My Guest today....

I am delighted to welcome back Lynda Stacey as a guest on my blog today.  Lynda recently won ChocLit and Whole Story Audiobooks Search for a Star Competition.  Her debut novel, The House of Secrets will be released shortly.

Lynda took some time out of her busy schedule to come and talk to me.

1    Welcome Lynda,  Can you tell us a little about yourself?

Hi Victoria and thank you so much for having me.

I work full time as a Sales Director. I have a lovely husband, two step-daughters and two grandchildren. I love to travel. I used to be a Scuba Diving Instructor and enjoy finding interesting dive sites. Other than that, I’m quite boring and ordinary, I do the ironing, the cleaning and when I have nothing else to do, I sit my lap top on my knee and I write.

How long have you been writing and working toward the goal of being published?

I began writing at a very early age, but like most things that you do when you are young, it gets put to one side. I do distinctly remember being around 14 years old when I asked for a Lilliput typewriter for Christmas, announcing to my family that I really needed one, or I’d never be able write a novel.

Can you describe the time you realised you were a ‘real writer?’

Wow, I still don’t class myself as a writer. It all seems so surreal that something that I wrote is actually out there for people to buy. It’s crazy and a little incomprehensible. I think what makes it worse is that everything is e-book first these days, I guess if I actually got to see and hold a book, with my name on it, I’d feel like a ‘real writer.’

What was the inspiration behind The House of Secrets?

The story was inspired by Wrea Head Hall. I went with my husband one Christmas for a birthday treat. (My birthday is the 29th December) The minute I pulled up on the extensive driveway, I was in awe of the house. It literally took my breath away and when we walked in through the front door, stepped into the Grand Hall and walked through the corridors, I could feel the history seeping out through the walls at me. It was as though the house was trying to tell me it’s story.

Wrea Head Hall

How did you come up with your story concept?

The family that used to live there had quite a history of its own, which I studied. After much deliberation, I decided to step away from the real story and create a fictional family. It suited my story better and to me, Emily Ennis came to life.

Who is your favourite character and why?

I love Nomsa. She’s a typical Caribbean lady. I’ve travelled around the Caribbean extensively with my diving and spent a lot of time in both Jamaica, Barbados, the Dominican and Grenada. I absolutely love the people, especially the Jamaicans. I love how they have happy-go-lucky attitudes one minute and how they stand up for themselves the next.

Do you become attached to your characters and have a hard time letting go of them, or are you happy their story is told and you can move on to the next project?

Ha ha…. That depends what you mean by ‘attached’? To me, they are real. They live at the hall, they work there and sleep there. I would fully expect to go to Bandit’s cottage, knock on the door and have him answer it.

If you could be any of your characters, which would it be and why?

That’s a hard question. No, I don’t think I would. I actually really like the life that I have, I don’t dream of being anyone else.

What is your writing process? Which comes first, the story, the characters, or setting?

Definitely the character. Normally just the heroine first. I try to build her world and then introduce others around her.

Are you a meticulous plotter or do you just let it flow?

It just flows. Some days it flows in a good way, and others in a way that means that I end up deleting a lot of words at a later date.

How would you describe your writing style?

Sporadic.

How long does it take you to write a book?

Because I work full time, I get very little actual writing time. So, I’d say it takes me around a year to the end of a draft worth submitting and then another year for the edits and the publishing.

What kind of research do you undertake?

As much as I physically can. For House of Secrets, I had to go to Wrea Head Hall a lot, it was hard work, but I loved it hahaha…!!

What part of writing a novel do you find most challenging?

The same part that challenges all authors. It’s the 40,000-word syndrome, the part where you look at your manuscript and all you can think is… IT’S RUBBISH, WHO WOULD BUY THIS? And then of course, you pass it by a few beta readers, who do their best to lift your spirits and you carry on.

Have you used beta readers, and if so, do you recommend them?

Yes, I use beta readers. They are invaluable. But no, I don’t recommend them, they’re mine, all mine.

What can your readers expect when they read your book?

I’d like to think that they wouldn’t know what to expect. After all, sometimes the book and the characters do their own thing and even I have no idea what they are doing, until it’s done.

Can you tell us what you are writing now?

