Eleanor Harkstead's Blog, page 15

Interview with author Faye Hall

Meet Faye Hall, author of suspenseful nineteenth-century romance set in Australia.

1. How long have you been writing? Can you tell us a bit about your journey to publication?

I started writing right from childhood. I decided to take the plunge and write a

novel for publication whilst in my last year of high school. My English teacher laughed at me and told me I was wasting my time, which kind of gave me the determination to finally send it to a publisher.

A North Queensland view.

2. Why are you drawn to the late 1800s as a setting for your fiction? What opportunities and difficulties does the era and the location of North Queensland present for you as a writer and for your stories?

I’m from North Queensland, and I grew up on the stories of my great

grandparents and how they came to Australia and their struggles to survive. I’ve used a lot of that history in my books. Unfortunately my choice of towns isn’t a simple Google search away so I rely a lot on local history and photos. I picked the late 1800s because it was then my ancestors came to Queensland, but also because I just love Australian history.

3. Where do the ideas for your historicals come from? Are they particular historical events you had read about, or historical figures which spark off the characters/plots in your mind? How much historical research do you do?

One of my stories was actually based on a small scandalous story about my great

grandmother and I even used Inkerman Dows Station in the book which was the actual cattle station owned by her family. I do also rely a lot on the old photos from many locals that were published in a local book some years back. A lot of the plots though come from stories I was told as a child about not only my family, but others in the district.

4. Do you have writing habits – such as always getting up early to write, or writing in the evening? Or do you write when the mood takes you? Are you a plotter or a “pantser”?

I plot a little and the rest just flows from there. As for a certain time to write – I wish lol. I am the mother of five school children and step mother to four adult step children so life can get very busy at times. I literally write where and when I can – in the car waiting at the school, early morning, waiting in a doctor or lawyers office – you get the drift.

5. Do you have a particular place where you like to write, or do you happily write anywhere? 

As I mentioned above I have learnt to write wherever I am, but I am far more comfortable in my bedroom at my desk.

6. Do you have a favourite title from among your novels? Is there a character or pairing who you’re tempted to return to for a sequel? (if you haven’t already!).

My favorite title at this stage is Heart of Stone, because it mentions Irish and Aboriginal slavery that happened in Queensland’s history. As for characters – I’d love to go back and rewrite my first few novels and make them into separate sequels, but unfortunately I doubt I’ll ever get my rights back on them.

7. Which authors do you read?

My favourite romance author is Amanda Quick. I also love Harper Lee and Agatha Christie.

8. What’s the romance community like in Australia? For instance, in the UK we have the Romantic Novelists’ Association with regular meet-ups. Is there something similar in Australia, or is it difficult as you live in a remote country town? Does the internet help you get in touch with other authors?

I live in a small town and there’s limited community for writers, especially of romance. I find the internet a great source to talk to authors from all around the world and I have learnt so much from doing that.

9. Do your tattoos have stories behind them, or is it more a case that you chose them based on liking the designs and colours? Do any of your characters have tattoos?

None of my characters have tattoos yet, but I’ve often thought about it. As for myself – a lot of mine have personal meaning connected to my children and husband. I also have a few pagan and Celtic ones to honour my ancestors. The

rest are just because I think they’re cool. I’ve lost count now, but I’d have well over forty by now I’d say.

Thanks, Faye, for popping by!

Find out more about Faye at her website: www.faye-hall.com Follow Faye on Twitter and see her Amazon author page for all her titles.

Faye’s new novel is Apathy and Vigor, published on 20 August 2018. It’s only 99p atthe moment on Amazon.

Will the love of a woman save him from his own apathy?

Tristen Brone lived a carefree life of wealth and passion – until one day it all came

crashing down around him. In only a few days he lost everyone he loved in the world – his woman, his best friend and his parents. The once confident, handsome young man, was now scarred for life and on a quick downward spiral of sorrow and depression. He no longer wanted to live.

