Janice Preston: Joan Hessayon Award Contender 2015

Today we welcome Janice Preston to the blog. Janice is a contender for the Joan Hessayon Award 2015.

Congratulations on graduating the RNA New Writers’ Scheme, Janice. Can you tell us when you first decided that you wished to become a romantic novelist?

My childhood dream of being an author became lost in ‘real life’, apart from one attempt at writing a Regency romance in the year 2000 (I threw in everything—it ended up 165000 words!). Then, in 2009, I had a foot operation that prevented me driving or walking for several weeks and I began writing again from sheer boredom, beginning another Regency romance. The breakthrough came when I joined the RNA New Writers’ Scheme in 2012—I started to believe that early dream of mine was possible.

How many years were you a member of the NWS scheme and did you submit a different book each year? Which year’s book did you graduate with?

The Regency I started writing in 2009 was rejected by Harlequin Mills & Boon in 2011. Then, in January 2012, I joined the RNA and submitted that Regency to the NWS to find out what was wrong and how to fix it! I then used that assessment to help me write Mary and the Marquis, which was my second year’s submission, in 2013. I was offered a contract by HMB in November 2013.

How did you find your publisher?

Melanie Hilton (who was then the NWS organiser and who writes for HMB as Louise Allen) spoke to her editor on my behalf. As it happens, I had already pitched the unfinished Mary and the Marquis to that editor at the 2012 RNA conference, and she remembered me!

Promotion is a big part of an author’s working life. How did you promote your novel?

I promoted my novel online, through my new website and blog, and also on my existing Facebook page as well as setting up an author page. I shared links on Twitter and sent out a press release to local newspapers, two of which featured articles about me having my debut novel published at the age of 58. I don’t mind admitting that I find promotion a challenge, but I’m learning fast!

What has happened to you as an author since that first sale?

My second Regency romance for HMB, From Wallflower to Countess, was published in April 2015. I have signed a second two book contract with HMB and my third Regency (a rewrite of my first NWS submission, now titled Return of Scandal’s Son) will be published in October 2015. I won the Elizabeth Goudge trophy at last year’s RNA conference and I have also recently given my first talk as a published author.

How did you celebrate your first book sale?

My husband and I broke open a bottle of Champagne we had been saving for a special occasion, and what could be more special?

About Janice:

Janice Preston grew up in Wembley, North London, with a love of reading, writing stories and animals. She was a dairy farmer in Devon for twenty five years and, more recently, has worked as a police call-handler and a university administrator.

Janice now lives in the West Midlands with her second husband and two cats. She works part-time for a weight management counsellor, vainly trying to control her own weight despite her love of chocolate and wine.  When Janice isn’t writing she enjoys reading, gardening and the countryside. She also loves exploring old cities, and visiting museums and stately homes, always on the lookout for inspiration for her historical romances.

Links:

Amazon

Website

Thank you Janice and good luck with your writing career.

Jenny Harper: People We Love

We are delighted to welcome, Jenny Harper to the blog today. Well known to RNA members, Jenny tells us about her latest publication.

Her life is on hold – until an unlikely visitor climbs in through the kitchen window.

A year after her brother’s fatal accident, Lexie’s life seems to have reached a dead end. She is back home in small-town Hailesbank with her shell-shocked parents, treading softly around their fragile emotions. As the family business drifts into decline, Lexie’s passion for painting and for her one-time mentor Patrick have been buried as deep as her unexpressed grief, until the day her lunch is interrupted by a strange visitor in a bobble hat, dressing gown and bedroom slippers, who climbs through the window. Elderly Edith’s batty appearance conceals a secret and starts Lexie on a journey that gives her an inspirational artistic idea and rekindles her appetite for life. With friends in support and ex-lover Cameron seemingly ready to settle down, do love and laughter beckon after all?

Artist Lexie Gordon, funky heroine of People We Love, has put her career on hold to support her parents following the death of her brother in a car crash. While the story revolves round the mystery of why he was driving while drunk, the family begin their journey out of grief through the unexpected appearance of old Edith Lawrence.

Edith’s character emerged from an incident recounted by my parents. An elderly woman with dementia walked twelve miles from her care home in her nightie, and climbed in a window of the house where she used to live. I was intrigued. What powerful instinct had led her there? The story was irresistible and I stored it away.

