The author hot seat specials are designed
to help readers get to know both popular, and up and coming authors, a little
better. The questions are broken into sections - About your writing, about you,
fun stuff and finally. Some of the questions are easy, other may need a little
more thought and some may cause our author friends to hesitate before answering—still, they all
answer.
Today we welcome Serena Fairfax to the hot seat. Serena's new book, Alchemy is coming out on the 13th May, through Siren publishing. Please keep reading after the interview for a sneak peek at her book where to purchase it.
Getting Started:
Tell us about your latest book. What was your inspiration
for writing it, is it part of an ongoing series, the characters, the genre etc?
My latest book is a stand-alone erotic romance entitled ALCHEMY published by Siren Bookstrand and it’s
released on 13 May 2014. I’d visited
Lake Garda and its beguiling charm inspired the backdrop.
About your writing:
How many books have you written during your career so far and which is
your favorite?
I’ve written six so far. STRANGE INHERITANCE and PAINT ME A DREAM ( both sweet romances) were published ages
ago by Robert Hale Ltd. Then WHERE THE BULBUL SINGS (women’s contemporary
fiction/search for roots/romance) and IN THE PINK (a quirky departure in style
and content) are self published and LOVING THAT FEELING and ALCHEMY are erotic
romances released by Siren Bookstrand. I can’t say I have a favourite. I like
them equally for different reasons.
Have any of your books received negative reviews and how did you handle the situation?
BULBUL got a 3* review but I can live with it given the other reviews trumped that. I think you’ve just got to grin
and bear it. As Bing Crosby sang:
You've gotta accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between
You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom, down to the minimum
Otherwise pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene
Do you believe in writer’s block and if so, how do you overcome it?
Writer’s block is a pain. I try and deal with it by just putting down the first thing that come
into my head, even if it’s a rubbishy shopping list. That seems to re-trigger
the creative process.
What is the one genre you would never
write and why?
Oh, never say never! Suppose saving
one’s life depended on writing in a genre one hadn’t liked or tried
before! I’d have to emulate Scheherazade who, after 1,001 nights of
storytelling, was spared.
Have you ever written a book that you’ve regretted publishing and why?
No,
but then my motto is non, je ne regrette rien.
If a reader said they wanted to write a book, what advice would you give
them?
Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Don’t give up.
About you:
Tell us what a typical day in your life is like?
Rise and shine. I’m a combination of
a night owl and a lark. I work part-time now in the day job but it still has a significant effect on me (old habits die
hard). However, once home, I’ve learned to leave it all behind and get down to
creative writing. Mind you, though, law is pretty creative, too!
What sort of things put you in a bad mood?
Do you have a bucket list and what’s one thing you still want to do that you haven’t done?
I’d love to learn to fly an aeroplane and
plumb the depths of the oceans.
What makes you laugh?
A witty person or situation.
What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?
Joined the
reception of the wrong wedding. An hotel
happened to be hosting two wedding dos on the same day and I found myself chatting
to a bunch of complete strangers and it suddenly struck me that was rather strange, given that I knew the happy couple,
their family and friends rather well.
Do you like to
read and what are you reading at the moment?
I have a couple on the go. They are Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” and “Catherine
The Great” by Robert K. Massie.
If you couldn’t
write anymore, what would you do instead?
I’d
love to learn to make my own clothes.
Fun Stuff:
If you could go out with one famous person who
would it be and why?
Only one?
It’s got to be Richard Gere. He’s a versatile actor and principled
activist. And gorgeous.
Do you have a habit that drives your
partner/friends/family nuts and what is it?
I’m perfect!
In your opinion, what makes a person attractive?
Wit and
kindness.
What is the strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Llama meat stew in the high Andes.
Would you rather have a classic 1969 convertible
Mustang or have the use of a beach side condo any time you want?
Neither actually, but if forced to choose, it would be the Mustang.
And finally:
Would you rather survive an apocalyptic event (yes, even
a zombie apocalypse) or die instantly without knowing what happened to your
family and friends?
I’d rather shuffle off this mortal coil.
The backdrop is
sun-drenched Lake Garda where church-mouse Tamsin Heriot, an English rose,
pairs off with sexy, privileged Luca Leopoldo who’s half Italian half Somali.
But Luca isn’t what he seems…
Orphaned, aged seven, when his childhood in Mogadishu is
brutally destroyed, Luca is left emotionally broken. Ragged and starving he seeks refuge in Italy
where kindly aristocrats adopt him.
Ever since she was fifteen, Tamsin has had a crush on Luca
and the summer before she goes to university, she’s determined to lose her
virginity to him.
It’s eight years before their trajectories re-converge.
Tamsin, still lusting after Luca, receives devastating news that triggers her
return to the dilapidated family casa when an unexpected bond develops between
her and Luca’s widowed, adoptive mother.
A Will alters what starts as a dalliance and there’s no
shortcut to love, everything to lose, as the relationship between two wounded
people, Luca and Tamsin, is pushed to meltdown.
Buy Links
Siren BookStrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/alchemy
(In 5 weeks time ALCHEMY will be available on Amazon US, Amazon UK, Apple iBooks, Kobo and Barnes & Noble).