When Amalie Fergus arrives on his doorstep, a travel bag in her hand, begging him to take her in, he becomes suspicious. Despite his passionate past with this woman, and the feelings he still had for her, all he could think of was how quickly she abandoned him after the fire that killed her brother and left Tristen physically scarred. So why had she come back into his life after all these months?

Amalie Fergus lost her brother in a fire, her lover had abandoned her upon finding her with child, and now her father had been poisoned, leaving their properties to be repossessed. She had nothing and no one left to turn to. In desperation, she found herself forced to work for a living, trying to do her best as a maid for any rich gentleman who would take her in. What she hadn’t expected was for one of those men to try and force carnal favours from her, or for her now to be on the run for his murder.

Running from the scene of the crime, fearful what was to become of her, Amalie finds herself colliding with a man from her past who offers to hide her from the police on one condition – she return to Tristen and steal some property papers from him.

Trapped by the man from her past, and now forced back into Tristen’s life, Amalie

searches for who murdered her brother. She could never have foreseen the cruelty she would discover, or the man she would willingly surrender her heart to.

The Captain’s Ghostly Gamble: an excerpt

Short story The Captain’s Ghostly Gamble, co-written with Catherine Curzon, will be published 11 September 2018. Available from Pride, Amazon, Kobo etc. It’s a related title to the Captivating Captains series.

When a ghostly dandy and his roguish companion try their hand at matchmaking, things definitely go bump in the night.

For centuries, foppish Captain Cornelius Sheridan and brooding John Rookwood have haunted the mansion they duelled and died for. Now these phantom foes must join forces to save both their home and their feuding descendents.

But when Captain Sheridan sacrifices his afterlife for the sake of true love, will Rookwood risk everything to keep his companion by his side, or is it too late to say “I love you”?

Excerpt

John Rookwood peered through the grimy leaded windows and saw lights approaching along the driveway. It was the same every year—uninvited guests always arrived on their anniversary.

“Captain, they’re nearly here! Stop preening, man!”

“Guests!” Captain Cornelius Sheridan didn’t look away from the ornate mirror where he was admiring his own reflection. He beamed at himself before pouting, then placed one hand on his hip. As John watched, Sheridan turned a little to the left, a little to the right, admiring his own form, clad as he was in a suit of shimmering gold silk.

He frowned and adjusted one of his lace-shrouded cuffs very slightly, then considered his reflection again, turning his shapely calf a little before he leaned down to brush an imaginary smut from his white stocking. “Does one need more powder, Rookwood? One doesn’t want to look gauche for one’s chums!”

“You have natural pallor enough, Captain. Besides, they’re not our chums.”

A large conveyance had drawn up to the front door. John turned up the collar of his greatcoat, watching as two passengers, a man and a woman, climbed out.

“The damned impertinence of it, turning up uninvited every year. Wandering about my house, disturbing our peace. They’re lucky I haven’t taken a pistol to them.”

“Natural? Lord preserve me from natural! More powder and a touch more rouge on the lips, I think.” Sheridan put his elegant hand to his silken cravat and slightly adjusted the diamond pin there. An even larger diamond was housed in the ring he wore, and it glittered as brightly as his eyes. “My home, Mr. Rookwood, lest we forget.”

At the sound of their guests letting themselves in at the front door, John sighed. “Rookwood Manor has been in my family for generations, as well you know, you damned dandy interloper!”

“Indeed, sir, Sheridan Manor was once home to your people, but one believes there was the small matter of a duel and now it is mine.” Sheridan glanced at John and beamed, his handsome face now fashionably pale. He bowed low, a cloud of rose perfume billowing from the decadent cuffs. “Let us go and say hello to our newest friends, Mr. Rookwood!”

John bowed in return, doffing his tricorne hat. “That duel was unfair—therefore, in default, Rookwood Manor is still mine, I think you’ll find.”

As John’s heavy boots thumped over the floorboards, a woman’s voice echoed up from the entrance hall.

“Did you hear that? I swear I heard footsteps!”

“Ooh, the young lady sounds so terribly nervous!” Sheridan hugged himself in amused excitement then clapped his hands together. His grin was positively wicked as he added, “What fun!”

