Tag: blogtour

Blog Tour/Q&A: Summer on the Italian Lakes by Lucy Coleman

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I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Summer on the Italian Lakes by Lucy Coleman, published by Aria on 5th February 2019.  Described as ‘a sun-drenched, heart-warming story from the bestselling author of Snowflakes Over Holly Cove’ , it sounds like the perfect way to escape the winter blues.

You can read my fabulous Q&A with Lucy below in which she talks about her character-led approach to writing, what puts a smile on her face at the end of the day and the inspiration for the book she’s working on next.

Check out the tour poster at the bottom of this post to see the other fabulous book bloggers taking part in the tour.  Look out for their reviews, book extracts and guest posts.

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book coverAbout the Book

Bestselling Brianna Middleton has won the hearts of millions of readers with her sweeping – and steamy – love stories. But the girl behind the typewriter is struggling… Not only does she have writer’s block, but she’s a world-famous romance author with zero romance in her own life.

So the opportunity to spend the summer teaching at a writer’s retreat in an idyllic villa on the shores of Lake Garda – owned by superstar author Arran Jamieson – could this be just the thing to fire up Brie’s writing – and romantic – mojo?

Brie’s sun-drenched Italian summer could be the beginning of this writer’s very own happy-ever-after..

Format: ebook (304 pp.)    Publisher: Aria
Published: 5th February 2019       Genre: Women’s Fiction, Romance

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Summer on the Italian Lakes on Goodreads

Interview with Lucy Coleman, author of Summer on the Italian Lakes

Welcome to What Cathy Read Next, Lucy. Without giving too much away, can you tell us a bit about Summer on the Italian Lakes?

Thank you, Cathy – it’s wonderful to be here! Brie Middleton is a character who simply popped into my head one day and suddenly I found myself putting away my planned work in progress to write her story. She is a truly hopeless romantic at heart, but found she had a talent for writing hot and sexy stories with strong heroines.  As a best-selling author that’s what her fans expect from her, but when people meet her in person, they are very surprised. She’s a very introverted, sensitive person and after a brief involvement with an infamous rock star, she’s feeling crushed. Not only was she trolled by his fans for not being slim – or glamorous – enough, it sent her into recluse mode. What was she thinking? He wasn’t even her type but suddenly she felt the need for a little sparkle in her life. Well, that didn’t work.

Instigated by her agent, she finds herself flying off to Lake Garda to assist author, and academic, Aran Jamieson to run four, week-long writing retreats at Villa Monteverdi. In between she intends to pen that romantic, feel-good story that is welling up inside of her and which, she hopes, will restore her faith in the pursuit of true love.

But while the words grow on the page, what she feels for Aran is something straight out of one of her hot and sexy stories. And that’s not something for which she was prepared. Or the fact that she gets pulled in to inject a little romance into his latest writing project.

Your previous books have all been set in different locations: the Gower Coast in Wales (Snowflakes over Holly Cove), the Loire Valley in France (The French Adventure) and now, with Summer on the Italian Lakes, Italy. How important is location to your stories?

The story itself usually dictates the location. Rarely is it the other way around – except for (ironically) my current work in progress! But then, I’m rather fixated on that particular location…

Summer on the Italian Lakes takes place in a writing retreat in an idyllic villa on the shores of Lake Garda. Is this based on personal experience or a case of wishful thinking?

I’ve been lucky enough to have visited Italy, and Lake Garda in particular, numerous times over the years, but Villa Monteverdi is purely fictional. It is, I will admit, a composite of several villas in which I’ve stayed. However, because it’s at the heart of the story line it had to be a little unusual; a place that would be worth risking everything to hold onto. Italy is such a wonderful country and once visited, it stays in your heart, it truly does.

The main character in Summer on the Italian Lakes, Brie Middleton, writes ‘steamy’ love stories. Might you be tempted to follow her example?

The short answer is no. I don’t avoid writing about sex, and it certainly plays a part in this novel, but the ideas that drive my story lines focus on relationships and the pursuit of true love. That’s just the way my mind works.

As well as having a distinct lack of romance in her life, poor Brie is also suffering from ‘writer’s block’. Is ‘writer’s block’ something you’ve experienced and, if so, what are your techniques for overcoming it?

Another short answer – no. In fact it’s the very reverse. I have more ideas for stories than I have the time to write. And, as with this particular one, when Brie popped into my head I was forced to down tools because she was insistent I write her story first! I’m not a planner. I start with one character and usually a working title. I often feel I don’t write the stories at all, the characters do. That helps, as there’s never time to over-think something, or plan ahead –it just happens when I sit down at the keyboard.

