July Publications

Welcome to Sheila Riley with another bumper crop of members'  publications.

TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED:

JULIE COHEN

TOGETHER

Hardback, Orion

Commercial Fiction

13th July 2017

Is this a great love story? Or a story about great love? You decide.

On a morning that seems just like any other, Robbie wakes in his bed, his wife Emily asleep beside him, as always. He rises and dresses, makes his coffee, feeds his dogs, just as he usually would. But then he leaves Emily a letter and does something that will break her heart. As the years go back all the way to 1962, Robbie's actions become clearer as we discover the story of a couple with a terrible secret - one they will do absolutely anything to protect.

“Beautifully written and evocative”

(The Independent Top Ten Book Club Reads 2017)

JILL BARRY

SUMMER LOVE

Linford Romance Paperback

F A Thorpe

Large Print Romance

1st July 2017

It’s 1966 and Liz Lane, longing for change, takes a job as secretary to the Entertainments Manager of Rainbows Holiday Camp. She’s thrown into a world of sun and fun, despite long hours. Before long, Liz is wearing a Rainbows uniform, enjoying the challenge and making friends, but how come she ends up at loggerheads with Chief Host Rob when their attraction towards each other is obvious? She considers handing in her notice but her boss has other ideas.

KAREN KING

THE CORNISH HOTEL BY THE SEA

Paperback (and e-book)

Accent Press

Contemporary Romance

13th July 2017

The Cornish Hotel by the Sea: Escape to Cornwall with this perfect summer read!

"A feel-good summer escape." Mandy Baggott

Ellie Truman’s widowed mum is struggling to keep Gwel Teg, the family hotel in Cornwall, afloat.  Ellie is determined to do everything in her power to help her, even if that means moving back to the sleepy Cornish village she fled from broken-hearted a few years ago. Things go wrong from the start and she’s grateful for the help from hunky guest, Reece Mitchell. But does Reece have ulterior motives? Will Ellie’s efforts be for nothing?

JANICE PRESTON

CINDERELLA AND THE DUKE

Paperback and ebook

Mills & Boon

historical romance

1st July 2017

Never welcomed into society circles, Rosalind Allen gave up her marriage prospects long ago - life has taught her she'll only get hurt. So she's shocked when an encounter with a mysterious stranger makes her long to reconsider. Little does Rosalind know that her mystery man is Leo Beauchamp, Duke of Cheriton, travelling in disguise to evade the ladies of the ton! Impoverished Rosalind is the first woman to captivate Leo - but can he persuade this wary Cinderella to trust him with her heart?

NICOLA PRYCE

THE CAPTAIN’S GIRL

Paperback

Corvus books

Historical Saga

July 6th 2017

Cornwall 1793 - As the French Revolution threatens the stability of England, so too is discontent brewing in the heart of Celia Cavendish. Promised to the brutal Viscount Vallenforth, she must find a way to break free from the bounds of a life stifled by convention and cruelty. Inspired by her cousin Arbella, who just a few months earlier followed her heart and eloped with the man she loved, she vows to escape her impending marriage and take her destiny back into her own hands. She enlists her neighbours, Sir James and Lady Polcarrow, who have themselves made a dangerous enemy of Celia's father, in the hope of making a new life for herself. But can the Polcarrows' mysterious friend Arnaud, captain of the cutter L'Aigrette, protect Celia from a man who will let nothing stand in the way of his greed? And will Arnaud himself prove to be friend... or foe?

This is the second book in my Cornish Saga published by Corvus Books - the next book, The Cornish Dressmaker will be published next Year.

LYNDA STACEY

HOUSE OF SECRETS

Paperback

Choc Lit

4th July 2017                          

A woman on the run, a broken man and a house with a shocking secret …

Madeleine Frost has to get away. Her partner Liam has become increasingly controlling to the point that Maddie fears for her safety, and that of her young daughter Poppy.

Desperation leads Maddie to the hotel owned by her estranged father – the extraordinarily beautiful Wrea Head Hall in Yorkshire. There, she meets Christopher ‘Bandit’ Lawless, an ex-marine and the gamekeeper of the hall, whose brusque manner conceals a painful past. After discovering a diary belonging to a previous owner, Maddie and Bandit find themselves immersed in the history of the old house, uncovering its secrets, scandals, tragedies – and, all the while, becoming closer. But Liam still won’t let go, he wants Maddie back, and when Liam wants something he gets it, no matter who he hurts … 

EVIE GRACE

HALF A SIXPENCE

Paperback

Arrow

saga

13th July 2017

Catherine Rook takes her peaceful life for granted. Her days are spent at the village school and lending a hand on her family’s farm. Life is run by the seasons, and there’s little time for worry. But rural unrest begins sweeping through Kent, and when Pa Rook buys a threshing machine it brings turbulence and tragedy to Wanstall Farm. With the Rooks’ fortunes forever changed, Catherine must struggle to hold her family together.

