A chat with writer Michelle Gorman!!!

A bit about Michele (via her website, it is super fun and yummy...check it out HERE)....

"I write funny romantic fiction, made for stuffing into suitcases and covering with sunscreeny fingerprints.

Here you’ll find a bit about the books, exciting news about upcoming launches, and occasional witterings (sorry about that). 

If you’d like to keep more up-to-date, I’m usually procrastinating on Twitter and Facebook, so do stop by. And if you have any questions or feedback I’d love to hear from you by email too." 

Bella's career and relationship are her life's foundation wear: not glamorous and perhaps a bit binding, but supportive enough... until she realizes that they are not enough. Her life is sagging badly. She's never been in love with her boyfriend, despite a decade together. And somehow she stopped being a musician-with-a-day-job and became a consultant-who-was-musical. So she takes a terrifying leap of faith, leaving her relationship and resolving to follow her musical dreams no matter what.

Unfortunately, the life you walk away from doesn't always let you walk away.

With a wonderfully warm and witty cast of friends, all navigating between their ideals and the realities they face, together they'll find out what love and compromise really mean in this empowering tale about grasping life with both hands.

*Read my review for Bella Summer Takes a Chance HERE

 The Twelve Days of Christmas

"What if his proposal had an expiration date?"

Hannah’s in a bit of a pickle. In twelve days she flies from Hong Kong to the US with Sam, where he’s finally going to meet her parents… and ask to marry her.
Since overcoming a rather rocky patch in their relationship (which was totally his fault), he really is a new man, and they’re completely in love. The problem is, she feels panicky every time she contemplates matrimony. Which is perfectly normal, isn’t it? Isn’t it?! She has no idea but she’s got to find out before he pops the question... because she’s not 100% sure she’s going to say yes. Which will make for a very uncomfortable family holiday. He’s got to ask her before they go. So Operation Proposal begins. 
As time ticks down to their flight, Hannah realizes that her own secrets are threatening their future. Before she can be happy with Sam, she’s got a lot to learn about herself in the twelve days to Christmas.

Misfortune Cookie

Would you move 6,000 miles to be with the love of your life?

Hannah did. Unfortunately her plan isn't going terribly well. What was supposed to be a move to Hong Kong to start a wonderful new life with Sam is turning into a move to Hong Kong to spend occasional weekends with Sam, when he can get away from an unanticipated work assignment on the opposite side of the South China Sea. Still, she's optimistic, if woefully unprepared for the intricacies of Hong Kong. Stumbling through the alien city, which she loves, she starts to build a life for herself. Things definitely look up when she finds a great boss to work for, and her best friend Stacy moves to the city too. But alarm bells ring as Sam seems to be getting a bit too cozy with his boss. And when things start going wrong at work, Hannah can't help but wonder if she's made the biggest mistake of her life.

Single in the City

Take one twenty six year old American, add to a two thousand year old city, add a big dose of culture clash and stir.

To think Hannah ever believed that Americans differed from Brits mainly in pronunciation, sophistication and dentistry. That’s been the understatement of a lifetime. She lands upon England’s gentle shores with no job, no friends and no idea how she’s supposed to build the life she’s dreaming of. Armed with little more than her enthusiasm, she charges headlong into London, baffling the locals in her pursuit of a new life, new love and sense of herself.

Q.  What inspires your writing?

A.  I should point out right up front that while I’ve only been a writer for about 15 years, I’ve been a monumental stretcher of truth since childhood (so say my parents anyway). So the things that inspire my writing are almost always people and situations that are funny, or weird, which grow to epic proportions in my imagination. Before I took to the pen, these embellishments found their way into my retelling, which, as you can imagine, gave me a bit of a reputation as a fibber. Now my readers are (hopefully) entertained by the humorous situations in which my quirky characters often find themselves.

Q.  What is your favorite thing about being an author?

A.  See 1. Above J. I also love starting a new book. It’s wonderful to know you’re going to get to spend months with the characters you create, and see where they take the story.

And the opportunity to take daily naps isn’t bad either.

Q.  What is the toughest part of being an author?

A.  Probably knowing, at the end of the book process, that it’s not quite as good as I imagined. There are certainly sentences and paragraphs where I know I’ve absolutely nailed it (generally when I make myself cry when rereading – I’m a sap), but it’s impossible to write a book that is as good as it is in your head.

