Cast YOUR vote for the Festival of Romance FILM & TV Awards!

 

 

 

Your Vote Counts!

 

Cast YOUR vote for the Festival of Romance FILM & TV Awards!

 

The Festival of Romance will be presenting awards this year to the BEST ROMANTIC FILM of the year and the BEST ROMANTIC TELEVISION PROGRAMME of the year. Please CAST YOUR VOTE now and help decide the winners on the big and small screen – and you could WIN a pair of tickets to mix with the stars of romance at the gala Festival of Romance Awards on 16th November 2012.

 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8M6DMC5

The Next BIG thing!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Last week I was tagged by talented author and promo queen, Mandy Baggot, to take part in THE NEXT BIG THING! I wasn’t quite sure I was ready to reveal my big thing, but I’m going to give it a go. The idea is to answer ten questions about my Work In Progress and then tag other writers to bare all. So, without further ado, and sparing no blushes… ta-dah …here I go!

• What is the working title of your next book?

I have two WIPs (you knew I’d be awkward, didn’t you?).  Sooo, which one?  Um, Learning to Love, I think. It is very much a working title, but reflects the theme of the story, which centres around love and trust issues.

• Where did the idea come from for the book?

Now there’s a question.  My ideas tend to grow from feelings evoked by life events.  My main female lead is a mother of two teenagers and a toddler.  She also has her slightly dotty mother living with her and finds herself doing battle with her partner when she wants to change her career.  Her partner seems dead-set against it, reminding her how many balls she’s already juggling.  We learn, though, that he has other reasons, secrets he’s not sharing with her and which have devastating consequences.

My male protagonist, a doctor, has recently moved into the village – where no one knows him, ergo there’s no fuel for neighbourhood gossip – to start afresh with is eight year old son, if only he can get to a place where his son wants to speak to him. His son is grieving the loss of his mother and Dr Gorgeous (yes, he is) doesn’t know how to reach him, or help him.  Where does he start when he’s been an absentee father – and his son blames him for the death of his mother?

The village drums soon start beating, fuel aplenty when it turns out someone does know him – the woman carrying his baby.

• What genre does your book fall under?

Now, I know it doesn’t sound like it is, but the story is most definitely a romantic comedy.  I simply can’t write without looking at life’s little mishaps, along with the quirky side of people’s characters, and bringing humour into play.

• What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Ben Affleck.  Can’t help myself.  Dr Gorgeous is typically tall, dark and handsome, moody and broody.  I’m desperate to see Ben Affleck in Terrence Malick’s film, To the Wonder, despite conflicting reviews. Or Ewan McGregor, he plays moody and broody beautifully. I’m torn.  Actually, I’d be hard pushed to turn either of them down.

Female lead? Ooh, decisions. My all time fave female leads are Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts. I think either would be a match for our ‘hero’.

• What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

Separation, arson, attempted murder; bereavement – can two broken hearts overcome such trauma and learn how to love again?

• Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Published – by Safkhet Publishing, if they love it enough. Pleeeease love it!

• How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I’m currently writing it, so that’s a difficult one.  A first draft can take about six months, depending on other commitments: work, life, family…  I may run away from home!  I do usually rewrite (sometimes twice) and then there are edits, so I reckon about a year to write a book to the point where I feel it’s as good as it can be.

• What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I’m not sure I can compare the story with other books I’ve read. As mentioned, family dynamics play a big part in my writing, however, and I was originally inspired by Marika Cobbold, who often has family issues running through her wonderful stories.  I love Katie Fforde’s style of writing, too, and suspect I hold her in mind when writing. I’ve recently read Julie Cohen’s, Getting Away With It, a fabulous story that centres around family and sibling issues. I’ve also read D I Ingram’s, Angel Girls, which looks at family issues (fabulously realistically) and my current read is The Cornish House by Liz Fenwick, which is totally my sort of read, and, again, looks at the sometimes thorny issues surrounding family. 

• Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I think I’ve part-answered that above.  In truth, though, women everywhere inspire me to write, the problems and issues we juggle on a daily basis. People in general and the events life might throw at us, which we’re often ill-quipped to deal with.

• What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Dr Gorgeous (Daniel Adams). He starts out as seemingly aloof and arrogant, a surly, self-centred Casanova sort.  But would such a man risk his life to save a family in peril and then offer them refuge under his roof?  Would such a man hug his eight-year old son to his chest and cry with him, hot tears of anguish?

 

The writers I am tagging are:-


Nell Dixon http://nelldixonrw.blogspot.co.uk/

Anneli Purchase http://wordsfromanneli.wordpress.com/

Debra E Ingram http://wordswithyou.wordpress.com/

Sophie E Tallis http://sophieetallis.wordpress.com

I can’t wait to read about their latest WIPs!

Sheryl J xx

 

Guest Post ~ Carol Hedges ~ Write about what you know...

It's the advice given to all writers, and it's probably the reason I write about strong women, and not giant spiders on Mars. It's also why, at the beginning of Jigsaw Pieces, my first ebook just published on Amazon Kindle, there is a sentence that says: "Not all the events and characters are fictitious".

Some people have asked me about this, because it isn't the usual thing you read. So, after first thanking lovely Sheryl for her generosity in hosting me on her blog, I'd like to share a couple of events that prompted me to write the story.

        

I was on my first teaching practice. I'd decided to retrain as an English teacher so that I could fund my daughter through uni. One Monday, I arrived in the staffroom to discover a strange silence. Nobody was speaking, or making eye contact. Curious, I asked my mentor what was going on, to be told that over the weekend, a student had committed suicide. Nobody knew why.

      
I remember quite clearly how it felt as the news ripped round the school. And something inside me said: one day, you have to write about this; it is important. Thus "Grant Penney's" death became the central plot line for the book. As you read the initial chapters, you are seeing and hearing exactly what I experienced that day.
         
But I didn't want Jigsaw Pieces to be a totally tragic story. And so I gave the narrative to Annie Skaerstad, a feisty 19 year old Norwegian student - a cross between Sarah Lund and Lisbeth Salander. She is based on a couple of girls I taught in my first teaching job. Streetwise, sassy and full of attitude, they gave me, and everyone else a hard time!
         
They had a big thing about 'respect' - something they felt teachers never gave them, which was why they did not give it back. I struggled to connect with them, was sure I'd failed. But then, unexpectedly, at the end of the last lesson before study leave, they dropped a card on my desk as they left. Inside was a single word: Respect.
         

And so, a book was born....

Carol is an author of eleven novels and several short stories. Her Spy Girl series is published by Usborne, and currently available on Amazon. She has one daughter, now left home, and lives in Hertfordshire with two cats and a lovely husband...

... and she drives a pink 2CV! Wow! I want one!



Connect with Carol ~

On Twitter @carolJhedges.

On Facebook

On Carol’s blog: http://carolhedges.blogspot.com