Welcome fellow RNA member, Sharon Ibbotson....

 Hi Sharon! It's great to welcome you to my blog for the very first time - I'm looking forward to learning more about you and your latest release with Choc Lit, THE MARKED LORD. Let's kick things off with my questions...

What is your favourite thing about yourself?

I’m a classic introvert with low self-confidence, and so, it would be easy for me to say I don’t have a favourite thing about myself! But, I’m always proud of my risk-taking. I have a fear of flying but will still get on an airplane to travel. I hate large crowds but will still march in demos. I always feel ill on rollercoasters but will still try them once. And I apply that risk-taking to my writing. Everyone told me not to write a Regency romance, in fact, one well-known publisher told me flat-out they would never buy a Regency from me, but that if I would write them a novel set during the British Raj, they’d be happy to take it. But I wanted to write a Regency, and I took a risk that someone else might want to read it too. So yes, I’m proud of my risk-taking.

Although is it too late to add that I also really do love my hair?

What do you wish you’d known before you started writing?

Oh, this is easy. I wish someone had told me that writing wasn’t easy. When I was thirteen and fourteen my friends and I would pretty much inhale ‘Sweet Valley High’ and ‘Sweet Dreams’ romance novels straight from the printing press. And I would read them and think, ‘wow, these books must be so simple to write!’

But actually, getting a solid plotline, believable romance, well-defined characters and doing so all within a 50,000 word limit… wow. I take my hat off to great writers like Janet Quin-Harkin, Marian Woodruff and Barbara Conklin. It’s been over twenty years since I first read their work and I’m still wishing I could write romance half so well as they do.

Share a romantic moment in your life.

I should mention my husband here, but I won’t, because we have our HEA and its often the stories without a HEA that are the most interesting. So, instead, I’ll tell you about a boy I met when I was seventeen. It was the beginning of summer, and I went to a University open day. It was for an odd, mostly unpopular course, and I was one of only two people there interviewing for it. He, of course, was the other. We ended up spending the day together, looking around the campus and having lunch together, before going to different colleges for the evening meal and overnight stay. But we both ditched our respective schedules set by the university to meet up again later that night. We ended up in this cosy little pub under a castle telling each other stories and listing our respective fears and desires until well after one in the morning, and he gave me a kiss- my first kiss- by the river before we said goodbye. We talked about staying in touch but we both knew that evening wasn’t the start of a great romance for either of us… it was simply two young people, sharing a romantic moment, before disappearing off into adulthood. It was perfect as it was, and completely untainted by angst or drama. Sometimes I still think of him, and hope he is as happy as I am.

Is there one subject you’d never write about as an author? What is it?

You know, I’m fairly open to writing anything. I’ve always found writing to be an outlet for emotion and processing life experience, and there hasn’t been any particular subject yet I’ve found too painful to write. Even losing a baby, which I have, I’ve still managed to put down on paper, and I’m more at peace with that for having done so. But there is a sub-genre I won’t touch, and that is the ‘soulmarked soulmates’ trope. It’s a terribly romantic concept, the idea that one touch between two destined people results in a mark that binds them for life… but I don’t find it a particularly interesting one. For one thing, having a soul mark negates any choice the couple make. What I love about romance is that a HEA isn’t always necessarily on the cards. I like to see the couple get put through their paces, I like to see the resolution to their conflict. I like to see them make each other their choice. But if that choice is taken from them?... Well, it’s just not for me.

Do you have any suggestions to help someone become a better writer? If so, what are they?

Read.

Read, read, read and then read some more. I always find the best writers are also voracious readers. And read whatever takes your interest… because reading a Booker prize winner won’t make you a better writer than reading a mass-market paperback if the story doesn’t capture your imagination. My favourite books, the ones which- should my house ever burst into flames- I would rescue before anything else (obviously this doesn’t include my husband, babies or fur-babies!) are generally old romance novels that weren’t bestsellers, weren’t award winners and weren’t remembered as time went by. But I love them still. And I read them all, once a year, and study their styles and word use. 

A writer who doesn’t read is like a chef who doesn’t eat.

If you could be the original author for any book, what would it be? Why?

This is such a hard question for me, because my list of well-loved books is unspeakably long (almost as long as my TBR pile!). But ultimately, the Emily series by L.M Montgomery takes the crown. I know Montgomery is best known for Anne of Green Gables, and I love that story too… but Emily (insert wistful sigh here)… Emily is perfection. Emily Starr goes on a journey from awkward orphan to awkward writer, in a story set over a period of around fourteen years. During that time she learns hard lessons from friends and family, unearthing family secrets and learning just who she is and who she wants to be. And of course, she has two romances… one with an older man who covets her youth and vibrancy, and one with the quiet boy who simply wants her heart. I won’t spoil the ending, but I have thoughts on it, and if anyone wants to talk Emily with me please get in touch!

What did you do growing up that got you into trouble?

I have three sisters, and honestly, if I started telling you all the things we did that greyed my parents hair (or in my Dad’s case, made him lose every strand entirely) we could be here all night! I could mention the monopoly issue that has put me on a permanent ban from that game (I am ruthlessly competitive), or I could talk about the time I dyed my hands green. I could mention decapitating my older sister’s barbie in revenge for her lopping the hair off of one of mine, or I could talk about the day I bit my younger sister in the pool hard enough to leave a mark (to be fair, she was trying to drown me at the time). But you know what? The things I got caught for are funny, but it’s the things I didn’t get caught for which are the really interesting bits.

If I came to your house for dinner what would you prepare for me? Why?

To be honest, it all depends on how much I like you. You see, when my friends come over for dinner, I tend to be myself. I’ll cobble together old favourites, or complete experiments that may or may not go well. One friend who came to dinner recently got served a vegan green curry made with tofu and rice noodles, and bless her, she ate about half before pushing it away. Another time a friend came over and I made her egg and vegetables served in a vegetarian aspic (as bad as it sounds), and another friend was once served something she still refers to (with muted horror) as ‘the pink’ (it was meant to be a marshmallow pie. It did not go well.)

But if I don’t know you well, or am just starting to know you, I’ll probably be less relaxed and more strident in my cooking.

So, if ever you come to my house and I serve you high cuisine… I probably don’t know you that well. But come to my house and I offer you vegan jelly and or cinnamon soup? You’re probably my best friend.           

Like forbidden fruit, forbidden love is more sweet…

It’s 1803 and widowed aristocrat Sophy De Browarec must flee France after being exposed as an undercover British agent. Fearing for her life, she returns to Cornwall to seek help from the only living link to her past, Fitzwilliam ‘Fitz’ Ravensbourne.
Lord Ravensbourne has suffered his own share of misfortune and it’s left its mark in more ways than one. He has become a near recluse at the Ravensbourne Estate, but still reluctantly accepts Sophy into his home.

Sophy and Fitz’s relationship is strained and her return could bring danger to Ravensbourne – but there is something that prevents Fitz from casting her out, something almost forbidden ...

BUY: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marked-Lord-Choc-Lit-unputdownable-ebook/dp/B07K6TGKB1/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1550829876&sr=8-1&keywords=the+marked+lord

BIO:

By day, Sharon mothers two smalls, watching more Peppa Pig than can possibly be healthy and consuming vast quantities of coffee. By night she writes historical romance novels, complete with ripped bodices and perfect saddle muscles, while drinking wine. Her first novel, ‘The Marked Lord’ is published by Choc Lit. She lives in London with her husband, children and two cats.