The second layer in the story was triggered by a haunting piece of photo journalism I spotted in one of the Sunday supplements – a series of photos of shoes worn by women fleeing from South Sudan. They were battered, flimsy and totally unsuitable for hard walking. Some were even just flip flops. I found the images of those shoes deeply moving, and I realised that shoes can tell stories – which is exactly what Lexie comes to understand.

But just a minute – a women’s novel revolving round shoes? Surely a cliché? Overdone, stereotypical – boring, even. Well … maybe. But although People We Love features shoes, it’s about other themes entirely. As the invitation to Lexie’s art exhibition at the opening of the book says, ‘Shoes tell stories. Stories of tiny, much-loved babies who can’t even walk, of the tottering steps of little children towards adulthood, of special events in our lives, of dances, and marriages and mountain climbs and escapes.’

So yes, my new novel does feature shoes. In fact, there’s a catalogue entry at the start of each chapter that features just about every kind of shoe imaginable, from baby’s bootees to the serviceable old Clark’s shoes Lexie’s father wears as he soldiers on through life. It even features a pair of vintage Manolo Blahniks. But it’s not about shoes.

If you want to discover why the Manolos are important… sorry, you’ll have to read the book for yourself!

People We Love is the fourth in my Heartlands series. Maximum Exposure is about a local newspaper under threat of closure. I decided it would be easier to set it in a fictional town – and so Hailesbank was born. When I started writing Loving Susie, which is about a politician in Edinburgh, my location had become ‘real’ in my head – so I decided Susie Wallace could live in (and represent) Hailesbank. And when Face the Wind and Fly started life, a small conservation village close to Hailesbank sprang, ready formed, into my head.

So far, my characters haven’t overlapped much, but they will in future books. The next in the series, Mistakes We Make, develops the back story of a minor but key character in People We Love, and I’ve written a novella, Sand In Your Shoes, based on Nicola Arnott, the head teacher in Summerfield Primary (in Face the Wind and Fly), which will be published in June.

Two of my readers have told me they’d like to live in Hailesbank. I think I would too –but then, part of me already does!

People We Love, out as an ebook, with paperback publication in August.

‘Thoroughly entertaining’ Katie Fforde

For readers of Jojo Moyes, Jodi Picoult, David Nicholls - you'll love Jenny Harper's People We Love.

LINKS:

My publisher has produced a great trailer for People We Love. Do take a look!

https://youtu.be/R0Aw5CPRMl4

If you fancy a sip of People We Love with your morning cuppa… http://bit.ly/1OZ9cx2

Website and blog

Amazon Author page

Facebook

Twitter @harper_jenny

Shared blog (Novel Points of View)

People We Love  

Face The Wind And Fly

Loving Susie

Maximum Exposure

About Jenny:

Jenny Harper lives in Edinburgh. An active RNA member, she redesigned Romance Matters as a colour magazine and produced it for seven years. As a committee member under Katie Fforde, she was responsible for the rebranding of the RNA, the RONA awards and the RNA website (with Janet Gover), and she commissioned the beautiful glass bowl that is now the Romantic Novelist of the Year prize. Jenny is the author of four books about Scotland and Scottish culture, a history of childbirth, and The Sleeping Train for young readers. When she isn't writing, she enjoys walking in the Scottish countryside or anywhere warm, and travel to Europe, America and India.

Thank you for visiting the blog, Jenny. People We Love is now on our ‘to read’ list.

The RNA blog is brought to you by,

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

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

Lynne Pardoe: Joan Hessayon Award Contender 2015

Today we welcome Lynne Pardoe to the blog. Lynne is another of our contenders for the Joan Hessayon Award 2015

Can you tell us when you first decided that you wished to become a romantic novelist? 

I’ve always loved reading, I started with pony novels and in my teens read just about anything I could get my hands on. I’d read a telephone directory of there was nothing else! In my early teens I discovered medical romance, Dr Kildare was popular and I used to love that. It was then that I forged my love of writing and medicine, but I knew that I had to work in medicine first and the writing would come later. In time I moved to social work, which really forged my writing career but more on that later.

How many years were you a member of the NWS scheme and did you submit a different book each year?

I was a member of the NWS for about ten years on and off because I kept going back to work. I sent three different books to the NWS. It was the fourth I graduated with, I’m slowly publishing the others.

Which year’s book did you graduate with?

It was a book I’d written jointly with my mother in my ninth year that was first accepted, because I was working part time by now. The book was ‘Meant for Each Other’ which I jointly wrote with my mother.

