Listen Carefully!
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books on May 30, 2023
Have you ever listened back to a recording of your own voice?
Weird, isn’t it? You never sound quite how you expected. I had a similar experience when I received an advance copy of the audiobook of Little Museum of Hope and listened to a random chapter containing a discussion between two of the main characters, Vanessa and Stephen. I’ve never listened to an audiobook before and it didn’t occur to me that the narrator would change her voice for each character. At first it felt intrusive to have this stranger injecting her own take on my characters, especially Yorkshireman, Stephen, the potential love interest. But gradually I relaxed into it and enjoyed the experience of my characters speaking aloud!
Many thanks to ISIS Audio and to the narrator, Jilly Bond.
While we’re talking audiobooks, I thought it would be interesting to look at some recent statistics, taken from headphonesaddict.com:
- In the UK 24 million audiobooks were bought between June 2020 and June 2021
- The biggest share of listeners is the 18 – 29 year-old age group. 30% of this group listen to audiobooks.
- Science fiction is the most popular audiobook genre.
- The average audiobook length is 7 – 9 hours (Little Museum of Hope is 9 hours and 29 minutes).
- Women are more likely to listen to audiobooks than men.
- Most audiobook listening takes place on the commute (73% of listeners), when doing housework (33%) and when exercising (15%). I know that adds up to more than 100% – but I guess some people might listen when they do all three of those activities, especially if it’s a compelling book!
The audiobook of Little Museum of Hope is available on Audible from today. I hope it brightens up your commute, housework or gym experience!
About Little Museum of Hope
A jar of festival mud, a photo album of family memories, a child’s teddy bear, a book of bell ringing methods, an old cassette tape, a pair of slippers… These are the items that fill the exhibit shelves in Vanessa Jones’ museum. At first glance, they appear to have nothing in common, but that’s before you find out the stories behind them… Because Vanessa’s Little Museum of Hope is no ordinary museum – its aim is to help people heal by allowing them to donate items associated with shattered lives and failed relationships, and in doing so, find a way to move on, perhaps even to start again. The museum soon becomes a sanctuary for the broken hearts in Vanessa’s city, and she’s always on hand to offer a cup of tea, a slice of cake and a listening ear. But could the bringer of Hope need a little help moving on herself?
P.S. There is a free trial of Audible available if you’re not sure whether audiobooks are your ‘thing’. You can try it out for a month with no charge (including Little Museum of Hope) – and it might help you spend more time in the gym or crack on with the housework!
Two Competitions and Some Thank Yous
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Successes on May 11, 2023
Little Museum of Hope was well and truly launched back in April with some magnificent branding and support from Joffe Books and their Choc Lit imprint. 
I went on tour and was humbled by how many invitations I received to do Q & A interviews and write guest posts. In particular I would like to thank:
The Book Shelf Cafe – who poured me a coffee and chatted through some interesting questions
Jan Baynham – where I spill the beans on which parts of the novel are autobiographical!
Karen Mace – who asked me to introduce the unusual and unique concept behind Little Museum of Hope.
Anni Rose – who read the book and then posed some insightful questions!
Chris Penhall – who wanted to know about my writing process
Kat Devereaux – who allowed me to wax lyrical about church bell ringing and dispel some annoying myths!
Claire Sheldon – who was interested in my writing inspiration
Portobello Book Blog – more probing questions including the book I’d take to a desert island!
… and still to come on 15th May 2023 is a slot on Morton Gray’s popular book blog.
Also, a massive thank you to all of you who have bought, read and reviewed Little Museum of Hope. It is such a relief (and a pleasure) to know that people are enjoying it!
” … you feel the tenderness, as well as the turmoil of the protagonist.” – Arnie Witkin
“From the first page I was hooked.” – S. Copley
“I found this book really unusual, clever and heart-warming and a joy to read.” – Jan
That’s enough crowing about myself. Are you looking for something to get those writing juices flowing? The two competitions below might be of assistance.
The South Warwickshire Literary Festival is holding a Creative Writing Competition which closes at the end of June. Entry is a modest £3 and they require up to 800 words of prose (fiction or creative non fiction) or up to 40 lines of poetry. There is a £50 prize in each category, and the winner and two runners-up in each category will have the opportunity to read their work at the Festival.