She turns to her childhood companion, Matty Carter, for comfort, and finds more than friendship in his loving arms. But Matty has his own family to protect, and almost as quickly as their love blossomed their future begins to unravel. With the threat of destitution nipping at her heels, Catherine must forge a way out of ruin . . .

HEIDI SWAIN

COMING HOME TO CUCKOO COTTAGE

Paperback and ebook

Simon and Schuster

Women's commercial fiction

July 13^th 2017

When Lottie Foster’s grandmother’s best friend Gwen dies, she leaves Lottie her lovely home, Cuckoo Cottage. Lottie loves the cottage but Matt, a charming local builder, points out that beneath its charm it is falling apart. Luckily he is always on hand to help with the problems that somehow seem to keep cropping up. But is he just a bit too good to be true? Certainly Will, Lottie’s closest neighbour, seems to think so. Lottie plans to set up her own business renovating vintage caravans. She hasn’t told anyone about the project she has cooked up with Jemma from The Cherry Tree Café to repurpose Gwen’s old caravan and turn it into a gorgeous tearoom. But before she can finally enjoy living with her legacy she must uncover who she can trust, and who to avoid. And with two men vying for her attention, will she also find love?

MANDY BAGGOT

SINGLE FOR THE SUMMER

Ebury Publishing

27th July 2017

Tess Parks has made up her mind: love isn’t for her. When it comes to dating she has one rule: after six weeks with a guy, she ends it. So when her heartbroken best friend invites her for a girly getaway in Corfu, Tess is sure she can stick to their pact to stay single for the summer. But then she meets the gorgeous restaurateur Andras…

ROSIE HENDRY

EAST END ANGELS

Hardback and ebook

Little Brown, Sphere

13th July 2017

Strong-willed Winnie loves being part of the crew at Station Seventy-Five but her parents are less than happy. She has managed to avoid their pleas to join the WRENS so far but when a tragedy hits too close to home she finds herself wondering if she's cut out for this life after all. Former housemaid Bella was forced to leave the place she loved when she lost it all and it's taken her a while to find somewhere else to call home. She's finally starting to build a new life but when the air raids begin, it seems she may have to start over once again. East-Ender Frankie's sense of loyalty keeps her tied to home so it's not easy for her to stay focused at work. With her head and heart pulling in different directions, will she find the strength to come through for her friends when they need her the most? Brought together at LAAS Station Seventy-Five in London's East End during 1940, these three very different women soon realise that they'll need each other if they're to get through the days ahead. But can the ties of friendship, love and family all remain unbroken?

JEN GILROY

SUMMER ON FIREFLY LAKE

Mass Market paperback, Ebook, Audiobook

Hachette Book Group USA, Grand Central, Forever

Contemporary Romance

25th July 2017

Sometimes love is better the second time around . . .

Mia Gibbs spent her marriage putting her husband’s needs before her own. And now, after a painful divorce, she’s building a new life for herself and her two daughters back home at Firefly Lake. The last thing she needs is a man to complicate things. But former bad boy turned friend Nick McGuire- and the one kiss they’ve shared- has turned everything upside down . . . Attorney Nick McGuire wasn’t meant to be a family man. His career has always been his focus and after taking time out to help his mother, he’s ready to get back to the city . . . until Mia and her daughters arrive at Firefly Lake. Mia is beautiful and intriguing, and it doesn’t take long to realize being “just friends” will never be enough. As the summer nights turn colder, Nick will have to choose between the life he’s always wanted . . . and the woman he can’t live without.

LINN B. HALTON

THE SECRETS OF VILLA ROSSO

E-book

Harper Impulse

Women's Contemporary/Mystery/Romance

21st July 2017

Some places stay with you forever…

When Ellie Maddison is sent on a business trip to Southern Italy, she's reminded why she loves her job – set amongst rolling vineyards and rich olive groves, the beautiful Villa Rosso is the perfect escape from her life back home. But what Ellie isn't prepared for is the instant connection she feels to the estate's director Max Johnson, or the secrets they share that are as intertwined as the rambling vines that cover Villa Rosso. It's not long before Ellie finds herself entangled in the history of the place, trying to understand the undeniable effect Max is having on her. As their relationship grows, what will Ellie discover about this idyllic villa and those who have walked through its doors?

