Recently I was tagged by Australian rural romance writer, Heather Garside, whom I'm very much looking forward to meeting at the Romance Writers of Australia conference in Sydney in August. Below, is Heather's Bio, followed by four questions I've answered, and then my three tagged authors. I hope you're excited to learn a bit about all these talented writers and the wonderful stories they write.
HEATHER GARSIDE'S BIO:
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Heather Garside
Blog |
I grew up on a cattle property of 47,000 acres in Central Queensland, Australia. As a child I loved horses, books and the bush. Not a lot has changed although I have also grown to appreciate the finer things in life, especially good food!
My husband and I now have a cattle and grain farm close to where I grew up. We have two grown children. My daughter lives in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, with her husband. Our son has set up a metal fabrication workshop on our farm.
Many years ago I published a historical romance with a local setting. Having a family interrupted the flow and I didn’t seriously get back to writing until the children were older. I finally sold an historical novel, The Cornstalk, to Wings ePress and a few months later they purchased its sequel, A Hidden Legacy.
In May this year my rural romance, Breakaway Creek, was published by Clan Destine Press. The eBook is selling well and it is now available in paperback.
As well as being a member of the Romance Writers of Australia, I belong to a local writers’ group which meets once a month. We’ve published three books of short stories, Boots At The Door, A Taste Of Fear and Pot Luck: Stories of the Central Highlands. I’ve had several short stories and a couple of poems included in these anthologies.
In 2008 I helped compile a book to commemorate my home town’s 125th anniversary. I’m also one of a group of volunteers who once a month put together a newsletter of the happenings around our town.
In between farm duties, volunteer work and writing, I also work part-time at the local library – a writer’s dream job!
And now for my four questions, which each author answers before they tag another three authors.
Q1 What am I working on?
I’m on a final polish of a 1960s illegal
diamond-buying romantic suspense (working title Lammergeier Rock) set in the African mountain kingdom of Lesotho
where I spent my early years and where my father was a District Commissioner in
Mokhotlong, the most remote outpost of the British Empire.
Dad prosecuted a number of illegal diamond buying
and medicine murder cases, which feature in my story, against a backdrop of the
final years of the Colonial Administration. The hero of my story is a bush
pilot, based on my own handsome Norwegian bush pilot husband whom I met when I
was running a luxury safari camp in Botswana. There’s lots of drama, angst,
envy and passion as my pilot risks his career (when he’s on the cusp of getting
his dream job on a South African Airways 707) to save the District
Commissioner’s daughter from political and social ruin.
Q2 How does my work differ from others in the genre?
Although my last two books were Regencies, they focus more on the grit rather than the glitter of an era better known for its glamour. More and more, reviewers have described them as historicals with romantic elements, rather than straight historical romances - and definitely not 'fluffy' as one reviewer was recently at pains to point out.
So, Regency grit, rather than Regency glitter would sum it up.
Q3 Why do I write what I write?
I'm inspired by how a woman might wield power when she lives in an era with no
political and few legal rights, and is dependent upon her closest male relative
for financial support; in other words for survival. In my newly released book The Maid of Milan (described as 'Dynasty' written in a style reminiscent of Anthony Trollope's 'The Pallisers'), my heroine, Adelaide, has made a life-changing error of judgment as a naïve and impressionable debutante. I wanted to explore how ‘the folly of
youth’ could impact on the rest of a woman’s life.
Q4 How does my writing process work?
I’m
a morning person which is when I prefer to write, but it depends on how easy it
was to get kids to bed the night before, and how quick it was to clean the
house or prepare for the next day, as to how tired I am to write at 5.30am or
6am. My husband now is a long-haul pilot on the 777 so away for days at a time,
so I have a very two-tiered schedule.
I'm able to throw down a rough and dirty draft amidst noise and chaos, but I prefer absolute silence for subsequent edits. Usually I have two or three stories on the go at various stages of completion. I might write one to half way, brainstorm the ending, but not write the second half for some months as I edit the other two.
And now I shall tag my three authors. The first are two fellow Choc Lit Authors, Liz Harris from the UK and Zana Bell, from New Zealand. The third is fellow Ellora's Cave author, Susana Ellis, from the US. A very multicultural bunch, I'm sure you'd agree :)
So, to begin, here is Susana Ellis...
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| Susana Ellis |
A former teacher, Susana is finally living her dream of being a full-time writer. She loves all genres of romance, but historical—Regency in particular—is her favorite. There's just something about dashing heroes and spunky heroines waltzing in ballrooms and driving through Hyde Park that appeals to her imagination.
In real life, Susana is a lifelong resident of northwest Ohio, although she has lived in Ecuador and studied in Spain, France, and Mexico. More recently, she was able to travel around England and visit many of the places she's read about for years. . . and it was awesome! She is a member of the Maumee Valley and Beau Monde chapters of Romance Writers of America.
You can find her here:
My next tagged author is Liz Harris
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Fellow Choc Lit author Liz Harris
website |
Liz
Harris: Biography
Liz was born in
London. After graduating from university with a Law degree, she moved to
California for six years where she led a varied life, from waitressing on
Sunset Strip to working as secretary to the CEO of a large Japanese trading
company.
Returning
to Britain, she completed a London University degree in English and taught for
a number of years, contributing weekly articles on education to a local
newspaper for almost six of those years.
Her
novels published to date: THE ROAD BACK (2012) and A BARGAIN STRUCK (2013) were
published in paperback by Choc Lit. EVIE UNDERCOVER (2012) and THE ART OF
DECEPTION (2013) have been published by Choc Lit Lite as ebooks.
In
addition to her novels, Liz has written several short stories which have been
published in anthologies. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association,
she’s the organiser of the RNA’s Oxford Chapter. She’s also a member of the
Historical Novel Society and of the Oxford Writers’ Group.
Liz’s
two sons live in London, while she and her husband now live in South Oxfordshire.
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My third tagged author is
ZANA BELL
Zana Bell writes in a variety of genre, her novels covering YA, historical, and contemporary and historical romance. Her second novel, Forbidden Frontier (Mira) based on Charlotte Badger, Australian convict and pirate and New Zealand’s first known English woman migrant won the Cataromance Single Title’s 10 Best Books of 2008. She won the Cataromance Reviewers’ Award 2010 for Tempting the Negotiator (Harlequin Superromance). In 2012 she was shortlisted for the New Zealand Society of Authors Mid-Careers Grant.
Her most recent book is a New Zealand historical, romantic adventure Close to the Wind (ChocLit)
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"I began reading this story expecting it to be another typical Regency romance. Wrong. This was certainly not a typical story of any kind. 
