A marvellous adventure story where Elizabeth Chadwick really makes the reader feel that they are in medieval Jerusalem, and of course, the book features perhaps Ms Chadwick’s most well drawn hero, William Marshal, England’s Greatest Knight. It is a beautifully written book, which is what I’ve come to expect from the pen of Elizabeth Chadwick. The other books that she has produced about Marshal, are totally engrossing and this one comes as a totally unexpected gift as his life story had pretty much been covered by the others;...
read moreI am delighted to welcome author and fellow ‘Belmont Belle’ Dianne Noble, to my blog today as one of the stops on her current tour promoting her book: ‘A Hundred Hands’ and to tell us of some of her experiences in India. Take it away Dianne : India is an assault on the senses. My shirt sticks to my back as I edge round a goat, swatting at flies, coughing as the smoke from pavement cooking fires catches in my throat. After four hours of threadbare sleep I’m fighting my way round Kolkata, India, trying to find the...
read moreHi folks, today I’m absolutely delighted to welcome Julia Ibbotson, fellow member of the Leicester chapter of the Romantic Novelists’ association, the Belmont Belles, over to my blog. Julia has kindly agreed to answer some of my burning questions about her rather varied writing career so far and it’s a great thrill to have her here today. So here goes: Hi Julia, can I start by asking you what motivated you to become a writer and how did you manage to keep persevering until you reached your goal? I always...
read moreThe cabinet of curiosities now has a new arrival: it was made by my late friend Pete Heywood, and given to me. Pete was the designer of a rather large tortoise called Hope, (and even larger Dragons!). But it was Hope I worked with him on and I will talk more about her later. A week or so ago I was lucky enough to be given a tour of Liverpool with my pal Tony Higginson of BeyondMediaBooks. I’d mentioned to Tony a while ago that I’d not been to his lovely home city for about twenty years and there were lots of places I’d never...
read moreToday I’m absolutely delighted to welcome fellow Yorkshire based writer Lynda Stacey to my blog; her debut novel ‘House of Secrets’ has been released this week. Hi Lynda and thanks for popping over to answer a few questions about your new book and writing in general. First of all let me say that I’ve read ‘House of Secrets’ and it really is a scorcher. It is set against the backdrop of Wrea Head Hall in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Do you remember why you first decide to set your novel there? Hello and...
read moreToday I’m really thrilled to be able to welcome and host author Aleigha Siron, as part of her blog tour for ‘Finding My Highlander’, a novel that sounds right up my street. Aleigha has kindly written a piece about why she writes romance novels and I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I have. Many thanks Aleigha, and over to you: Hello Violet Fields, I’ve greatly enjoyed the interviews and posts from other authors you’ve hosted, and I’m honoured and grateful to join their ranks. Today, I’m going to answer the annoying...
read moreI’m delighted to welcome Sharon Black as a guest author on my blog today to discuss her new release, ‘Going Against Type’. Hello and welcome, Sharon. I’ve been reading a little about your book ‘Going Against Type’, and I see that your heroine, Charlotte Regan, spends some of her time surfing in the Atlantic. Do you have any personal experience of surfing either in the Atlantic or elsewhere and what made you choose this as a hobby for Charlotte? Hi, Violet, thanks a million for having me here today. I think that’s the most...
read moreI’m delighted to welcome author Mary O’Sullivan to my website today as part of a tour for her gripping thriller from Tirgearr Publishing, ‘Thicker than Water’. Mary has offered to give us her perspective on ‘people watching’ and why it is such an important skill for an author. Observing People Advice frequently given to authors is to write about what is familiar to them. This, to my mind, imposes too many limits. The vast majority of us live normal , humdrum lives, cooking,...
read moreI often find that I get ideas and inspiration for writing from visual stimuli whether that be just people watching on the terrace of a café, gazing at a painting in an art gallery or an object in a museum. When I was engaged, the lady who had introduced me and my late husband, bought us one of those Lilliput lane ornaments. Having three young children at the time and quite a few little treasures of huge sentimental but little monetary value we decided a trip to IKEA was in order for a toughened safety glass display cabinet. A fraught hour or...
read moreLeigh Archer writes romance novels set in her native South Africa. She has always had a love affair with Africa’s wild open spaces, the intensity of its people and sunsets. Her love of storytelling began as a child when she spent every spare moment playing barefoot in golden grass, watching wild creatures, learning to track spoor and dreaming up heroes and heroines dynamic enough to stand out in all the beauty and drama of the African landscape. Always in search of adventure, Leigh’s journey as a writer has taken her from journalism...
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