🔦🔦SPOTLIGHT ON…GEORGIA HILL🔦🔦

Good morning!! Today I’m excited to welcome another wonderful author onto my blog today- So please give a very warm welcome to Georgia Hill… Well known as Author of The fabulous 🍴☕️🎂🍰 Millie Vanilla’s cupcake cafe series as well as other historical romance titles.. 

Here she gives us a little more into the author behind the titles and an interesting look at her life as a writer…

🙋🏽🙋🏽Hi Georgia, Could you tell us a little bit about yourself in your own words?

I write rom-coms and historical romance. I’ve just moved and now live on the Devon coast in the UK. Another move is imminent – but only over the border to Dorset. I love walking the spaniels on the beach, eating fish and chips by the sea and hunting for fossils. I’m a big Jane Austen fan and am addicted to Strictly Come Dancing!

🤔🤔Tell us three random facts about yourself…

1.I travelled on the Trans-Siberian railway accompanied by a film crew.
2.I once taught road safety to members of the US Navy – in Marble Arch in the middle of London!
3.I used to work in the theatre.

📝📝How would you describe your writing style and was it easy to find your ‘ voice’ when writing?

Ooh, that’s a tricky question. In my rom-coms I think I have a warm, chatty style of writing and have been told my dialogue is a strength. It’s probably because I talk so much! For my historical writing, I love researching patterns of speech to make my characters authentic. For While I Waiting, I did a lot of research into Edwardian slang and language used by World War I soldiers. I love the challenge of changing my natural voice to suit what I’m writing.

📚📖📚Can you name three of your favourite reads and what it was that you loved about them?

Only three? Agh!
1.Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine. This was the book that made me long to write historical, dual narrative fiction. I still love it and reread it every year or so.
2.Atonement by Ian McEwan. It’s quite simply a masterpiece, where the author plays with the reader. I enjoy unreliable narrators.
3.Snap Happy by Fiona Walker. Another book I reread often. I love its evocation of London life and its plus-size heroine!

🤔🙄Where do you find inspiration for your stories and characters?

Anything and everything is the short answer! Inspiration for While I Was Waiting sprang from my great-grandfather. He died in battle in 1916. Then I came across the story of three brothers from Berrington Hall, a National Trust property near where I used to live in Herefordshire. All three died during World War I. I’m fascinated by what happened to the large country houses when all the men went to fight and by the women who were left behind. After writing about the war, I needed a bit of light relief and wanted to write about a small seaside community, so Millie Vanilla was born. I love eccentric characters and really enjoy writing them. Millie gave me plenty of scope!

✍🏻🏜🏡Do you have a favourite place to write?

In the house I’ve just moved from, I had a large study with a fantastic view (a bit too good, it was very distracting). I’ve appropriated the box room in the cottage where I’m temporarily living. It’s tiny but I’ve rigged up a notice board and my working boards with all my notes on. The dining room chair I’m using makes my back ache after a while so I end up working while lying on the bed. It’s where I am now. Apparently I’m in good company. I’ve been told Marian Keyes and Winston Churchill both favoured writing in bed! If I’m at the first draft stage, I can write anywhere and on anything – scraps of paper, the backs of receipts. I love writing on trains for some reason. When it comes to the second and third drafts and the editing process, I have to get serious and work at a desk – preferably without a view!

📅📄📂Are you a careful planner or do you  prefer to start with a loose plot and see where the story takes you?

I ought to be a planner but it doesn’t come naturally. I like to see where the characters lead me. For the more complicated books, I force myself to be a better planner. I’ve recently adopted planning the Bella Osborne way – from the back to the front. I map it out loosely on Post-its, order them and then outline a brief plot in a Word document. I work my way through, ticking off the main events as I write them. Of course, it gets changed along the way but it gets me over being stuck on what to do next if I’m not able to write for a while. Like most people, life insists on getting in the way. In my case, it’s moving house! Writing a dual narrative like my historicals is a whole other ball game …

✒️📝🖊What are your top three tips for aspiring writers

1.Network. Get yourself involved in writing groups on Twitter and Facebook. There’s lots of really good help and advice out there.

2.Get yourself a social media platform. Most publishers will check for this and expect you to be pro-active.

3.Write! The more you write, the better you get at it. And (am I allowed a sneaky fourth?) read widely and often.

🗺💭📕Can you describe your journey from concept to publication?

I’ve always written. Diaries, travel journals, some really bad poetry. Some years ago I joined an online forum where a section was dedicated to members’ writing so I began to post a story, chapter by chapter. Buoyed by its popularity, I went on to do a couple of creative writing classes and joined a wonderful organisation called The Romantic Novelists’ Association. I went through their New Writers’ Scheme and attended their conferences. At one, I went to the Harper Impulse seminar and thought the novellas I was writing at the time might be for them. I submitted the Say it with Sequins books and am still published by Harper Impulse, which is the digital-first imprint of Harper Collins.
What do you love most about writing and what aspect if any do you find more difficult?

I love the first draft. It’s as if I’m telling the story to myself. I love research too. Things get trickier for me when I get to the later drafts and I’m not keen on editing and the revisions.

 

📋📇🗓And finally, are you working on a new project? If so can you tell us anything about it?

After the third Millie novella is finished, I’m back to another historical. It’s set on the coast near Lyme Regis and is about a Victorian woman who yearns to become a fossil expert but is forced into a society marriage. The contemporary part of the novel features a hunky boat-builder and a grieving woman investigating a family tragedy. It hasn’t got a title yet so if anyone out there has a good suggestion, please let me know!

Thanks so much Georgia xxx

You can follow Georgia on Twitter here…https://twitter.com/georgiawrites

check out and purchase her books here..https://www.amazon.co.uk/Georgia-Hill/e/B003VMVXN2/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1493282521&sr=8-2-ent