Chatting with Shirley Blair

Image courtesy of Norman Watson

What a pleasure to be sitting down to tea with Shirley Blair, Fiction Editor of The People’s Friend. Many of you will know that after more than forty years of working in magazines, the last twelve of them with The Friend, Shirley will be hanging up her boots in February next year. So let’s find out what she’s been doing all that time, why she’s leaving now and what her hopes are for the future.

It’s lovely to see you, Shirley, and while I wouldn’t have the cheek to offer you Dundee cake, there are some nice mince pies for you to tuck into while we talk. It’s more than seven years since you first accepted one of my short stories, only the second I’d ever sold, and it was for me the beginning of what has come to feel like a personal friendship. However, I realise that I know very little about you other than that you are highly regarded in the industry and that tears (even be they metaphorical) will be shed when you leave. So, how did you get into this somewhat crazy business in the first place and what have your experiences been up to the time you landed what you have referred to as your dream job?

Shirley with Oor Wullie 

Hi, Natalie, and thanks for the excuse for a coffee-and-cake-break in the usual daily whirlwind. Always appreciated.

Gosh, 43 years of me and DC Thomson…

I always loved writing, encouraged by my parents, who I must have half-deafened battering away on their old Underwood typewriter. Encouraged by them, and by my English teacher, I applied from school, the only full-time job I’ve ever applied for. I started work the week after I finished my last exams. I was so keen I didn’t even take a holiday. I began in “Star Love Stories in Pictures”, a romance library similar to “Commando” – same office and Editor, in fact. From there it was to Chief Sub in letterpress, a range that included “Red Star”, “Secrets”, “Red Letter” – remember them? All fiction, of course.

Then there was a change of direction into our glossy monthly “Annabel”, where I was Beauty Editor, which was fabulous fun and a whole new experience. I got to write features there, too, for example about visiting a plastic surgery hospital and observing procedures. How many jobs give you that kind of opportunity?

From there I was drafted onto Chief Sub a launch project, but I moved on again before it actually got beyond the lengthy development stage. Next it was Chief Sub in “My Weekly”, then, after a few more years, I was made Editor of “The People’s Friend Story Collection”, which evolved into the “’Friend’ Pocket Novels”. And it’s from there that I came here into “The People’s Friend” itself as Fiction Editor.

Interspersed with all of those experiences I’ve had other random short spells, eg, as a Features Editor, a Knitting Editor….! All great learning opportunities.

What a varied and rewarding career you’ve had! It’s a well-known saying that if you want something done you should ask a busy person. Obviously they don’t come much busier than you. Do you have a strictly adhered-to routine or do you juggle your work as seems fit?

Taking a short break with Marmalade, the office cat

There are some tasks that follow routine. Website content is very schedule-driven, as is anything fiction related that’s already on the production schedule. And I keep in mind which month we’re in in relation to when manuscripts have been submitted. I hate to keep writers waiting any longer than necessary. But other than that, if I feel like reading short stories from regular writers, or unsolicited writers, or serial instalments or ideas, or getting back to writers, I can please myself, though I always balance that with what’s actually required.

Who came up with the Writing Prompt Story Starter idea? It certainly worked for me. One of yours or one of the team? And speaking of the team, it’s clear there is a very special relationship between you all. That comes through on Facebook, on Twitter and through your web page. Can you tell us about the fiction team and how you all work together? Oh, and do please have another mince pie.

The Story Starter was my own idea. I was always taking random photos with my phone, and I thought they might be useful. I only intended to do it for a few weeks, a year at most, but I know from feedback how it’s caught on. Now I can’t not see things to photograph!

The fiction team – well, we’re genuinely great mates. We have such a giggle – between all the hard work, of course – and talk about a million different things, from space travel to politics, favourite cakes, books, films, TV…But we often just talk about the work, too. We honestly love it. As well as the general fiction content, we each have our roles: Tracey’s is pocket novels, Lucy is pocket novels and poetry, Alan provides the sweets, and I keep it all ticking over on schedule.

Oops, sorry – ‘scuse the crumbs….

Job satisfaction is obviously something you have in shed loads. What pleases you most?

It sounds a cliché, but it genuinely is signing up a new writer. Discovering that talent, giving it its opportunity. And it really is rewarding. One writer who I’ve just signed up with a short story shyly said, “As it happens, I’ve just written a long read…” It’s a corker and we’ve just bought that, too!

