Thanks so much, Emma, for having me on!

The hero in my new book, New Beginnings at Christmas Tree Cottage, is a glass artist. A portable skill was a necessity so he could up and leave London and relocate in the sunny Dorset town of Lullbury Bay and begin his new life.

First, I had to do the research!

There are lots of videos on YouTube for research into making glass art and they are useful but nothing beats doing the thing for gathering research on smells, textures and the total experience of what you’re trying to write about. When I saw a light catcher making workshop advertised, I booked a last-minute space. My hero makes stained glass panels but, for various reasons, he’s been making smaller items like the ones I would learn how to create on the course.

We began practising cutting glass, beginning with straight shapes. The pen-like tool is a glass cutter with a diamond nib and an oil reservoir. Choosing a shape, we used templates. Sue, the tutor, explained the greater the accuracy at each stage, the better the end result.

Once the glass is scored, it’s snapped using grozing pliers. This was immensely and surprisingly satisfying and the group decided it was because we’re always told not to break glass as it’s a) unlucky and b) dangerous. Speaking of health and safety, we wore visors whenever cutting the glass as the shards can end up everywhere.

We moved onto to curved shapes – much harder! I kept forgetting to cut in a straight line and tried to follow the line of the shape. Once the rough curved shape is cut it can be sanded using a sanding sheet or, better still, using the grinder. The grinder has water which absorbs any particles flying about. I loved using it as I could feel the shape becoming smoother and less ‘nubbly.’

The next step is to use the Tiffany copper foil method. Invented by Mr Tiffany to use when making his lamps, this is where the shape will begin to bind together as a finished form. Copper foil is stuck around every edge and the pieces are placed together in the way you want.

Flux is dabbed on the corners and solder is applied to the same place. More flux is painted over the copper foil joins and more solder is spread to fix the shapes together. I really enjoyed the soldering, so much so I was told I was a little heavy-handed!

All that’s needed then is to attach a hanging loop which is soldered on. We made practice pieces to work our way through the entire process and I had a go at an angel. Don’t look too closely! She’ll go on the tree this Christmas.

In the afternoon we moved onto to making another item and I chose some beach huts. I’d seen them in Sue’s online shop and loved their look.

After a clean and a polish, here are the final results. I had to have some help from ‘Miss’ when putting the beach hut components together as I hadn’t cut them accurately enough and there were gaps. Back to the grinder to create that perfect fit. I also lost track of which piece was going where and ended up with a blue hut and roof when it should have been red. Ah, the best laid plans. Remember having to pay attention to the details?

The basic techniques aren’t too tricky but you have to be dextrous and have good hand strength. You also have to have great attention to detail and take your time. It’s not something which can be rushed. My downfall! To make anything as lovely as the stuff Sue (and my hero Jago) produces takes hours of practice.
Love,
Georgia x

About the book:
The little town of Lullbury Bay goes all out for Christmas and teacher Honor Martin loves it. After a bad break up she’s settled into the simple pleasures of seaside life and Christmas is the high point of her year. Glass artist Jago Pengethley, however, doesn’t share her enthusiasm. A new arrival in town, he’s here with his mother and sister to start anew after a devastating family tragedy. He doesn’t want to celebrate Christmas ever again. But, to help his sister replace bad memories with good ones, he accompanies her to all the various wild and wacky festivities Lullbury Bay offers. They keep bumping into Honor and, as Jago gets to know her better, might she be the one to teach him how to love Christmas again?

About the author:
Georgia Hill writes warm-hearted and up-lifting contemporary and dual narrative romances about love, the power and joy in being an eccentric oldie and finding yourself and your community. There’s always a dog. It’s usually a naughty spaniel of which, unfortunately, she has had much experience. She lives near the sea with her beloved dogs and husband (also beloved) and loves the books of Jane Austen, collecting elephants, and Strictly Come Dancing. She’s also a complete museum geek and finds inspiration for her books in the folklore and history of the many places in which she’s lived. She’s worked in the theatre, for a charity and as a teacher and educational consultant before finally acknowledging that making things up was what she really wanted to do. She’s been happily creating believable heroines, intriguing men, and page-turning stories ever since.

You can find her here:
Twitter/X @georgiawrites
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/georgiahill
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/georgiahill5681
Website www.georgiahill.co.uk
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/georgiawrites
Buying links for New Beginnings at Christmas Tree Cottage:
https://geni.us/ChristmasTreeCottage
https://mybook.to/Lullbury1

My new contract is for four romances, including my previously published book, Her Sister’s Baby. The book I wrote during my first NaNoWriMo last November, Centre Stage, has also been signed, as well as two Christmas romances!

For more details, check out this video over on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/dgHDVa38NX4

I’m so thrilled to be able to continue working with such an incredible publishing team!

‘Polly Pressman is a London girl through and through. So when she’s asked to help save an old family friend’s struggling farm, she’s way out of her depth.

She arrives at Nightingale Farm trying to impress John and his gruff-but-hunky son Mark with her business know-how. But it’s clear from her sky-high stilettos that she is woefully unprepared.

