Hi, AnneMarie! I am so happy to welcome you back to my blog today - I hope you are well. I am looking forward to finding out more about you and your latest release, Slum Angel Christmas. Let's get started...
What was your first job? Did you like or
dislike it? Why?
My first job was working in my mother’s bookshop when I was about 10 years old. I used to love seeing the children’s books and I’d arrange them on the shelves to my satisfaction, putting my favourites to the front. I spent more time reading than actual working, but I did enjoy talking to customers and helping mum.
2. Do you have a pet peeve? If so, what is it?
I think my main pet peeve in life is people allowing their cats to roam the streets and they go to the toilet in my garden. It drives me crazy. People pick up after their dogs, but cats are allowed to roam wild, killing native birds and making a mess in children’s sandpits and gardens, etc. Keep them inside or walk them on a lead like dogs for their exercise. #sorrynotacatlover
)
Do you spend more time researching or writing?
I think it’s about evenly
split. It also depends on what era I’m writing. If it’s Victorian, I do less
researching because a lot is banked in my memory for years of writing
Victorian, but my 1920s series I had to do a lot of research for that. When I
write WWI, I make sure I research the correct battles and places. I love
researching, so it isn’t a chore for me to do it.
)
Tell me about your book, The Slum Angel
Christmas, and where you got your inspiration for it?
The Slum Angel Christmas is a sequel to The Slum Angel. This sequel is a Christmas novella. I wrote it because I lot of readers asked for a sequel for Victorian and Joseph. So, I decided to write a Christmas themed story ten years on from where the first book finished. It was great fun revisiting those characters again and seeing what had happened since the first book, and also meeting new characters is always a thrill.
5)
How much of your book is realistic?
Sadly, the slums of York in
the Victorian era were very real. When writing The Slum Angel, I read a lot of
primary sources on the state of York’s slums and the people who lived in such
terrible conditions. High death rates, poverty, disease, abuse and neglect were
rife. But there was a sense of community, a strength of will to survive in
those people despite the awful conditions they lived in.
)
What are your ambitions for your writing
career?
To keep writing for as long
as I can. I’m living my dream of writing full time and I absolutely love what I
do. I wouldn’t change it for the world. Though a movie deal might be nice, too!
LOL
)
Who is your role model? Why?
I don’t really have one, but
if I was to say role models, it would be those brave men and women who go to
war, especially those who fought in WWI, a war which changed the world and a
war which changed the perception of what women were capable of. I would also
say the women suffragettes who fought for women’s rights.
)
Share one fact about yourself that would
surprise people.
According to my husband, I
am a terrible singer (that doesn’t stop me though from belting out an 80s
ballad) but when I was at school, I actually did sing in a choir at Sydney’s
Opera House! Funnily enough, my daughter did the exact same thing years later with
her school choir.
The Slum Angel Christmas Novella
A novella accompaniment to the Amazon UK bestselling novel, The Slum Angel.
York, England 1881.
Ten
years ago, Victoria Ashton, along with her husband Dr Joseph Ashton, built the
Ashton Home for Women and Children. Destitute women seeking refuge from
poverty, abuse, neglect and abandonment still arrive at the gates, searching
for relief. They come bringing their sick and malnourished children. They come
to hide from a harsh world, and lick their wounds and with Victoria, and her
helpers’ support, the women can begin again.
Georgiana Carter, penniless and recently widowed, is desperate for a
place to stay, a roof over her children’s heads, and a warm meal. Her youthful
plans to run away with a boatman ended in disaster. Will her wealthy father
ever take her back into his heart?
Ruthie Benson must escape. In trouble and constantly suffering from the
onslaught of her brother’s fists, she needs help before her secret becomes
known. Where can she run to?
These are some of the vulnerable women Victoria cares for and gives
sanctuary to as she works in the slums of York. However, sometimes the price
can be too high. Is she forgetting her own family’s needs?
Will
Victoria save Georgiana and Ruthie, or has her help come too late as the
Christmas bells ring out over the city?
Amazon: mybook.to/slumangelchristmas
Author Bio
Living in England during the 1980s and more recently, AnneMarie
developed a love of history from visiting grand old English houses and
this grew into a fascination with what may have happened behind their walls
over their long existence. Her enjoyment of visiting old country estates and
castles when travelling and, her interest in genealogy and researching her
family tree, has been put to good use, providing backgrounds and names for her
historical novels which are mainly set in Yorkshire or Australia between
Victorian times and WWII.
A long and winding road to publication led to her first novel being
published in 2006. She has now published over twenty-seven historical family
saga novels, becoming an Amazon best seller and with her novel, The Slum Angel,
winning a gold medal at the Reader's Favourite International Awards. Two of her
books have been nominated for the Romance Writer’s Australia Ruby Award and the
In’dtale Magazine Rone award.
AnneMarie now lives in the Southern Highlands of N.S.W.
Find Me Here – AnneMarie Brear
https://www.facebook.com/annemariebrear/
https://www.twitter.com/annemariebrear
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Annemarie-Brear/e/B00705A120
https://www.instagram.com/annemariebrear
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/annemarie-brear
No comments
Post a Comment