A Moment With… Liz Fenwick
I am so delighted to be welcoming Liz Fenwick to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, The Last Christmas.
When a final goodbye in Cornwall is only the beginning…
Meredith Tremayne Russell has spent her life mapping the world, first in intelligence during WWII, and later as a professor. But at ninety-eight with time running out, she faces a journey she cannot chart, a return to her old Cornish home to sell it and to scatter her beloved husband’s ashes.
With her is her twenty-five-year-old granddaughter, Grace, a dyslexic who believes she is a failure in a family of academics. For Grace the trip is a welcome escape from her mother’s demands. But when she unlocks her great-grandmother’s abandoned art studio, she finds a legacy of a passionate artist and a French resistance fighter.
As Meredith relives the frozen December of her 1946 wedding, she understands her final mission isn’t to say goodbye to her old home, but to draw one last map—showing Grace how to navigate a life of her own making.
To talk about what makes a Christmas novel, it’s over to you, Liz.
What makes a Christmas Novel?
We have Christmas movies and we have Christmas novels. We could venture into the whole Die Hard debate – Christmas movie or not. It takes place at Christmas – tick. There is Christmas music in the soundtrack – tick. There is a man flying to spend the holiday with his family – tick. Then things are blown up, people are killed, but there is a happy ending. So, you could argue it is a Christmas movie, just not like White Christmas, The Holiday or Love Actually.
But that question had me thinking about The Last Christmas. When I think of Christmas movies or books certain things come to mind, like Hallmark movies, funny jumpers, hot chocolate, snow, and ghosts. I’ve written two Christmas novellas before – A Cornish Christmas Carol and Delivering Christmas – I understood the ingredients list. But with The Last Christmas I knew I would be pushing the boundaries a bit – not as far as Die Hard though.
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A Moment With… Karen Storey
Please join me in welcoming Karen Storey to Novel Kicks as we say Happy Birthday to her book, The Approval of Sheep.
Gordon Slee fears he was never meant to be born. Anxious since childhood after hearing he was an accident, the forty-two-year-old is still struggling to escape the shadow of his high-achieving family.
But a glimmer of hope is on the horizon – a huge promotion within his hotel group is up for grabs, and he is sure that his time has come to make a mark on the world.
However, within his own department, redundancies are afoot. He may lose his job before he gets the chance. Until he learns of a historic covenant that preserves the right for sheep to run through the company’s top London hotel. Could he convince his boss that he’s the man to save the hotel from catastrophe?
Up in Bryn Nefyn, North Wales, live the descendants of the covenant owner. The elderly sheep farmer and his aging hippy brother could use the money the hotel might offer. But along with their strong-willed American shepherdess, they laugh at Gordon’s attempts to negotiate a deal. Surely, they couldn’t use a covenant that’s been forgotten about for over a hundred years.
Or could they?
For lovers of upmarket commercial fiction with a touch of romance and comedy, The Approval of Sheep is an uplifting story about family and love, overcoming adversity and discovering our reason for our place in this world.
To talk about the inspiration behind The Approval of Sheep, it’s over to Karen. Welcome.
The crazy inspiration behind my quirky, uplifting debut novel, The Approval of Sheep
When I tell people about the premise behind my debut novel, The Approval of Sheep, they’re often surprised to hear that the story was inspired by a real sheep covenant. When the idea for this book first came to me, I had been focusing on creating darker fiction tales, both with my short stories and a women’s fiction novel I had been working on. But then, one day, my husband came home from work and told me about this crazy policy he had to sort out.
Well, I always thought my husband had the most boring job in the world. He was a corporate insurance broker at the time (now a consultant) and used to come back in the evenings and tell me stories about devising policies for factories and financial institutions. Not very exciting stuff in my mind. So, I would smile and nod while not really listening. Until that evening he came into my writing room after work and told me about this posh London hotel where they found this old covenant that would allow sheep to run through the hotel’s premises. I was like, ‘What? You had to sort out an insurance policy about sheep? What would the policy actually protect the hotel from? And what if they didn’t take it out?’
by A Moment With… Olivia Lockhart
I’m so pleased to be welcoming Olivia Lockhart to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for her book, Private Devotions.
Destiny promised Hanna Bailey her soulmate, but delivered a divorce instead. So, when the career opportunity of a lifetime comes calling, she’s ready to answer. Alone.
Joining the tour of rising rock band His Locked Heart is her chance to start again. Sold-out shows, endless miles, and the freedom to leave her past behind
But fate has a habit of rewriting the lyrics.
Behind the spotlight, the band’s brooding songwriter, Nathaniel Cole, is about to become the one person Hanna never expected. As friendships deepen and long-buried truths surface, Hanna finds herself torn between the life she built and a love that could burn the whole thing down.
