Tag: romance fiction

Catching up with Author Helena ‘Nell’ Dixon

Catching up with Author Helena ‘Nell’ Dixon

sandybarker

A very warm welcome to the wonderful author (and woman) Helena ‘Nell’ Dixon who writes, among other things, the Miss Underhay cosy mystery series, which I absolutely love. She’s here to talk about her next book Trouble in Paradise.

Cover of Trouble in Paradise by Helena Dixon Man on right with dark hair facing woman on left with red hair. A parrot sits in the 'i' in Paradise. Tagline: What happens when opposites attract?'

Hi Sandy. Thank you so much for inviting me.

Great to have you here! Tell us what inspired you to write this book.

The inspiration for writing Trouble in Paradise was my husband. He doesn’t read my books, he isn’t a reader, and although he listens when I’m talking about my plots he isn’t terribly helpful. Usually the conversation will be me telling him about something I’m trying to work out. He will then suggest I put a dog in the book and give me the plot of Lassie come home. I then give him the look and say no, that’s been done. He then used to suggest I put a parrot in the book instead. So, finally the one day I thought you know what? I’m going to do it. Trouble in Paradise (originally released as Animal Instincts) is set in an animal sanctuary with a parrot called Dave, after my husband. The only problem is that this parrot has been kept in a brothel and his choice of language makes him unsuitable for rehoming.

When did you start writing seriously?

I started seriously writing when I was seventeen. I’d belonged to a writers group since I was thirteen but my first attempt at a novel was when I was in sixth form. Needless to say it was pretty awful. I wrote two more books before I was twenty-four which were also pretty terrible, but one was good enough to attract encouraging feedback from an editor. Then I had three children in four years and writing took a back step until I was approaching forty and had a major health issue. That was when I thought it was now or never when it came to taking my writing seriously. The internet had come into being and I started writing and submitting again.

What do you love most about being an author?

The part of being an author I love most is seeing a story come to life on the page. It never fails to amaze me that something that’s lived inside my head can be shared with other people and they get it. I love hearing from a reader when they quote a particular phrase and say it made them smile or they could picture the scene as if it were a film.

What are you working on now?

Trouble in Paradise is a contemporary romance with a hint of mystery. It won the Romantic Novelist Associations Love Story of the Year prize when it was first released. I have several romances written as Nell Dixon. Since then I’ve started writing more crime based stories as Helena Dixon. My latest series is the Miss Underhay mysteries based in 1930’s Devon. These have been hugely popular and I’m working on book 8 in the series at the moment. I also have the start of a potential new series noodling away and another contemporary romance. Plenty to keep me busy!

What do you hope readers will take away from Trouble in Paradise?

I hope readers will enjoy Trouble in Paradise and enjoy the sparks between Clodagh and Jack. The animals paly a big part in the story and the relationship between Clodagh and her step sister Immi is very sweet. It’s a fun story with some surprisingly touching moments.

About the book

Clodagh Martin has enough problems right now.

Her beloved animal sanctuary is facing financial ruin, her celebrity sister has just announced she’s coming for an extended visit, and her foul-mouthed parrot Dave is, well, foul-mouthed.

Combined with a troubling wave of vandalism on her property, Clodagh feels that the whole world is against her. And if that wasn’t enough, a property magnate has been showing a strong interest in her struggling business.

But when Jack Thatcher begins to show not just an interest in the animal sanctuary, but in her as well, there really is trouble in paradise…

Where you can get it

Amazon UK | Amazon US| Amazon AU

Kobo UK | Kobo US | Kobo AU

Also available from other good book retailers.

More about Helena

Helena Dixon a woman with short dark blonde hair and glasses.

Helena Dixon splits her time between the Black Country and Devon. Married to the same man for over thirty five years she has three daughters, a cactus called Spike, and a crazy cockapoo. She is allergic to adhesives, apples, tinsel and housework. Her addictions of choice are coffee and reality TV. She was winner of The Romance Prize in 2007 and Love Story of the Year 2010 as Nell Dixon. She now writes historical 1930’s set cosy crime.

Follow Helena

Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Great to have you on ‘Off the Beaten Track’ today, Helena. All the best with your latest book!

Reading my own books

Reading my own books

sandybarker

When you are writing a series over many years, there comes a time when you need to re-read the first few books before you launch into a later book. And by ‘re-read’, I mean ‘read for the first time as an actual reader’.

Because by the time my books go to print, I’ve already read them a dozen times, each through a different lens – there’s all the editing and tweaking that occurs before I send them off to early readers, including my agent, then addressing feedback and final style edits and proofreads. Then they go to the publisher – I receive structural editorial requests and make those. I receive copy edits and address those. I even sign off on the proofread. By the time it hits a reader’s hands, I know each book inside and out, but not as a reader.

So, for the past few weeks I have been reading my first three books as a reader. This is necessitated because I’ve written 3 books outside the series since 2019 and I really want to immerse myself in the Holiday Romance series world. I want to remind myself of the character nuances that make those books special, to tease out little nuggets (Easter eggs for readers) that I can put into Book 5. And it is tricky to do that well without going back to the beginning.

I started writing the Holiday Romance series in 2015 with the book that was first self-published as You Might Meet Someone and then became One Summer in Santorini (published in mid-2019 by One More Chapter, an imprint of HarperCollins UK). After self-publishing Book 1, I moved swiftly onto I Think I Met Someone , the sequel to Book 1, then Someone Unexpected, which was in the same series but about a supporting character from Books 1 & 2, Cat. By the end of 2018 (my year on sabbatical) I had written three books in the series, was about to self-publish the third, and was querying madly.

Then a miracle happened!