What started as a simple work trip will change Ellie's life forever.

CARRIE ELKS

SUMMER’S LEASE

Paperback & E-book

Piatkus (Little Brown)

Contemporary romance

13th July 2017

Meet the Shakespeare family: four sisters, four stories . . . four ways to find true love

Cesca Shakespeare has hit rock bottom. Six years after the play she wrote bombed at the box office, she's unable to hold down a job, keep an apartment, and worst of all her family have no idea how far she's fallen. So when her fairy Godfather offers her the use of his friend's Italian villa for the summer, she grudgingly agrees to try writing a new play. That's before she finds out the house belongs to her arch-nemesis, Sam Carlton.

When Hollywood heart-throb Sam Carlton sees his name splashed across a gossip rag, all he wants to do is hide. That's how he finds himself traveling to Italy, deciding to spend the summer in his family's empty villa on Lake Como. Except when he arrives it isn't as empty as he'd hoped. Over the course of the hot Italian summer, Cesca and Sam have to come to terms with their pasts. What begins as a tentative friendship quickly grows into an intense attraction - and then a scorching fling. But they can't hide from reality forever. as their different worlds collide, Sam and Cesca face a choice: is this just a summer romance, or could their love weather even the coldest winds?

E-BOOKS:

CHRISSIE LOVEDAY

DYING TO TAKE THE TOUR

E-book.

Endeavour Press

Cornish Murder Mystery

July 2017

A group of people take a tour round Cornwall to look at the sites where Poldark was filmed. They spend the night at an hotel and someone is murdered.

Who did it? Why? Why did two of the guests disappear in the night?

JULIA IBBOTSON

A SHAPE ON THE AIR

E-book and paperback

Endeavour Press

Historical (medieval) time-slip romance

28th July 2017

E-book on pre-order on Amazon

Paperback mid-August

Two women 1500 years apart. One need: to save the world they know. Can they help each other to achieve their greatest desire? And what if that world they want is not the one that's best for them?  University lecturer in medieval studies, Dr Viv Dulac, is devastated when her partner walks out (and with her best friend too!) and threatens her home.  Drunk and desperate, her world quite literally turns upside down and she finds herself in the body of the fifth century Lady Vivianne, who is struggling with the shifting values of the Dark Ages and her forced betrothal to  the brutish Sir Pelleas who is implicated in the death of her parents. Haunted by both Lady Vivianne and by Viv's own parents' death and legacy, can Viv unravel the web of mystery that surrounds and connects their two lives, and bring peace to them both?

A haunting story of lives intertwining across the ages, of the triumph of the human spirit and of dreams lost and found.

HELEN POLLARD

SUMMER AT THE LITTLE FRENCH GUESTHOUSE (La Cour des Roses Book 3)

E-book and paperback

Bookouture

12th July 2017

Summer sun, chilled, white wine, and a gorgeous fiancé. Nothing could upset pure bliss ... Right?

Emmy Jamieson loves her new life in the gentle hills and sunflowers of the lush French countryside, managing La Cour des Roses, a beautiful, white stone guesthouse. With marriage to caramel-eyed Alain just round the corner, things couldn’t be more perfect.

The odd glass (gallon) of wine dulls the sound of Emmy’s mum in full motherzilla-of-the-bride mode, and the faint tinkling of alarm bells coming from Alain’s ex are definitely nothing to worry about. Guesthouse owner Rupert and a whole host of old and new friends are there to make sure nothing gets in the way of Emmy’s happiness. But as Emmy gets close to the big day, a secret from the past throws everything decidedly off track. Will her idyllic French wedding go ahead as planned, or will Emmy run back home to England with a broken heart? This summer, escape to the rolling vineyards of France for an utterly uplifting read. Fans of Jenny Colgan, Debbie Johnson and Nick Alexander

will want to join Emmy for a pain au chocolat in the sun-drenched garden at La Cour des Roses.

TANITH DAVENPORT

ECHOES OF LOVE

E-book

Totally Bound

Paranormal

18th July 2017

Paranormal writer Kala Westenra, staying with her best friend Vika in Norway, is hunting for a new subject for an article, and finds it when she hears footsteps in the hall twenty minutes before Vika's hot brother Tor Viitanen arrives home. This, Vika tells her, is the vardoger - a Norwegian ghost, a future echo which always precedes a person's arrival. Kala plans to stake out the hallway to catch the vardoger in the act - and is shocked when, on its arrival, it kisses her. Her feelings for Tor have been hidden ever since she first met him two years ago; could it be that the vardoger is acting on Tor's secret desire for her? As Kala and Tor work together to understand what is happening with the spirit, their longing for each other begins to overtake them - but the vardoger has more to show them than they expected...