 

How did you find your publisher?

My publisher was D.C.Thomson, whose work I’d read since I was a child. My mother was ill and we made up a story. I wrote and submitted it   and they accepted it. I was delighted, as is my mum who says she never thought to get to 86 and have a book published!

How do you promote your novel?

Since then I’ve built my own website for publicity and am going to add an email list to it. I will do a lot more promotion via foster carers groups etc. which I will do when I have more published.

What has happened to you as an author since that first sale?

I’ve discovered books by foster carers Casey Watson and Cathy Glass. I realised I want to write similar fiction about social work. I have one complete already and published through Amazon and another almost. They show that just about all people have a good heart. Mine are not that different to ‘Call the Midwife’ or a medical romance, they all have a happy ending.

 

How did you celebrate that first book sale?

I took a photo of the cover, framed it for mum and hung it on her wall! She loves it. Otherwise we celebrated with a cup of tea! But once I’ve written a few more, I want to take the family out to lunch to really celebrate.

About Lynne:

Writing isn’t all I do. I love old buildings and run a history group. I love the countryside and animals and we have dogs. My husband and I are really homely people so we spend a lot of time at home. But for now it’s caring for people I really want to write about. It’s a bit corny to say, but social work is an amazing job, you get to be with people at some of the most challenging times of their lives and it is really rewarding. If I can change the negative image social work has just a bit, then I’ll be delighted.

Links:

Amazon

Website

RNA Party Etiquette: Approaching publishers and agents

We are delighted to welcome Tracy Hartshorn to the blog. Some of you will know her as author, Sally Quilford. We asked Tracy to explain to members how they should approach publishers and agents at RNA events.

As the RNA Party organiser, I get asked lots of questions from guests about how to approach agents and editors. I’ve put together an FAQ list which I hope will help everyone.

I don’t know how to behave in front of publishers and agents. What do I do?

It might be hard to believe, but publishers and agents are people too, and are more than happy to strike up a conversation at the RNA party. However, instead of starting a discussion with ‘Will you take my book?’ begin by asking them how they are, and/or if they’re enjoying the party. They come to the party to network, and they honestly won’t bite if you strike up a friendly conversation with them.

 

How do I bring up the subject of my book?

Ask them what they’re looking for, and then if you think your book is a good fit, ask them if they’d be interested in hearing about it. Work out a bit of a pitch (just a few lines of what your work is about) before you arrive. Don’t be too pushy if they’re not interested and don’t monopolise them until they change their minds. If their company doesn’t publish Vampire Zombie romances, then you’re not going to persuade them to give yours a try.

Should I bring my manuscript to the party with me?

It’s best not to. Imagine if you were an editor/agent who had gone to a party after work and just ten of the guests wanted to hand you their 200 page manuscripts. That’s four reams of paper you have to carry home on the train with you. It isn’t going to endear agents/editors to an author, and it’s also a good way of losing manuscripts. If an agent or editor is interested in your work, they’ll usually give you their card and tell you their preferred method of submission (usually email or post).

Can you email me a list of who is attending so I can research them before I go?

Whilst it’s generally a good idea to research publishers and agents, it’s my policy not to email lists of guests prior to a party as I would need the permission of those involved in order to do that. Plus, the information is changing all the time, so I couldn’t guarantee it would remain relevant. I do, however, put a printed list of editors and agents in attendance on the reception table on the night to help guests who are looking for anyone in particular (the difference being that the printed list is disposable once the night is over and can’t be forwarded to everyone in a contact list). Besides, it is much better to go back to the gist of my first answer and simply strike up a friendly conversation with editors and/or agents. The RNA parties are an informal networking event, so no one expects you to know everything about them or their publishing house or agency.

The main thing to remember is to have a good time. If you’re relaxed, it’s going to make your experience of meeting editors and agents that much more pleasurable.

Thank you, Tracy. That does make things much clearer.

Elaine & Natalie

Ashlinn Craven: Joan Hessayon Award contender 2015

Today we welcome, Ashlinn Craven to the blog. Ashlinn is another of the contenders for this year’s Joan Hessayon Award.
 

Congratulations on graduating the RNA New Writers’ Scheme. Can you tell us when you first decided that you wished to become a romantic novelist?