“Should be easy to get shot of them, then!” John looked over the bannister as the couple began to set up their equipment. He’d seen quite a lot of this caper over the years, gadgets galore ranged through his house with nary a by-your-leave. How terribly rude. “Well, then, Captain, as my footsteps have served to scare her witless, would you like to go next? I’d wager you shan’t terrify them in the least, but I’m happy to watch you try!”

The two men peeped down into the baronial hall below, where the enormous studded oak door stood open on the autumn night. Leaves swirled in around the feet of the second visitor, a young man with a large bag slung over his shoulder. He threw it down and looked up at his splendid surroundings, his face set into a scowl.

“Oh, now what a handsome gent!” Sheridan touched his hand to his breast and quirked one eyebrow. “If my heart had not already stopped, it would certainly have just skipped a beat. Who have we here?”

He began to descend the staircase, polished shoes shining in the light of the chandelier, the diamond buckles on his toes twinkling. With a glance back at John, Sheridan hopped down the last two risers and landed neatly in front of the couple, who continued to unpack their infernal equipment. Then he blew a sharp blast of rose perfume into the young lady’s face.

She stumbled back a step and nearly lost her footing on the uneven floorboards. “What—what was that? Dan, can you smell it? Roses. They say that the highwayman who haunts this place smells of roses. I’m not imagining it, am I? And it’s suddenly so cold in here!”

“You do know that it’s all bollocks, don’t you?” Dan tutted and shook his head. “I can’t believe you’ve even talked me into this. The sooner it’s on the market, the sooner some big hotel chain buys it and the sooner I get to buy that Ferrari I’ve always wanted, so let’s get the night finished and lock the bloody door on this dusty old hole.”

“Can you please not say bollocks when I’ve got the EVP recorder on, Dan?” The young woman crouched down to rummage about in a trunk. “I can’t believe you want to sell this place—my family lived here too, you know. And anyway, a haunted house is much cooler than a Ferrari.”

“Oh, he’s one of yours!” Sheridan called upstairs to John. “A Rookwood, which makes him suddenly far less attractive! A Rookwood who intends to sell my bally house!”

“Balderdash—it’s Rookwood Manor, after all, and will you just look at that handsome face!” John followed Sheridan downstairs. Could the young lady hear him, or even see him? She had glanced in his direction and was gawping at the stairs.

“Dan! I can hear footsteps again!”

But Dan had turned his back, so John prodded him on the shoulder to get a better look. Was this impertinent young man worthy of the name Rookwood?

“Stop pissing about, Jenny,” Dan huffed. “Funny isn’t it, really? Here we are, a Rookwood and a Sheridan, spending one last night in the place where our great-whatever-uncles however far removed supposedly rattle their chains and flap their sheets? And by tomorrow the For Sale board will be up!”

The Captain and the Cavalry Trooper is a Discovered Diamond

A beautiful gay love story and historical romance set in France during WW1.

Read the full review at Discovering Diamonds.

Chicks, Rogues and Scandals reviews The Captain’s Ghostly Gamble

The Captains Ghostly Gamble is an amusing, dreamy and original romance that will keep you enchanted and riveted to the end.

Read the full review at Frankie’s blog, Chicks, Rogues and Scandals.

Bo’s review of The Captain and the Cricketer

…absolutely looney and hilarious and hellacious and oh, my, extremely hot…a deeply rich, extremely beautiful, love story that when it begins sets our authors off on some of the most brilliantly expressive love dialogue you are likely to come across.

Thank you! You can read Bo’s full review on Goodreads.

Available from Amazon, Kobo and more!

The Captain and the Cricketer: Henry and George’s cricket song

They particularly want to emphasise the “manly tussle” part.

If you’ve England in your veins,

And can take a little pains,

In the sunny summer weather, when to stay indoors is sin,

If you’ve got a bit of muscle,

And enjoy a manly tussle,

Then go and put your flannels on and let the fun begin!

The Captain and the Cricketer – out now!