Excerpt
I am eighteen, going on nineteen and have
never been fucked. Tamsin morosely hummed her thoughts to the tune of Liesl
and Rolf’s duet in “The Sound of Music” as she gazed at her reflection in the
lopsided, oval bedroom mirror that scorching August day. The interior walls of
La Casa della Fontana sloped, the floors listed, so straightening the mirror,
in the crooked little house of the nursery rhyme, was routine. This grandly
named, spectacularly moldering house in a picturesque village on Lake Garda had
been snapped up by her bohemian parents, Patrick and Eve Heriot, on the back of
a legacy from a crusty uncle, and it was from here that, for the past twenty-five
years, they ran year-round painting and creative writing courses.
Tamsin’s
first year at university beckoned in six weeks’ time. Below bold brows, large,
gold-flecked hazel eyes set in a plump, milk-fresh face stared back at her and
she sucked in her cheeks. She peeled off her nightie, courtesy of a thrift
shop, her wardrobe mainstay, and sighed. Her luscious boobs owed nothing to
silicon implants but her tummy was majestically rounded and there was no
avoiding it, she was a dumpling who couldn’t afford liposuction.
Her
spirits boosted as she brushed her hair. Licorice-dark, thick and glossy, it
tumbled to her shoulders in loose curls. He
would surely throw her down and lose himself in it. And those deep dimples
when she smiled, which she’d almost forgotten how to.
The
three graces – her trio of close girlfriends, all lissome and nubile with
antelope legs, all clones of the hottest models - had been fucked, or so they
bragged. Fucked by their brothers’ buddies, fucked by their fathers’ buddies,
fucked by studs in one-night stands. Fucked against library shelves groaning
with texts on particle physics, fucked in the swimming pool, fucked knee-deep
in mud at Glastonbury, fucked on the hallowed green grass of Glyndebourne to
the shrill vocals of Brünhilde wrapping up the immolation scene. There was no
doubt they’d fucked and she claimed likewise, although disbelief was palpable
and vociferously voiced when, with narrowed eyes, they compared notes. Well,
this summer she’d get fucked, by hook or by crook. Her summer of love. The
summer Cinderella would go to the ball. She refused to go down in history as
the only virgin fresher.
She
had A PLAN. A plan that had simmered
gently all night after she’d masturbated whilst poring over “Bonking For Tyros” and munched her way through two bags of
prawn flavored potato crisps. A plan she would implement at once.
A
party of five couples was expected that evening on a week’s course. Patrick and
Eve with Tamsin’s brother Gareth, six years older than her would, as usual,
meet and greet them at Milan airport, herd them onto a minivan and, after two
hours, speed proportionate to vehicle’s decrepitude, puttering down the
autostrada, decant them at the casa. Nine-year-old Ruby, Patrick and Eve’s last
hurrah, was vacationing in style in Ibiza, with her best friend Isla, at the
hip, minimalist beach house owned by Isla’s family.
It
was ten a.m. and Tamsin heard a rumble of bickering voices as the Heriots left.
The minivan was temperamental, so plenty of time was allowed for mishaps.
Tamsin was delegated to stay behind to lay the well-scrubbed, rough-hewn
communal refectory table, to ensure the pre-cooked meal was properly defrosted
and heated up and the wine was chambray-ing. That was an affectation of
Gareth’s, since the Heriots could afford, and served, what could only be politely
categorized as easy drinking.
She
glanced down at the plan, although she’d no need to as she’d memorized it by
heart.
Change
bed linen and sprinkle lavender water.
Flash
the flesh.
Buy
condoms and new knickers.
Rehearse
Luca pretext.
Ah Luca! Ever since she
was fifteen, she’d had a crush on him. Her head swarmed with fantasies of the
scion of Il Principe Salvatore Leopoldo di Monte Valla and Principessa
Catarina. He, godlike, was sole heir
to the noble title and extensive agricultural land holdings, to the sumptuous
Leopoldo palazzo in Milan where masterpieces in oils by Titian, Raphael,
Caravaggio and El Greco hung in proximity to canvases by Impressionists,
Cubists and Fauvists. Comprising one of the most fabulous private art
collections in the world, it was on loan to the Italian government. And few
dynastic families in Italy possessed the twentyfour carat pedigree of the
Leopoldos, who counted among their ancestors the Chief Treasurer to the Emperor
Barbarossa, a Pope, a composer, two saints and Renaissance Ambassadors.
Yes! Tamsin swiftly executed items one and
two, painted her finger and toenails a shimmering Chinese red, slapped a flash
of azure on her eyelids and whirled down to make breakfast. Contemplating the
third homemade roll with lashings of salty butter and gooseberry jam coursing
through her arteries, she hesitated.
About the Author
Serena Fairfax spent her childhood in
India, qualified as a lawyer in England and joined a London law firm.
Romance is hardwired into her DNA so her
novels include a strong romantic theme. However, she broke out of the romance
bubble with IN THE PINK, a quirky departure in style and content, that you can download
free from her website until 1 August 2014.
She’s also written several short
stories that feature on her blog http://www.serenafairfax.com/serena_fairfax_author_blog/
Fast forward to a sabbatical from the day
job when Serena traded in bricks and mortar for a houseboat which, for a
hardened land lubber like her, turned out to be a big adventure.
Apart from writing and reading (all kinds
of books), a few of Serena’s favorite things are collecting old masks, singing
(in the rain) and exploring off the beaten track.
She’s
a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, which is a very supportive
organization. Serena and her golden retriever, Inspector Morse, who can't wait
to unleash his own Facebook page, divide their time between London and rural
Kent. (Charles Dickens said: Kent, sir. Everybody knows Kent. Apples,
cherries, hops and women).
Serena welcomes hearing from you, via the following sites.
Website http://www.serenafairfax.com/
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