Category: inspiration

The Story Behind the Story with Jennifer Bibby

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From Tuscany to St Ives, this week I’m delighted to welcome Jennifer Bibby onto my blog to talk about the fascinating history behind her debut novel, The Cornish Hideaway.

The Cornish Hideaway has been on quite a journey, one that has taken it over 1244 miles and spanning almost 500 years. In 2004 I was in my second year at University studying Creative Writing when the BBC put out a documentary called ‘The Divine Michelangelo’ which detailed the life of the Renaissance artist. Watching it, the actor who played a dramatically over the top Michelangelo in a big wig, inspired me to create Angelo, a temperamental artist who is discovered bruised and battered on Tuscan farmland in the year 1500. Alessandra, the farmer’s daughter helped nurse him back to life and saw in him a chance to shift her horizons beyond the small village she was born in. In return for the village saving him, Angelo painted religious frescoes on the church wall, but his presence, and his association with Alessandra, were not welcomed by everyone.

Over the years, no matter what else I was writing, I always returned to this story, dreaming of writing a sweeping historical romance before realizing I was a bit on the lazy side to do all the research! I knew I wanted to tell the story of Angelo and Alessandra so attempted to move them first to modern Tuscany and then relocated them to a seaside town in England. But nothing quite fit until in 2014 I took a trip to St Ives with a friend. Something about the rugged Cornish coast line, the sea, the feeling of being at the end of the world made me realise I had to set my story in Cornwall (accompanied by a groan at becoming yet another writer who’d fallen prey to the Cornish charms!)

 At lot of the original Renaissance story is still woven through my modern tale. Angelo rides a bike because he originally arrived on horseback. Freya’s desire to make her life better through painting. An old wise woman called Nonna became vibrant, tarot card reading Lola and the young priest who gave council five hundred years ago was reborn as Tristan, the local vicar. The tattoo on Angelo’s back, well, that’s supposed to be a copy of the fresco his sixteenth century counterpart painted.  

After an eighteen year journey with my characters I’ve found the perfect home for them and I hope you’ll enjoy spending some sultry summer days with the Polcarrow crew.

Blurb

All Freya has ever wanted to do is paint. So when she fails her Master’s Degree in Art, on the same day that her boyfriend decides he needs a ‘more serious’ partner, to Freya it feels like the end of the world.

Luckily, she has a saviour in the shape of best friend Lola, who invites her to the sleepy Cornish village of Polcarrow, to work in her café. With nothing keeping her in London, Freya jumps at the chance of a summer by the sea.

Freya needs time to focus on herself. But then dark and mysterious biker Angelo blows into town on a stormy afternoon, with his own artistic dreams and a secretive past, and Freya’s plans of a romance-free summer fly straight out of the window…

Amazon Buying Link: The Cornish Hideaway

Author Bio

As a lifelong lover of stories, Jennifer Bibby spent her teenage years wowing various teachers with her historical epics before finding her feet exploring the everyday lives of modern women through literature. In addition to being a bibliophile she loves classy cocktails, cake and medieval history. She’s happiest by the sea and loves to travel, and firmly believes that dinosaurs improve everything. The Cornish Hideaway is her debut novel and was a contender for the Romantic Novelists Association’s Joan Hessayon award July 2022.

Many thanks to Jennifer for taking part. I’m intrigued by the idea of moving a story from 16th century Italy to a contemporary setting on the Cornish coast. Just goes to show what a creative bunch we writers are!

The Story Behind the Story with Jodie Homer

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I’m delighted to welcome new author Jodie Homer to my blog this week. Jodie’s first novel Raindrops on the Umbrella Cafe was published in April this year. What was the inspiration behind it?

I love going to the beach and one of my favourite beach holidays I still remember was when I was a child in Torquay. I wanted to set my book around a beach village. I would love to live nearer to the beach as well, so the setting was perfect. What inspired me to write the café was I watched ‘Singin in the Rain’ just before I wrote it and I really love the choreography and the idea that an umbrella can be used to find a date. I wanted it to be a new and quirkier way to find someone rather than just meeting normally, and I really love the idea of picking out an absolute stranger’s umbrella and going on a date with them.

I also love the 90’s so I had to include as much singing and karaoke as possible because I love music and love listening to 90’s music and I think with the summer setting at the beach and the pub where most of the karaoke and singing takes place takes me back again to summers spent at the pub just playing whilst they have music on and going to the school disco. It is all nostalgia for me and I wanted readers to feel that nostalgia too.

Author Bio

Jodie lives in a small village in Solihull with her husband and two children. She loves nothing more than dancing around embarrassingly to 90’s music and eating mint chocolate. Jodie enjoys reading and writing books full of romance and swoon-worthy fictional men.

Blurb

On inheriting her uncle’s beloved Umbrella Café, Sarah packs up and leaves the busy city of Birmingham for her childhood seaside village of Cobble-Heath.

