Guest Author Interview - Kate Hardy
As many of my readers know, I love getting to know new people and learning about their stories. I'm excited that Kate has dropped by today for an interview. Welcome Kate Hardy.
1. What is your favorite thing to do when you are not writing?
If it's a weekend, my favourite thing is to go for a walk on the beach with my husband and children. (It usually involves ice cream – and it doesn't matter if it's winter, either!) We've had a real Indian summer this year; normally, paddling in the North Sea in October would be unthinkable, but this year it was fun! I also love cooking, and I'm having a great time teaching my littlest to bake at the moment.
2. What books are sitting in your TBR pile right now? What book are you currently reading?
I have to confess that I own TBR bookcase rather than a TBR pile! They include the newest releases by Susanna Kearsley and Rachel Hore, and I'm also waiting for the new Kristan Higgins to arrive. I'm currently reading one of Julie Cohen's backlist that I've been meaning to read for a while but managed to mislay it – Nina Jones and the Temple of Gloom. I love Julie's books and they make me laugh out loud for the right reasons.
3. Please, share something you found most interesting or fun that you did to research for a book.
One of my very favourite research experiences was when I was writing Champagne With a Celebrity – which is actually about a perfume house (and I so regret that I couldn't talk my ed into keeping my working title of 'Scents and Sensibility'). The way I saw it, I couldn't write about a man who makes perfume without having any idea how it was done. So I went on a course to make perfume; best of all, it was a one-to-one, so I could grill my teacher about all the bits I wanted to know. There were eighteen different 'notes' (card strips dipped into the perfume) and I had to sort them into 'love', 'hate' and 'maybe' piles. Then it was a matter of blending the ones I liked – and I ended up making something quite similar to own favourite perfume (Dior's Addict – I just LOVE the vanilla and amber notes). And I had great fun imagining my hero and heroine in that situation, and taking it much further!
4. How did you come up with the setting for A Moment on the Lips?
This is my gelati book (mainly because I bought an ice-cream maker last summer and thoroughly enjoyed experimenting, and the kids worked out immediately that I was planning to write an ice-cream book). Originally I was going to set it in my part of the world; there's an amazing shop that does over 50 flavours, and I had plans to combine my favourite relaxation with a bit of research, i.e. a walk on the beach and then visit the shop. Several visits, in fact, so we could work our way through all the flavours. (The lavender one was really unusual!) Then my ed said she wanted it set in Italy, not England. We'd recently visited Sorrento, so I jumped at the chance to set the book in Naples (we climbed Vesuvius, which is one of the most awesome places ever, so when I finally saw the UK cover and realized Vesuvius was on it, I was so thrilled).
The only thing was, I was planning the book during half term - when we were on the train to Paris. (We had a bit of a mad travel year, last year!) So I couldn't resist whisking my hero and heroine off to Paris and making them do some of the things we did in Paris – including standing under the pyramid in the Louvre to get rainbows in our hair, and climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe to see the Eiffel Tower sparkling on the hour. (It was bitterly cold when we did it, and I insisted we stayed up until the hour but refused to tell my husband and children why, only that it would be worth it. And it was!)
5. Action adventure or romantic comedy? What is your favorite movie lately?
I love the cinema, but most of the time we go it's as a treat for the children during school holidays – which means most of the time it's going to be a comedy (though I did manage to talk my daughter into seeing Inception last year – she hated it, whereas her brother and I thought it was great). We do still enjoy animated films, but it's getting harder to find films that both of them like; my littlest prefers musicals (she's just a little too young to enjoy romcoms), whereas my eldest likes sci-fi and action movies.
My favourite film this year, by a very long way, is 'The King's Speech' – beautifully acted, beautifully scripted, and a wonderful score.
BOOK GIVEAWAY
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Kate is giving away a signed copy of A Moment on the Lips. Just leave her a comment below and she will contact the winner. Good luck!
