Helena: Thanks for
having me, Exquisite Quills!
I write contemporary
romances, and that’s the genre I love to read, too. I live in the north of
England, close to the Yorkshire moors, the home of the Brontë sisters. Every
day I walk the moors with my rescue dog, taking in the wildlife and the
changing seasons. It’s a wonderful location for finding romantic inspiration - and
for dreaming up my next hero!
EQ: Tell us a little bit about your most recent release.
Helena: My most
recent release is The Antique Love, which is set around London’s oldest park, in
Richmond-on-Thames. Here’s the blurb:
One rainy day in London, Wyoming man Kurt Bold
walks into an antique shop off the King’s Road and straight into the dreams of
its owner, Penny Rosas. Kurt certainly looks every inch the hero…but he soon
brings Penny’s dreams to earth with a thump. His job is in the City, in the
logical world of finance – and as far as Kurt is concerned, romance is just for
dreamers.
But when Kurt hires Penny to help refurbish his
Victorian house near Richmond Park, it’s not long before he starts to realise
it’s not just his home she’s breathing life into. The logical heart he has
guarded so carefully all these years is opening up to new emotions, in a most
disturbing way…
My next
novel is called A Way from Heart to Heart, and is due for release on 14th
December.
Photo One. Richmond Park in London is the setting for The Antique Love. There’s a great sense of
history behind this setting. It’s a Royal Park, and the oldest green
space in London. I chose this location because my heroine, Penny, is an antique
dealer. She loves to immerse herself in the past, and to picture how the
people and places must have been in those days.
My hero, Kurt, is from Wyoming,
and misses the space and the great outdoors. Richmond Park is the perfect place
for the two of them to get to know one another!
If you’d like to know more about
this wonderful park, and some more photos, I have some more about its history
here on my blog: http://helenafairfax.com/2013/08/16/richmond-park-incorporating-setting-in-the-theme-of-your-novel/
Photo Two. These are the Yorkshire moors, near where I live in the north
of England, and where I walk every day. You can see from the photo what a
beautiful place it can be. I took this photo in the summer. In the winter, the
moors are bleak and harsh, but I love the dramatic landscape, which features so
strongly in Wuthering Heights.
I’ve made the moors part of the
setting for my next novel, A Way from Heart to Heart, which
will be released in December. The heroine takes a group of disadvantaged
teenage girls from London on a trip there. It was fun to write the location
from their eyes, and it makes a dramatic backdrop to the hero and heroine’s
growing relationship.
Photo Three. If I didn’t live near the
moors, I’d love to live on the coast in England. I usually spend Christmas on
the south coast, and this photo is of my step-daughter, walking along the Cobb
in Lyme Regis, Dorset. The Cobb is a wall that protects the harbour, and it
features in the film The French
Lieutenant’s Woman, where Meryl Streep stares dramatically out to sea, and
also plays a big part in one of the scenes in Jane Austen’s Persuasion – one of my favourite books
of all time!
The seaside is the perfect
setting for a romance, and I have a few ideas for stories going around in my
mind that I’d really like to explore.
Photo Four. This is how I write, and
this is my rescue dog, Lex. My constant companion whilst I’m writing and
dreaming up stories, and my greatest fan :)
I hope you liked my photos. If you’re
interested in seeing more, or finding out more about me and my books, please
check out my blog at www.helenafairfax.com; or you
can like my Facebook page, where I post lots of pictures of the moors
throughout the seasons, https://www.facebook.com/HelenaFairfax; or else
follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/HelenaFairfax
I love to meet new people!