Discovering life at the Umbrella Café is not as idyllic as it was when she was a child. Sarah has to contend with getting to grips with managing a café, accepting her two childhood best friends falling in love and a handsome Australian stranger who has come for the summer. Throw in a family secret with an unexpected arrival and Sarah’s life is turned upside down.

Can Sarah keep the cracks in her life sealed up or will she be the next thing to crack up?

Amazon Buying link: Raindrops On The Umbrella Cafe

Many thanks to Jodie for taking part.

The Story Behind The Story with D Wells

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In the first of my new feature, I’m delighted to welcome author D Wells onto my blog to talk about the inspiration behind her latest book, Where Our Paths Meet.

The idea of Where Our Paths Meet started out as a challenge from my husband, a little healthy dose of spousal ‘I dare you!’ We were on holiday in Suffolk, the county where I grew up, and he asked me if I would set my next book there. Well of course, this was just the spark of flame that I needed to sketch down ideas and the opening paragraphs of my latest novel, while sitting around the campsite fire pit and admiring the view.

I managed a few pages but didn’t really understand what exactly I wanted to write. It was only when we returned home that I fleshed out a proper plot and it developed into what is now the first in a proposed series.

That small town feel, a community to fall in love with, an independent bookshop for good measure, a summery feel-good read, perfect to take away on your own holiday. This is what Where Our Paths Meet has become and I look forward to writing the second and third book and seeing how the journey progresses.

Suffolk remains one of my favourite spots in the UK. A county that is rich in history and agriculture, with flat vast landscapes and big blue skies. It has a unique coastline, woodlands, fields and quaint little market towns all waiting to be discovered. My hope is that Where Our Paths Meet not only introduces a selection of human characters, but the character of Suffolk too.

So, I guess a thank you to my husband is in order. I wonder what the next challenge will be.

Author Bio

D. Wells is the author of uplifting and heartwarming novels 6 Caledon Street and The Things We Regret.

Focusing on relatable characters and beautiful locations D. Wells enjoys exploring family dynamics and if she can manage it, slip in a few historical references too. She’d describe her books as hovering between reading group fiction and women’s commercial fiction. Her third novel Where Our Paths Meet was published in June 2022.

D. Wells is married, has several small and exhausting children and lives in East Anglia, as close to the countryside as she can get.

Links:

https://dwellsauthor.weebly.com

https://www.facebook.com/authorD.Wells

https://www.instagram.com/d.wellsauthor

Evelyn Storford has returned home.

Buying a failing independent bookshop, and nursing a broken heart, she relishes the challenge to make her business successful in the sleepy Suffolk town of Taverton. With her bookshop colleagues and widower father a growing presence in her life, she grapples against the memories of her marriage and the lingering feelings towards estranged husband Ishmael.

A story about family and friendship, grief and love, Where Our Paths Meet introduces a collection of characters, all interlinked and facing various crossroads in their lives.

Buying Link: Where Our Paths Meet

Many thanks to D Wells for taking part and sharing the story behind her story.

Behind the Scenes

Posted on | by Rosie Travers | 2 Comments on Behind the Scenes

Over the next few weeks I’m going to be featuring posts from author friends sharing the inspiration behind their books. I’m going to start off the series by talking about The Puzzle of Pine Bay.

Writers’ minds are like sponges, we soak things up subconsciously and then years later out it comes. If you’ve already read The Puzzle of Pine Bay, or at least the blurb, you’ll know that some of the plot revolves around a holiday camp. Way back in the very hot summer of 1976 we had a family holiday in the Isle of Wight, at a holiday camp, and the memories of that holiday, and that camp, have stayed with me ever since.

Searching through my mum’s old photograph albums I came up with a few pics from that holiday, not all of which are fit for public viewing. Here’s my parents posing very happily with a large bottle of navy rum (why?) and another of our wonderful upmarket chalet. Sadly I can’t publish the one pic we have of the camp’s entertainment compere because my sister would never forgive me (but if you saw it, you would know where I found my inspiration for a certain character in the book!)

However, the “puzzle” Eliza sets out to solve takes her back to the mid-1990s as opposed to the 1970s, and I have to assume the entertainment, and the accommodation was a little more sophisticated by then. Today, I think the old Hi-de-Hi image of holiday parks has long gone (or at least I hope it has!)

The sub-plot of Eliza’s house renovation is also based on my own experiences. Eliza has taken on a challenge, and anyone who has moved house as many times as I had will have run into the same old problems of finding tradespeople to carry out necessary repairs. I also know that people do tend to leave items behind when they move out – whether out of sheer laziness, or simple forgetfulness! I’m guilty as charged! But as for Kyle, the boy next door, he’s definitely a total figment of my imagination (or wishful thinking…) I have to admit, though, I am addicted to garden makeover programmes.

When it comes to the missing magician – I wanted to create an enigmatic character who weaved his magic on and off the stage. A talented illusionist or a charlatan? I hope readers will find him in intriguing!

