Sandra Mackness - Wedding bells down under!

We welcome Sandra Mackness to the RNA blog for our first author written piece of 2017. Sandra writes as Jill Barry and had a very enviable 2016.

This time last year, while awaiting the date of my son’s marriage to his Australian fiancée, I knew I’d need to blank out a whole month in my 2016 diary. Once the daffodils began brightening parks and

gardens, I focussed on buying that mother of the groom outfit, knowing UK Spring was the perfect time to find suitable clothes for November in South East Australia.

I was spending less time on writing though I gave a couple of library talks and enjoyed publication of my first psychological suspense novel, plus a pocket novel and two Christmas-theme Linford Library Romances. I also submitted my seventh pocket novel to The People’s Friend and received a swift acceptance. My editor then approved my next idea but advised me to forget writing for a while, saying, ‘go and see your boy married.’ How wise she was.

I left home on Halloween, though not astride my broomstick as one or two of my family suggested might be fun! My travel companion and I met at Heathrow and the adventure really had begun. My writing plans at that stage consisted of a large notebook, several pens, plus my Kindle, to which I’d emailed my current wip, a contemporary romance called Love Thirty, with revisions planned.

The happy couple were blessed by sunshine on their wedding day at Dunkeld and many guests travelled from the UK, Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand, so making the occasion even more memorable and joyous. My daughter-in-law comes from a big family and one of her sisters is an airline pilot with Cathay Pacific. She and I discussed flying and possible story lines over a glass of

wine while we stayed at her Hong Kong home, a welcome respite before flying on to Melbourne.

I kept a journal, to remind me what sights were visited and when, as well as taking photographs. But it wasn’t until I was alone for a week, house sitting for the newly-weds and exploring Melbourne while they honeymooned on the Gold Coast, that I realised I had to begin a wedding-inspired story.

Sure enough, the old magic began to work and, using my son’s whizzy computer, I let the characters drifting in and out of my mind, materialise. The word count increased without my even thinking about it and when I made my daily visits to the café down the road, I took my notebook and Kindle along so revisions of my completed novel would be ready to action on my return. You can imagine, serious research was necessary in the form of cake sampling, drinking coffee and chatting up the friendly staff!

They say Victoria, and Melbourne in particular, can experience four seasons in one day. I can vouch for this. So, weather and sense of place are important features of this latest work. Each time I sit down to write another instalment, I’m ‘back again,’ and that feeling is kept alive by frequent viewing of the beautiful wedding video. My British heroine, who takes a temporary job at a country resort specialising in wedding parties, isn’t modelled on anyone in particular. But some of her experiences will mirror my own, including an exciting day at the local races, where the fantastic fashions of the race goers and the colourful jockeys rivalled the size and sophistication of the delicious canapés.

Watching a kangaroo bouncing in the wild? Stopping for lunch at a quirky restaurant? Yes, both these provide more material for my wip. Although a blissful day at Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens, steeped in bird song and blossoms, plus visits to the State Library and other city landmarks aren’t relevant to my heroine’s journey towards her happy ever after, I can confirm the well is not only topped up but

also filled to overflowing.

New Year resolutions aren’t usually for me, but even though I’m not yet planning another trip abroad – give me time – I’m determined to hang on to that joyful, vibrant buzz from my fabulous adventure. Whether visiting a museum, art gallery or historic house, locally or further afield, I know I shall delight in letting my imagination loose, just as I did in awesome Australia. Meanwhile, back to the wip and my final few thousand words.

I wish you all much happiness and success with your writing and travelling this year.

Sandra xx

Links:
Twitter @barry_jill
Facebook

Publications:

Puppy Love by Jill Barry - Linford Romance Library, publication 1^st January 2017

Majorcan Magic by Jill Barry - The People’s Friend - pocket novel - publication 14^th January 2017

Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories of 2016 with us Sandra and good luck with your writing in the coming year.

If you would like to write for the RNA blog please contact the team on elaineeverest@aol.com

Kendra Smith: To the Antipodes and Back

We are delighted to welcome Kendra Smith.

Exciting times for you, Kendra. Your debut novel, Jacaranda Wife, has recently been published. Can you tell us a little about it?

