I’m a great fan of the publisher Bookouture and so it gives me enormous pleasure to be helping celebrate one of their latest releases, The Little Village Bakery by Tilly Tennant which is available for purchase here.

I’m delighted that Tilly Tennant has agreed to be interviewed for Linda’s Book Bag too.

The Little Village Bakery

Help yourself to a generous slice of Victoria sponge, a perfect cup of tea and a big dollop of romance. Welcome to the Little Village Bakery.

Meet Millie. Heartbreak has forced her to make a new start and when she arrives at the old bakery in the little village of Honeybourne she is determined that this will be her home sweet home. Her imagination has been captured by the tumbledown bakery but with no running water and dust everywhere, her cosy idea of making cakes in a rural idyll quickly crumbles.

Luckily the locals are a friendly bunch and step in to help Millie. One in particular, Dylan, a laid-back lothario, soon captures her attention.

But just as Millie is beginning to settle in, an unexpected visitor from her past suddenly turns up determined to ruin everything for her. It’s time for Millie to face the skeletons in her closet if she’s going to live the dream of running her little village bakery, and her blossoming romance with Dylan.

An Interview with Tilly Tennant

Hi Tilly. Thank you so much for agreeing to answer some questions on my blog about your writing and your latest book The Little Village Bakery.

Firstly, please could you tell me a little about yourself?

Of course! I’m Tilly, somewhere in my forties (that’s all you’re getting), two teenage daughters, a husband and lots of grey hairs as a result! I was born in Dorset but now live in Staffordshire.

When did you first realise you were going to be a writer?

I’d always dabbled, but never written anything seriously – mainly because I couldn’t imagine why anyone would care what I had to say. Then, ten years ago, I decided I’d had enough of feeling unfulfilled in jobs that I didn’t particularly enjoy, and I enrolled on a university course to study English. While I was there I filled a gap in the timetable with a creative writing module, wrote my first novel in the summer holidays, and instantly became addicted.

Which aspects of your writing do you find easiest and most difficult?

I love writing first drafts, right at the beginning, when anything is possible, and this is when it’s easiest. But giving the finished novel to my editor– that’s tough. She’s lovely, and very encouraging, but it’s her job to be critical however constructive that might be. I think most writers are delicate little flowers and it doesn’t take much to knock our confidence. I certainly find it hard to acknowledge that something I thought was brilliant actually doesn’t work at all.

What are your writing routines and where do you do most of your writing?

Most of my writing is done at the kitchen table. I desperately want an office but so far that’s proving tricky! I used to write in the evenings when the kids had gone to bed, so I would always be up late. This summer, however, I’m taking a career break to write my three novels for Bookouture so I’m happily sitting at the table when everyone else is at work and school. It’s much better for my social life and it means I now get to watch the odd bit of TV at night, which is a luxury compared to before when I would spend nights working. I try to set myself a word count target for that day, depending on what else I know needs doing, and I’m quite annoyed at myself if I don’t stick to it because that’s the only way I can discipline myself enough to make sure deadlines get met.

How far has being a fiction editor helped or hindered your novel writing?

Brilliant question! I think it helped enormously at the beginning. I’d just finished my degree and was working for a small press, initially reading submissions and sending on ones I thought had potential to the boss. After a while she started to send them back saying she’d signed them and asking if I would edit them. It was a brilliant way to learn my craft at a very technical level; you can be far more objective reading someone else’s stuff, and I could spot things that didn’t work and things that did quite easily. Once I understood why I could apply what I’d learned to my own writing. Sadly, the workload became too much, so in the end I had to start turning jobs down or lose valuable time needed to concentrate on my own projects. I still edit from time to time, but it’s mostly on an informal basis now for people I’ve edited before.

You’ve recently signed with the fabulous Bookouture. Would you tell us a bit more about how that happened please?

I’m still so excited about this! I’d been self-publishing for a couple of years with the help of my agent and we were steadily building up a readership.  I’d been thinking about a more traditional publishing contract for a while – the independent publishing was enjoyable and successful but I wanted to branch out.  Sometimes, things just come along at the right time in your life, and this is what happened. I’d mentioned to my agent my thoughts about a book deal, and then Bookouture got in touch with us because my work had been brought to their attention, wanting to know if they could read my next novel when it was done. In another happy quirk of fate, I had a finished novel sitting on my laptop and ready to go. I sent it, they liked it, and here we are!

When you’re not writing, what do you like to read?

I have a very broad taste in books. In fact, I’ll read almost anything that I find in front of me. It’s a family joke that I won’t read the papers until they’re spread over the floor for decorating, and my husband will go off to do something else and find me an hour later, dried paintbrush in my hand and poring over three week old headlines.  At the moment I’m trying to catch up with all the books my Bookouture colleagues are producing. I’ve just read Helen Pollard’s The Little French Guesthouse and I’m now reading Tom Bale’s See How They Run, at the same time as a children’s book by Christopher Edge called The Many Worlds of Alfie Bright, and various ‘how to’ books on screenwriting.

Your book The Little Village Bakery is set, unsurprisingly, in a bakery. What is the appeal for baking at the moment do you think and do you bake as well as write?

It wasn’t really a deliberate decision to set it in a bakery for any reason other than I wanted the main character to bake. Initially, the inspiration for the story had come from a novel I read a long time ago called Like Water for Chocolate, where the protagonist could weave magic into the food she cooked. But as the draft continued, it became obvious that Millie was going to use far more ordinary ingredients in her cakes, and buying a bakery to renovate was the way to go. Obviously, I am aware that there is a huge buzz about baking right now with TV shows such as Bake Off, and the book might appeal on that level to some, but Millie’s baking is only a small part of the story.

As for me, I am the world’s worst! Actually, that’s not strictly true. It’s fair to say that my cakes look pretty terrible, and I definitely fail on the presentation front, but they don’t taste too bad. I don’t get as much time as I’d like to practise, though.

The Little Village Bakery has a very summery cover. How did that image come about and what were you hoping to convey (without spoiling the plot please!)?