The Jenny Brown Associates Over 50 Award has already been widely publicised but I thought it worth mentioning again because it’s something I would definitely have entered if I hadn’t yet published. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain.
“Jenny Brown Associates is running an award for debut novelists resident in the UK aged 50 and above and invites submissions during May 2023. The winner will receive £1,000 and a placement on a residential writing course at Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre.”
Don’t forget to read the full terms and conditions.
Good Luck!
Books Fit For a King
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Self-publishing, Writing for Children on May 5, 2023
On this Coronation weekend I am absolutely delighted to welcome children’s author Iona Chisholm to my blog.
Iona’s books about royalty make perfect follow-up presents for youngsters who’ve been watching proceedings on the television or been involved in parties and activities at school. Here’s Iona to tell us about the books, her writing journey plus she offers some useful tips for publishing illustrated books on Amazon KDP:
It was an unexpected opportunity to write that led me to self-publish my first children’s picture book on Amazon. Isolating with Covid in 2022, I wanted to be productive and so I challenged myself to write a rhyming story about The Queen’s forthcoming Platinum Jubilee. ‘Jubilee Bee’ was born!
I experimented with collage illustrations using paper, card and magazines. I inserted photographs of them into my word document. It proved straightforward to publish this as a Kindle edition. However, I encountered teething problems producing a paperback and made several mistakes. Firstly, I selected an 8 by 6-inch book size and, secondly, I had issues because my word document didn’t convert properly into paperback through the Kindle Kid’s Book Creator.
By the time I produced ‘Jubilee Bee and the King’s Christmas Present’, I had learned that an 8.5 inch square book size was best. Further, if I transferred my word document into a PowerPoint presentation with 8.5 inch square slides and saved as a PDF, it converted perfectly into paperback.
I’ve now released my third book, ‘Jubilee Bee and the Coronation’.
Each storybook I’ve written contains suggested questions and associated facts for children, whilst promoting looking after nature, the earth and each other. The positive feedback that I have received always refers to these features.
I learned recently that Amazon picture books must be fewer than 43 pages to be able to retail at an affordable £5.99 and produce a reasonable profit. I’d done so much work for the Coronation that I ended up with an 87-page document! Therefore, I split it in half and published my fourth book, ‘The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, The Queen Consort.’ This non-fiction text contains acrostic poems, illustrated anagram puzzles and journal space to make a personal souvenir. Self-publishing allowed me to quickly utilise all my work and ideas.
I am proud of my writing journey and the progress that I am making. I have now produced a second edition of ‘Jubilee Bee’ in an 8.5 inch size. Holding my set of 4 books in my hand was a real high point!
Wanting to make my family proud and improving with every project really motivates me and I am finding it easier to prioritise writing, dip my toe into social media and integrate into the online writing community where I have felt welcomed, supported and nurtured. Everyone has been so keen to share their experiences and I hope to be able to encourage other newcomers to press that ‘publish my book’ button!
As a mum of four, primary school Governor (with a focus on writing) and keen gardener, I strongly believe in the inspiration and well-being that we can all gain from words and the outside world. Therefore, I aim to promote nature, learning and positivity in whatever I write, whether it be an article for Garden News, a poem, a short story for a woman’s magazine or my next book! In the future, I hope to complete and publish a novel, but must remind myself to take things one step at a time….
Find out more about Iona at www.ionachisholm.co.uk or follow her on Instagram Ionachisholm01 for gardening and writing posts!
Publication Day for Little Museum of Hope!
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Books, Promotion, Successes on April 25, 2023
Little Museum of Hope hits the virtual shelves today and if you’ve pre-ordered (thank you!), it should have already landed on your e-reader. It’s published by Joffe Books, who recently took over the original publisher, Ruby Fiction. Joffe (rhymes with coffee) is the UK’s largest independent fiction publisher by title count.
How will I be spending today? The budget won’t stretch to lunch and champagne in a swanky London hotel but there was a celebratory meal last night at my house with a couple of friends – and wine. Today I’m working my usual Tuesday shift in the library – which is at least a bookish environment!
While I shelve books and help customers, let’s talk about some of the unusual objects which make their way onto the shelves of the Little Museum of Hope:
Maxine brings a teddy bear which she and her boyfriend chose when Maxine fell pregnant as a teenager. Parental intervention meant the teddy never got played with.
Polly donates a pair of men’s slippers because she wants her husband to be remembered as he was, in the prime of his life, not as a dementia sufferer with the demands of a toddler.