Bookshine and Readbows reviews The Captain and the Cricketer

Despite the modern setting, this book has a nostalgic, golden-summer atmosphere; aided by the rural, small-community feel.  Something like a cross between Jilly Cooper and James Herriot

Read the full review at Steph’s blog Bookshine and Readbows.

Interview with author CF White

Today, I’m welcoming CF White to my blog. Author of six m/m romances across three series of novels, she writes love stories with humour, drama and heat set in often gritty urban landscapes. So join me as I find out more about CF White – her characters, her influences, and more.

How long have you been writing? Can you tell us a bit about your journey to publication? 

I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Since a very young age I wrote stories and novels. I used to rush home from school to write and whenever I’d go on holiday with my folks I always had to have a pen and paper to write on the beach instead of building sandcastles. By the time I was around 14 I’d written two novels. My parents were super supportive and did send off to a couple to publishers. Rejection is hard at any age but at that time, the rejection kinda stopped me in my tracks. Then, as is inevitable, life took over for a while (or I should probably say teenage social life). I went off to uni, studied film production and switched to writing scripts. Then the pressures to get a paid job on graduation thwarted any chance of writing for a living, so I got a job, I got a husband, kids followed and writing all but stopped.

Then a few years back, an idea I’d had roaming in my head for years came back to haunt me – it was about a footballer and his path from the academy to the professional playing field all while discovering his sexuality and falling in love with a man he couldn’t hide in the shadows. I had no idea about mm romance then, but a burning desire to write the story. So I did some research and found the mm community. I devoured books and suddenly became an instant fan. Knowing there was a market for gay romance novels, I slowly started to write my first book in fifteen years – The District Line. I was guided to the online platform Wattpad and plucked up the courage to post my chapters on there, just to see if there was anyone even vaguely interested in my book and if I had any talent at all. Cutting a long story short, The District Line became quite successful on the site. It was featured by the platform staff, excerpts taken up in Cosmopolitan magazine and suddenly I had a decent following. I came up with a few more ideas and posted more regularly. It was after a year or so of doing that, that I looked into publishing for real.

Where do your ideas come from? Do you overhear conversations in supermarkets or see someone in the street and imagine their backstory? Or do your novels and characters spring out of thin air?

Pretty much they spring out of thin air. The idea for The District Line had been bouncing around inside my head for a good ten years before I put pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard). I grew up in a massive footballing family. My dad was a referee (even ran the line at Wembley during an England match) and so the idea of writing about a footballer was always appealing. It wasn’t until I started working at a university where I was involved in the sports scholarship programme and met a couple of ex-professional academy footballers who had lost their contracts at some of the top major clubs in the premier league, that the District Line found its legs.

With my Responsible Adult series, the idea just one day popped in my head. I have a son with a rare condition called Williams Syndrome, and part of his condition makes him overly social and extremely friendly and upbeat. The idea that he could be the little brother, and sole responsibility, of a bloke who came from the wrong side of the tracks, well, I just found that really interesting and something that I needed to explore.

All other stories have come from somewhere. My St Cross series is based in a children’s hospital and as I spend an awful lot of time in one, I just knew I had to write a few books based on the characters within that setting.

I have a few other ideas that kinda just found me one day that I still haven’t put into note form, but I still hear the characters talk to me from time to time (I realise that makes me sound a bit nuts…) [If that makes you nuts, then I am too! – EH]

You write gritty books – why are you drawn to those urban settings? Is there something about the contrast of love with the rawness of difficult everyday life which sets off your imagination?  

I think I am drawn to the urban setting but without really realising it! I have written a few fluffy light, by the seaside, stories (one I hope to publish next year) and whilst I enjoyed writing it, I get really tightly into the more urban, street, gritty and raw stuff. Some if it is because of my own upbringing and where I currently live. Responsible Adult, for example, I set in my home town and I could probably tell you that his circle of friends are very much based on people I grew up with. I worked at the supermarket that Dan and Micky do (name changed for legal reasons) with the employees all kinda based on the people I worked with back then. It’s a very personal story to me – not only due to it having a little boy with Williams Syndrome in it, but because I threw everything I knew at it. I was brought up in a council estate in a small town where no-one ever leaves (I amazingly did), where if you are considered the rough kid you’ll always be the rough kid. People hardly ever mingle over social groups, so it was interesting to put Micky and Dan together in that respect.

