I am so pleased to welcome the fantastic Pia Fenton (aka Christina
Courtenay) on to my blog today to talk about
her latest book, a YA contemporary romance novel entitled New
England Dreams. Pia writes historical romance, time slip and YA
contemporary romance, mainly published by independent publisher Choc
Lit.
She is half Swedish and was brought up in Sweden. In her teens,
she moved to Japan where she had the opportunity to travel
extensively in the Far East. She is a former chairman of the UK’s
Romantic Novelists’ Association. Her novels Highland
Storms and The
Gilded Fan have both won the RoNA
Award for Best Historical Romantic Novel of the Year (in 2012 and
2014 respectively). Her latest novels are The
Jade Lioness (historical) and New
England Dreams (YA contemporary
romance). Coming soon – The Velvet
Cloak of Moonlight (time slip).
Pia and I have met a few times at the Romantic
Novelists Conference, and I couldn't wait to hear more about her
life, how she got into writing, and of course all about her latest
book. Over to you, Pia….
New England
Dreams is a Young Adult contemporary romance,
the 4th instalment in my Northbrooke High series which
features UK heroines clashing with US heroes in an American high
school setting. The other three books are New England Rocks, New
England Crush and New England TLC. The first one was
published by Choc Lit, but they subsequently decided not to continue
with a YA imprint, so I self-published the others as I had already
written them.
I have to admit I’m not very techie, so luckily
I didn’t undertake this endeavour on my
own – I got together with three other YA authors who were also keen
to self-publish and we work together as a group. We have a website,
blog and Twitter account under the name Paisley Piranha and I have
found the support of the others invaluable! Everything is always
easier when you work as a team. During the weekend of 29th-31st
July we were selling our books at YALC (Young Adult Literature
Convention) which is part of the London Film & Comic Con – very
exciting!
New England
Rocks, first in the series, was inspired by a high school reunion
I attended a couple of years back. I was lucky enough to live in
Tokyo as a teenager and went to the American School in Japan (ASIJ)
for three years. I had a fantastic time and meeting up with some of
my old friends from back then made so many memories come flooding
into my brain, I just knew I had to do something with them.
Of
course, everything wasn’t perfect (what teenager’s life ever
is?!) and with hindsight there were things I would have chosen to do
differently. I started to think about how I would have liked to
change things back then and how I should have acted and decided to
write it down. This turned into book one of the Northbrooke High
series and I’ve just carried on from there.
I
wasn’t one of those people who always wanted to write – I didn’t
scribble down stories as a child, but I did daydream a lot and
perhaps that helped? I was a voracious reader, but never tried
writing myself until I’d had my first child and decided I wanted to
stay at home with her. The only work I could think of which would
let me do that was to write, so I had a go. I really enjoyed it and
thought it was dead easy – until my manuscripts (yes, plural, I
sent two off at once to give the publisher a choice – <cringe>
how naïve was I?!) came winging back very quickly. In the end, it
took me 21 years to get published, but I had so much fun writing, it
was worth it.
I
normally write historical or time slip stories for adults, which
involve a lot of research, but sometimes I want to write using
nothing but my imagination. So basically, writing YA is a sort of
holiday for me – when I give myself permission to just write and
have fun!
The latest one, New
England Dreams, was inspired by a crazy thing I did once – kiss
a guy I met on a plane, a complete stranger. I really can’t
remember now how it came about, it just seemed a natural progression
from talking, I suppose, and nothing ever came of it (he lived in
Alaska, I lived in Sweden). But although I can’t even recall what
he looked like, the memory stayed with me and my story grew from
that.
I’m sure we all do silly things occasionally, that’s human
nature, but I’d love to hear what some of you have done!
PIA IS OFFERING A FREE COPY OF NEW ENGLAND DREAMS TO WHOEVER
LEAVES THE MOST AMUSING COMMENT BELOW!
Firstly though, the back cover blurb from New England Dreams.
When opposites attract, can dreams come true?
Staying in New England for a few months is just what Sienna
Randall needs after all the family problems she's been dealing with
at home in London. The last thing she's expecting is romance, so it's
a total surprise when she ends up kissing a guy she meets on the
flight.
Kyle Everett is Sienna's complete opposite – he’s clean-cut
and over-polished, she has piercings and pink dreads. But he can’t
resist making out with her. He is, after all, Northbrooke High’s
number one player. Except Sienna's different from other girls. He’s
definitely expecting to see her again – until they're separated by
irate airline officials before he can get her number.
Fate throws them together once more, but when Sienna turns up in
Kyle's home room, neither admits to having met before. The chemistry
between them is still there though – should they let it have free
rein or should the attraction stay in their dreams?
Buy links:-
Ebook (Kindle only)
-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/England-Dreams-Northbrooke-High-Book-ebook/dp/B01H2SM000/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1468752808&sr=8-5&keywords=Pia+Fenton
Don't forget – Pia
is giving away a free copy of her latest book, to whoever leaves the
most amusing (in our opinion) comment!
Thank you, Pia!
Great post, Pia and Ann. I'm glad I'm not the only one who does silly things, Pia. I've done so many I could write a book. The silliest I think was on one of my many driving tests. I was so nervous I tried to get into the wrong car, then when the examiner guided me to the correct car I drove off with my handbag hanging out straight through red lights! It just got worse and worse. I didn't pass, of course, but I finally did a few years later.
ReplyDeleteOh, Karen, I feel for you! I was so nervous during my driving test too but luckily was with one other person who was much worse than me so I passed :-D Thanks for your comment! xx
ReplyDeleteOh, I never knew the start of New England Dreams was based on a true story! Impetuous youth, eh? Most recent silly thing I can think of is trying to get my new hens into their coop when they decided the lilac tree in the corner was an ideal perch. Ended up in the mostly dark with Offspring on my shoulders trying to get them out. They don't look much, but hens can shift, I tell you!
ReplyDeleteLOL, that sounds like something that should go in a story too, Katy! :-D
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