As for the setting – with a coastline like this, who wouldn’t be inspired by the wonderful Isle of Wight? I’m a sucker for the seaside and the island’s economy is embedded in tourism. There’s plenty of material there for several books!

The Puzzle of Pine Bay launched yesterday and is available at the bargain price of 99p for a couple more weeks. https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B09ZV7GL7R Early reviews have been good, and I’m just going to blow my own trumpet here for a bit with some quotes from Goodreads:

“gripping and full of fab characters”

“wonderfully paced and a joy to Read”

“a wonderful book to laze in the sunshine and imagine the beauty of the Isle of Wight.”

Paperbacks of Pine Bay should be out in time in fill up those Christmas stockings!

On Location with Rachel Brimble

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It’s season finale time – and we’re staying in the West Country for our last On Location post of the year. I’m delighted to welcome author Rachel Brimble as my guest to talk about the beautiful city of Bath, the setting for her series of Regency novels.

I was born and bred in the maritime city of Bristol but, in 2001, my husband and I moved to a small market town just a short 30-minute drive from Bath, along with our eldest daughter who was two at the time and our youngest daughter who was happily cooking away in my belly!

Back then, writing was little more than a pipedream that I’d harboured for as long as I can remember but, once we were living so close to Bath it quickly became my one of favourite places to visit and all sorts of story ideas began to float around in my mind.

Not that I did anything about them until a few years to later – I didn’t start writing properly until my youngest started school full-time in 2005. As a voracious reader of historical fiction and romance, as well as an avid watcher of each and every period drama that might grace our TV screens, to be so close to where so many famous scenes have been filmed is a constant thrill.

Bath has been used for BBC adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, not to mention films such as The Duchess starring Kiera Knightley and Vanity Fair starring Reese Witherspoon. Most recently, of course, it was used in season 1 of the fabulously successful Bridgerton.

One of my favourite places to visit is No 1 Royal Crescent which is open to the public for most of the year. Each room, it fantastic staircase, kitchens and small yard have all been retained as they might have looked during mid-late eighteenth century. I especially enjoy visiting when I am in the process of plotting a new series which I plan to set in Bath. This house has been used several times in my different books albeit in different guises!

Other famous Bath landmarks I have used in my books include Pulteney Bridge, Parade Gardens, Victoria Park, Sally Lunn’s Eating House, the Assembly Rooms, the Pump room and many of the pubs dotted around the city, some of which date back to early fourteenth century. The city is an absolute godsend to me and my work!

Every September (if circumstances allow), Bath hosts the Jane Austen festival will draws Janeites (devotees of Jane Austen) from all over the world. The events I have attended over the years have always been fantastic and vary from tours around the city, to balls, to regency markets and palm-reading. It’s two weeks of Jane Austen and Regency fun which culminates in the grand Regency Parade where hundred of people snake through the city side by side. Actors and the public dress up in Regency costume, including military uniforms, day dresses, ball gowns and clerical dress. It’s a wonderful sight to see and a date for next year’s diary for any Jane Austen fans!

So far, all of my historicals have been set in Bath and Pennington’s department store, which is the focus of the Shop Girl series, was inspired by Jolly’s on Bath’s famous Milsom Street… although Pennington’s is probably five times the size!

As for other real-life places which feature in my latest series, The Ladies of Carson Street, there are too many mentioned in their real or fictional guises to list them all, but Carson Street itself was ignited in my imagination by North Parade, a beautiful row of Georgian townhouses opposite Parade Gardens.

Bath is wonderful and I feel blessed to live so very close and be able to visit whenever I want…

Books 1 & 2 in the Ladies of Carson Street trilogy are available now with book 3 due for release in February 2022. Here are the buy links for A Widow’s Vow and Trouble For The Leading Lady.

mybook.to/widowsvow

mybook.to/leadinglady

You can find out more about Rachel and her writing at https://www.rachelbrimble.com

Many thanks to Rachel for taking part. I’ve visited Bath many times and it has to be one of my favourite cities in the UK. It’s a great way to end the series and I hope everyone has enjoyed reading about the locations I’ve featured over the summer. Hopefully you feel inspired to visit some of these amazing places, even if it’s just through the pages of a book!

On Location with Isabella May

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From Sydney to Scotland, I hope everyone is enjoying our series of armchair travel adventures. I’m delighted to welcome author Isabella May as my guest this week, and although Isabella lives in Spain, we’re actually staying quite close to home to explore her favourite location!

When you have spent toddlerhood through to your late twenties living in (arguably) England’s most mystical town – and you’re an author – it’s impossible not to feature said location in your books.

Glastonbury.

It’s a word that’s become rather iconic for mud, wellies, and Kate Moss et al posing for Hello! Magazine whilst glamping it up watching the biggest indie musicians in the world. But there’s so much more to my hometown than June’s annual music festival. In fact, the Glastonbury that most outsiders *think* they know, is actually Pilton; a village almost 7 miles away from the real town!

