Book Tour: Follow Me, Follow You.
Author: Laura E. James
PB: Choc Lit Paperback and Digital
Release Date: 7th September 2014
You save
me and I'll save you...
Victoria Noble
has pulled the plug on romance. As director of the number one social networking
site, EweSpeak, and single mother to four-year-old Seth, she wrestles with the
work-life balance.
Enter
Chris Frampton, Hollywood action hero and Victoria's first love. His return
from LA has sparked a powder keg of media attention, and with secrets
threatening to fuel the fire, he's desperate to escape.
But
finding a way forward is never simple. Although his connection with Victoria is
as strong as when he was nineteen, has he been adrift too long to know how to
move on?
With the
risk of them breaking, will either #follow their heart?
Excerpt:
Victoria was attempting to create the
impression she was engrossed in her work. From the moment Dan collected Seth,
she’d buried her head in buff-coloured files, raising it once to study her
monitor. At that moment, she realised Juliette was watching her.
‘I’m all right, Joo,
honestly.’ That was a lie. She was preoccupied with thoughts of Chris Frampton
returning home, considering ways to stop EweSpeak’s Board of Directors from
travelling a destructive path, and despairing over her non-existent
relationship with her son. She grimaced. ‘Apart from the blinding headache.’
She thrust herself away
from the desk and rubbed the back of her neck. Her life was too cluttered for
her to make informed decisions, and too many demands were being made of her,
emotionally and physically. Something had to give. ‘I could do without this
stupid business with the board.’
‘Do you think they’ll go
ahead?’
Victoria huffed. ‘Of
course they will. They’re motivated by money. They’ll do whatever it takes to
keep their bank accounts full and their fat backsides comfortable.’
‘But they have a duty of
loyalty, and their report states the move will secure the future of EweSpeak—’
‘It only secures their
position, Juliette. Let’s face facts. We made bad choices, electing certain
members to the board. We were blinded by their past successes. They’re
cut-throat businessmen with reputations to uphold.’ Victoria swung her chair
round and gaped at her sister. ‘I’ll bet a year’s salary there’ll be
redundancies.’
‘But
if charging clients to join will increase profits—’
Victoria cut her off
again. ‘Did you miss the bit where they proposed paying celebrities for
exclusive bleats? It’s ridiculous. It won’t work. People will opt out. Our
followers enjoy the personal contact, the chance to hold a discussion with
like-minded souls, maybe even exchange a bleat with their idol. If it’s
sensationalism they want, they’ll buy a glossy magazine, or worse, they’ll
flock to our competitors. They won’t subscribe to our network.’ She shook her
head. ‘It has disaster written all over it.’
‘I don’t see it. The
board’s acting in the company’s best interest. We have to make money. And it’s
not just their pockets they’re lining, is it?’ Juliette waved a hand in the
direction of the window. ‘I don’t hear you complaining about the flashy,
two-seater sports car you’ve parked in our private garage.’
Victoria
reached for the remote on her desk, and switched on the TV. ‘I need a break.’
She stood, gave her arms a stretch, and walked across to the sofa, collapsing
into it, irascible and frustrated. Surely Juliette wasn’t voting with the
board? Victoria cast her eyes to the large screen, scoured through the
programme guide, and settled on a news channel.
It
was a mistake.
Wherever
her eyes fell – the TV, online, mobile applications – Chris’s then
thirty-five-year-old haunted face appeared, vacant, pale and broken. There was
no escape from the dated footage of him being jostled out of the way of
bloodthirsty, aggressive photographers or being hustled into his ranch house by
burly security men. Victoria had seen the images thirty, maybe forty times in
the last couple of years. Every piece of technology in her office was
broadcasting his grief all over again, and each time his name was typed,
bleated, or beamed across the Internet, and for every second his tormented
features were on public display, Victoria was on trial. Her technology, the
company, the brand she had developed and grown was helping prolong his terror.
To see this beautiful man reduced to a floorshow for the cheap seats made her
sick to the stomach.
She
jumped at a touch to her arm.
‘Are
you okay?’ Juliette took the remote from Victoria, switched off the TV, and sat
down. ‘I’m sorry I called him your obsession. This must be hard for you.’
Victoria
shrugged. Although she understood Juliette’s concern, she didn’t appreciate
intrusion, and sharing, as her sister called it, was not Victoria’s way.
There’d been far too much of that already. A small shudder ran through her.
‘It’s complicated,’ she said, hoping a few words, regardless of content, would
appease Juliette.
Author Bio:
Laura is married and has two children.
She lives in Dorset, but spent her formative years in Watford, a brief train
ride away from the bright lights of London. Here she indulged her love of live
music, and, following a spectacular Stevie Nicks gig, decided to take up
singing, a passion that scored her second place in a national competition.
Laura is a graduate of the Romantic
Novelists’ Association’s New Writers’ Scheme, a member of her local writing
group, Off The Cuff, and an editor of the popular Romaniacs blog.
Laura was runner-up twice in the Choc Lit
Short Story competitions. Her story Bitter Sweet appears in the Romantic
Novelists’ Association’s Anthology. Truth or Dare?, Laura’s debut novel,
was shortlisted for the Festival of Romantic Fiction Best Romantic eBook 2013
and the 2014 Joan Hessayon New Writers’ Award. Follow me, follow you is
Laura’s first Choc Lit novel published in paperback.
Book Trailer
http://youtu.be/wWrG6tXmsIY
The
Giveaway on this tour will be a paperback copy of the book.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
1Can you tell us what prompted you to first start
writing? What was the first thing you wrote?