Local news reporter, Tim, brings a jar of Glastonbury mud. The festival atmosphere, alcohol and freedom made him think he was in love. But afterwards the ‘love’ disintegrated into dust.
More About Little Museum of Hope
A jar of festival mud, a photo album of family memories, a child’s teddy bear, a book of bell ringing methods, an old cassette tape, a pair of slippers …
These are the items that fill the exhibit shelves in Vanessa Jones’ museum. At first glance, they appear to have nothing in common, but that’s before you find out the stories behind them. Vanessa’s Little Museum of Hope is no ordinary museum – its aim is to help people heal by donating items associated with shattered lives and failed relationships, and in doing so, find a way to move on, perhaps even start again. The museum becomes a sanctuary for the broken hearts in Vanessa’s city, and she’s always on hand to offer a cup of tea, a slice of cake and a listening ear. But could the bringer of Hope need a little help moving on herself?
Little Museum of Hope is available from Amazon now and the audiobook will be out at the end of May (don’t worry, I’ll remind you!)
What the advance reviews say:
‘This novel has, much like the museum opened by its main character, something special that’s bound to intrigue.‘ Isabelle D.
‘Fascinating, often emotional, addictive reading. Recommended.‘ Coco.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, someone wants help filling in a form to join the library. Maybe I’ll get the champagne lunch with the next book …
Bits and Pieces plus a Bookish Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Books, Competitions on April 11, 2023
I’m writing this in a coffee shop (hence the picture!) and there are a few things to share with you this time (not counting my excitement about this, which happens in exactly a fortnight).
Firstly, I recently heard from a writing acquaintance of mine in South Africa, Arnie Witkin, who has featured on this blog before. Arnie self-published It’s not a Big Thing in Life a couple of years ago. It’s full of interesting life lessons and was written originally for his teenage grandchildren, but the project mushroomed. Initially sales were slow but Arnie contacted me to let me know that The Western Cape Education Department is now distributing his book to each of its 6,000 Life Orientation teachers in the province. Life Orientation is a compulsory subject in schools in South Africa. Which just goes to show that, in this writing life, you never know what is just around the corner. And the only way to find out is to put yourself out there and give things a try!
Secondly, I have a couple of books to recommend. In my book group we’ve just read A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. It’s the first Waugh that I’ve read and I was pleasantly surprised. It was written in the 1930s and is very easy to read. It contains both humour and darker moments. But the most interesting thing about it is the ending, which comes across as completely out of synch with the rest of the book. Further research indicates that Waugh took an earlier short story and simply appended it to form the ending of the novel (incidentally the short story is reputed to have given Stephen King the idea for his novel, Misery) but the serialisation of the novel has a completely different, tamer ending. I find writing endings extremely difficult – maybe I’m in good company and Waugh did too!
The second book is The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. It’s one of those books where you get lost in the story but learn something new too – such as the origin of ‘bumf’ – a handful of paper used as ‘bum fodder’ in WWI in the absence of toilet paper. Set in the early twentieth century it’s a fictionalised account of the publication of the first Oxford English Dictionary. Well worth a read.
Thirdly, the 2023 Marlborough Literature Festival Love Books Competition has just opened for entries. You have until Friday June 30th 2023 to submit up to 750 words about a book that you love and would recommend to others. The winner in each age group (includes adults) receives £300 and the runner-up in each age group will receive £100.
Finally, I have reached the heady heights of being interviewed by the lovely people at The Bookshelf Cafe!
And that’s it for now. Happy reading and writing!
#HaveFinishedEditing
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Lifestyle, Resources, Writing on March 28, 2023
The editing of Little Museum of Hope is now complete. It is winging its way off to be proof read. Hurrah!
Daffodils in Chester
Sarah, my Ruby Fiction editor, was full of wise advice and suggestions to improve the overall story arc and pace. She also has eagle eyes that spotted several inconsistencies in the manuscript, such as ages of characters which didn’t tie in with the music I’d mentioned, plus I had someone being 22 in 1981 and 50 in the present day. And I spotted an engagement ring change from sapphire to diamond half way through a chapter. This has taught me that going forward I need to be rigorous in keeping a detailed timeline and lots of notes for each protagonist. Every day is a school day, as they say!
