Hello, book lovers! I’m Joanna Chambers and this is the blog tour for Tribute Act, my new romance which is book #8 in the Riptide’s Cornwall-set Porthkennack series. I’ll be sharing thoughts on writing my first full length contemporary, writing Christmas songs as an extreme form of authorly procrastination and my love of men with sad eyes. Please join me for a chance to win a copy of the book and a $25 Riptide gift card!
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Please welcome Joanna Chambers to The Blogger Girls! Tell us a little about yourself, why did you start writing?
Hi, it’s great to be here – thanks for inviting me!
I pretty much always wanted to write. My first writing endeavour was to try out for my writing badge in Brownies (UK version of girl scouts for little girls) but Brown Owl (troop leader) said my story wasn’t up to the mark! I was 7 years old – my first one-star review! That experience put me off for a while, lol, but the itch was always there. I made a real proper go of it after I had my first child. Something just clicked at that point 😊
Where do you get the inspiration for your stories?
Oh, from all over – I have a constant flow of ideas – the challenge for me is deciding which ones to take forward. I have finite writing time and I’m not a particularly fast or prolific writer. I’m best known for my historicals and a lot of my ideas come from tiny snippets I’ve read – little serendipitous facts that I come across and that intrigue me. Also situational stuff. For example, when I signed up to write A Gathering Storm, my first Porthkennack book, I picked a character to write about (Sir Edward Fitzwilliam) that meant I had to set the book in the 1850s. I ended up researching that period in lot of detail and a lot of the plot was driven by the events and news of 1850-52.
Why the Porthkennack series? How did you get involved with this series?
Sarah Lyons asked me and when she told me Alex Beecroft had created the universe and written a detailed story bible, I was in – that was even before I knew who the other authors were. Also, it’s set in Cornwall which is an amazing setting.
Is it hard writing in part of a series with other authors even though the stories are standalone?
I imagine it could be, but honestly, Alex’s bible was so thorough, that it was fine.
Now for the story, tells us a little about it in three sentences or less.
Nathan and Mack meet at a nightclub and hook up for the night. They part in the morning, but less than a day later, they meet again when Mack turns unexpectedly in Porthkennack. Nathan’s a fixer by nature and when he learns more about Mack’s history, he desperately wants to fix things for him, but to do that, he has to overcome Mack’s fear of intimacy.
How does it differ from the other stories in the series?
It’s probably a bit more standalone than some of the other stories in the series as the main characters are all new characters.
And lastly, what else do you have coming out soon or what are you currently working on?
I’ve been plate-spinning a few drafts recently but my new year’s resolution was to put everything else aside and work on my main project, which is a pair of werewolf books with historical settings. I’m wildly in love with this project right now!
The Blogger Girls 