can she save Etta, the woman who saved her life? Or will Etta’s secret be her downfall? This incredibly topical and contemporary morality tale appeals across generations and will find favour with fans of authors such as Liane Moriarty, Marian Keyes and Kathryn Croft.

Glass Houses COVER

BLOG POST

Many years ago, the picture of a car crash, with a woman slumped over the steering wheel, and a stranger holding her hand until the emergency services arrived, pressed itself into my brain so forcefully that I was worried I was having a premonition about a real life incident. I wasn’t, thankfully. Instead, it seemed the gods of book writing had sent me the idea for my novel: one with a guilty protagonist, who could be any one of us. As I started to plot Tori’s character, a driver who texts from the wheel and becomes Public Enemy Number One, I realised that two separate news items were really behind the car crash image.

The first was the face of Gary Hart, the driver of the Land Rover involved in the Selby rail crash in 2001. He’d had little sleep the night before, chosen to drive the next day, and fallen asleep at the wheel with the most tragic of consequences. It was a horrendous scene. 10 people died, 82 were seriously injured and Gary Hart survived.

He was public enemy number one.

But when I saw his face in the media, I kept thinking that his wasn’t the face of a killer, it was the face of someone who’d done something stupid, selfish perhaps, but not intentional. His life would also be changed forever. Maybe he didn’t need us to chastise him any more than he would chastise himself. It was easy to criticise him – he doesn’t come across well in front of the camera – and people did. But I couldn’t help thinking that I’d driven tired before. I’d been lucky. There was no perfect storm for me, I managed to get off the motorway before something catastrophic happened and we all lived to see another day. I wondered if Gary Hart was any more guilty than I was, just because the consequences of his actions were so very different.

The second news item was the film of the charismatic mother of a boy who’d been killed in the 7/7 London bombing in 2005. She stood on a box in a crowd and everybody listened. She wasn’t talking vengeance, hatred and justice, she was talking about forgiveness. I was struck by how much more powerful and effective this type of reaction was, than the undoubtedly human and more usual reaction of anger and revenge.

This shot me back to a childhood thought which has appeared and re-appeared all though my life. It’s the paradox of the human condition. How often do we hear people say, Oh, we all make mistakes,’ and, ‘Nobody’s perfect, we all have our foibles,’ and yet we see families feuding, colleagues resigning and neighbours not speaking because they are not able to forgive someone who didn’t behave ‘perfectly’. Sometimes this anger lasts a lifetime and beyond. As a child, and a rather idealistic adult, I couldn’t help feeling that the world would be a better place if we didn’t get quite so cross or, perhaps more importantly, we endeavoured to become ‘uncross’ as quickly as possible.

By the way, I’m not pretending I’m perfect. That’s the point, really.

I wanted to explore forgiveness, guilt and atonement and the image of the woman slumped over the wheel, with a stranger willing her to stay alive, gave me Tori and Etta and the framework to get started. I chose a text sent from the motorway to be Tori’s crime. I wanted it to be something that was a conscious act that most of us would find abhorrent, and yet if we looked closer, we might find we’d done similar ourselves. I wanted to play with this phenomenon that people can be guilty because it happened and not guilty because it didn’t. My dream for Glass Houses is that as well as being entertained by Tori and Etta’s stories, not to mention Tori’s antics as she clumsily tries to re-build her life and Etta’s ability to self-destruct, readers will be interested in this conundrum, too.

***

Extract: the beginning of the first chapter

THERE WAS BLOOD on the steering wheel. Etta stared at her fingers as they gripped the rim. She uncurled them, flexed them in and out, then turned over her hands to examine the grooves in her skin. She smiled – a surface wound. Just a surface wound. Her half-chewed nails had plunged into her palms.

She patted her face, her arms, her legs: everything was in place. Her neck was stiff but it moved. Her feet ached so she lifted one and carefully replaced it, then lifted the other. Nothing broken. She undid her seatbelt, leaned back against her seat and forced out a long, whistling sigh.

“Thank you,” she whispered, looking up as if to acknowledge the powers-that-be who’d looked after her.

She wrinkled her nose. Her eyes darted to the foot well where she saw her flask smashed into too many pieces to count, drowned in a puddle of milky coffee. She reached for her phone where it had fallen, narrowly missing the liquid, but she froze before she could lift it to her ear. Her engine had cut and the radio silenced but it was more than that. She placed the phone on her lap. The silence was too loud.