I’ve also been learning about Instagram. You can now find me on there as @sallyjenkinsuk. I don’t have many posts to my name yet but will get more familiar with the platform eventually. If you’re an ‘Insta’ person please drop by and say ‘Hello’.
Since I last posted I’ve also had a big ‘0’ birthday which involved family, gin, a weekend away in Chester with two schoolfriends both hitting the same age (obviously) and prosecco. This leads me to: Never think you are too old to write a novel or to be published: through all the ups and downs of my writing career I’ve never specifically been asked my date of birth or how old I am. But, if you meet me in the flesh, my face might give the game away!
Finally, I spotted a great blog post from Kobo Writing Life on writing a fast first draft. I like to get the first draft completed as fast as possible so that I know the whole story and can then go back and flesh out/delete/change as required. But writing 60 – 90,000 words is never quick. One piece of advice in the blog is to write the whole novel in bullet points in order to get the complete structure down on paper while it’s in your head and without getting bogged down in description, dialogue and all the other minutiae. I am very tempted to try this next time I start a new project.
What do you think, will it work?
Two Free Short Story Competitions
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Short Story on March 10, 2023
Green Stories Superhero Competition
In this competition your superhero must save the planet!
It sounds a fun brief to play around with: ‘this contest challenges you to create an uplifting short story of superheroes that respond to climate change. Imagine your target audience to be teens and young adults that enjoy watching superhero films‘.
The prize is £500 plus a scene from your story turned into a 1 page comic strip.
The competition is open to adults, and teenagers aged 14+. The deadline is 15th April 2023.
As always, don’t forget to read the full terms and conditions.
Evening Standard Stories Competition
The theme for this competition is ‘belonging’ and it’s not limited to short stories. You can submit a piece of spoken word or performance, for example a monologue, a script or a self-contained episode of a narrative podcast. Entries can be submitted as written, audio, or film.
The winner will get a masterclass with Evening Standard Stories Editor, Lotte Jeff, a one year mentorship in their chosen field by management and production company, 42, plus the chance to perform their piece and other extras!
Closing date is 12th April 2023 and it is a 1,000 word limit. Again, read the terms and conditions, they do include: Work from previously published authors or writers cannot be accepted. It doesn’t indicate what their definition of ‘published’ is.
Talking of short stories, I was delighted to be invited, last month, to talk to author Tony Riches and to give my top 6 tips on short story writing. Did I cover everything or have you got a tip to add?
How to Write a Novel Series by Anni Rose
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Books, Writing on March 3, 2023
Series of novels are loved by both publishers and readers. On the commercial side they build brand loyalty and returning customers. For readers they offer the chance to spend longer with favourite characters and are a pain free way to choose books without gambling on a new author or standalone novel. Anni Rose is a master of series writing. Her latest book, Recipe for Mr Ideal, is book 4 in her Recipes for Life series and is published by ChocLit. It can also be read as a standalone novel. I’m delighted that Anni has agreed to share some of her writing wisdom with us today.
Thank you, Sally, for inviting me onto your blog today to give advice on something I really enjoy: writing a series of novels.
In my opinion, there are two areas that series writers need to be aware of before they get stuck in: organisation and characters.
Organisation
I use Plottr software to help me plan a book. It has some really useful templates and I like being able to assign characters and places to as many books as I want and keep notes of important details. I remember reading a series of books by one author and being amazed by how often details changed. I am sure I don’t always get it right, but hopefully there are not too many inconsistencies.
However, I don’t find it easy to write in Plottr, so I export everything to Scrivener then Word. Word is the writing program I’m most used to, but when I’ve finished a section I post it into Scrivener as well, because I like being able to move scenes and chapters around and see, at a glance, different points of view etc. and how many words there are in each section or chapter. Scrivener keeps the technical side of my brain happy.
I like to include little details from a variety of sources. When I’m out and about I might hear or see something and must make a note of it there and then in case I forget, but this does mean my notes can be in more than one format and place, so once a week I try and sit down and sort them all out in various lists or link them to a character or place. If I don’t then months later, I come across maybe a sentence and can’t remember why it seemed important at the time.
Characters
What I love most about writing a series is getting to know the characters. Writing a series, you are developing long term relationships with them. Often you find someone you thought to be a minor character in one novel, has a much bigger story that you have to tell later on.