Later than most, I suspect. Bedtime reading for much of my adult life meant computer manuals and other people’s theses … not much romance going on there. But one day, my “softer” side rebelled and I took up a course in creative writing which resulted in my first novel—a romance. My tutor suggested I join the wonderful NWS. Until I joined, I didn’t know that this was what I wanted to do. Now it seems obvious in hindsight. And, believe it or not, writing romance has crucial elements in common with programming complex algorithms.

 

How many years were you a member of the NWS scheme and did you submit a different book each year? Which year’s book did you graduate with?

Four years. The first submission (the aforementioned novel) was … interesting, shall we say, and my NWS reader, unfailingly polite. In year two there were glimpses of hope. My third year’s Half-Life got strongly positive feedback, and a rewritten version was published recently as Core Attraction. I graduated with Maybe Baby, in year four. So, to say the NWS scheme was useful is an understatement. More like life-changing!

 

How did you find your publisher?

I submitted Maybe Baby to US-based Crimson Romance who handle a wide breadth of topics in their romances. As my books contain offbeat subjects like egg-donation and nuclear power, I needed a publisher who might embrace that. Just before Christmas, I got the happy news that Maybe Baby had been accepted.

Promotion is a big part of an author’s working life. How did you promote your novel?

I self-organised a blog tour on friends’ sites and reached out via Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads to reviewers and bloggers. It worked reasonably well. But I was so engrossed in writing the next one I didn’t follow up as much as I should have. I’m savvier now and use professionals for blog tours at the least and send out timely newsletters to my followers.

 

What has happened to you as an author since that first sale?

I co-authored the Formula One romance, High Octane: Ignited, along with fellow Crimson writer, Rachel Cross, which was heaps of fun, and then we completed that trilogy by each writing a solo book, mine being High Octane: Unleashed. Just last week, I published Core Attraction. Now I’m onto my fifth. With all this madness, it’s comforting to have an organisation like the RNA behind me to assure me I’m not the only one.

 

How did you celebrate your first book sale?  

Husband cracked open a bottle of bubbly left over from Valentine’s day, and, together with our young son, we devoured cake from Sprüngli  (deluxe Swiss cake shop), and I probably succumbed to watching the Amazon sales rank until I was dragged off to play Lego or something.



 

About Ashlinn:

Irish author Ashlinn Craven writes about people who find love, themselves, and each other exactly when it’s least convenient for them to do so. She writes for busy women in the hope of putting big, silly smiles on their faces as they read. When she’s not writing, she’s working her hi-tech job or doing the lo-tech mom routine, or, if she’s really lucky, gazing at the Alps from a safe distance and letting the story ideas flow. Based in Zurich, she adores hearing from her readers from around the world. Unlike everyone else in Switzerland, she’s hopeless at skiing, so don’t even ask.

Links:

Maybe Baby on amazon.com

Maybe Baby on amazon.co.uk

Ashlinn Craven website

Thank you, Ashlinn and Good luck with your future writing career.

Caitlyn Callery: Joan Hessayon Award contender 2015

Today we welcome, Caitlyn Callery to the blog. Caitlyn is another of our contenders for the Joan Hessayon Award 2015

Congratulations on graduating the RNA New Writers’ Scheme. Can you tell us when you first decided that you wished to become a romantic novelist? 

I have always wanted to be a writer, and my first love was romance, especially historical romance, so I wanted to put the two together from the start. I started writing at the age of eight and dreamed of the great love stories I would write. Of course, it wasn’t as simple as that. I had to learn about life and love in order to write about them, and I had to do my writing apprenticeship before I was anywhere near ready to unleash my work on an unsuspecting world.

 

How many years were you a member of the NWS scheme and did you submit a different book each year? Which year’s book did you graduate with?

I was really blessed. I only joined the NWS scheme in 2014 and put “The Bankrupt Viscount” through. The feedback I received was excellent and made the book a much better read, as well as picking up flaws in research and my writing style. I sold it to the first publisher I approached after taking the advice on board, which tells you all you need to know about the scheme, really.

 

How did you find your publisher?

I read a couple of books by authors I liked and noticed they were published by Museitup. I looked them up online and decided to go for it. It took some months to get a reply but it was worth the wait.

 

Promotion is a big part of an author’s working life. How did you promote your novel?

I use Twitter and Facebook, and encouraged readers to give honest reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. I gave a few people copies of the book in return for an honest review, which seems a popular promotion tool. I also have a website (hilarymackelden.com) with a page for Caitlyn Callery novels, and a Caitlyn Callery blog at Wordpress. I also did an interview for my local paper and have given talks to local writers’ groups.