In all honesty I had very little input when the cover was designed, other than to ooh and ahh when it was sent to me and be a tiny bit thrilled with it! The book is set in a flaming hot British summer, and I think it conveys that archetypal image of picnics and summer fetes very well.

If you could chose to be a character from The Little Village Bakery, who would you be and why?

This is hard! It would be easy to say Dylan, just because everyone loves him and he doesn’t even have to try. But I think it might be Jasmine because I’d love to be brave enough for pink hair and I wish I was arty enough to make jewellery.

If The Little Village Bakery became a film, who would you like to play Millie?  

This is another tough question! I’ve been pondering and I think I’m going to say Jenna Coleman. She has that feline sort of beauty that Millie has, and she can rock a bobbed haircut!

If you had 15 words to persuade a reader that The Little Village Bakery should be their next read, what would you say?

If you believe in love, loyalty, friendship and second chances, this book is for you.

Oh 15 words exactly! Thank you so much for your time in answering my questions Tilly.

Thank you so much for having me!

About Tilly Tennant

Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset, the oldest of four children, but now lives in Staffordshire with a family of her own. After years of dismal and disastrous jobs, including paper plate stacking, shop girl, newspaper promotions and waitressing (she never could carry a bowl of soup without spilling a bit), she decided to indulge her passion for the written word by embarking on a degree in English and creative writing, graduating in 2009 with first class honours. She wrote her first novel in 2007 during her first summer break at university and has not stopped writing since.

You’ll find Tilly’s books here. You can follow Tilly on Twitter and visit her website.

You’ll find more about Tilly Tennant and The Little Village Bakery with these other bloggers:

I’m delighted to be taking part in the #Blogival Festival organised by Clink Street and today I’m welcoming Tracy Peppiatt onto Linda’s Book Bag to tell us all about writing a memoir in We Never Let Go. We Never Let Go was published by Clink Street on 23rd March 2016 and is available in e-book and paperback from all good bookshops and Amazon.

We Never Let Go

It is said that a picture paints a thousand words but unless those words are revealed the viewer has to make their own interpretation. A family photograph like thousands of others may give a clue to the location and time through clothing and scenery, but what is not apparent are the thoughts, aspirations, and life of those portrayed. This is a story of a working class family, whose voyage through the rapidly changing society of the 60’s and 70’s, was probably like many others. But the difference with this story is that despite the often genuinely desperate situations that they found themselves, they persevered throughout with love and mutual dependence but primarily because there was little choice. The bond that holds us all together through all of life’s twists and turns and ultimately determines how we turn out in later life is the underlying story that is revealed. However, as we are the product of our response to our experiences through life, we ultimately never let go.

Five Important Things To Consider When Writing A Memoir

A Guest Post by Tracy Peppiatt

Honesty How often do we live our lives as a series of half-truths to ourselves and others. When you are at your lowest you need to realise and accept where you are in order to either seek the help or find the strength to commence the road to recovery. Why do we face these challenges in life? and why does it have to happen to me? How did I get here? Is there a reason for all of this? By addressing these questions we are being honest with ourselves and others and can progress and live a more enlightened and hopefully fulfilling life. In time we can also give forgiveness to those who harmed, abused or caused us pain and in this way we too grow and gain strength from the honesty of being able to forgive. With the loss of my mother I had to find this honesty within me in order to move on with my life.

Reader identification with the story; It is said that ‘We are the product of our life’s experiences’ however this is not strictly true as two people can go through the same experience and have a very different outcome. In my case when I lost my mother at Christmas in 2011, and this is an inevitable consequence for most of us, this was the removal of the foundation upon which my life had been constructed. This resulted in me having a breakdown which was followed by a period of ill health which affected me both physically and mentally. We all have challenges and how we deal with them determines us, so “We are really the product of how we have responded to our life’s experiences”

Exploration of the Past; In choosing to write the story of my relationship with my mother I realised that the story was of the evolving relationship of two women living their lives in parallel at the same time but at two different stages of their lives. We grew up under different circumstances and were living and responding differently as a result of this. Growing up in the exciting and somewhat frivolous 60s and 70s compared to my mother who had known the real austerity of rationing and the uncertainty of War. The definition of poverty is misquoted nowadays but the lack of the basics of food, shelter, clothing and safety were experiences that were perhaps more common in earlier years, and were certainly my experience, although love was always there. I realised whilst writing our story that there was so much more to it than just what we were living through and that her burden of dealing with our daily challenges were added to by her having to provide strength and guidance to a young woman growing up in a strange new world.

Tribute to another person; We meet people for a Reason a Season or a Lifetime. In the case of your mother that person is hopefully for a large part of the Lifetime. For me and for my mother there are so many Reasons for me to be grateful to her and it is only as I get older and go through the Seasons of my life that I realise the great strength and sense of perspective that she selflessly imparted to me that has enabled me to gain and enjoy my Lifetime.

Why is it important? I reached a point where I felt the need to review my own life and consider my own mortality through a reflection of my mother’s life. Once both your parents have gone you realise that in the great way of things you are next! By commencing writing this story I was able to exorcise some of the past demons that had lain dormant in the knowledge that if they came to the fore again then my mother was there to protect me. With her gone I had to face these and address these fears on my own, and in so doing was able to realise and acknowledge the role that she played in keeping our family together through some very tough times. The story is one that will have played out across the generations in many families but the common theme is that we can come to terms with our personal experiences but “Never let go”

About Tracy Peppiatt

I was born and raised in Hull, my mother Hannah was born of a middle class family and my father after serving in the Second World War found work as a fisherman. My childhood wasn’t the happiest, we lived in a working class community and often struggled to make ends meet, my father was often frustrated and aggressive and it was only my mother that kept the family together. My elder sister left home when she was eighteen years old because she wanted to escape and try and make a better life for herself, after she left we weren’t allowed to mention her name around my father which was incredibly sad and difficult. Things got steadily worse as the years went by and my mother ended up leaving my father with me and my siblings and we ended up in a refuge for women suffering domestic violence. My book, We Never Let Go is in memory of my mother, who passed away at Christmas 2011, and who was the centre of the family and succeeded in bringing them up and together, without her we wouldn’t have survived. It also carries the message that there is always hope and the  possibility for new beginnings, even in the direst circumstances, and I hope will provide much-needed support for those suffering poverty and domestic violence. Today I live in Middlesex with my husband and enjoy laughter and love every day that was so sadly missing from my childhood and is something I will never take for granted.