In the rear-view mirror she saw stationary vehicles. She held her breath, cast her eyes to the side, to the stream of cars travelling as if in slow motion in the other direction. Tentatively she turned back to the front. The smashed side window of the Jeep was only a few paces ahead of her.

Not again.

“M62, yes, eastbound.” She picked her way quickly over the mess of twisted metal and fragments of glass, covering her mouth against the stench of burning rubber. “Junction? I don’t—”

She dropped her phone, stared at the door to the Jeep which had come away in her hand. It was heavy. She let it fall and covered her ears as it smashed against the ground. She bent down to look inside the Jeep. Her body crumpled and she sank to her knees.

***

Bio

Jackie Buxton is a writer, editor and teacher of creative writing, living in Yorkshire with her husband and two teenage daughters. Jackie used her recent experience of an aggressive form of breast cancer to inform and dispel some myths about a cancer diagnosis via her popular blog: Agenthood and Submissionville. Her posts became the frame-work of self-help memoire, Tea & Chemo (Urbane Publications, November 2015) which receives heart-warming feedback, and has a five star rating from over 75 reviews. Jackie’s award-winning short stories can be found in three anthologies, as well as appearing regularly in Chase Magazine. When not writing or reading, over-seeing house and teens, Jackie can be found running, cycling or tripping up though the beautiful Yorkshire countryside.

Tea & Chemo cover

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Links

Website: www.jackiebuxton.com

Blog: http://jackiebuxton.blogspot.co.uk

Glass Houses: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glass-Houses-Jackie-Buxton/dp/1910692840/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Tea & Chemo: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tea-Chemo-Fighting-Cancer-Living/dp/1910692395/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51VarAHlbnL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR104%2C160_&psc=1&refRID=40W7ZSYWXQPDFB32377Z

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Many thanks for dropping by today Jackie. Good luck with your new novel.

Happy reading,

Jenny x

My First Time: April Hardy

By Jenny Kane

On June 29, 2016

In Contemporary fiction, Contemporary Romantic Fiction, Fiction, Interview

It’s time for another in my interview series, ‘My First Time’- this week fellow Accent Press author April Hardy is opening the book on her recent publishing beginnings.

First Time

Can you remember writing the first story you actually wanted to write, rather than those you were forced to write at school? What was it about?

I must have been in the third or fourth year at secondary school, and those of us who wished to could hand write a “book” in an exercise book. A selection of these would go into the school library for other students to borrow. Anyone who’d tried to decipher my handwriting had advised me not to bother, as nobody would be able to read it!

So, with that warm encouragement ringing in my ears and a story burning in my mind, I’d grabbed a handful of scrap paper and set to work on a rough copy. My “book” was based on the true story of a woman called Kitty, who had run theatrical digs, a stone’s throw from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. My mother and aunty had stayed with her many times when their dance troupe had been working there, and had kept in touch after they’d retired from the theatre.

Kitty’s digs had still been popular in the 1960s when the lease on the building ran out. She was an elderly lady by then and, although she and everyone who knew her fought against it, she was re-housed in the brand spanking new town of Milton Keynes. A Londoner through and through, Kitty had hated the soullessness of the new town. She’d hated its concrete cows, its lack of theatres, history or community. It had been the beginning of the end for her and when she died, shortly before the “book “writing competition, my mother believed she’d died of a broken heart.

My “book” didn’t make it into the library in spite of my slow and painstaking efforts with my handwriting. Apparently it had the requisite beginning, middle and end but, the teacher said, the conclusion was far too fanciful. And too sad. I don’t know what happened to the “book”. I suspect if I could re-read it now I would cringe at my teenage prose.

AprilHardy

What was your first official publication?

Well, that would be a recipe booklet I wrote for the Papadopoulou Biscuit Company when I lived in Athens! Food has always played a big role in my life, and I’d just completed a Diploma in Culinary Arts with an idea (a rather naive one now I look back) of writing cook books for a living!

What affect did that have on your life?

As we moved from Greece to Dubai at that time, the physical product slipped right out of my life. I didn’t even receive the copy I was sent. But the process of writing it certainly re-awakened the writing bug in me.

SITTING PRETTY FINAL COVER! (1) (1) (1) (1)

Does your first published story reflect your current writing style?

Gosh! My first published story will be my debut novel, Sitting Pretty, a romantic comedy which comes out in July. I certainly hope it will reflect my current writing style as it’s one of three books I have coming out with Accent Press!

What are you working on at the moment?