VERY exciting! Well, London-loving Katie finds herself on a plane to Australia as her husband’s company has sent him there to save their financial bacon. Katie’s heat rash starts just thinking about going quite so far outside the M25 to rectify their debt, but she reckons it might be wise. Why? To distance herself from her best friend’s husband whom she had an encounter with… When she gets there, it’s a bump-a-minute journey of discovery about her new country, her new friends and her marriage! I hope people enjoy my heroine’s escapades and the best bit: you can travel 10,000 miles sitting in the comfort of your living room! I’ve had some lovely reviews already, some comparing my writing to the Australian best-seller Liane Moriarty, which is so lovely.

Your heroine ups sticks and crosses the globe. I believe you’ve done the same and are now living back in the UK. Town or country?

Yes, the word ‘boomerang’ comes to mind! We now live in leafy Surrey, but I have lived for nearly 8 years in Sydney and 10 in London.

Your roots are in magazine journalism. How much of a help, or indeed a hindrance, was this when writing your book?

Bit of both, really. Writing isn’t new to me and I enjoy capturing events and feelings on paper. However, writing fiction seemed like writing in free-fall, without any ropes – quite scary after journalism!

Is there a certain type of scene that's always harder for you to write than others? Love? Action? Racy?

Action scenes need to be done well and not sound clunky. I have a dive scene in my book that (hopefully!) creates tension. However, you have to make sure it’s technically accurate. I ran it by a dive master to make sure. It did help, though, that I have dived myself and can remember some of the feelings.

How did you set about finding a publisher?

Ah, now pull up a chair, this could take a while… Getting published is never easy (trust me, I have read EVERY blog on the subject!) and can testify to this myself. I started this book around seven years ago, and each stage has required extreme patience! But would you believe, it was at an RNA event that I bumped into the lovely people at Endeavour Press who turned my book into a reality.

So the Romantic Novelists’ Association has once again aided an author in her push to get on the ladder. Tell us how you see your relationship with the RNA.

I’m very proud to be a member and so far it has introduced me to some wonderful people. I am very much looking forward to carrying on my learning, networking, and attending as many events as I can as part of my new ‘family.’ I’m also keen to visit my local Chapter meetings, a wonderful added bonus to membership.

We’d like you to share with us a random fact about yourself

Can’t open a book, new or old, without inhaling the scent of it first…

So what’s next?

Book Number Two! The word count reminds me I am a third of the way through… once the little darlings are back at school and I am not dodging bullets from BB Gun wars, I shall be notching up a few more. I can’t wait!

About Jacaranda Wife

Katie and Tom’s marriage is in trouble. As is their bank account. 

Is going to Australia really the solution? Find out how Katie copes with an absent husband, deadly spiders, a new friend who might not be all she seems… and a rather sweaty school run. Does the trip Downunder provide the spark her marriage needs, or send the whole thing up in smoke?

About Kendra Smith

Kendra has been a journalist, wife, mother, aerobics teacher, qualified diver and very bad cake baker. She started her career in Sydney selling advertising space but quickly moved to editorial, working on several national women’s magazines in both Sydney and London including Cosmopolitan and OK! Magazine. With dual Australian-British nationality, she currently lives in Surrey with her husband and three children. Jacaranda Wife is her first novel.

Links:

Website

Twitter @KendraAuthor.

Facebook

Amazon UK

Good luck with your Jacaranda Wife, Kendra, and thank you for joining us today.

The RNA Blog is brought to you by

Elaine Everest and Natalie Kleinman.

If you would like to appear on the Blog please contact us at elaineeverest@aol.com

Romance AND Suspense with Vonnie Hughes

Today we welcome Vonnie Hughes - all the way from the Antipodes. Vonnie was born in New Zealand and now lives in Australia.

As a child she won several writing competitions. She won a pony once but her parents encouraged her to take the substitute prize. After all, there’s not a lot of room in utopian suburbia for a pony. 

After attending teachers’ training college where they encouraged her writing, Vonnie began writing in earnest – poetry and short stories mainly. Now she writes novels and novellas in the Regency and contemporary suspense genres. She will, she says, probably write until the day she dies. Like many writers, some days she hates the whole process, but just cannot let it go.

I asked Vonnie a few questions:

I believe you haven’t always been a career writer. Can you tell our readers what brought about the change in your career?

I’ve always been a writer, just not a full-time writer. As a seven year old I won a writing contest to name a pony and I’ve been writing ever since. At first it was mainly articles and poetry. In my early fifties when I became a self-employed researcher with a houseful of overseas students, I needed a break from real life and began to write Regencies. As the Regency market has become more and more crowded, my stories are seguing more into the Victorian era. (I’ve been reading in that era since I was eleven years old and I love the sense of order and responsibility). But my preference is for writing contemporary suspense novels where I can indulge my love of convoluted plots and forensic clues.