Then I came to live and work east London, and my previous job was working in widening participation actively encouraging underrepresented groups into higher education, so that street, urban way of life hasn’t left me. I guess I like changing perceptions of the people who come from these areas. There’s a stigma about east London, and I wanted to challenge it with Jay in the District Line like I tried to with Micky in Responsible Adult. You could probably say I love an underdog story.

I really enjoyed your Responsible Adult trilogy, particularly the presence in the novel of two characters who have disabilities. I came away from the books feeling that I’d learnt something about Williams’ Syndrome – a condition I knew very little about before. Were there challenges in representing their disabilities while keeping them realistic? My brother has Down’s and I’m conscious of the perception that people with Down’s are untroubled and always ready with a smile, when they have the potential to be quite naughty, and aren’t necessarily full of joy all the time. Was one of the reasons for including a character with Williams’ in the novel to raise awareness of the condition among readers? (if that’s the case, it worked – at least for me!).

To be wholeheartedly honest, the reason I wrote the story was because I needed an outlet for what I was dealing with. My little boy was around two when I started to write again. He’d been diagnosed at 3 months and I pretty much had two years of absolute hell that followed. I’d never heard of his condition either – it’s exceptionally rare. I had three months from his birth to diagnosis of trying to get people to take me seriously that there was something wrong with my baby.

Then since diagnosis, he’s been through life-saving heart surgery, various hospital stays, appointments after appointments and I’ve had to come to terms with the fact my baby is and will always be different. But then I got to know him, and the delightful little boy he is. He’s overly social. He’ll hug complete strangers, tell them he loves them, would rather sit with a random family in a restaurant than his own, he’s always on the go, his energy is relentless and he has to be medicated to sleep or he’ll just keep bouncing off the walls. But he’s a unique and amazing character, as all with WS are, and I needed to write about it, I needed to show his endearing personality. Not just to raise awareness for a relatively unknown and unique syndrome, but about parenting special needs children in general and how that can ultimately affect the relationships you have with people – from family, to friends, to lovers. I just wasn’t ready to do it in the first person. So I let Micky do it for me.

Micky was the perfect character to give a WS little brother to―a juvenile delinquent, a rough and tough teen, a cheater. I kinda saw giving Micky a Flynn, a little boy with a huge heart and love for all, like giving a guide dog to a blind person. Like the dog can aid the blind man to see, Flynn enables Micky to believe in love and affection.

I also wanted to show the no frills version of special needs parenting, which I hope I’ve done with a delicate balance of romance. And yes, that was difficult to do, to keep to the reality of it all without losing what is essentially a love story.  I’ve met many special needs parents since becoming one myself, and many have become my very good friends, from those who have children with Autism, Downs, Cerebral Palsy, Angelmans and other rare conditions, and one thing that we all agree on is often parenting special children can affect our relationships with other people. Just like it affects Micky and Dan’s.  They can be difficult, challenging, and naughty, and how we parent them is scrutinised daily. It’s a difficult job!

Your novel Won’t Feel a Thing is out in July. Am I right in recognising Ollie from one of the Responsible Adult novels? Was he one of those small characters that stayed with you and demanded his own story? Is there a wrong-side-of-the-tracks theme to this novel too?

Ollie does feature in Reformed, yes! Well spotted. But actually I was writing Won’t Feel a Thing alongside Reformed and then suddenly realised there was a great opportunity to overlap the books. There’s a bit of a nudge nudge wink wink moment in Reformed where Ollie says he can’t flirt with patient families due to nurse ethics…. lo and behold, in Won’t Feel a Thing, that’s exactly what happens!

