#RomancingSeptember Day 13 Twins Of A Gazelle by Margaret Cullingford @CullingfordMags

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Rosie Amber

Welcome to Day 13 of #RomancingSeptember

Our guest today is Margaret Cullingford and her book Twins of a Gazelle

Where is your home town?

I live in Leicester in the UK.

How long have you been writing romance?

This is not as easy to answer as you would imagine. Although billed my second novel, Twins of a Gazelle was the first one I attempted to write. I finished its first draft ten years ago when it was part love story – four interwoven in fact – and part mystery/intrigue. Needless to say, it failed to fit neatly into a particular genre. “Multi-layered” one kind critic said. It survived a couple more transformations, and finally, on editorial advice, I re-wrote it and it became a romance with edge.

What is your favourite sub-genre of romance?

I guess it is a love story with issues similar to the sort of story I write myself. My reading overall is quite eclectic – from literary through detective stories/crime, as well as romance, also historical-literary, -romance and -crime. Depends on how my reading fit takes me.

Where is your book set?

Twins of a Gazelle is set in Leicestershire, and on the Greek island of Ithaca, but also visits London, the area around St Katharine’s Dock.

Why does Callista think she’s married the wrong man?

Calista, after marrying Adam, is soon disillusioned. She was his mistress for a while before he divorced his first wife and persuaded Calista to marry him. She also knew a great deal about his financial dealings, and therefore, mistakenly, thought she knew him. Once married, she realizes she doesn’t know him at all. She also suspects he subscribes to the notion, marry your mistress, you create a vacancy. It isn’t too long before she discovers her misgivings are well-founded.

Who is P.J. Wood?

P.J. Wood is an enigma, a lone yachtsman Calista meets one evening at a taverna in Kioni, the small Ithacan port where she and Adam are on holiday. Adam has left her alone to go on an all-night fishing trip. By the end of their first meeting, despite knowing very few facts about PJ – she doesn’t even know what he does for a living -Calista feels as though she has known him all her life.

Your book is called Twins of a Gazelle, what is the significance of the title?

“Twins of a gazelle” is a phrase from a quotation, and what PJ calls to her at the end of their second, briefer meeting as he rows his dinghy towards his anchored yacht. By then, he’s too far out for her to ask what he means. By the time the quotation is given in full, I hope it shows the reader the essence of Calista and PJ’s relationship.

Which part of the research for your book did you enjoy the most and why?

The part of my research for Twins I enjoyed most, though accidental at the time, has to be immersing myself in the sights and sounds, the scents and tastes of Ithaca which encapsulates all things Greek – rugged coastline, rocky outcrops, mountains, olive groves, white-washed village houses, vibrant flowers, goats and sheep, ancient mythology through more recent history to present-day life. I’ve had a love affair with Greece ever since I first visited Athens, Delphi and Olympia in 1984,

What are you currently working on?

I am currently well into my as-yet-untitled third novel, which begins: Alexandra Neave, You now have something valuable, very valuable which by rights is mine. That one line is the first of four anonymous letters each more sinister than the previous one. The first short chapter ends, As Bel’s only child and, in lawyer-speak, sole beneficiary whatever the anonymous letter-writer claimed she now had must be down to Bel’s sudden death. There’s mystery and danger for Lexie Neave, and romance too in her tension-filled relationship with private investigator Forbes. Romantic suspense, or just plain chicanery, a mystery needing a solution? Watch this space.

Where can readers find out more about you?

Readers can find out more about me on my website, on my Facebook pages – my writer’s page and friends’ page, also on the New Romantics Press website.

Website – http://www.magscullingford.com

Facebook – https://facebook.com/MagsCullingfordwriter

https://facebook.com/magscullingford

Twitter – https://twitter.com/CullingfordMags

Website – http://www.newromanticspress.com

Twins Of A Gazelle

Available from Amazon – eBook and paperback

http://tinyurl.com/qj2hzlf

http://tinyurl.com/ojmm8z5

For more about Margaret and all our authors go to Stephanie’s blog, she’ll be posting in just a few hours at http://stephanie-hurt.com/

Beach Reads Blog Tour 2015 Day 2 #BeachBooks @adrienneauthor

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Rosie Amber

Day 2 of our beach reads holiday, everyone should have unpacked and had time to check out their surroundings and found a great place to settle down for a read.

Today my guest is Adrienne Vaughan.

