Blog Tour: Oh! What A Pavlova by Isabella May {Q&A}

October 13, 2018Emma-Louise Book Blog Tours, Book Reviews, Bookish Posts Tags: #costadelcurros, #guestpost, #isabellamay, #ohwhatapavlova, #rararesources, #thecocktailbar, Q&a Leave a comment

Oh What A Pavlova

Hey Everyone,

Today I am bringing you a Q&A session from the lovely Isabella May in honour of her Book Birthday for Oh! What a Pavlova.

Blurb

Oh! What a Pavlova

Kate Clothier is leading a double life: a successful jet-setting businesswoman to the outside world, but behind closed doors, life with Daniel and his volcanic temper is anything but rosy.

Some days – heck, make that EVERY day – cake is her only salvation.

Slowly but surely, the cities she visits and the men she meets – help her to realise there IS a better future.

And the ley lines of Glastonbury are certainly doing their best to impart their mystical wisdom…

But will she escape before it’s too late?

Purchase Link: myBook.to/pavlova

Oh Waht A Pavlova Book Cover

Q&A

1: Can you summarise ‘Oh! What a Pavlova’ in just a few words?
Okay, are you ready? It’s quite a different premise for a novel…
Cake meets domestic violence, travel, spirituality, comedy, and a bid for freedom in the arms of many an unsuitable man… all set against the backdrop of the weird and wonderful characters of the publishing industry.

2: What was the inspiration for this book?
A burning desire to dispel the misconception that an abusive relationship is abusive all the time: it is not. But I also wanted to portray a very honest picture of the way D.V can splinter the victim’s life. Quite often they are leading a double life, their outer façade so astonishingly different to the unthinkable acts they are tolerating behind closed doors. Ultimately though, I wanted to create a story with a very different message; a message of empowerment for any woman or man who is currently feeling anything but strong.

3: Did you do any research for the book?
Yes. Although I have been to most of the twenty-two destinations which feature in the book, a couple of locations are brand new to me, so I had to read a fair bit about them to get a feel for them. And then to reinvigorate my memory with the sights, sounds and smells of the more familiar places, I turned to Pinterest, which is fantastic for evoking emotion and atmosphere (as well as procrastination!)

And of course, there was a lot of reading to do on the subject of abuse – not so pretty, but essential for furthering my own personal understanding, and so I could tell a more comprehensive story.

4: How do you decide on the names for your characters?
Oh, the character names in this novel have each changed more than half a dozen times. Then again, it is a book that was several years in the making! My second and third novels (The Cocktail Bar and Costa del Churros) were so much easier. The names seemed to magically float into my head from an invisible Idea Cloud and they have stuck ever since.

5: Is there a message for the reader? What do you hope they will get from one of your books?
All of my books have an integral message: you are far more in control of your life than you have ever realized, especially when you let the Universe lead the dance. But hopefully I say this in a subtle way. There is also nothing worse than a Preaching Fairy Godmother…

Author Bio

Isabella May lives in (mostly) sunny Andalucia, Spain with her husband, daughter and son, creatively inspired by the sea and the mountains. When she isn’t having her cake and eating it, sampling a new cocktail on the beach, or ferrying her children to and from after school activities, she can usually be found writing. As a co-founder and a former contributing writer for the popular online women’s magazine, The Glass House Girls – www.theglasshousegirls.com – she has also been lucky enough to subject the digital world to her other favourite pastimes, travel, the Law of Attraction, and Prince (The Purple One). She has recently become a Book Fairy, and is having lots of fun with her imaginative ‘drops’! Costa del Churros is her third novel with Crooked Cat Books, following on from the hit sensations, Oh! What a Pavlova and The Cocktail Bar.

Oh What a Author Pic

Social Media Links

www.isabellamayauthor.com

Twitter – @IsabellaMayBks

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/IsabellaMayAuthor/

Instagram – @isabella_may_author

My Previous Posts

See what Isabella’s writing process is as she discusses writing in this post

The Cocktail Bar Review

Oh Giveaway Prize - The Cocktail Bar

My Thoughts on Isabella’s New Book – Costa Del Churros

It was a fantastic read! It was great to see a couple of familiar faces, including revisiting one I previously disliked and now have a totally new opinion of. I really love how Isabella manages to mix reality and a hint of magic. Marvellously written and the characters are so relatable, each one with their own faults and imperfections. As always Isabella writes in a way which allows the words to flow from the pages.

Thanks for reading.

Emma-Louise x

Blog Tour: Joseph Barnaby by Susan Roebuck {Guest Post}

October 12, 2018Emma-Louise Book Blog Tours, Bookish Posts Tags: #bookblogger, #booktour, #guestpost, #josephbarnaby, #rararesources, #susanroebuck, blogger 2 Comments

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in the post, it was meant to go out yesterday. As thy say though, better late than never. Today I have a guest post from authorSusan Roebuck.