Before becoming a published author, you were an interior designer. Does your interest in interior design manifest itself in your writing?

All my passions in life tend to influence my writing whether I want that to happen, or not. I guess the saying ‘write what you know’ is true because unwittingly that’s what happens. I believe the aesthetics of one’s surroundings is crucial to a feeling of general well-being. I like order, cleanliness, tidiness and a sense of tranquility. Given my background I do spend a lot of time designing the interior of the homes my husband and I have had over the years. Having moved a year ago, we are still in the process of finishing off a total make-over. However, it’s been a busy year for me and while my other half does the building side of things, I’m the decorator and I’ve had trouble keeping up! But it’s something I love doing when I’m not writing and I will be making time to get things sorted very soon.

What’s your favourite and least favourite part of the writing process?

Simply putting my fingers on the keyboard and living in the world my characters create. It’s bliss because I write happy books, even if they tackle real-life issues. But it’s about optimism and not giving up on your dream. I always end the day with a smile on my face. Least favourite? Having to stop. In perfect world I would go to bed with my iPad and not reappear until I’d written ‘The End’. I did do that once – it took a month and to be honest I did very little else. Shower, eat, sleep (minimal) and write. But I have a husband and a family I love dearly and it was a one-off. But for continuity purposes it was bliss and I felt I was living the story, so I was in a happy place!

The author Diane Setterfield has said she is ‘a reader first, a writer second’. Is that a view you share?

I was an avid, obsessed reader for many years and it began from about the age of eight. I was always a scribbler but finding my soul mate at the age of eighteen and having a mortgage, then two children within a couple of years meant having two very diverse careers first. Writing was my dream for the time when life wasn’t so hectic and I could indulge myself – and give up the day job! Having waited (with growing impatience) for the opportunity to present itself, it’s tough to choose reading over writing now, I will freely admit. With so many ideas coming at me, I tend to slot in reading as a break before I begin a new story. Writing has become my reading – which sounds weird but it’s the truth.

Which authors do you admire and enjoy reading?

I have my old favourites (mostly classics) – books I read and re-read, although less and less these days given my workload. I’m a bit like that with films. I’ve watched Love Actually well in excess of fifty times, hazarding a guess. I also have a lot of contemporary author friends and I’m a sucker for a feel-good book. Last year I read novels by Darcie Boleyn, Faith Hogan, Christie Barlow, Jill Steeples, Debbie Johnson, Samantha Tonge… to name a few.

What are you working on next?

Well, this is the one story where the location came first. I fell in love with the Palace of Versailles many years ago through reading about the French Court and Louis XIV. So, while what I’m writing is a contemporary romance set in modern day, the location is in and around Versailles itself.  I know the gardens well after numerous visits but last June was the first time my husband and I had braved the massive queues to tour the inside of the palace itself. Well, we were in heaven! Walking around the rooms the turbulent emotions of the past are almost tangible and it was a little overwhelming. But we will be visiting again. And very soon.

Thank you so much, Cathy, for some very interesting questions…it’s been great fun!

lucy colemanAbout the Author

Lucy lives in the Forest of Dean in the UK with her lovely husband and Bengal cat, Ziggy. Her novels have been short-listed in the UK’s Festival of Romance and the eFestival of Words Book Awards. Lucy won the 2013 UK Festival of Romance: Innovation in Romantic Fiction award.

Connect with Lucy

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Blog Tour/Guest Post: Coming Home to Holly Close Farm by Julie Houston

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I’m delighted to be co-hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Coming Home to Holly Close Farm by Julie Houston, alongside my tour buddy, Rachel at Rachel Bustin. Coming Home to Holly Close Farm was published by Aria on 5th February 2019 and is described as ‘addictive, heart-warming and laugh-out-loud funny’ and perfect for fans of Katie Fforde and Jill Mansell.

If you’ve ever wondered about how authors go about creating characters, then Julie’s guest post entitled ‘Creating, moulding and watching your characters grow’ will tell you everything you need to know.

Check out the tour poster at the bottom of this post to see the other fabulous book bloggers taking part in the tour who will be posting reviews and extracts from Coming Home to Holly Close Farm as well as interviews with Julie and other guest posts.

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coming home to holly close farmAbout the Book

Charlie Maddison loves being an architect in London, but when she finds out her boyfriend, Dominic is actually married, she runs back to the beautiful countryside of Westenbury and her parents. Charlie’s sister Daisy, a landscape gardener, is also back home in desperate need of company and some fun.