I’ve just finished writing my 3rd novel and I’m about to start my 4th. I’m at that research stage and building my heroine stage. The only thing I really know about the next book at this point is that it will be a time slip, within the mining community.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

Keep going. Whatever you do, believe in yourself and keep writing. Join as many writing groups as you can, this helps you to keep the momentum going. Other than that, network, meet other authors, lots of them. They are all full of the most amazing advice.

I understand you are a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association. Do you think being a member of such an association is beneficial to new writers?

The Romantic Novelist Association has been a huge help to me. I joined under the umbrella of the New Writers Scheme, which offers a full critique on your work, once a year. I can honestly say that if I hadn’t joined, I probably still wouldn’t be published.

Do you ever experience writers’ block? If so, how do you get past it?

I wouldn’t say that I ever experience it, I’d say that after working all day and by the time I’ve made tea, cleaned my house and sat down to write, my mind is tired. Some nights I have the energy, others I don’t and I find that my best idea’s normally come to me at really inopportune moments. So, I always carry a notebook.

Thank you Lynda.  

The House of Secrets, published by Choc Lit will be released on the 19th July.

A woman on the run, a broken man and a house with a shocking secret …

Madeleine Frost has to get away. Her partner Liam has become increasingly controlling to the point that Maddie fears for her safety, and that of her young daughter Poppy.

Desperation leads Maddie to the hotel owned by her estranged father – the extraordinarily beautiful Wrea Head Hall in Yorkshire. There, she meets Christopher ‘Bandit’ Lawless, an ex-marine and the gamekeeper of the hall, whose brusque manner conceals a painful past.

After discovering a diary belonging to a previous owner, Maddie and Bandit find themselves immersed in the history of the old house, uncovering its secrets, scandals, tragedies – and, all the while, becoming closer.

But Liam still won’t let go, he wants Maddie back, and when Liam wants something he gets it, no matter who he hurts …

The House of Secrets is available as an ebook from Amazon, Kobo, Nook and iBookstore 

For more information about Lynda, visit her website:  www.lyndastacy.co.uk

You can also follow Lynda on Facebook and Twitter

Please Welcome... Lynda Stacey

My guest this week is Lynda Stacey.  Lynda is the winner of the ChocLit and Whole Story Audio Search for a Star Competition, and has signed a contract for her novel, Keeper of the House.


Lynda very kindly agreed to take a little time away from working on her next novel to talk about her writing journey.

I finally did it. I finally made it through the shortlists, the masses of rejection letters, the hope, the despair and now finally the elation. 

Everyone tells me how ‘lucky’ I am. How lucky I am to have the beautiful home that I have, how lucky I am to have a great job, how lucky I’ve been travelling the world as a scuba diving instructor and now, how lucky I am to have won Choc Lit’s Search for a Star Competition.

But it wasn’t always that way.

At 14 years old, my English teacher pulled me to one side and suggested that I went on to further education, did my A levels and followed it up by doing a Creative Writing Degree. But in my life, that was never going to happen. I left school with barely any qualifications. It was 1984 and there was a miners strike, I had no choice but to take any job that I could to help feed my family.

I always resented not taking qualifications, for not having proved to myself and to others what I could achieve, and have worked hard my whole life to make up for that.

It took me almost 30 years to build up the courage to begin to write again.

I joined the Romantic Novelists' Association New Writers Scheme two years ago and since then, I’ve met the most amazing people. Authors in every shape, size and with every perceivable type of personality that you could imagine.

The RNA is like a huge family. Over night you gain hundreds of brothers and sisters that you never had before and can I say… without them, I doubt I would have had the courage to keep going, to pick up the laptop night after night. To work every day, for over a year on a project that may never be published. To keep taking the continual knocks and the continual rejections. And somehow through the madness… manage to keep my sanity.

I’ve entered so many competitions. In 2013, my novel Broken Jigsaw was short listed for the Festival of Romance New Talent Award. In 2015, my novel Revenge was short listed for the Elizabeth Goudge Award and then finally my new novel Keeper of the House was short listed for ChocLit’s Search for a Star, in collaboration with Whole Story Audio books.

You can imagine how I felt when I was told that I’d won.

You guessed it… I really did feel ‘Lucky..!’