The hardest job for me is deciding on character names. I try to pick names which fit with the characters I’m writing about, because I have to feel comfortable with their name before I can begin to make them come alive. I use local towns as inspiration for surnames – an idea I stole from J K Rowling.
Pay attention to ages. If you’re writing a series, then it stands to reason it’s going to be over a period. Sadly, they will age. It happens to us all. How many times have you read a series and the main character stays at the same age for many books. I give my characters a date of birth rather than a specific age. That helps with music choices, events in their lives etc.
Having said all that my current work in progress has two of the minor characters who have appeared before in the series and have very similar names to two, who were minor characters in a more recent book but now feature quite heavily in this one – there was nothing else for it, I had to send them off on a cruise. They’re having a ball and will be back!
Thank you, Anni, for some great advice. Now let’s find out more about your latest release and you!
Recipe for Mr Ideal
Would you settle for Mr Less-Than-Ideal for a chance at happily-ever-after?
Registrar Maddie Winter has overseen enough weddings to know that marriage is not just for Christmas (or Valentine’s Day) – it’s for life, and regardless of whether the ceremony involves specially trained owls, dinosaurs or the police, it should be only the beginning of a story that will end in happily-ever-after.
Saying that, Maddie’s own married life is far from perfect – her husband, David, is more interested in his phone than in her, and when he suddenly walks out, Maddie’s long-held beliefs are put to the test.
Except Maddie knows David was never really her ‘Mr Ideal’; that was sweet, funny, motorbike-riding Josh Diamond – although obviously not that ideal, as he did dump her to move to the States. Even so, when Josh unexpectedly rides back into town, Maddie begins to wonder whether her happily-ever-after could still be to come …
Book 4 in the Recipes for Life series but can be read as a standalone novel. It is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Kobo and Google.
About Anni Rose
Born and raised in Berkshire, Anni emigrated to Wiltshire six years ago, where she lives with her husband, sister and two dogs.
As a child, she could usually be found either reading or writing fiction, producing reams of stories over the years.
On leaving school, the need to earn a living sort of got in the way and her writing was limited to financial reports or employees’ handbooks, but a local writing course and an encouraging group of writing friends re-ignited the fiction flame many years later and Anni went on to have several short stories published in various magazines.
Anni would describe her writing these days as mainly modern romantic stories with a healthy dollop of humour thrown in. Away from writing Anni can usually be found behind a camera, walking the dogs, enjoying one of her husband’s curries or one of her sister’s bakery treats.
You can catch up with Anni on her website www.anniroseauthor.co.uk, on
Twitter – @AnniRoseAuthor, or on her Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/anniroseauthor
Little Museum of Hope – Cover Reveal!
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Promotion, Successes on February 22, 2023
I can hardly believe that Little Museum of Hope now has an actual cover (isn’t it beautiful?) and a pre-order link. This book has been a decade in the making and now it’s becoming a reality!
Around 10 years ago I read a newspaper article about The Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb. Its website describes the sole purpose of this museum as ‘treasuring and sharing your heartbreak stories and symbolic possessions. It is a museum about you, about us, about the ways we love and lose.’ This sparked my imagination and I decided to write a series of linked short stories based on a fictional version of this museum.
For a short time, I dabbled in self-publishing these stories on Kindle. The first was ‘Maxine’s Story’ about a teenager who has an unplanned pregnancy. The story went through various rewrites and became one of the six stories shortlisted for The 2016 Just Write Creative Writing Competition organized by Writing Magazine and John Murray Press. The prize was a rooftop reception at the London offices of the publisher Hachette. As well as the other shortlisted authors, there were several industry professionals present at the reception and a conversation I had with a representative of Cornerstones Literary Consultancy made me realise that these stories, about individual donors to the museum, could be woven together as a novel.
Creating a novel from short stories was more difficult than I expected because it needed an additional storyline or two which could run through the whole of the novel, thus binding it together. There were several stumbling blocks along the way but I stuck with it because I was convinced that the concept was strong. In 2017 the novel gained an agent’s attention in a Twitter pitching competition and I was given feedback on the whole manuscript. I edited the novel following this advice but the agent decided not to take it further.
In 2018 I was signed by a different agent on the strength of the novel. Together we did more editing but it failed to sell to any of the large publishers. Last year I decided to independently submit to smaller publishers and I was delighted when the ‘tasting panel’ at Ruby Fiction enjoyed Little Museum of Hope – I had finally found a publisher for the book.