It’s also satisfying to take a chance with a story, something our readers haven’t encountered before – as we did with ghost stories, and our cosy crime category - and to receive letters saying how much they’re enjoying the variety.

I’m aware that you are yourself a fiction writer but, as I don’t know your pen name, I have no idea if you have a preferred genre or whether your writing takes the form of books as well as short stories. Can you enlighten those of us who don’t know and will we be able to follow you in the future?

Way back I set myself the challenge of writing a story for every one of our genres. I’ve completed it apart from a pocket novel. So far! But I actually enjoy writing modern serials. It’s a challenge to make them contemporary and interesting and yet still “Friend” appropriate.

You have said on your own blog that in February you will leave your Fiction Ed’s chair spinning behind you and go off and do new things. Work or leisure? Are you planning to travel? Are there things you’ve always wanted to do but never had the time? Perhaps you can share some of your aspirations with us. What is the hobby you would most like to pursue?

The big novelty will be that I can ignore the calendar and the clock. My working life has been entirely dictated by deadlines. Mr Fiction Ed and I have never denied ourselves in the travel and holiday department, so we’ll probably do even more of that. But I have lots of little ambitions. To make jam when I feel like it instead of squeezing jobs like that into weekends. To catch up with friends over leisurely lunches. There’s a corner of the garden that needs rethinking. To write more. To get involved in some local environmental projects. My big one is to try – yet again – to learn to swim, but I think I may need hypnosis!

Do you have a dog? Or a cat? Or a budgie? Are pets part of your life and/or will they be so in the future?

No pets. We’ve had two cats twice. The first two, separately and many years apart, got run over. The second two lived the lives of Riley until succumbing to old age. We haven’t replaced them and have no plans to, but I enjoy being cat auntie to my sister’s gorgeous Angelo.

 

Working hard at the Serial Writing Workshop

It’s been a delight working with you and I’ve enjoyed talking to you today. I wish every success to whoever steps into your shoes but I cannot let you go without saying how much I will miss our email chats. As you know, we met in person for the first time at the Writing a Serial workshop at the beginning of September but it was like meeting an old friend. And that’s what I feel you’ve been to me over the years. I’m sure there are many others who will say the same. The People’s Friend is not the only friend I found at DC Thomson.

*blushes*

I wish you a very Happy Christmas, an outstanding Hogmanay and the future you wish for. Thank you, Shirley, more than I can say.

It’s been a pleasure, Natalie. My whole career has been a pleasure, from the first minute to this. I will miss it, and the people I’ve worked with along the way, but at the same time I feel a cosy wee glow knowing that my stepping aside allows someone else the most wonderful opportunity.

Chatting with Rosemary Goodacre

I’m delighted to be one of the first stops on Rosemary's blog tour for her new WWI saga, Until We Meet Again. Here we are chatting on publication day.

Welcome back to my blog, Rosemary, and thank you for talking with me today and answering my questions.

Thank you for inviting me as your guest again, Natalie.

May I begin by saying how very much I enjoyed your book. There is an air of authenticity about ‘Until We Meet Again’ that is apparent from the first page where you introduce us to Amy and her home in Larchbury. Though your location changes, this sense of place remains throughout, almost as if you were there over one hundred years ago. How did you go about your research?

Although times have changed, the old-fashioned village is still part of our heritage. There are traditional looking villages to be seen, including ones in Kent, where I live, if you can ignore the roads and traffic. They featured a lot in storybooks when I was young. You often see them in TV series, like Lark Rise to Candleford. The weather always seems better there! I need to be careful of details, as public phones, for example, were beginning to appear by WWI, but the familiar red ones were not introduced till the 1920s.

I took to Amy immediately, a young woman of character who stuck to her principles in difficult times. Have you based her on anyone in particular or has she come entirely from your imagination?

She’s largely imaginary, though one of the incidents was inspired by something that happened to a friend of my mother’s, near the end of WWII.

It isn’t long before you take us into that dreadful time that was World War 1 but, unlike some other books I have read, you bring us right to the action. The attention to detail is outstanding and I’m sure your readers would like to know what sources you used.

World War I burst out very suddenly and it’s hard to write about it without making the story impossibly grim but I was inspired by accounts of soldiers enjoying songs and jokes even in the trenches. My hero and heroine needed to be special people to survive it with their spirits intact.

