HELENA FAIRFAX HAS A GOODIE FOR YOU.

Hello, Helena. Welcome to my Flowers and Thorns blog. What a pleasure to have you here for a few days. I so enjoy meeting new authors.

Let me pour you a cup of tea and put out the brownies. Are you comfy in that chair? Good. Now, relax and tell us how The Silk Romance came to be your first novel.

My first novel, The Silk Romance, is published!

Hi Lorrie, and thanks so much for having me on your blog.  It’s lovely to be here with so many established authors.

I still find it hard to believe I can now call myself a published author.  It’s a great feeling! J

Since my first novel, The Silk Romance, was published, many people have been asking me where I had the idea from for the story.  There were a couple of things that prompted me to write this book.  First of all, the setting.  My story is set in the beautiful city of Lyon, France.  As a student, I spent some time in Lyon working as an au pair, in order to improve my French.  (And believe me, there’s nothing like looking after small children to improve your language skills!)

The two children I looked after – a girl and a boy, aged three and twelve months – were delightful.  Every day we’d go out for a walk together in the gorgeous French sunshine, and I’d buy them some fruit from the market or an ice cream.  I really got to know the city well on our walks.  Lyon has a long history as a centre for silk-weaving, and when I sat down to write my first novel I decided to make a silk mill in this beautiful city the setting.

My novel is a sweet romance, and I wanted to give the story a fairy tale quality.  One of the fairy tales I love most is Cinderella.  I love the idea of a neglected heroine being given the chance to have the evening of her life; of a young girl falling head over heels in love with Prince Charming, and then having to run away and leave everything behind.  It’s such a romantic story.  This was the premise for The Silk Romance.  I updated the story, and put it in a modern setting, with a gorgeous French hero.

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I love fairy tales, too. And who doesn't love a sweet romance? Show us your gorgeous cover.

 

 

 

 

Here’s the blurb:

Jean-Luc Olivier is a devastatingly handsome racing-driver with the world before him.  Sophie Challoner is a penniless student, whose face is unknown beyond her own rundown estate in London.  The night they spend together in Paris seems to Sophie like a fairytale—a Cinderella story without the happy ending. She knows she has no part in Jean-Luc’s future.  She made her dying mother a promise to take care of her father and brother in London.   One night of happiness is all Sophie allows herself. She runs away from Jean-Luc and returns to England to keep her promise.

Safely back home with her father and brother, and immersed in her college work, Sophie tries her best to forget their encounter, but she reckons without Jean-Luc.  He is determined to find out why she left him, and intrigued to discover the real Sophie.  He engineers a student placement Sophie can’t refuse, and so, unwillingly, she finds herself back in France, working for Jean-Luc in the silk mill he now owns.

Thrown together for a few short weeks in Lyon, the romantic city of silk, their mutual love begins to grow.  But it seems the fates are conspiring against Sophie’s happiness.  Jean-Luc has secrets of his own.  Then, when disaster strikes at home in London, Sophie is faced with a choice—stay in this glamorous world with the man she loves, or return to her family to keep the sacred promise she made her mother.

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And I absolutely love the cover to my novel, which was designed by artist Charlotte Volnek.  I think it has just the right feel, and the heroine has a lovely fairy tale quality to her.

I hope you enjoyed reading the blurb to my first novel.  If you’d like to read on, The Silk Romance is available here in the Muse bookstore, and from Amazon, Kobo and all major retailers.

And if you’ve enjoyed my post, please call in on my blog: www.helenafairfax.com, or on my Facebook page.  You can also email me at Helena(dot)Fairfax(at)gmail(dot)com.  I love meeting people J

Thanks again for having me on your blog, Lorrie.  It’s been lovely to meet you and your readers here.

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It's been fabulous having you here today, Helena. Your novel certainly has quite an appeal. When I think of romantic Paris, I see sidewalk cafes, the Eiffel Tower looming in the background, and lovers walking hand in hand. Oooh, dream on, Lorrie. Ahem, I digress. 

Did I tell you readers that we love comments. Let's welcome Helena to the novel publishing world. Give her your thoughts.