The Clink Street #Blogival is running for the whole of June. Find out more with these other bloggers.

I was delighted to be accepted by Quercus Books to take part in their summer reading programme #QuercusSummer and to receive the first book Last Dance in Havana by Rosanna Ley, published in e-book and paperback on 16th May 2016. Last Dance in Havana is available for purchase on Amazon, from Quercus, Waterstones, WH Smith and all good bookshops.

Last Dance in Havana

Cuba, 1958. Elisa is only sixteen years old when she meets Duardo and she knows he’s the love of her life from the moment they first dance the rumba together in downtown Havana. But Duardo is a rebel, determined to fight in Castro’s army, and Elisa is forced to leave behind her homeland and rebuild her life in distant England. But how can she stop longing for the warmth of Havana, when the music of the rumba still calls to her?

England, 2012. Grace has a troubled relationship with her father, whom she blames for her beloved mother’s untimely death. And this year more than ever she could do with a shoulder to cry on – Grace’s career is in flux, she isn’t sure she wants the baby her husband is so desperate to have and, worst of all, she’s begun to develop feelings for their best friend Theo. Theo is a Cuban born magician but even he can’t make Grace’s problems disappear. Is the passion Grace feels for Theo enough to risk her family’s happiness?

My Review of Last Dance in Havana

When Elisa dances the rumba with Duardo one steamy night in 1958 in Havana, the passions of the moment will reverberate for decades.

Immediately from the sensual and sensuous opening to Last Dance in Havana I knew I was going to love this book. I was completely transported into the world of Elisa and Grace so that I found it hard to tear myself away from reading when real life made its demands.

Frequently I felt as if my heart was breaking and my head was screaming silently, ‘No. Don’t do that. Don’t say that!’ so that I was absolutely caught up in the narrative. There is such visceral emotion I could hardly bear to read on but I couldn’t stop reading either. I could feel my throat tightening with the attempt not to cry so often because I found the level of passion and the depth of love portrayed overwhelming at times.

The quality of the writing is so effective. In some ways the plot is relatively simple, but Rosanna Ley’s varied and beautiful prose encompasses a range of sentence lengths that capture the moment, the emotion , the meaning, perfectly. She draws on all the senses in a way that adds layers of glorious experience for the reader. Seldom have I encountered a writer who can convey those senses so completely.

The settings depicted are completely authentic. I have never been to Bristol but I feel I could find my way around quite easily. The descriptions of Cuba have made me desperate to visit and experience the rumba for myself, to travel in an open-top American car and taste the chicken, rice and beans. Importantly too, I feel I have learned a considerable amount about Cuba’s political history through the deftly written and brilliantly researched back-drop to the story. Identity, honesty, passion, love and truth are all intricately woven into that history and into the narrative. This is masterful story-telling.

Rosanna Ley’s characters are so human. They are flawed, believable, and appealing – even Rosalyn, whom I can hardly forgive for her actions.

I have absolutely no idea why I haven’t read Rosanna Ley before. She is exactly my kind of author and I’ll be getting my hands on everything she’s ever written. I really do think you need to put your life on hold and read Last Dance in Havana. I feel my life has been enriched by the experience of doing so. I absolutely loved it.

About Rosanna Ley

Rosanna Ley is the bestselling author of novels including Return to Mandalay and The Villa, which sold over 310,000 copies. In February 2015 Return to Mandalay was shortlisted for the RNA Award for the Epic Romantic Novel. She has written numerous articles and short stories for magazines, and her novels have been published in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Norway, Hungary, Portugal, Lithuania, Turkey and the Czech Republic. The Villa is also published by Quercus in the US.

Rosanna has also worked as a creative writing tutor for over 20 years. She has led courses for colleges and universities in England, and runs her own writing retreats in the UK and abroad in Italy and Spain. She has worked with community groups in therapeutic settings and completed an MA in Creative Writing for Personal Development in order to support this. She also runs a manuscript appraisal service to appraise and mentor the work of new writers.  She is married with children and lives in Dorset.

You’ll find Rosanna Ley on Facebook and can follow her on Twitter. You can also visit her website.

Although I haven’t had time to read 300 Days of Sun by Deborah Lawrenson yet, I was so intrigued by the story line that I had to ask her onto Linda’s Book Bag to tell me about the theme of identity that so obviously runs through the book.

300 days of Sun is available here in e-book and paperback.

300 Days of Sun

Travelling to Faro, Portugal, journalist Joanna Millard hopes to escape an unsatisfying relationship and a stalled career. Faro is an enchanting town, and the seaside views are enhanced by the company of Nathan Emberlin, a charismatic younger man. But behind the crumbling facades of Moorish buildings, Joanna soon realizes, Faro has a seedy underbelly, its economy compromised by corruption and wartime spoils. And Nathan has an ulterior motive for seeking her company: he is determined to discover the truth involving a child’s kidnapping that may have taken place on this dramatic coastline over two decades ago.

Joanna’s subsequent search leads her to Ian Rylands, an English expat who cryptically insists she will find answers in The Alliance, a novel written by American Esta Hartford. The book recounts an American couple’s experience in Portugal during World War II, and their entanglements both personal and professional with their German enemies. Only Rylands insists the book isn’t fiction, and as Joanna reads deeper into it, she begins to suspect that Esta Hartford’s story and Nathan Emberlin’s may indeed converge in Faro—where the past not only casts a long shadow but still exerts a very present danger.

A Question of Identity

A Guest Post by Deborah Lawrenson

When I was growing up, the simple question, “Where do you come from?” had no simple answer. I was asked it often as I was always the new girl. As a diplomatic service family, we moved across Europe, the Middle East and Asia and back again, interspersed with a few years every now and then in London.

I went to ten schools, starting with an international convent in Peking (as it was), and including an American school in Brussels and a village school in Luxembourg. Home was less the bolt-hole in London than it was the books and crockery that marked our camp in foreign places. It was always clear, too, that the question of where I came from was actually another way of asking “Who are you?”.

