LYNDA RENHAM

Hello,


I'm very excited to have guest blogger, Lynda Renham, on my website today. Like me, Lynda as a Christmas book out and it's called, 'A Christmas Romance'. It looks fabulous. So without further ado, here's Lynda...or should I say, Amy Perfect?

Thank you to Jon Rance for featuring me on his blog. I always enjoy coming here. I’m very excited to tell everyone about my new novel ‘A Christmas Romance’ I can’t believe how close Christmas is. It will soon be December so what better than a Christmas novel to get you into the festive mood. That, and a mince pie, of course.

I enjoyed writing this novel so much and am thrilled to see it climbing the holiday chart. ‘A Christmas Romance’ is set in a fictional village in Oxfordshire, named Little Perran.

I wrote this novel under the name of Amy Perfect. It’s full of romance and Christmas magic. It is the first in a series of stories to be set in Little Perran. I have had wonderful reviews and am so delighted.

My time spent in Little Perran was delightful and I’m sure yours will be too. I can’t wait to write the second in the series which will be out in the summer.

A CHRISTMAS ROMANCE

Lynda Renham

Writing as

Amy Perfect

‘Romance is the last thing on Frankie Bell’s mind as she gets ready for Christmas in the English village of Little Perran. It’s going to be a quiet affair once the annual Great Little Perran Christmas Bake Off cake competition is over, with Frankie, and her little dog Buster, tucked up warmly in Primrose Cottage. Fate, however, has other plans and Little Perran is thrown into turmoil when the film star, Roux Lockhart, comes to stay. 

The spirit of the season weaves its magic and a freak snow storm that blows in a surprise visitor. Frankie discovers love from an unexpected quarter, but can she trust it? And is someone cheating with their Christmas cake? 

A delightful Christmas love story to be enjoyed with a mug of hot chocolate and a roaring log fire. 

You can purchase your copy of ‘A Christmas Romance’ here.

You can find out more about Lynda and her books at her website here.

Until next time.

Hugs,

Jon X

A NOTTING HILL CHRISTMAS

Hello,


Sunday Dinners is out and doing very well (thank you so much!) and so now it's time to talk about my Christmas novella, A Notting Hill Christmas. Yay! I've been thinking and talking about writing a Christmas novella for the past three years and for various reasons it's never quite happened. This year it's happened! So strap yourself in, it's going to be quite a ride!

I had the title, A Notting Hill Christmas, in my ideas folder for a while. That was it. No story, characters, or idea what it was going to be about. I just liked the idea of it. So when I decided to write a novella this year, I was going through my notes when I found this title and started thinking about it. I love Notting Hill as a place. It's iconic and there's obviously the famous film starring Hugh Grant. I knew right away though that I wanted to show a different side to it. It wasn't going to be the chocolate box Notting Hill that Richard Curtis gave us, which I love and wished I lived in, but something else. Something more real. 

As always the characters came first and in this case it was the main character, Ben Canterbury - I've wanted to give a character the last name Canterbury since The Office when it was Tim's surname. I knew from the start that Ben had to be a bit of a loser. I had a rough idea of a story and it involved a large family coming to a small, cramped flat in Notting Hill for Christmas. Ben was going to be catalyst for this to happen. Actually his life failures and jealousy of his older and successful brother, Jamie, would be. Ben's tired of being the "deadwood in the Canterbury family tree" and insists he hosts Christmas, even though he has no chance of actually doing it properly in his little flat. There in lies the tension, drama and comedy of the book.

Once I had Ben, I needed a funny flatmate, and a crazy family (plus a very angry dog), which all came fairly easily. Then came the difficult part, I needed a romantic female lead - this is a rom-com after all!

It was tough working out the love story because here we have Ben, a 29 year old man, who's life hasn't gone to plan having Christmas Day with his family. How to fit a woman into this scenario in a real and plausible way without making it seem absolutely ridiculous was a challenge. When I started thinking about her the first thing that came to mind was that she was Scottish. I don't know why. I've always found the Scottish accent pretty sexy and I wanted someone who needed a reason to spend the day with Ben and his family on the big day. So she obviously had to be far from home. This is when things started to spark and the story and characters came alive.

The female lead, Mhairi, comes into the story and at first seems just about perfect, but obviously this is never the case. Also I think it would be hard to sell a love story with a loser main character falling in love with this amazing woman. She had to have her flaws and secrets too. And she does. 

