Category: General Blog Posts

Meet Mia: an unforgettable heroine learning the meaning of life and love on a beautiful Italian island. Perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Lindsey Kelk and Lucy Vine.

Mia’s dad has always been her idol. Now, she faces losing him and he is insisting that she leave England to visit her mother’s family on the Italian island of Ischia.

Arriving on the island, Mia is embraced by the warm, crazy relatives she hardly knows. Despite her doubts about the trip, it is in Italy that Mia discovers connections to a part of her life that’s been missing, and during the sun-soaked days and steamy nights Mia falls for handsome local Salvatore. But as the day of her departure draws nearer can she risk having her heart broken twice in one summer?

If you love Prosecco and Promises, why not read more about Mia’s best friend Savvy in Cocktails and Dreams? Out now!

Review:

Uplifting, romantic, and genuinely heartfelt!

Prosecco and Promises is predominantly set on the island of Ischia in the Mediterranean and is the story of Mia, a young woman who heads to her mother’s homeland and the relatives she barely knows when the impending loss of her beloved father turns her life upside down.

The prose is expressive and effortless. The characterization is well-developed with a wonderful cast of characters that are multilayered, strong, charming, and determined. And the character-driven plot interweaves the lives of multi-generational families as they learn to cope, survive, heal, respect, support, and love each other unconditionally.

Overall Prosecco and Promises is sweet and incredibly touching with a real undercurrent of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, and grief. And even though it had me in tears more than once, it also had me smiling, laughing and completely enthralled by all the big family antics and budding romances.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

And now A.L. Michael with:

My Writing Routine

When I first started out, writing was a very different game – I was a pantser, no doubt, letting the story flow where it felt like. I still think that’s really important, discovering the story as you write it. It’s half the fun, where plot points and ideas just suddenly appear from thin air (when really, you’d been leading your mind there with breadcrumbs as you’ve been writing). The first draft is always you telling yourself the story, and there’s something beautiful in that – your brain telling your hands or fingertips a tall tale.

My process has changed a little since then – I’ve got a 9-5 and I’m still writing at least two books a year. I can’t poodle along like before. My ideas need to have a least a little structure, a few plot points to work towards, to keep me on track. When you’re working towards deadlines, and you don’t have too much time to write, knowing where you’re going and making the most of that precious time is important.

When the story is evolving, I’ll be writing notes on my phone, usually fragments of conversation that gives me an idea of who my characters are, without having to know what they’re talking about. Usually, these don’t get used. I’ll start typing it up straight away, usually after writing a brief outline. And then it’s onto the daily typing – I fit it in wherever I can. Writing this article now is instead of my lunchtime writing. I bring my laptop in almost every day and write for an hour. Usually I can get about 1500 words done. When I get home, I’ll try and write some more after dinner, with the TV on in the background. Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings are when I get up early and snuggle into the sofa to grab a few hours, and those are probably my most productive times.

Being in the story, even when you can’t be writing, is becoming more important. I’ve been creating playlists for my novels, and I listen to them on the way home from work, to prepare myself for the scene I’m going to write.

When you’re in the story, everything suddenly starts to relate to it – it’s like being in love. Everything you see, or read, or hear, starts to influence and connect to what you’re writing. I’ve always been a one for stealing snippets of phrases I hear on the train, or things friends say, and so I take every experience that isn’t writing as inspiration for writing.

The biggest excuse for anything is not having time. Not having time to see people, to write books, to workout. I refuse to let that stop me. Because time is what you make it. If you’re scribbling notes on your morning commute – you’re writing a book! If you’re writing full time doing 20 minute springs – wahey, you’ve found your rhythm! We use and value our time differently, and it’s true, I don’t have kids or a huge amount of responsibility, so I’m using every minute I can, so that when I do have less time, I won’t feel guilty.

I’ll never forget at my first book launch I heard another writer say ‘Well, I could have a book published if I had the time,’ and it still makes me laugh to this day, because you have the time. We all have time. When it gets towards deadlines and I’m up until 1am editing and I don’t go out at the weekends and I’ve had to tell people not to call me for a week – that’s me having the time. It’s like when people look at modern art and say ‘my kid could have done that’, my answer is always: ‘but they didn’t, did they? This person did.’

So that’s my routine – snatched moments wherever I can, and whether you need structure or not, I would encourage you to snatch those moments too. They’re precious, and finite, and when people ask you how you did it, you tell them you made the time.