Chatting with Marie Laval

Today Ellie Holmes interviews busy author, Marie Laval.

Welcome, Marie. I read on your blog that you are originally from Lyon in France but currently living in Lancashire - what brought you to the UK and is the UK home now?

     

Would it sound very clichéd if I said that it was love that brought me to England...to Bolton, to be

precise? Yet it is the truth.    Twenty-seven years later, I am still here, and we moved from Bolton to the beautiful (but very wet!) Rossendale Valley. For as long as I remember, I always had a fascination for England and everything English, and no one was surprised when I fell in love with an Englishman. I blame Agatha Christie, Wilkie Collins and Jane Austen!

When I was eighteen, I was so full of romantic notions about England that I registered as an au-pair and spent a few - miserable - weeks in Kent. I made my poor mother buy me a navy suit, a couple of white blouses and a pair of court shoes because I saw myself as a modern day Mary Poppins - the perfect nanny to two well-behaved children! Reality was very different, unfortunately. It wasn't a happy experience at all, and I escaped one morning at dawn by the garden gate, a few weeks only into the job!    

Luckily, I didn't let that bad experience stop me, and England is very much my home now.

You have beautiful, eye-catching covers. How much input do you have in your covers?

Thank you so much! I do love all my covers too. I have had quite a lot of input in them. I am quite sure my publisher found me quite difficult to work with at times, but it's hard to compromise when you imagine your characters in a certain way.

The cover for 'The Dream Catcher' is wonderfully atmospheric and perfectly captures the mood of the novel, which is set in the far North of Scotland in the heart of winter. Áccent Press have been very patient with me, and have indeed given me wonderful covers.

As a writer of both contemporary and historical romance which do you prefer and why?

If you had asked me that question last year, I would have answered without hesitation that I preferred historical romance. Things have changed a little now, because I have since then written more contemporary romance. The genres are different, the research process involved is different too, but at the end of the day I am writing a love story, and the most important, I think, is to show the conflict between the hero and the heroine and the triumph of love.

How do you go about the research for your historical novels?

I absolutely love research! There is nothing I enjoy more than finding anecdotes, little titbits of information, and quirky facts that lead me into a totally new direction. Being French, I am lucky to have access to material both in English and in French, so I have double the fun. I usually spend time looking at maps (I adore maps!) and photos or paintings of the settings. It is important to get the clothes right, as well as details such as uniforms for example.

In my debut historical romance Angel Heart, Hugo Saintclair, the hero, is a cuirassier captain. I found out that for part of the year cuirassiers had to wear a moustache, and I didn't like the idea at all, so I set the start of the novel at the time of the year when cuirassiers were allowed to shave their moustache...  

What is a typical writing day like for you? Do you have a word count target? Do you have a dedicated writing space?

I don't have any set routine, and no word count either. I write whenever I can, in the evenings after planning my lessons, cooking and cleaning, or in the morning at weekends when everybody is still asleep. Any minute I can grab is precious.

We moved house a few months ago, and after years of writing on the dining room table, I now have my own study. It feels like the ultimate luxury.

Facebook or Twitter? Which is your preferred promotion tool?

Facebook, definitely. I have made wonderful friends there, and some of them I am lucky to have met 'for real'- Helena  Fairfax, Sophie Claire, Sarah Mallory and Helen Pollard, to name but a few. I don't really understand Twitter and don't often venture there.  

How do relax when not writing?

To tell the truth, writing is for me the ultimate escape from daily life and the most relaxing activity I can think of. My writing time is always a wonderful treat, except perhaps when I get frustrated because I am stuck with a plotline or a character who refuses to talk to me!

I also love going for a walk. Living in the Rossendale Valley, I have great walks on my doorstep, even though I need a good rain coat and sturdy boots as it seems to rain more here than anywhere else.

I used to go running, but these past two years I have unfortunately let that slip. I have consequently put quite a lot of weight on and have become quite self-conscious about it. I tried yoga at my local sports centre last year and even though I did enjoy it, I was absolutely rubbish at it, so I decided to stick to walking. 

What’s next for author, Marie Laval?

I am writing a short Christmas novel set in the Lake District, which I hope will be the first of a series of stories set there. I spent a short holiday in Coniston last month and even though I had been there before, I was blown away by the beauty of the scenery and thought it would make a great setting for a series of romantic novels. As usual when I get an idea, I had to start writing straight away...

I am also editing a contemporary romantic suspense set in Scotland, and have two other projects on the go. One is a contemporary romantic suspense set in Paris for which I need to do more research - what a wonderful excuse for a mini-break there, isn't it? Another is a historical romance which I wrote years ago and which is set in late nineteenth century France. 

