Sky Garden
by Jenny Schwartz
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Romantic Suspense
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
On
the rooftops of London, you can be anyone.
A
year ago, Lanie Briers escaped a serial killer. She grew up in a theatre family
and her act was mediumship, but not anymore. Life, now, is a hidden retreat
above a quirky Bloomsbury museum, where she waits and watches.
Nick
Tawes is an unexpected intrusion. He's a landscape architect filming a
television series on roof gardens, and he intends to build one in Lanie's
aerial territory. He has his own demons, old family troubles, that lure Lanie
out of her refuge and into living again.
But
as summer progresses and the sky garden grows, Lanie's enemy is closing
in--because some secrets must go to the grave.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt Two:
She hadn’t cared for vintage clothes before, but living in
the time capsule of her flat, the temptation to go all-out was irresistible. So
she’d started prowling the street markets for clothes, and especially accessories,
from the 1950s, and snapped up sewing patterns from the era. Then she could
make her own costumes. And they were costumes. A tiny part of her knew that she
was employing a classic distraction ploy: dazzle people with a costume or some
outrageous trick of appearance, and they tended not to notice anything else.
Not the shape of your nose, the line of your jaw, the way you walked. There was
nothing quite so anonymous as an eye-catching costume.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Bio: Jenny Schwartz is a hopeful romantic with a
degree in Sociology and History — people watching and digging into the past.
She lives in Western Australia and is working towards her dream of living by
the sea. Jenny writes romantic suspense, as well as contemporary and paranormal
romance.
“Sky
Garden” will be $0.99 during this tour.
Interview with Jenny Schwartz
As a kid did you write or make up stories?
Absolutely! I was one of those kids with an
imaginary friend. I can’t for the life of me remember his name, but I do
remember running in after being with him and telling my Nana that there was a
wolf in the yard! PS wolves are pretty much non-existent in Australia.
Where does most of your character
inspiration come from?
I wish I knew. Characters just seem to
emerge for me. I start with a name, age, some basic physical description, and
they rush onto the page, jostling me out of the way in their haste to come to
life. I’ve heard that some authors use actors as inspiration, at least, for
appearance, but that doesn’t work for me. Somehow, somewhere, my characters are
just waiting for their chance to star!
Do some qualities of your characters come
from real people?
Not that I’m aware of. Probably they pick
up things from all over, but I don’t consciously note things like a guy’s way
of walking, a woman’s head tilt, a celebrity’s personality.
I like discovering more and more about my
characters as I write. Yes, I’m a bit of a pantster, rather than a detailed
plotter.
What was the inspiration for your book?
A few things came together for Sky Garden. I’m fascinated by how stage
psychics structure their performances, and so emerged the heroine, Lanie, an
ex-medium. Are ghosts real? What haunts us? But Sky Garden isn’t a paranormal romance. There’s a lurking threat in
the real world, and a very challenging hero. I finally got to write a
gardener-hero, although Nick is a bit of a different gardener, being a
landscape architect specialising in roof gardens. I’m interested in urban
landscapes and issues of city living, and that comes through in Sky Garden.
What is your favorite spot to write?
I have a cheap desk that is exactly the
right height in relation to the plain wooden chair I sit on. It’s all arranged
to keep my wrists from getting RSI. I bless my typing teacher (yes, I’m old
enough to have learned typing in high school) for insisting on good practises. Look
after your body and you can keep doing what you love.
What advice would you give budding writers?
Nothing teaches you how to write so well as
actually writing. That said, keep
learning. Read books and blog posts on the writing craft. Keep up to date with
changes in publishing. Talk, whether online or in real life, with fellow
writers. It’ll take a while to sort out what works for you. Everyone has their
own unique approach. Respect your instincts.
Thank you so much for such a great
interview!
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
Jenny Schwartz will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and
Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25
Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn host.