I have learnt a good deal about the Great War through the moving memoir of Vera Brittain, in Testament of Youth. (Virago Press, ISBN 0 86068 035 5.)

I have also referred to A Nurse at the Front, based on the First World War diaries of Sister Edith Appleton, edited by Ruth Cowen. (Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-1-84983-366-0.) Some of the injuries she saw were appalling, and in those days there were no antibiotics to aid recovery.

If, as I suspect, you have visited some of these places in peacetime, did you have a sense of the history and horror or was it difficult to relate the one to the other? Or was your groundwork so good that I’m completely mistaken and you’ve never been there?

I’ve visited some towns in Flanders, chiefly the famous ones like Bruges and Ghent, which were not especially significant in World War I, though most of Belgium was occupied by the Germans. Today towns in the Belgian and French parts of Flanders tend to have a peaceful atmosphere. They generally have a tall belfry, often linked with a market place or town hall, symbolising the town’s importance.

To imagine the area during the war you need to see the shocking photographs of towns like Arras, Amiens and Ypres after they were bombarded. In Arras the city hall, belfry and cathedral were all destroyed.

There are also photographs of battlefields where all the trees have been reduced to stumps.

I was surprised at the ease of correspondence and how quickly letters would get home or to the front line. Was there anything in your research that surprised you?

I understand letters took up to five days to reach their destination, though there were probably longer gaps at times of the major battles.

The women’s Suffrage movement plays a large part in your story. Is this an aspect that’s close to your heart?

I have a great respect for the Suffragettes, active in the period before World War I, and the Suffragists, who were less militant. Many of them did valuable war work and helped women to be recognised as deserving the same rights as their menfolk.

I’m delighted to see that we can look forward to meeting Amy and Edmond again in your next book. Is this a work in progress? Can we expect to see them again soon?

A sequel is in the pipeline. I hope Amy and Edmond will be back next year!

I’m sure your readers would love to learn a little about you. What can you tell us about Rosemary Goodacre?

I love travelling, mostly in Europe. I also enjoy music, mainly classical, and reading. I love stories which transport me to a different place or time. It’s intriguing to try to imagine how people survived challenging times in history.

Thank you so much for joining me today. Good luck with ‘Until We Meet Again’ and I look forward to the next in the series.

Thank you, Natalie. I’ve very much enjoyed the visit!

The Great War drove them apart - but love kept them together 

Summer 1914: Shy young woman, Amy Fletcher, lives a quiet life in Sussex. An office worker, she lives at home, along with her parents and spirited younger brother, Bertie. But her life is transformed when she meets handsome young man, Edmond Derwent, son of one of the wealthiest families in the small town of Larchbury, and student at Cambridge University. 

The couple are falling deeply in love when war breaks out and, eager to do his duty for England, Edmond signs up as an officer. The couple plan to wed, eager to start a new life together - but their happiness is short-lived when Edmond is sent to Flanders to lead his men into battle. Amy trains as a VAD nurse and is soon sent to France, where she sees the true horror of war inflicted on the brave young men sent to fight. 

Separated by war, Edmond and Amy share their feelings through emotional letters send from the front line. But when Edmond is critically wounded at Ypres, their love faces the biggest test of all - can their love stay strong while the world around them is crumbling?

A romantic, emotional saga set in WW1 - readers of Rosie Goodwin, Katie Flynn and Val Wood will be captivated by this story of love. 

Links:

Amazon:      https://amzn.to/2miX2vD

Apple:          https://apple.co/2ncLTg3

Kobo:           http://bit.ly/2m4UgKB

Twitter:        @RoseGoodacre

Facebook:    http://bit.ly/2W31k81 

Author Biog: 

Rosemary Goodacre has previously worked in computing and teaching. She has had short stories published and a novella, A Fortnight is not Enough.

Her father's family came from continental Europe and she loves travelling.

She enjoys country walking, bridge and classical music. She lives with her husband in Kent, England. 

Here is the blog banner if you would like to follow Rosemary’s tour.

It's Been a Long Time

It’s been weeks since you last saw me here. I wouldn’t for a single moment want you to think it’s because I’ve had nothing to say. Does that ever happen? In fact I’ve been extraordinarily busy. Maybe a list is the best way to describe it:

29^th August – I met my publishers at Sapere Books in person for the first time...