Their great-grandmother, Madge – now in her early nineties – reveals she has a house, Holly Close Farm, mysteriously abandoned over sixty years ago, and persuades the girls to project manage its renovation.

As work gets underway, the sisters start uncovering their family’s history, and the dark secrets that are hidden at the Farm. A heart-breaking tale of wartime romance, jealousy and betrayal slowly emerges, but with a moral at its end: true love can withstand any obstacle, and, before long, Charlie dares to believe in love again too…

Format: ebook (pp.)    Publisher: Aria
Published: 5th February 2019 Genre: Women’s Fiction, Romance

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Coming Home to Holly Close Farm on Goodreads

Guest Post: ‘Creating, moulding and watching your characters grow’

For me, one of the best things about being a writer has to be that I have free reign to create characters completely at will. I would probably argue that all my novels are very much character-driven and the great thing is, I can name these people how I want – within reason, of course: how many times, as a teacher, have I persuaded ten-year-olds not to call their Tudor kitchen-maids Kylie, Chelsea or Tracy? – and have my characters say and do things I probably wouldn’t say or do myself. It really is quite liberating.

I always become very attached to my characters and find it quite hard to let them go. I remember, as a little girl, reading all the Enid Blyton stuff and being delighted when the boy in her Circus stories made a cameo appearance in one of the Naughtiest Girl at School books. There’s something comforting about the reappearance of a character we know and love: Jilly Cooper certainly recognised this when she regularly brought Rupert Campbell-Black back into her fabulous Rutshire Chronical novels. Similarly, Harriet, Grace and Mandy, the main characters in Goodness, Grace and Me and The One Saving Grace have managed to make cameo roles in all my subsequent books. It would appear I have no control over them whatsoever!

While I think, in the main, a writer has to really like her characters, that might not be the case right from the start of the story. We might create someone who isn’t really our favourite, someone we wouldn’t particularly want to spend time with and with whom we may not totally empathise at the beginning. But a good writer should enable a flawed character to grow and develop so that not only does the reader come round to liking her, but is actively gunning for her by the final chapters. In An Off-Piste Christmas I created Vienna who really was quite wonderfully dreadful, but I had great fun with her dialogue and I actually grew quite fond of her by the end of the story.

It was very different with Charlie Madison in Coming Home to Holly Close Farm. I liked her from the start, but she did need to grow and develop and learn something, and by the final chapters I found I really loved her.  Although it’s been pointed out to me that Charlie can’t have been very nice, that she was living with a married man and she should have known better, in Charlie’s defence, I will repeat, she had no idea he was married. She’d been taken in, duped, totally made a fool of. The way that she coped with this bombshell and in having to trail back home North to her parents was by putting barriers up, being a crosspatch and appearing arrogant and full of herself.  Even Daisy, her sister, takes her to task when Charlie comes over as arrogant and condescending.

‘What is your problem?’ Daisy was cross. ‘Those two are lovely, and you came over as an arrogant, supercilious know-it-all. You’ve been offered this wonderful opportunity to develop the most heavenly house I’ve ever seen,’ Daisy stomped towards reception and I had to hurry to keep up, ‘and yet you were bad tempered, miserable, inflated with your own importance.’

‘Anything else?’ I snapped back. ‘Anything else you’d like to add?’

‘Oh, how about condescending, distant, patronizing…?’

We see Charlie beginning to grow and develop as a character.

‘I was feeling guilty. Recognised what a total pillock I’d been. As we walked in stony silence along the corridor towards Granny Madge’s room, I tried to work out why I’d been so awful.

‘I was jealous,’ I muttered to Daisy’s back.

‘Sorry?’

‘I was jealous. I’m sorry.’

By the end of the novel, particularly having learned much about real love, real unselfish love, from her great-grandmother, Madge, Charlie has, I do hope, really grown and developed as a character. As such, I’m not sure we can, or should be, asking a great deal more from the characters we create.

And, I shall, one day I’m sure, give her the biggest compliment of all: resurrecting her character by giving her a place and a part in a future novel!      © Julie Houston, 2019

julie houstonAbout the Author

Julie Houston is the author of The One Saving Grace, Goodness, Grace and Me and Looking for Lucy, a Kindle top 100 general bestseller and a Kindle #1 bestseller.

She is married, with two teenage children and a mad cockerpoo and, like her heroine, lives in a West Yorkshire village. She is also a teacher and a magistrate.

Connect with Julie

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