Hello
everyone. Many thanks to the lovely Rachel for inviting me to take part in Saga
Saturday. If I’m honest, I’m feeling a bit of a fraud. I write historical
fiction – timeslips and dual narrative and don’t really consider them sagas.
However, I read Terri Nixon’s post with interest and realised my historical
novels owe a huge debt to the saga genre. There is struggle in my books but
also an awful lot of humour and warmth. I always write about tight communities
and with a strong sense of place.
In fact, while writing this, a clear memory
flashed back – one of galloping through Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Woman of
Substance series. How I loved those books and the ensuing television
adaptation! The appeal is reading about a resourceful woman fighting against
the odds and I try to write similar women into my books.
To confuse
you even more, I’m a bit two-faced when it comes to my writing career but only
in the nicest possible way; I also write romcoms. I love writing about small
towns or villages, where everyone knows one other and where the sense of
community is strong. Millie the main character in my most popular book, Millie
Vanilla’s Cupcake Café, is fighting to keep her seaside café going in the
face of a multi-national chain opening. Her friends in the little seaside town
of Berecombe in East Devon rally round to help. I adore writing eccentric
characters and Biddy, my naughty pensioner, is a regular. She says and does
things I’d never dare!
I’ve
returned to the East Devon/West Dorset coast for my most recent historical romance,
On a Falling Tide. It’s the story of Charity, a woman in pieces after
the death of the grandfather who brought her up. She is fighting too but
against problems of an emotional kind. If you like historical romance and
timeslips with a hint of spookiness, it might just be for you. It brings
together lots of my favourite things: the Jurassic Coast, fossils, a tragic
love story and a man who’s good with his hands. Matt is my favourite hero so
far!
Here’s the
blurb:
Two women. Connected by heartbreak, separated in time. Can Charity save
the man she loves, or will Lydia’s vengeful spirit prove too strong?
Two haunting love stories and a hundred and fifty-year-old curse …
When the beloved grandfather who brought her up dies, Charity is left
struggling to cope. Alone and rootless, she’s drawn to the sleepy fishing
village of Beaumouth near Lyme Regis and begins to research her family tree. A
chance encounter with attractive boat-builder Matt sparks a chain of mysterious
and unsettling events and leads Charity to uncover the story of a young girl
who lived in the village over a hundred years before.
In 1863 all Lydia Pavey wants to do is follow in Mary Anning’s footsteps
and become a ‘fossilist.’ Instead, she is being forced into marriage to a man
she barely knows.
Charity’s obsession with Lydia becomes all-consuming and she risks losing
everything. With a longed-for family tantalisingly in reach, will Charity find
the happy ever after she’s yearned for and, most importantly, can she save the
man she loves?
About me:
I write short
stories for women’s magazines, novellas, epic historical romances – and some
really bad poetry! I love writing romcoms but my passion is for historical
romance with a contemporary twist – to read and to write. I’ve written for Harper Collins since 2013. They have
published Millie Vanilla’s Cupcake Café, The Little Book Café and
While I Was Waiting - a
WW1 historical romance. I have a nasty habit of moving house. It’s disrupting
to a writing career but being the outsider can be a rich vein for inspiration.
I love local history, myth and folklore and these often find their way into my
writing. I have now settled in Devon with my two beloved dogs, a husband (also
beloved) and a ghost called Zoe. For someone born in the midlands, living by
the sea is bliss.
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