Perhaps inevitably, states of flux and identity have always interested me. Perhaps that’s why I like to write recognisable landscapes into my novels; the places are the anchors of the story and the human characters reveal themselves in the way they react and adapt to the setting.

Questions about identity run through my new novel 300 Days of Sun. It’s an issue that can be hard enough to answer in normal circumstances. But what happens if a child grows to adulthood and discovers he is not the person he thought he was? For Nathan, in the present-day storyline, personal history is shattered. His understanding of his family, his childhood, his place in the world, is revealed to be a lie. How can he ignore the urge to find out the truth? Would it even be possible to ignore what he now knows?

Joanna, a journalist, is also re-evaluating her life. When she and Nathan meet in Faro, Portugal, she is wondering how to make a new start. He recognises her strengths, and asks her to help him. Her determination to be true to herself, come what may, is crucial.

For Alva, in wartime Lisbon, the moment she changes her perception of her circumstances – and her marriage – is when she realises that her husband has no intention of taking her “home” to America. She is forced to adapt to life in Portugal, and in doing so, becomes someone entirely different.

And while Nathan and Alva are in the process of change – change neither of them has sought in the first place – the world around them is unstable, too. Violent storms re-draw coastal geography. Nature cannot be contained even with modern sea-barrier engineering. Economic and political power shifts undermine the individual.

Perhaps appropriately, this novel has several different genre elements. It’s part historical fiction, part romantic suspense, part literary thriller. I always try to write in a way that transports the reader to a setting, capturing a vivid sense of place and I research carefully to make the imaginary experience as accurate as possible, whether that is the smells of the old town, or the soft shushing sounds of the Portuguese language.

Is this evocation of place a way of finding a calm still centre in the wild uproar of life? I sometimes think so. As a writer, I’ve become more and more aware that each book I offer a story to the reader – and a complex weave of subconscious thoughts to myself. Sometimes it has been years after a novel was published that I realise (or allow myself to realise) what the story was really about.

But I’m pretty sure that with 300 Days of Sun the time had come to think about all those border crossings and classrooms full of unfamiliar faces, and the fear and excitement of having to start all over again.

About Deborah Lawrenson

Deborah Lawrenson spent her childhood moving around the world from Kuwait to China, Belgium, Luxembourg and Singapore with diplomatic service parents. She read English at Cambridge University and worked as a journalist in London. She is the author of eight novels, including the critically acclaimed The Art of Falling, which was a WHSmith Fresh Talent novel, and The Lantern, which was picked as a summer read for the Channel 4 TV Book Club in 2011. She lives in Kent and spends as much time as possible at a crumbling hamlet in Provence, the atmospheric setting for The Lantern

If, like me, you’re intrigued by Deborah’s writing, you’ll find all her books here. You can also visit her website, follow her on Twitter and find her on Facebook.

Once again I’m judging a book by its cover and adding to my enormous TBR! As I love the look and sound of The People We Were Before by Annabelle Thorpe I just had to invite Annabelle onto Linda’s Book Bag and luckily she agreed to write a guest post all about the writing process and how authors inadvertently reveal themselves through their words.

The People We Were Before was published by Quercus on 21st April 2016 and is available on Amazon, from Waterstones and all good bookshops.

The People We Were Before

Yugoslavia, summer 1979. A new village. A new life. But eight-year-old Miro knows the real reason why his family moved from the inland city of Knin to the sunkissed village of Ljeta on the Dalmatian Coast, a tragedy he tries desperately to forget.

The Ljeta years are happy ones, though, and when he marries his childhood sweetheart, and they have a baby daughter, life seems pretty much perfect. But storm clouds are gathering above Yugoslavia, and when war breaks out one split-second decision destroys the life Miro has managed to build. Driven by anger and grief, he flees to Dubrovnik, plunging himself into the hard-bitten world of international war reporters.

There begins a journey that will take him ever deeper into danger: from Dubrovnik, to Sarajevo, to the worst atrocities of war-torn Bosnia.  Slowly, Miro realises that even if he survives, there can be no way back to his earlier life. The war will change him, and everyone he loves, forever.

The Unintentional Reveal

Sounds like a twist in an Agatha Christie plot doesn’t it?  The moment when a character gives something away, a glimpse into the inner workings of their mind, that either counts them in or out as the murderer.  But unintentional reveals happen all the time in fiction; moments when the author surfaces momentarily, in a character’s opinion or way of behaviour.  Sometimes this is done deliberately; some authors base a character on some facets of their own personality, or recreate their own experiences and life lessons in their books.

What’s more common – and what definitely happened to me whilst writing The People We Were Before – is how facets of yourself appear in the book without you even noticing.  You’d be forgiven for thinking that with a novel written in the first-person, where the narrator is a young Croatian boy (who becomes a married Croatian man) there’d be little opportunity for unintentional reveals of any kind.  That was something I liked; an ability to remain anonymous, hidden behind my character, my own voice never really heard.

But gradually, each time I read the book back, I realised it was filled with unintentional reveals; episodes from my own life, re-cast and re-written, often dredged from my subconscious and only recognisable to me once I saw them on the page.  At the beginning of the book Miro, my narrator, and his family move hundreds of miles from the town where he grew up, to a village on the coast, very much against his Mother’s wishes.  It was only when I re-read those early chapters, read Miro’s perceptions of his mother’s dismay at having to move, that I remembered moving house at a similar age, and my own Mum’s unhappiness at an unwanted move.  When Miro – wide-eyed with excitement – attends his older sister’s wedding, he is exactly the age I was when my first sister got married.  Recently, flicking through the book again, I recognised Miro’s need to explore beyond the comfortable world in which he grew up, as a mirror of my own.

Writing a novel can equally show you things about yourself that you’d never realised before.  As a journalist myself, albeit of the soft, travel-writing kind, I’d never really considered war reporting as something relevant to me.  But as the world of hardened war correspondents became increasingly central to the book, it became clear to me that I admired them, that it was a world that I felt drawn towards, could imagine being part of.  In reality of course, I’m not brave enough (and too squeamish, sadly) to put myself in that sort of peril on a daily basis, but still – it was a revelation to me how much the job appealed.