Thank you very  much for having me on the blog today! It's been wonderful.

Thank you for taking part, Marie, and good luck with your next book.

About Marie:

Originally from Lyon in France, Marie now lives in the beautiful Rossendale Valley and likes nothing more than dreaming up romance stories and handsome, brooding heroes. Her contemporary bestselling romance A spell in Provence, as well as her historical romances, Angel Heart, The Lion’s Embrace, and the Dancing for the Devil Trilogy are published by Áccent Press. She contributed to Letterbox Love Stories, a romantic anthology by international bestselling authors, which was released in July.

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DANCING FOR THE DEVIL Trilogy:

THE DREAM CATCHER, BLUE BONNETS and SWORD DANCE (Books 1, 2 and 3 in the DANCING FOR THE DEVIL Trilogy)

Can her love heal his haunted heart? - Cape Wrath, Scotland, November 1847. 

Bruce McGunn is a man as brutal and unforgiving as his land. Discharged from the army, he is haunted by the spectres of his fallen comrades and convinced he is going mad. And he is running out of time to save his estate from the machinations of Cameron McRae, heir to the McGunn's ancestral enemies. When the clipper carrying McRae’s new bride is caught in a violent storm and docks at Wrath harbour, Bruce decides to revert to the old ways and hold the clipper and the woman to ransom. However, far from the spoilt heiress he expected, Rose is genuine, funny and vulnerable – a ray of sunshine in the long, harsh winter that has become his life. 

Rose is determined to escape Wrath and its proud master – the man she calls McGlum. Will she be reunited with Cameron McRae, the dazzlingly handsome aristocrat she married after a whirlwind romance in Algiers, or will she risk her heart and her honour to help Bruce discover the truth about his past and solve the brutal murders committed on his land?

Thank you Ellie and Marie for such an interesting interview.

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

Helena Fairfax and a European Union with a Happy Ending

Helena Fairfax is usually to be found interviewing literary agents on the RNA blog. Today we're delighted to welcome Helena as one of the authors in the 'Letterbox Love Stories' anthology, a recent release by the World Romance Writers Group.

My first two novels were published by Canadian publishers MuseItUp, and since then I’ve made wonderful cyber friends across the pond. I joined several American author groups –  the excellent Marketing for Romance Writers, for example, and Exquisite Quills – and I’ve found tremendous support there, as well as a wealth of advice from fellow group members.

Late last year I was approached by American author Gemma Juliana, and  she asked if I’d be interested in being part of a new, international group of writers. Gemma’s idea was to put together a series of anthologies in order to reach out to new readers on both sides of the Atlantic. I’ve collaborated with Gemma before on a Christmas anthology (Exquisite Christmas came out last year) and it was great fun to do…so of course I said yes!

The World Romance Writers Group now consists of nine authors: three of us are RNA members –Lindsay Townsend, French author Marie Laval, and myself - plus British author Jenny Twist, who lives in Spain, Canadian Denysé Bridger, and Americans Cara Marsi, Gemma Juliana, Rose Anderson, and Lynn Crain, who lives in Austria.

Right from the start we decided the setting for all our stories should be Europe – but with such a range of writers, and from both sides of the pond, what should be their common theme? We talked about and discarded several ideas for something to bind our first anthology together until finally we hit on a theme that excited all of us: What if you received a letter that changed your life forever?

With that one simple idea – and with 10,000-15,000 words to play with - we each went away and worked on our own individual story. The imagination is a great thing, and I found it fascinating to watch completely different stories grow out of this one premise. And this is how our anthology, Letterbox Love Stories, was born. Our stories range in time from the medieval to the contemporary and even the futuristic, and have a range of settings across Europe, from Turkey to northern England – but they all begin with a letter.

Here are the blurbs of the RNA members’ stories, as a taster...!

Come Date Me in Paris, by Helena Fairfax (that's me :) )
When a letter arrives telling Alice she's won a place on a TV blind date show, she should be excited - only trouble is, the show involves cooking for your date, and in the country of haute cuisine, Alice can't even boil an egg. Forced to throw herself on the mercy of her chef neighbour, Edmond, Alice asks him for lessons. But will she be cooking up a romance...or cooking up disaster?

Sons of the Wind, by Marie Laval
Provence 1826. Ten years after her brother disappeared in the marshes of the Camargue, Venetia Rigby receives a letter suggesting he is alive. Will Philippe Dantès, half-gipsy master of Terres Mortes, help her find him when he has his own demons to fight?

Plain Harry, by Lindsay Townsend
Recovering from a brutal marriage, Esther is living quietly as a widow when a letter from her brother Sir Stephen destroys her contented life by ordering her to marry Sir Henry - but who is this “Plain Harry” and how will he treat her? Set in medieval England when women had few rights, this story shows how love can flourish between the unlikeliest of people.