Amy Durant, Editorial Director

Caoimhe O’Brien, Marketing Director

Richard Simpson, Operations Director

I was understandably slightly nervous. After all, there were three of them and only one of me. My trepidation disappeared in the blink of an eye and I began to believe I’d won the Lucky Dip. It didn’t really come as a surprise. We’d communicated online so I was fairly confident we’d get on but what a pleasure to meet REAL people. I can’t wait to get down to work with them. Here is my link on their website if you’d like to see what’s to come.

https://saperebooks.com/authors/natalie-kleinman/

After snatching a week’s holiday in sunny Eastbourne during the first week of September things took off big time. It’s been a whirlwind of a month.

9^th September – Visit to the House of Lords

As a member of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists I attended the AGM in one of the committee rooms at the House, introduced by Baroness Floella Benjamin, the society’s president. Following this (and a scrumptious tea) we were so lucky to be treated to a tour of the House by Floella and her husband, a wonderful couple who work as a team. It was a privilege and a day I shall never forget.

The lovely Floella Benjamin and SWWJ members

11^th September – The People’s Friend Workshop at DC Thomson, Fleet Street

This was a full on day. The workshop was entitled ‘Write a Serial for the “Friend”’ and was run by Shirley Blair, Fiction Editor at The People’s Friend and Alison Carter, an experienced writer for the “Friend”. It had long been my ambition to meet Shirley who has been my editor since my first short story was accepted in 2012 and I was delighted to have the opportunity of spending the day with her and 22 others writers.

23 writers all hard at work

On the same day one of my stories appeared in The People’s Friend Special. It was set in England’s Regency, the period in which I now write my books, and a delightful coincidence that the two things coincided. I was a very happy bunny.

My People's Friend Story

14^th September – The RNA York Tea and Joan Hessayon Award Presentation

Not one to miss the opportunity for a ‘jolly’, three friends – Elaine Everest, Elaine Roberts and Francesca Capaldi (one of this year’s contenders for the award) - and I decided to make a weekend of this event and travelled up by train from London on Friday the 13^th. Far from being horrific, we had a wonderful time, meeting other friends who joined us later. We steeled ourselves for the obligatory visit to the famous Bettys Tea Room. It had to be done! York is a beautiful city and I walked further in three days than I have for a very long time. And we went for a short cruise on the River Ouse. The ‘Tea’ on Saturday was a fabulous event. Held at the Merchant Taylors Hall, we were plied with lovely sandwiches and cakes before the main event, the presentation. This year’s winner was Lorna Cook with her debut novel, The Forgotten Village. My congratulations to her and to all the other contenders, each of whom was a winner, having graduated from the RNA New Writers Scheme with their book being published.

Lorna Cook - Joan Hessayon Award Winner 2019

I was delighted to have a further opportunity to chat with Amy Durant who was present as one of the final judges and to meet Natalie Linh Bolderston, Editorial Assistant at Sapere, whom she brought with her.

Since then (was it only two weeks ago?) I’ve been busy preparing for what promises to be a fabulous event on 25^th October when I am lucky enough to be one of twenty-five authors at a book-signing event at The Grand in Folkestone. I hope some of you will be able to join us from 7-9pm. And here we are: 

That’s about it for now. I look forward to seeing you next time

Natalie

Being a writer isn't all about sitting in a garret

Being a writer isn't all about sitting in a garret or some other lonely and isolated place, producing words and hoping that eventually you will end up with a book that people want to read. Sometimes they let us out. The past weekend was one of those times. 

Last Thursday morning, with excitement and expectation levels considerably raised, I met several friends at Euston Station in London and travelled with them to the Romantic Novelists’ Association annual conference in Lancaster. I knew I was going to have a good time. I always do. The amazing Jan Jones has been organising this event for years and her attention to detail is unbelievable. I honestly don’t know how she does it but I do know she has to put the rest of her life on hold to achieve what she does. We owe her a debt that’s impossible to exaggerate.

The Incomparable Jan Jones

On arrival, we collected the keys and went to our designated flat – student accommodation with eight bedrooms and a shared kitchen. Since everyone else was in the same fever of anticipation as I was, any observer might have been forgiven for thinking we were of the age when the majority of students would be attending university. Our majority was something we’d all attained several years ago! We were familiar with the campus, having been there three years earlier and that gave it, for me at least, a feeling of coming home. It not being term time and the facilities being self-catering, we found ourselves without any equipment in the kitchen and I’m sad to say I purloined some plastic cups when we went back to the hub at the George Fox building. Well, students we may have been for the weekend but too old to drink from the bottle. The wine bottle, that is. Somehow it’s different when it’s beer.