In my second novel, Night Falls on the Kasbah, which I’m currently writing, my central character – Freya – is a woman, and I’ve been constantly aware of whether I am putting too much of myself in her, whether her anxieties, fears, joys and opinions coincide too closely with mine.  But the other day, reading a chapter from The People We Were Before where Miro and his two friends, Josip and Pavle,  had exactly the kind of mickey-taking conversation I have with my closest friends – I realised there was really no point in worrying.  We are the novels we write, the characters we draw, the situations we put them into.  Intentionally or not, as authors, we are constantly revealing different facets of our characters – both to our readers and to ourselves.  And I’ve come to realise that that’s a good thing rather than bad; another part of what makes being a writer such an endlessly fascinating job.

About Annabelle Thorpe

I’ve been a travel and features journalist for almost twenty years, writing mostly for the Times, Sunday Times Travel Mag, Express and Guardian.  Ironically, I turned to journalism as a way to make some money while I wrote my first novel – this was in the mid 1990’s!  Getting published was an incredibly long, slow process – The People We Were Before has been in the works for about ten years!

I split my time between London and Sussex, where I grew up, and am currently working on my second novel, Night Falls on the Kasbah, which is set in Marrakech and Doha, and should be published in May 2017.

You can find out more about Annabelle Thorpe on her website and you can follow her on Twitter.

I’m delighted to be supporting Brook Cottage Books in spotlighting the romance Once and Future Wife by David Burnett. Once and Future wife is available in e-book and paperback from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

To celebrate this spotlight, you also have the chance to win an Amazon e-gift voucher for $20 or equivalent at the bottom of this blog post.

Once and Future Wife

Jennie Bateman has again fallen in love with Thomas, her former husband. However, Tasha, one of his children, is determined to destroy their relationship. Jennie had done that herself a number of years earlier. In the midst of a manic episode, she had deserted Thomas and their two daughters, choosing, instead, a life of shameless debauchery.

Perhaps she was shocked when Thomas filed for a divorce. Perhaps it was the influence of a preacher who took an interest in her. Perhaps she simply cycled back toward normal. Whatever the cause, years later, when she again made contact with her family, she was a different person. Even so, they wanted nothing to do with her.

But time moves on. Circumstances change.

Thomas’s second wife has died, leaving him a single parent with four adult daughters and a new-born. In Jennie’s eyes, he is the same good-looking, kind, loving person she had fallen for when they were in college.

In Once and Future Wife we follow Jennie as she goes a second round with her demons, hoping to find a way to stop them from destroying the possibility of a second marriage and the love and happiness that finally seem to be within her reach.

About David Burnett

David lives near Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife and Bonnie, his blue-eyed cat. He enjoys traveling, photography, baking bread, and the Carolina beaches.

David has traveled widely in the United States and the United Kingdom. During one trip to Scotland, he visited Crathes Castle, the ancestral home of the Burnett family near Aberdeen.

David’s photographic subjects have been as varied as prehistoric ruins on the islands of Scotland, star trails, sea gulls, and a Native American powwow. He went to school for longer than he wants to admit and has graduate degrees in psychology and education. He was formerly director of research for our state’s department of education.

You will find David on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and on his Blog. David also has a website and you will find his books on his Amazon Author Page.

Click here for your chance to win an Amazon e-gift voucher for $20 or equivalent.

I’m delighted to be supporting Brook Cottage Books in spotlighting Erica Laine’s historical novel Isabella of Angoulême which was published by Silverwood Books on 30th October 2015. Isabella of Angoulême is available for purchase on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Not only can you read and extract from Isabella of Angoulême, but Erica Laine has written a guest blog all about why she writes historical fiction and at the bottom of this blog post you have the opportunity to enter to win one of two e-copies of the book.

Isabella of Angoulême

Set in the thirteenth century, the kingdoms of England and France are struggling over territory as the powerful Angevins threaten the French king. In regions far from Paris local fiefdoms disregard all authority.

The Tangled Queen is the story of the little known and very young Isabella of Angoulême who was abducted by King John in 1200. She became his second wife and queen consort, aged 12. He was the most reviled king in English history and his lust for her led to the loss of Normandy and the destruction of the Plantagenet Empire, which then brought about the Magna Carta.

Isabella came of age in England, but was denied her place in court. Her story is full of thwarted ambition, passion, pride and cruelty. She longed for power of her own and returned to France after the death of John to live a life of treachery and intrigue…

Read an extract from Isabella of Angoulême

Excerpt from Isabella of Angoulême: The Tangled Queen Part 1.

Isabella smiled and yawned – it was time these chattering girls left. She dismissed them, haughty and impatient. Away they sped, some calling back to Isabella, jokes and remarks full of innuendo for her future. She frowned; this was not the way to treat a future queen.

‘Agnes, help prepare me for bed.’

Agnes closed the chamber door, unlacing the back of Isabella’s dress, folding the glorious red and gold silk into the large chest. Tomorrow Isabella would wear the blue gown, the splendid blue and silver fabric showing wealth and also loyalty. If red and gold had shown the power and wealth of the Taillefers, then the blue would mark their obedience and fealty.

Early the next morning Agnes was busy preparing a scented bath. Precious rose oil, drop by drop, turned the hot water cloudy. And then she was busy mixing the rosemary wash for Isabella’s hair. She would wear her hair loose today, and her small gold guirland.

Isabella woke up and saw Agnes looking at her, long and thoughtful, ready to make her stir, but she was already throwing back the covers and standing and stretching. Agnes nodded and together they moved to the bath, and Isabella slipped into the milky, perfumed water and rubbed the rosemary wash into her hair. She felt the water running down her back and shivered. Then she was being briskly dried by Agnes, who was determined to treat Isabella to the most thorough of preparations.