The main thing with A Notting Hill Christmas, is that I wanted it to be funny and heart-warming, but also honest and real. Just because it's a Christmas story and a rom-com, it doesn't have to be this overly sweet, fluffy, sort of fairytale. It's a bit dark in places, the characters are deeply flawed, and it's probably not the Christmas day you'd want to go to (£1 shop Christmas tree and decorations stuck on with Blu-Tack), but amongst all the carnage and drama, there is a really sweet, funny love story that will hopefully make you laugh and cry.


A Notting Hill Christmas is out on December 7th and it's only 99p! You can pre-order it here or just click on the cover below! I'll be back with more blogs soon! 

Until next time.

Hugs,
Jon X

SUNDAY DINNERS - THE REUNION SPECIAL

Hello,

if you watch any of those awful shows on television like The Annoying Housewives of Wherever, or Sixteen, In a Trailer Park and Pregnant, you'll know that they're awful and the people on them are equally as awful. You'll also know that at the end of the season they have a special show where they all get together and talk. Actually they just shout and cry. It's horrible, obviously. So why am I talking about this? Because I was in bed last night thinking about SUNDAY DINNERS and it occurred to me that publishing a book is a bit like the reunion episodes they have on those terrible reality shows. I'm losing you, aren't I? Let me explain.

When you publish a book the anxiety is awful. It's as bad as a teenage relationship. Do they like me? What if they don't like me? I bet they don't like me. After a week, SUNDAY DINNERS has 15 lovely, wonderful reviews, but I'm still worried, nervous, and fretting over it's success. I've likened it before to watching a child go off into the world. Every day I watch as my 6 year old daughter goes to school, we kiss, hug, wave goodbye and I watch her walk away and I'm thinking, please have a great day, I hope people are nice to her and like her. It's the same with watching my book make it's way in the world. I hope people are nice to it and like it. 

So back to the awful reality show reunion episodes. What's that got to do with publishing a book? Well, when you publish a book you go through the drama, the tears (the regular episodes of the show) and then eventually when it's all done, when the books out, all the marketing and interviews are done, you reach a point when you sit down and think about the whole process. Admittedly, there's much less shouting and crying at my reunion show, but the idea is the same. It's about a final goodbye. Because that's it now. SUNDAY DINNERS is done. There's nothing more I can do. It's time for the reunion show and then it's time to move on.

It's always bittersweet moving on. I'm super excited to start a new project, but sad to say goodbye to something I've spent the last year and a half working on. To the characters I've grown to love. It's why I need the reunion show. I need one last moment to really go over everything before I'm done. One last chance to get everything out in the open so we can all move on. Although from what I've seen of those reality shows, those characters never move on. They're happy to keep arguing and shouting and crying forever. Lucky writers aren't like that. 

SUNDAY DINNERS JUST 99P!

Until next time.

Hugs,
Jon X

KATY REGAN

Hello,


If you've been following my SUNDAY DINNERS extravaganza all week on Bookaholic Confessions, you will have seen blogs by Matt Dunn, Christina Hopkinson, and Nick Spalding to name a few. If you missed any, pop on over to Bookaholic Confession and check them out. Today I have the last one and it's with wonderful bestselling author Katy Regan. Katy is the author of How We Met, The One Before the One, One Thing Led to Another, and The Story of Us. You can buy her books here. Today she talks about what the Sunday roast means to her. 

Sunday Dinners can never be eaten or held in summer. (That’s just an evening meal on a Sunday). It has to be autumn or winter. It has to be chilly outside, and preferably dark when you eat. This is because Sunday Dinners for me are about retreating from the world and any obligations - to the centre of the home and the family. They’re about closing the door and being with your nearest and dearest.

There will be a roast, naturally, and as many different vegetables as possible (this is very important). The main aim of a Sunday dinner, however, is to eat as much as humanly possible - together with a few glasses of red - so that you are then comatosed / numb to the looming pressures of Sunday and are capable of nothing else but watching mindless telly. Doc Martin is perfect.

Of course, Sunday Dinners aren't and weren't, always so cosy. When I was a child, there were fights over who had the chicken leg (come to think of it, my son - very much a leg man - and I, still fight over this), and vicious glares across the table at my little sister, for no reason other than she was my little sister. There would then possibly be fights over homework, but for that hour or two, it was just me and my Sunday Dinner. Oh, and there had to be crumble…

Thank you Katy for sharing your Sunday roast dinner with us. It's made me hungry!

If this has got you in the mood for something tasty, SUNDAY DINNERS is only 99p on the Kindle, so please pop on over and grab your copy today!

Until next time.

Hugs,

Jon X