RACHEL DOVE

THE FLOWER SHOP OF FOXELY STREET

E-Book

HQ Digital

26th July 2017

Welcome back to Westfield!

Lily Baxter is looking forward to running her business, now she has bought her parents out. With a long engagement to Stuart, and a good friend in Roger, she should be loving life, but things just don't seem quite right. Bert and Lizzie Baxter should be enjoying their retirement, but their house is feeling less like a home and more like a prison. What is going wrong in their twilight years? Will Singer is a newcomer to the village, and keeps himself to himself. Working with his hands in the gardens of Westfield should bring him peace, but under the surface, everything isn't coming up roses for Will.

MAGGIE'S GARDEN, Book 3 Tingara Series

E-book and paperback

Amazon

Rural romance

7th May 2017

Three women arrive in Tingara for different reasons and become friends.

Dumped redhead, Maggie Ellis, buys a neglected cottage, Lakeside, in Tingara on acreage to start her life over and fulfil her dream of owning a garden nursery. Divorced truck driver and single dad, Nick Logan, has his hands full enough raising three sons alone without getting distracted by his new neighbour. Can Maggie and Nick lose their caution to overcome personal issues and allow their love to grow?

GEORGINA TROY

SUMMER SUNDAES, THE BOARDWALK BY THE SEA book 1

E-book

Chick Lit

15^th July 2017

Book one in a series of four stand-alone books.

Wipe off your flip flops, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

When Sacha Collins, café owner and sundae-maker extraordinaire, meets Italian archaeologist, Alessandro Salvatore in Rome, she's grateful to him for being her tour guide. Now he’s turned up in the seaside village where she lives, known locally as

The Boardwalk by the Sea and is setting up a gelateria in direct competition to her retro Summer Sundaes Café. She's only been running her café for two years since taking over from her father and until now the only other shops on the boardwalk, a wool shop, an antique shop and a second-hand book shop have helped rather than hindered her custom.

How will her creative sundaes made from fresh Jersey ice cream compete with his delicious Italian gelatos? Sacha is worried. Is there enough custom for both businesses to thrive? Who is behind the strange changes being made at night on the boardwalk? And when the oldest resident on the boardwalk is threatened with eviction can Sacha and Alessandro come together and find a way of helping her? For a peaceful little boardwalk overlooking one of the quieter beaches on the island, there's an awful lot going on and some of it is going to lead to big changes

MERRYN ALLINGHAM

THE SECRET OF SUMMERHAYES

E-book, paperback and audio

HQ, HarperCollins

Historical romantic suspense

27th July, 2017

A war-torn summer - A house fallen into ruin - A family decimated…

Summer 1944: Bombed out of London by the Blitz, Bethany Merston takes up a post as companion to elderly Alice Summer, last remaining inhabitant of the dilapidated and crumbling Summerhayes estate. Now a shadow of its former glory, the house and gardens have been requisitioned by the military and show the scars of army occupation. Alice has struggled with the realities of war but is now plagued by anonymous letters and haunting visions of her old household. At first, Beth tries to convince her it’s all in her mind, but soon it becomes clear that a sinister force is once more at work in the Summer family. 

The Secret of Summerhayes tells of dark secrets, almost-forgotten scandals and a household teetering on the edge of ruin.

LEAH MERCER (TALLI ROLAND)

THE MAN I THOUGHT YOU WERE

E-book, paperback, audio

Lake Union (Amazon Publishing)

Women’s fiction

25th July 2017

One fine autumn evening, Anna returns from work and starts making dinner, eager to welcome home her husband, Mark. It’s just like any other day in their ten-year, Pinterest-perfect marriage—until he says he’s leaving her. Discovering that the man she thought she knew better than anyone else is capable of abandoning it all sends Anna reeling.

She believed the life they’d built together – and the bright future they’d imagined—counted for everything. How can he walk away? The truth is Mark is battling secrets of his own — secrets Anna knows nothing about. A painful past and an uncertain future threaten to bring his life down around him—and he’ll do anything not to expose her to that. But unravelling the past is lonelier than Mark could ever have imagined and, as the days turn to months, Anna worries the separation will break them forever. Can she bring him back from the brink of self-destruction before it’s too late, or will she discover that she never really knew him at all?

