Showing posts with label Twitter Picnic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter Picnic. Show all posts
HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY KERRY!!!!
Yes, it's Publication day for Kerry Fisher who has written this GORGEOUS Must-Have Summer Read. It's the day when we bloggers get excited about, and the day that authors and publishers go absolutely crazy with excitement! You see, this gorgeous looking book and MUST NOT MISS read hits the shelves and then 'accidentally' falls into your basket when shopping. We love those accidents!
Yes, it's Publication day for Kerry Fisher who has written this GORGEOUS Must-Have Summer Read. It's the day when we bloggers get excited about, and the day that authors and publishers go absolutely crazy with excitement! You see, this gorgeous looking book and MUST NOT MISS read hits the shelves and then 'accidentally' falls into your basket when shopping. We love those accidents!
To celebrate, as well as there being stunning sunshine, there is going to be a HUGE twitter picnic which i'll be taking part in, Just head over to Twitter between 12pm-1pm and join in with #islandescape
Also, I have for you a very special interview with Kerry and I can't tell you how excited I am about hosting Kerry on Publication Day. So let's get this party started!!
It's
been such a long time since we caught up with you here on A Page of Fictional
Love. The last time we met up it was for a chat about your debut novel; The School Gate Survival Guide.
Thanks
so much for inviting me here. I’m so happy to be back!
I
loved that book as you know, and I couldn't wait for your next book. How long
did it take you to write The IslandEscape?
All
my books take roughly a year but I don’t get much done in the school holidays.
Despite the fact I instruct my kids not to disturb me, they float in and out
with ‘What’s for lunch?/Can you take me into town?/When I can I use your
computer?’
You're
back, thankfully, with a new summer read, TheIsland Escape. How does it feel to have your second book hitting the
shelves?
I
feel so lucky. And surprisingly, it’s much more enjoyable second time around. Last
year, I was so worried that I might let down all the people who’d shown great
faith in me, that I almost forgot to enjoy the moment.
The
book is set on an exotic island, what can you tell us about the setting and
location?
The Island Escape is set in Corsica and
Sardinia, and Surrey, which isn’t quite as exotic! I lived in Corsica teaching
English as part of my French degree when I was nineteen. Initially, I was
really homesick as I lived in a boarding school that catered for the children
from all the little mountain villages. When they went home at weekends, I was
just there on my own, which was really spooky! In the end, though, I made friends
in the village and discovered some wonderful unspoilt beaches and learnt to
windsurf and waterski.
Where
did your inspiration come from?
I
have a milestone birthday coming up next year and I’m lucky enough to have lots
of friends I’ve known for several decades. None of us have ended up with the
lives we thought we’d have (some have turned out better, some worse). It
started me thinking about how we have a certain idea of how our future will
turn out when we’re twenty, yet a decade or two later the landscape can look
entirely different. I suppose that’s one of the attractions of Facebook –
seeing if the most popular/prettiest/most intelligent person really did end up
the happiest.
Like
your last book, The Island Escape
contains an element of the school setting in the guise of Octavia, one of the
main characters, being a Nursery Manager. Why did you choose a similar work
environment?
I’m
drawn to writing about motherhood. I always want to portray the realities of
having children and the mixed – and sometimes unwelcome – emotions they can
arouse even in a parent who loves them beyond all measure. There’s so much
pressure in school for children to conform and it’s easy to feel criticised if
they – or their parents - are a bit unusual, so schools/nurseries are a great
environment for exploiting conflict in any story.
Where
does your inspiration for the characters come from?
All
my inspiration for characters comes from what I observe around me. I take tiny
bits of character traits I see in people (or myself!) and weave them into
complete people. Jonathan, Octavia’s rather dull husband, is obsessed with
rotating apples in the fruit bowl according to age. I’m embarrassed to say that
I get cross when my kids eat all the freshest fruit and leave a manky pear
rotting at the bottom!
The
novel is written from the perspective of two characters, Roberta and Octavia,
who are close friends. What was it like to write in this style?
I
loved it. I feel most comfortable writing in the first person and by doing it from
the perspective of two characters, I got to be privy to the machinations of two
minds, rather than just one. It does present a writing challenge, though, to
make the two characters instantly recognisable with different ‘voices’ and
attitudes.
Can
you briefly introduce us to Roberta and Octavia and maybe share a secret from
each character?
Roberta
grew up in an affluent household and is used to the finer things in life. Against
everyone’s wishes, she married Scott, who turned out to be a bully. He’s completely
drained her confidence. Secretly, she yearns to prove that she’s not just a
woman who can match a handbag to a pair of shoes, that she’s a capable,
intelligent woman who can stand on her own two feet. Octavia was a rebellious
and wild teenager, who’s ended up married to Jonathan. He used to embrace her
daredevil nature but over the years, her adventurous spirit has started to
irritate him. Her secret is that she still hankers after the ‘one that got
away’, a charismatic Corsican called Xavi.
The
cover says: 'What if there was somewhere you could disappear to?" - so to
answer your own question, what would be your escape?
I
lived in Florence for five years in my twenties and I still dream of a little
farmhouse in Tuscany, up on a hillside with a terrace, carafes of Chianti,
sunflowers and poppies.
When
you're not writing, how do you escape from life's twists and turns?
My
ridiculously naughty dog, a Labrador/Giant Schnauzer cross infuriates me and
makes me laugh in equal measure. We live on the South Downs in Surrey and I
walk her through gorgeous English countryside every day. Just seeing the
changing seasons relaxes me – at the moment all the bluebells are out, the
hawthorns are blossoming, the cowslips and violets are dotting the hill. I love
it.
If
you could eat an exotic meal on an island beach, what would it be and
why?
I’m
not fussy at all but I hate fish, so sadly, my fantasy of barbecuing a freshly
caught squid over a fire won’t ever come to pass. One of the things I loved so
much about living in Mediterranean countries was that you could taste the sun,
rather than the greenhouse, in the vegetables. Nothing beats a plate of
sun-ripened tomatoes, peppers and aubergines, drizzled with peppery olive oil,
rosemary focaccia and goat’s cheese…yum!
Can
you share a summer holiday memory of yours?
I
studied French and Italian at university and in the summers I used to au pair
for a lovely family in a tiny Italian village in Liguria. The first evening I
was there, when I didn’t know much more than ‘hello’ and ‘where’s the train
station?’, the mother left me in the village piazza with all the other young
people and basically said, ‘Look after her.’ It was terrifying at first but
they were so friendly to me. We used to spend every evening sitting in the
square – someone would get a guitar out and we’d all sit under the stars
singing ‘We Are The World’. So simple but so much fun.
If
you could meet a handsome exotic bookish hunk, what would he be like?
A
cross between Gerard Butler and Clive Owen!
Lastly,
are you planning on writing a third novel? Because I'm already eagerly awaiting
news of where you're going to take us next.
The
best advice I ever received from my author friends was to get writing the next
novel as soon as you get a publishing deal because those deadlines fly round.
So thankfully, I’ve already finished book three – basically, ‘What happens when
a secret you thought you and your family had buried bites you on the bottom a
few decades later’! I hope I’ve intertwined a serious subject with a witty look
at the challenges of parenting teens.
Thank
you so much for taking time out of your hectic promotions schedule to talk to
us about The Island Escape. I wish
you the very best success with it, and I will be doing everything I can to help
you easily secure that No1. Bestselling author's spot!
Thank
you so much for inviting me here again, Dawn, I really appreciate your support.
The
Island Escape is out now: http://amzn.to/1Oz0NkM
Please be sure to 'check-in' with the other gorgeous blogs taking part in the tour and stop by the Twitter Picnic if you can;
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