I got a publication deal!!! And as a result …

You Might Meet Someone became One Summer in Santorini (still Book 1)

Someone Unexpected (never self-published) became That Night in Paris (becoming Book 2)

and I Think I Met Someone became A Sunset in Sydney (becoming Book 3)

Did you follow all that?

Early 2020, right after I finished writing The Christmas Swap, my 4th book and a standalone (not in the series), I started writing Under Bali Skies, the 4th book in the series. Bali is about Jaelee, one of the supporting characters from That Night in Paris and I re-read Paris before I started writing it. I wanted to ensure that I had the right cadence and style for the series and to refresh my understanding of Jaelee’s character.

Well now, a year after finishing Bali, I am starting Book 5, A Wedding in Tuscany. This book will bring together all the fave characters from Books 1-4 so I needed to get reacquainted with Sarah, Cat, and the gang before I whisk them all off to Tuscany!

And how has it been reading my books as a reader, one who reads voraciously in the Romance genre?

Santorini was a little tricky for me. It was my first ever book (obvs) so I was a little green as an author and I have found dozens of tweaks I’d like to make if I ever get the chance. Paris was fun – and I’d read it most recently, so it was a quick read. But Sydney was the most fun. Even though it was the second book I ever wrote, by the time I was tasked with editing it, I was a lot more confident in my authorial voice and in it there are so many passages that make me laugh out loud – or cry.

Actually, all my books still make me cry. Ben found me the other day, forlorn with a tear-stained face. I confessed that one of my heroines was ‘so awful’ and ‘had really hurt him’ and ‘why did she do that?????’ He hugged me, somehow understanding that these characters are real to me, that they have their own thoughts and feelings and desires and fears – that it is not me who creates them, but it’s them who let me tell their stories.

So, on the whole, reading my first three books has been … well … just lovely, really.

Next up in the world of Sandy Barker books is The Single Girl’s Guide to Hunting (in August! Huzzah!). It’s a stand-alone and I consider it my funniest ever book. Bali comes out early next year followed by Tuscany.

The ‘Someone’ series cover art by the very talented Jane Dunnet (Jane on Insta)

The ‘Holiday Romance’ series cover art by the (also) very talented Lucy Bennett (Lucy on Insta)

Catching up (again) with Author Fiona Leitch

Catching up (again) with Author Fiona Leitch

sandybarker

I am super excited to welcome back Fiona Leitch, the “mashup maven”. As well as adoring her, I am in awe of her incredible ability to combine my two favourite genres, Crime Fiction and Romance!

She has a new book coming out in a couple of weeks, and this is one not to miss because it’s the sequel to one of my fave books from 2019, Dead in Venice. It’s called Murder Ahoy!

Tell us about Bella Tyson, your heroine in Dead in Venice and Murder Ahoy!

Bella is a famous crime writer in her late 40s from South London. She dropped out of university and went off to have adventures, with a vague idea of writing about them. She loves chocolate, sex and travel, and her language can be pretty fruity. She’s probably my favourite character, as she’s the one most like me!

What do you love most about writing a series?

I love being able to introduce a character or a theme in one book, as maybe a sub plot or secondary character, and then expand on them in the next book. One of the main characters in Murder Ahoy! is talked about in the first novel and has had a profound effect on Bella in her past, but we don’t actually meet him until we’re onboard the cruise ship in book two.

What is the most challenging thing about writing a series?

I think the hardest thing is keeping it fresh. How many dead bodies can one woman come across without it sounding contrived?! I used to love ‘Midsummer Murders’ on the TV, but after a while it started to feel a bit daft – the murder rate in that cluster of small country villages was higher than that of New York!

You have been called the “mashup maven”. Tell us about how you bring genres together.

It all started when I tried to write something serious and it ended up being funny without me trying (if anything I was trying NOT to be funny). I can’t resist making it absurd or giving the characters witty dialogue. I’m also a sucker for romance and a happy ending. But as much as I love reading other people’s romcoms, and I adore the movies, I can’t seem to write a straight romcom. I think the frustrated filmmaker in me wants more action! So I gravitate towards writing mysteries, or romcoms with a darker edge. Readers seem to like a mash up but publishers, not so much sadly.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a new series, The Nosey Parker Mysteries, set in Cornwall. Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker is an ex-copper turned caterer who returns to the small Cornish seaside town she grew up in with her teenage daughter. She’s supposed to be retired from the force, but whenever there’s a crime she can’t resist sticking her nose in and helping solve it, along with hunky local CID officer Nathan, her old school friend, Tony, and a whole cast of colourful characters. The first book, Murder On The Menu, will be out in January.

Blurb for Murder Ahoy!

Famous crime writer Bella Tyson is hired to co-host a Murder Mystery cruise, on a luxury liner sailing from Southampton to New York. She’s expecting an easy ride; fun and games, surrounded by amateur sleuths and fans of her books, all the while staying in a deluxe cabin and enjoying the spa and the amazing restaurants on board, culminating in a visit to one of her favourite cities in the world – the Big Apple.

She’s NOT expecting to be stuck on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic with her two least favourite people in the world, her hot but unfaithful bastard ex-husband Joel Quigley and fellow crime writer, bitch goddess and Twitter frenemy, Louise Meyers. And when real live dead bodies start turning up – as well as fake not-really-dead bodies – Bella’s dreams of being pampered on the high seas turn sour.

Accused of a murder she would have liked to commit but didn’t, and helped (or hindered) by a gang of unlikely detectives, can Bella find out who the real murderer is before the ship reaches its destination and New York’s finest drag her off?

Buy links

Amazon AU | Amazon UK | Amazon US |

Follow Fiona

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | fionaleitch.com