Hello Margaret. Thank you so much for joining me and inviting Novel Kicks onto your blog tour. Can you tell me about your novel, Starting Over at the Crafty Bee Barn and what inspired it? 

Hi! The Crafty Bee story was inspired by an evening when I was looking at books on Amazon – for a change! – and I noticed how popular books about beekeepers were. It was at the same time that a friend of mine was talking about The Sewing Bee. Somehow the two ideas blended in my head and I though up the name Crafty Bee Barn. I wanted to do something that blended beekeeping and crafts. And the story developed from there.

What are the challenges you found when writing Starting Over at the Crafty Bee Barn?

This book had quite a few challenges. Probably the biggest issue was Lilah’s backstory. She’s had a tough upbringing and I wanted that to come through in the story without making it too dark, but at the same time not trivialising it or brushing over it. Aidan was also a challenge. He’s quite a gruff character who’s annoyed with himself for his past mistakes but I still needed to make him loveable and relatable.

What songs would make up a playlist for your book?

I always find this question really hard. I think I’ll have to leave it to someone else to choose after they’ve read it because I really don’t have a clue!!

What’s your favourite word and why?

This will probably sound very strange to most people but I like the name Demeter. I honestly have no idea why but I just love the sound of it!

Any other advice for aspiring writers? 

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