The English Channel Series by Rose Amberly #GuestPost #Giveaway

 

Today I am featuring a guest post by author Rose Amberly to celebrate her English Channel Series. You can read my reviews on the first two in the series here: Plain Jane Wanted |  Unwanted Bride . You can win a signed copy of Plain Jane Wanted. Details on how to enter are at the foot of this post. 

Welcome to the blog, Rose!  

 

Readers often ask me about my inspiration for La Canette island.

The quick answer is of course Sark.

I’d never heard of Sark when a random internet search came up with a picture of this charming cove in the English Channel. White sailboats floated on cerulean blue sea surrounded by pretty green hills and pink wildflowers. I lost myself for a couple of hours, reading about this island, their unusual laws, their dark sky full of stars and their complex history. It just took hold on my imagination. Later that same day, I remember posting the picture to my Facebook page with the caption “One day I’m going to write a story and set it here.”

The longer answer is that like all authors, my mind stored things from everywhere. A jam recipe made from wild fireweed. A time when someone forgot the shopping in the taxi and we had supper on white bread, butter and basil leaves. (That was a delightful surprise; I still love that combination.) A holiday in the mountains in Turkey when I was sixteen. We stopped to picknick by a stream, and I found oregano growing wild.

Gradually, and unconsciously, a picture came together in my mind, a romantic fantasy of wild herbs and edible weeds. And thirty years later it became Blue Sage café, the heart of my first novel.

Back in 2019, I thought that was it. A complete novel. But the café and its unusual recipes took hold on my heart and wouldn’t let go.

So, the café features in the second novel as an inspiration for a wedding dress design with delicate herbs and flowers motif along the hem.

In the third book, the café creates recipes for a wedding breakfast with lavender cupcakes and herb cucumber sandwiches. And the unusual recipes followed me to book four, with sausage and honey sandwiches,

Finally in book five, a pregnant woman can’t eat anything that doesn’t trigger her morning sickness. Blue Sage café comes to the rescue with lemon ginger biscuits and mint raspberry cheesecake.

The thing about a series set in the same location is that a world you create comes alive and starts growing.

Side characters in that first novel grew and insisted on taking part in future novels. The grumpy old man who is terribly rude (He compliments one woman on her improved looks by saying ‘Two months ago you looked like the back of a kitchen cupboard’ and calls his housekeeper Mrs Spit and Polish) He becomes the bully in book two, then a sick and frightened man in book three, and finally a loving and popular old patriarch who solves an impossible problem.

In the same way, the physiotherapist was a man with such a small part in book one that you’d never remember his name. In book two we see him falling in love with a girl he can’t have, and in book three he’s a loyal friend giving support to another person with a broken heart. And finally in book four he finds out he has cancer and decides to leave his cottage to his glamorous brother along with a seemingly impossible wish list. He hopes these deathbed wishes will change his brother from a careless player into a responsible and ultimately happy family man. So this forgettable side character from the first novel actually ‘wrote’ my fifth novel for me.

It's these unexpected developments when your characters cone alive and surprise you, when locations become so real they feel like home, these are the things that make writing such a joy.

So, you can say it started with a picture on a random internet search. Or you can say it’s life and memories coming together and making magic.

Thank you for this amazing insight into a great series.

About the Author

When Rose Amberly was little, she pestered her mother for stories every night (and morning and afternoon.) In the end, her parents taught her to read so they could have some peace. Very soon, she started pestering them for books and more books. By the age of six, she started to make up stories and tell them to her parents pretending she’d read them in a book. Happily, now she’s all grown up and no longer has to pretend.

She travelled widely and tried different careers is education, therapy, art management and even briefly, bookkeeping, but none of them were as much fun as making up stories.

Rose Amberly lives in London where she plants flowers and herbs in her small balcony overlooking the Thames. She loves to set her stories in gorgeous parts of the country.

You can follow Rose here: Facebook |  Instagram

Book links:  Amazon UK |  Amazon US

 

Thanks to Rose Amberly and Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.

Follow the rest of the tour!

 

Giveaway (UK only)

 

Giveaway to Win a signed copy of Plain Jane Wanted and a bookmark.  (Open to UK Only)

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.  The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.  I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.