Portobello Book Blog

I am so pleased to welcome Jane Lovering to my blog on the first day of my ChocLit week. Her most recent book, I Don’t Want to Talk About It, was one of my books of the year last year. I read it as an e-book but it has just been released in paperback. You can read my review here and  you also have the opportunity to win a copy for yourself.

Thanks to the publishers I have a paperback copy of the book to giveaway so make sure you click the link below to find out how to enter. This giveaway is UK only. All giveaways this week are open until midnight (UK time) on Sunday 19th June.

Click here for your chance to win a copy of I Don’t Want To Talk About It

 

Welcome to Portobello Book Blog Jane. First of all, would you tell me a little about yourself?

Well, stop me when you get bored, because I can waffle on for hours about myself…I live in North Yorkshire with a houseful of animals (domestic ones, not like camels or anything) and a floating collection of University age children.  I write romantic comedies for Choc Lit, have a day job in a local shop, and generally do whatever I can to avoid housework. I also…oh.  Hello?  Where’s she gone?

What inspired you to start writing?

To be honest I don’t really remember, but I think it was when I started trying to insert myself into some of my favourite books. By rewriting them, I mean, not rubbing pages on my body. Because that would be weird, wouldn’t it?

Tell me about your journey to publication

I went by train.  Oh, I see what you mean.  Well, I wrote lots of stuff and sent it all over the place for years.  Had a couple of acceptances in the US and then Choc Lit took ‘Please Don’t Stop the Music’ and the rest is history.  Or, at least, a bibliography on Amazon.

In a nutshell, what is your latest book about?

There are two ‘latest’ books, ‘I Don’t Want to Talk About It’, which is new out in paperback and is about an author, Winter, working on her ‘difficult second book’, whilst trying to keep in touch with her twin sister Daisy in Australia, and building herself a new life after splitting with her boyfriend (and editor) Daniel.  She meets a new man, Alex, who is bringing up his orphaned niece in a small Yorkshire town and…well, things happen.

The other book is ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, which about Willow, who comes into an inheritance and a new relationship with a man she’s adored from afar for years.  But then a friend of her twin brother Ash throws doubt on the credentials of her boyfriend, and everything Willow thinks is called into question.

How did you come up with the title for your book?

I Don’t Want to Talk About It – the title actually came before the story.  I wanted to write a book about communication – its failures and triumphs and the various ways we communicate in the modern world.

Can’t Buy Me Love started life with the title Reversing over Liberace, because of something that happens towards the end of the book.  It needed a new title, and most of my books have song titles as titles.  This book is centred around money, the way it impacts on our lives and relationships, so it seemed appropriate.

How do you plan to celebrate/did you celebrate publication day?

I don’t know really.  I always think I should do something dramatic, but usually I end up just having a biscuit with my tea.

Do you have a work in progress just now?

I’ve got a couple – my Christmas novella, currently entitled ‘The Boys of Christmas’ is underway, and I’m noodling around with the ideas for a ghost story called ‘Up the Stair’.

What’s your favourite book you’ve read in the past few months? Or favourite three if you really can’t choose!

Well, it sounds a bit daft, but I’ve only just got round to reading Monica Dickens ‘The House at World’s End’, which is just so sweet and lovely (plus, has ponies in…) and also Francis Pryor’s book about life in the Bronze Age, called ‘Home’. 

What are you reading just now?

I’m binge reading crime novels at the moment though, and, after a while they all sort of blur into one big Book of Bad…I’ve got several on the go simultaneously, plus Kate Morton’s ‘The Secret Keeper’ and Val McDermid’s ‘Northanger Abbey’.  I have a book in the kitchen (for when I’m cooking, no, don’t laugh, I do cook), one in the living room for when I’m, err, living, and another couple in the bedroom.

Tell me about your reading habits: book or kindle, bed or bath, morning or evening?

Sometimes Kindle, more often real book (because, as I’ve said, I flit from book to book a lot and it’s easier in real life), and I read all the time.  Increasingly though, I read when I go to bed, because I often work a late shift finishing at 10.30 or later, and reading is a good way of stopping my brain.

How can people follow you or connect with you on social media?

Oh, I’m quite easy to find.  I’m on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jane.lovering), Twitter (@JaneLovering) and I blog regularly on my website at www.janelovering.co.uk.  That’s probably more than enough contact for anyone…

And finally, if you could be a character in any book you have read, who would it be and why?

Golly, I don’t know.  Most characters get their withers wrung more than anyone in real life and I’m not sure I could take that level of angst and heightened reality.  I suppose it’s a bit late to bagsie Harry Potter, is it?  If it’s ‘choose a character or die’, I’d probably go for Cassie Mortmain from ‘I Capture the Castle’, although I’m practically her already, what with the weird family and the falling down house thing…  Or Arthur Dent, from ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’.  I quite fancy wearing my dressing gown for the foreseeable future…

 

Blurb for I Don’t Want to Talk About It

What if the one person you wanted to talk to wouldn’t listen?

Winter Gregory and her twin sister Daisy live oceans apart but they still have the ‘twin thing’ going on. Daisy is Winter’s port in the storm, the first person she calls when things go wrong …

And things are wrong. Winter has travelled to a remote Yorkshire village to write her new book, and to escape her ex-boyfriend Dan Bekener. Dan never liked her reliance on Daisy and made her choose – but Winter’s twin will always be her first choice.

She soon finds herself immersed in village life after meeting the troubled Hill family; horse-loving eight-year-old Scarlet and damaged, yet temptingly gorgeous, Alex. The distraction is welcome and, when Winter needs to talk, Daisy is always there.

But Dan can’t stay away and remains intent on driving the sisters apart – because Dan knows something about Daisy…

Book 5 in the Yorkshire Romances.

 

Blurb for Can’t Buy Me Love 

Is it all too good to be true?

When Willow runs into her old university crush, Luke, she’s a new woman with a new look – not to mention a little bit more cash after a rather substantial inheritance. Could she be lucky enough to score a fortune and her dream man at the same time?

Then Willow meets Cal; a computer geek with a slightly odd sense of humour. They get on like a house on fire — although she soon realises that there is far more to her unassuming new friend than meets the eye …

But money doesn’t always bring happiness, and Willow finds herself struggling to know who to trust. Are the new people in her life there because they care – or is there another reason?

Book 6 in the Yorkshire Romances.