Saving Saffron Sweeting Guest Post

Synopsis: Grace Palmer's British friends all think she's living the American Dream. But her design business is floundering and when she discovers her husband is cheating with her best client, she panics and flees home to England. 

The tranquil village of Saffron Sweeting appears to be a good place for Grace to lick her wounds, but the community is battling its own changes. Reluctantly, Grace finds herself helping her new neighbours as they struggle to adjust and save their businesses. However, not everyone has the same opinion on what's good for the village. The charismatic new man in her life may have one speculative eye on Grace, but the other is firmly on profit. How will she navigate the tricky path between her home and her happiness? 

With gentle humour and generous helpings of British tea and cake, Saving Saffron Sweeting explores one woman's need to define herself through her career and community, before she can figure out who should be by her side.

Meet the Author:  British by birth, Pauline Wiles moved to California eight years ago and, apart from a yearning for afternoon tea and historic homes, has never looked back. Her work has been published by House of Fifty, Open Exchange and Alfie Dog Fiction. Saving Saffron Sweeting has reached the quarter finals in the Romance category of this year’s Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 

Saving Saffron Sweeting is her first novel. I am so excited to share with you all an interview with Pauline!

Favorite color, food, drink and animal? 
• Purple 
• Anything Italian, especially pasta and cheese, followed by an English treat like a custard tart or sticky toffee pudding. 
• Earl Grey Tea, or any kind of black tea. With milk, of course. 
• I love pelicans, find ducks hilarious, and can’t resist dogs hanging out of car windows. 

What do you enjoy doing in your free time? 
I’m a slow but steady runner. I recently discovered Zumba and love it, although the bits that are supposed to wiggle don’t, and vice versa! I love to browse interior design blogs and décor shops for ideas. My husband wishes I’d just leave the house alone, but that’s not going to happen any time soon. 

When/Why did you start writing? 
I was a compulsive reader as a child and devoured the entire works of Enid Blyton, from Mallory Towers to The Faraway Tree. By the age of ten or eleven, I was eagerly creating my own short stories. But this faded during (high) school years and I didn’t start writing again until I was running my own business and promoting it through blogging and magazine articles. The business didn’t take off, but numerous people told me they enjoyed my writing. What’s more, it came fairly easily to me. I finally paid attention to my childhood passion and began working seriously on Saving Saffron Sweeting about two years ago. 

Where/When do you feel most comfortable writing? 
I wrote most of Saving Saffron Sweeting sitting on the sofa in our living room with my laptop. I’ve now moved to a desk in our home office to stave off a few aches and pains. I’ve never felt the need to go to a coffee shop or library to write, I can just get on with it at home. I’m definitely a morning person: if I can be productive in the first couple of hours, it sets the tone for the whole day. 

Have you ever been inspired by another author? If so, who? 
Many, many authors. Every time I read a great book, I feel like giving up, as I know I’ll never be that good! I love the descriptive style of Joanne Harris and the intelligent entertainment achieved by Marian Keyes. 

Is it hard to let the characters go once you complete a novel? 
A little. I don’t plan to write a sequel to Saving Saffron Sweeting, but I think the next novel will be set in the same village with a bit of character overlap. Some of the minor characters are telling me they have more to say. 

Where does your inspiration for a story come from? 
Either from personal ponderings - what if this happened, what would I do - or often, bizarre news stories. Truth really is stranger than fiction. I often find myself thinking, why on earth did they do that? Or, that if I put that plot in a novel, no-one would believe it. 

Do you have a favorite author?  
I read all Jane Austen’s books in the order she wrote them, and was relieved to find some were much better than others - so she wasn’t a genius all the time. The sharp but subtle humor in Pride and Prejudice is wonderful, and personally, I think the Bennet parents rather stole the show. And, as mentioned above, I’ve read more or less everything by Joanne Harris and Marian Keyes. 

Connect: You can connect with Pauline online, Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook and Pinterest.

Purchase:  You can buy Saving Saffron Sweeting online at Amazon for $10.99 (Kindle version $2.99 - GREAT PRICE!)