 

What has happened to you as an author since that first sale?

I have sold two more books to Museitup, a dark novella entitled “The Last Word” and a second Regency Romance entitled “Incognito”. Both will be released as e-books shortly. I have also sold a Christian play to Eldridge Publishing in America and a pantomime to Lazy Bee Scripts here in the UK, both under the name Hilary Mackelden. As Caitlyn Callery, I am currently working on my third Regency Romance.

 

How did you celebrate your first book sale?

Would you believe with a cup of tea? Seriously, I phoned my writing friend, Karen, and she came to me. She brought cake, we hugged and toasted the book with tea. After that, I told everyone who would listen before taking a deep breath and getting on with book two.

 

About Caitlyn:

Born in Coventry and educated in Leicestershire, I have lived all my adult life in Sussex, between the Regency towns of Tunbridge Wells and Brighton. When I am not working as PR Officer for the charity, World In Need, I enjoy spending time with my three grown up children and my three wonderful grandsons. I love football and am involved with the local junior football club. I’m also part of my town’s horticultural society, although I’m not very green fingered. Other interests include historical research, swimming, church events, amateur dramatics and visits to the professional theatre and cinema, as well as knitting, crochet and reading. For World In Need, I visited Africa and fell in love. I look forward to returning one day.

 

 

Links:

Amazon

Website
 

 Thank you, Caitlyn and good luck with your future writing career.

Jennifer Young: What’s Love Got to do With It?

Welcome to Jennifer who writes about… romance!

What’s love got to do with it? You may think this is self-explanatory. I’m a romantic novelist and so I write about romance (sorry if this sounds obvious) and romance is all about love. That’s what love has to do with it.

But there are many different sorts of love, and my latest novel (my third) is about more than one of them. Several for them in fact. Yes, it’s a romance and its two main female protagonists, Flora and Suzanne, are both, in different circumstances, in pursuit of their own happy endings with a man they love. But there are different types of love and sometimes they conflict.

There’s the love that never dies even when your partner does. How do you follow that, attempting to replace the irreplaceable? Flora’s friendship with a colleague grows into love but can it overcome his deep love for his long-dead wife? And will the shadow of needy, unhinged Ally stop Suzanne overcoming her biggest challenge, starting life anew as the widowed mother of a murdered child?

There’s the love of a mother for her children. In Looking for Charlotte, set in Edinburgh and the Highlands of Scotland, divorced Flora is struggling with her children, paying the price for mistakes she made in bringing them up as a single mother. As they grow up they drift away and she fights to keep them.

Suzanne’s loss, on the other hand, is permanent and more terrible. Her estranged and suicidal husband, determined to end his own life, took their three year old daughter, Charlotte, with him into death and carried the secret of her whereabouts to his grave. Grief and guilt turn Suzanne’s life into a desert of regret from which she struggles to escape.

But there’s a wider, deeper love and that’s the love that ties humankind and binds one stranger to another. Flora’s response to the loss of her relationship with her children is to seek redemption through helping another — by deciding to find Charlotte and bring her body home to give her mother closure. Along their journeys, both women find themselves in positions where they can help, and be helped by, other people.

If you choose to be elastic with your definitions, you can fit Looking For Charlotte into more than one genre — romance, romantic suspense and contemporary woman’s fiction for a start. But for me it’s primarily a romance. It’s about two lost women looking for love, and whether that love can triumph over Suzanne’s guilt and Flora’s increasingly obsessive search for little lost Charlotte.

I changed the ending several times and you’ll have to read it to find out what it is. But I will tell you one thing — that love, in at least one of its many forms, emerges triumphant.

 

 

About Jennifer:

Jennifer Young is an Edinburgh-based author of romantic and romantic suspense fiction. A graduate of the RNA’s New Writers Scheme she saw her first book, Thank You For The Music, published by Tirgearr Publishing in February 2014, followed by No Time Like Now later the same year. Like all of Jennifer’s writing, Looking For Charlotte (set in her beloved Scottish Highlands) is strongly influenced by her love of travel and landscape. She’s currently working on a romantic suspense trilogy set in northern Italy.

Looking For Charlotte is available from Tirgearr Publishing

Links:

Facebook

Twitter: @JYnovelist

Website/blog:

Novel Points of View (shared blog):

Thank you, Jennifer and good luck with Looking for Love.

