A sweet treat for St Valentine's Day

A sweet treat for St Valentine’s Day. Fourteen stories, zero calories.

The Palace of Complete Happiness and other love stories published 14 February.

http://amzn.to/2BzxNa6

Fourteen stories to make the world go round

According to Wikipedia, ‘Love makes the world go round’ was first used as a song title in 1896.

And on Valentine’s Day each year it makes the world go round even faster, I expect, leaving red roses whirling in its wake so that the earth looks rather like this:

These 14 stories for the 14th of February (or any other day of the year) were all previously published in women’s magazines. And if you think women’s magazine stories are all in a 1950s time warp then do think again …

Two for Joy

Superstitious Jess is looking for true love – will the magpies or the tea-leaves point her in the right direction?

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Isabel has an unexpected guest staying for Bed & Breakfast – and there are people who would pay to know his whereabouts.

Sam Something

Sam is enjoying a cappuccino while waiting for his colleague – when he overhears his name being mentioned at the next table.

Summertime Blues

It’s the year of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, but Lindsay, part-time record-spinner on a Scottish island, is feeling far from chirpy.

A Green Wedding Dress

As Caitlin attends a rather strange, small registry office ceremony she can’t help comparing it favourably with her own lavish and traditional wedding.

Please, Mr Postman

When Petra tries to track down some missing letters she ends up meeting some of her new neighbours.

Ae Fond Kiss

When café owner Mary takes part in a flash mob to sing one of the Robert Burns’ love songs she finds herself standing next to one of her customers.

A Parallel Universe

Louise meets David for the first time in fifteen years and wonders about the life they might have had together – is it too late?

See You Later, Alligator

Lizzie’s met an explorer who wrestles alligators but is she intrepid enough to fall in love with him?

And Pomona Came Too

There’s a third party in Nick and Jill’s relationship – his metal detector. He even wants to take it on their weekend break to Basking-in-the-Wold …

Making a Scene

Of course her little boy’s birthday party is Lorna’s first priority but how she wishes she could be in two places at once.

Meet Your Match

Patsy decides it’s time to look for a new partner on a dating site but she gets distracted by her memories, and by three items that have arrived in the mail.

For Love or Money

Jackie is about to marry someone who’s made a lot of money – is she trying to leave her two oldest friends behind?

The Palace of Complete Happiness

While escorting a school party through the Forbidden City in Beijing, Milly comes to the conclusion that she can learn a lesson from the life of the imperial family.

The Palace of Complete Happiness and other love stories is available to pre-order now, and will be delivered to your Kindle on St Valentine’s Day. 

Go on, spoil yourself.

Interview with Helena Fairfax

Helena Fairfax has written: Palace of Deception, The Scottish Diamond (standalone romantic mysteries featuring the same characters with a bonus story A Question by at Hogmanay if you buy the anthology); A Way from Heart to Heart; The Antique Love (voted Most Romantic Love Scene Ever by readers of Love, Romances and More); The Silk Romance and a short story with recipes Come Date Me in Paris.

Her latest novel Felicity at the Cross Hotel is published today, 7 July, as an e-book and in paperback. Isn't the cover gorgeous?

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?

I was delighted to receive an advance copy and after I read it I had some questions for Helena:

Helena, welcome to Kate Writes and Reads. I really enjoyed Felicity at the Cross Hotel and one reason is that I think a hotel is such a brilliant setting for a novel because it’s a natural way for all sorts of people to come together. I wondered if you’d ever worked in a hotel yourself?

Thanks so much for having me, Kate! I'd been keen on the idea of the hotel setting for a while before I got down to writing Felicity at the Cross Hotel, and for exactly the reason you say. It's the perfect setting for people of all backgrounds to come together, and they could be at the hotel for all sorts of interesting reasons.

And yes, I have worked in a hotel myself. Just like my heroine, Felicity, I worked behind the bar one summer. The hotel I worked in was a family-run hotel in the Bavarian Alps. With my own hotel – halfway up the side of a mountain in a remote location – there were lots of similarities with my fictional Cross Hotel in the Lake District. There was the same sense of a family community, a mix of lots of different people, including a grumpy chef (I wonder if all chefs are grumpy!), and the same way that gossip spread like wildfire round the village.

You cleverly manage to get two sorts of hotels into the story. The Cross Hotel is a one-off family-run hotel while Felicity’s family is in the chain hotel business. Which would be your preference for a holiday?

When I go on holiday I really don't mind what the hotel is like, as I usually like to be out for most of the day sight-seeing. The Cross Hotel would be perfect for a relaxing break, though. I could imagine relaxing with my book on the terrace every day, with its gorgeous views to the lake, drinking tea and eating the chef's delicious cheesecake. (And it would be nice to get to know Patrick Cross, too!)

I see from your website that you live in an old Victorian mill town ‘right next door to the windswept Yorkshire moors’. The book is set in the Lake District so not too far away from your home – is it an area you know well?

The Lakes aren't far at all from me and I used to visit often, especially the area round Ambleside and Coniston Water. The landscape in the Lakes is completely different from the rolling moors and hills round where I live in Yorkshire, and I love the drama and romance of the mountains. Even the sky appears different at times – more steely and dramatic. It's no wonder Wordsworth called his home ‘The loveliest spot that man hath ever found’.

Apart from the hotel, and the relationship between Felicity and Patrick, there are other strands to the story. One of them is Patrick’s love of diving. I don’t want to give any spoilers but we do read about Patrick recalling something that happened while he was diving years earlier. I really felt I was there with him in cold murky Lake Emmswater. What research did you do to evoke this so well?