Blurb

Stand by your beliefs – even if it means going to the end of the Earth

By standing up for his principles to save the life of a prize racehorse, farrier Joseph Barnaby loses everything. Now, a personal vendetta has become too deep to fight and he escapes to the island of Madeira where he finds work on a small farm at the foot of a cliff, only accessible by boat. The balmy climate and never-ending supply of exotic fruit, vegetables and honey make it sound like paradise but, for Joseph, it’s the ideal place to hide from the world. Can the inhabitants of Quinta da Esperança, who have more grit in them than the pebbled beach that fronts the property, help Joseph find his self-worth again? And can he escape the danger that draws ever nearer?

Purchase Links

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Joseph-Barnaby-Susan-Roebuck-ebook/dp/B07FMVFLH1/

Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Barnaby-Susan-Roebuck-ebook/dp/B07FMVFLH1/

Guest Post

Portugal. A tiny country with a large heart, that’s what I always say. It’s not my country of birth (that’s the UK) but it’s my adopted country ever since my husband exported me here many moons ago.

It’s such a varied country with different cultures and landscapes. In one day you can drive from the north through national parks, ancient stone villages, past rocky mountains and steep hills covered in vineyards, to the more populated Centre with its famous Coimbra University, the walled town of Obidos down to rocking, vibrant and beautiful Lisbon. Cross over the vast Tagus river onto the south bank and travel through the plains of the Alentejo, past fields of wild-flowers, sunflowers, cork and olive groves with villages of white and blue cottages until the well-known, glamorous Algarve appears, its sparkle reflected in the azure sea because that’s as far as you can go on mainland Portugal.

The country is 900 years old, revels in the fact that it is Britain’s oldest ally (thanks to Queen Philippa of Lancaster who married Dom João I in the 14^th century), and, in the fifteen and sixteenth centuries created a huge empire overseas thanks to its New World Discoveries. Portuguese is even today one of the most spoken languages in the world (thanks, largely, to Brazil).

Living in such a beautiful place, I decided to write three novels set here.

The first one was “Rising Tide”, set in a small fishing village in the Alentejo where two strangers meet – crab fisherman Leo from Alaska (straight out of the “Deadliest Catch”) and small boat fisherman, Piper, from Norfolk, UK. They’ve both come to find out more of their families.

The second one was “Forest Dancer”, set in the forest just outside Lisbon. Classical ballet dancer, Flora from London, is left a cottage in the village. She’s failed several auditions and needs to rebuild her career. Can she do that in such an out of the way place? Maybe. She’s caught the eye of a local forest ranger but maybe his love is greater for his beloved trees and forest.

My new novel, “Joseph Barnaby” is not set on mainland Portugal but on the island of Madeira, on a fajã which is a flat area of land at the bottom of a steep escarpment or cliff. Often formed on the islands of Madeira and the Azores from volcanic lava flow before it was stopped by the ocean. Some Fajãs are wide enough to be farmed, but usually the only access to them is by boat.

Madeira is famous for its tropical climate and exotic fruits and flowers. At first, Joe works in a fishermens’ bar where the drink of the day (other than beer) is always Poncha. It’s an alcoholic drink made with Aguardente de cana (distilled alcohol made from sugar cane juice), honey, sugar, lemon rind, and lemon juice. It is all mixed together in a pitcher and the taste is sweet, it doesn’t have a strong alcoholic taste. It really packs a punch.

josephbarnaby

Author Bio

I was born and educated in the UK (I am British!) but now live in Portugal. I’ve been an English teacher for many years with the British Council and also the Portuguese civil service where I developed e-learning courses.

My first love is, of course, my husband, my second writing, and my third painting. And now I have time to be able to indulge in all three.

My debut novel, “Perfect Score” was published by Mundania Press on Sept 21, 2010 and the paperback launched on May 11 2011. It was a finalist in the 2012 EPIC e-book Awards in the Mainstream Category.

My second novel is a dark thriller/fantasy called “Hewhay Hall”. It won an EPPIE award in the 2013 EPIC (Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition) e-Book Awards in the Horror Category.

Next comes “Rising Tide”, published in 2015. Set in Portugal, published by Mundania Press. It is set in a tiny fishing village that the world, and most of Portugal, has forgotten. Read about the wonders of the ocean and see if Piper from Norfolk UK and Leo from Alaska, USA, can find what they’re searching for in the little village of Luminosa.

“Forest Dancer” was published on 20th February 2018 by CrookedCat Books. This is novel number 2 set in Portugal but this time in the forests outside Lisbon, Portugal. Instead of the sea (as in Rising Tide), now find out about the wonders of the forest and whether classical ballerina, Flora, can find what she’s searching for in the small village of Aurora.

On 5^th October 2018 CrookedCat Books published my newest novel, “Joseph Barnaby”, another romance/suspense which is set on the island of Madeira.