It’s fair to say that the ley lines and the quirkiness of the true Glastonbury have shaped every aspect of my creativity. Yet, for all its fame, Glastonbury rarely features in mainstream fiction. I may not be published with one of the Top Five, and I may not write formulaic commercial romcoms, but I am passionate about shining a spotlight on my former home, whenever a storyline permits. Glastonbury’s push and pull, its magnetism for lost souls and reinvention, and its hedonistic vibe make it impossible not to.

But there are layers to Glastonbury.

Beneath all of the cloaks, wands, crystals and mandalas, generations of farming folk and townspeople are rooted here to the town’s clay-rich earth. All of which makes for the ultimate story: a community steeped in the tradition of the land mingling with those in search of deeper meaning, fused with the generations of partygoers and the plain old eccentric. Glastonbury is a hotspot for plotting and character development. How can a storyline not take shape here?

My first novel, ‘Oh! What a Pavlova’, looks at Glastonbury from an unconventional point of view; that of a successful professional young woman called Kate, who feels trapped there in the confines of comfort zone life – and an abusive relationship – when she is not traveling the world with her career. All she wants to do is escape the place and the limitations it has unwittingly put on her. It’s been fascinating to contrast that writing experience with my second novel, ‘The Cocktail Bar’, where we see rockstar, River Jackson, pine for his hometown so much that he returns there from his South American music tour (much to the disdain of the cider drinking locals and the hash-loving hippies) to open a cocktail bar!

In other novels in my backlist, I’ve simply made mention of Glastonbury here and there, until I wrote ‘The Cake Fairies’; a timeslip romcom that sees professional bakers, Polly and Annabelle, visiting the town’s local Tor fair, where they meet a fortune teller who transports them from 1969 to 2019… an act which feels totally ‘Normal for Glastonbury’, to quote the name of the town’s infamous blog, penned by the wonderful Vicki Steward.

Side note: Vicki has written a fantastically witty book about the town and I simply have to include a link to it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Normal-Glastonbury-Life-Englands-Magical/dp/B091F8PKVJ/

Moving on to the second of my 2020 novels, ‘The Chocolate Box’, we see an unlikely workplace reunion of former private school pupils from the town’s fancy school; a fate sealed with a Jumanji-style box of chocolates…

And in 2021, Glastonbury has provided me with just as much inspiration as ever! ‘Bubblegum and Blazers’ was published in June, and is a romcom set on a reality TV show (which I may have based in my former secondary school, wink, wink). That book was a delight to write and really helped me escape during the toughest months of the pandemic. Then in September this year, B&B was joined by ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bar’ where we witness the return of River Jackson from ‘The Cocktail Bar’… and this time he’s back to run a retro VW camper van selling decadent hot chocolate and gingerbread biscuits in Glastonbury and the surrounding villages – as you do.

Whilst my current manuscript focuses on Weston-super-Mare and the Algarve (and copious amounts of gourmet custard tarts), and book 10 will be set in sunny Spain, where I currently live, there’s no doubt the carrot dangle of Glastonbury will prove impossible to resist for long…

In the meantime, I’d love to see it represented more accurately in bestselling fiction. As I have hinted above, it’s not just the beauty of the Tor, the Abbey, the Chalice Well, the Holy Thorn, and Gog and Magog that deserve our attention, but the real people of Glastonbury. These everyday characters do more than flit in and out for a weekend of mud, music, and magic mushrooms, they are the town’s beating heart, and they are brimming with stories to share with bookworms far and wide.

You can buy Isabella’s latest release, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bar’ here:

mybook.to/twinkletwinklelittleb

About Isabella

Isabella May lives in (mostly) sunny Andalusia, Spain with her husband, daughter and son, creatively inspired by the mountains and the sea. Having grown up on Glastonbury’s ley lines however, she’s unable to completely shake off her spiritual inner child, and is a Law of Attraction fanatic, as well as a Pranic Healer.

After a degree in Modern Languages and European Studies at UWE, Bristol (and a year working abroad in Bordeaux and Stuttgart), Isabella bagged an extremely jammy and fascinating job in children’s publishing… selling foreign rights for novelty, board, pop-up and non-fiction books all over the world; in every language from Icelandic to Korean, Bahasa Indonesian to Papiamento!

All of which has fuelled her curiosity and love of international food and travel – both feature extensively in her cross-genre novels, fused with a dollop of romcom, and a sprinkle of magical realism.

You can follow her Foodie Romance Journey series at the following hang-outs:

www.isabellamayauthor.com

Twitter – https://www.twitter.com/@IsabellaMayBks

Instagram – @isabella_may_author

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/IsabellaMayAuthor/

Many thanks to Isabella for taking part – aren’t her book covers just mouth-wateringly gorgeous? Me and Mr T spent our brief honeymoon staying in Wookey, just a few miles outside Glastonbury, and we’ve visited the town many times since. It holds a very special place in our hearts too.