The RNA blog is brought to you by

Elaine Everest & Natalie Kleinman

If you would like to write an article or a feature about a writing event please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com

Natalie Kleinman: Joan Hessayon Award Contender 2015

Today we welcome Natalie Kleinman, another of our contenders for the 2015 Joan Hessayon award

Congratulations on graduating the RNA New Writers’ Scheme. Can you tell us when you first decided that you wished to become a romantic novelist?

I didn’t so much make the decision as it was thrust upon me. I began writing short stories, initially targeting the WOMAG market, occasionally sending competition entries in other genres. However, it soon became apparent that my forte lay with romantic fiction with over twenty-five stories published within two years. The satisfaction was enormous but something crept in under my defences. Could I write something longer? A whole book? I joined the (oh so wonderful) New Writers’ Scheme in January 2013, anxiously submitted my manuscript and in November of the same year it was taken up by a publisher.

How many years were you a member of the NWS scheme and did you submit a different book each year? Which year’s book did you graduate with?

I was a member of the NWS for only twelve months. When I hit that button in January 2013 I had no idea what lay ahead. Determinedly I finished, read and re-read my manuscript before printing and posting. Making suggested changes I sent my ‘book’ to the outside world. Voyage of Desire (now Safe Harbour) was taken up and after only one year in the scheme I joined the RNA as a full member.

How did you find your publisher?  

The writing world is a wonderfully sharing community. I learned about Safkhet Publishing via the RNA and was impressed by their upbeat attitude. Applying online it seemed in no time I was signed up.

Promotion is a big part of an author’s working life. How did you promote your novel?

While feeling diffident, I knew I had to dive into the realms of social networking.

Grasping my courage in both hands I contacted other writers and organised a blog tour. I made my presence felt on Facebook, hopefully without irritating too many people. I turned to Twitter. I became part of a five-handed blogging group. Oh, and on publication day I hosted an online launch party…that was fun! I now run a single-handed blog.

What has happened to you as an author since that first sale?

Less than two months after ‘Safe Harbour’ my pocket novel ‘After All These Years’ was published. Next on my agenda was the RNA Conference. Can one be overly grateful to the RNA? I was lucky to have a one2one with Lisa Eveleigh of the Richford Becklow Literary Agency. She offered representation and I have recently submitted my completed manuscript to her. The pocket novel goes to large print this coming September. I’ve started book number four!

How did you celebrate your first book sale?

In true RNA fashion I indulged in a little wine drinking. My husband took me out to dinner (more wine). Online launch party…more wine, though only virtual this time. But in all honesty how does a writer celebrate the sale of a book? I started the next one of course.

About Natalie:

I began writing quite late in life, something I have since discovered isn’t unusual. I have been mother, teacher, Girl Friday and adoring slave to two dogs and a cat (now waiting for me at Rainbow Bridge). I studied general science with the Open University and joined art classes, subsequently abandoned because there are only so many hours in a day. My natural tendency is to throw myself completely into what I am doing, and never more so than with my writing. Together with my personal blog and my participation in the RNA Blog which I co-produce with Elaine Everest (though not this time of course), my writing is of paramount importance. I’ve never worked so hard in my life before and I’m loving it.

Links:

Amazon UK

Blog

Twitter: @natkleinman

Thank you, Natalie, and good luck with your writing career.

Sarah Waights: A 'Take' on Politics

We are delighted to welcome Sarah Waights to the blog today.

Why our party leaders’ wives should never have married a politician.

First, may I say what a pleasure it is to be on the RNA Blog. My debut novel is a graduate of the brilliant NWS and, specifically, the lovely Catherine Jones who said all the right things at the right times, including things like “get off your arse” and “just do it, Waights”.  Thanks Catherine.

I have always seen party politics, with its monstrous, egotistical, power-mad inmates as an irresistible opportunity for drama and comedy. I’m loving the pre-election media fascination with the ‘behind the scenes’ lives of the party leaders. Their wives are being plonked in kitchens they have probably never seen before to drink coffee, lean nonchalantly and convey through facial expression alone that they consider their politician husbands to be wise, empathic and - last but not least - irresistibly hot.