TANYA JEAN RUSSELL

BROKEN TRUST

E-book and POD

Evernight

Romantic Suspense

6th July 2017

An attack at her sister’s society wedding leaves Elizabeth Worthington on the run. Desperate to find a way to save both her family and their airline she isn’t about to let anything get in her way. Whether it’s a little thing like her own safety or something bigger, like her growing attraction to the compelling stranger she has woken up with. Chase Maddox is having a really bad day. He has better things to do than hang around babysitting a spoiled heiress who is determined to put herself in harm’s way. The fact that she turns out to be anything but the pampered princess he expected is irrelevant.

He has his own personal mission to complete. The price if he succeeds? The destruction of everything Elizabeth holds dear.

SELF-PUBLISHED:

KATE JOHNSON

MAX SEVENTEEN: FIREBRAND

E-book and paperback

KDP and Createspace

4th July 2017

Sequel to Rona award winning Max Seventeen: Firebrand continues Max and Riley's story...

Max has always eaten life in very small bites. Now it's coming at her in great big mouthfuls. Riley used to have very short horizons. Now the future stretches out further than he can see. They've made the starship Eurydice their home and forged a family out of the strange and dangerous crew, but when the past comes calling it threatens to drive a wedge between them all and shatter the bonds they've made. With the crew of the Eurydice scattered and an unknown menace stalking them across the universe, Max and Riley are faced with the ultimate question of trust and an enemy neither of them quite knows how to fight.

HELENA FAIRFAX

FELICITY AT THE CROSS HOTEL

Kindle and print

Contemporary romance

7th July 2017

A quaint hotel in a romantic landscape. The Lake District is the perfect getaway. Or is it?

Felicity Everdene needs a break from the family business. Driving through the Lake District to the Cross Hotel, past the shining lake and the mountains, everything seems perfect. But Felicity soon discovers all is not well at the Cross Hotel … Patrick Cross left the village of Emmside years ago never intending to return, but his father has left him the family’s hotel in his will, and now he's forced to come back. With a missing barmaid, a grumpy chef, and the hotel losing money, the arrival of Felicity Everdene from the notorious Everdene family only adds to Patrick’s troubles. With so much to overcome, can Felicity and Patrick bring happiness to the Cross Hotel … and find happiness for themselves?

MARIE LAVAL (together with a five other authors)

ESCAPE TO AFRICA

E-book and print

World Romance Writers (self-publish)

Anthology of Romantic Short Stories by six romantic novelists

ebook 14th July 2017, print book 15th July 2017

Let your wild side free and Escape to Africa! Come along on an adventure through these 6 stories brought to you by 6 best-selling/award-winning authors. You’ll uncover tales of an undercover operative in Casablanca, a safari guide in the Serengeti, students on holiday in Morocco, time-traveling agents in Tripoli, vengeance in Algeria, and deadly secrets in Carthage. Each of these stories will captivate you with love, danger, intrigue, and excitement. What better way to Escape? My contribution to the anthology is a short story called The Ravine of the Wild Woman. Algeria, North Africa, 1865: Lenora Sharp is Azerwal's perfect woman. Brave, determined and unconventional, she is also related to the man who stole his name, his childhood and his identity - the very man he has vowed to destroy, even if it takes him all the way to hell. Will love get in the way of revenge, or will Azerwal lose his soul before he loses his heart?

HELEN J ROLFE

YOU, ME, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

Amazon KDP

E-book

21st June 2017

Can you ever rewrite the past?

Lydia and Theo face the unthinkable when a knock at the door changes everything.

As Theo lies unconscious, Lydia begins to pick up the pieces, but not every part of the puzzle fits together as neatly as it did before. And when Lydia begins to move on, what happens when Theo wakes up and realises she didn’t wait for him?

Theo and Lydia have a history together, but do they still have a future?

Or has too much happened to be able to forgive and forget?

July Competition Monthly!

Welcome to another great competition round-up from Francesca!

There's a bumper crop of competitions this month as the blogs having a holiday over August.

Five competitions were disregarded due to the stipulation that simply entering gave the company permission to publish the piece, with no guarantee of payment.

Unless there is some other, good advantage to entering, this is definitely not on. As far as I can tell,

the ones I've included don't have this clause, but it's always worth sifting through the rules to make sure.

You'll notice the entry fees vary enormously from £3 to £25. This usually reflects the prize money available. The prize money, in turn, might indicate how many people will enter the competition. Sometimes it's better to enter those with less prize money knowing there may be fewer entrants.

This month an article competition has been included. This should be right up all our streets, as it asks us to relate our 'writing day'. For some of us that might be 'night'. For many writers, one day is never the same as the next, but at least that should make the entries varied.

I'm sure there are those of you who like to dabble in poetry from time to time (I know I do!), so those comps that also have a poetry section have been highlighted.

See you again in September for the next round of comps. Have a good summer.