Q.  If you could not be author, what would you do/be?

A. That’s easy – I’d join the circus. I’ve long thought that there are certain important life skills that are often overlooked. These include walking on stilts, juggling and being able to whistle through my fingers to hail a cab. I did practice whistling several years ago on my walk to work (through a park rather than where there were lots of people), but I found that I made myself dizzy, what with all the whistling and walking. So I never mastered it.

Q.  What would the story of your life be entitled?

A.  The Unsinkable Michele Gorman

Q.  What is your favorite book of all time?

A.  That’s a toss-up between To Kill a Mockingbird and The World According to Garp.

Q.  Which character from ANY book are you most like?

A.  I’ve puzzled over this question for a couple of days and really want to have a glamorous answer for you. But I have to say, I think the honest answer is Winnie the Pooh (possibly with a few more brain cells).

Q.  What character from all of your book are you most like?

A. Hmm, that’s a tough one. I’m definitely clumsy like Hannah in the Single in the City series but am less ditzy, so am probably more like Bella in Bella Summer Takes a Chance. I was lucky to be born with an extra optimism gene, which has worked for me so far.

Q.  What book would you want to take a weekend vacation inside of?

A. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg. I’d be thrilled to spend a weekend with such fabulous women, and I love the southern United States. I even set a book in Savannah, written under my pen name, Jamie Scott.

Q.  What is your favorite season?

A. Autumn. I think it goes back to growing up in rural Massachusetts. I was (am?) a geek, and always got excited about a new school year, the chance to see old friends and meet new ones.

Q.  What inspired your book cover(s)? 

A. The Single in the City series is all about a young woman’s fish-out-of-water experiences when she moves first to London, and then Hong Kong. So we wanted the covers to invoke both the location and her uncertainty (even though she’s the kind of girl who jumps in with both feet, things don’t always work out as planned). I think the cover designer (Nellie Ryan) did an amazing job creating beautiful skyline scenes with an out-of-her-depth illustration of Hannah in the foreground.

We took a different approach with Bella Summer Takes a Chance. Since it’s “grown up chick lit”, we wanted a sleeker cover that still conveyed the fun and humour of the story. I absolutely love the illustrator’s street scenes, and the scale (big wide world with little people).

Q.  Tell me something funny that happened while on a book tour or while promoting your book.

A. How about if I tell you something funny that happened in the course of researching Bella?

Since my writing background is in historical fiction (under Jamie Scott), I’m a stickler for detail. So, when I decided that Bella would embark on a rather adventurous evening, getting kissed by a girl, I knew I needed to do some research (Don’t worry, this is a rated PG answer, as is the scene I wrote!) I enlisted the help of my good friend Jonathan, who was in a position to describe the differences first-hand. We went to lunch at a rather stuffy restaurant in Central London, where he gleefully regaled me with stories from both sides of the fence… to the horror of the elderly clientele sitting near us. I was mortified, but needed the info (and was enjoying our lunch immensely). I’d like to think that some of the old ladies secretly enjoyed the stories.

Q.  Are you working on something new?

A.  I’ve got a few ideas, and one that I’m really excited about (it’s Killing me not to be able to share it yet!), so I’m meeting with my agent and favourite commissioning editor in a few weeks to chat through some potential storylines. Once we decide on the story I’ll be writing like a fiend for the next few months.

Other than that, I’ll write another Christmas novella this year, and I’ve just finished a short story for a wonderful chick lit anthology called Sunlounger, due out July 1^st (http://madeleinemilburn.co.uk/tag/sunlounger-competition/) I may also write another upmarket commercial fiction under my Jamie Scott pen name.

Q.  Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?

A. I wonder if readers realise just how much their messages on social media and through emails mean to authors? We positively beam whenever we hear from a reader, so please do get in touch. And it’s touching beyond belief when a reader takes the time to write a review when they’ve enjoyed a book. Every time you do, an author gets a cupcake of happiness!

Thanks so much Emily, for hosting me today on your blog. Lovely blog fans, if you’ve got any questions, please do ask! And if you’re social media-minded, jump over to twitter (www.twitter.com/@expatdiaries) and facebook (www.facebook.com/MicheleGormanBooks) to say hello.