* * * 

Each of our stories is very different but besides the letter theme they all have one other thing in common - they all end happily! 

We’re very excited to say that Letterbox Love Stories was released on 4^th July

And if you’d like to find out more about our World Romance Writers group, please visit our website, where you can find out about my own story, Come Date Me in Paris, here on our blog.

Buy Link Amazon UK

Helena Fairfax

Helena Fairfax was born in Uganda and came to England as a child. She's grown used to the cold now, and these days she lives in an old Victorian mill town in Yorkshire. Helena walks the Yorkshire moors every day with her rescue dog, finding this romantic landscape the perfect place to dream up her heroes and her happy endings. Her first novel was written through the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme and was shortlisted for the Global Ebook Awards, and in 2014 she was shortlisted for the Exeter Novel Prize

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If you wish to write for the blog or be interviewed please contact elaineeverest@aol.com

A Taste of France

Today we are delighted to welcome Marie Laval. Originally from Lyon in France, Marie studied History and Law at university there before moving to Lancashire where she worked in a variety of jobs, from PA in a busy university department to French teacher in secondary schools. Writing, however, was always her passion, and she spends most of her free time dreaming up stories. She has published two historical romances with MuseitUp Publishing, ANGEL HEART  and THE LION'S EMBRACE. A SPELL IN PROVENCE her first contemporary romance and is published by Áccent Press.

When did you decide to write your first book and how long did it take?

I wrote my first novel, ANGEL HEART, in just over six months. That was four years ago. I was so engrossed in the story that I spent all my free time working on it. I did have to rewrite and edit it extensively, so altogether it took me about a year. It was the same for A SPELL IN PROVENCE, my contemporary romantic suspense shortly to be released by Áccent Press. When I first got the idea for the plot during a family holiday in the South of France, I was working as a part-time teacher and had more time to write than I do now so I could complete the first draft quickly.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Yes. For as far as I can remember, writing was always my passion. As a teenager in France, I used to write the most ridiculous plays, poems and love stories with my best friend, some of which we would then perform and record on a cassette recorder. We were very silly but we had a lot of fun. To this day we still remember lines from our great dramatic masterpieces!  

How do you fit your writing around your home life?

I write in the evenings, after planning lessons and when my young daughter is in bed. Unfortunately it's often quite late when I start so I sometimes fall asleep on my keyboard. My favourite time to write is very early in the morning at weekends or during the holidays when everybody is still in bed and the house is quiet. I make myself a cup of tea and 'steal' a couple of hours at the computer. It feels like heaven.

How do you plan to promote your book?

I am not very good at promoting myself and I must say that it is the aspect of publishing a novel I enjoy the least. For A SPELL IN PROVENCE, I have contacted several author friends who have very kindly offered me a spot on their blog, and I may organize a tour and a couple of special events as well after the book is published. 

Did you find it difficult to move from historical to contemporary romance?

Not really. People often think that historical romances require a lot more research and are more tricky to write than contemporary novels, but I find both genres equally exciting and challenging. For example, I am really bad at understanding and using the latest technological gadgets and I had to do some research into mobile phones in order not to make any mistakes.

In the end, whether the novel takes place nowadays or in the nineteenth century, my aim is the same - to write a love story between two appealing characters.

How good are you at planning your work? Do you prefer to wing it?

I am hopeless at planning. Although I usually have an idea about the main plotline and can visualise the final scene when I start the story, I tend to just get on with it and let things happen - or not! I would love to be better at plotting because I waste a lot of time exploring a storyline, only to backtrack and delete entire chapters a few weeks later.

Do you enjoy research?

I love it. In fact, I love it far too much and often have to restrain myself and get back to writing the story.

What did you enjoy most about writing your novel?

I enjoyed finding out about the ancient history of Provence, which is fascinating, and I loved even more surrounding myself with photos of hill-top villages, of old fountains and of lavender and sunflower fields. I spent many holidays in the South of France as a child and writing A SPELL IN PROVENCE brought back fond memories of sitting in a fragrant garden in the sunshine, breathing in the scents of flowers and grasses, and listening to the cicadas.

If you could rescue only one book from your burning home what would it be?

Just one? I think I would take a book of poems by Jacques Prévert or Victor Hugo.

What is next for Marie Laval?

My next historical romance, DANCING FOR THE DEVIL, will be published by Áccent Press in the New Year, and I am currently working on another contemporary romance which I hope to finish by Christmas.

It's been lovely chatting with you Marie. Thank you for joining us today

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A Spell in Provence is currently available from Accent Press

and will be available on Amazon from 19^th December 2014

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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