On Location with Sandy Barker

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I’m delighted to welcome author Sandy Barker onto my blog this week for another Locations feature. Sandy has used her love of travel to set her books in exotic locations all over the globe, but she’s chosen to tell us about one particular place which is very close to her heart.

I have lived in many cities around the world – LA, London, Seattle, Perth (the Australian one) and now I live in Melbourne, but for natural beauty my favourite city of all those I’ve lived in has to be Sydney.

I moved to Sydney in late 2000, only months after I’d volunteered at the Sydney Olympics. I’d visited before the Olympics, but during those weeks of beautiful Sydney weather and being out and about in the city, which was abuzz with Olympic fever, I fell in love. I returned to Perth, resigned from my job, packed up my belongings and moved east.

I lived there for eight years, always close to the coast, as for me that is one of Sydney’s biggest drawcards. I was a runner back then – running most days along the rugged paths that skirt the coast and hug those sandy white coves. I’d breathe in the briny air, take in the glorious views, including those stunning sea pools, and fall a little more in love with Sydney.

I’ve now set two books in Sydney – obviously part of A Sunset in Sydney takes place there, and it is also the main setting of my 5th book, The Dating Game. Set in the world of reality television, on a competition dating show called The Stag, ‘Stag Manor’ where the Does are housed is a mansion right on the shores of Sydney Harbour. During filming the contestants get to see some of Sydney’s most sights, such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

Even though I lived in Sydney for almost a decade, I never tired of seeing the sails of the Opera House or that iconic bridge – and from the Botanic Gardens and Circular Quay, you can see both together.

As well as the natural beauty of Sydney and surrounds, those structural icons literally take my beath away every time I see them.

Speaking of Sydney’s surrounds … one of the destinations that the cast members visit is the Hunter Valley, a wine region a couple of hours north-west of Sydney. It’s where the bush meets vineyards, and I’ve had several mini-breaks in the Hunter over the years – the wine is delicious.

Hunter Valley – credit Kevin Rheese

The Blue Mountains, just west of Sydney, are also a spectacular place to visit, even though they are not really mountains – more like hills – and they aren’t particularly blue either. But the hiking through the forest is fantastic fun and the Three Sisters, natural monoliths, are definitely a sight to see.

So, with the mix of incredible architecture and natural beauty, Sydney is certainly an inspirational city and the perfect setting for falling in love. I can’t wait to get back.

About Sandy Barker

Sandy is a writer, traveller and hopeful romantic with a lengthy bucket list, and many of her travel adventures have found homes in her novels. She’s also an avid reader, a film buff, a wine lover and a coffee snob.

Sandy lives in Melbourne Australia with her partner, Ben, who she met while travelling in Greece. Their real-life love story inspired Sandy’s debut novel One Summer in Santorini, the first in the Holiday Romance series with One More Chapter, an imprint of HarperCollins.

The series continues in That Night in Paris and A Sunset in Sydney and there are two more to come in 2022. Her standalone novel The Christmas Swap celebrates her favourite time of the year, and next up is The Dating Game, a laugh-out-loud romcom set in the world of Reality TV.

https://www.facebook.com/sandybarkerauthor

https://sandybarker.com/

https://www.instagram.com/sandybarkerauthor/

Tags for social media

Twitter: @sandybarker @0nemorechapter_

Instagram: @sandybarkerauthor @onemorechapterHC

Facebook: @sandybarker – author @One More Chapter Books

The Dating Game Blurb

‘Hilarious and highly original’

Julie Houston, bestselling author of A Village Affair

Once upon a time, twelve women joined the hottest reality TV show looking for love. Except one had a secret identity . . .

Abby Jones is a serious writer. Or at least she will be, one day. Right now, she spends her time writing recaps of reality television under a secret identity.

When a recap for The Stag – the must-watch dating show – goes viral, her editor thinks she should be on set, writing the drama as it happens. The good news: the next season will be filmed in Sydney. Sun, sea and a glamorous trip abroad, this could be Abby’s big break.

The bad news: the producers don’t just want Abby to write the recaps, they want her to be on the show. Abby can’t think of anything worse than being undercover and followed around by cameras. But her career depends on it, and when she meets gorgeous producer Jack, Abby begins to wonder if this job might not be so bad after all . . .

Buy Links:

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/37qqxQe

Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/3Al1hXW

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3ALnM9o

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3horQou

iBooks: https://apple.co/3xrDPra

Nook: https://bit.ly/3rX1VYE

Waterstones: https://bit.ly/3AIvuS0

Foyles: https://bit.ly/3ALnwqW

Many thanks to Sandy for taking part and sharing her wonderful pictures of Sydney. I was lucky enough to visit Sydney in 2018 and reading this post brought back some very happy memories. (Also very lovely to see the Three Sisters in full colour – they were surrounded in mist on our trip to the Blue Mountains!)