Happy comping everyone, and don't forget to let us know of any competition success you have.

**Reminder**
Mslexia Women's novel competition
Theme: Fiction for adults or YA, at least 50K. Send 5,000 word extract.
Prize: £5,000
Closing date: 18 September 2017
Entry: £25
Details 

The Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize
Theme: Open, 6,000 words max.
Prize: £1,000 or 12 months editorial support / 3 x shortlisted each £150 / 10 x longlisted £50 book vouchers.
Closing date: 27 August 2017
Entry: £10
Details 

The Willesden Herald New Short Stories Competition
Theme: Open, 7,500 words max.
Prize: £300 / £200 / 8 x £75. All published in anthology.
Closing date: 31 August 2017
Entry: £7.50
Details

The Exeter Flash Fiction Competition
Theme: Open, 250 words max
Prize: £100 / £50
Closing date: 31 August 2017
Entry: £4
Details 

The Scribble Article Competition
Theme: 'My Writing Day', 1,000 – 1,500 words.
Prize: £50 / £25 / £15
Closing date: 31 August 2017
Entry: £3
Details

Hammond House Short Story Competition
Theme: 'Eternal', 2,000 – 7,000 words. (Also poetry)
Prize: £600 / £100 / £50
Competition deadline: 31 August 2017
Entry: £10
Details

Aesthetica Creative Writing Award
Theme: Open. 2,000 words max. (Also poetry)
Prize: £1,000 and consultation with Redhammer Management
Closing date: 31 August 2107
Entry: £18
Details

Articium Short Story Competition
Theme: Open, 4,000 words max. (Also poetry)
Prize: £350 / £75 / £50 plus puplication
Closing date: 31 August 2017
Entry: £5
Details

Mags4Dorset 9th Short Story Competition
Theme: Using one of three photographs provided. 1,000 words max.
Prize: £150 / £25
Closing date: 31 August 2017
Entry: £4
Details 

Ely City Short Story Competition
Theme: 'Courage', 1,500 words max.
Prize: £50
Closing date: 21 September 2017
Entry: £5
Details

Erewash Writers' Short Story Competition
Theme: Open, 2,500 words max.
Prize: £100 / £60 / £25 / £15
Closing date: 21 September 2017
Entry: £3
Details

Kosta's Olive Tree Competition
Theme: 'Someone who stands up for what they believe in', 1,200 – 1,500 words.
Prize: £70 / 2 x £30
Closing date: 22 September 2017
Entry: £4 (All profits to charity)
Details 

London Short Story Prize (for writers with a London postcode)
Theme: Open, 5,000 words max.
Prize: £1,000 / highly commended and shortlisted entries will be paid for publication.
Closing date: Midday 9 October 2017
Entry: £6
Details 


About Francesca:

Francesca Capaldi Burgess has been placed or shortlisted in twenty student competitions and a dozen national ones including Winchester Writers' Conference, Retreat West, Meridian Writing, Frome, Twyford Writers, Flash a Famous Phrase, Wells Festival and Writing Magazine. She's had stories and a serial published in magazines worldwide and in three anthologies, including Diamonds and Pearls and 100 Stories for Haiti. She is a member of the RNA New Writers' Scheme and the Society for Women Writers and Journalists. Francesca runs a writing blog along with RNA member Elaine Roberts called Write Minds.

Francesca's Twitter

Thanks, Fran! Good luck to everyone and if you would like to write for the RNA Blog, then please contact us at elaineeverest@aol.com

This blog was prepared by blog team member, Louisa Heaton.

Helena Fairfax: Why Hotels Make a Wonderful Setting for Writers

Helena Fairfax is known to followers of the RNA blog for her interviews with literary agents. It's a great pleasure to welcome Helena to this side of the desk to talk about her novel Felicity at the Cross Hotel, which is released today.

Happy publication day, Helena, and welcome to the spotlight!

Thank you! I'll just pull up my chair...!

Hotels make a wonderful setting for writers. When I was a student I worked for several months as a barmaid in a hotel in the Bavarian Alps. I was trying to improve my German, and I did improve it…kind of! I came home knowing how to swear in dialect, knowing the Bavarian for a white wine spritz (ein Weissweinschorle, if you're ever in the Alps and urgently in need of one), and with an accent that the rest of Germany found side-splittingly funny. And because of the working environment, I also made close friendships with people I would never have met otherwise.

Hotels make a great setting for books because they bring together such a wide range of people. Everyone in a hotel has a story to tell and no matter what their background they are all forced to interact with one another - from the barmaid like me to the billionaire who drinks champagne for breakfast and leaves enormous tips in dollars.