Some songs are written in secret.
Some loves refuse to stay hidden.
And sometimes you get the chance to rewrite your own story.
With a special letter to women like Hanna, it’s over to you, Olivia.
Private Devotions has some painful and real memories in it, some my own, some heard from other women. Living through my forties has taught me a lot, and I wish I could go back and tell my younger self … but I don’t know if she’d believe me or understand. She’d probably scoff at the middle-aged woman who seems so dull and lifeless.
There’s a little bit of all of us in Hanna, and I hope you’ll read and identify with her. But in the meantime, a letter to all the women like me …
Dear friend,
There is something I wish you had known from the beginning.
You were never the problem.
by A Moment With… Dr Martyn Pritchard
I am pleased to welcome Dr Martyn Pritchard to Novel Kicks as we shine a light on his book, A Painkiller to Die For. It’s celebrating one year since its publication.
It was difficult for Will Jeavons to imagine just how his life could possibly get any better. Having overcome a traumatic childhood, he had gone on to study molecular pharmacology and win tenure as a lecturer at his beloved Cambridge University. But his life was soon to become better still, the CEO of a biotech company. Will’s unique research led to the discovery of a non-addictive drug for chronic pain. A remarkable solution for the opioid epidemic which had claimed the life of his mother.
Will’s flourishing company was subsequently acquired, and this was when he first met Celeste Simmonds. The beguiling Celeste would steer Will away from his earlier hedonistic, womanising lifestyle. However, the only way he could ensure the success of his drug was to bury key safety data which could have led to the clinical trials being terminated.
Clinical trials which resulted in the husband of Lydia Goldberg falling into a deep coma. It was Lydia’s scientific training which led her to discover Will’s fraudulent cover-up. She was determined to seek vengeance and concocted an elaborate honeytrap and a decision for Will to make. A career ending confession or being submitted to a life-threatening game of Russian roulette.
To talk about his experience with writing, it’s over to you, Martyn.
Why write novels? Why ‘A Painkiller to Die For’? A reasonable enough question, I suppose, to ask a career scientist who only passed his English Language O-level after two attempts. As with most novelists, I imagine, it was a combination of events which made me open up my laptop some 25 years ago and type those first few words. Those early efforts in the noughties amounted to a rather disjointed first 100 pages or so which were almost completely rewritten when Covid came along and the free time I needed to dive back into the book.
The overall premise remained pretty much the same, but the book turned out to be very different to what I had originally imagined all those years ago. ‘A Practical Arrangement’ was my first novel and came out towards the end of 2023 but not under my name! I used the nom de plume of Verity Trevethan as my assumption was that those few who ended up reading the book would give bad reviews. Poor Verity could shoulder the blame. But there were a few readers who wrote very generous commentaries and so Verity was outed to my family soon after publication (they never even knew I was writing a book!).
by A Moment With… Paul Gitsham
It’s a pleasure to be welcoming Paul Gitsham and the blog tour for his book, Deadly Truths.
How do you solve a murder when you’re shut out of the investigation?
Young detectives, Robinson Ellington Foxe and Amy Kennard, don’t want to work at Coventry’s Moat Lane police station. Neither do their colleagues want them there. But it’s the last chance for two officers for whom doing the right thing has cost them their futures.
Despite a murder on their patch, they are lumbered with investigating a series of high-profile burglaries. But when a thief is killed in the house of an influential businessman, Foxe and Kennard are convinced it is linked to their cases and want in.
The official investigation is a whitewash, but Robbie and Amy keep investigating anyway. As they uncover a web of deceit and corruption, reaching to the very top of the force, their own difficult histories are weaponised against them, and they find themselves fighting for their careers and their lives.
To talk about starting a new series, it’s over to you, Paul.
The pleasures of a new sandbox to play in.
In 2023, I decided to put my long-running DCI Warren Jones detective series on hiatus (I say hiatus – I haven’t finished him off!). But when one door closes, another opens. Enter Foxe and Kennard in Deadly Truths, the first in a brand-new series.
It’s not that I’ve run out ideas for Warren, far from it, but as many writers will tell you, it’s not the lack of ideas it’s the lack of time to write them. Furthermore, some of those ideas just won’t work within an established series.
Therefore, I decided it was time for a reinvention. Rather than more of the same with different characters, I saw this as an opportunity to rewrite the rules and restart from scratch.
The thing about an established series is that its strengths can also be weaknesses. Building a world that will become familiar to readers and author alike is a wonderful experience. So many successful writers have beloved characters that hook the readers as much as the intricate plots and thrilling action scenes. Warren certainly has his fans.
by Book Club