Rosie Amber’s Beach Reads – June 2015

Hi Rosie,

Thanks so much for inviting me along …it’s been great fun and a real treat to indulge my favourite pastime, as in common with most authors, I’m always a reader first!

Because I work full time running a boutique PR company I use my holidays to write. So I write everywhere! I write at the airport – love it if we’re delayed – on the plane – the longer the flight the better – by the pool, at the beach, in a restaurant, on a yacht – you name it, I’ll be there scribbling away. I write my novels longhand and then do my first edit when I type up my notes. I’m an early bird, so by late morning I am usually ready to go off with everyone else and have fun – works for me!

A Fact Book/Guide Book – about the place I am taking my holiday in.

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Paris in Love by Eloisa James is my book of choice, and that fabulous city my destination. I was interviewing Eloisa – New York Times bestselling author of Regency Romance – for Romance Matters, the Romantic Novelists’ Association magazine, and decided to read some of her books. I loved Potent Pleasures – which was her debut novel, and then fell head over heels for her delicious memoir of a year spent in Paris. The book is quirky, poetic, poignant and funny – with notes on fashion, shopping and food, in-filled with many lovely family snippets, including how Eloisa’s son and daughter are fitting in with the locals, with varying degrees of success.

I had my own love affair with Paris some time ago, this gorgeous read reignited my passion, beautifully.

Paris in Love by Eloisa James http://amzn.to/1ABno75 or from Amazon.com

A book from my favourite genre …

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This would be my novel Secrets of the Heart, the final book in the Heartfelt Trilogy which set me on the road to finally realising my dream of becoming a published novelist. The genre is romantic suspense, which I love. I know the story, of course, but I still become gripped reading scenes from books I’ve already read, and I adore it when I notice something new, and believe me, that happens with your own books too.

While writing, I was so worried about one set of characters, I clean forgot to work out how my main hero and heroine were going to get together. But the mind is a weird and wonderful thing, I woke up one morning desperate to finish the book that week and the last chapter more or less wrote itself, I just had to do a bit of infill tying up some lose ends in between. It was as if my heroine was saying, at last, come on, get on with it and if you’ve met her, you’ll know precisely what I mean.

Secrets of the Heart by Adrienne Vaughan http://bit.ly/SecretsAV

Find all of Adrienne’s series here with Universal links

myBook.to/AVHollow

myBook.to/AVChange

myBook.to/AVSecrets

A book I could truly escape with …

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This would have to be Poldark by Winston Graham. I remember not watching the original TV series, because our television aerial wasn’t good enough to receive a decent picture. I was brought up in Dublin and in the early days we needed staggeringly tall aerials to pick up the signal coming across from Wales and of course, there were a few mountains in the way too! My folks had to save up for our aerial and when it came it was a sixteen footer, easily the biggest in the area. It arrived just in time to fall in love with Marc Bolan on Top of the Pops, phew!

Aidan Turner, the actor currently playing Poldark is from Clondakin in Dublin, literally up the road from my folks. I love the fact the role will put this very talented, ‘neighbour’s child’ on the road to global fame and feel justice has been served! I wonder if his folks’ aerial wasn’t tall enough to see the first series either?

Poldark by Winston Graham http://amzn.to/1KIMCq6 or Amazon.com

A book I would only read on holiday in a sun, sea and sand location.

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Dracula by Bram Stoker. I could only bear it somewhere where I could imagine a vampire would not appear, but I would love to read to it. A timeless gothic classic that has fascinated writers, film makers and artists since it was first published in 1897, the original story must be enthralling.

Bram was a Dubliner and a friend of Oscar Wilde’s and although he spent ten years in the civil service, he began an unpaid secondary career with the (Dublin) Evening Mail writing theatrical reviews. I was thrilled to discover this, as I wrote unpaid reviews for the Irish Times as a young trainee journalist in Dublin too – I also have a secret pash for Wilde, his picture hangs in our downstairs loo.

Although well received, Dracula was not an immediate hit – take heart fellow authors – and Bram published 19 novels before the end of his life. He also successfully managed to Lyceum Theatre in London for nearly 30 years – what a super chap!

Dracula by Bram Stoker http://amzn.to/1PkroQ5 or Amazon.com

And last but not least from me, something in my favourite genre, something to truly escape with and something to read anywhere, anytime, applies to all three of these super novels by my colleagues at New Romantics Press, all of which are available on Kindle and in paperback.