Hello, my name is Sylvia and I’m the author of three novels
and a cookbook. “Prosecco Christmas” is the third book in my “Pot Love” series.
Apart from being a writer I’m also a mum to two gorgeous
children, the wife of a very supportive husband, and a very reluctant sailor. I
suffer from terrible motion sickness, so the only way I can enjoy any sort of
sea adventures is by reading and writing them.
How did you first come to be a writer?
When I was fifteen I wanted to become a journalist but my
father opposed to the idea. He would sit me down in front of the television to
watch the news. When a bunch of reporters surrounded a politician or a
government official for questioning, he’d point at them and demand to know: “Is
that what you want to do for the rest of your life?”
I had no answer to that. I had no idea what I wanted to do
with the rest of my life, but I also didn’t want to disappoint my dad. So I
became a graphic designer. That went on for more than a decade. Eventually my
love for writing resurfaced and I became a journalist (not a reporter!) and a
writer at the ripe age of thirty-five. I love it.
What is your book about?
“Prosecco Christmas” is the holiday instalment of my “Pot
Love” series. It’s about families and the different ways they show us love. In
it Ashley and Giacomo go to Upper Swainswick, a postcard village ten minutes’
drive from Bath, to stay with Ashley’s mum and stepdad over Christmas. It’s
their last visit before the arrival of their first child. But babies have a
habit of being unpredictable.
So when Ashley goes into labour on Christmas Eve, three
weeks ahead of schedule, it takes everyone by surprise. She’s not ready! Her
perfect Birth Plan is packed away in her hospital bag two hundred miles away,
she has no going home outfit, and she has a live event planned for New Year’s
Eve for her YouTube channel, The Sinking Chef. People have been signing up for
it for weeks. She can’t possibly disappoint them on the last day of the year.
What is she to do?
The tinsel gets even more tangled when Giacomo’s parents
decide to fly from Italy to meet their first grandchild. Hotels are fully
booked, so everyone has to stay under the same roof.
Although part of a series, “Prosecco Christmas” can be read
as a standalone novel.
Where do you get your ideas from?
This is the question I get asked the most. The honest answer
is – I don’t know. They just appear in my head, sometimes fully formed. Other
times they’re triggered by something I see, hear, or smell.
I was standing at a busy bus stop once, next to Selfridge’s
on Oxford Street. A beautiful Japanese woman was struggling to get her child’s
pram off the bus. She managed to get to the pavement only for the bus to close
the doors and drive away with her husband still inside. The woman panicked. Her
eyes were rolling inside her head. She was terrified and had no idea what to do
next. A well-meaning stranger told her that the bus would take the corner and
stop again. She could catch up with her husband there.
The woman hurried across the road and vanished in the crowd.
As soon as I lost sight of her I thought: What if they never meet again? What
if in twenty years time there is this diminutive, aging Japanese man standing
alone at a busy bus stop in London, peering into the crowd and hoping to find
out what happened to his wife and child, who he lost two decades ago?
That’s a whole crime novel right there.
What is your writing routine?
I never got the hang of procrastination (the guilt is
killing me!) so I have a fairly regular routine. I get the children and husband
out of the house as early in the morning as I can get away with. I make myself
a pot of tea and start writing. I keep it up (with varying success) until 4 pm,
when the kids get home.
Boring or what?
What’s your favourite book that you’ve read this year?
I started the year chuckling at Very British Problems and I
can’t seem to stop. It’s so keenly observed, it’s uncanny.
What are you reading at the moment?
I’m plotting my next novel, so I’m reading Into the Woods:
How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them by John Yorke. It’s about the structure
of drama on television, but it’s amazing how helpful it is for plotting books.
It’s given me heaps of insight into what works in a story, how to master
cliff-hangers and punchlines.
Is there a question that you wish an interviewer would ask
that you’ve never been asked? What’s your answer to that question?
Question: What talent would you like to possess?
Answer: To be able to slow down time.
How can people connect with you on social media?
I use Twitter excessively (according to my husband… I think
I’m totally fine). To get in touch use the handle
@bysylvia_a
Thank you for having me on your blog! It was great fun.
And thank you, Sylvia for dropping by!
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