It’s a tough call. Let’ face it, all of those party leaders have had their unlovely moments:

Nick Clegg’s wife - whose is obviously much cleverer than him - had to put up with his boasting that he had had multiple sexual partners. He couldn’t even be precise about numbers, but was pretty sure it was ‘no more than thirty’. Charming. David Cameron’s young family clearly have scant respect for him. They probably kick sand in his face on the beach - and who can blame them? He is master of the off-message pronouncement, proclaiming once on live radio that “too many tweets make a tw*t”. Quite. As for Ed Milliband, his wife probably has to pretend watching him eat a bacon sandwich is enough to make her squirm with pride - and I’m sure squirming comes easily to the poor woman. I could go on, but sadly Nigel Farage’s verbal indiscretions are too huge a subject for this post.

The advice my heroine, Emily Pemilly gives other politicians’ wives at the beginning of the novel is different - I hope - to the advice she would give them at the end. The story is a romance, of course, but it is also an examination of two very different forms of love:

At the opening Emily is a dutiful wife, devoting her life to making rising MP Ralph look good and behaving in a (mostly) irreproachable way under the enduring scrutiny of the world. Emily’s husband is charming, handsome, urbane, ambitious and successful. He and Emily share lively repartee, they are raising two children and clocking up a decent few years of marriage under their belts. On many levels, it works - successful marriages have been based on less. In contrast, the reader has to judge whether former lover Matt is truly on Emily’s side. After all, he’s a journalist with a story to find, he is clearly angry about his and Emily’s past failed relationship and he is bluntly critical about her life choices. Emily agonises as to which man is best for her, struggling with the notion of what true love really is, and having to decide whether she is right to be steadfast or to disrupt her life and those around her to follow her heart.

Never Marry a Politician is Sarah Waights’ debut novel. A romcom, e-published by Choc Lit, it was runner up in the Good Housekeeping Novel Writing Competition 2014, where it was judged ‘a witty comedy’, ‘laugh out loud funny from the first line’ and ‘one to watch.’

About Sarah

Sarah Waights wrote her first book when she was five. Her childhood was split between UK boarding schools and joining her parents overseas in the school holidays.

After several years in public relations, campaigning, political lobbying and freelance journalism, she realised her preference for making things up and switched to writing novels instead.

Sarah takes an anthropological interest in family, friends and life in her West Sussex village where she lives with her artist husband, their children and other pets.

Thank you for joining us today, Sarah.

Links:

‘Never Marry a Politician’

Website

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Kathy Jay: Joan Hessayon award contender 2015

Welcome to Kathy Jay, another of our fifteen contenders for this year’s Joan Hessayon Award.

Congratulations on graduating the RNA New Writers’ Scheme. Can you tell us when

you first decided that you wished to become a romantic novelist?

Thank you! When I was a teenager I read a magazine article about a romantic novelist and decided that I’d like to write romance too. I sent for guidelines, and still have them. They’re a reminder that I held on to the dream. Success in a short story competition got me writing again.

How many years were you a member of the NWS scheme and did you submit a different book each year? Which year’s book did you graduate with?

I was a member of the New Writers’ Scheme for two years. I submitted two different manuscripts. I graduated with the first book.  

How did you find your publisher?

A few months after HarperCollins launched HarperImpulse, they announced a competition. That gave me the push I needed to submit.  I was one of the winners. They offered me a three-book contract and invited me for afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason.

Promotion is a big part of an author’s working life. How did you promote your novel?

HarperImpulse are fabulous with all things promotion. But I have some catching up to do. I didn’t have a social media presence as a pre-published author. I now have a website, a Facebook page, and twitter.  

What has happened to you as an author since that first sale?

I had a revision letter to work through for What If He’s The One, followed by edits, and a cover brief. Then there was a proof-read for the epub, and another for the paperback. I’ve submitted the second book in my contract, and I’m writing the third.

How did you celebrate your first book sale?

I opened a bottle of Prosecco. Nothing beats a glass of fizz when there’s something to celebrate.

About Kathy:

I live in Cheshire with my family which includes a large dog and a cat. I love the changing seasons. I like pyjama days and cosy log fires in winter. In summer, my top things are strawberries and walking on the beautiful beaches in North Wales. I started writing my first romance on a vintage typewriter – way back when. Writing got put on hold while I studied for a degree in Drama and French. I’ve been an au pair, a teaching assistant, an office temp and a bilingual PA. I write fun, flirty romance for HarperImpulse.

Links:

Amazon

Website

Thank you, Kathy and good luck with your writing career.