Polly knows how much the farm means to John, and she’s doing everything she can to get it back on its feet. Soon people are flocking to visit the petting zoo and cute coffee shop and go strawberry picking.

Finally Mark sees that Polly truly cares about Nightingale Farm. And one night after too much of John’s homemade cider, the pair find themselves alone and unable to deny their attraction . . .

Romance is blossoming at Nightingale Farm. Will Polly trust her instincts and leave behind the big city for good?’

I’ve been having a lovely day with a gorgeous card and present from all my boys, a beautiful dog walk in the sunshine, and an enjoyable live stream with the fantastic Genevieve from the YouTube channel My Complicated Life: https://www.youtube.com/@mycomplicatedlife2488/featured

I put a call out for questions a couple of days ago on my social media channel and I had some great ones (and one absolute stinker!). You can watch the replay here: https://youtu.be/1bbVp_vqlf4

There’s also been a fair amount of sharing on social media and vlogging for a new YouTube video involved, but once I finish writing this blog post and I’ve sent off my newsletter, I am done with work for today and date night commences!

For anyone who doesn’t know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It takes place in November every year. Writers can set their own challenges for the month, but traditionally they attempt to write 50,000 words of a new project in 30 days.

It was definitely strange to sit down this morning and finally begin writing the book I’ve been plotting away at, and typing the first sentence felt quite momentous! I was thrilled to get down 2,691 words today! I was aiming for 2,000 because I didn’t want to push myself too hard on the first day, but the writing was flowing really well. I’m already looking forward to tomorrow, and I love my new heroine, a ballet dancer called Jessica.

You can follow along with my NaNo journey on my YouTube channel, where I will have a dedicated NaNoWriMo playlist: https://www.youtube.com/c/EmmaBennetRomanceAuthor Pop over and say hi and let me know how your projects are coming along!

I can also be found on the NaNoWriMO website under Emma Bennet and I’d love to have some more friends over there!

x

This is because it only takes about 2 minutes to write before I go to bed. I just jot down 3 things that I’m grateful for that day, some people do more or less. Sometimes they’re big things, like having a husband I love or having a nice house, other times it’s smaller things like a cup of coffee I really enjoyed, or that the rain stopped so I didn’t get soaked when I walked my dogs. It doesn’t matter how big the things you’re grateful for are, the point is that you appreciate them.

The gratitudes don’t need to be detailed at all, I literally write three sentences a day. Some people write more. Some people like to have a new gratitude journal each year, but I just use mine until it fills up.

It’s best to write your gratitudes either in first thing in the morning, or last thing at night. I do it at night because I like to think back over the day. It’s so vital to remind yourself that it doesn’t matter how small your gratitudes are. We all have bad days, sometimes terrible days, and sometimes it can be hard to step outside of the upset and find something good. On the day my dad passed away I was grateful for my dog because I needed quiet and took him for a long walk while I processed what had happened.

It’s also really important not to just be grateful for the same things all the time, search your mind for different good things, particularly pertaining to that particular day.

I don’t tend to look back over my gratitudes, it’s more of an in-the-moment kind of thing.

You can buy some absolutely beautiful notebooks specially designed to be for gratitudes, but I just use a pretty notebook that a friend got me because as Marie Kondo would say, it brings me joy.

Regular journaling has been scientifically proven to improve well-being, but it’s making the point of writing down what we’re grateful for that is particularly powerful. Benefits shown to be associated with gratitude journaling include better sleep, improved self-esteem, increased happiness, decreased stress and increased positivity. Because you’re choosing to see what’s good about your life, you’re choosing positivity over negativity, and so giving less power to negative emotions. Writing the positives down makes them more concrete. You sleep better because you’re thinking positive thoughts rather than worrying and your self-esteem improves because you’re recognising your achievements and being present with them.

And all this for just 3 minutes a day!

1: Borrow books from the library – every time you borrow a book from a library the author of that book gets a tiny amount paid to them. In the UK, this comes from the ALCS which stands for the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Authority. If your local library doesn’t carry your favourite author’s books then request that they order them in. Librarians love to know what readers want and will usually do their best to get copies of requested books, especially if the author happens to be local to the library.

2: Recommend one of your favourite author’s books to your local book group – if the author is local, you might even be able to convince them to come along to the meeting! A book group gets people talking about the author as well as guaranteeing sales or library loans when the members need to get hold of their copies.

3: Share the author’s social media posts if they post something you think your own followers would enjoy or benefit from.

4: Sign up for the author’s newsletter – this is completely free and means you keep up to date with their new releases and any events they might be doing. Sometimes extra chapters are given to subscribers for free, and there are usually special offers and competitions to take advantage of. Details of my own newsletter can be found on my website at: https://www.emma-bennet.co.uk/keep-in-touch

5: Post reviews on Amazon! These reviews make a huge difference to whether or not Amazon recommends books to shoppers and how they are seen in the search results. You can also leave reviews on Goodreads, or on your own social media (make sure you tag the author if you do!).

