Around The World with #BookConnectors & Trip Fiction - Welcome Alison May

The Around The World Blog Tour is a partnership between TripFiction and #BookConnectors ~ bloggers and authors, travelling the world, through fiction.

TripFiction was created to make it easy to match a location with a book and help you select good literature that is most pertinent and relevant to your trip. A resource for armchair and actual travellers, it is a unique way of exploring a place through the eyes of an author. We blog, and chat books and travel across Social Media, and love to meet authors and bloggers as we take our literary journey.

http://www.tripfiction.com/

Book Connectors was created as a place on Facebook for Bloggers, Authors and small Publishers to share their news.
We encourage book promotions; information about competitions and giveaways; news of events, including launch events, signings, talks or courses. Talk about new signings, about film deals .... anything really.
Book Connectors is a friendly group, there are no rules or guidelines - just be polite and respectful to each other.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1466353170351020/


I never do blog tours, however as this is from #BookConnectors and the first leg in Scotland, I could not resist. I got paired up with Alison May.




About Alison Alison is a novelist and short story writer who grew up in North Yorkshire, and now lives in Worcester. She worked as a waitress, a shop assistant, a learning adviser, an advice centre manager, a freelance trainer, and now a maker-upper of stories. She won the RNA’s Elizabeth Goudge trophy in 2012, and her short stories have been published by Harlequin and Black Pear Press. Alison now writes romantic comedies for Choc Lit. Her first novel, Sweet Nothing, was published in 2013. You can find out more about Alison at www.alison-may.co.uk or by following her on Twitter @MsAlisonMay

About Alison’s Books:
Alison is the author of the 21st Century Bard and Christmas Kisses series of emotionally-driven rom-coms.
21st Century Bard Books
Sweet Nothing (ebook November 2013, print August 2015) http://bookgoodies.com/a/1781892415
Midsummer Dreams (ebook June 2015) http://bookgoodies.com/a/B00XJOEJTM

Christmas Kisses Books
Holly’s Christmas Kiss (ebook December 2013) http://bookgoodies.com/a/B00H50WALK
Cora’s Christmas Kiss (ebook December 2014) http://bookgoodies.com/a/B00QCUYCLK

About Holly’s Christmas Kiss
Happy Holidays? Not for Michelle… Holly Michelle Jolly hates Christmas and she has a good reason to. Apart from her ridiculously festive name which made her the brunt of jokes at school, tragic and unfortunate events have a habit of happening to her around the holiday season. And this year is no different.
After the flight to her once-in-a-lifetime holiday destination is cancelled, Michelle faces the prospect of a cold and lonely Christmas. That is, until she meets Sean Munro. Sean loves Christmas, and he wants to share the magic with Michelle.
With Sean’s help, can Michelle experience her first happy Christmas, or will their meeting just result in another year of memories that she’d rather forget?
Learn to love Christmas all over again with this fun romance that’s guaranteed to get you cracking out the Baileys and Quality Street early!

What inspired you to write and why start with a Christmas tale? Holly’s Christmas Kiss was the second book I wrote, and came out just a few days after my first full-length novel. I chose to write a Christmas story basically because I LOVE Christmas. There are presents and food and tinsel and food and then more food. Christmas is awesome, and writing a book can be tricky, so you might as well write about things you really enjoy.

How did you choose your locations?
The locations in Holly’s Christmas Kiss go with the characters. I always knew that I wanted Sean, the hero, to be Scottish. In my head he’d be played by a young Ewan McGregor. So if your hero is Scottish and part of the action is set at his family home, then that really has to be in Scotland. Part of the novella is specifically set in Edinburgh. As soon as I knew the story would take the characters to Scotland, I knew I wanted part of it to be in Edinburgh. It’s one of my favourite places in the world – I’m actually typing this just a couple of days after getting home from a trip to the Fringe. And Edinburgh in the run-up to Christmas is particularly fantastic.

I have only read “Holly’s Christmas Kiss” for someone who has never read your books, where do you suggest they start and why?
Well I’ve published books in two series at the moment – the ‘21st Century Bard’ series which are full-length contemporary rom-coms inspired by Shakespeare comedies, and the ‘Christmas Kisses’ series which are festive novellas, starting with Holly’s Christmas Kiss. All of my books stand alone though even when they’re part of a series, so you can start wherever you like! My most recent book, which would make as good a place to start as any, is Midsummer Dreams which is a rom com about four people, with four messy lives and the one night that changes everything.

Do you write a particular genre? Would you ever go outside it and which genre would you pick?
I usually write romantic comedies, and I love writing about love and relationships, but I’m really interested in writing about some of the darker elements of love and relationships – what happens when happy ever after doesn’t quite last forever? My current work-in-progress actually isn’t a romance; it’s a story about a woman who claims she’s psychic and it deals with some very dark issues around parenthood and loss.

Who inspires you and who are your holiday reads?
I’m inspired by so many of the fabulous authors that I get to meet through the Romantic Novelists’ Association – Janet Gover, Julie Cohen, Jane Lovering, Kate Johnson, Katie Fforde – I could carry on that list forever! It’s just brilliant to get to spend time with other writers who are just out there writing and selling books and generally being awesome. My favourite holiday read author at the moment is Emily Barr. I adore Emily Barr but I ration her books so I try to only read a one or two each year so I don’t run out! I read The First Wife on holiday last week and it’s fantastic. Cuban Heels is another of hers that I completely adore.

What research do you do for your books? Does it vary depending on what your writing?
I hate research! I did a degree in History which involves lots of research so you’d think I’d enjoy the research elements of writing, but actually I do everything I can to avoid having to do in-depth research. Every now and then I have an idea for a historical novel, and I quickly abandon them because the research seems far too much like hard work.

Do you ever base characters on people you know? No! Definitely not. Absolutely not. *flicks nervously through all the books she’s written to make sure*

What next for you?
I’m just finishing my first non-romance novel, and after that I’ll be starting on my third 21st Century Bard story. I haven’t 100% decided what that’s going to be yet, but I’ve got a stack of Shakespeare comedies on DVD waiting for me to get time to sit down and watch a few to see what inspirations strike!



Holly's Christmas Kiss is out now to buy on Amazon prime for free or for £1.15, for the Kindle. Thanks for your time Alison, Thank you so much to Anne Cater, Anne Williams, Leah Moyse & TripFiction for making this tour possible. Apologies this is a bit later in the day, one slept through ones alarm whoops.