Her mother Alice entered the room and the three of them unfolded the wedding gown and dressed Isabella. Her chemise was soft and light, the dress heavy and cumbersome. Arranged within it, held within it as if caged, her face pale but proud, she moved to the window and looked down onto a courtyard full of people, horses, carts and wagons. A procession was moving through the crowd, with a stately canon and an even more stately bishop in the centre. The clergy were intent on their walk to the cathedral. Isabella clutched Agnes in a sudden fear. Then she rested her head on the window and took a deep breath. It was her wedding day.

Why I Write Historical Fiction

A Guest Post by Erica Laine

As a young reader I fell in love with the books of Henry Treece, Geoffrey Trease and especially Rosemary Sutcliffe. They were far more satisfying than the straightforward school stories or the Enid Blyton books that were on offer in the late 40s and 1950s.

They were closer to fantasy but had so much truth in them too. And I learnt a great deal without really noticing. Information was just absorbed. Other books about the Arthurian legends were exciting and so were Tales from Troy. Later I moved onto adult historical fiction and enjoyed all that those books brought with them, people who lived lives that were full of danger and excitement but these were not fantasy, these people had lived and there was a thread running back to them.

When I moved to Aquitaine in France in 1997 and began to study the history of France and Europe through our local history society I discovered the extraordinary complex history of England and France that had shaped where I now lived. I am surrounded by medieval castles and forts, watchtowers, Roman roads and remnants of their towns and artefacts. There are towns like Bordeaux and la Rochelle that the English and French fought over time and time again. And even further back places where the Visigoths invaded, Poiters where the Moors were driven back by Charles Martel, abbeys and churches founded in the early 9^th century, burial sites for the Franks who had come south as the Romans retreated;  all to be visited and wondered over.

When I came across Isabella of Angoulême and her story I was struck by how little she appeared in our history textbooks although she has been a character in some historical novels and indeed Jean Plaidy wrote her as a main protagonist in The Battle of the Queens.

But I wanted to thoroughly explore her life and times and try to give her a context that would be full of detail: manners, social conditions, clothes, cooking and food, transport, politics, power play. The list was endless and so was the research. And I love the research! I can spend far too long tracking down something I need to know, for example why were so many almonds being ordered and bought for the kitchens? Because they were used to make almond milk, as cows’ milk didn’t keep or was not available. I may not use that but now I know it helps me to keep my head in the 13th century.

I was cross that so many books said that John and Isabella were married in Bordeaux when he was known to be in Angoulême on the 23 August and they were married on the 24^th. In 1200 you couldn’t possibly ride to Bordeaux in time to be married there the next day. So looking at distances covered on horseback was another piece of sleuthing that made me happy about a date and place I was going to use.

But it’s not all historical fact, the conversations people have, the encounters that are made, the journeys that can only be in the mind’s eye, the clothes and the jewellery worn, this weaving together of what we know and what we can only imagine, the creation of a world that is real but not dry facts, this is something I enjoy more and more as I continue to delve into and discover the past.

And it all lives for me, as the books that I read more than 50 years ago lived for me. Living history, that’s what it’s all about.

About Erica Laine

I was born in 1943 in Southampton and originally studied for the theatre.  I moved with my family to Hong Kong in 1977 and worked and lived there for 20 years, writing English language textbooks for Chinese primary schools and managing large educational projects for the British Council.

Since living in S W France I have been very involved with a local history society and have researched many topics, the history of gardens and fashion being favourites.

Isabella of Angoulême began in 2011 at a writing workshop run by Philippa Pride, the Book Doctor.  The story of this young queen was fascinating and although she appears as a character in some other historical novels I wanted to concentrate on her entire life and her importance to the English and the French and the role she played in the politics of power. Part Two is being written now and my head is more or less permanently in the thirteenth century.

You’ll find Erica on Facebook and you can follow her on Twitter. Isabella of Angoulême has a dedicated page on Facebook too.

Click here to enter to win one of two e-copies of Isabella of Angoulême.

I’m delighted once again to be supporting Brook Cottage Books in spotlighting the contemporary romance Love on the Nile by Ellie Gray which is published today 15th June by Tirgearr Publishing. Love on the Nile is available on Kindle UK, Kindle US, Smashwords, Kobo and Nook (Barnes and Noble).

To celebrate publication I have an extract for you to read and the opportunity to win an e-copy of Love on the Nile at the bottom of this blog.

Love on the Nile

Natasha embarks upon the holiday of a lifetime with her brother, looking forward to exploring the ancient sites Egypt has to offer. What she hasn’t bargained for is spending her holiday cruising along the Nile with Kyle Richardson, a handsome but moody archaeologist. Despite taking an instant dislike to Kyle, Natasha finds herself increasingly drawn to the man, particularly as his interactions with her brother reveal a gentler, more caring side to his character.

Having lost everyone he has ever loved, Kyle is a loner, believing himself to be cursed. He now spends his life moving around Egypt, ensuring he never lingers anywhere long enough to form meaningful attachments. Despite his better judgement, he finds himself drawn to this feisty young woman, but is afraid of the deeper feelings she stirs in him.

Can his feelings for Natasha convince him that it’s worth taking a risk on love?

An Extract from Love on the Nile

“Natasha, darling!” The rather stout woman levered herself from the chair and swiftly crossed the room to throw her arms around her niece.

Breathing in the familiar perfume and leaning into the protective embrace of her aunt, Natasha’s irritation dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, and she closed her eyes against the sudden and unexpected tears of relief at having finally arrived at their destination. “Oh, Aunt Lucy, it’s so good to see you.” Her voice was muffled against Lucy’s shoulder and she took a deep breath before stepping back and smiling. “It’s been so long. I can’t believe we’re actually here at last.”

“It’s wonderful to see you, Natasha. I’ve missed you both so much.” Lucy lifted a hand to cup her niece’s face before turning to Nicky, hands on her ample hips as she scrutinised him critically.

“Oh, you always were like two peas in a pod. And, Nicky, you have grown into a very handsome young man. You have no idea how happy I am that you came.”

“Hello, Aunty Lucy, how are you?” Nicky briefly returned his aunt’s embrace before securing the baseball cap a little tighter on his head and asking the question foremost in his mind. “Can I have something to eat?”