On Location with Margaret Amatt

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With its dramatic and diverse landscape, Scotland has always been a popular location when it comes to art and literature. We’re in for another travel treat this week as author Margaret Amatt tells us about the Scottish island which captured her imagination and provided the inspiration for her writing.

My book series, Scottish Island Escapes, is set on the glorious Hebridean Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. This has been one of my favourite holiday destinations over the years and I’ve visited it in every season. Each visit has provided me with happy memories, gorgeous views and lots of inspiration!

It was twenty years ago, in 2001, I first travelled to the island, just for a weekend as I was gate-crashing my sister’s island-hopping trip. The two of us were young and carefree and booked a B&B for the night in a place called Fionnphort. As children we’d spent many a summer on another Scottish island, the Isle of Bute. Now, Bute is a fairly small island. You can drive around the whole thing in less than an hour. Mull is not! Mull is the fourth largest island in Britain and the roads are almost all single-track. It takes a looong time to get around. Neither my sister or I realised this and hadn’t bothered to read a map! It took us over an hour to reach the B&B from the ferry, more than double the time we’d imagined.

The shock of discovering just how big a place it was however vanished in the utterly jaw-dropping scenery. Around every twist on the road (and there are plenty of them!), was another view: a splendid mountain, a sparkling loch, a pretty woodland or the sea. And what a sea. All around Mull and its neighbouring Isle of Iona, the ocean is a glorious turquoise colour, sometimes resembling the Mediterranean more than Britain!

That was my first trip and I only touched on a small part of the island. I made a note to return and explore more. Since then, I’ve been back to the island almost every year and often more than once. I’ve travelled there in all weathers, including a memorable new year spent in the Island’s main town of Tobermory. Mull is a photographers’ paradise. There’s barely a place on the island that isn’t a beauty spot. Some trips, I’ve stopped the car every few seconds to snap pictures from the road of passing scenery I can’t bear to miss!

For many years, I was a closet writer and wrote only for myself. All my early work falls into that category and I wouldn’t want it to be anything else. What it meant however was that when I came to publishing my books, I had already written several works. During 2019 was when the dream started coming together for real. I had a story in my head that had been with me ever since my first trip to Mull. I’d only been a gate-crasher on that trip, and when my sister carried on her tour of the islands, I took public transport back home. That trip alone included a somewhat eventful bus trip, but that’s another story. Since then however, I’d wondered how someone from a totally different place would react to living on an island. I’m Scottish born and bred, so single-track roads and crazy weather don’t faze me too much. But what if someone from London, say, had to go to Mull, and even worse had to use public transport? What if they, like me, hadn’t investigated the size of the place, or didn’t realise buses could only get you so far. The more I visited mull the more potential for stories built in my imagination.

The original book I set on the island used the storyline I mentioned above, but as I wrote it, it evolved in my mind and I realised there was so much more than just one story here. I shook things up and decided to make a series of five books. The series called Scottish Island Escapes was born. There’s a book for every season plus a Christmas one due out this October. The original book became book four, An Autumn Hideaway. The lead character comes to Mull seeking her estranged mother but instead she meets a grumpy and enigmatic local who isn’t impressed with her lack of basic planning skills. As the story evolves, they form an unlikely bond, making it all the more difficult for her to leave when her time on the island is up. Let’s hope she finds her happy ending on the gorgeous Isle of Mull with rainbows around every corner.

I’m planning to continue the series next year and with so much inspiration to draw from, I’ll be spoiled for choice. Because it’s a place so special to me, I’ve written in a lot of real villages, beaches and features, but invented the names of houses, hotels, farms etc. This has made a lot of my readers want to visit Mull themselves! Even my editor thinks I should be on commission from the local tourist board – an interesting idea! If you’re inspired to read the series or are curious to find out more please follow this link:

www.margaretamatt.com/linktree

About Margaret Amatt

Margaret Amatt is a Scottish author based in Highland Perthshire. She lives with her husband and young son in a beautiful glen surrounded by woods, hills and wildlife, and close to the River Tay.

Margaret has four published books and more in the pipeline. She has also won a short story writing competition at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and had her winning piece performed live in the auditorium.

For more information please visit.

www.margaretamatt.com

or sign up for Margaret’s newsletter at:

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Blurb for An Autumn Hideaway

She went looking for someone, but it wasn’t him.

After a string of disappointments for chirpy city girl Autumn Elworthy, discovering her notoriously unstable mother has run off again is the last straw. When Autumn learns her mother’s last known whereabouts was a remote Scottish Island, she makes the rash decision to go searching for her.

Taciturn islander Richard Linden has his reasons for choosing the remote Isle of Mull as home. He’s on a deadline and doesn’t need any complications or company. But everything changes after a chance encounter with Autumn.

Autumn chips away at Richard’s reserve until his carefully constructed walls start to crumble. But Autumn’s just a passing visitor and Richard has no plans to leave. Will they realise, before it’s too late, that what they’ve been searching for isn’t necessarily what’s missing?