Nicola Cornick

I'll skip over the next twelve hours or so as we bedded in and move to Friday when the conference proper began, starting with the AGM. It being an election year, the chair passed seamlessly from Nicola Cornick (huge thanks for everything she's done for the organisation during her tenure) to Alison May (good luck to her and looking forward to seeing her achievements over the next two years). 

Alison May

And this is where in many ways it all becomes a bit of a blur. Panel talks; Q&As; workshops; Quiz the Agents; In conversation with… So many choices and mostly three at the same time. Now you tell me, how do you choose when you want to go to everything? No, I didn’t know how to either! In between all that, if you were lucky enough to have booked, there was the opportunity, organised again this year by Elaine Everest, of having a ten minute one2one with Industry Professionals. Arranging this too is a monumental task and I know Elaine spends hours and hours liaising with IPs and delegates to ensure it all runs smoothly. This particular element of the conference is priceless to any writer and several very happy people were given invaluable advice or asked to submit their full manuscript. And that’s how it was, full on, with a lot of food and visits to the bar, until suddenly it was Saturday evening and time for the Gala Dinner. Below are my dinner companions and flat mates.

Elaine Roberts and Viv Brown

Viv Brown, Rosemary Goodacre, Sarah Stephenson and Catherine Burrows

Natalie Kleinman and Francesca Burgess

Rosemary Goodacre, Sarah Stephenson, Catherine Burrows and Elaine Everest

AND THEN THERE WAS THE FLAT PARTY! Nobody hammered on the wall or banged on the ceiling so we can’t have been THAT noisy. This was the best flat party ever although it might have been quite painful to any listener with an ear for music as we sang our way around the table time after time with songs from the shows, films and popular solo artists and groups. Failing to answer a question or identify a song resulted in having to take a sip of wine. There was one member in our flat whom I wouldn’t dream of naming, who professed she didn’t know the answers and was therefore obliged to drink during every single round. She’s only a little person. I am in awe of her capacity.

Sunday came and once more we were up with the lark, though possibly a little jaded, only to return once more to the hub for more sessions during the morning. And all at once, for those not staying for the Sunday Extra, it was all over and time to go home. Hugs and goodbyes to friends old and new and we were on our way, very tired, very happy and up to here with an input of information which it will take (me at least) some time to assimilate.

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this thing work and thanks to all the delegates, without whom there would be no conference. We did have fun, didn’t we?

All photos courtesy of John Jackson. Thank you, John. 

So now I’m back in my garret but filled with inspiration

See you next year.

Natalie

PS My apologies for the strange formatting. I tried. Honestly I did!

Where did the time go?

It’s been a while. Far too long. But not for one moment does it mean I have nothing to say – as if that was ever going to happen!

Like the whole of 2019, these past few weeks have whizzed by and I find it hard to believe that it’s been eight weeks since I last posted. As I write this evening, it is now July and half the year has gone. So what have I been doing?

Something monumental (for me) happened on 18^th May which I splashed all over Facebook and Twitter but in my excitement omitted to shout about here on my own page. So, are you ready? Here goes then. I entered into a four book contract with Sapere Books. FOUR! I really wanted to put the whole of that sentence in capital letters because that’s what it feels like. Okay, I must lower my voice and calm down a bit. But that’s easier said than done. Why? Because these are my Regencies. 

This fabulous publisher is going to launch my books in a way that a debutante might have been launched into Society in the eighteen hundreds and I could not be more excited. You can find my page on their website here

This is the genre I most like to read, but I began my career by writing contemporary romantic fiction. With three books published I needed a pretty good reason to change direction. I enjoyed working in ‘real’ time. For one thing, there was little intensive research involved. I could rely on things I knew and could see. All I had to do was tell the story. I say all but, as any author will tell you, it isn’t quite that simple. Nevertheless it was fun, it was rewarding and I would have been quite happy to have continued in that vein.

Only something was pulling me in another direction, and tugging hard. As a teenager, my mother introduced me to the novels of Georgette Heyer, me and my sister both. Over the years my taste in reading has been quite catholic, though I gave up on horror a long time ago as it gave me nightmares. A good thriller, though, a Sci-Fi, comedy, tragedy…they were all in the mix but never have I encountered another author whose books I have read time and time again with equal and sometimes increasing enjoyment. Heyer does that for me.