Congratulations Lynda and we wish you every success in your new career as a published author, and look forward to reading Keeper of the House in the not too distant future.


Lynda's novel, Keeper of the House, will be published in 2016 by ChocLit. More details of ChocLit's 'Search for a Star' competition can be found on it's website: choc lit search for a star

Featured Author Liz Harris

It is a great pleasure to welcome multi-published author, Liz Harris to my blog today.  Liz's latest book, Evie Undercover, has just been released by Choc Lit.

My friends in the Romantic Novelists' Association and those who follow me on twitter and Facebook will know that I go regularly to Umbria, a part of Italy that I love. And who could not love it? The scenery is stunning; the little medieval hilltop towns are a joy to visit; the food is fabulous; the people are warm and welcoming, and the area is completely unspoiled by tourism.

It was on one of my visits there that as I walked down the steps to the infinity pool, beyond which lay groves of olive trees framed by the distant hills, I glanced back at the 14^th century grey-stone tower house behind me and the abundance of flowers and fruit trees everywhere, and knew I just had to set a novel there.

Italy is known as the land of romance, wine and song, so my novel was going to have to be a romance that was very different in style from my Choc Lit-published historical romantic fiction novels, The Road Back, A Bargain Struck, A Western Heart and Golden Tiger, which comes out this October. 

I’d earlier set an earlier romantic novel, The Art of Deception, in Umbria, but for this romance I wanted some humour, too, and I knew I was about to write my first contemporary rom com. Ideally, too, I’d have occasion to use a little of the Italian I’ve been learning as the local people don’t speak English.

As for my hero and heroine, having gained a Law degree some years ago, I’ve always wanted to write a lawyer into a novel. This would be the novel, I decided, and successful Libel lawyer Tom Hadleigh was born. Tom was going to buy a 14^th century tower house on the side of a mountain on a whim. 

Since Tom wasn’t going to be able to speak a word of Italian, he’d have arranged for an interpreter to translate for him whenever he went to Umbria to meet with his Italian surveyor, but for the purposes of my story, that interpreter was going to be unavailable for the week’s visit he urgently had to make in order to buy furniture for the house. Enter enterprising Evie Shaw, ostensibly an agency interpreter, in reality the newest reporter for the gossip magazine Pure Dirt.

While Tom’s thoughts were going to be focused on his house, resourceful Evie’s were going to be focused on Tom and the exposé she was going to have to write about him, or lose the first job she’d been offered after months of fruitless searching.

I put finger to keyboard, and Evie Undercover came into being. The paperback was published in July, and I was thrilled to learn soon after that Evie Undercover had been named Book of the Month for August by Radio Marlow (97.5 FM), who described it as a ‘deliciously romantic novel’. They’ll be discussing the novel on Radio Marlow Book Club at just after 11am on Friday, 7^th August.

Bio:

Liz Harris is the author of THE ROAD BACK (US Coffee Time & Romance Book of 2012), A BARGAIN STRUCK (shortlisted for the RoNA Historical 2013), EVIE UNDERCOVER, THE ART OF DECEPTION and A WESTERN HEART. All of her novels, which are published by Choc Lit, have been shortlisted in their categories in the Festival of Romantic Fiction. Her next historical novel, GOLDEN TIGER, set in SW Wyoming in the 1870s and 1880s, comes out in October, 2015. In addition, she has had several short stories published in anthologies. Liz lives in south of Oxford. Her interests are theatre, travelling, reading, cryptic crosswords. 

For more information visit Liz's Website:  www.lizharrisauthor.com or her author page on 

Amazon, Facebook and Twitter

Please Welcome Guest Author - Rachel Brimble

Today I have the pleasure of interviewing Rachel Brimble.

Please tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from and when did you start writing?

I’ve been married to my wonderful husband for 15 years and we have a teen and pre-teen daughter as well as my beloved black Lab, Max. I grew up in Bristol before moving to Wiltshire in 2001. I love being close to the countryside in one direction and the bustling Georgian city of Bath in the other.

I started writing toward publication when my youngest daughter started school full-time in 2005. The Wild Rose Press published my first novel in 2007 and I’ve had at least one novel a year published since. Harlequin Superromance publishes my latest contemporary romances and Kensington publishes my Victorian romances.

