Earlier this week, I posted the first part of my Romance Reading Month interview. Here now is the rest of it.
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What was your favourite read of 2019? I read the first two books in Jean Fullerton’s Ration Book series – Pocketful of Dreams, which was recently rereleased as A Ration Book Dream, which I thought was the best book I’d read all year until I read the sequel, A Ration Book Christmas. Jean Fullerton knows her stuff and has thoroughly researched the details of everyday life during the Blitz. Her stories are filled with emotion and drama and Dream is outstanding because it chooses an unusual focus. The third book, A Ration Book Childhood, is approaching the top of my TBR pile.
Do you read other romance authors and who would you recommend? I love sagas and Carol Rivers is a favourite of mine, especially her Home Front stories. I also love books by Anna Jacobs and Dilly Court.
Was there a point in your life that a book helped you get through, if so which one? I was widowed young and for a long time afterwards had trouble concentrating. I would start reading a book and then simply not be able to focus. Then I picked up Without Charity by Michelle Paver and I was captivated. I remember feeling enormously grateful to the author for enabling me to escape into the world of the story.
Is there anyone that you would like to mention and thank for their support of your writing? I’d like to thank the Canadian romance author Jen Gilroy. We have been friends since 2014, having met through Twitter long before we met in person. When I decided to try for publication, it took me two years of re-writes before I got an agent and at one point I seriously considered stopping. After all, I had already had one dream come true by moving to North Wales – how could I expect a second dream to come true? Jen had no idea I was having doubts, but she sent emails, encouraging me not to give up – and I kept going. Jen is always there to lend an ear or to share a groan or a laugh. She is a much appreciated constant in my writing life.
If you had the power to give everyone in the world one book, what would it be and why? My choice of book is Norman Longmate’s How We Lived Then: a History of Everyday Life During the Second World War (Hutchinson, 1971), which is a comprehensive and informative account of life on the Home Front that also happens to be hugely readable and entertaining. I would share this because it is about human resilience and the ability of ordinary people to cope with whatever is thrown at them. And I’d like to offer readers the chance to have it as an audiobook, because I think that being read to is one of life’s great pleasures.
What are you working on now? As Polly Heron I am writing a 1920s saga series for Corvus. The first book, The Surplus Girls, was published at the beginning of 2020. Book 2 is already written and now I am working on book 3, which is going to be a Christmas-themed story, something I have wanted to write for ages and am making the most of.
Lastly, do you have any questions for your readers? The question I would most like to ask is: what is your favourite era/decade for a story?
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The Surplus Girls on UK Amazon
The Surplus Girls on US Amazon
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