See? Super simple, and completely free, but if you do even one of these things for your favourite author, it can really help them out!

To watch the YouTube video related to this post, go to my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKJKt8kmDXrWQAGkTV1VHMQ

It can also be called a back cover blurb or a book description. It’s a short description of the book’s main character and conflict and is usually between 100 and 200 words long. It’s usually found on the back of a book or the inside cover.

The blurb is the second thing, the first being the front cover, that a reader will look at before deciding whether or not to buy your book. The cover catches the reader’s attention, the blurb is what sells the book.

If you’re a self-published author, you’ll most probably write your own blurb, and I know a lot of smaller publishers in particular will ask for the author’s input when they’re putting together the blurb, or might even request they write it themselves.

Here’s an example of one of my own blurbs. It’s from my contemporary romance, Starstruck:

‘When newly divorced Kate finds school friend, now super famous rock star Joseph Wild, on her doorstep, her whole quiet, ordinary life is thrown into disarray.

Joseph has broken up with glamorous actress Genevieve Moore, and needs somewhere to retreat to until the paparazzi interest in his marriage calms down. Kate agrees to help him out and drawn to his simple, self-effacing charm, soon finds herself falling in love.

But can she cope with the problems a relationship with such a high profile celebrity brings? What happens when he jets back to his regular life of stardom in L.A.?

And how will Genevieve react when she finds out Joseph has moved on? She can’t possibly allow anything to sully her ever-so-carefully crafted public image.

Falling in love with a rock star is tougher than you’d think…’

I think it gives a really clear idea of the story’s genre and what it’s about, and the use of questions draws the reader in and makes them feel involved.

Remember, the blurb should intrigue readers into wanting to read your book, it should leave them wanting more, and it should fit with the story’s genre. A good blurb provides a short summary, but it doesn’t give anything away. 

My video on this topic can be found on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKJKt8kmDXrWQAGkTV1VHMQ

If you’ve never heard of a synopsis, it’s a brief summary or general survey of something. As a writer talking about writing, the type of synopsis I’m referencing here is a synopsis of a book manuscript, which is basically an outline of what happens in your book. 

Publishers and agents may ask you to send them a synopsis, often along with the first chapter or first 3 chapters of your manuscript, so that they can get a feel for your work and quickly decide if they’d like to read your whole manuscript. It can also be requested before you’ve actually written the manuscript by an agent or publisher you’re working with so they can tell if your story’s on the right track before you go ahead and write 40,000 words of a book which doesn’t fit what they’re looking for.

Authors, including myself, can spend hours, even days, tearing their hair out about writing a synopsis, but hopefully these tips will make the whole process at least a little bit easier.

1: Your synopsis should not only tell the reader what happens in your book, but also make them want to read it, for this reason it must be well-written and not just a list of bullet points. It must showcase your ‘author voice’ meaning it must read like your writing. It must show the story’s full progression or ‘narrative arc’ and it must include the ending. 

2: Keep your synopsis to the correct length. This is usually 1-2 single spaced pages, or 2-5 double-spaced pages. Some authors recommend keeping it to about 500 words. Individual publishers and agents may specify how long they want a synopsis to be, make sure you send them what they want.

3: Your synopsis should be written in third person, present tense, regardless of the tense or point of view of your actual book. This helps the story to be told smoothly. 

Right now, it’s time to actually write the stupid thing…

4: Start at the beginning and when you get to the end stop. Start typing what happens in your manuscript from beginning to end. This does not have to be beautiful prose, just spew it out and make sure you keep events in chronological order.

5: Now, go back through what you’ve written and emphasise the important plot points, such as the inciting incident which sparks the conflict in your story, the climax and the resolution. Emphasise any plot twists – readers love a good plot twist.

6: Next, add character motivations at the beginning and end of the synopsis. Why did the character decide to do what they did at the inciting incident? Maybe your heroine has been looking for her long lost brother for years and the reason she gets on a plane to Venice is because she sees a man she believes to be him boarding it. That’s her motivation. The end of your manuscript should resolve this motivation: maybe the man boarding the plane wasn’t her brother but he helps her find him and they fall in love along the way. (That’s not actually a terrible story idea, I should be making notes on this).

7: If your book is told in the first person, say at the beginning of the synopsis who this is, e.g: The book is told from the point of view of a… whoever it is.

8: Make sure your storyline is clear and to the point – now is not the time to be vague and intriguing.

9: Edit out any excess words to get it down to the right length – take out any information and details that aren’t necessary. Check for word repetition! Look and just are my two overused words, I bet you’ve got a few.

10: Read your synopsis out loud to yourself. This is the best way to be able to see if your writing flows. It should read like a good book review – one of a book you’d really want to read.

Ta-da, that’s it! With any luck you now have a fantastic synopsis to send off to interested publishers and agents. I’d love to know of any which result in a contract!

x

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For more information about Val and her books, check out her website or find her on social media:

But in the meantime, I am also working on a literary novel. So no pressure!

For more information about Maria and her books, follow her on social media:

https://geni.us/KdWrm