Over the past few weeks there have been structural edits to hone the story for the readership of Ruby Fiction – mainly to add in some additional ‘bright spots’, in order to provide light relief from the emotional stories which the donors bring to the museum. There will be more work to come before the publication date of 25th April 2023. But today I’m sitting back and enjoying the satisfaction of seeing something that’s been brewing for ten years take its first faltering steps in the big wide world – and I’m really glad I didn’t give up at the first hurdle!
Little Museum of Hope is now available to preorder and will then be automatically delivered to you on 25th April. Fingers crossed that you think it’s worth the ten year gestation period!
Marie Laval’s Top 6 Writing Tips
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Authors, Books, Writing on February 16, 2023
I am delighted to have Marie Laval as a guest on my blog today. Marie is published by Choc Lit and writes both contemporary and historical romance. In 2021 she was shortlisted for the RNA Jackie Collins Romantic Suspense Award. She has kindly agreed to share with us her top six writing tips. Over to Marie:
Thank you so much for welcoming me on your blog today to share with you my writing tips. Every writer is different and I don’t pretend that my tips will suit everybody, but they have worked well for me so far. So here we go! 
- Write every day, even if it’s only a few lines. I know it’s not always possible, and I have myself found it extremely hard over the past year and a half and my writing has suffered. I try to scribble something about the story or the characters on a notebook before going to bed if I haven’t had the chance to do any ‘proper writing’ during the day.
- Be completely in love with your hero. It may sound corny, but you are going to be spending many hours with that person, so it is essential to feel a connection to him!
- If like me, you don’t plan a lot, you should at least work out what the motivations of the main characters are before you start so that you understand why they behave the way they do.
- Research the setting well, or even better, visit the locations in order to experience the landscapes, the colours and the smells so that when you describe them the readers feel they are actually there with the characters. It’s not always possible to travel, of course, but there are brilliant videos on YouTube, such as walking tours of a town or a historic building which can help you get a good feel for the place.
- Be patient. Sometimes you get stuck but things always work out in the end. Go for a walk and talk to yourself aloud to experiment with dialogue, even if it makes you look a bit silly.
- Be kind to yourself. Sometimes we judge our writing far too harshly, or we take a critical review to heart and feel discouraged and ready to give up. I love writing. It helps me escape from daily worries and it brings me a lot of joy. And that’s what matters in the end.
Marie’s latest book, Captured by a Scottish Lord, was published last month and sounds intriguing:
Can a Desert Rose survive a Scottish winter?
The wild Scottish landscape is a far cry from Rose Saintclair’s Saharan oasis, although she’ll endure it for Lord Cameron McRae, the man she married after a whirlwind romance in Algiers. But when stormy weather leads to Rose’s Scotland-bound ship docking on Cape Wrath – the land of Cameron’s enemy, Bruce McGunn – could her new life already be in jeopardy?
Lord McGunn was a fearless soldier, but his experiences have made him as unforgiving as the land he presides over. He knows McRae won’t rest until he owns Wrath, and the man is willing to use brutal tactics. Bruce decides that he’ll play McRae at his own game, take the ship and its precious occupant, and hold them hostage.
Rose is determined to escape, but whilst captured she learns that there’s another side to her new husband – and could her supposedly cold and ruthless kidnapper also be concealing hidden depths?
CAPTURED BY A SCOTTISH LORD is available on Amazon and Kobo and other platforms.
About the author
Originally from Lyon in France, Marie now lives in Lancashire and writes historical and contemporary romance. 
Best-selling LITTLE PINKTAXI was her debut romantic comedy novel with Choc Lit. A PARIS FAIRY TALE was published in July 2019, followed by BLUEBELL’S CHRISTMAS MAGIC in November 2019 and bestselling romantic suspense ESCAPE TO THE LITTLE CHATEAU which was shortlisted for the 2021 RNA Jackie Collins Romantic Suspense Award. Marie’s historical romances, ANGEL OF THE LOST TREASURE, QUEEN OF THE DESERT and CAPTURED BY A SCOTTISH LORD, all feature members of the Saintclair family and her short stories are published in the bestselling Miss Moonshine anthologies. Marie is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and the Society of Authors, and her novels are available as paperbacks, ebooks and audiobooks on Amazon and various other platforms.
Sally Jenkins 