Lucy shook her head with a smile and glanced at the man, who had so far remained silent throughout. “Kyle, this is my nephew Nicky, and my niece Natasha. I’m pleased to see that at least one thing never changes, and that is Nicky’s appetite.”

She caught Nicky’s arm and led him off to the far side of the room. “Come on, I’ve got some of your favourite biscuits over here in this cupboard.”

Natasha could see Kyle watching her younger brother, his eyes narrowed, and she felt the familiar churning in the pit of her stomach, trying to anticipate at what point he would realise Nicky had learning difficulties. Automatically, she tried to deflect that scrutiny, moving further into the room and feeling a sense of relief as Kyle’s gaze immediately swung towards her.

“Natasha Morgan,” she introduced herself, and held out her hand.

“So I gather.” His face was unsmiling and Natasha was uncomfortably aware of her earlier, rather waspish response to what was probably quite a reasonable conversation he had been having with her aunt. He pushed himself out of the chair to tower above her, his hair shining blue-black in the pale moonlight which streamed through the open window. Tall as she was, Natasha had to tilt her head back to meet his startlingly blue eyes. He was younger than she had initially thought, probably in his mid-thirties — just a few years older than herself.

There was a pause before he replied. “Kyle Richardson.”

He took her hand briefly, offering a firm cool handshake, before returning to his chair, long legs stretched out before him and crossed at the ankles.

“I’m sorry you overheard our conversation; I had no idea you were there.”

His voice was deep and husky, and his gaze once again followed her movements as she sank into the seat Lucy had recently vacated.

She nodded and spread her hands expressively, shrugging her slim shoulders. “I’m sorry if I sounded… irritated. It’s been a really long day and I hadn’t expected Aunt Lucy to arrange a personal guide for us. Please, it’s not a problem, we don’t want… we don’t need a guide, and I’m sure you have better things to do with your time.”

Kyle’s mouth twitched as if in amusement at the inadvertent slip of the tongue, but whatever he was about to say was lost as Lucy and Nicky returned, the latter clutching a packet of chocolate-covered biscuits.

“Oh, you’ve introduced yourselves. Excellent.” Lucy beamed at them, clapping her hands together. “I’m sure we’re all going to have a wonderful time together.”

“I was just explaining that Nicky and I are quite happy to find our own way around Egypt,” Natasha cut in quickly. “There is no need for Mr. Richardson to trouble himself.”

“Nonsense,” cried Lucy, fixing Kyle with a rather piercing gaze. “I’m not letting you wriggle out of this one, Kyle. You owe me rather a lot of favours and I am now calling one of them in. Heavens, man, I haven’t seen you in close to two years, and I happen to know for a fact that you haven’t taken a break for longer than that. It’s high time you did.”

Natasha observed this outburst with some surprise, having hardly ever heard her aunt speak so sharply. She risked a glance towards Kyle and saw that he was still reclined in his chair, arms folded over his chest, and a somewhat amused gleam in his blue eyes. He remained silent, obviously expecting Lucy to continue her reprimand.

About Ellie Gray

Ellie is a contemporary romance author and lives in the beautiful East Riding of Yorkshire with her partner, David, and two children, Joe and Abbie.

Love on the Nile will be her second novel published with the lovely Tirgearr Publishing – her debut novel, Beauty and the Recluse was released in February 2016.

A proud member of the Romantic Novelist Association, Ellie currently works full-time in public services and is studying for an MSc in Public Management, although she hopes one day to be able to write full time.

A few random pieces of information about Ellie:

• Favourite TV shows – The Walking Dead, The X-Files, Nashville, Dr. Who, The Great British Bake-off!
• Favourite Music – I’m an 80’s girl!, country, sixties, Elvis, classical (when I’m writing)
• Favourite Food – Indian, tapas, crisps, cheese
• Favourite Drink – black coffee – copious amounts when I’m writing, Sauvignon blanc when I’m not.

You can find Ellie Gray on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Instagram, Google+ and LinkedIn.  She also has a website.

Click here for your chance to win an e-copy of Love on the Nile.

 

I’m so pleased to be featuring wonderful Katey Lovell on Linda’s Book Bag again today. The Boy and the Bridesmaid will be published by Harper Impulse on Thursday 16^th June, the culmination to the popular Meet Cute series of short stories.  It’s available to preorder now from all major ebook retailers, including Amazon UK and Kobo.

In celebration of the The Boy and the Bridesmaid Katey kindly agreed to write a guest blog for Linda’s Book Bag about her favourite boys. However, she went a step further, imagining she was having a fictional dinner date and you can read what she told me below!

The Boy and the Bridesmaid

A gorgeously romantic short story, part of The Meet Cute series.

There’s nothing as wonderful as a wedding, especially when it’s your sister getting married. But for Maria, who struggles with social anxiety, being a bridesmaid is a struggle as well as an honour and when she finds herself overawed the person by her side is the last person she’d expect to understand…

My Review of The Boy and the Bridesmaid

What an utterly gorgeous short story to complete Katey Lovell’s Meet Cute series. It may only be a few pages long but somehow she manages to encompass the full range of human emotions from joy to grief, with fear and longing in between, in The Boy and the Bridesmaid.

There’s also a really effective and realistic sense of occasion in the depiction of the wedding so that it was almost like attending in person.

I really liked the completeness of the story so that there is a wonderful sense of pleasure in reading. I thought the quality of the writing was fantastic. There was just the right balance of features like similes and description to bring the prose alive and make it a sparkling read.

Smashing stuff!

Fictional Dinner Date!

A Guest Post by Katey Lovell

When Linda suggested I write a guest post about my favourite boys to celebrate the publication of The Boy and the Bridesmaid, I immediately imagined a scenario akin to the TV programme Dinner Date.  In real life I’m happily married, but seeing as this is all make believe, I’m going to very much enjoy being wined and dined by these gorgeous specimens of manhood!

Whenever I’m asked about fictional characters I have a crush on, my thoughts always race straight to Edward Rochester from Jane Eyre.  I know he’s not the nicest of fictional characters, but for some reason I can’t put my finger on I’ve always found him strangely alluring.  When Toby Stephens played him for the BBC adaptation my love for him only grew, because let’s face it – he is rather beautiful to look at, the ultimate in dark and brooding.