I don’t think there is a ‘wrong side of the tracks’ theme to this one. It’s not street or urban, but the characters are flawed. Whilst I couldn’t really say that Ollie is a troubled character (certainly not like Micky, Jay or Seb) but he has made choices in his life that were, let’s say, self destructive and he’s trying to overcome them in this book whilst also making another shed load of bad choices.

Do you have writing habits – such as always getting up early to write, or writing in the evening? Or do you write when the mood takes you? Are you a plotter or a “pantser”?

I wish I had writing habits! But no, I write as and when I can. A mum to two small children, plus I work part time for a charity, I don’t have a huge amount of time. So I squeeze writing in where I can. I probably stay up far later than I should just to get a few more words in. I probably rely on Peppa Pig when I have an idea I must get down, and I’m a little ashamed to say I have utilised the waiting area in many a hospital to get a few words down on the phone!

And I am a complete pantser. I hate planning. I don’t do it. I don’t even write notes. Everything is in my head. The most I’ll do is write a line or two on the next chapter as to what might happen, but that could probably change when my fingers do the typing. I find when I have had to write a plan, or a synopsis mid way through the book, I lose interest. I like to be as surprised as the reader will be.

Do you have a particular place where you like to write, or do you happily write anywhere?

Mostly I write at home on my dining table. I recently purchased a decent chair due to the amount of time spent there. But I always have a copy of my latest WIP on my phone so I can edit, write, anywhere the mood takes me.

Which authors do you read? 

In mm romance I love J L Merrow, Avylinn Winter, and I recently discovered these amazing authors called Catherine Curzon and Eleanor Harkstead, perhaps you’ve heard of them? I love their stuff and I plan to devour every new release. Mostly though, it’s the blurb and story that draw me in rather than a particular author.

Prior to writing romance and discovering the mm genre, I was big time into Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books, and the Russian urban fantasy The Night Watch series, and The Hunger Games. My first big book love was Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. So a bit of a mix there!

My husband is and has always been a major reader. He gets all these ARC books sent to him to review from new authors, and I’ve dipped into a few. It’s like I always discover something new rather than having favourite go-to authors.

A District Line train at Putney Bridge station.
Biography

Brought up in a relatively small town in Hertfordshire, C F White managed to do what most other residents try to do and fail—leave.

Studying at a West London university, she realised there was a whole city out there waiting to be discovered, so, much like Dick Whittington before her, she never made it back home and still endlessly search for the streets paved with gold, slowly coming to the realisation they’re mostly paved with chewing gum. And the odd bit of graffiti. And those little circles of yellow spray paint where the council point out the pot holes to someone who is supposedly meant to fix them instead of staring at them vacantly whilst holding a polystyrene cup of watered-down coffee.

She eventually moved West to East along that vast District Line and settled for pie and mash, cockles and winkles and a bit of Knees Up Mother Brown to live in the East End of London; securing a job and creating a life, a home and a family.

After her second son was born with a rare disability, C F White’s life changed and brought pen back to paper having written stories as a child but never the confidence to show them to the world. Now, having embarked on this writing journey, she can’t stop. So strap in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Links

www.twitter.com/CFWhiteUK

www.facebook.com/CFWhiteAuthor

www.cfwhiteauthor.com

Books

Responsible Adult series: Misdemeanor, Hard Time, Reformed (published by Pride)

St. Cross series: Won’t Feel a Thing (published by Pride)

The District Line: Kick Off, Break Through (published by Kindle Unlimited)

Gay Book Reviews reviews The Captain and the Cricketer

It was absolutely splendid.

Read Maya’s full review at Gay Book Reviews.

CF White reviews The Captain and the Cricketer

I thoroughly enjoyed The Captain and the Cricketer. I love that it’s a bit of a lark, a bit of a mystery, a bit of a second chance romance with an ending that one can just sigh whilst fanning oneself over. I love Henry’s tweed, I love George’s green eyes that only sparkle for Henry, and I love that bloody British village. I want to go there. Now. Please?

OK, I’ll just go read this awesome book again.

Read CF White’s full review on Goodreads.