Buying link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B095289PRN/

Many thanks to Margaret for taking part and sharing her gorgeous pictures. Margaret definitely should be working for the island tourist board – although I’d just like to point out that Mr T and me still have nightmares about driving around those roads in Mull after our road trip to Scotland last year!

On Location with Fiona Leitch

Posted on | by Rosie Travers | Leave a Comment on On Location with Fiona Leitch

We’re taking another excursion on the theme of literary inspiration this week. Author Fiona Leitch takes us behind the scenes in Paris for a guided tour of her latest novel.

As a reader, I love books with a strong sense of location. If I can imagine the scene – smell the coffee, or the roses blooming, feel the breeze, hear the thrum of traffic or the waves lapping against a white sand beach – then I’m much more likely to invest in the characters and their journey; it feels like I’m there with them. As a writer, my books’ locations mean I can have fun! What better excuse for a holiday than ‘research’?

 My latest book, Falling in Louvre, is set (obviously) in Paris. It’s the setting for many romance novels, of course, but I’ve tried to include a few of the less obvious parts of the city, including places I’ve visited myself.

The Louvre museum plays a major role, as my protagonists Sylvie and Philippe both work there. Its most famous inhabitant is the Mona Lisa, who’s actually far smaller in real life than you’d probably imagine. Less well known is the Carousel du Louvre, the underground shopping mall directly underneath the museum, where Philippe goes to buy something for Sylvie. The mall also offers another entrance into the museum, which is a good way to skip the ever-present massive queue of visitors outside by the famous pyramid. 

One of the places that Sylvie and Philippe end up on their adventures is the Manoir de Paris, a haunted house tourist attraction set in a magnificent former ceramics workshop built in the 1880s. It originally stood cheek-by-jowl with the Saint-Lazare leper colony and prison, so the area has a colourful if rather macabre history – just right for a haunted house…

This in turn leads Sylvie and Philippe to a location that is even more spooky – the Paris catacombs. There is a 1.5km loop of underground tunnels, the last resting place of several thousand Parisians from the 18th century (and earlier), which is open to tourists and is an undeniably fascinating (if rather claustrophobic and eerie) place to visit. But then there’s the REAL catacombs, an estimated 320km network of ossuaries, abandoned quarries, sewers and tunnels that runs the entire length and breadth of the city, including the ‘lake’ (actually a water tank designed by the opera house’s architect in 1862, to contain groundwater rather than try to pump it away) under the Palais Garnier, which influenced the Phantom of the Opera story. It’s been illegal since 1955 to go down there, but it doesn’t stop everyone – there’s a whole gang of ‘cataphiles’, urban explorers who spend their time seeking out hidden tunnels, not to mention the underground dining clubs, illegal raves and others with purposes nefarious or otherwise… I really enjoyed visiting the ‘official’ catacombs, but I would give anything to go to a party down there. What an atmosphere!

A more romantic atmosphere can be found on the famous Pont des Artes bridge, which crosses the Seine near the Louvre, where scores of lovers have shown their devotion by writing their names on padlocks and securing them to the bridge as a symbol of their undying adoration; their names together, for ever more. Or at least until the city council come along and cut them off, which they do every few years. The last time this happened almost 40 tonnes of padlocks were removed!

Sylvie lives in some style in the 6th arrondisement, a very expensive part of the city, while Philippe lives with his mum in a tiny top floor apartment in Montmartre. One of his favourite places nearby (where they have a rendezvous in the rain) is the Sacre Coeur. The cathedral sits above the city on its hilltop, and the view from there is probably the best in Paris – better, even, than the one from the Eiffel Tower, as it actually has the tower in it! Who can blame Philippe for spending sunny afternoons there, reading his book on the grass, before wandering down into the streets below for a coffee?

I adore Paris. It’s a beautiful city, and it definitely puts you in the mood for love. I hope Falling in Louvre will make you fall in love with it too!

Buy link: mybook.to/Louvre (available exclusively on Amazon)

About Fiona Leitch

Fiona Leitch is a writer with a chequered past. She’s written for football and motoring magazines, DJ’ed at illegal raves and was a stalwart of the low budget TV commercial, even appearing as the Australasian face of a cleaning product called ‘Sod Off’. Her romantic cosy mystery series, The Nosey Parker Mysteries, is published by One More Chapter/HarperCollins, while her debut novel, ‘Dead in Venice’, was published by Audible as one of their Crime Grant finalists. After living in London, Hastings and Cornwall she’s finally settled in sunny New Zealand, where she enjoys scaring her cats by trying out dialogue on them. She spends her days dreaming of retiring to a crumbling Venetian palazzo, walking on the volcanic sand beaches of West Auckland, and writing funny, flawed but awesome female characters.