As a romance writer, there is to me no more romantic age than that of the English Regency. Could I dip my quill into the inkpot and produce something of the era? The question demanded an answer and I had to try and it seemed that once I began to write I couldn’t stop. On 25^th April last year, The Ghost of Glendale was published. There are now three others waiting to follow and the next is already begun.

Sometimes life hands us a gift. There are occasionally days when I do not write but they are few and far between. Weaving stories is a delightful pastime but when it’s your work as well you are truly lucky. I hope you enjoy mine.

Till next time

Natalie

Taking Tea with Elaine Everest

Well it looks like she’s done it again! Elaine’s latest saga, The Teashop Girls, brings a new cast of characters with all their hopes and dreams, and their tragedies, too, to delight us and bring a tear to our eyes. Here she is, chatting with me over a cup of tea.

Thank you, Natalie. You know I like mine strong – where’s the cake?

One of the first things that strikes me is how well the names of your characters fit so perfectly with the era in which they’re set. Do you spend long choosing the right ones and do you ever change your mind half way through the book? For example…No, she’s not a Gertrude, I’ll call her Gladys?

Hmm it is funny you should mention this. I had a big problem with Rose’s mum’s name. She started as Lizzie, but it wasn’t right. Then Esther… Then a few more I’ve forgotten. One day Flora popped into my head and it felt right. Then she flowered into a proper character I could work with. Originally, I meant to name Katie after a flower as well but, it would have been a flower too much!

Very early in the book you talk about Sallys and their work behind the counter at the iconic Lyons teashops. Your research is always meticulous but how on earth do you uncover a fact like the one that puts these girls where they are because of their height? It’s these details that ring so true; that authenticate your work. How you go about such in-depth research?

Research is the key when writing historical novels. I like to dip into any document, book or film that relates to the era and my characters. If it is useful for my story, then I save it. Sometimes a snippet of information, such as the Sallys, pops up and I think of a scene where it can be used. Once I have a grasp of the life my characters would have led, I can tell their story. Researching history does not mean we have to fill our books with facts and numbers to the point that the history takes over, but it must give a flavour of the past to be able to create a backdrop to the story we wish to tell.

As with The Woolworths series, you have three girls around whom the story revolves but I was just as enchanted by their friends and families and how they evoked the principles and matter-of-factness of the people who lived in those difficult times. I found Mildred a particularly interesting character. Was she fully-formed before you began writing?

Mildred was a gift! She was just supposed to walk into the kitchen of Sea View and have her dinner. However, she hung around and made a nuisance of herself and become a valuable member of the cast. I often find I can have fun with the secondary characters while the main characters play out the story.

You obviously know Ramsgate very well and your descriptions of Dunkirk and the little ships bring to life a terrible event in our history but also one of which we can be proud. Can you tell us what it was like writing about such an emotive issue?

I’ve written about Dunkirk before and find it so emotional to think of the owner and the small boats heading off over the Channel to save our lads. I was fortunate to have attended the 75^th anniversary of the Little Ships and visited Ramsgate to witness what was left of these brave little ships heading out of the harbour surrounded by a flotilla of other vessels willing them on to France. Overhead a Spitfire and a Hurricane flew low over the crowd. So close I could see the face of the Spitfire pilot. I’ve never felt so emotional. It is occasions like this that remind us what is great about our wonderful country.

We have learned to recognise Elaine Everest as a saga writer, but you’ve also written other fiction, non-fiction and features. Have these all been in your own name or have publishers asked you to change it? Do you ever write under another name?

I’ve worked as a freelance writer since 1997. In all that time I have NEVER written under another name.
Sometimes publishers will ask us to use a pen name. I was warned it could happen with my sagas but thankfully it didn’t. Someone at the publishing house mentioned that Elaine Everest had a nice ‘ring’ to it and was it my pen name? I laughed and pointed out that ‘reader, I had to marry him’ to gain this name!

You’ve left us with some happy endings and some questions which are begging to be answered. Can we expect a sequel to The Teashop Girls?

There is to be a sequel. Currently I’m scribbling notes and have a reasonable idea of what I will throw at my girls next. Once my agent and editor have approved, I’ll be starting work on the book and hopefully this will be published at the end of 2020. Before then Wedding Bells for Woolworths is to be published in the spring of next year.