View from my room in Bavaria

The hotel I worked in was in a remote spot right at the top of a mountain, but even in the heart of London the staff of a hotel can feel cut off from the rest of the world, especially if they live in. This feeling of isolation has provided the perfect creepy setting for some brilliant books like The Shining, or Pyscho, or Jamaica Inn. Being temporarily thrown together with someone else, in an idyllic setting far from others, can also make deep relationships grow quickly and provide the perfect setting for romance to flourish.

The Lake District (photo courtesy of Pixabay)

The hotel in my novel Felicity at the Cross Hotel bears a strong resemblance to my own hotel in the Alps. They are both on a mountain, in a romantic setting, and full of unlikely people thrown together. I even based my fictional head waiter – Johnny – on an Italian waiter in my hotel called Gionni. Gionni was desperately in love with one of the chambermaids. Sadly, his love was unrequited, and he would pour his heart out at great length to me as I poured out the Weinschorles and frothy beers during the evening shift. My fictional Johnny suffers in a similar way, and my heroine Felicity goes to great lengths to try and help him.

The friends I made in my Bavarian hotel are still really close friends today, many years later. Felicity at the Cross Hotel is about love and friendship, and feel good romance.

Blurb:

A quaint hotel in the Lake District. The Cross Hotel is the perfect getaway. Or is it?

Felicity Everdene needs a break from the family business. Driving through the Lake District to the Cross Hotel, past the shining lake and the mountains, everything seems perfect. But Felicity soon discovers all is not well at the Cross Hotel …
Patrick Cross left the village of Emmside years ago never intending to return, but his father has left him the family’s hotel in his will, and now he's forced to come back. With a missing barmaid, a grumpy chef, and the hotel losing money, the arrival of Felicity Everdene from the notorious Everdene family only adds to Patrick’s troubles.
With so much to overcome, can Felicity and Patrick bring happiness to the Cross Hotel … and find happiness for themselves?

Author Biography:

Helena Fairfax was born in Uganda and came to England as a child. She's grown used to the cold now which is just as well, since these days she lives in an old Victorian mill town in the north of England, right next door to the windswept Yorkshire moors. Helena walks this romantic landscape every day with her rescue dog, finding it the perfect place to dream up her heroes and her happy endings. Subscribers to Helena's newsletter receive news of free stuff, competitions with prizes, gossip, and links to cool websites she's been looking at when she should have been writing.

Helena's Website

Felicity at the Cross Hotel is released today - hooray! - and available here on Amazon 

Thank you for letting me sit on this side of the RNA blog's desk!

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Thanks for dropping in, Helena, and many congratulations on release. We can't wait to meet the characters in the Cross Hotel!

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

Ellie Holmes: Writers Rock!

Welcome to Ellie Holmes who writes for the blog on living up to the ideals of being a writer.

I recently had the good fortune to visit the Winchester Literary Festival.  The keynote speaker was the

charismatic and energetic performance poet Lemn Sissay.  If any of you are unfamiliar with this powerhouse of a talent do check him out on social media or better yet in performance – I promise that you will not be disappointed.

Lemn touched on many themes during his inspirational speech one of those being how hard it is to be a writer.  As he put it: ‘There are not many areas of life where you sit down to do your job and are faced with the prospect that you may be crap every day’. 

I know I am not alone in finding it a constant struggle to live up to the ideal of all that I hope to achieve with my work, to capture that perfect idea and wrestle it on to a page or to hit a self-imposed word count on a day when the words are harder to pin down than jelly to a ceiling.

So often we get caught up in the push and pull of deadlines, the demands of our work in progress, the desire to post, tweet, pin, blog and vlog our way to that elusive sunlit upland called success that we lose sight of who we are and why we started down this road in the first place.

It’s a tough gig this writing lark. The fact that we turn up and keep going, often in the face of adversity, is something we, as writers, do not give ourselves enough credit for, I think. 

Writers must have the soul of a poet, the hide of a rhinoceros and, above all, the heart of a lion.

The wounds inflicted by disappointment, rejection or broken hearts are subsumed into our writing psyche to feed the well as much as the joy, excitement and fun we experience. We then take that pain and re-live it, using it to inform our characters and plumb the emotional depths needed to reach out and touch others.

That is the reality of life as a writer and yet we still find the courage to sit down and do it anyway,

facing the fear, doubt and pain and working our way through it. Go, us!

As Lemn says, ‘Writers rock!’ and he’s right, we do!

About Ellie:

Ellie Holmes writes commercial women’s fiction with her heart in the town and her soul in the country. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors, Ellie’s latest book, White Lies is out now.

