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Tag Archives: Kate Furnivall

Kate Furnivall and the Guardian of Lies.

16 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by shehannemoore in Book review, New book, Reviews

≈ 62 Comments

Tags

Arles, France, Kate Furnivall, Spies, The Camargue, The Cold War, The Guardian of lies

 

Kate. Oh Bobby Bub, I bet that grandpappy of yours was a right royal rogue in the 1950s. A damn handsome fellow of course like yourself and with the same penchant for stylish headgear, no doubt.

But to be honest, the reason I chose the year 1953 for my book was that it was a year when the future of Europe was balanced on a knife edge.

And yes, you’re right, it is the latest period I have chosen as a setting for a book – but it is a moment in history that fascinates me. The start of the Cold War. A crisis point of tension and danger when Americans and Russians were at each other’s throats as they battled for nuclear dominance. I was transfixed when I delved deeper and discovered just how close that apocalypse came to exploding into life in the beautiful marshy plains of the Camargue region in south-west France,

But there was another trigger for the inspiration behind this book – that of the bonds that hold a family together in the face of a conflict that is driving them apart. At the heart of The Guardian of Lies I explore the bond between a brother and sister. My own older brother passed away several years ago but I still think of him daily, and it is this brother-sister relationship that kept intruding into my mind each time I picked up my pen to write.

This is the story of a young French woman, Eloïse Caussade, who tries to track down the Soviet agent who attempted to murder her brother in a car crash in Paris. But nothing is as it seems, so she leaves Paris to return to her father’s bull farm in the Camargue where her brother is recuperating from his injuries. There she finds herself trapped between two worlds that are on a collision course. One is the quiet rural life that is the world she believes she has outgrown and to which her childhood friend Léon still belongs. The other is the tense and dangerous existence of those caught up in the Cold War between America and Soviet Russia, a world in which lies, spies and murder entwine to drag Eloïse into their dark web. She cannot ignore the blood in the barn or the fire in her father’s stables. Her family is being targeted and she has to find the killer. But she has a lot to learn about herself and with the help and love of her friend Léon, who is now the local police chief, she battles to discover the truth. The Guardian of Lies is a fast-paced thriller but also a powerful love story.

Kate. Who says it isn’t? I admit I didn’t actually bump into any while I was cruising Arles’ colourful market for the gorgeous local lavender soap, but I know you hamsters are cunning critters and might have been lurking in the shadows, watching my every move. After all, The Guardian of Lies is a spy thriller, right? While I was checking out the bars in the back streets of the ancient city – in the interest of research of course – and watching local artists at work at their easels, I swear I could hear the scurrying of scratchy little feet over the cobbles and tiny French voices squeaking about world domination. La domination du monde.

So don’t give me this guff about “it ain’t home to hamstahs”. I got ears.

 

Kate.  Well, yes, that’s easy. I confess that I do set my stories in countries that I’d love to visit on a research trip. So far I’ve used China, Russia, Singapore, the Bahamas, Italy, France, Germany and Egypt (which included an awesome ride in a hot-air balloon at dawn over the desert) as the backdrop for my books. Oh, how I suffer for the sake of my art! But I have a mighty hankering to see more of Africa. You know, I’ve never been on an African safari and I’ve always wanted to do so.

That would be quite some research trip, to get to view the Big Five – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and Cape buffalo – in their natural habitat would be truly mesmerising. Unforgettable. I’m sure I could weave a thrilling story around a moment of conflict over land and resources within the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya. Ivory poachers. Political corruption. Loss of natural habitat. Romance and murder against a ticking clock as they fight to save the elephants. Bring it on. Maybe even a colony of hamsters endangered by the waste disposal of a local chemical plant. Hey, Bobby Bub, how about coming out to do the research with me?

 

Kate . Yes, definitely. Look at us. One of my major inspirations for The Guardian of Lies was my terror at what I see happening in the world today. We are in the grip of another Cold War between America and Russia, though now they fight their battles on the bloody land in the Middle East, not on American or Russian soil. The fingers of seeming psychopaths hover dangerously close to nuclear buttons.

The threat is ever present, so I wanted to take a look back to a time in 1953 when the world was on the brink of a nuclear war between Soviet Russia and America, when both countries were frantically trying to amass information on each other’s military secrets and nuclear developments.

Spies and counter-spies lurked in every walk of life, in government, industry, laboratories and education. They were everywhere. Sound familiar?

This atmosphere of suspicion, lies and fear only intensified in 1953 when the USA decided to construct a series of eleven nuclear air bases in France to create a formidable line of defence/attack against the Soviet threat. This struck me as a fascinating and revealing moment of brinkmanship that we should be examining closely now. I believe an important part of the job of a historical writer is to make the past more accessible to today’s readers. To offer them the chance to learn from the mistakes of those who came before us. I hope this book will encourage people of today to take a closer look at those into whose hands we place immense power. To think again. And to demand a safer world to live in.

Kate  Well, now, BB, what a humdinger of a trip this is going to be! Get your shades on and don’t forget your cute shorts, because it gets hot down there. We’d start with fancy croissants and a few laps of the pool at our beautiful old hotel, L’Hotel du Forum, in the ancient heart of the city of Arles. What? You’re not a swimmer? You don’t like getting your fur wet! I thought all hamsters could swim, but okay, I get it, you’re not a lemming. Calm down. Let’s head out instead to explore the magnificent Roman remains that are the focus of the city.

 

The massive Roman amphitheatre is the place to start. It’s breathtaking. It was built in 90 AD with seating for over 20,000 spectators to watch the chariot races and bloody hand-to-hand battles. I can picture you clashing swords with Gladiator Hamstah Dickens in the arena with blood-curdling yells. And then we’d wander down to admire the beautiful brickwork on the Roman bathhouse and take to the stage in the Roman theatre, where we could act out a romantic scene from Antony and Cleopatra.

After that let’s take a breather at the gorgeous little Van Gogh café in the shady Place du Forum. The artist Vincent van Gogh used to hang out there and made it famous by creating a wonderful night-time painting of it.. We’ll down a glass or two of vino and a platter of plump Camarguais olives, then we’ll head off on safari in an open Land Rover to explore the unspoiled marshland of the Camargue, a protected area that is stunning. Here the white horses and the scary black bulls roam wild among the tamarisk tress and the saltwater lagoons. But watch out for the mozzies – they’re nearly as big as the bulls. The area is bursting with abundant birdlife – white egrets, plovers and avocets – which we can observe through binoculars.

What’s that you say? You can’t find binoculars to fit your cute button nose?

Aw, don’t fret. Instead we’ll take a romantic stroll around the water’s edge of the étangs just as the evening sun is sinking and the pools seem to catch fire. We can watch hundreds of skinny-legged flamingos lifting into the air with unexpected grace, a ribbon of pink and black trailing across the vast sky as they leave their feeding grounds to roost for the night.

 

Ready for something to eat? Okay, it’s back to Arles for dinner at the superb Hotel Jules César – a 7th century ex-nunnery – its décor all dolled up now in bright knock-your-eyes-out Christian Lacroix colours. (Arles was Lacroix’s home town.) Fancy a cocktail? Champers with apple brandy? Great choice. Then I recommend their fab signature dish of Risotto de Langoustines, followed by a Crêpe Soufflé au Grand Marnier. To die for! And if you fancy kicking up your heels, tossing aside your jolie French beret and dancing the rest of the night away, there’s always the Irish pub which has live music and vino till you drop. Santé!

Sleep well. Tomorrow we’ll start with a river trip on the mighty Rhône …..

It’s been great chatting with you guys today and I can’t wait to read the great opus that will one day emerge from the Master. Thanks for having me over and for not scaring the hell out of me this time. Hugs to ya, BB. xx

*** The top ten bestselling author ***
Discover a brilliant story of love, danger, courage and betrayal, from the internationally bestselling author of The Survivors.
1953, the South of France. The fragile peace between the West and Soviet Russia hangs on a knife edge. And one family has been torn apart by secrets and conflicting allegiances.

 

As one war ends, a very different one begins in this gripping thriller.

Format: Kindle Edition
A page turner I didn’t want to finish, is probably the best way to sum up this book set in France in the Cold War. A world of Communism, Capitalism, murder and espionage, both sides of the two coins presented centre stage, without preachifying, but with the rock of the Camargue standing like a magnificent bulwark, a character in its own right, untameable as the horses that roam it, a shaper of those who live on it. Eloise is such a character. Paris may have gotten into her blood, the Camargue is in her soul. As for what’s in her brother Andre’s soul? Well, that is what we are unravelling. Exactly who is he working for? And what will happen next because of it? Such is Kate Furnivall’s skill that little trails of breadcrumbs suggest things about Andre and many of the other major players, but that bit rightly waits for the finale. The skill doesn’t end there. From the street café in Arles, to the roadside trees, the prose is rich in an imagery that never swamps. Nor does the pacing flag. For me this book opened a window on a post war Europe fight I knew little about and I’m glad that it did. I consider it one of the author’s finest.

Surviving in Berlin with Kate Furnivall

29 Thursday Nov 2018

Posted by shehannemoore in Author Interviews, book tour, New book, writing

≈ 64 Comments

Tags

Apple cake, Berlin, Brandenburg gate, Brliliant New Book, Europe after WW2, Kate Furnivall, Location, Location in writing, New book, Refugees, The Survivors, Word War Two

 

 

Kate. Hi there, dudes, it’s great to be with you again. Thank you for inviting me over. I heard from Cat Cavendish and from that Aussie troublemaker Noelle Clark that I should think twice before accepting the invitation because it could be … well … traumatic. But I’m not nervous. Because we have an understanding, don’t we, Bobby Bub? *wink wink*

Okay, you ask what made me pick Germany as the setting for my latest book, The Survivors.

The choice was triggered by what I saw on my television screen night after night – the desperate flight of refugees arriving frightened and exhausted in flimsy boats on the shores of Italy and Greece. It was heart-breaking to watch. It got me thinking about how Europe dealt with the problem of refugees in the past. Have we learned nothing?

It seems not.

I started to delve deeper and became totally engrossed in the story of the millions – yes, millions – of refugees who flooded across Europe at the end of World War 2. Homeless, jobless and starving, many fleeing from Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, it was the biggest mass migration in the history of mankind.

So what did the Allied Military Government do?

They set up camps throughout Germany, just like we do today, to house the refugees. Some were in disused factories or military barracks, some in vast purpose-built enclosures. All had pretty basic facilities. Too often they were dangerous places. But they held out the offer of a dream of a better future.

To me it felt SO relevant to what is happening now and I knew I had found my story – a young mother and her child in one of the Displaced Persons camps in Germany, forced to confront the shadows of her wartime past when a man she knew in Warsaw enters the camp disguised as a refugee.

 Kate : I’m sorry, Bobby Bub, but all the hamsters in the camp were tossed into the stewpot with onions and garlic. Very tasty, apparently. Note to dudes:- steer clear of refugee camps!

 

Kate.

I wish I knew. To be honest, it varies. Sometimes it’s the characters who come to me first, walking into my life as bold as brass. But at other times it is the location that spills into my mind first, seducing me with its beauty or its history. This was particularly true of my last book, The Betrayal, which was set in Paris 1938. All that glamour and decadence. Oh, those delicious hot Parisian nights that I had to research …. I’m looking at you, Bobby Bub.

Kate. – I regard the location in each of my books as a character in the story, with a voice of its own. In The Survivors it’s not just the Displaced Persons camp location, but also the bomb-damaged cities of Berlin and Hanover that play a major role in the twists and turns of the plot.

At one point my main character Klara is taken to a scary prison in East Berlin and when she escapes, all hell lets loose. I loved stalking through the blackened ruins of the city at night with her, aware of its presence looming over her, feeling its breath on her neck. Yes, location for me is a crucial part of my books.

 

Kate.  The Survivors does exactly what it says on the tin – it is about those who endured the war and now have to survive the peace. At its heart lies the question of how far a mother will go to protect her daughter. The answer is to hell and back. Klara, who lost her husband early in the war, is a strong and resourceful young woman whose love for 10 year-old Alicja is absolute and unshakeable. This is what drives the story through its many heart-stopping moments.

Klara and Alicja are incarcerated in the Displaced Persons camp with thousands of others, caught in a twilit existence somewhere between night and day. When the arrogant Oskar Scholtz walks into the camp pretending to be a refugee, she knows he is a threat to her life. But more importantly a threat to her daughter’s life. Because they both know the truth about his Nazi past. Klara decides he has to die, but they begin a dangerous game in which neither can trust the other. Klara is helped by her close friend Davide and by Hanna, the camp’s mighty laundrywoman.

But who will leave the camp alive?

It is a taut and at times tough thriller about love, loyalty and survival. I believe its themes resonate very strongly with the world around us today.

 

Kate.  Berlin is a beautiful city full of parks, bicycles and fun. We’ll have a fab weekend there, Bobby B. I’ll take you first to explore the must-see thrills of the magnificent Brandenburg Gate, the infamous Checkpoint Charlie, the historic remains of the Wall and the Reichstag parliament building, reconstructed by our own British architect Norman Foster. Then we’ll head on down to Hackescher Markt for a spot of Apfelkuchen and beer, and a breeze round its warren of exquisite shops – chocs and leather goods to die for.

But for me the place in Berlin that I love most is right in the heart of the busy city – the awesome Holocaust Memorial designed by Peter Eisenman. It is so moving, it brings me to tears without fail every time I go there. Photographs do not do it justice. It swallows you whole in a maze of tombstones. Utterly brilliant.

In the evening we will enjoy a delicious dinner in the revolving Sphere restaurant at the top of Berlin’s television tower. Not scared of heights, are you, BB? It is 680ft high. Stunning views across the city.

 

After that we’ll hit the nightspots in Friedrichsheim where the bars and clubs rock to live music all night.

I’m packing my case as we speak …

 

Kate..

I certainly do. I am a sucker for German Apfelkuchen … that’s Apple Cake. It’s always moist, spicy and deliciously moreish. Sehr lecker! Here is my fave recipe:-

3 large eggs

300g sugar

250ml vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

300g plain flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

600g peeled and finely chopped tart apples, I use Granny Smith

150g chopped pecans

Icing

250g cream cheese

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk

250g icing sugar

 

Instructions

 

1 Preheat oven to 170c degrees. Spray a 9×13-inch pan with cooking spray.

2 In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract until completely combined.

3 In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt.

4 Add dry ingredients to wet and stir to combine.

5 Fold in apples and pecans. Pour batter into prepared pan.

6 Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Allow to cool.

7 Make frosting. Place cream cheese and butter in a large bowl. Beat with electric mixer until smooth.

8 Add vanilla extract and icing sugar. Beat until smooth.

9 Spread on top of cake. Store leftovers in refrigerator

 

Kate. My next project? I am VERY excited about it. The story is set in France in 1953 – a new era for me – during the escalating nuclear threat of the Cold War. The story takes place in the Camargue, the French region famous for its gorgeous wild white horses and black bulls. The divisions within a family lead it into a sinister web of secrets and lies. Think Soviet spies, think danger, think thrills.

Thank you, dudes, for inviting me over. I really enjoyed catching up again.

Bobby B, you got your passport ready?

*** THE TOP TEN BESTSELLING AUTHOR ***

Directly I saw him, I knew he had to die.’

Germany, 1945. Klara Janowska and her daughter Alicja have walked for weeks to get to Graufeld Displaced Persons camp. In the cramped, dirty, dangerous conditions they, along with 3,200 others, are the lucky ones. They have survived and will do anything to find a way back home.

But when Klara recognises a man in the camp from her past, a deadly game of cat and mouse begins.

He knows exactly what she did during the war to save her daughter.

She knows his real identity.

What will be the price of silence? And will either make it out of the camp alive?

Kate Furnivall had the shock proof of her life when she learned just over a decade ago that she was part Russian. Not a demure all-English rose after all then. It changed her life. Triggered those Russian genes into action. Inspired by her grandmother’s dramatic St Petersburg life-story at the time of the Soviet Revolution, Kate wrote her first historical novel, The Russian Concubine, which hit the New York Times Bestseller list and was sold in 25 countries.It hooked Kate into the thrill of setting powerful emotional stories in dramatic far-off locations. She took to travelling with a vengeance – Russia, China, Malaya, Egypt, Bahamas, Italy, France. All became backdrops for her sweeping tales set in the first half of the 20th century when the world was in turmoil.

Research trips were riddled with wonderful adventures and weird discoveries that enrich her books. She delves into dark themes as well as intense love stories, and strips her characters to the bare bones in times of crisis to see what they are made of. Her books are full of tension, twists and thrills, atmosphere and romance.

Kate was raised in Wales, went to London Uni and worked in advertising in London. She now lives in blissful Devon with her husband, snuggled up close to Agatha Christie’s house for inspiration. She has two sons and a manky cat.

Kate has written ten historical novels, two of which have been shortlisted for the RNA Historical Novel of the Year Award.

 

Interview with Kate Furnivall and some dudes

06 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by shehannemoore in Author Interviews, blogging, book tour, writing

≈ 138 Comments

Tags

Josephine Baker, Kate Furnivall, New book, Paris, The Betrayal

 

‘Hi there, Dudes, I am honoured and excited to be here.’

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and the infamous green hat. I used to hate green, my least favourite colour, it reminded me of school cabbage. But now it reminds me of your dashing self and I insist on wearing nothing but green these days. You are of course my fave dude but don’t tell Silv, will you? She’s a touchy little madam.

Kate. Elope? What happened to the big fancy wedding you promised to that Russian wench? Olga or Polga or Smolga or some such. And the gingerbread house? I must have a beautiful gingerbread house, you know. A fancy one. No skinflint stuff, my Bobbikins.

 

Kate. You are as sharp as a tack, BB. You got it in one! I just love that enchanting city. If it’s Paris you are planning on eloping to, then that’s a whole different ballgame. I am packing my bag as we speak. It’s true I have a huge fondness for Italy – and for Italian signori – and have set two of my books there, but Paris is the place I would choose for romance every time. It is the beautiful City of Love. La Ville de l’Amour.

 

Kate. Well now, that depends on how much time we have, mon ami,

but here are some must-sees. First, Montmartre. It’s my fave place in all Paris, the old artists’ arrondissement. With narrow cobbled streets climbing up to the breathtaking icing-sugar (frosting) white Basilica of Sacré Coeur,

which always puts me in mind of the Taj Mahal. And not far down the hill lies the ooh-là-là notoriously naughty Moulin Rouge cabaret on Boulevard de Clichy.

The dancing galz and their feathers are going to knock your little green socks off, BB.

Then we’ll head south to the stunning rose windows of Notre Dame Cathedral and the Impressionist Musée D’Orsay. And after an amble along the romantic quais, we can take a trip by moonlight on the Bateau Mouche on the Seine or head over for French 75 cocktails à deux at Le Fouquet’s on the Champs Elysées. I tell you, Bobby Bub, this is the start of a beautiful friendship.

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Kate. My new book is called The Betrayal and it does what it says on the tin. Two sisters. Conspirators. Murderers. Betrayers.

But … are they? There are so many twists and turns, and nothing is what it seems. The action takes place against the gorgeous backdrop of Paris 1938 with the nightclubs playing crazy jazz and the drums of war sounding in the distance.

Even the real-life shocking danceuse, Josephine Baker, puts in an appearance.

The city is on edge, a wildness is in the air. My story is of twin sisters, Romy and Florence, who are hiding a terrible secret that tears them apart. My desire to write about this subject came from the fact that I am a twin myself and wanted to explore how that incredibly intense relationship can draw two people together against their will, bound by blood, even when they are driven apart by violent events.

Being a twin is strange. It creates a bubble around the two of you and isolates you from the rest of the world. Yet I know from my own experience of being a twin how different your ideas and ambitions can be despite the closeness. Romaine and Florence come at the world from opposing viewpoints, just as my sister and I did. At times this creates distance between them. But always the bond holds firm and the love – that is as much a part of them as the colour of their eyes – never falters. But the terrible secret about their father’s murder stretches their loyalty to breaking point.

I have to say here and now that it was seeing all the shenanigans that go on around your gingerbread house week after week that inspired me for much of the mayhem that takes place in The Betrayal.

Broken limbs, a fire, damaged documents and even an attempt at world domination. Exactly like Dudeland. Okay, no moss monster but there’s a really nasty character who comes close. Tragically, no hamsters. They’d soon be gobbled up by the rats that creep up from the Paris sewers at night.

Kate.  Romy and Florence are very different. Romy is a daredevil, a reckless pilot who flies aircraft to the left-wing Republicans in the Spanish civil war. She fights against Fascism, but she leads a dissolute life, using drink, gambling and men to help her forget the day that she woke up in her father’s study with him dead at her feet and his blood on her hands.

She has no memory of what happened that day. In contrast, her twin sister Florence is an elegant socialite in a position of power and privilege. She is married to a diplomat who works with the Germans to destroy the very people whom Romy is fighting to help. To save Romy’s slender neck from the guillotine, the sisters put the blame for their father’s murder on an innocent gardener, but their lies come back to haunt them.

Kate. My nice French recipe is to get you in the mood. It’s for a Soixante Quinze! A French 75! This lemon-hued cocktail is insanely good and was very fashionable in the 1920s. So grab your shaker. It is named ‘French 75’ because taking a sip of it feels like getting shelled by a French 75mm field gun. Aah, la vie est belle!

Ingredients

2oz champagne

½ oz lemon juice

1oz gin

2 dashes simple syrup

Lemon twist

Method

Add gin, champagne and syrup to a cocktail shaker filled with ice, shaking as hot-hot-hot as Tom Cruise to combine. Strain into an iced champagne glass. Top with more chilled champagne and a twist of lemon. Voilà!

 

 

Kate. My next book is The Truth. It is about lies. The lies people tell and the truth that is hidden in the dark places behind them. I am very excited about this one. This time I’m in Germany 1945. What a terrible chaotic period that was. The war was over and the Allies were trying to put the country back together again. A time of desperation but also of huge hope for the future. My character Klara is trapped with her young daughter in one of the Displaced Persons camps. Needless to say, danger stalks the camp and …. My lips are sealed!

Thank you for having me, Bobby Bub. It’s been a blast. I’ve got our Eurostar tickets to Paris in my hot little hand …..

 

 

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Kate Furnivall had the shock proof of her life when she learned just over a decade ago that she was part Russian. Not a demure all-English rose after all then. It changed her life. Triggered those Russian genes into action. Inspired by her grandmother’s dramatic St Petersburg life-story at the time of the Soviet Revolution, Kate wrote her first historical novel, The Russian Concubine, which hit the New York Times Bestseller list and was sold in 25 countries.It hooked Kate into the thrill of setting powerful emotional stories in dramatic far-off locations. She took to travelling with a vengeance – Russia, China, Malaya, Egypt, Bahamas, Italy, France. All became backdrops for her sweeping tales set in the first half of the 20th century when the world was in turmoil.

Research trips were riddled with wonderful adventures and weird discoveries that enrich her books. She delves into dark themes as well as intense love stories, and strips her characters to the bare bones in times of crisis to see what they are made of. Her books are full of tension, twists and thrills, atmosphere and romance.

Kate was raised in Wales, went to London Uni and worked in advertising in London. She now lives in blissful Devon with her husband, snuggled up close to Agatha Christie’s house for inspiration. She has two sons and a manky cat.

Kate has written ten historical novels, two of which have been shortlisted for the RNA Historical Novel of the Year Award.

http://www.facebook.com/KateFurnivallAuthor

http://bit.ly/2yzPGJk

 

Could you kill someone? Someone you love?

Paris, 1938. Twin sisters are divided by fierce loyalties and by a terrible secret. The drums of war are beating and France is poised, ready to fall. One sister is an aviatrix, the other is a socialite and they both have something to prove and something to hide.
The Betrayal is an unforgettably powerful, epic story of love, loss and the long shadow of war.

Trick? Treat? Or Liberation with Kate Furnivall?

30 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by shehannemoore in Author Interviews, heroes, heroines, Uncategorized

≈ 107 Comments

Tags

1940's, books, Fred Astaire, Gone with the WInd, Italy, Kate Furnivall, Naples, Old films, Paris, Sorrento, The Liberation, writing, WW2

‘Hi dudes, it’s great to be here and I am looking forward to a cool chat with you. No eating manuscripts, okay?’

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KATE. Let’s face it, guys, I know you live in bonny Scotland but Italy is the most beautiful country on earth. I’d be a fool to miss out on the chance of another research trip there.image2-6

 

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I fell madly in love with Italy when I was researching for The Italian Wife and I couldn’t wait to go back for The Liberation. And let’s not forget all that vino and tagliatelle ai funghi porcini and fiery limoncello. Especially the limoncello! And all that fascinating history, all that breathtaking art and culture oozing out of every pore of Italy. And that’s not counting my guide, the gorgeous slim-hipped Filippo …. Need I go on?

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Kate.  Oh yes! And this time I didn’t make it up. It’s not just one fancy town that provides the setting for The Liberation, but two – Sorrento and Naples. Both utterly beautiful and totally different. My main character, Caterina Lombardi, lives in the exquisite ancient town of Sorrento, perched peacefully up on its clifftop, but she sells her craftwork in the greedy streets of the city of Naples which lies in ruins, devastated by wartime bombing.

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Crime and danger are rampant in Naples where everyone is struggling to survive. And the wild street-kids, the sugnizzi, scamper like rats through the back alleyways, stealing anything that is not nailed down. image4-3

But Naples is a city you don’t mess with. When Caterina comes calling, she carries a gun.

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Kate. Oh drat! No hamstahs. But plenty of rats – the two-legged variety, as well as the four-legged ones.

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But I am giving a pet hamster a starring role in my next book in Paris in your honour, dudes. You can even name him/her for me. But remember, he/she is French. Ooh-la-la!

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KATE. BTW, did you know that hamstahs as pets all came from Syria originally and didn’t arrive in the UK until 1931?

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Kate. he Liberation is set in Italy 1945 and it is about searching for freedom. It is the story of Caterina Lombardi, a resilient and talented young Italian woman who worked as an apprentice in her father’s wood-inlay workshop. When he is accused of treason, she fights to clear his name and wants to tear the world apart to prove his innocence. But this brings her into sharp conflict with Naples’ dark and violent underbelly, where greed and corruption hang on to the coattails of power. It also strips bare the dangerous secrets that stalk her own family. Caterina accepts help from an American Intelligence officer, Major Jake Parr, and the two grow close, but she no longer knows who to trust. Who is the real enemy now? The deeper she digs, the more she finds it all comes back to her own family. To its secrets. And to its mistakes.

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Kate. I am a sucker for anything to do with the 1930s and 1940s. It gets my heart thumping and is an age of such scintillating glamour. image1-4

I love everything about it – its fashions, its films, its books and songs, its heroics, and even its catastrophic world events. Hollywood burst upon the planet with its seductive stars and music – the likes of Rita Hayworth and Cole Porter – bringing escapism to people who were in desperate need of it. image2-7

And six of the biggest political figures of all time held the world in their grip – Churchill, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Roosevelt and Mao Tse Tung. It is a fascinating era and its intense conflicts make for rich pickings for a storyteller. I have only just started!

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Kate. In Naples? Steer clear of it, I warn you guys. Firstly, it’s way too hot for Scottish dudes wearing fur coats. Secondly, it is a large port and rats as big as Buicks saunter down the streets. Be warned.

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Kate. But Sorrento? Bobby Bub, I think your moment has come, you handsome dude. Sorrento is the perfect place for love and romance. It will melt even your stone heart and make you sing love-songs alongside Donovan. So get your furry arse and your green hat over there. Pronto!

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Kate.  Gone With The Wind. No contest. It is a wonderful sweeping epic of a film with powerful music that gives no quarter, glorious colour-tones and heart-stopping performances. I saw it when I was ten and it stole my soul. To watch a woman carve out her own destiny in defiance of the rigid social conventions of a man’s world set something on fire inside me. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen it since, but I do know that a small piece of Scarlett O’Hara glows brightly inside each of my heroines.

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Fave film stars? Don’t get me started, I may never stop. Ingrid Bergman, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, James Stewart, james

Vivien Leigh, viv

Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall,

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Rita Hayworth, rita

Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland, Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster …. the list goes on and on. Myrna Loy, William Powell, Leslie Howard ….But I think if you twist my arm and make me chose only one, it has to be the utterly delicious Fred Astaire. Imagine it, dancing with him cheek to cheek, in one of Ginger’s stunning gowns ….. “I’m in heaven, I’m in heaven”.

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Kate. I have recently come back from a research trip to Paris and I have to say that though I adore the Sacré Coeur Basilica in Montmartre, and the Musée d’Orlay will knock your eyeballs out with its Impressionists, my favourite place by far is sitting in a pavement café. Watching the chicest city in the world saunter past. You should try it, dudes. I sip my coffee, knock back my vin rouge. And stare. I stare at the effortless style of the French. At their elegance. I’d still be there now if the thunderstorm hadn’t hit and my gorgeous garçon hadn’t clocked off.

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Kate. But I’ll be back. Hey dudes, care to join me?

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Kate. Like I said – Paris. Paris 1938, to be exact. When the world was in the last throes of frivolity before World War II slammed into gear and brought the decade shuddering to an end. Romy Duchamps is an aviatrix. And a killer. She takes risks the way other people take tea. But in Paris, the City of Light, she has learned to expect the unexpected, as she pushes her twin sister into a choice she fears to make.

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Well, that was good fun, dudes. Great to spend time with you. Thanks for inviting me over. *high fives*

 

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Kate Furnivall was raised in Penarth, a small seaside town in Wales. Her mother, whose own childhood was spent in Russia, China and India, discovered at an early age that the world around us is so volatile, that the only things of true value are those inside your head and your heart. These values Kate explores in The Russian Concubine.

Kate went to London University where she studied English and from there she went into publishing, writing material for a series of books on the canals of Britain. Then into advertising where she met her future husband, Norman. She travelled widely, giving her an insight into how different cultures function which was to prove invaluable when writing The Russian Concubine.russian_concubine

By now Kate had two sons and so moved out of London to a 300-year old thatched cottage in the countryside where Norman became a full-time crime writer. He won the John Creasey Award in 1987, writing as Neville Steed. Kate and Norman now live by the sea in the beautiful county of Devon, only 5 minutes from the home of Agatha Christie!

kate2It was when her mother died in 2000 that Kate decided to write a book inspired by her mother’s story. The Russian Concubine contains fictional characters and events, but Kate made use of the extraordinary situation that was her mother’s childhood experience – that of two White Russian refugees, a mother and daughter, stuck without money or papers in an International Settlement in China.

http://katefurnivall.com/

 

Some of Kate’s books.

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the-liberation-9781471155550_lgThe Liberation is set in Italy in 1945 as British and American troops attempt to bring order to the devastated country and Italy’s population fights to survive. Caterina Lombardi is desperate – her father is dead, her mother has disappeared and her brother is being drawn towards danger. One morning, among the ruins of the bombed Naples streets, Caterina is forced to go to extreme lengths to protect her own life and in doing so forges a future in which she must clear her father’s name. An Allied Army officer accuses him of treason and Caterina discovers a plot against her family. Who can she trust and who is the real enemy now? And will the secrets of the past be her downfall?

This epic novel is an unforgettably powerful story of love, loss and the long shadow of war.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Liberation-Kate-Furnivall/dp/1471155552

 

 

The Italian Wife…and Wedding with Kate Furnivall

08 Friday May 2015

Posted by shehannemoore in Author Interviews, book tour, heroes, heroines, writing

≈ 56 Comments

Tags

Historical Fiction, Italian Opera, Italian Weddings, Italy, Kate Furnivall, Mussolini, Pompeii, Romance, The Italian Wife, Vesuvius

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All right dudes. All that is very true, but today…

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Today we are going to share some facts on Italian weddings.

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Well no, because today we are welcoming your very favourite Kate Furnivall.

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And her fabulous new book.

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Well, it’s also quite tough  when other hamsters are queuing to get to Kate to come visit their blogs and sit in their cages, that we’re going ahead with this. But if you are good and nice and do not interrupt unless asked, we might at least reconsider not giving her the gingerbread houses.  Now then, firstly Kate it is an….

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……honour to have you back here…..

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Kate.  Do I like hamsters? Nope. Oh yes, I DO mean it!

My son used to own a hamster called Barnie, cute as a cookie but spiteful as a snake. He was always taking chunks out of fingers and kept making a break for it in search of adventure. So I spent hours crawling on my hands and knees through the house, trying to find the pesky critter. Several times I had to snatch him from the jaws of death – well, from the jaws of Santa, my Burmese cat. Since then my life has been blissfully hamster-less ….. until now.

 Shey.  Dudes, can we just cut to the next question. Kate is a best selling author in the middle of a blog tour. She has no time to answer your silly questions.

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Well don’t. Okay.  let’s just have the next question.

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Kate. That’s the trouble, you see, Shey. It’s impossible not to love this herd of hamsters that runs riot on your blog. Each one has its own furry charms, but if you twist my arm …. hmm, let me think.

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Okay, it’s gotta be Bobby Bub. (Sorry all you other guys. xx) I just love his cantankerous, opportunistic, bed-ridden soul.zbobby

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And I’ve decided that I can’t wait to move in to that gingerbread house with him and Olga. Till death us do part.

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Shey. Okay, okay. You have set books in many exotic locations, what drew you to Italy for this one?

Kate.  Ah, bella Italia! I defy anyone not to fall in love with Italy. (Even Bobby Bub.)

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Not only is it a stunningly beautiful country with awesome antiquities, but it also has all those fabulous vinos and cheeses. Have you ever googled ‘Italian cheeses’? You could write a whole book in the time it takes to read through the list of hundreds of cheese names.katef

I had always wanted to set a book in Italy but had never found the right story for it. Then one day I stumbled across the astonishing account of the transformation of the Pontine Marshes and I knew I had found my story.

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So where are the Pontine Marshes? The Agro Pontino, as they are called in Italy, is an area of land just south of Rome that was an ancient malarial swamp. Emperor Nero tried to drain it in 60 AD. Failed! Napoleon tried again in 1810. Failed!zbobbyn78788888888888888888888888888888

Along came Benito Mussolini in 1930. He stormed through all obstacles with Fascist might. Success! This amazing feat involved dogging 10,000 miles of canals and cost many lives. But he not only drained the malarial swamp, he built five new towns on the reclaimed land.

This is where my story starts. 1932. My heroine is one of the architects of the first town.

Shey.  Is your heroine Italian?

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Kate. Si. Unabellasignoraitaliana. Isabella Berotti is my heroine in THE ITALIAN WIFE. She was born and bred in Milan but is now living in Bellina, the new town she is helping to create. She has wild black hair, blue eyes that can cut through concrete and an attitude that takes no prisoners. This is 1932, when women in Italy are stuck at home churning out bambini to boost Mussolini’s workforce. There are no female architects in Italy. Except Isabella. That says it all. So it’s no surprise that on the night when Mussolini asks her to dance, she says no.

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 Shey. What about your hero?

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Kate Ah, Roberto. My heart beats faster when I say his name. He is a gorgeous Italian, born in Sorrento. He is the official photographer commissioned by Mussolini to record the creation of the brand new town, and he steps in front of a charging horse to save Isabella.

Need I say more?

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Come on over to THE ITALIAN WIFE to meet him. You won’t want to miss Roberto, I promise you!

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Kate.

For hamsters I recommend Naples dockyard. There are lots of cats there.

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For humans, just stick a pin in a map of Italy, pack your bags and get yourself over there. It is all wonderful. But my favourite hideaway has to be Sorrento and the Amalfi coast, where pastel-tinged towns cling to the cliffs and tumble down to the edge of the blue sea beneath. Sorrento has stunning views everywhere you turn, ancient lava-stone streets, olives the size of hens’ eggs, the beautiful isle of Capri, jewellery, mountains that turn to gold at sunset, limoncello liqueur,pompie

dark-eyed Italian men …..

Stop me if I’m boring you.

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….. and a rickety train that runs round the bay to Naples, Vesuvius, Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well asasparagus and exquisite inlaid woodwork . And did I mention limoncello? Oh yes, and Italian men with wide smiles?

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 Shey  Do you have a favourite place in Rome?

Kate. It has to be any sunlit piazza in Rome like Piazza di San Silvestro where I can chill out, sip strong coffee and watch the Roman world drift past. Ogling the Ferraris and ignoring the snake-hipped men, of course!

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 Shey What is your favourite Italian food and drink?

Kate. That’s an easy one. Delicious lobster tagliatelle, and limoncello cocktail. The lobsters and sauces are out of this world and the fire-breathing liqueur from southern Italy could tempt me down iniquitous paths …..

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Shey.  Kate, any thoughts  on Italian opera?

Kate. Let’s face it, I am a drama queen at heart. So Italian opera sets my blood pounding and my heart rising. I love it. Puccini’s ‘Madama Butterfly’ makes me cry every time. kate f

But then, so does ‘La Bohème’. And Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’. All those beautiful soaring melodies and powerful cadences. And they do such magnificently drawn-out deaths and broken hearts. Spectacular! They appeal to the showboater in me. I warn you now, I have rather a long drawn-out death in THE ITALIAN WIFE. Clearly I have been listening to too much Puccini! My ambition is to hear an Italian opera at La Scala in Milan one day. Bliss.

Shey. Finally,

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Do you have a recipe for us?

Kate. I certainly do. I am a big fan of Italian pasta bakes and this is one of my favourites:- CHICKEN LASAGNE. Easy to make and goes fabulously with a fresh easy-going pinot grigio.

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Chicken Lasagne

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil 8 spring onions, sliced

600g chicken fillet cut into strips300g dried apricots, diced

60g butter                                                        2 x 400g cans tomatoes

75g plain flour                                                 6 sprigs fresh marjoram

500ml vegetable stock                                   9 sheets of lasagne

500ml milk                                                       100g Cheddar cheese, grated

500g carrots, peeled and diced                    30g Parmesan, grated

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Preheat the oven to 170c/150c fan/gas 3. Grease a 27×21 lasagne dish. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken for 3 mins. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add 60g flour and cook, stirring, for 2 mins. Add the stock and milk, stirring constantly, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins. Season with salt and black pepper. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a saucepan and fry the carrots for 3 mins. Add the spring onions, garlic and apricots and fry for 2 mins. Sprinkle over 15g flour, then add the tomatoes, breaking up with a wooden spoon.(I, of course, also chuck in a good glug of white wine here, but that’s only for the winos among you.) Stir in the marjoram leaves and season with salt and black pepper. Spread 4 tbsp of the béchamel sauce in the lasagne dish. Arrange 3 lasagne sheets, the remaining béchamel sauce, tomato sauce and chicken, then 3 lasagne sheets. Sprinkle with the cheese. Bake for 30-40 mins until golden and bubbling.

Well, Shey, that was awesome. Thanks for inviting me. *waves to hammies*

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Italy, 1932 — Mussolini’s Italy is growing from strength to strength, but at what cost? One bright autumn morning, architect Isabella Berotti sits at a cafe in the vibrant centre of Bellina, when a woman she’s never met asks her to watch her ten-year-old daughter, just for a moment. Reluctantly, Isabella agrees — and then watches in horror as the woman climbs to the top of the town’s clock tower and steps over the edge. This tragic encounter draws vivid memories to the surface, forcing Isabella to probe deeper into the secrets of her own past as she tries to protect the young girl from the authorities. Together with charismatic photographer Roberto Falco, Isabella is about to discover that secrets run deeper, and are more dangerous, than either of them could have possibly imagined …

From the glittering marble piazzas to the picturesque hillside villages and winding streets of Rome, Kate Furnivall’s epic new novel will take you on an breathtaking journeyof intrigue, romance and betrayal.

“Kate Furnivall has a wonderful gift for evoking a location, and her stories are always fast-paced page-turners, peppered with authentic detail.” ~ Lucinda Riley

“The Italian Wife has everything: a fascinating setting in an extraordinary period of European history and a powerful love story. I loved this book.” – Liz Trenow, author of The Last Telegram

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Italian-Wife-Kate-Furnivall/dp/0751550752/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428670943&sr=1-1&keywords=italian+wife

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-italian-wife/kate-furnivall/9780751550764

 

 

The Far Side of Kate Furnivall

14 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by shehannemoore in Author Interviews, heroes, heroines, writing

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Bahamas, Epics, Harry Oakes case, Kate Furnivall, Little Brown, The DUke and DUchess of Windsor, The Far Side Of The Sun, Writing tips

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Bn2iQLyCAAEUB2r kate's hamsterOh, quit coming it. AND DON’T even think about saying what you think of them. As if I would do such a thing when we have a guest, a very special guest on their release day  and what we do for guests is hang out banners, crack open the bubbly and things.

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I hope you are meaning the jerseys. MY God, weren’t you the ones who invited Kate here? Hmmmm?

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Of course you do. That’s better. Except you better not be planning anything other than a few balloons.

Kate is one lovely, awesome lady and I’m thrilled to have her back here to spill beans on her new UK release…TODAY!!

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A gorgeous cover for a gorgeous book. (She’s also been working flat out on her next one, as well as promoting this one big time.)kat99094499

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Hmmmm. Getting suspicious here. Very, very suspicious.

Also, why this one is top of TBR pile is, it’s set in the Bahamas at the time of a certain famous murder…

Having cued the scary music,  let’s not hang about. ….

Firstly, Kate,  let’s start with ‘Set in the Bahamas 1943’, now we know you don’t have a time machine, so of course this did not mean a research trip, now did it?

 Kate.  ‘Research trip’ is so totally the wrong term. It’s called ‘suffering for one’s art’. All those white-sand beaches I had to walk. All those rum punches I was obliged to test out. As for snorkelling on a coral reef, how could I possibly know that it was unnecessary for my book unless I’d tried it first? See what I mean? Sheer suffering.image

Shey. That beach defo has blisters on it. You can see. Your feet do. Your fingers do. The palm trees  even. The suffering is shocking.

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Well, then Hanstah Dickens you should NOT have eaten your manuscript.

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This book is a world away from many of your other settings, what inspired you to set a book there? Was it that you just desired, indeed you needed,  to suffer even more?

Kate. Are you kidding? Did I mention the white-sand beaches, the rum punches, the coral reefs, the skies so blue you could drown in them. No, no, of course that’s not what got me all fired up about jetting off to the Bahamas. What on earth made you think that?

Shey. My fervent imagination.

Kate. It was a real life murder story that occurred there in 1943 that drew me to the glossy sun-soaked Bahamas. It had all the ingredients for a great book – passion, mystery, glitz and royalty glamour, scandal and hatred, and above all, greed and gold.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, pictured in Palm Beach possibly as early as the post-war 1940s - Lady Henrietta Spencer Churchill, American Friends of British Art, Palm Beach - Homa Nasab for MuseumViewsAll I had to add was a love story. Hey presto! My next book, THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN.

Shey. Is your book based on the famous, or infamous, Harry Oakes case? image (1)

Or is it a backdrop to the story?

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Kate, Spot on, hamstahs! You’re not as dumb as you look.

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Shey. I knew it!

Kate. To be honest, it was a car that started me on the trail. Not any old car, no sir. It was a glamorous American coffin-nosed Cord automobile 1936. hamc

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Many years ago, because of my love affair with that car I was lucky enough to get to know James Leasor who owned one. He wrote a heap of successful action-packed crime novels. But he also wrote a non-fiction book called ‘Who Killed Sir Harry Oakes?’images3QXL0N1C

Out of politeness I read it. Oh my, I was hooked. To my surprise, when I came to start plotting my next book twenty years later, the questions about this mysterious unsolved murder elbowed their way to the front of my seriously overcrowded mind and that was it. I was up and running. Well, flying, to be more exact.  Straight to the Bahamas. To solve a mystery that no one else had been able to solve. Just call me Kate Sherlock. But I promise you that it is woven in with a passionate love story – and there’s no Reichenbach Falls!kateyu

Shey, I think they just have called you that! You’ve two completely contrasting female leads, can you tell us a bit about them and why you chose to make them so different from each other?

 Kate. Dodie and Ella. My heart was torn between the pair of them. Dodie Wyatt is young and from the wrong side of the tracks. Feisty, angry at life, a loner. She’s got a lot to learn. Lives in a shack on the beach. And then there’s Ella. She has it all. Married to a wealthy diplomat, she has time and money to play Lady Bountiful to the natives and to the brave boys in uniform far away from home. But she is bored and restless. Her marriage is an empty champagne glass. Life’s party is over.glsd

Shey. Ooooh, liking, liking…..

Kate. When these two women clash swords, sparks fly and it changes their lives. I made Dodie and Ella very different from each other, yes, that’s true. But as danger stalks into their lives (watch out, hamstahs) it is what they discover that they have in common that carries them through the dark times of THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN. Cut their wrists and they both bleed the same colour blood.

Shey. I guess that is very true of people and a good vein to tap into. Oops. Of course, there’s also something about island life, isn’t there?zimage

 Kate. Oh yes, indeed! Island calypso music, island beaches, island hammocks slung between palm trees in the shade. Island rum. kat99094499=

Island colours are vibrant – more blues and reds and shimmering greens than you thought ever existed. Island community spirit and island backsides – both as big and warm as their hearts.zxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxl99990

But toss a coin and you get the flip side. Isolation. Claustrophobia. Unemployment. Everyone dipping fingers into everyone else’s business. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Time to peel away the layers and find what lurks underneath. All taking place during an intense time of wartime turmoil. Oh yes, did I mention island rum, hamstahs?

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 Kate. The guys. Bring ‘em on. As different and as difficult as their women. Flynn Hudson is an American with an uneasy edge to him. Tall and lean. Hard core tough guy who is more at home in the icy backstreets of Chicago than in the blinding sunshine of Nassau. He rates courage in a person. It’s what really counts when the going gets tough – which it always does when Flynn is around.

Shey. Woh. I’m swooning for Flynn. faKate. Then he meets Dodie, an outsider like himself. She changes his world.

Shey. Hmm. Too bad. Must see what I can do about that.

Kate. Dan Calder is a police detective. Disciplined, orderly, his mind as sharp as his gun holster. He has an earthy sense of humour and a way of talking that captivates Ella. He makes this elegant classy lady revel in getting down and dirty. And then there are the handcuffs ….

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Shey. Oh can it, Tink. Do you like hamsters? We of course mean …Excuse me fellahs, who the hell put that question there?  How excited are you to see this one in print?

 Kate.  Excited is too puny a word for it. Let’s try thrilled, jubilant, electrified, quivering, galvanised, enraptured … Yep, now we’re getting there. And that’s just how I feel about hamsters! Oh yes, the book too.ac

zxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxl99990000zxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxl999900000Shey. Kate, do ignore them. How long did it take you to write the book?

Kate.  Too long. Deadlines come and go – like the island wind ….. Under a year.

Shey. Any major stumbling blocks?

Kate. I always have stumbling blocks. So what’s new? In this book, dealing with real historical people like the Duke and Duchess of Windsor was tricky at times.

Shey. I always think it’s hard to write the ‘realies.’ People nearly always have opinions on them. So, moving swiftly on, do you have a favourite island?

 Kate. I like the idea of an island – in theory. Love its isolation. But I’ve hardly been to any. Sicily was stunning and was stampeded by wild flowers in May.

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Shey. Oh don’t worry.  I’ve stood on one. A volcano I mean. Burnt my foot too. Any advice for aspiring writers on choosing a location? Like I was aspiring then and that was plainly a bum move on my part.

 Kate.  Choose a location you love. If you love it yourself, it will come alive in the book and you’ll make your reader love it too. And if you want to sell books by the shed-load, the sunnier the location the better! Hamstahs, get your bikinis on.zxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxl9999000000

And there we have it folks. It just remains for me to wish Kate a wonderful print release day on this book. I’ve loved this lady’s books for years. I just know this one is gonna be one fabulous read. Congratulations Kate and thank you. kateyWith beautiful blue skies, sandy beaches and glorious sunshine, the Bahamas is a slice of heaven. But in 1943, the world is at war and even paradise isn’t safe . . .

Twenty-three-year-old Dodie Wyatt thought she had escaped her turbulent past – but one night her peace is shattered when she chooses to help a man she finds stabbed in an alleyway.

On the other side of Nassau, wealthy diplomat’s wife Ella Stanford plays the role she has been born into, throwing herself into charitable work and charming her husband’s powerful friends. But she has secrets to keep – and those secrets could put her life in danger.

When one of the richest men in the world is found dead, these two very different women – Dodie, a shy introvert, and Ella, a confident socialite – are drawn together. With the unstable island spiralling into violence, deceit, greed and death, Dodie and Ella have only each other to rely on, as their lives are torn apart . . .

Find out about  best selling Kate here.

http://www.katefurnivall.com/

check out The Far side of the Sun here.

http://t.co/F9MejmojIr

 

As simple as ABC..not. Blog hop

07 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by shehannemoore in blogging, heroes, heroines, writing

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

Anne Lange, Catherine Cavendish, Kate Furnivall, Noelle Clark, writing, writing processes blog

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Anne Lange the 12 Days Blog Hop Buddy, I don’t know about dah hamsters, I’d be thinking twice. Do you know she pinched two of my guys for a ménage…

http://authorannelange.com/2014/04/04/interview-with-flint-and-callm/

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She called it an interview….but do we ask for water in the middle of interviews? Still maybe her stays were too tight….so, okay I’ll believe her although hundreds…… MIGHTN’T. Sharon Struth and Incy Black to name two.

Anyway the lovely Kate Furnivall….presently in Italy, researching, so maybe I might not forgive her either… Oh okay I sent her a  Maximus Decimus Meridius  commander of the armies hamster…BkaTsVLCYAA7kTY

to show there were no hard feelings. The lovely Kate, author of

From Russia WIth Kate Furnivall. The March Author Interview

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to name but a few of her fabulous books, passed me the Writing Processes Blog Hop baton, last Monday. http://www.katefurnivall.com/blog-hop/

Yay! So now the hammies and I are going to answer some questies for you. Oh, it’s only four, you can take it. I’ve so much doing getting the PC back in order I am not even going to delay.

comv

Obviously this blog. But then there’s the trying to get the younger daughter out of the hair and the emails answered etc etc etc. I am working hard on that you understand, so just maybe I can ratchet a newly added  scene up several notches in my recently completed WIP, which I don’t want to say too much about…other than it has a Viking in it with a name that sums him up. And an equally delightfully named heroine who has a big choice to make.

Sil and Bobsleigh here, they are working on holding up placards.

coni

Er… Well, I guess I just can’t do frills and flounces. Or nice people,  from nice backgrounds either.BkaTsVLCYAA7kTY

 Because I was that desperate to break into writing and I was tired of rejection, of being told I could write but… But even then I HAD to have my characters my way. And I have to say that while genre romance isn’t my first love, or choice, I do love writing about what makes people tick, and I do love having them knock all the lumps off each other. I leave the bedroom door open because I feel you’re seeing all their hopes and dreams and vulnerabilities there and because sex is a great bargaining counter. And I guess at one stage or another in each of my books my characters use it for just that. Naturally. it backfires.

images3I7Z3QOJ

 

GAWD.. Well, I’ve said before with a lot ofconv

andconv

 

and hair tearing.

I don’t know how it works. Works… if only! Okay.   I get an idea flash first.  In His Judas Bride, it was Kara baring all to the wrong man  to get into Lochalpin. bbbbbbbbbb1

Loving Lady Lazuli, it was the coach on Christmas Eve and Saff planting these emeralds on Dev.

saback

In The Unraveling of Lady Fury it was her former lover turning up just as she’s ..er..interviewing suitable candidates, I won’t say for what.

Then I think a bit about the characters, their goal, motivation, conflict, what kind of people they are and start. But the thing is what goes on the page is never what I was hoping. Captain Flint was meant to be a nice helpful ex lover. Honestly. sje

The Black Wolf was meant to be patient and Hawley a poor, much abused soul….

Marveling at him too, that when he suffered so much…it did nothing to stop him making other people doing the same.

SO that’s where the trouble starts when they .come off the page the exact opposite.  Then I never have any idea of the plot. I just run like the white rabbit with it. I usually end with roughly 100000 words. That’s really when I start thinking what is the main theme here. I go through and cut 20 thou to centre stage that theme. Then I add 10 thou of what is missing regarding the theme.images3I7Z3QOJ

I do not set out to do any of that. It just happens.  What I know is it is like being on a tightrope. I never look ahead. I never look down. I just put the next foot on the rope and hope. This far my faith has been rewarded.

images3I7Z3QOJ

I can but I have to pass the baton so I am.

To

Catherine Cavendish http://www.catherinecavendish.com/

and

Noelle Clark http://www.noelleclark.net/

both lovely ladies, both fabulous authors, Catherine of horror, and Noelle of romance set in exotic locations. So please pop over and visit them. Their blogs will go up next Monday BUT  they always have some fabulous posts. I’m just heading over to catch the last few of Cat’s, which I kissed with having no pc last week!

 

 

From Russia with Kate Furnivall -the March author interview

10 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by shehannemoore in Author Interviews, heroes, heroines, writing

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

Egypt, Kate Furnivall, Locations, Russia, Singapore, The Jewel of St. Petersburg, The Russian Concubine, The White Pearl, writing

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Do you think I wouldn’t? Have a Russian hamster strutting its stuff today that is? Absolutely not. Although it’s my absolute privilege to bring you this fabulous lady… convKate Furnivall, New York Times best selling author of more books than I’ve had hot dinners.

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To show off a few. And naturally get the low down on her sumptuous settings, sweeping romance  and of course, any writing tips. Well, you’d know I still wouldn’t behave, not entirely  anyway. Besides you all like the little hamsters…

I’m telling you now though I’ve been hooked on Kate since devouring her first amazing book, The Russian Concubine.  Historical fiction–are you kidding? AND written by an outdoorsie. What is NOT to love? Okay, so that was a Russian hamster, Kate was raised in Wales, so that should have read..conv

 And I’m  pinching myself black and blue to make sure I’m actually interviewing her today. She’s not just  a writer I adore, she’s a writer who made me want to keep going. I never dreamed I’d interview her. So, without more ado OR hamsters except for maybe this trumpet tootling one…gotta have the fanfare…conv

here she is.

Shey:  If I remember correctly, one of the things that drew me to read The Russian Concubine was that your mother’s childhood was spent in Russia, China, India, and this influenced your writing, but recent books are set in Egypt and Singapore.

convIs there a reason for that change? Did you just fancy exploring somewhere different?

Kate:  You’re right. I wrote four books focused on Russia and China, countries that really spoke to me because of my family connection. But hey, a girl has to move on – especially when her publisher tells her to! My publisher didn’t want me pigeon-holed in readers’ minds as just a ‘Russia’ writer. That was fine by me because I’d got the research bug and I was keen to discover and explore exciting moments in history in other countries. So I let my heart lead me – and it headed straight for Malaya and Egypt. Beautiful bewitching places.conv

Shey: Ooh…. Absolutely. Wildly romantic too. Do you jet-set to these faraway places? For research purposes of course? I mean you wouldn’t want some reader thinking Wikipedia has it wrong.

Kate: Oh yes, I FORCE myself to jet-set to all the stunning exotic locations for my books. conv

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Shey: Oh the tortuous, unappreciated sacrifices writers make.

Kate: Terrible.

Shey: Here have a chocolate…the consolations one needs!  convKate: Yes. To places like the Bahamas, the Valley of the Nile, St Petersburg … the list is endless. It’s a hard life, this writing business.

Shey: Absolutely. Let’s have some wine to go with the choccies…conv

I’m reckoning a bottle each will ease the suffering.

Kate: I suffer for my art like crazy! Researching Russian vodka or Bahamas beaches is exhausting, let me tell you,

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but I do it all for my readers, of course. Hmm, now where shall I go for my next holid…, whoops, I mean research trip. Italy is always magnificent in the springtime ….

Shey: I can recommend Rome. Very nice…. You can meet the Zambian Ambassador there in an Irish bar too..

convMy writer buddies Antonia and Noelle, would recommend Pompeii and Capri. Of course, I suppose…you could have a series.  What draws you to a place? Is it place or story that comes first?

 Kate: (Drumming nails) Place or story? To be honest, it’s a close-run
thing. Probably place wins by a hair’s breadth. I find myself drawn to a place, usually because of a historical event that interests me – like the Bolshevik revolution, the terror of the Japanese invasion of Singapore,

conv
or the bizarre murder of one of the world’s richest men in the Bahamas.

Shey: Well Kate, excellent reasons to go do that research.

Kate: I love to delve into the human stories behind the facts, to peel away the layers of deceit and bring the historical events to life. conv

Oh yes, and tell a cracking good tale of love and adventure at the same time. If I’m lucky, a story rears up in front of me straight away, and that makes my life easier. But sometimes I have had to launch myself into my research, biting my nails while I wait for a story to come and hit me over the head. Fortunately for me, it always does in the end!

Shey: Thank goodness too or we’d be deprived of your wonderful books! Is there a place you haven’t written about you would love to write about?

 Kate: Yes, Africa. conv

I adored writing about Egypt – all that camel-riding and felucca-sailing and tomb-raiding. (What I do for my readers!)

But the heart of Africa calls to me. I’ve never had the delight of going there but I can see myself elephant-riding and fighting off crocodiles with nothing but my bare hands and my trusty writing-pen.

conv

(OR IS IT KATE…..sorry!)

Eye-balling a lioness. Oh yes! So I might have to take a safari one day soon. For research purposes – of course.

Shey: Of course. Your readers will be glad at all you do for them.

Kate: Or on the other extreme, there’s Alaska with all that virgin ice …. and maybe a whale cruise ….

conv

Shey: Kate…! Why not both? Do you need an assistant ? Are we going to see a book set on Dartmoor for instance? Come on Kate, I know you’re an outdoorsy. And it is your untamed paradise.conb

convKate: Dartmoor is on my doorstep. I go there all the time. It’s one of the most awesome places on earth. But are you saying no research trip to an exotic location? Come on! Where’s the fun in that? So no, Dartmoor is going to have to wait its turn way down my list, I’m afraid.

Shey: I know. You could go and live in Alaska, or Italy, and come and research Dartmoor. Problem solved.  Of all your books and all your characters, do you have a favourite?

Kate: That’s like asking a mother to choose between her children.

Shey: I know. I’m bad that way.

Kate: I am besotted by them all.But very quietly I will whisper that THE RUSSIAN CONCUBINE is immensely special to me because not only was it inspired by the story of my grandmother and mother as White Russians, but also because it was the start of all this crazy writing business for me. conv

The book jumped on to the New York Times Bestseller list and after that my life zoomed off in directions I’d never foreseen.

And the book’s kick-arse heroine, Lydia, is very close to my heart. I lived with her for three years (three books) and she made my days scary!

convBut another of my characters whom I adore is Georgie from SHADOWS ON THE NILE. I wanted to go on writing and writing him forever, so that I wouldn’t have to say goodbye. When I finish a book, it’s like a bereavement, I miss my characters so much.

Shey: Yeah, it’s hard to say goodbye. Kate, it’s hard to say goodbye to you too today when I could chat for the rest of it.  I want to thank you for coming , for your time. It’s been an absolute blast having you. One last question.  Is there any advice you can give an aspiring author other than … don’t do it?

 Kate: Five Tips:

  1. Read loads.
  2. Write a story you feel really passionate about.
  3. Don’t give up.
  4. Don’t ever give up.
  5. Don’t ever ever give up.

I leave you with two quotations that I love :

‘Work is more fun than fun.’ – Noel Coward

‘I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.’ – Jerome K Jerome.

Shey: Lol. Love it.

That’s it ladies and gentlemen. Except to say that Kate’s wonderful books are available worldwide from every retailer you care to name!convconv

convconv

She’s an amazingly nice lady and it’s been my absolute thrill and pleasure to have her here. TO find out more about Kate try here.

http://www.katefurnivall.com

http://twitter.com/KateFurnivall

Shadows on the Nile

Shadows on the Nile‘I’ll find him. I will.’

It’s 1932 and 27-year-old Jessica is living London life to the full when her younger brother Tim, an ancient Egyptian archaeology expert, goes missing. Teaming up with Sir Montague Chamford – who can resist neither a damsel in distress nor the chance of adventure – Jessie vows to find her beloved brother.

Following the clues Tim has left in his wake, Jessie and Monty head to Egypt. In the relentless heat of the desert, romance is kindled  between them, but danger also lurks in every shadow. And then Jessie starts to wonder how much Monty really knows about her brother’s disappearance . . .

A dramatic story of adventure, excitement, love and romance can all be found in the Shadows on the Nile.

The Writer and The Rake

Splendor Book Trailer

O’Roarke’s Destiny Book Trailer

The Viking and The Courtesan Book Trailer

Loving Lady Lazuli Book trailer

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Stephen King
About Stephen King | Analyze your text
     
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