It’s been lovely chatting to you as always, and there’s nothing to beat a good cuppa! Thank you for joining me today.

Thank you so much for hosting me today. Can you squeeze another cup out of that pot? X

Of course. And this time we’ll have some cake!

About The Teashop Girls:

The Teashop Girls is a warm and moving tale of friendship and love in wartime, by the bestselling author of the Woolworths series, Elaine Everest.

It is early 1940 and World War Two has already taken a hold on the country. Rose Neville works as a Lyon’s Teashop Nippy on the Kent coast alongside her childhood friends, the ambitious Lily and Katie, whose fiancé is about to be posted overseas in the navy. As war creates havoc in Europe, Rose relies on the close friendship of her friends and her family.

When Capt. Benjamin Hargreaves enters the teashop one day, Rose is immediately drawn to him. But as Lyon’s forbids courting between staff and customers, she tries to put the handsome officer out of her mind.

In increasingly dark and dangerous times, Rose fears there may not be time to waste. But is the dashing captain what he seems?

  

The Teashop Girls is the new book by Elaine Everest, much-loved author of the Woolworths Girls series. Available on Amazon

About Elaine Everest:

Elaine Everest, author of bestselling novels The Woolworths Girls, The Butlins Girls, Christmas at Woolworths, and Wartime at Woolworths was born and brought up in North West Kent, where many of her books are set. She has been a freelance writer for twenty-two years and has written widely for women's magazines and national newspapers, with both short stories and features. Her non-fiction books for dog owners have been very popular and led to broadcasting on radio about our four legged friends. Elaine has been heard discussing many topics on radio from canine subjects to living with a husband under her feet when redundancy looms.

When she isn't writing, Elaine runs The Write Place creative writing school at The Howard Venue in Hextable, Kent and has a long list of published students. Elaine lives with her husband, Michael, and their Polish Lowland Sheepdog, Henry, in Swanley, Kent and is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, The Crime Writers Association, The Society of Women Writers & Journalists and The Society of Authors.

Twitter

Facebook

There’s still time to make some more stops on the blog tour. You can find them on the banner below

A Day to Remember!

2019 has been a good year so far. I’ve had my head down for most of the time since 1^st January, writing my next book – my excuse for not posting here for a goodish while. However, yesterday was a different day and one I’d like to share with you.

At home and ready for the off

WHSmith very kindly offered to host me for a book-signing event in their Lewisham branch. As instructed, I prepared and supplied some posters which they put in the window for a week prior to my designated day. Arriving late morning as arranged and armed with copies of The Ghost of Glendale I approached a member of staff. Imagine my delight when they gave me a table right at the front, near the entrance to the store. And they provided me with a bright red cloth with which to cover it. 

Setting up took very little time and I sat down to wait, knowing that I might have to wait for a long time, if not all day. Even with four published books I am not, after all, a well-known author. Not yet anyway. There was a pretty healthy footfall and it certainly wasn’t difficult to engage with people. My first ‘customers’ were a delightful young couple who bought two books – and then, another! The first was for his mother, as a Mother’s Day gift, and the second for his partner. I’m sure you can imagine my delight when they walked away and, after only a few paces, he turned back and said he’d actually take another one because he was certain his gran would like it too. If that wasn’t a good way to start the day, I’d like to know what would be.

Starting to set up 'shop'

A smile would bring someone over for a chat, some eager to tell me about their own endeavours, some looking in wonder as I admitted that yes, I was indeed the author. As the day progressed I met a lot of people who were keen to discuss my writing with me. Well, I was in a book shop! Suffice it to say that I didn’t sit idly watching the world pass me by. There was one lady who not only bought not only a copy of my book but also the current issue of The People’s Friend Special in which I have a story (we’d been discussing how I began my writing career with short stories).

Chatting about my book
Image courtesy of fellow-author Sarah Stephenson
who dropped in to say hello

A huge ‘thank you’ is due to the manager, Rob Peters, and his staff who went out of their way to make me welcome and comfortable. A word of appreciation also to WHSmith who employ a policy of encouraging local writers. Rob also took some of my books to put on their shelves. That felt really good.

To recap, I knew there was a possibility that I would have no-one but myself to talk to all day. Never a good thing. Had I not sold a single book, the time would still have been well-invested. It was a truly positive experience which took place in very pleasant surroundings and I would encourage anyone who might be contemplating doing the same to give it a go.

Till next time.

Natalie