You’ve written several highly rated Romantic novels, including historical and suspense. Tell us about your books and what inspires you to write.

Aww, thank you for saying my books have been highly rated, that means a lot to me! I love writing contemporary and historical novels alternately – it keeps my mind fresh and hopefully my readers’ too! My editor at Harlequin (contemporary) is happy for me to write mainstream romance or romantic suspense in my current series, which is great. So far, I’ve written two of each and contracted for one more – I’m thinking this last one will be romantic suspense. I feel a murder coming on!

My Victorian romances are also linked by a secondary character in previous book, becoming the hero or heroine in the next book. I am contracted with Kensington to write two more by June 2015 which will be four in total. As for inspiration? That comes in the form of deadlines, lol!

Describe your writing process. When and where do you write?

I am lucky enough to be a stay at home mum so I treat my writing like a job and write from 8.30 to 3.30pm during the week and as much as family time allows over the weekend. My laptop is always turned off by 7pm for my relaxation – ie bath, followed by a glass of wine in front of the TV.

Where do your ideas come from?  Which comes first, the story, the characters or the setting?

This can vary. Most of the time my inspiration comes from a premise and then I create a synopsis and character sketches which usually bring forth the conflicts.

How long does it take you to write a book? What research. If any, do you undertake when planning your book?

It usually takes me around six months to write a 85,000 word novel – my research is very limited, in that I focus on emotion more than anything else. For my Victorian novels, I make sure I have etiquette and social standing as spot on as I can, but again, the emotions are the focus of the book and love, hate, jealousy, greed and joy were the same in the 1800s as they are now.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

A bit of both – I am becoming more of a pantser as time goes on but my work in progress is becoming a nightmare so I will definitely be plotting the next one more thoroughly. I like to start with a three page synopsis as an outline, character sketches for the hero, hero and villain, if I have one. After that, I dive straight in and write the first draft from start to finish without looking back. The hard part comes in the following drafts!

Of all your characters, do you have a favourite?

Oooh, difficult question! One of my favourite heroes is Will Samson from my Kensington debut, The Seduction of Emily…and one of my favourite heroines is Cat Forrester from my Harlequin debut Finding Justice. In fact, I like Cat so much she’s appeared in every book in the series so far and I’m on book four, lol!

Do you work with a writing/critique group?

I have three fantastic critique partners who I couldn’t be without – they are thorough but entirely constructive and I would be half the writer I am today without them. We work really well together and I hope we continue to do so for years to come. We met online and have never met in person so maybe one day I’ll fly to the States just to meet them. Why not??

What advice would you give to someone thinking of writing their first novel?

Write! That’s it – so many people want to write but don’t actually do it. Write your novel, attend as much workshops as you can and listen to people who have made their way through the writing gauntlet. I enrolled in many affordable, online writing classes when I started out and they were invaluable. Also, join a writers group and/or association like the Romantic Novelists Association. Talking to other writers is really, really important. Good luck!

Rachel’s latest book is A Man Like Him (book 2 in her Harlequin series) and available now. Here’s the blurb and buy links:

Changing her life...again 

After two years in hiding, Angela Taylor knows her independence is worth it. As long as she can escape her past, she has everything under control. Until a flash flood hits the park where she works, and hot Chris Forrester shows up the exact moment she needs a hero. 

Chris proves he can save lives-and weaken a girl's knees. But how can she make him understand that she's off-limits, that getting close to her will endanger his life? Her happiness or his safety: it shouldn't even be a choice.

Because when you love someone, you protect them, no matter the cost. At least, that's what Angela keeps telling herself....

A Man Like his is available from:

Amazon.com

Barnes and Noble

Amazon.co.uk

Bio:

Rachel lives with her husband and two young daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK.  After having several novels published by small US presses, she secured agent representation in 2011. In 2012, she sold two books to Harlequin Superromance and a further three in 2013. She also writes Victorian romance for Kensington--her debut was released in April 2013 and she has since signed for three more.

Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America. When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family and beloved black Lab, Max. Her dream place to live is Bourton-on-the-Water in South West England.

She likes nothing more than connecting and chatting with her readers and fellow romance writers. Rachel would love to hear from you!

Links:

Website

Blog

Twitter

Facebook