I have been diving myself, but that was in the sea around Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean. It was an amazing experience, and the waters I dived were the favourite spot of Jacques Cousteau. I can understand why! The Caribbean Sea is crystal clear, and the fish darting past are every shade of jewel-like colours. It was also warm – unlike the water in the Lake District! Freshwater diving in a cold lake is very different from diving in warm seas, and I knew I would have to get some help with the research, to make sure I had every detail correct. In the end I got in touch with the divers of Penrith Divers' Club and asked if I could watch them kit up and enter the water – just to see how putting on a dry-suit for cold water diving was different from wearing the wet-suit suitable in the Caribbean. The divers were really interested in my story and incredibly helpful. They gave me a CD they'd recorded underwater and explained all the manoeuvres they'd undergo to deal with a situation such as the one that Patrick Cross faces in my book. They had some fascinating stories to tell, and having gone to meet them I made friends for life. Felicity at the Cross Hotel is dedicated to them.

Another strand is Felicity’s relationship with her parents and her younger sister. Her father is an unpleasant and ruthless businessman but also a loving family man. Have you ever met anyone like that in real life?

I have met someone like that in a place I once worked – a man who was quite cold and hard, and a bit of a bully in business, and yet with his own family he was always kind and generous. His children were open and friendly, and completely different to him. I thought it would be interesting to explore that father/child relationship between Felicity and her dad, because it must be very difficult for the children of such a father. Patrick Cross's father, too, ‘wasn't a very nice guy’, and yet Patrick has grown up to be unselfish, caring and thoughtful.

I was once part of a discussion in which several women including myself ‘admitted’ that they give their cars (and other inanimate objects) names. The men in the room were baffled by such behaviour … In the book, Felicity’s ancient car, Agnetha, is almost as much a character as the people. Does your car have a name?

It doesn't have a name – but I'm very attached to it! My car is also an old banger, but I feel it's like a trusty old horse. I know it sounds ridiculous, but getting rid of it would be like putting it out to pasture. I'd be really sad! On the other hand, I have had cars I couldn't get on with at all. Cars that were cumbersome and awkward to drive, and one that was a total drama queen and would break down if asked to drive over a puddle. I swear all cars have a personality!

What was the inspiration for the book? Having coming up with the hotel in its lovely setting do you think you’ll set other stories there?

This might sound crazy – and very far from my Lake District setting – but my heroine was actually inspired by the heroine of a Bollywood film called Jab We Met – a girl with a cheerful, lively personality who transforms everyone around her. I'm also a big fan of the TV series The Hotel Inspector, and I liked the idea of Felicity thinking up ways to rejuvenate the Cross Hotel. I have ideas for more stories in the same setting. At the moment, they are just ideas scribbled in my notebook, but one day I hope to see them fully fledged!

Thank you for answering my questions, Helena. All the best with the book and your writing.

Thanks so much for having me here, Kate, and for your thoughtful questions!

Felicity at the Cross Hotel is available now.

Find out more about/contact Helena:

https://helenafairfax.com/

@HelenaFairfax

Lake pictures by Pixaby

A Learning Curve and a Half

When I put twelve of my magazine stories together for publishing on Kindle as Three’s a Crowd it was a learning curve and a half to format them. I've used Word for years and years but there were sections of the formatting palette I hadn't known existed.

And – aargh – the hyperlinking, linking the contents to each chapter head. Apparently hyperlinking is easy-peasy on a PC but I work on a Mac … a kind friend pointed me in the direction of this YouTube video.

Then there was all the US tax info to sort out. They say tomayto, we say tomahto … they don’t call it your UTR (Unique Tax Reference) number but that’s what they are looking for. However, thankfully, the tax form only needs to be completed the first time you publish on Kindle.

There were a couple of things I couldn’t figure out so I got in touch via the KDP contact form and got friendly, helpful replies – from real people  –within twenty-four hours.

And I happen to have a graphic-designer husband who was also friendly and helpful, in the matter of putting the cover together.

If you’re planning to publish through Kindle Direct Publishing for the first time my first top tip would be to print out all their directions first and read through them, highlighting anything you’re not sure about and finding out how to do that first. Much easier than trying to juggle the directions on one half of your computer screen and your Word doc on the other. 

My second top tip is to marry a graphic designer.

Easy when you know how … second time around, I wondered what I’d made such a fuss about. I’ve put one of my magazine serials up: The Ferryboat

When Judy and Tom Jeffreys are asked by their daughter Holly and her Scottish chef husband Corin if they will join them in buying The Ferryboat hotel in the West Highlands, they take the plunge and move north.

The rundown hotel needs much expensive upgrading – and what with local opposition to some of their plans, and worrying about their younger daughter, left down south with her flighty grandma, Judy begins to wonder if they’ve made a terrible mistake.

I might even do it a third time …

Coming on Kindle NEXT WEEK, written by me but published by Black & White Publishing is:

You can pre-order it now for a bargain 99p and it will be on your Kindle on 3 November.

One phone call can change everything...

Six days before Christmas, Stella could never have anticipated the impact on her life when the phone rings in her London office.

The phone call is from a friend of the family informing Stella that her grandmother has been hurt in a fall at her home in the Scottish borders and is in hospital. Torn between her responsibilities at work and the need to be with her grandmother she decides she must return to Scotland immediately.

However, on her return to where she grew up, it becomes apparent that her grandmother’s health is not her only concern. Relationships which have lain dormant for years are re-kindled and fresh opportunities present themselves – if she will only dare to take them...