However, if Rochester was in a bad mood on our date I’d be particularly crushed and need someone with a softer side to help me feel brighter. For that reason, I’d like to go on a dinner date with the lovely Harri from Georgia Hill’s Say it with Sequins trilogy.  I love Harri because not only is he tall, dark and handsome but he’s also a total sweetheart and best of all he’s WELSH!  We have a shared interest in dance too, so we’d not be short of something to talk about, and maybe he’d be able to show me a few of his moves too. Oo-er!

Which only leaves me with one final choice – I don’t know who to pick!  I’m tempted by Alex from Erin Lawless’ Somewhere Only We Know and also Nick from Holly Smale’s Geek Girl trilogy – nice guys who don’t always get it right but who are doing their best to make the women in their life happy.  However, I’ve decided to plump for Rainbow Rowell’s enigmatic Baz, and if I can be really specific, the version of Baz who appears in Cath’s fanfic sections of Fangirl.  He’s sassy and sexy and smells of bergamot and I’d love to question him about his relationship with fellow Watford pupil Simon Snow.

And this is a bit of a cheat, but if I could also choose one Meet Cute boy to swoon at over a candlelit dinner, I think it’d probably be Marwan from The Boy at the Bookshop.  He loves his family enough to put his own dreams on hold, which melts my heart and of course there’s the geeky book factor too.  He’s one of the nice guys and I’m sure we could while away the hours sharing book recommendations.  And his dad runs a restaurant, so maybe we could get a discount too.

You can find all Katey’s books here.

About Katey Lovell

Katey Lovell is fanatical about words. An avid reader, writer and poet, she once auditioned for Countdown and still tapes the show every night. Getting the conundrum before the contestants is her ultimate thrill.

She loves love and strives to write feel-good romance that’ll make you laugh and cry in equal measure.

Originally from South Wales, Katey now lives in Yorkshire with her husband and their son.

You can follow Katey on Twitter, find her on Facebook and visit her blog.

Today I’m very pleased to be featuring Summertime Blue by John Campbell Rees which was published by The Timeless Press on 12th March 2016. Summertime Blue is available on Amazon UK and Amazon Us and from Waterstones.

As adolescence lasts only 16 weeks in John Campbell Rees’s book, I wondered whether he thought there was a best time in a person’s life and he has provided a fascinating guest post today all about that very subject.

Summertime Blue

The Light Half of the Year has arrived on Arbouron, the Planet Earth in a neighbouring reality. The inhabitants of the Canopy of the great Tree are returning to their homes after their enforced Winter Exile. The members of the Winter Squad, the volunteers who maintain the Canopy during the Dark Half of the Year are returning to their base in the Roots. This year feted as the heroes who saved the Tree.

A new challenge awaits Nevamarsya, the youngest member of the Winter Squad as she travels with her family, friends and colleagues to the Roots for the first time as as Officer and fully grown Tree-Person. The consequences of defeating the alien invader hang heavily on Neva and the other youngsters sent up to the Canopy for training only. Have they been robbed of their one and only chance of being a child by the horrors they have witnessed.

A ghosts from the past threatens the present. The Loan Shark Drwgdynant disappeared twenty years ago, before he could stand trial for his many crimes. Now a body has been discovered and Tabbernant, the oldest member of the Winter Squad, who was responsible for ending Drwgdynant’s reign of terror is accused of his murder. The person who can clear Tabbernant’s name is has been in hiding for the past two decades from the criminal Syndicates. Will Neva and her friends be able to find him in time to save Tabbernant.

The Best Age to Be Alive

A Guest Post from John Campbell Rees

I don’t think I have ever met anyone who enjoyed being a teenager. Eight whole years of spots, raging hormones, horrendous peer pressure, life altering examinations and parents who stopped understanding you on your thirteenth birthday. Wouldn’t it be be great if you could get that all over with in four months?

In my first two novels, that is exactly what happens. The in story explanation is that the inhabitants of the Tree were created to be the soldiers who defended the Tree from all external attacks when it was a Sapling. For a young tree, there are many threats, disease, parasites or inclement weather to name a few, it could not wait for its army to go through a normal life cycle with a sixteen to eighteen year childhood and adolescence, it needed troops quickly, so it made sure its troops matured quickly. The out of story reason is I used to work in a branch library across the road from where two double-decker coaches disgorged their homeward bound passengers at the end of a school day. The library had eight public access PCs, a magnet to the teenagers. At the start of the academic year, in September, I would see the new intake of eleven year olds, in uniforms several sizes too big. It only seemed like four months later, before the Christmas holidays, those same children would be talking about the GCSE examinations they would be taking the following Summer.  Of course four years had passed, but it didn’t feel that way.

Winter Squad covered the four juvenile characters, Nevamarsya, Natalicsya, Pemisegant and Althallant’s telescoped young life, up to the point where they  are about to swap the emptiness of the Winter Canopy for the year round hustle and bustle of the Roots. The four main juvenile characters are enjoying the best part of any tree inhabitant’s life. They are still in the first blush of youth and look it. Their bodies might look fully grown, but they are not fully adult yet. In a year’s time, they will complete their growth cycle when they go through the Biological Adoption process and join one of the twenty eight families. After that, they will have to take their studies and future careers seriously.

In Summertime Blue the four youngsters believe they are in the best age to be alive as I think this is the best time to be alive in the world I have created. They are experiencing  the best of both worlds, a fully developed body, free from the limitations of childhood but still maintaining the juvenile enthusiasm for life only youngsters possess. Given the martial nature of Tree society, where all jobs have a military rank structure, the forty plus days of actual combat experience gives them advantages not available to their contemporaries. They hold the first adult rank of Subaltern, they are allowed to drive, can stay out an extra hour after normal juvenile curfew and could, if they wanted to, get married.

Although, it has to be remembered that barring accidents and wartime fatalities, Tree People know they will die on their forty second birthday. This does not make them fatalistic. It encourages them to enjoy each and every day, before it is too late. So the characters will soon learn that any age is the best age to be alive.

There are other super blog posts about Summertime Blue with these other bloggers: