1–What is the title of your latest release?
2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Helena Littledean secretly acquired a painting of Adam in the Garden of Eden. She has kept it hidden for Adam lacks even a fig leaf! Then she meets the Earl of Norwalk. Her heart catches in her throat. It’s her Adam…the embodiment of her closely held dreams. But he is an aristocrat, and she comes from trade. There is no way she can admit she owns a nude painting of an Earl!
3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I knew the heroine’s family were potters, so that led to Staffordshire, the hub of English pottery.
4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Yes. I love the arts and she is an artist.
5–What are three words that describe your hero?
Troubled, Loyal, Determined
6–What’s something you learned while writing this book?
About clay and the clay mines of Devon and Cornwall with their tools and methods.
7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
A bit of both. When I get about ½ through, I start to go back and edit. I’ve learned more about my characters by this time, so I want the readers to have more information about them, too so I layer it in.
8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Chocolate truffles
9–Describe your writing space/office!
It is cramped and messy. I write on an old oak desk, there is an office hutch behind me, and oak bookcases to my left – all purchased second-hand from a company that was moving to a new location and wanted “new” stuff. You bought an “office” of furniture, no picking, and choosing, for one set price. Works for me, and it kinda all matches. As I’m working on a book, papers and books pile up all around me and get worse and worse until the manuscript is out of my hands and at the editor, Then I begin the process of getting the office back into a reasonable state.
10–Who is an author you admire?
Grace Burrowes
11–Is there a book that changed your life?
Yes, and it is an odd one. It didn’t change me, but it did change how I wanted to write. The type of emotions I’d like to master. The book is Message from Absalom. It’s an old Cold War romantic suspense book by Anne Armstrong Thompson. The sexual tension is high throughout the book, very high. I was envious of the author’s ability to do that. At the end, the villain is revealed to be the hero who actually saved the heroine while acting as the villain. There is one kiss that occurs at the very end. He is gravely injured. Will he recover, will she see him again?If I read it now would I feel the same way? I don’t know. But it became my aspiration to build out that kind of tension in a book.
12–Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)
Flabbergasted, and excited, couldn’t talk straight.
13–What’s your favorite genre to read?
Historical – 17th and 18th centuries: romance, mystery, and paranormal. I have only written a paranormal Georgian short story, nothing else in that subgenre, but I’d like to.
14–What’s your favorite movie?
An old Rom-Com, “Don’t tell her it’s me” with Shelly Long
15–What is your favorite season?
Spring
16–How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
With a bottle of wine.
17–What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
As an author, I like Becca Syme’s “Quitcast” podcasts. She speaks to the heart of author issues.
18–What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Can you consider seafood a type of cuisine? Or I could call it Florida Gulf Coast cuisine.
19–What do you do when you have free time?
Play computer games, read, walk, and do housework.
20–What can readers expect from you next?
AN ARTFUL LIE, where another member of the extended Nowlton family meets his match. This will be Book 3 in The Art of Love where at least one, if not both the H/h, are in the Arts.
AN ARTFUL COMPROMISE by Holly Newman
The Art of Love #2
Helena Littledean has a secret, a most scandalous painting she bought in discretion and keeps hidden from prying eyes. She’s a young lady after all, and the Adam in her painting isn’t hiding a thing behind his fig leaf. When she finally meets the Earl of Norwalk, her heart catches in her throat. It’s her Adam—the embodiment of her closely held dreams standing before her…Adam Waterbury, the Earl of Norwalk, has been trying to find Adam in the Garden of Eden for over twelve years. The artist, his maternal uncle, promised he’d never sell it, not to Adam or to anyone else. It was his masterpiece, after all. But ultimately, he sold it.A murder visits Helena’s family home, forcing her family to leave, but not before she’s etched onto Adam’s every waking thought. Now they are both haunted by images of the other. And then he discovered it is she who owns THE painting.Now the question is, can Adam destroy the painting without losing Helena? If he helps solve the murder and save the Littledean business, could they come to An Artful Compromise?
Romance Suspense [Oliver-Heber Books, On Sale: November 22, 2022, e-Book, / ]
Buy AN ARTFUL COMPROMISE: Kindle | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Holly Newman
Holly Newman is the pseudonym for Holly Thompson. She lives in Bradenton, FL with her husband Ken and six cats. She became interested in the Regency period while in high school when she volunteered at her local community library to reshelve returned books. Every week there were Georgette Heyer novels to be shelved. Curious, she checked one out and became immersed in the world of the regency. Ten years later she became involved in a regency historical re-creation group complete with the mode of dress, manners, and dancing. It was no wonder that when it came to writing a novel, regencies were high on the list.
No Comments
Comments are closed.