I’m not sure I can
pinpoint one specific prompt ‒ it stems from a love of reading, an intense
relationship with music, and an obsession for stationery. I used to create my
own comics, write limericks and poems, which then extended to song lyrics and ultimately
my first novel.
Can you summarise your latest work in just a few
words?
‘Follow Me, Follow You’
is a love story about acceptance, forgiveness, reconnection, recovery and
healing. Learning to live and love again.
What was the inspiration for this book?
Meeting fabulous author,
Carole Matthews in person and assuring her I was not a stalker. As I later
cringed over the way I’d introduced myself, a spark of an idea flickered and ‘Follow
Me, Follow You’ is the result. The finished novel isn’t based on that moment,
but it was the inspiration.
Did you do any research for the book?
Lots of research, but
I’m very lucky to have fabulous, well-informed, expert friends who were able to
take me through some of the issues faced by the characters in the book. I’m a
clarifier. I will not commit until I know for certain I’m heading in the right
direction, so to have such patient and understanding advisors means the world
to me.
What does a typical writing day involve for you?
No day is typical for
me. I have rheumatoid arthritis, which makes every day interesting, and a
family to enjoy. I’m more of a night owl than a lark. My daughter adds, ‘Mum’s
typical writing day involves not eating, but drinking lots of coffee.’
Sometimes, that is the case. But it is decaff …
How do you decide on the names for your
characters?
Kate in my debut novel,
‘Truth or Dare?’ is my nod to one of my major inspirations, Kate Bush, although
it is just the name I borrowed. My character is not based on Kate Bush. Sometimes
I look at the character, and search out names reflecting their traits, on other
occasions I go with what feels right for the book, but I will always check to
ensure the name was around at my character’s birth. In ‘Follow Me, Follow You’,
I researched local surnames and went with those. Chris Frampton had many names
before I finally christened him.
Which writers have influenced your own writing?
Jodi Picoult is my
biggest influence. I love her fearlessness in subject matter. I had the
pleasure of joining her on stage in 2012 and howling like a wolf. Jill Mansell
and Erica James books can make me smile and cry within a turn of the page. I
admire and respect both for the way they write with such emotion.
What are you working on next? Do you have a WIP?
I’m 20,000 words into book
three, ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’. I’m examining the sandwich generation and the
pressures everyone experiences within that set-up, and the choices those
pressures sometimes lead us to make. The central romance is between Griff and
Evie. It’s a first marriage for the hero, but it’s Evie’s second. Griff has
brought his elderly, disabled father to the new family, and Evie has Tess, her
fifteen-year-old, troubled teen. And then there’s baby Dilon …
What has been the best part of the writing
process…and the worst?
I love creating a body
of work out of a small idea, and I particularly enjoy the editing phase, when I
can get rid of all those annoying words that have crept in unnoticed.
The worst part is
knowing these annoying words are lurking, ready to pounce.
Tell us about
your travels.
I didn’t go abroad until
I was thirteen, and went twice that year. We took a motoring trip through
Europe, in an old, burgundy Jag. It had electric windows and pale, leather
seats. We stayed in Berwang, Austria for the best part of the holiday. In
Belgium, I discovered the excellent combo of fries and mayo.
My parents worked in the
Middle East for a number of years, so I’ve visited Bahrain, Dubai and Abu
Dhabi. Incredible places. My husband proposed to me on the coast of the Arabian
Gulf. We honeymooned in Rome and Venice.
Last year I took my
husband and children to Disneyworld. It was a holiday of a lifetime. We would
all go back without hesitation. It was a healing time for us, having lost my
mother the year before. Up until that point, my last holiday had been my
honeymoon in 1996.
Tell us about
your childhood.
I was very close to my
mother. She was a strong woman and an excellent role model. We moved house
often, and lived in many different places. I found making friends easy as a
consequence. I have an older brother who taught me Subbuteo, bought me my first
Kate Bush album, and was always there with a giant gobstopper in times of upset
and tears. He still sends me the gobstoppers.
Most writers
have some quirks – what are yours?
I write in silence. If I
resort to writing with a pen and pad, the mood of the piece dictates which
colour I write in. Currently I’m favouring black and blue, having gone through
a purple phase.
Do you plot
your novels or allow them to develop as you write?
I start with good
intentions of sticking to a plot, but mostly I have a beginning and I have the
end ‒ often the exact words ‒ and I work things out as I go along. It’s
exciting. It’s like reading a book for the first time.
Have you
taken any creative writing courses and would you recommend them?
I’m incredibly lucky to
have graduated through the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme,
which provided me with access to wonderful writers. Not only were my manuscripts
critiqued each year, I attended courses and workshops run by writers, who I met
through the RNA, for whom I have a huge amount of respect.
Based on my experience,
I whole-heartedly recommend attending courses, but they have to be right for
that person.
1What book(s)
are you reading at the moment?
I have the lovely Rowan
Coleman’s ‘The Memory Book’ lined up and ready to go, in hardback, and on my
Kindle, I’ve started ‘The Isle of Larus’, written by Kathy Sharp, a fellow
Dorset writer.
1If you were
stranded on a desert island and could only take three books with you, what
would they be and why?
The Folk of the Faraway
Tree, Enid Blyton ‒ a children’s classic that has stayed with me since the day
I first picked it up.
Dracula, Bram Stoker ‒ I
was so taken with the rhythm of a particular passage about a patient, I took to
writing poems.
A notebook – so I can
empty my head onto a clean page.
Do you have
any advice for new writers?
I do, but it’s not
original. It’s the advice I received at the start of my writing journey and I
still abide by it: Read, read, read and write, write, write. And never give up.
Ever.
Thank you so much for
inviting me to your blog.
Laura.