Link to Amazon

Thank you, Ellie and good luck with White Lies!

Would you like to write for the RNA blog? Contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

Ask the Industry Expert: Literary Agent Diana Beaumont

It's a great pleasure to welcome literary agent Diana Beaumont to the RNA blog today. Diana joined Marjacq Scripts in 2017.  She started agenting with Rupert Heath Literary Agency in 2011 before moving to UTA. Before that she was senior commissioning editor at Transworld. Diana was chosen as one of The Bookseller’s Rising Stars of 2012.

Diana is chatting with Helena Fairfax. Welcome, both!

Hello, Diana! Please tell us a little about the Marjacq Scripts, how long it’s been established, and how you came to join?

Marjacq Scripts was founded in 1974 and is a full service boutique literary agency. There are five agents plus our MD and we all specialise in different areas, although there is some overlap which is incredibly helpful. We work in a very collaborative way and it’s an exciting time to be part of the team as we have expanded significantly in recent years. I joined this year. I have known Phil Patterson – who heads up the book department as far as there is a formal hierarchy – since I was a commissioning editor at Transworld. I like and respect him very much and the same applies to my colleagues, so it seemed like a good fit.

What genres do you represent?

Women’s commercial fiction (although it does annoy me that we have to specify this!), reading group fiction, crime, thrillers and cover memoir, cookery and lifestyle when it comes to non-fiction. As an agency we also cover literary fiction and non-fiction, genre and speculative fiction, true crime, children’s and YA.

What is it you are looking for when a manuscript lands on your desk? Are there any specific plots or themes you’d like to see?

I think the voice always has to resonate with you but the combination of a strong hook and plot is a winner for me. I get incredibly excited when it all comes together in that way. I am interested in motherhood, looking to take on more diverse voices and am drawn towards strong female/feminist central characters, but also like to keep an open mind.

Have you noticed any particular trends in romance in the past year or so, and if so, what do you think publishers are looking for at the moment?

There have been a number of novels coming out that would appeal to fans of Jojo Moyes – they cover dark subjects with a light touch so that humour sits alongside the sadness. They play on the emotions so that you laugh and cry. I am looking forward to seeing How to be Happy, by Eva Woods, launch in February 2018 from Little,Brown which is perfect for that audience. I can’t wait, either, for the paperback publication of Hot Mess, by Lucy Vine, from Orion which subverts the traditional rom com and reassesses attitudes to being single amongst millennials in a hilarious way and is, I hope, ahead of the curve, as well as providing a much needed laugh. Look Magazine said it was even better than Bridget Jones!  There seems to be an interest in what could have been: from Kate Atkinson to Kate Eberlen’s Miss You and Laura Barnett’s The Versions of Us. Publishers are also keen on upmarket sagas with family secrets or an element of mystery at the moment and the line between romantic fiction and psychological suspense is sometimes blurred, as the latter has been so successful of late. I wonder also whether there will also be a desire for pure escapist fun in such uncertain times.

Do you ever find authors outside the slush pile? If so, how?

Yes. Sometimes clients are kind enough to recommend others but I have also taken on a crime writer, Roz Watkins, who I met at The Festival of Writing in York. When it comes to non-fiction I have approached people direct.

What advice would you give someone submitting to you?

Take a look at my list and see if it fits, broadly, with the other books I represent. Follow the submission guidelines. Put lots of effort into your cover letter and make sure that the title, elevator pitch, further information about the book and author biography are as strong as possible – we get hundreds of submissions, so a good letter really makes a difference. It is also important to have a sense of where your book fits into the market. We don’t expect you to be experts but to show professionalism and savvy – it is both a business and creative relationship after all. It’s always worth looking round bookshops and reading as much as you can. Spell my name correctly. And, finally, make sure you’ve finished the book and that it is as polished as it can be.

What’s your favourite romance novel of all time?

I have an abiding love for The Pursuit of Love, by Nancy Mitford, but must also throw in Jane Eyre and Rebecca for good measure.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I wish I indulged in wildly imaginative pastimes like flamenco, potholing or skydiving but I most enjoy eating, reading, bathing, films, theatre and the company of good friends.

If you could describe your working-day in just three words, what would they be?

Never the same.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions, Diana. We love your list of spare time activities!

If you've enjoyed Diana's interview, or have any questions or comments at all, please let us know. We'd love to hear from you!

About Helena

Helena Fairfax is a romance author and editor. Her latest release is a feel good summer romance called Felicity at the Cross Hotel. You can find out more about Helena's books and her editing services on her website www.helenafairfax.com

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