Today the lovely Loretta Hill has sent me a letter telling me all about the release of her latest book The Girl In The Yellow Vest.
I loved The Girl In The Hard Hat and can’t wait to read this latest book from Loretta. Thanks for visiting Flying Pony Loretta and good luck with the new book.
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Dear Pamela,
How are you?
I’m just exhausted. Christmas plus school holidays plus book promotions equals more work then I thought I’d signed up for. I was actually supposed to be slowing down this month but every time I think I’m going to make it to the couch something else needs to be done. I wish I could borrow some of my kid’s energy so I could be more productive or at least less tired.
Having said that, I did just waste two hours on facebook and email this morning and about ten minutes on twitter. I usually try to limit my social media time otherwise I’d never get anything done. But today is kind of special, so I just went nuts.
Why is today special? Well, firstly, I heard that “The Girl in the Yellow Vest” is now on store shelves. So I just had to tell everybody. As you know, the official release date for “The Girl in the Yellow Vest” is Jan 2014. But sometimes they bring out my books out a little earlier so that people can get them as Christmas gifts. I’m so glad that this year they’ve done the same. My wonderful nanny who is over today, looking after the kids, while I’m “supposed” to be writing, took the kids out to Big W to get some art supplies. Ten minutes later I get a picture message on my phone showing my second son holding up my book and grinning. Do you find that seeing your book in stores never gets old? Even when it’s a second hand sighting?
The second piece of marvellous news probably more marvellous than the first is that “The Girl in the Yellow Vest” has gone straight to number 1 on itunes today. I can’t tell you how excited I was when my publisher emailed me this morning. Lots of happy dancing and phone calls to hubby and mum and then onto social media…
But you know, I’m excited about this book in general. I know you’re not supposed to say this but out of the three books in my FIFO series, it’s my favourite one! Ssshhhh don’t tell anyone I said that. You see, “The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots” was the first one, so I had a lot of angst attached to it and stressing about if anyone was going to like it. And then for “The Girl in the Hard Hat” I had second book insecurities and questions, like… was the first book just a fluke? Third book round, I was more confident that readers were going to like what I come up with, so I guess with this story I just gave myself permission to let go and have fun. And boy did I have fun!
A lot like “Essie’s way” (fabulous book I might add!), my latest novel has more than one main character and more than one story arc. In fact, there are four main characters, two major love stories and a lot of comedy, suspense and drama all mixed in with that.
My inspiration for this book dates back to my engineering days when I was young, single, footloose and fancy free. I was always up for an adventure. This book is set on a project I worked on myself at Dalrymple Bay in Queensland, the home of a giant coal terminal. This job was very different to others I’d worked on. For a start, the land wasn’t sparse and red, but lush and green. Instead of staying in a donga, I lived in a resort. On the weekdays, I worked on installing a ten story shiploader, on the weekends I’d be out explore the Whitsunday’s Islands or the snorkelling over the Great Barrier Reef. Life was one big sensation of sights and sounds.
Maybe this was why I couldn’t pick a main character for this book and only run with their story. There were just too many themes I wanted to explore. It’s definitely a good story for the holidays. Hope you’ll have time to pick up a copy.
Hope you have a lovely Christmas and wishing you wonderful things in 2014.
Love Loretta
xo
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Connect With Loretta:
Website: https://www.lorettahill.com.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Loretta-Hill-Author/263559140330214
Flying Pony 