I’m delighted to be joined by author Adrienne Chinn today. The second book in her The Three Fry Sisters series, The Paris Sister, will be published by One More Chapter on Thursday 3rd February. Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for having me as part of the tour. Read on to find out more about Adrienne, her book and her writing.
First of all, would you tell my blog readers a little about yourself?
Hi Everyone! I’m Adrienne Chinn. I was born in Newfoundland, grew up in Quebec and have now lived in the UK for 30 years (my Dad was an Englishman so I have dual nationality). I’ve worked in journalism and TV, and was an interior designer for 20 years. Now I split my time between writing novels, teaching interior design and writing part-time, and leading writing retreats in Marrakech (next one coming up end of May!). Here’s a link in case you’re interested https://www.adrienne-chinn.co.uk/marrakech-writing-retreat-2023/
What inspired you to start writing?
I’ve always been fascinated by books – I remember pulling books off my parents’ bookshelves as a toddler and sitting flipping through all the pages. My mother said I was so obsessed with books that I called milk “book” and the milkman the “bookman”! I was a voracious reader from an early age and just loved the worlds that reading conjured up. I remember working really hard to earn my Writer’s badge in the Brownies – so I pretty much knew that writing was the thing I wanted to do.
Tell me about your journey to publication
Journey is a good word! I failed miserably at an MA in Creative Writing when I was younger – I was desperate to do this degree but found I didn’t have any idea of what to write about. I had a very compassionate tutor in the figure of the respected Canadian author Alistair MacLeod who recognised my angst and suggested I do an MA in English instead, and that I “would come to writing when the time was right”. So, that’s what I did. Moving along 24 years, I felt I had a story I wanted to tell based upon my experiences in Morocco, so I signed up for the Faber Academy’s “Writing a Novel” course with Richard Skinner. It was a game-changer! I started my novel, and then spent the next 7 years writing and re-writing it, getting rejected by numerous agents, attending writers’ festivals and workshops, getting a writing mentor to help me fix the book. Finally, the domestic crime writer Amanda Robson, whom I’d met on the Faber course, suggested I send the novel to her editor at Avon UK. I did, and after several months, I finally heard from her. She’d loved the book and offered me a 2-book deal! That was in 2018, and it’s been all go since then!
In a nutshell, what is your book about?
“The Paris Sister”, set from 1919 to 1929, is the second book in The Three Fry Sisters series of four books. It can be read as a standalone, although I’d recommend reading the first book in the series, “Love in a Time of War” first. In “The Paris Sister” we are re-introduced to the three English Fry sisters: eldest Celie Fry Jeffries is now married to WWI army veteran Frank Jeffries and lives with him and their daughter, Lulu, on a farm in the Canadian prairies; Jessie Fry Khalid – the fraternal twin of Etta Fry Marinetti – who’d met her Egyptian surgeon husband Aziz in Egypt during WWI where she’d been an British Army nurse, is now studying medicine in Cairo and struggles to juggle the demands of study with running a health clinic, raising her daughter Shani, fending off a difficult mother-in-law, and hiding her sister-in-law, Zara’s, secret from her husband, all while a volatile Egypt explodes around them. The youngest daughter, Etta, with her artist husband, Carlo, in prison for the murder of his first wife, abandons her daughter, Adriana, to the care of her elderly Italian cousin and goes off to Paris to sell his paintings and gets caught up in the exciting world of Jazz Age Paris. In London, their widowed mother, Christina, becomes involved with her ex-lover, Sir Harry Grenville, Lord Sherbrooke, and becomes involved in her own intrigues and the need to keep the secret of Celie’s real father’s identity.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
I didn’t! None of my titles are every chosen by my editor. We eventually made a big list and my publishers, One More Chapter, decided on the title.
How do you plan to celebrate publication day?
Because of Covid, I haven’t been able to properly celebrate the publication days of my last two books, so this year I’m planning on throwing a party here in Sussex where I live, and a drinks do in London, where I’ll read an excerpt from the novel and sign and sell copies of both “Love in a Time of War” and “The Paris Sister”. I think it’s nice to celebrate one’s achievements, especially as writing is such a solitary profession.
Do you have a work in progress just now?
I just finished a big draft of my latest manuscript, Book 3 of The Three Fry Sisters series, provisionally titled “My Sisters’ Keeper”. It’s set from 1932-1939 and follows Christina Fry and her daughters through the years of the Great Depression, a scandalous Hollywood, and the Spanish Civil War. There was a lot of research! I’m currently taking a breather while I wait for my editor to read it and send me her notes for the structural edit. I plan to start plotting out the final book in the series, set from 1940-1945, in the spring.
What one book would you recommend to a friend and why?
That’s tough, because everyone has different tastes. I’ve often found that the time in your life can affect how you respond to a book. For instance, when I was a kid, I adored The Black Stallion series, but I wouldn’t recommend them to an adult now. But, some books I’ve really enjoyed as an adult include “Cold Mountain”, “Snow Falling on Cedars”, “Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow”, “Gone With the Wind” … there are a lot! I tend to like very evocative books with complex characters facing complicated loves, betrayals, joys, and disappointments. I love books that evoke atmospheric settings. And I like a long novel – I love to get dug in.
What are you reading just now?
“Paper Palace” by Miranda Cowley Heller.
If you were on Desert Island Discs, what one book would you take with you?
“Gone With the Wind”. I’ve read it countless times and never get bored.
Is there a book you’d love to see made into a film?
“The English Wife”!
How can people follow you or connect with you on social media?
Facebook: @adriennechinnauthor
Twitter: @adriennechinn
Instagram: @adriennechinn
Web: http://www.adrienne-chinn.co.uk
And finally, if you could be a character in any book you have read, who would it be and why?
I’d like to be Jessie Fry Khalid from The Three Fry Sisters series. She’d smart, focussed, determined, and adventurous.
The Paris Sister
Three sisters separated by distance but bound by love
The Fry sisters enter the Roaring Twenties forever changed by their experiences during the Great War. Now, as each of their lives unfold in different corners of the globe, they come to realise that the most important bond is that of family.
Desperate to save the man she loves, Etta leaves behind the life she has made for herself in Capri and enters the decadent world of Parisian society with all its secrets and scandals.
Celie’s new life on the Canadian prairies brings mixed blessings – a daughter to adore, but a husband who isn’t the man who holds her heart.
In Egypt, Jessie’s world is forever changed by a devastating loss.
And back in London – where each of their adventures began – their mother Christina watches as the pieces of her carefully orchestrated existence begin to shatter…with implications for them all…
Purchase Link
Amazon UK – The Paris Sister
About the Author
Adrienne Chinn was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, grew up in Quebec, and eventually made her way to London, England after a career as a journalist. In England she worked as a TV and film researcher before embarking on a career as an interior designer, lecturer, and writer. Her debut novel, The Lost Letter, a timeslip love story set in Morocco, was published by Avon Books UK in 2019. Her second novel, The English Wife — a timeslip story set in World War II England and contemporary Newfoundland — was published in June 2020 and has become an international bestseller. Her third novel, Love in a Time of War, the first in a series of four books in The Three Fry Sisters series, was published in February 2022. The second book in the series, The Paris Sister, will be published in February 2023.
Social Media Links
https://www.facebook.com/adriennechinnauthor/
https://www.adrienne-chinn.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/adriennechinn
https://www.instagram.com/adriennechinn/
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