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
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.
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
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