Well, I’m working on a series of romantic comedies set in and around a trio of fictional villages in the New Forest, which is where I grew up. They are stand alone novels which feature the same settings and, in some cases some of the same characters may pop in and out.

Sitting Pretty is the story of pet sitter Beth, a young woman on the brink of a new life abroad, whose husband dumps her, by phone, just moments after the removal van has driven away with all their worldly goods. Suddenly homeless, Beth goes to some unusual lengths to keep her husband’s behaviour a secret, while she works out how to get him back …

Hazard at the Nineteenth, winner of the 2014 Literary Idol competition at the Emirates Lit Fest, is about bride to be Stella, who is sure someone is trying to sabotage the wedding. But would that someone go as far as trying to bump her off? Or has librarian Stella just read one too many Agatha Christies …

Kind Hearts & Coriander, a runner up in the 2014 Exeter Novel Prize, follows the story of London chef Polly who, on her mother’s death, learns she may be Hampshire hotel magnate, Charles Hetherin’s illegitimate daughter. Tracking him down, in search of answers, she finds more than she bargained on. A whole lot more …

The manuscripts for these are with Accent at the moment, so while I’m waiting to make a start on my edits on these, I’m tapping away at possible opening chapters for the next one in the series.

SittingPrettyPreorderArtwork

Sitting Pretty is out on 7th July 2016- The pre-order link is http://amzn.to/1Ow2T8d

Bio

Since leaving drama school I’ve had an interesting and (hopefully) creative working life, in UK, Greece and now Dubai. I taught infant ballet classes, did pantomime tours and summer children’s shows, interspersed with waitressing and working in hotel kitchens. I spent many years as a dancer, then choreographer, before re-training as a pastry chef in a Swiss hotel school, with a plan to write cook books. But it was having the words “Housewife – not allowed to work” stamped on my residency visa, here in the UAE, that gave me the freedom and the time to devote to something I’d always wanted to do – writing. The first manuscript I completed was a huge learning curve. It was a contemporary romance, set in London and Dubai and, though it remains unpublished, I learnt such a lot writing (and rewriting) it. And whilst at the Winchester Writers’ Conference in 2011, I met lovely Allie Spencer who advised me to apply for the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme. I spent four years in the scheme, soaking up the wisdom and knowledge of my “readers”. In 2014, I decided to try my hand at romantic comedy which, after all, was what I mostly read. I started writing Kind Hearts & Coriander, expressly to show to agent Luigi Bonomi at that year’s Emirates Lit Fest. It got me signed up by his wife, Alison Bonomi. In 2015, at the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s conference, I met the lovely Hazel Cushion, MD of Accent Press. I’d sent her the opening chapter of Hazard at the Nineteenth and she liked it enough to offer me a three book deal – all these months later and I’m still floating!

Winner of Emirates Airline’s Festival of Literature’s Literary Idol 2014

http://aprilhardywritinginthesand.wordpress.com https://www.facebook.com/april.hardy.399 https://twitter.com/AprilHardyDubai

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Many thanks April,

Good luck with your debut story,

Jenny x

OUT NOW: Another Glass of Champagne

By Jenny Kane

On June 9, 2016

In Blog, Contemporary fiction, Contemporary Romantic Fiction, Fiction

There are many occasions throughout life that warrant the rise of a glass of bubbly,

and for me, today is definitely one of them.

For the fifth and final story in the Another Cup of…series is OUT NOW!!

Another Glass Of Champagne

I’ve come on quite a journey with the main characters in these books, from the full length novel Another Cup of Coffee, through there Christmas novella’s, and now to the full length novel, Another Glass of Champagne!

Amy, Kit and Jack were all in the their thirties when I began to tell their stories- now, they are in their forties, and are facing the fact that age doesn’t give you the answers to problems. In fact, all it does is add to them…

Blurb

A warm-hearted, contemporary tale about a group of friends living in a small corner of busy London, by bestselling author Jenny Kane.

Meanwhile his love life is as complicated as ever and yet when he swears off men for good, Jack meets someone who makes him rethink his priorities…but is it too late for a fresh start?

A follow-up to the runaway success Another Cup of Coffee.

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If you’d like to see how the story ends, then you can buy Another Glass of Champagne from all good bookshop and e-retailers. (You don’t need to have read the previous novels to enjoy this one)

Buy Links

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Another+Glass+of+Champagne+Jenny+Kane

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/188-7813436-7626710?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Another+Glass+of+Champagne+Jenny+Kane

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Happy reading,

Jenny x