1) What's the best/worst writing advice you've ever received?
Any comment can be seen as constructive - I was rejected for four years by various publishers and agents. But if they had something to say, it was worth considering it. Even the editor who said, outraged "You can't start a book like that!" - my first novel, Sally (1996) had a very raunchy opening. I just thought, if there was someone that cross that I'd done so, then someone else would be equally delighted that I had!
2) What different type of promo have you done?
Mainly magazines, newspapers, TV and radio.
3) What's the most effective promo you've ever done?
I am finding that my own promo on my facebook page (www.facebook.com/freya.north) can have a marked effect on sales.
4) Where do you get your story ideas?
I never search for topics or themes to write about - they tend to come and find me, usually from the unlikeliest sources. My 4th novel, Cat, enabled me to indulge my passion for cycle racing - and for two summers, I followed the Tour de France as a member of the press team. I love bridges - both as physical structures as well as the notion of crossing from one place to another - the concept of 'building bridges', so the hero in my 10th novel, Secrets, became a bridge builder. My new novel in the UK, Chances, is about a tree surgeon - because I love trees. And what's not to love about a chap with an outdoorsy job and a great pair of forearms! Currently, I am writing my 12th novel Rumours - set in a small village in the county in which I live. It centres around the sale of a wonderful mansion - and how this affects so many people in the village. So I've been nosing around some magnificent country houses all in the name of research. On the whole, though, my work is driven by the characters themselves. I believe you can have the most intimate plot - but if the characters aren't fleshed out, then the reader won't really care what happens!
Thank you Freya!!
By day, Petra Flint is a talented jeweler working in a lively London studio. By night, she’s a sleepwalker troubled by a past she can’t put to bed and a present that leaves her clinging to an unsuitable boyfriend. Arlo Savidge was once a budding heartthrob musician. Then tragedy struck and he chose to forsake stardom and all future affairs of the heart for a quiet life in the countryside as a music teacher.
Petra and Arlo haven’t seen each other since they were teenagers—when their feelings ran deep but the timing wasn’t right. Now, seventeen years later, they run into each other once more. Might first love get a second chance—or will what keeps them up at night keep them apart forever?
My thoughts:
Pillow Talk is a story told in the present and the past of two people, Petra and Arlo who knew each other in school and come across each other again after 17 years. These two people have had heartaches of their own to deal with during those 17 years. Petra is a jewelry maker and works with three of her best friends in a studio that they share in London. Arlo is a teacher at a private school for boys in the country and is also a musician. These two people lead totally different lives but a chance meeting throws them together again and as they start to get closer, pride and secrets threaten the relationship that is growing between them. I enjoy British authors and liked this book a lot. The author writes with wit and humor that makes this a very enjoyable story.
I received this book from Sourcebooks and was monetarily compensated for my review.
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