Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
I hadn’t thought 2021 would have been a harder beginning than 2020, until of course I actually lived through the first bits of the year and noticed how much harder it has felt to see 2021 gain traction and footing in my life. For whichever reason, between the events of January and the turning tides of February, I’ve been reading less, blogging sporadically and tweeting every blue moon – compared to my regular habits across my blog and social feeds. In regards to reading – part of the slowdown has been due to multiple injuries which make it hard to hold a book or type to get the words onto my blog or social feeds as well.
This past weekend and Monday in particular were difficult as well – wherein if you were looking forward to seeing my review for the third novel in Edale Lane’s trilogy – kindly stay patient with me, as I’m still composing my thoughts upon it. I had to pull it yesterday due to a personal emergency and we took a family day to recover from it. I was hoping after January, February would be a bit kinder on us as a family but it has proved to be a hard-won kind of month where there is a bit more adversity but a lot of hope and promise for changing tides as well. Sometimes life is like that – you have to take the bitter with the sweet and find your way forward after the storms dissipate.
Whilst I am finding my way back inside books and sorting out my blog’s schedule – this lovely Q&A focuses on the characters and heart of “Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace”. A bit of a kind reprieve for me to highlight a story which feels like it would be a good lift of spirit – which is why I am thankful to spotlight it on the blog tour as a Digital First release and look forward to seeing if an audiobook edition makes it way to Scribd as has “Starting Over at Acorn Cottage” has ahead of it. This marks my second novel I’ve been able to spotlight for this author and I hope this year is the year I can start to listen to her stories.
Enjoy this extract from ‘Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace’:
Tressa was grateful for her job because it allowed her to paint. She was an artist, a properly trained one at that, her mother would tell you if you asked, having gone to art school in Plymouth. Tressa sold her paintings and prints of the Cornish sea from a website under the pseudonym The Cornish Mermaid; the sales topped up her income to pay for living expenses and canvas and everything else was cream.
Her mother Wendy said that Tressa was the oldest twenty-six-year-old in the UK. She spent her money on not much else besides her art. All her friends were still drinking and dancing all night but Tressa was a loner, not so much by choice as by circumstance. She was shy and she had struggled to stay in contact with friends from school or university, all of whom seemed to be getting engaged or married now. A few of them even had babies. She sent little paintings off to her friends, celebrating their news, and drew cards for the babies and posted them to faraway places but no one wanted to come to Port Lowdy and stay at Mermaid Terrace. If Tressa ever pulled an all-nighter it was in front of her easel waiting for the moon to slide behind the clouds when it was the sun’s turn to take over.
‘How will you ever meet someone?’ her mother asked. ‘You’ll never find anyone there. Come on home and find love. We will buy you a place, and you can rent out your house there and come back to it later on.’ Wendy kept trying to coax her daughter to return to St Ives but Tressa didn’t believe in finding love. Love wasn’t lost, so why should she go looking for it? It would come if it was ready and if love never found her, she had her cat and her art and that was enough, she told herself. There was no one in Port Lowdy worth swinging hands with. She knew nearly everyone in the village and there were no eligible men under the age of sixty. Older men had never been her thing.
There was another artist she’d had a thing with for a while, who she used to see in St Ives, but it wasn’t serious and they both knew it. She didn’t want to live there and he didn’t want to come to Port Lowdy. It was unspoken that their connection was merely physical and a mutual appreciation of art and nothing more. He was nice enough but not enough to want more from him.
The sound of her boss, George, talking on the phone welcomed Tressa to another day at work, as she put her bike into the storage room and then went into the kitchen to make them both a cup of tea. Her job at The Port Lowdy Occurrence had been a happy accident after his wife Caro left work to be more involved in with their grandchildren. It wasn’t full time but it gave her enough time to paint and stare out the attic window from her terrace house at the ever-changing colour of the sea.
‘Can I see you, Tressie?’
‘Sure,’ said Tressa. ‘Want your tea?’
‘Yes and bring the digestive biscuits,’ George said sombrely.
A morning digestive meant George was trying to solve a serious problem.
Tressa took the mugs to his desk and sat down facing him, the biscuits tucked under her arm, and she placed them between them.
I love how this story isn’t taking a traditional trajectory of her life – wherein she is living against what society expects and even what her Mum wants for her as well. She’s listening to her heart and she has an independent mind about love and life and the course of tides we all travel through during different seasons. I immediately felt connected to Tressa and look forward to learning more about her when/if this becomes either an audiobook or print release!
Be sure to brew your favourite cuppa and enjoy this delightful convo!
Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace
Subtitle: Love comes when you least expect it...
by Kate Forster
Love comes when you least expect it...
Tressa Buckland likes her quiet life in Port Lowdy, with its cobbled streets and colourful terraced houses overlooking the sea. Her job at the local paper allows her to pursue her art in her free time, with no one but her tabby cat Ginger Pickles to mind her in Mermaid Terrace. But then the owner of the paper is called away on an emergency, and it's up to Tressa to run the paper for six months. Her first task: find a new part-time journalist.
Dan Byrne is the angriest man in Ireland – or so the readers of his very successful column, 'Dan takes on the world', think. But after a story goes south and he loses his job in Dublin, Dan has no choice but to start afresh. When an opportunity comes up in sleepy Cornwall, Dan and his Golden Retriever Ritchie set off for a new adventure.
For Tressa, Dan's arrival to Port Lowdy changes everything. Tressa tries not to look too deeply at her own life, but Dan sees a story to uncover in absolutely everyone – even her. The two of them couldn't be more different... yet, if they can find a way to work together, they may just breathe new life and joy into this sleepy seaside village.
Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace is a heartwarming new village romance about the power of love and kindness, from the bestselling author of Starting Over at Acorn Cottage.
Places to find the book:
ASIN: B087JXNXQK
Also by this author: Starting Over At Acorn Cottage
Published by Aria Fiction
on 4th February, 2021
The stories I’ve hosted by this author:
[ quite happily one of these is now available on Scribd! ]
Starting Over at Acorn Cottage (on audiobook!) *see also this Post
Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace ← I hope is forthcoming to Scribd!
Published By: Aria Fiction (@Aria_Fiction)
a Digital First imprint of Head of Zeus (@HoZ_Books)
This is a Digital First Release!
Converse via: #FindingLoveAtMermaidTerrace, #WomensFiction and #HeadOfZeus
I have to ask: how did you come up with the name Ginger Pickles for the cat in “Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace”? And, what kind of personality did you want the cat to have as I have loved tabbys myself IRL. (currently mine is 16 years)
Forster responds: As a child I loved the book, The Tale of Ginger and Pickles by Beatrix Potter about the tabby cat and the terrier who open a shop with disastrous outcomes. I also think pickled ginger is delicious on sushi, so I reversed and combined the words and the cat was named!
In my book, Ginger Pickles is very haughty and manipulative, but she loves Tress and protects her for the most part. She is a bit like Tressa’s mother in many ways. Rude, judgmental but means well.
I love how Dan’s life is taking a proper life shift away from where he thought he might head – how important is it to show a bloke is willing to take a risk on changing his life as much as a woman? As usually these kinds of Romances focus on the women moreso than the men.
Forster responds: I think men have rich inner narratives like women and for Dan he had a lot of inner work to do. Home can be a person more than a place and Dan found his home with Tressa. They could live on the moon and if he was with her, he would be happy. I do write the perspective of male and female characters in my books because I think we need to know the whole story and then we can see if they are being unfair or need to do some more work on themselves. Dan and Tressa inspire each other but they also spark friction and are quick to jump to conclusions. We need to know why this is and then we can see them work it out and be better partners and people.
The interesting bit is how opposite they are in personality and in opinion which of course is good fodder for a romance to develop – how much fun was it placing them at odds and then knitting a relationship for them together? What was your favourite scene for them?
Forster responds: I think the best people in our life are those who ask more of us because they know we are and can do better. Tressa asks Dan to be a accountable and he in turn asks her to step into her power. I loved putting them at odds because then we see where the challenges are and how they create their energy as a couple. Their attraction and connection is evident but conflicted as they think they are so different they can’t overcome their differences.
I love the scene when they find the little kitten on the road. They see the best in each other, and it is evident they are very attracted to each other. The gentleness and kindness is what they both need and they begin to see they can get it from each other
I love how you have both cats and dogs in this Romance; I must know ahead of reading this lovely – was it sparks of joy or chaos when Ritchie first met Ginger Pickles? And, did you base both of them off composites from real life? If so what was your favourite memory of their real life selves?
Forster responds: I think Ginger Pickles knows that Dan and Tressa are meant to be together. The cat is trying to tell her when Dan and Tressa first talk on the phone and Ginger Pickles keeps clawing her leg. Ginger puts up with Ritchie because he is part of the deal with Dan but Ginger teases the dog the way cats can only do. It’s fun and Ritchie is joyful but not the smartest dog in the world and Ginger Pickles definitely takes advantage of that.
I love small towne fiction – what did you enjoy the most about etching out the community within Port Lowdy? And, what do you love about writing romances set in small villages?
Forster responds: I think the world is chaotic right now and the idea of heading to a smaller part of it with everything we need is what people want and need. Less complication, less rushing and public transport and crowded shops. We want to slow down and focus on what matters. Love matters more than anything. Being able to sip coffee or tea with your love looking out onto a beach or a beautiful view of the land seems like perfection right now. So I write about that because I want it and I want others to have it too.
Thank you for such a wonderful convo, Ms Forster!
About Kate Forster
Kate Forster lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, two children and dogs and can be found nursing a laptop, surrounded by magazines and talking on the phone, usually all at once. She is an avid follower of fashion, fame and all things pop culture and is also an excellent dinner party guest who always brings gossip and champagne.
Follow this Blog Tour:
NOTE: Similar to blog tours wherein I feature book reviews, book spotlights (with or without extracts), book announcements (or Cover Reveals) – I may elect to feature an author, editor, narrator, publisher or other creative person connected to the book, audiobook, Indie film project or otherwise creative publishing medium being featured wherein the supplemental content on my blog is never compensated monetarily nor am I ever obligated to feature this kind of content. I provide (98.5%) of all questions and guest topics regularly featured on Jorie Loves A Story. I receive direct responses back to those enquiries by publicists, literary agents, authors, blog tour companies, etc of whom I am working with to bring these supplemental features and showcases to my blog. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them: I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers. Whenever there is a conflict of connection I do disclose those connections per post and disclose the connection as it applies.
{SOURCES: Book cover for “Finding Love at Mermaid Terrace”, book synopsis, author photograph of Kate Forster, author biography, the extracts from the books and the blog tour banners were all provided by Head of Zeus and used with permission. Post dividers and My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Book Spotlight banner as well as the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2021.
I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life
.@joriestory NEW Author Q&A
🧜♀️Learn about #FindingLoveAtMermaidTerrace
🌺feat. an extract from this #WomensFictionAn insightful convo with Kate Forster about her characters & new novel via #JLASblog!
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— Jorie Story 📖🎧 (@joriestory) February 9, 2021
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