I see from your website that you’re a ‘panster’. How does this work in conjunction with writing suspense? Don’t you need to know beforehand where your story is going?As for being a pantser and knowing where my plots are going – I think about my books for some weeks. Then I do a very small outline of the story generally, about five or six sentences. But the real planning comes from the characterisation. I spend a lot of time working out the characters’ backgrounds, motives and the likely consequences of their behaviour. Then I jump into writing the book. But I never do chapter plans or story arcs. Just go where it leads me.

Writing any period novel must entail considerable research. Is it something you enjoy and do you have any methodology?

As for the research for my historicals, I have to admit I have a LOT of hard files which I’ve compiled over the years. They contain things like bridge building in Britain, the slums near the Thames, maps of old roads etc. Also I belong to Beaumonde, a chapter of the Romance Writers of America and their archives are amazing.

Do you have a typical day?

I have no typical writing day. I write every day, but sometimes for no more than an hour. Sometimes I get restless and bored so I relax by walk/jogging with the dog, going to the gym and reading, reading, reading.

Innocent Hostage was published in December 2014. Is its successor in the pipeline?

At present, although I am part way through another New Zealand set book about a negotiator with one of the Armed Offenders’ squads, I also got started on an idea put forward by The Wild Rose Press about a mythical town in Maine called Lobster Cove. Since I’m not American I had to do some intensive research.  At the request of the Carmichael family’s accountants, their son takes over a lobster packaging business to investigate the reasons behind a consistent drain on the company resources. At the same time he is coming to terms with the fact that he is adopted and that at least one of his natural parents comes from the little town of Lobster Cove.

Innocent Hostage is published by The Wild Rose Press in both paperback and e-book form. In an Alice in Wonderland world where everything is tipped upside down and every value questioned, how do you save the innocent? Two years ago, Breck Marchant handed his son, Kit, over to his ex-wife, Tania, even though it tore him apart. She knows all about kids. Thanks to his own upbringing, he hasn’t a clue. But when the boy is held hostage, Breck steps up to the plate.

Links:

Website:  www.vonniehughes.com

Blog:

Amazon:

Facebook:

It's been lovely talking to you, Vonnie. Thank you. 

The RNA Blog is brought to you by

Elaine Everest and Natalie Kleinman.

If you would like to write about the craft of writing or perhaps be interviewed about your writing life please contact us at elaineeverest@aol.com

Lost and Found in Translation

Janet Gover regales us with tales of translation trials....

I grew up in the Australian Outback. Well… we did have some trees, and it rained more than once a year, so I guess technically, it was the bush, not the outback.

After a couple of years in Hong Kong (where I met an Englishman) I moved to West London, whereupon I found myself surrounded by the strangest things.

A car boot sale? I'd never heard of such a thing.

Bread sauce – was my mother-in-law crazy? You don’t make sauce out of bread!

And why wouldn't the stores sell me a doona or a refidex?

I learned to translate. I bought a duvet instead of a doona, and a road atlas instead of a Refidex. At the same time, these differences started to inspire my writing. It's amazing how interesting the commonplace can be to a stranger.

I've published two books set in Australia with Little Black Dress (the third is with my editor now). E-mails with my editor tend to go a bit like this…

Editor: What is a feral ute?
Janet : A sort of flat tray work vehicle – a bit like what the Americans call a truck, but smaller, covered with lots of stickers from B&S Balls.
Editor : And B&S Balls are..?

….. and so on. (For the answer – you'll have to read my November release The Bachelor and Spinster Ball)

It never ceases to surprise me that so many things I take for granted are apparently out of the ordinary. Don't people spray food dye out of their mouths at country dances in the UK? I guess not.

As the books sell all over the world, including Australia, the challenge for me is getting the Australian setting right – using the right language – but at the same time not confusing a reader who might have trouble picturing a person with thongs on their feet. (If you are from the UK, think of flip flops.)

I now divide my time between two places, both of which I call home. Each time I get of a plane (at either end) I see new things, however small, which delight me, and it's not long before I start thinking… what if? At that point, there's a scene in a book not too far behind.

Janet's latest book THE BACHELOR AND SPINSTER BALL is out now.