Social Media Links:

https://www.twitter.com/@fkleitch

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@leitchfiona

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fiona.leitch.1

Website: https://www.fionaleitch.com/

Amazon author page:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fiona-Leitch/e/B07HYZLQ57/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

Many thanks to Fiona for taking part. Fiona’s books are great fun and I’m looking forward to reading about Sophie and Phillipe‘s adventures in one of my favourite cities. I have very happy memories of Me and Mr T taking romantic walks along the banks of the Seine…

On Location with Melanie Robertson-King

Posted on | by Rosie Travers | 2 Comments on On Location with Melanie Robertson-King

The miles are stacking up as we travel cross-country on our virtual travels, seeking out those inspirational book locations. This week Canadian author Melanie Robertson-King explains her unique and very personal reason for choosing Scotland as the setting for her debut novel.

I’ve noticed you’ve had some people choose Scotland as their location. Of course, that was my go-to as well, but I’m willing to wager my reason and connection to Scotland hasn’t been featured on your blog.

My father was born in the heart of Aberdeenshire between the towns of Insch (a Royal Borough no less) and Huntly in the parish of Kennethmont. He came to Canada as a British Home Child through the auspices of The Orphan Homes of Scotland after being raised there since his admission in 1917. I first visited both locations in 1993 and stayed at a farmhouse B&B in the Kennethmont area.

It was during this first visit that the seeds were sown, and ideas began to percolate. I changed the names of some of the towns/villages and the stately home to “protect the guilty.” LOL. Seriously, I knew the area well but giving people their privacy was the prudent thing to do. Insch became Duninsch – fitting since Dunnideer, and its hillfort overlooks the town. Kennethmont became Kendonald. Culsalmond became Williamsmuir, although it didn’t come into its own until the second book in the series. The farm’s name where my family lived in my novel and worked (actual name shall remain nameless) became Gordonsfield. And Wardhouse became Weetshill. The reason behind that is my father was born at Weets in Kennethmont parish, and some gazetteers referred to it as Weets, Wardhouse by Insch.

I deemed that other locations were far enough from the heart of the story that they could retain their identities (Huntly, Aberdeen City and Ladysbridge Asylum).

I’m not sure if it was the spooky ruins of Wardhouse mansion that started things, or maybe even the ghostly-looking trees on the road to the Picardy Stone. It was one of the two. There is a stone circle atop the hill at the farmhouse B&B, but I didn’t visit it on that first trip. But I did at least once before I started writing my debut novel and many times since.

I took this photo of Wardhouse mansion from the main road between Insch and Kennethmont in 2013. By this time, work on restoration had begun. At least removing the trees that were growing up inside this roofless hulk. I didn’t find out until years later that we could drive up there and wander around. You’ve got to love the Right to Roam. It wasn’t until September 2015, I got up close and personal with Wardhouse mansion, and I’m thrilled I did.

Isn’t it gorgeous? This photo graces the cover of the second book in the series. Not, only that but my grandfather was a tenant farmer for the Laird of Wardhouse. Pretty cool, eh?

The ghostly trees. Imagine seeing these on a moonlit night, the wind rasping through the leafy canopy. Send a shiver down your spine?

And let’s not forget the stone circle and the views from it. You can see Wardhouse mansion, the Ardmore distillery and of course, the farmhouse, barns and other outbuildings from it.

As a side note, I see faces in these stones. Once you see them, you can’t unsee them. 🙂

 With all this going for it, plus my familial link to the area, is it any wonder I chose Scotland as the setting for my debut novel?

About Melanie Robertson-King

Melanie Robertson-King has always been a fan of the written word. Growing up as an only child, her face was almost always buried in a book from the time she could read. Her father was one of the thousands of Home Children sent to Canada through the auspices of The Orphan Homes of Scotland, and she has been fortunate to be able to visit her father’s homeland many times and even met the Princess Royal (Princess Anne) at the orphanage where he was raised.

Follow Melanie at these links:

Website:  https://melanierobertson-king.com

Celtic Connexions Blog:  https://melanierobertson-king.com/wp02/

Facebook Author Page:  https://www.facebook.com/MelanieRobertsonKingAuthor/

Twitter:  @RobertsoKing

A Shadow in the Past – Blurb

When a contemporary teen is transported back in time to the Victorian era, she becomes A Shadow in the Past…

Nineteen-year-old Sarah Shand finds herself in Victorian Era Aberdeenshire, Scotland and has no idea how she got there. Her last memory is of being at the stone circle on the family farm in the year 2010.

Despite having difficulty coming to terms with her situation, Sarah quickly learns she must keep her true identity a secret. Still, she feels stifled by the Victorians’ confining social practices, including arranged marriages between wealthy and influential families, and confronts them head only to suffer the consequences.

When Sarah realizes she has fallen in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, she faces an agonizing decision. Does she try to find her way back to 2010 or remain in the past with the man she loves?

https://books2read.com/shadowinpast

Many thanks to Melanie for taking part.