Aussie Jill arrives in Edinburgh at Festival time, at the start of a gap year. Unfortunately, her boss at the temporary job she’s taken turns out to be her grumpy neighbour, Andrew, aka Mr Bossy. As the Festival fireworks explode over the city every night, they start to fall in love. Then Jill has to return suddenly to Australia. Can their budding romance survive or will the fireworks fizzle and die?
Q&A
1. Do you always take a book/e-reader wherever you go?
If I’m going away (those were the days!) for sure. A kindle loaded with books if it’s a long trip or the current book I’m reading for overnight. I always read in bed at night – can’t get to sleep otherwise.
2. Say someone asks if they can use your name in a book. Would you rather be the ‘good one’ or the ‘bad one’?
Ooh, the baddie! They’re usually pretty interesting characters and I’d love to see inside the mind of one of them. Not that I could if I was just the ‘name’ but I could use my imagination, I suppose.
3. Where can I find you when you are reading?
All over the place. At the moment I have a downstairs book which I read at mealtimes (not good practice but hey ho!), a bedtime book and an outside book when I’m sitting in the garden in the sunshine. It can be confusing sometimes as to what happened when and with whom, but I try to pick different genres. At the moment for bedtime, I’ve just finished a Helen Fields crime novel set in Edinburgh – pretty scary stuff that I couldn’t put down but which didn’t stop me sleeping. At mealtimes, it’s Stephen Fry’s Mythos, a retelling in his inimitable style of the Greek myths and in the sunshine, it’s the latest Ann Cleeves, The Long Call.
4. Where can I find you when you are not writing/reading?
I’m retired so I can do what I like, when I like. We are often out lunching with other members of the University of the Third Age, taking the bus into Edinburgh to visit the galleries or places of interest or to meet friends, or taking part in the Dementia Friendly activities in our town – I’m a carer for a family member.
5. Can you walk past a bookstore without going inside?
With difficulty. I say to myself that I’ll just have a wee look but always come out laden with books. The assistants seem to know I’m an avid reader and will often sidle up clutching a book they want to recommend and of course, I buy it too.
6. What are you most proud of?
My two sons – despite their mother being totally incompetent, they’ve turned out well. My marriage – we got wed as students with family thoroughly disapproving but we’re still together many, many years later.
7. What goes through your mind when you hold your new book in your hands for the first time?
Pleasure, a mental high five if not a physical one, and relief at it all coming together.
8. What piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Do it. Sit down and write. Get your bottom on that seat and go for it. Writing is like any craft, it takes a lot of practice and effort.
9. Who would you like/have liked to interview?
I once ‘chatted’ to a Booker winner but she was monosyllabic and it was like pulling teeth. Or maybe my interview skills were lacking something. I find any older person
fascinating as they have lived and experienced so much and always have such an interesting life story to tell, usually one that’s surprising as well.
10. When and where do you prefer to write?
I have an ‘office’ in the smallest bedroom, crammed with books and papers and notes which overlooks the garden and that of our neighbour. I hope he’s not too aware of my staring at him through the window as he has his morning cuppa and fag outside. My best time to write is the morning when I’m fresh or at least fresher than later in the day
Thank you, Ann Burnett and Love Books Group
About the author
Ann Burnett has been writing for many years and covers many genres. She wrote Postman Pat stories for a comic for five years, adapted Moomin stories as picture books, and scripted over 100 programmes for BBC children’s TV and radio. She also writes short stories and articles and has even tried poetry and drama!
Her latest writing is a contemporary romance, Festival Fireworks, for Ladybug Publications.
She was once almost sold to a Masai warrior for two cows but was only saved because her husband wouldn’t have been able to get the cows on the plane home!
Author Link
Website and blog: annburnett.co.uk
Book Link
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0839MWYR9/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
B for Bookreview 